What is Branding

In this week lesson, I learned the true meaning of a brand. A brand can be defined as a name or symbol that is commonly known to identify a person or a business. I have always known that a brand was associated with companies like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Pepsi. These large corporations are known for their unique name and products in order to separate their business products from the competition. In reading the assigned articles, I understand that personal branding is getting your name out in the marketplace. Branding encompasses who you are as a writer, journalist, author and educator or whatever you want publish for the world to know about you. This week, I had to create a brand and much like anyone else, I created a brand that would uniquely identify me as a person, who enjoys working with others, helping others, and given back to the community.

In creating my brand, I first used the suggested exercise from the article by L. Alcantra, “The Art of Self-Branding.”. In the exercise, I emailed my friends and family to describe me as a person. And here are their posted responses.

Name / Relationship / Time Known / Description
Richard Brown / Spouse / 10 years / Driven, focused, and knowledgeable


Denise Duran / Co-worker / 4 years / Strong-willed, committed, and humorous


Denise Evans / Friend / 3 years / Independent, self-reliant, frearless / bold/courageous and kinetic


Nicole Grant / Co-worker / 9 months / Funny, smart, and witty


Marquita Martinez / Co-worker / 1 year / Honest, direct, and polite


Hollie Roper / Sister / Forever / Tenacious and sensitive

 

My brand is called the Groove. I chose the term groove because it reminds me of being on the go and listening to music in my daily activities. In thinking and designing my logo, I decided to add an interchangeable loop of ribbons to freely flow in connection with my inner-self, the design of the brand is a reminder of who I am as an individual and for the people I would like to touch now and in the future. I have a strong desire and commitment in people and non-profit organizations.

The 4 Principles of Design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity

I have always been fascinated with art, especially oil paintings.  One of my favorite paintings is the Mona Lisa.  I have always been drawn to artists who have that unique mine and steady hand to design a nice piece of art for people like myself to enjoy.  This week assignment was a mind blower for me, because one of the areas of focus that I’ve never taken into consideration the four elements of design; contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.  In the first part of design process, I understand that a great contrast can give off a very good first impression for the viewer.  Choosing the right style, images, colors and fonts can give a document a great lasting impression.  That is why I chose several images with a bold color scheme, and added a black style font with an alluring steel gray back ground.  Moving on to repetition, repetition in a print design is as simple as repeating design elements which can help create a consistent.  In my newsletter I repeated the element in the font text in the body of the document.  The third element is alignment; alignment plays a vital role in how you would position your images on a document.  It acts as the same principle as if you were painting a portrait, mirror, or just a room.  We want to make sure that are colors and images are in aligning with one another in order to make the document stand-out. As you can see, I align each school mascot right underneath one another.  And lastly, we have proximity; proximity is grouping like elements together and separating those elements that are not.  In my document, I’m going to fall back on the school mascots, although they are different, I position the logo right underneath one another and provided content for each logo.

The 4 Elements of Design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity

I have always been fascinated with art, especially oil paintings.  One of my favorite paintings is the Mona Lisa.  I have always been drawn to artists who have that unique mind and steady hand to design a nice piece of art for people like myself to enjoy.  This week assignment was a mind blower for me, because one of the areas of focus that I’ve never taken into consideration the four elements of design; contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.  In the first part of design process, I understand that a great contrast can give off a very good first impression for the viewer.  Choosing the right style, images, colors and fonts can give a document a great lasting impression.  That is why I chose several images with a bold color scheme, and added a black style font with an alluring steel gray back ground.  Moving on to repetition, repetition in a print design is as simple as repeating design elements which can help create a consistent.  In my newsletter I repeated the element in the font text in the body of the document.  The third element is alignment; alignment plays a vital role in how you would position your images on a document.  It acts as the same principle as if you were painting a portrait, mirror, or just a room.  We want to make sure that are colors and images are in aligning with one another in order to make the document stand-out. As you can see, I align each school mascot right underneath one another.  And lastly, we have proximity; proximity is grouping like elements together and separating those elements that are not.  In my document, I’m going to fall back on the school mascots, although they are different, I position the logo right underneath each other and provided content for each log.

EDLD 5366:  Digital Graphics, Animation and Desktop Publishing

The Landmark Writing by The Egyptians

We are in an era where pictures can be seen around the world in a matter of seconds. Personally, I have always been intrigued with ancient art encrypted by the Egyptians, especially the designed and structure of their artistry. I have found the ancient Egyptians to be fascinating people. They brought to the world a cutting edge of writing style, mathematics, and art through hieroglyphics which is a combination of words and images. In superior with their own language, the Egyptians were excellent graphic artists in their architecture framework, creating a distinctive style by using hieroglyphic etching in human and animal like figures. This particular picture represents the writing style by the Author communicating to his people.

This next image, was also done by hieroglyphic writing and drawing, that allowed the artist to present the most important figure which usually represented their King or God. In the photo show below, I will apply the four elements of design starting with contrast: The contrast of this picture represents colors alike, which consist of an array of multiple colors (red, tan, green, white and black) which bring out the true representation of the God and Goddess. Repetition in the picture is using the same colors which are demonstrated in the writing tablets and on the man and woman. Now we will look at the alignment of the photo. The alignment directs our vision to the vertical hieroglyphic tablets. The woman and the man are position in the center of the hieroglyphic wall. Lastly we have proximity; proximity in looking at the picture, we can see that the woman is sitting directly in front of the man, their position is considered face-to-face and in proximity of one another.

Understanding the four elements of design helps the viewer to understand what exactly is being communicated through contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.  It has always been known that a picture can tell a story. 




EDLD 5366Digital Graphics, Animation and Desktop Publishing

Reflection on Action Research

Charolette Viser-Brown

EDLD 5301:  Research

November 8, 2010

Reflection on Action Research

When I first noticed action research as one of the required courses for Educational Technology Leadership program, I did not know what to expect.  First and foremost, I was fearful about taking this class because I haven’t had a lot of structure in researching data effectively as a business major and now crossing over to education.  In the past, I only looked at the economic factors of numbers and statistical data.  Since, I was so desperate and due for a change in my current profession; I started searching for a different career path that might strike my attention, to leave the world of business.  Convince, that I am ready to start a field that doesn’t always have stakeholders in mind, and the driving force of meeting budget short-falls by the end of the third quarter, I actually found myself looking for a career that I would find rewarding with some type of significant for my inner-self.  Once, I gradually started looking outside the box of what I really wanted in my new career objective, I then began to investigate more about technology leadership. 

With my new found quest for change, I thought, I have asked myself and my academic advisor all the right questions in guiding me where I can see myself fitting in.  In taking this action research course, I’m absolutely certain that I have made a great choice.  Now that I have taken this class, I’m no longer fearful in understanding what action research is all about.  What, I’ve learned about action research; it is not the monster that I thought it would be.  I understand the goal of action research is to gain deeper knowledge and understanding of what you are trying to research and accomplished by using different learning modules and exercises on how to effectively research your topic of interest. In the writing of authors Best and Kahn, “Action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research”. Action research has made me more aware of what kind of information I need to pull from, and how to use that information in the most comprehensive aspect of what I’m trying to deliver or convey.  The most interesting thing about this class was the research topics that my fellow colleagues chose to implement in their action research plan.  One topic that has caught my attention and the hearts of many American is school bullying and Cyber-bullying.  “Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.” (Belsey. 2005)

Action research provides the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue within a field of practice for the benefit of all those involved.  The dialogue that takes place in our learning discussion each week provides a connective environment to the action research methodology.  Briefly describing a course of action to another individual helps to improve personal ideas and leads to knowledge in driving the discussion forum through reflection, and communicating to a larger audience as a whole.  As a student in an action research course, I have found value in writing a reflective blog.  Through reflection, I have become more courageous about my action research plan, the reactions and changes that are taking place within me and in my current field of study.  This practice has allowed me to examine and question my ideals and opinions.  Before action research, I have accepted my daily challenges without the knowledge of change.  As a result of action research, I can understand why change can become the upmost importance in my current environment.  Understanding how we learn gives me the opportunity to discover my strengths as an advocate learner. 

Action research creates a visual picture of inquiry that requires one to maintain a level of self-awareness at all times during the research process.  The ability to reflect on a certain action is only as strong as the level of active participation, our input and output.  To me, it is important to document everything, to contemplate, and to step away from the initial course of action, and focus beyond the already existed plan.  Engaging in action research has forced me to challenge past assumptions, understand and appreciate my current state at a deeper level, stand by personal goals and commitments, and open myself up to new ideas and changes.  EDLD 5301 has been an incredible experience in transforming my perception of action research.   

References

Belsey, B. (n.d). Retrieved November 7, 2010 from:  http://www.cyberbulling.ca/

Best, J.W., & Kahn, J.V. (1998).  Research in education (8^th ed.).  Needham Heights, MA:  Allyn and Bacon.