Are Visuals Essential?

     Do visuals to a company or organization matter? Do people really see them and are then affected by them? As a communication major and an interest in graphic design, visuals are very important..in my opinion. When I look at graphics on billboards, websites, posters and magazines I am constantly looking at them and thinking about how the message is being received to viewers.
     This week I look that thought upon my work duites. This week I was to make a program cover for the All Star Nationals competition that is happening April 20. Just like the Internationals program cover I made before, this one is the same thing but for a different competition. 

     As you can see on the the left I added pictures from other Eastern competitions and put the date, location and name of the event in the middle. I think it turned out well, the only thing I don't like about it is that there is a lot of color in it but I think it works.

     The other thing I worked on this week was the AmeriCheer website, the AmeriDance website as well as the Eastern website. I had to update most of the pages under the Camps & Clinics (which there is 20 different pages). Some of them I simply had to copy and paste the information from the AmeriCheer website but others I had to create all type in all new information for the page, and other pages I didn't touch at all.
     It was a very different process when working their website because I am used to creating it and then uploading it while for AmeriCheer the site is already created all you have to do is decide what pages and link you want where. At first I didn't understand it but then after a while I got it. Now I am capable of adding documents, PDFs, pictures as well as text to any of their websites. I'm happy that I know how to do this because this can possible help me in the future if I am working for a company that uses the same website setup.
     With adding and editing things on their websites I also brought in my skill that I knew, and that was I know from taking the AGCOM 5530 Website and Design class that information on the web needs to be easily read and short in words. So I took that into consideration and tried my best to make the information worth reading on the AmeriCheer, AmeriDance and Eastern's websites. 

CAP Discounts

    After a week off for spring break it was back to reality this week. The AmeriCheer and AmeriDance staff were coming back this week from their long cheerleading adventure at Orlando, with their InterNationals competition.

    Though I wasn't coming home from the Sunshine state like most of the staff, I was still put to work. Tuesday at the office I was busy making two documents for the summer camps that will show the CAPs discount. CAP stands for Costumer Appreciation Program and its discount/reward program that AmeriCheer and AmeriDance offers to Coaches Athletes and Parents. So my job Tuesday was to create a document that costumers can look to see what kind of deals they can get if they attend an AmeriCheer and AmeriDance summer camp. So I made one document for cheer (the one on the left that is in yellow) and one for dance (the one on the right that is purple).


    On Thursday I created a registration form that athletes, coaches and teams will fill out for summer camp this year. This registration form is strictly for college teams. The form will be available online and every college/university team will fill one out. I made this form in InDesign and it is shown here to the right.

Countdown to InterNationals

   With less than one week till the 2013 AmeriCheer and AmeriDance Internationals, the office was busy getting ready for the competition, including me.

   Last week I made DVDs that will be shown at the competition. On the DVDs there are videos that promote summer camp, promote the InterNationals competition, and videos of some cheerleading teams that have dedicated their time to help the community. Since most of those videos were from YouTube I had to convert them to MPEG4 files so they could be put onto a DVD. Though it took a while to find the right program to do such a thing, it all worked out and the DVDs are made!

   I also had to change the color on some of the badges that the vendors and the sponsors will be wearing. Each person at the InterNationals competition will be wearing these badges and I had to change the colors in the psd file for each one, vendors and sponsors. The red was for the vendor badges and the green were for sponsor badges.

   Since Ohio State is on spring break this week and Thursday the office staff with be in Florida for InterNationals, I am not working at AmeriCheer this week. I hope all the staff and workers at AmeriCheer and AmeriDance have a successful turnout at the competition. Good luck to all the teams competing! 

Learning to be Considerate

   This week I was busy as a bee working on the Internationals program. This program that I have been working on will be sold to athletes, coaches and spectators who attend the event. The program is filled with ads from various cheerleading companies, a list of the teams that are competing and a list of teams that won the event last year.
   I have learned from this project that everyone has their own opinion. Though you may like one certain design, another person may not and in the end it all depends on what the company or organization whats. Being an intern, it is not about my opinion and what I think. Instead it is about what they want, with me giving my opinion and thoughts on the side...taking it if they want. But this is how life works, you cannot always get what you want. Instead you have to realize the opinion of others and take that into consideration.
   With designing this cover of the Internationals program, (shown below) I made a few of different versions. The first is on the right, then the second and then the final one. The first one I really like but the marketing coordinator didn't care for it and wanted a different background, but that's okay because I'm learning. This internship is about learning how to A. work with others in real life situations and B. do projects in the area I enjoy doing (designing) in real life situations. I am learning a lot through my time at AmeriCheer and enjoying creating the designs that I am in charge of.