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Okay so week one is officially over and my plan for a daily blog about everything we do in Rome is pretty much crap.. sorry 🙂 There is just too much going to have time to blog every single day so I’m just doing it whenever I find the time and get the urge! Well so far we have been busy busy busy seeing everything there is to see in Roma! (apparently that is Rome in Italian)  Day two we all met up for a little tour of Rome.  It mainly consisted of the good shopping places and touristy things we would be interested in going to by ourselves..no historical monuments yet.  We learned how to take the metro.. or subway.. because my group is super far away from all the other apartments in our group and we have to use the metro to go everywhere.  We wondered around the streets of Rome by ourselves for a while and found a cute little pizza place.. luckily Europeans are way smarter than Americans and usually speak more than one language so it was pretty easy to order food and ask for directions because people could speak English enough to understand what we were saying.  Thanks goodness.  After pizza

and gelato..of course.. we attempted to find our way back to our apartment.. good thing we live by the Vatican because we needed God on our side for this trip.  By the time we get back it’s past bedtime because we were getting up bright and early for our official tour of Rome!  We got up and had to take the metro again to the other side of town where we met up with the rest of our group and met our tour guide Carla.  She took us all around the historical part of Rome.  We started at a couple churches and the Colosseum…which is so awesome.

We got to go inside and take pictures and learn all about what went on there and why it is damaged.  Any guesses on why half the wall is missing? Ask me and I’ll tell you 🙂 Well our tour continued to some other things that I can’t exactly remember the name of…give me a break I’m so not a history major… We went through the streets of the Roman Ruins and that was pretty awesome as well.  We also got to see where Julius Caesar’s ashes were.  When we got back to our apartment we decided it was a good time to go out on the town.  This was the week of a special Italian celebration of Christmas.  We asked questions and some locals told us the story of Christmas in Italy.  This is was I gathered… They also have a Santa and he brings them gifts if they are well-behaved..similar to ours.. but if kids are naughty there is a witch who goes around snatching the naughty kids and carrying them away on her broom and then puts them in a fire… I think.. way worse than coal.

Well this was the last night of the festival at the Pizza Nirvona so we decided to check it out.  The Pizza Nirvona is a big open space with fountains (specifically the fountain where one of the priest was drowned in Angels and Demons)

and during the Christmas festival there is like a carnival there.  There were booths with games and food and a carousel which of course we had to try out.  Once we had about all the fun we could have we made the journey back to the apartment and call it another day.

When we woke up the next day we decided it was probably time we did a little shopping.  We found a market with a bunch of different vendors in a little area a couple blocks away.  Being blonde definitely helps when you are bargaining with vendors 🙂 A little harmless flirting gets you like a third the price…totally worth it.  I made a few necessary purchases and we were again on our way.  We wondered around the city and visited Trevi Fountain.  This is where I realized that every time Trevi Fountain is used in a movie they use a fake one.  I walk up to this huge beautiful fountain with a huuuuuge crowd of people and was told this is Trevi Fountain.  I was in shock.. I was like nuh uh this is not the fountain from Lizzie McGuire/When in Rome/many more false American movies… I was slightly disappointed except the fountain was gorgeous and I eventually got over the lies American TV told me… what a crock.

Anyways.. somewhere in here we went out again for the Roman nightlife.. the real kind. with bars.  It was terrifying. It’s not like small town Iowa where when you get hit on its by your pervy co-worker.. these Italians are scary. They kept pulling on my hair screaming Bella Bella! Which means beautiful…darn my American blonde hair.  I let this go on a while thinking it might get me a free drink or two…oh it did.  A free shot from a sketchy corner in the back of the bar.. yeah right Italian creepos I’m not Amanda Knox I will not fall for your foreign charm and your roofied liquor.  So we peaced out and ran away as fast as we could.  Also, did I mention the drinking age here is like 15.. this kid still had braces. Well that was about all the excitement I could handle so we went home after that horrific experience.  Sometime later we decided to go check out the other side of town so we took the metro to the other side of town to see our friends apartment.  Big mistake.  We are living in a toiletless, stoveless, tvless, wirelessless piece of junk apartment when sometimes our keys don’t even work but thats okay cuz most of the time our door doesn’t shut anyway.

And these guys have a ridiculously beautiful apartment with a washing machine, dishwasher, wifi, and get this, a towel warmer.  We don’t have a flushing toilet and they get a freakin’ towel warmer.. unbelievable.  Ugh, anyways, we had a good time, the guys took us out to an Irish Pub a couple blocks away and we befriended a couple English bartenders and we all had a fancy time.

For fear of getting lost on the metro with a few liters of vino in our systems we opted for the couch in their apartment (I probably don’t need to mention that we don’t have a couch either, anyways).  We left the next morning and took the longest walk-of-shame in the history of the world.  We were quite proud/embarassed when we got back to our place but we took a shower and got ready for another day as a Roman.  Not really sure what we did the rest of the day but I’m sure it consisted of carbs, wine and gelato, just guessin.  Well eventually we needed a reality check and that meant earning the 3 free credits we are receiving for coming on this trip.  We ventured across town and met up with our professors and the rest of our group at a little building with a classroom.  We took a quiz that we had so “vigorously” studied for the night before and obviously excelled.  After class we wondered the streets a little more, which has become part of our routine as fake Italians, gotta burn them carbs off somehow.

The first weekend we spent in Rome we attended a cooking class!

Now this is right up my alley, I LOVE to cook, especially pasta.  We attended a class that is run by Erica and Andrea, Erica came to Italy as a study abroad student from Michigan when she fell in love with a handsome Italian man named Andrea (and folks handsome is a dramatic understatement, o.m.g.) We made a traditional 135389257983 course Italian meal, complete with pasta, meatballs, potatoes and tiramasu (sorry Italian wine kills the brain cells that allow you to spell correctly).  We learned how to make homemade pasta and all the secrets to the delicious Italian pasta.  So supper at my house as soon as I get back to the states! 🙂  Did I mention these classes come with 3 glasses of complimentary wine?  Yup. They do. Not the 2 dollar wine that us cheap American college students have been purchasing at the sketchy market across the street but the fancy taste-like-juice-but-gets-you-feeling-great kind of wine. Loved it.

A couple days ago we got to visit some tombs under the Vatican, it was pretty sweet but the B.O. coming from our “I-hate-America” tour guide was a little distracting for my sensitive shnoz and I didn’t really grasp all the facts I probably should have on this tour.  Oh well. After another semi-good nights sleep (thanks to the 2 euro, 15 proof wine in this beautiful country) we woke up bright and early to head up north to Florence.  That was yesterday so it’s still pretty fresh in my head, lucky you!  We ventured out at about 6:30 a.m…which is about 7:30 a.m. Will-Prigge-time because men are never punctual so technically, I can’t blame him, just his stupid testosterone.  Obviously we were late.  We eventually left on our charter bus for the 4ish hour ride to Florence, which is in beautiful Tuscany! 🙂

Upon arriving into the city I immediately fell in love.  No trash on the streets, no crazy city driving, 14-year-olds blowing cigarette smoke in my face, it was wonderful! We met another tour guide that took us down the river to all the awesome places in Florence.  We went across this fancy bridge with a million jewelry stores and that probably cost more than my life.  Don’t worry I didn’t touch anything.  We went to an art museum and I got to see an authentic Di Vinci!  Not to mention the statue of David.  And the fake statue of David.

Food for thought: there are two statues, the real statue of David is inside a museum so it won’t get destroyed by the weather or people.  Then there is a replica statue of David inside a Piazza, which is outdoors, that is much smaller but looks exactly the same.  This statue you can take pictures of but there are no cameras allowed inside the museum of the original, neat huh?  We got a few hours to explore the city on our own after the professional tour so we roamed the streets and found some pretty awesome shops with cheap stuff and the best gelato in all of Italy!  Another interesting fact, Florence is the city in Italy that was the home of the cast of Jersey Shore during their most recent season 🙂 We searched the city for the pizza shopped that they worked in while they stayed there but we found it rather difficult since we didn’t know what it was called.  Well I decided that one day in Florence just didn’t satisfy me enough so my roommate and I have planned a trip up there again this weekend and we’ll be staying in a cute little B & B run by two old American ladies.  SO excited.  And needless to say, I WILL find the Jersey Shore pizza place.  I will.

Well I have now come to todays festivities, which have been limited.  We got back pretty late last night so we decided today was just going to be chill, a chance to hang out and collect our thoughts.  It was much needed after a stressful week in a foreign country, let me tell you.  You never appreciate the country you live in more until you aren’t there and everything is so different than you are used to.  This sounds deep and philisophical but I’m really talking about a cheeseburger.  We had heard word of a Hard Rock Cafè just a metro ride away and we were all over that.

We jump on the metro, ride across town and sprint to the door of the most beautiful thing we had seen in a week.  And boy that was the best 12 euro cheeseburger in my life, not even sorry about it.  We stuffed ourselves with enough processed meat to satisfy us and attempted the walk home.  We cracked a bottle of wine and attempted to procrastinate homework just a little bit longer.  Once we had a solid buzz and ran out of things to creep on Facebook we decided we could no longer prolong the inevitable.  I find that wine makes it so much easier to concentrate, horrible realization.  But we whipped that thing out in less than a half hour, who has time to do homework in Rome, get real professor.  They rest of my night looks like a bottle of wine and possibly some mind-numbing American chick flicks via my laptop.  What a wonderful day.  I promise, avid followers, that it will not be an entire week before you hear from me again.  If you all have the attention span that I do you probably aren’t even reading this but my next one will be so much shorter!  Until then, arrivederci from Rome! 🙂

What up bloggers! Have you ever been flipping through a magazine and something catches your eye, you flip back to check it out and think wow something’s not quite right.  Let’s be honest, it’s usually sexual.  And let’s be honest again, sex sells.  Advertisers have been taking this finding to a whole new level.  Products that have nothing to do with sex or anything even close to sex, are having sexual references entering the sub-conscience mind of viewers… this is called subliminal messaging.  According to sources this type of advertising has been going on since about the late 1950’s.  For example…

 This advertisement for a Disney children’s movie hid the word sex in their advertisement.  These are very subtle reference and can only be seen by the sub-conscience, most people can’t even tell they are there unless they are specifically looking for them, but they see them whether they are aware of it or not.  Disney has had a reputation for hiding subliminal messages in their movies and advertisements for quite a while.  Another, more popular example is the castle in The Little Mermaid, this caused quite a fuss years ago when the movie first came out and every advertising and visual communications class I’ve taken in college has used it has a prime example of subliminal messaging.  Here’s the add….

  This message is a little more difficult to see, but there is a definite shape of a penis inside the castle.  This picture was shown on the cover of every VHS and DVD sold in the first few years of the movie release.  Whether the message was intentional or unintentional, once it was leaked to the public it caused quite a tissy among parents of children who were watching this Disney movie.

Disney movies aren’t the only ones known for subliminal messaging though, Coke is also guilty. And Skittles.

Like these two examples it is difficult to tell whether the company did it on purpose or claims people are just looking for obscene pictures and can find them just about anywhere you look.  I’m not convinced however, when these things happen more than once it’s not a coincidence.  With technology these days it’s easy to find messages like these, which makes it harder to find, so if you don’t want negative publicity, don’t put a penis in your rated G movie ad.  Not a hard concept.

While these subliminal messages are harder to find, some are rather obvious….

  Now I’m not going to sugar coat this, it looks like boobs.  Read the teeny tiny print at the bottom of the page and you see that there are knees…with a tiny toe, one toe, peeping out from the bottom.  Well it’s obvious the advertisers wanted to use the shock-value of this ad to sell their product..lotion (obviously, right?) A lot of ads are quite this vulgar because well, more businesses have more class than this.  On a positive side though, I’m sure they got a million more views for this ad than any other ad for lotion so their form of messaging worked.

Now let’s take this a step further.  Subliminal advertising in video.  This works a little differently.  Some ads work the same and use sexual references to sell their non-sexual products but sometimes they use just a flash of their product during a movie or t.v. show that is almost impossible to see with the naked eye.  It is only seen by the sub-conscience.  Here is an example I found on youtube of how McDonalds used subliminal messaging during a cooking show, even though they deny it was intentional (yeah, right).

These are only a few examples of how subliminal advertising has effected the way consumers view products and commercials.  There is TONS more information out there about it… it exceeds my mind capacity so I’ll just paste a couple links here if you are still itching for more information about subliminal messaging.

Business Insider

Artist Mike

Science Daily (For those of you who want some legit information from a liable source) 🙂

Thanks for reading again my faithful followers.. I love you all!

Maddie Essig shares her thoughts on graphic design and advises fellow designers! Find out how she got started in design and what she plans to do with her degree in the future. Also get her secrets for a successful creative design!

http://qik.com/video/45867956

Okay followers, here is my question. What program do you prefer to design in, Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign? Or perhaps another program new to the design world?  Let’s vote.

Well, the programs are pretty similar, in appearance and functions.  I am fluent in both and go back-and-forth on which is my fav.   I’m a list-maker, the easiest way for me to make a hard life decision (and yes this is a hard life decision) is to write out a list of pro’s and con’s (and yes I actually do this).  So let’s make a list..and feel free to comment and add more if I missed one or you think I’m crazy and everything on my list is nonsense… which ehh sometimes happens..  also, here is a link to another blog that does a great job of explaining the benefits of each Dream Infinity Studios.

Illustrator

Pros: draw freehand with pen tool, can save directly as a PDF, more template options, better for web/logos

Cons: can only change document settings when you start the new document, have to look for options in headings

InDesign

Pros: make document changes anytime, more options in the front view, can change number of columns or pages with one button, better for heavy text or layouts

Cons: can only export as JPEG, PDF, ect.

These are def only a few that I came up with right now, here is what the layouts look like so some of these points make more sense…

Illustrator                                                                                       InDesign

source                                                                                       source

As you can see, they are both pretty similar, and they are both proving my points above, Illustrator is better for logos and web, and InDesign is better for heavy text (magazines, newspapers, ect.).

Today, I prefer Illustrator, this may change tomorrow but for right now it is my program of choice.  The main reason being, it’s bright and white and looks more modern.  This could just be my weird opinion but InDesign is an off-white color and seems more old-school to me, it might not be, but the format and color of it makes it seem like it is the program of the past and Illustrator is the new and improved.  So naturally, I am drawn to the bright, white, shiny one. 🙂 Give me your input followers! I’m curious to see what other people think!

Until next week… keep makin’ stuff pretty! 🙂

Deciding what color to use in your design is one of the biggest questions as a designer.  All colors have meanings.  I am a semi-expert on this subject due to a vigorous senior research class I had to take to graduate college.  We all had to pick an aspect of mass media we found interesting.  I chose color, particularly color in advertising.  While researching color I found tons of interesting things that I didn’t know about color, such as each color having a specific meaning.  Knowing what colors mean is vital in design if you want people to actually look at your design and develop feelings about it.  Here is the list I came up with during my research about what colors mean.

Red: strong emotions, blood, love, strength, danger, energy; represents sports, cars, energy drinks, food & drink and restaurants, stimulates appetite

Orange: demands attention, energy, enthusiasm, vibrant, balance

Yellow: joy, happiness, optimism, laid-back, perky, cheerful, illness, hazard; represents food & drink and restaurants, stimulates appetite

Green: nature, environment, good luck, jealousy, envy; represents organic, nature, eco-friendly

Blue:  life, purity, peace, calm, loyalty, water, sky, cold; represents cleanliness, water, suppresses appetite

Purple: royalty, spirituality, wisdom, mysterious, arrogance; represents children

Black: “cheerless occasions,” night, evil, mourning, elegance, anger, power

White: purity, sacred, angels, cleanliness, winter, simplicity, youth; represents hospitals, cold, low-fat and dairy items

Pink: sweet, innocent, romantic, charming, love, childish, good health

Source: http://www.archimediastudios.com

For another good source of color meanings click here! 🙂

Now how will researching colors help make a design better?  Well, if you are doing a design for a specific group of people or company you need to chose a color that relates to what you are trying to accomplish.  For example, if you are doing a design for going green it just makes sense to use green, or brown, because you now know that it is used to represent nature and things eco-friendly.  Also, you now know that the colors red and yellow are proven to stimulate your appetite, so if you are doing a design about food you should use red or yellow because your design will make people hungry and want to go out and get your product.

These are examples of different fast food restaurant logos, when you see them together you can really notice they all have similar color schemes.  They are all using mainly red and  yellow and some orange because of the above reasons.

Source

Aside with knowing what colors mean and what colors to use in your design, its important to make it look pretty too! 🙂

Going back to the elementary school art class days, the color wheel will save your life.  However, the basic color wheel has become a bit more advance over the years… this is a pretty awesome color wheel I found that shows you what colors go together best.

If you are using a design program like indesign or illustrator there are built in color groups that you can use to get ideas about what colors to use.  When you go to pick a color there will be another tab that says “Color Schemes” if you click on that it will automatically match your color will a scheme of other colors that will go great together if you can’t decide on one yourself.  It’s a great tool to help pick a color that works well and saves you the stress of picking a color from the overwhelming selection of colors you have to chose from.

Thanks for reading again! Stay tuned in next week my devoted bloggers, for ‘White Space: Friend or Foe’.