All the things due today.

When my computer was nuked, I lost my portfolio.  I remade it.

Here it is.  You'll have to download it to view it, though.  Here's the cover:

In other news, here is our special effects video, the Pokétato.

Also, here's my Holiday Card:

Le Photo Retouching Thingy

So, we were tasked with making our faces less ugly.  I have to say, it was a little awkward zapping zits at the subatomic level like we were.  I don't think I've ever been so self-conscious of the contents of my right nostril before.  Spot healing it resulted in skin grafts inside my nose.  It was awful.  Oh my god.

So, things were going well.  I was giving my self a clone-stamp hair cut, and having a good time, and then, DISASTER.

Mr. Courtney installed Windows 8 on my computer after formatting the hard drive.  My files were catastrophically murdered one by one right before my eyes.  So, I started over, and finished it up last Friday after school.

It's not the best photo of me, but it's far from the worst.  I guess I could have called upon the magical properties of the mythical comb before the shoot, but whatever.  And it my left eye (your right) looks like it's being closed up by an infected bee sting.  That's not cool.  I haven't been stung by a bee since I was three, and in another state.

Le Troll Illustration Thingy

You'll never guess what we got to do in Visual Design.  Never.

Try anyway.

I'll wait.

Go on.

Guess.

Did you guess?

I don't care, I'm going on anyway.

We did a tutorial.  I know, it's quite shocking.

We made Trolls.  Internet Trolls, to be precise.

Here's the little gremlin I made:

Le Logo Thingy

So, we're working on logos for fictional companies.  I can feel your excitement through the interwebz.

We had choices of a helicopter company, an eco-friendly water bottling company, a custom furniture company, and a bakery.  I chose the latter.

So, I tasked myself with creating a logo for Mama B's Bakery, a fictional company whom I knew nothing about.  All we had to go on was inferences we made from the name.

I decided that Mama B's Bakery should be a modern take on an ancient profession.  Instead of brick ovens and flour bags stacked in the corner, Mama B's Bakery would be a chic, stylish place, with a modern flair.

Simple, clean, and delicious.

So I made these:

Things didn't start off all clean and simple, though.  Originally, I was going to use the Pacifico font for the B in the circle, but it wasn't installed on the computer I'm using.  The chef's hat was going to be more elaborate, and the color scheme would have used pink, rather than the dark purple seen above.

Instead, I opted to create my own B using the pen tool, as well as the the simple, amorphous blog I call a chef's hat.

I like it, and I hope my fictional client would, too.

Le Portfolio Cover Thingy

So...

Portfolio thingies.  Yes.

We used InDesign, which is physically uncomfortable to use.  Finding basic functions is a chore, but that's kind of what I expect.  I was delightfully surprised to see how robust the buttons are, but was letdown by the SWF preview, which, if you can believe it, doesn't actually work properly.  You can't switch through the pages, so the only way to be absolutely certain that they work is to actually export it as a PDF.  Brilliant.

So.  InDesign Portfolio Cover Thingies.

I went for the clean, Android-esque button bar thingie meets Microsoft's new design language.  Yay.

Ain't it purty?

I find your lack of potatoes... disturbing.

Potatoes are wonderful things.  Really, they are.  When you don't ruin them by means of deep-frying or other catastrophes, they're actually quite healthy.  Potatoes contain all the nutrients you need to survive, so why would you take that benefit away by frying it in grease?

I love you, potatoes.