Layne Renfrow

First Semester of Junior Year Graphic Design Reflection Throughout my first semester in graphic design, I've gotten the opportunity to go more in depth with design processes like patterning, illustration, and branding. From each of these projects, I have taken away at least one of the five guarantees of eComm. The most relevant of them being technology, as we spend most of our days designing on the computers. I've learned a lot of new features in our software this semester, especially the type that relates to patterning. I first used it with our patterns for the subscription box project, turning my designs into swatches and replicating them for the dielines. I'll definitely be able to use this with future projects and endorsement opportunities. The next most effective guarantee for me was communication. I relied a lot on the feedback and constructive criticism from my peers to critique my work. I took their thoughts and combined them with my own self-thoug...

Movie Trailer           For this project, we were put into groups of five and asked to recreate a high school movie trailer. My group was assigned "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." This project took about a month, between storyboarding, filming, and editing. Our biggest challenge was probably figuring out what to do about the music. The music used in the video was a medley of three songs, and it would've probably taken a long time to redo for our video. Along the way as cinematographer, I had to learn more about the camera, so I retained more knowledge of ISO, the iris, and the focus. Our feedback was mostly good, but some people noticed one of our group members in a shot and others realized that some of our trailer strayed from the original. Overall, I'm really proud of how the trailer turned out. If I had to change something, I would've put more time into possibly recreating the music in the background of the original. Short Film       ...

Second Semester in Graphic Design Reflection Infographic           At the end of first semester, we were asked to create an infographic about a topic we were interested in. At first I couldn't think of what I wanted to do, but after some input from friends in my class, I decided on "Christmas in America", because we were nearing Christmas time, and I thought it would be a fun topic. The project took me about three weeks to complete, including time for brainstorming, sketching, and actually creating the infographic in illustrator. This was a fairly easy project for me, I constantly had ideas, but toward the end (and the bottom of the infographic), I began to loose creativity. From this project, I definitely took away from collaboration skills. I communicated with my peers for their input on things I should keep the same and aspects I needed to change. I constantly asked my peers questions about the layout toward the...

Ferris Bueller Trailer Remake           For this project, we were assigned to do a shot by shot remake of a movie trailer taking place in high school. Collectively as a class, we had to brainstorm which movies we'd be interested in. We were placed into groups based off of our favorite ideas from there. I was put into the Ferris Bueller group, which was my top vote, so it was a relief. From the start, my group was very organized in getting everything ready to film. We set up a google doc and had all of the shots organized, the costumes sorted out, and formulated a prop list.  One of the best decisions we made during pre-production was casting mostly inside of our group. It really helped with scheduling later on. We made sure to cast people who could film during school, or had a connection to one of our group members.           Filming was a bit difficult at times, because we had to reschedule a couple of times. We began filmi...

"Crush Culture" Music Video Pre-Production For this assignment, we were asked to either recreate a music video or create a new one from scratch. My group chose "Crush Culture" by Conan Gray to recreate. We didn't really have a specific "theme" that we wanted to apply, just something that was unique and not too mainstream. We really liked the concept of the video, and thought it would be fun to film and edit. Although each of us was assigned a specific title, we were pretty flexible on roles and each contributed to different parts of the process. I was mainly the cinematographer for this project. Production The filming process has been extremely difficult on my group, and admittedly, we still aren't done. Scheduling has been very troublesome, because every time that we've prepared to film, the weather has not been permitting. We planned to film in the first week, hoping to film at PRT, but we had scheduling issues with our main actor....

Pre-Production Before even opening Illustrator, I knew that I wanted to use quotes that were between 4-8 words. All of my work in graphics this year has fit to a simple/cleanish style, so I wanted to continue following that. I thought that my using shorter quotes, I wouldn't feel pressured to crowd the screen with lots of text and different fonts. Because of this project, I got the chance to download a ton of new fonts for future projects. Although according to my neighbor, they all looked the same and I agree! Most of my font choices were brush lettering or clean-cut sans serif. Production This project came pretty easily to me. I've arranged fonts before, so this part of the process was the one of the quicker steps. I didn't like arranging them in black in white because when putting them all together, I couldn't overlap without it being unreadable. It made the process more difficult, but once I was able to put those drafts into color I was able to move muc...

First Semester of Video Production          We started off this semester with about two weeks of learning about the cameras, shots, and tips about lighting and audio. Although they weren't very fun, I did learn more about the cameras and just how much coloring can affect your video. Our first assignment was to create a video about procedures at ONW. I had a creative group so we were able to think of an idea quickly, and a form of showcasing it without making it too boring. We did our video about how students shouldn't eat on the carpet. I really liked this assignment because we were able to make a fun video about a topic we would've eventually gotten lectured over during class. This assignment made the videos that eComm makes about procedures every year seem like a cool opportunity.                   Our ONW Now News Story was over the fall play, And Then There Were None. My group easily decided on a vide...

          This semester in graphic design, I learned about the importance of taking your time while working in photoshop in illustrator through three main projects. First, we worked on creating a panorama in photoshop. We were to create a theme using ten images. It took a lot of time and my layers menu was chaotic, I couldn't even navigate it myself. I used adjustment layers to change the colors and white balance so that the image would highlight the pinks and blues. I used layer masks, and then the brush tool to get rid of things I didn't need. I used clipping masks when I needed to get rid of a larger area. In total, it took me about a week and a half to think of the idea and put it into photoshop. I didn't receive very much feedback during this project, but I was told by others that they liked how it was coming along. After this project, I took away a new understanding of photoshop that I later applied to work ou...

Sophomore Edition of ONW Now: The Fall Play           For our sophomore edition of ONW Now, I was assigned to create a News Piece. My group and I quickly decided on the fall play, And Then There Were None because two of us were involved in it, making it easy to film. We went out to film on the day we selected the topic out of convenience, also knowing that we would be ahead in editing. It was a challenge learning to work with the darker lighting but by the end of filming, I definitely think I know how to work the camera better after pushing a lot of buttons trying to get the camera in focus with the right coloring and lighting. I also got a ton of b-roll this time around so that I wouldn't be in the same position as I was for the last project.           The editing for this assignment was probably the most fun I've had in post-production. It was cool getting to watch b-roll of all of the behind the scenes stuff that goes into putt...

Diversity at ONW   For this assignment, my group decided to do our video about Diversity at Olathe Northwest. We thought that it may stick out and leave more of an impact than other feature stories. My group never really assigned certain roles for each other, but I think I was more of a cinematographer. We took one block day to film all of the interviews and another class period to do the b-roll. We didn't get enough b-roll, which would later make me struggle to complete it on time.            Editing is where I really struggled in this project. We didn't have enough b-roll so it was a process trying to figure out how to fill the empty space. It was all about making some clips longer and working with the clips that weren't necessarily the best in terms of lighting and focus. I turned this project in much later than the due date because of this, and it was definitely a learning experience because for my current project that I'm working on, I got...

" Olathe Northwest Student Uses Dance to Display Individuality Olathe Northwest sophomore Ella Hiebert has a talent that sets her apart from many other students: dance. Ella’s mother placed her into dance classes when she was younger, and she has continued to pursue her passion of dance ever since. Ella continues to follow a path in dance because she can see herself having a career in the field. Hiebert conveys,“I think it would be really interesting...if I could be a professional dancer, and then go to college and do physical therapy or something in that field.” Now, she can be found practicing up to 20 hours a week at American Dance Center. The majority of her style consists of ballet, she is also able to demonstrate her talents in modern and contemporary dance. Ella shows promise and excitement about her skill in dance, and is eager to share with others." First, I had to take into consideration my previous assignments. It was between Ella Hiebert and Diversity a...

ONW 1 in 2000: An Interview with Ella           At the beginning of the project, we went through many different ideas. We eventually landed on Ella Hiebert, a dancer, after we were given a suggestion by the teacher. I was the writer of all the interview questions and I finished them quickly because I pretty much wrote down things I wanted to know about dance and Ella's experience with it.           Filming took a few days because our first shot at interviewing had bad lighting and the sound didn't end up working. We were lucky enough to get a mic on the second attempt which allowed the video to have better quality later on. Then on the third day of filming, we shot B-Roll throughout the school.            Getting the perfect voice over was definitely a struggle. I would either talk too fast, or start laughing with the other person in the room with me. Eventually, I just had to redo it at hom...

Watercolor Transfer Print          First, I created a new project in Photoshop that had measurements of 8x11. Then, I chose the two projects that I wanted to use. I chose my second photoshop challenge, and my panorama. One had to be in black and white, so I chose the panorama since I knew that it had more white accents, which would allow the watercolors to bleed through later on. I changed the sizes of the images to be 4x6 and placed them on the document with a decent amount of white border around them. Once I finished, I printed them.           Watercoloring was my favorite part of the process, since we were able to talk to others while we painted. There were no constraints to what we painted, which made it more fun since we weren't following a tutorial. I tried to match the color scheme to my photoshop challenge image, but on my panorama I just started to experiment with different colors.  ...

          For this assignment, my group members and I chose to create our video about where you shouldn't eat during Power 50.  After someone randomly pitched an idea to walk into carpet, hit an invisible barrier, and their food flew everywhere while they fell over. We worked around that idea, and our video continued to reflect the idea throughout the project.       While storyboarding, we planned from the start to film in the events entrance. We built our idea around the area where the tile turns into carpet, and having our subject step over the line. I was the director, and I learned that a project isn't always going to run smoothly. Our major setback was the fact that some of our actors couldn't return for reshoots, leading to continuity errors so we re-filmed the entire video.       Editing went well and I actually finished in one class period. The time constraints were a bit di...

Relief Printing Relief printing is the ability to print using raised images to transfer ink onto paper. To print, artists tone the block using a wash of jet black film ink. Then they used iron oxide or carbon transfer paper to transfer the image. Using cutting tools such as wood, linoleum or metal, cut the image. Then, carefully apply and spread the ink onto the image. Lastly, use a brayer to apply pressure, then remove the print. Intaglio Intaglio is a process of an image being carved under a flat surface. In order to do Intalgio, your plate must be clean and polished. Then smoke the plate so  that it is jet black. After, stratch the ground of the plate to reveal metal, which the etching later rids of. Then apply ink to the plate. Lastly, set a damp piece of paper on the plate and run it through the press. Lithography Lithography uses ink, water, and grease to print an image. First you use a greasy tool like oil or fat to draw your image on the ston...

Summer Travels       It's June 19th, the day we planned to leave for our annual trip to Michigan, the first stop on our summer of traveling. It was a long and bumpy car ride and it smelled like wheat fields for the majority of the journey north. When we arrived to our destination, Ludington, Michigan, I was welcomed by the familiar sight of tall green trees and the lake that looks like an ocean. My sister and I race to the beach and I'm the first to feel the warm sand on my feet. The rest of our family begins to arrive as the days go by, and sooner than we know it, it's our last day. Epworth Heights, Ludington, Michigan               Our next stop was Orlando, Florida. On July sixth, we departed from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The plane ride was exactly like the car ride, it seemed to take forever because of excitement building up and the turbulence was the worst I've experienced. The next day, we woke up early and ...

Pop Art in Photoshop I went through a lot of different design ideas at the beginning of the project. For the first few days, I began working on an entirely different image that I later decided didn't represent Pop Art at all. After deciding that it would be better to start over than to continue trying to fix what I had, I settled on a color scheme consisting of bright colors, although it was more centered on the primary colors.    The requirements fit what I originally wanted: something with shapes and differing brush tools. The use of the dotted filter also enhanced the Pop-Art look that was necessary.  I was inspired by Warhol's artwork. The defined white lines that traced his subjects as well as the recoloring of said subjects were used throughout my image. His work was the main look that I was going for.  The main tools that I used throughout this project were the quick selection tool, the brush tool, and the shape t...

Photoshop Challenge          When I was first assigned the challenge, I knew that I wanted to do something other than masking his jacket into a landscape. I was inspired to include florals and add a modern look to the image. Originally, I wanted to do a black square outline with many different flowers and other nature components coming out of it. After beginning to create the image, I soon realized that my original plan would take me forever.            I started the assignment with the black outline, which took a while to figure out how to make. The square itself took a whole day for me, as well as figuring out how to work photoshop without someone guiding me. While creating the square, I noticed that with all of the floral images I downloaded, it was going to take me forever to individually insert them each into photoshop and edit them to my liking. I settled on the idea of adding a background to the inside of the...

Photoshop Tutorials Going into this project, I had very little knowledge of photoshop. I thought that the tutorials wouldn't be too hard, but that turned out to be wrong as I got into the project. I had seen the tools we used in the tutorials before, but only in e9 where we only opened photoshop a few times. The tools weren't too hard to use but the difficulty to use them varied with the prompt. From this assignment, I learned a new set of photoshop skills that will definitely be useful throughout the school year. Content-Aware Fill Through the first set of photoshop tutorials, I learned how to use the content-aware fill tool. I discovered that the tool takes the coloring from it's surroundings and replaces the object you're trying to cover. This first tutorial was the easiest for me to complete, as the lighting previously in the image didn't take up much space. Which, made it easy to get rid of. The Patch Tool Here, I used the patc...

Self-Portrait Video The Adventures of Layne and Holly             For my self-portrait, I chose to include myself playing with my dog, Holly. We got Holly about five years ago when my previous dog passed away, after my cousins adopted her brother. Ever since, a lot of my free time around the house is spent with Holly, so I thought she would be the perfect way to represent myself.          Setting up the camera was a challenge because everything was soaking wet since my video was filmed between downpours. I finally found a spot eventually, but it was on an extremely thin surface where my phone would likely fall off. I made it work though, and managed to get the framing I wanted. The lighting wasn't quite what I wanted, but with the gray skies on Sunday, I knew I wouldn't be able to get normal lighting.         Ultimately, I hope for my viewers to gain an understanding of just...