HOMEWORK for ENG 3333 due 1/26

For this assignment, I want you to take a look at how the design principles of similarity, alignment, and proximity are at work on a website. It goes like this:

1. Find a website. (There are roughly 20 billion, by some accounts. Pick a good one.)
2. In a comment to this post, submit the URL and a few sentences explaining how you think , similarity, alignment, and proximity are / are not at work.

Just look at the main page of the website, often called the "index." Submit your comments no later than 1/26, early a.m.

Free software for our ENG 3333 class

Check out this old post on my blog for links to free design software.

Also, here's a link to the companion website for our text, Document Design.

Remember that Photoshop and Dreamweaver are on several of the computers in JM 103. GIMP and Kompozer should be on most (all?) of the rest. Over the course of the semester, we'll be using these programs to produce some of our class assignments, so if you want them on your personal computer, these links will help you get them.

Digital paper (well, really, really thin - paper-thin screens)

Yesterday, I mentioned to my Advanced Composition class the zany idea of digital paper. "Ha, ha, ha," we all said, but I stressed to them that I'd read about folks actually working on the technology and that there are prototypes out there.

In the interest of proving the utility of delivering and documenting sources, here are two articles - both from Gizmodo - about ultra-thin digital paper (that is, OLED screens that can show moving images but are really, really thin).

"How thin, Mike?" folks may ask. Well, evidently in 2007 Sony showed off a 0.3mm screen. Then, this year they showed a screen that's only 80μm (micrometers) thick, which Gizmodo points out is "about ten times the size of a red blood cell, or just a tiny bit thinner than a single hair."

LG (as reported by PC World this summer) and Samsung, not to be outdone by Sony, and sensing the complete awesomeness obvious professional and academic utility of flexible, lightweight video screens, are also working on (or have already displayed) prototypes.

Here are some videos of the real screens in action. Those images aren't projected onto the thin screen; they're projected from within the flexible material itself, jsut like an LED computer monitor. The first video is, I think, the 0.3mm version. the second is the even thinner (how thin can they go?!) version.

Free software for our class

Welcome back, folks! So, for English 2353 we'll be getting some hands-on experience with a few of the digital tools of the trade. It's possible that you've already got some great graphics software, like Photoshop (Adobe's Pshop page is here) and/or a WYSIWYG editor for HTML, like Dreamweaver (Adobe's DW site). If so, that's great. If not - it turns out these programs are pretty pricey - may I recommend a few free programs that do very similar things very successfully.

• GIMP
  The name stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and it does many of the things that Photoshop does, and the stuff it doesn't do, we won't be using in this class anyway. It's stable, popular, and I'm a fan of it. You can download the latest Windows version of it here. Click the big, orange word "DOWNLOAD" and your download will start. If a warning pops up in your browser, just click on the warning and select "Download File...".
• Kompozer
  Kompozer is a wysisyg HTML editor that has a ton of great features. The things it can't do, that a more robust program like Dreamweaver can, we won't need in this class. when you click the download button, follow the same procedure as you did with GIMP.

Photoshop and Dreamweaver are on several of the computers in JM 103. GIMP and Kompozer should be on most (all?) of the rest. Over the course of the semester, we'll be using these programs to produce some of our class assignments, so if you want them on your personal computer, these links will help you get them.

Some food for thought as you start work on our Visual Rhetoric assignment

In order to get some context on the issue, you might take a look at the following resources. I make no claims about the accuracy of any of these sources, and their views/claims are not necessarily my views/claims. Still, they might give you some thoughts on how to begin crafting your argument for this assignment.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda
• http://www.propagandacritic.com/
• http://www.teacheroz.com/WWIIpropaganda.htm
• http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html
• http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/visual_violence/index.html

Welcome to the class!

Just a quick collection of links for some of the things we talked about today.

Our textbook can be accessed here, once you've got a login from the bookstore. Hopefully, they'll arrive soon!

Some of the blog feed readers I recommend include Google's reader, Bloglines, or FeedReader. A blog feed reader collects RSS feeds from any and all blogs to which you subscribe. For a more in-depth description, you can read the Wikipedia article explaining RSS, although we will be discussing the ways in which Wikipedia both is and is NOT a valid source for information.

Also, in case you'd like to get a copy a ArtWeaver (a graphics manipulation program with many similarities to Photoshop), you can download it for free here. Presently, it's legal, and let's hope it stays that way.