an interactive timeline Angela Jones MFA Midpoint Presentation Spring 2015

RHYTHM & BLUES: an interactive timeline |

Angela Jones

Table of Contents Biography 4 Resume 5 Portfolio 6-9 Statement of Interest 10-11 Abstract 13 Comparative Analysis 14-15 Site map 16 Wire Frames 17 Timeline 18-19

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Biography My name is Angela Jones and I live in Flint, Michigan with my husband. I have no children of my own, but my husband has an adult child and a grandchild. I have lived here in Michigan my entire life, but I am not resistant to change, and I wouldn’t mind moving to another state if a good opportunity presented itself. I have not traveled much—only to less than a handful of states at the time of this writing—but I very much want to travel the country and the world! My career as a student started out with me pursuing a degree in accounting, but I later changed my major to computer programming. I wasn’t satisfied that this was the direction I wanted to go in so, after taking a hiatus from college, I changed my major one last time and ended up in Graphic Design. I started out at Baker Junior College here in Flint and finished at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2008. My professional career has not really started yet. I have been doing some freelance work, on and off, producing mostly print and promotional materials, but I really want to work for a company as a web/graphic designer. I’ve interviewed with several companies after graduation but all identified a need for a designer with more web experience than I had. So, I made the decision to increase my knowledge in this area, which prompted me to sign up with the Academy of Arts during the spring semester of 2009. Professionally, I would like to see myself moving into a career where I can work on web design projects and perhaps some interactive and motionbased work as well.

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Angela Jones

Resume EXPERIENCE »»

FREELANCE Worked as a freelance graphic designer for

WORK EXPERIENCE

more than 6 years creating effective promotional

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and personal marketing materials. Created eye-catching design while demonstrating an

SKILLS »»

ACADEMIC

EXPERIENCED CREATING THE FOLLOWING:

. Websites using the Wordpress framework . Motion graphic video clips using After Effects . Promotional and marketing print materials for small business and solo entrepreneurs

Completed projects that incorporate the use of HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, audio and video clips, motion-graphic animation, and digitally- and hand-created imagery to create online and print materials.

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September 2012 - Present NorthGroup Innovation Flint, MI Logo and Branding Development, Wordpress website Installation and Design,

eye for typography, shape, color and visual layout.

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Freelance Graphic Designer

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Portfolio Angela and Lacey’s wedding website Personal Project 2010 Languages: HTML, CSS

I created this website for my wedding in 2010. The idea was to create a site that would reflect both of our personalities while sharing information with our friends about our upcoming wedding.

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Angela Jones

Classic MJ website 2009: spring semester, Web Technology 1 Languages: HTML, CSS

The website was created as a promotional tool for Kenard Jones, who works as a Michael Jackson impersonator. The site includes video of Kenard’s performances, his Bio and a calendar of his appearance dates.

Michigan ElvisFest website 2011: spring semester, Experimental Interactivity Software: Flash, Actionscript 3 This site was created to highlight events from the annual festival featuring Elvis tribute artists and others. The concept was to create a site that captured the energy from the performances of the various artists. RHYTHM & BLUES: an interactive timeline |

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Courtyard Spas postcard

Chauvet Cave flyer

2011, Fall semester Software: Photoshop

2011, Fall semester Software: Photoshop

This flyer was created as an informational piece featuring Chauvet Caves where archaeologists have found magnificent cave art. The concept was to create a leaflet that captured feel of

The concept for this mailer was to create a soothing, spa-like, retreat feel for this company.

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Angela Jones

Personal event flyers Personal projects Software: Photoshop, Illustrator Flyers use to promote several open house events.

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Overview I have loved music all my life

and have delighted in experiencing music of all genres. Blues songs, Psychedelic Rock, Jazz, Hip/Hop, Contemporary Gospel, Latin and even some alternative metal, all have their own spots within various playlists on my IPod. I have a listen to a diverse list of Pandora radio stations covering the gamut between Cab Calloway big band classics to Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitar scorchers. Yet there is no music I love more than Rhythm and Blues. I have collected, cherished, and “played out” songs from my favorite R&B artists even back when there were only records and cassette tapes. Throughout middle and high‐school, I was excited to hear tunes by my favorites: Chakka Khan, Atlantic Star, Anita Baker, and The Isley Brothers. Later, I grooved to music by Keith Sweat, En Vogue, and Jodeci. The music was rhythmic and infectious—soulful! It gave you a different feel than music of any other genre. That was so of R&B music arguably up until the early millennium. In the early 2000’s, there were still soulful songsters, like Usher, R Kelly, and Mary J. Blige creating their signature R&B fare even as the Hip/Hop craze took over. But today, less than a decade later, fans of the genre say that R&B music is dead. The soulful, deeply rhythmic tunes we once loved have been slowly replaced by music with a distinctly pop and electronica/dance feel. Save for a few notable artists—Sade and Maxwell come to mind—today’s R&B artists are creating music that is diluted. Fans of R&B music pine for the artist’s of the genre to return to the roots of this genre and create new classic that have that same soulful rhythmic feel the music once had. Until then, fans reminisce by listening to CDs of old classics and, rediscovering old favorites online via websites like YouTube, Pandora, and last.fm. On these sites, they can listen to music or watch a video of their favorite songs and maybe even find out a little bit about the history of the song or artist.

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Angela Jones

Statement of Interest This is the direction I want for my project. I want to create an app for the iPad device that celebrates traditional Rhythm and Blues by providing historical information about its origins, as well as showcasing imagery, audio and video from the genres most popular songs. R&B music is a dynamic genre and I want to capture that vibrancy through interaction, sound, and motion for my online project. My interest in motion graphics and interactivity came quite late in my college career. I was first introduced to After Effects and creating motion‐based solutions during my junior year. The learning curve was a little steep for me at the time, and creating even a one or two minute movie meant hours and hours of planning and work. But I loved the process and the result. I was able to create movement within normally static objects, add music, and video clips, and come up with an exciting project.

Since then, I have created a few other motion based projects, and I am eager to create more. I am just starting out in my career as a designer having only worked on a handful of freelance projects since I received my undergraduate degree in 2008. Currently I work mainly in print with a small amount of web design work. But, I hope to use this project as a springboard to show my interest and talent working with motion graphics. I have working knowledge of some of the software used to create this type of project, including Photoshop, After Effects, and Flash. I want to increase my skills using these, and add to them skills in Cinema 4D and/or Maya. My goal is to obtain a position working with Motion Graphics upon completion of the program. I believe this project will be good portfolio piece to show for this type of work.

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RHYTHM & BLUES: an interactive timeline |

Angela Jones

Abstract The idea behind the app is to create an engaging and

interactive experience while telling the interesting story behind the music genre. On the initial launch of the app, users will be able to see information about important events and artists of the times starting from the 1960’s and ending with the 1980’s. Visitors will also be able to hear music samples, and video clips while interacting with the site. Other apps that are dealing with similar subject matter, offer the information as mostly text, as if created for a printed brochure. The subject of the history of Rhythm and Blues begs to be presented in a more dynamic way all the while giving the user access to rich and diverse historical and biographical information about keys artists of through the decades. My app will give the a engaging experience, incorporating interesting interactivity, rich visuals, sound and motion. I am very enthusiastic about the project. Working with my favorite genre of music and presenting it in such a way as to be exciting and engaging to others will provide welcome challenge. I am also very interested in working with motion‐ graphics and incorporating multimedia in this project. This project will show my ability to incorporate complex and extensive information with visually stimulating motion‐graphics and interactivity as the media.

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Comparative Analysis This Day In Music app Musicrom.com $2.99

Overview: The design of this app is lively if a bit cluttered but perhaps that was the designer’s intent. The information, for the most part, is presented as text only without any interaction or animated elements. This is something that I would want to incorporate in my app. There is an interesting element in the Birthday section of the app which features a record player that animates then shows the viewer which rock artist and song were number one on the user’s birthday which I thought was interesting. Overall, though I would want to present most of my interface elements as well as the content more dynamically.

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Angela Jones

JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns

Overview:

This site resides as a part of the PBS website, as is an online companion to the PBS documentary of the same name. The website offers the user information about the origins of jazz through jazz artist bios, and other historical events happening during jazz milestones. Unique features include an interactive state map and a virtual piano.

Pros: »» »» »»

The site is well designed and it’s navigation is easy to find and use The information provided is diverse, interesting, and relevant. The History of Jazz is presented using diverse media—historic and biographical information, imagery, audio clips, and interactive elements.

Cons: »» »»

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The site’s audio clips don’t always load properly. The virtual piano, operated by flash, does not work properly—a flash update must be installed. The format or presentation of the written information feels as if presented from an encyclopedia.

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Site Map Key Main Navigation

no

Allow Facebook Access

Sub Navigation

yes

Static Page

A Brief History

Connect with Facebook

Input

Entry page Connect without Facebook

Home: Introduction

Talk About It

1940’s

Timeline

1950’s

Rhythmn & Blues: A Brief History

Notable Artists 1960’s

site architechture

Music Clips 1970’s Videos 1980’s World Events 1990’s

2000 to present

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Angela Jones

Wireframes

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