Blog 3

The ad I have chosen to review based on the guidelines created by Anne Wysoki in her essay “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty,” was created in 2008 by Cotton Incorporated. Cotton Incorporated is an organization that markets cotton to consumers in apparel and home products for environmentally-friendly reasons. The ad depicts an enlarged recycled-paper clothing tag over a simple white background with a caption that says, “If it’s cotton, you’ll know it’s green (even if it’s pink),” and a group of four women smiling and relaxing on a lawn within the clothing tag.
The ad evokes feelings of happiness, cleanliness, simplicity and nostalgia. I feel happiness when I look at this ad because of the bright green and pink in it and the women’s faces what are all lit up and smiling big, toothy grins. I get a sense of cleanliness and simplicity because the background of the whole advertisement is white; there are only three signature colors in the advertisement: white, lime and pink, and the photo takes place during the middle of a sunny day. The entire group looks fresh, healthy and relaxed. The advertisement evokes a sense of nostalgia in me because the scene in the photo with a bunch of 20-something women relaxing together on the green grass is something I have done with my girlfriends since childhood. In some ways the ad both makes me think of childhood and maternity because I feel nostaglia for my childhood but because I am looking at older women it makes me think of their children. Overall, the advertisement gives out an extremely happy and healthy vibe.
I think the artist of this advertisement has used many strategies to make his audience feel the way they do when looking at the ad. He puts the photo of the smiling women on the grass in the center of the advertisement because they are what draw the reader into the ad. He also uses the contrast between the white background and the bright lime and pink colors in the photo to draw the eye to the center at first glance. The only text on the page besides the Cotton Incorporated logo and website address is a caption centered right above the photo in bold, sans serif text stating, “If it’s cotton, you’ll know it’s green (even if it’s pink).” This text adds even more meaning to the clothing advertisement because it shares the goal of Cotton Incorporated company which is to sell 100% cotton products in home and clothing apparel to keep the plant green. The photo plays off of this text because it is predominantly green in the background and the women are only wearing white and pink clothing. It also makes me feel like going green will make me healthy and happy by feeling that sense of warmth coming from the women and their healthy, glowing bodies and smiles.

http://resource.cottoninc.com/_images/primages/Print-Ad-Lawn.jpg

"Seeing"

Annie Dillard’s non-fiction essay, “Seeing,” is an introduction to a unique philosophical theory that describes the ways in which humans go about seeing their daily interactions in life. It touches upon the many ways humans can see life, how to properly see and the elusive beauty within nature. Dillard changes her audience’s ideas and perspectives about seeing. She also gives her audience an incentive to see in a new way as they go about their daily tasks through her mostly-ordinary anecdotes about her experiences in Tinker Creek. In her writings about Tinker Creek, she emphasizes the importance of taking in your surroundings and really looking at them to be able to find the hidden beauty. She touches upon the fact that most humans do not properly see because they are not really looking.
Although Dillard has written “Seeing” in the form of a non-fiction essay, it seems as if “Seeing” is a fictional piece of work, because of her extensive and bold use of style, language and anecdotes about her childhood and the year she spent at Tinker Creek in Roanoke, Virginia. Rather than using ethos to argue her case with her impressive background in the field of writing, she effectively uses pathos to argue her case by playing upon the emotions of her readers with anecdotes to which most readers can relate. She brings out feelings of like nostalgia, happiness and peacefulness in "Seeing".
Ultimately, Dillard’s case is effective because she affects the reader. She uses her words to make the reader see in new ways and to learn to observe things carefully in order to catch different elements and new perspectives. Through the use of her style and pathos she is able to relate to the reader, change the reader and share her experiences at Tinker Creek in an informative but still interesting and enjoyable way.

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name" - Rolling Stones

Hello! My name is Tina Castillo and I am currently an undergraduate student enrolled in the Scripp's School of Communication at Ohio University. My specialty in the Scripp's School of Communication is a part of its Visual Communications School; I specialize in Interactive Multimedia. When people ask me, "WHAT is THAT?!" as they often do, I find myself grasping for keywords such as: graphic design, web design and audio/visual story-telling. Whether the person then unconsciously files me into a never-going-to-find-a-job mental storage unit with all the other designers they have ever met, does not worry me, because finding my dream job the moment after I graduate has never been my top priority. This is because I fully understand that I am going to have to work hard, gain experience and probably fail many times before I succeed.

Unlike most visual communication specialties (ex. photography, graphic design, or photojournalism,) interactive multimedia covers a broad area of expertise by teaching its undergrads basic information from each type of digital media. Digital media can be seen as information graphics, digital photography, video-recording, web design and many more things! As multimedia students begin to further their advancement toward earning a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication, they learn in-depth about graphic/web design and audio/visual storytelling. It is also strongly encouraged to begin gaining experience and/or credentials early in the field by interning, entering contests or doing freelance work because having visuals to display your experience and talents will get you far in this field!

To see through the eyes of an interactive multimediast is to constantly be aware of the visual elements in his surroundings. When looking at any particular scene, he might unconsciously take into consideration the framing, colors, juxtaposition or lighting. The multimediast then uses these visual elements as a foundation and basis to create his own personal style, as well as for inspiration to create different forms of media for his clients.