The following image is a logo for a music festival that I have come up with called Peace, Life & Music. I got inspiration for doing this specific type of logo from a DTC class I took where we learned about different logos from the 70s, in regards to music festivals. What interests me about them is the amount of color that they use, verses what is popular today, which is often much more minimal. The amounts of color that were permitted, allowed artists to be much more maniacal when it comes to their art. Not that the art was insane, but it often conveyed psychedelic traits. For example, below is an image that I found on Behance from Elio Moavero who made the logo for That’s 70’s Fest 2018.
Clearly, the logo is very intense. There are many colors and images that represent the 70’s era of music. This logo specifically is actually mimicking choices artists made in the 70s when it came to their typography, which is often warped and bubbly. So for my text I decided to go with one titled Magical Mystery Tour from 1001Fonts. https://www.1001fonts.com/magical-mystery-tour-font.html
For the objects I decided to be quite direct. I used the universal peace sign and heart sign to convey peace and love. I then used an acoustic guitar, to ensure the understanding that it is a music festival.
Ideally as well it would be at a venue in Portland, so I added buildings on top of the heart and made them the colors of the rainbow. I did this for multiple reasons. Firstly, I wanted my logo to have more color. And second, I wanted the logo to reperesent an aspect of Portland. Specifically, the large LGBTQ community that we have in Portland; the colors are mimicking the LGBTQ flag
I did not use the exact colors though, so it may not convey the message as well, however I believe it does an adequate job.
As for the tools that I utilized in illustrator. I first used the image trace tool, to trace an acoustic guitar, which can be found here.
I then changed the coloring a bit and also added my own guitar strings, using the rectangle tool. I then traced half of a heart and then copied and reflected it to make it even. For the peace sign, I simply Image traced it from the following image, as I was finding it difficult to make on my own, while having even alignment. The image is linked below.
Ad for the building, I simply used the rectangle tool, then colored them using the color picker.
My logo sketch is an idea for a music festival in Portland that will host all sorts of local indie-rock and indie pop bands. It will be called simply Love, Peace, & Music.
In my initial draft, I essentially created a blog/YouTube banner with three different photo prints of me, my friends and a record player. I chose these photos, just to show who will be involved with the channel and what will happen on the channel which would just be showcasing their music and just in general us having fun with different internet trends. First, I took a photo of a bedframe and colorized it to make it red, so I could use it is a background. Then I took the three photos, retouched them and colorized them to a shade of red. Then I took these pictures and put them on three white squares to make them look like photo prints. After this, I took the name of the blog/YouTube channel and overlayed it on the wood to make it look burnt in. Some critiques that I received was that the title was a bit illegible and the prints appeared to be floating and lack interaction with the actual background. How I solved the first issue, was I simply took the original text that I used to overlay with the background, and made it slightly more visible, leaving it with an opacity of 50%, so that it makes the text retain it’s shape, but does still look burnt into the wood. I took a few different approaches when making the prints look more realistic. First, I made a drop shadow on all three. Then I created a crumpled paper pattern and texture. I added the pattern to the white squares and the texture to the pictures, having different settings for each, to hopefully make them look more realistic. And lastly, I took three nail heads which I just found a picture of online, then added them to every photo, to make the look like they are stuck on the background.
The following image collection are going to be used for my YouTube/Blogsite banner. My YouTube channel is going to feature my friend’s band DND7, whom I help make content/photography for, so I have one picture of the trio, that I got permission to use. I also got a picture of a record player, which I will photoshop to make it look like it is for their band, to help show that my content will be somewhat associated with my buddy’s band. I have already begun making content for their Instagram page @dnd7_official. The idea of the banner would be somewhat similar to the last bulletin board assignment, in that it would feature three photos, that look like instant photos, only I will have it take on a grungier tone.
I’m Ronnie Yaacoub and I spend a little too much time perusing through Instagram and Youtube. What I would essentially like to do, to become an influencer is do commentary and parodies of certain trends that are occcuring currently on Tik Tok, Youtube and Instagram. This interests me, because this is the type of content that I watch and in general envision myself succeeding at doing. This type of content is prevalent among many Youtube comedians such as Cody Ko, Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden.
Cody Ko
Cody Ko is a Youtuber who creates comedic content on Youtube where he essentially creates commentary videos around certain trends. He, has 4.29 million subscribers and his most succesful videos that he has done would be his “That’s Cringe” series. This series is essentially him and his friend Noel Miller, criticizing certain Youtube videos that are “cringe.” The videos are often vulgar, which clearly does prevent him from rising through the Youtube Algorithm. However, in terms of the actual content, it is often funny and well-received by fans. A link to one of his more succesful videos is below, however beware, as it is age-restricted, because it displays under-age vaping and vulgar themes.
The video was well received, however because of how it was received by the YouTube algorithm, I plan on making videos that will be more family friendly and meaningful, with the hopes that it will not be restricted by YouTube’s algorithm.
Cody Ko, also utilizes his Instagram page to promote videos, tours that he will be doing and music. The post below, is a picture of him on set for a music video that he was doing. Even though him and Noel Miller have only been doing rap for the past year, through his use of Instagram and YouTube and using their followers to promote this kind of content, they have effectively become very successful on their Spotify, which currently has 2.3 million monthly listeners. With their most popular song Walk Man, currently attaining 33 million listens. Although I do not believe I would be interested in rap specifically, I do believe that there is a lesson here, which would be for me not to be afraid to branch on to other mediums of media to diversify one’s content making one more relevant in all media.
Another influencer on YouTube whom I also admire is Drew Gooden, who has 2.02 million subcribers and makes commentary videos on social media trends. However, he also makes commentary videos on movies that are not well received by critics. A great example of this is his video on the movie Christmas Mail (2010).
The video has received 5.18 million views and has been well received by his audience as his comments are filled with positive feedback. One thing that I will do differently is that I will not make the videos as long as his, as more recently it is much more trendy to make videos that are shorter, as this will keep audiences captivated throughout the whole video.
Although Drew is not as active on Instagram as he is on YouTube, he still utilizes to promote his videos through his stories or promote events that he is doing. For example, below Drew has a post of him with his comrades, Danny Gonzalez and Kurtis Conner on a stand-up comedy tour, which effectively promotes ticket sales. Although I cannot foresee being a stand-up comedian, I feel that it is important to take this into account when promoting events in general, like if one was coordinating a fan meetup or anything that has to do with fan engagement.
A last Influencer that I would like to model my channel around is Danny Gonzalez. He is also a YouTuber who has 3.31 million subscribers and makes comedic commentary surrounding current trends on Tik Tok and YouTube. His most popular and most well received videos are the ones where he follows tutorials for making awful arts and crafts by a YouTube channel called Troom Troom.
The example above recieved well over 9 million views which surpasses the average amount of views he receives on his other videos which deviate between 2-5 million views. It seems that this could be because he distanced himself away from commentary and made physical comedy instead, which I will definitely note when making my videos.
His Instagram page however, which is often connected to his YouTube page is most popular when he is either pulling a prank on his fans or releasing music. An example from below, is a prank that he pulled on his fans to make them think that he was hanging out with a cousin, when indeed his “cousin” was actually just him merged with Tom Brady, by using FaceApp (an app used to morph ones face to look old or combine it with other people) and while also making some minor adjustments with Photoshop.
The first videos that I plan on making will surround the toxicity that currently exists on Tik Tok. By toxicity, I mean teenagers often taking videos of themselves and acting ashamed of themselves, despite being completely normal. The specific trend that I will be targeting, will be the why girls/guys don’t like me trend. Essentially what this trend entails, is someone taking a selfie video and text would appear above their head saying “why girls/guys don’t like me.” Then after, a list ad traits and characteristics about the person’s physical and mental state will appear. Often more than not, these traits are completely normal. For example someone will say, “brown eyes” or “curly hair.” It has gotten to the point that every single trait possible has been listed. So, what I plan to do with a couple of my friends is give someone a makeover while avoiding these traits, effectively making the person receiving the make over, a monstrosity. This will be released on YouTube and hopefully give people the understanding that this trend is senseless. I will post a chopped up version of the video on Instagram to effectively promote my video on YouTube while also posting some photos of the end result, which will be “the monstrosity.”
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
Ronnie Yaacoub 