Wow. That is all I can say about what this assignment has taught me and inspired me to do.
Initially, I had an extravagant vision for my collage, featuring bold text and images edited to the point where some might consider them unrecognizable. Then, life happened. My computer began to fight me. Images weren’t pasting, and most importantly, my “in your face” quote that was to accompany my collage was completely out of order. Not showing up, too big of type, fonts not working, EVERYTHING. I was shattered. I wanted to impress my friends and classmates with my awesome design skills, just to have the technology change it’s mind at the last minute.
In the midst of all this, there was a glimmer of hope. I had actually edited and completed my images to be used in the collage over the week, so that part was done (THANK GOD). So, back to the drawing board it was.
Two quotes kept popping up in my head during my new process. First, one from Carrie Bradshaw (a la Sex In The City), “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I’ve been told the quote originally stems from John Lennon, but either way – the quote can resonate with almost anyone from any walk of life. The second quote, from the internet and countless wall hangers, the simple but powerful “live, love, laugh.” Totally cliche and overused, but SO true for everyone and everything. In my opinion, living, loving and laughing is what makes the world go round.
My new inspiration grew from an elaborately planned collage to a simple, even messy, design that featured the most important people who help “paint” the picture of my life, and those who help me live, love and laugh. Since my topic is ‘About Me,’ I wanted to share about my life and myself, and what better way to do that than to paint the people who make up my life together in a simple sea foam background with pure, white paint connecting them.
The techinical stuff: I cropped all photos and blurred out the backgrounds to focus more on the people and objects within the image. I think this turned out really well with the image on the far left, with the skirt I am wearing really popping out in comparison to the blurred background. I also added photo filters to bring out colors, I used red on the photo on the far right. I also rendered the photos with lens flares to make them all look like they had sun and flare, even thought they originally didn’t.
PS – my original quote? S*** happens. And it does, and life goes on. Cheers!
Jasmine Goodwin 
The three images you used go really well with your theme of “live, laugh, love” ! I can definitely see where you drew your inspiration for your collage. I like the color choices with the white and the sea foam as well as the use of the brush strokes (is that what that is?) around the images as borders of the photos.
Here are a couple of ideas and suggestions though! I think if you were to end up incorporating a quote, the collage might look more polished if the photos were black and white. Also, if the photos were black and white it would create some visual unity in the photo and help develop somewhat of a pattern. That’s one thing that the collage lacks, intellectual and visual unity that we learned about in lecture (see Gestalt Theory).
Overall I like where you are going with it. It’s simple, and could really pop with that quote you wanted to incorporate.
First of all, I am so sorry that happened to you!! I know that technology can be extremely frustrating especially Photoshop. I know I had a hell of a time trying to figure some stuff out for my collage…
Anyways, I do really like the borders you used for your pictures, especially up against the teal background. I think these colors really make your pictures pop! The pictures you chose have very vibrant colors, I can definitely tell that you edited the pictures and blurred the backgrounds.
I think that you should definitely add some text, such as one of those quotes you suggested on doing previously. I think any quote from Sex and the City would be great, and I am obsessed with that John Lennon quote too.
Since the collage is all about you, I think you should have a picture of just you at the bottom where all of the teal is.
It might also look cool if you used the black and white tutorial from lecture, when we had to highlight only the orange cone. Since you said you wanted to make your pink skirt pop in the far left picture, this might add some cool effects, as well as use the skills you just learned!
Love the ideas about making all the images black and white and then using color selection within in them. I really like to keep things simple with a twist, wish I would have thought of it myself, thanks!
Self Critique:
The use of paint brush was a last minute idea, but I do agree that the photos could use a bigger sense of unity. I did not like the color, so by trying to add the artificial sunlight on PS, I hoped to create that – but it did not quite work out. My concern with making the images black and white was that it would make them look boring and just like every other black and white picture out there. However, by using the color selection techinque, I could create that sense of unity while still using color in the image.
I am not sure if this is possible with all the current images, but perhaps selecting a color within all three images that correlate with one another and using that color as the selected color could help contribute to the overall flow of the collage.
As for the quote, I really hope to get that in there for the final collage. Something I was really torn about was the placement, size and shape of the quote. I am pretty set on using white as the color, however I constantly felt conflicted about how big the font should be and also where it should go to allow it to have the maximum impact on the message of the collage. Ideas???
The image could be much cleaner and polished, but I think that is something that will come with more practice and experience with using Photoshop. Usually the more confidence I have in using a software, the more adventurous I will be about using different tools and techniques.
First off sorry about your technology problems but I think you have some really good ideas and designs even with the problems. I really like the borders of your pictures, I have no idea how you did that but they are really cool. I also think that your three pictures would work great with your “Live, Laugh, Love” quote and idea. If you had one of those words under each of the pictures with a cool font and effect I think it would end up looking really good. Looking at other peoples comments, making it all black and white could also look really good and I think if you messed around with the effects you could make a really cool collage and design.
Finally I think all of your pictures do a great job of adding to your theme and with any of your quotes your theme would be obvious and complete.
The title of your collage goes well with the images you used. There is a large blank space and I feel that you could incorporate a quote in the collage to further emphasize living, loving, and laughter. You could lower the level of opacity on the quote for a further effect. I like your color choices that you used in the collage for the borders of the photos. If you were to make the collage black and white, it would create a flow throughout the whole collage, rather than having subtle color differences. Since the quote is all about you, it may be beneficial to have just a photo of yourself, possibly putting the quote underneath it.