Choosing to use an anti-glare monitor will have many benefits. Most people have experience with monitors that have a glare in them and I’m sure any of them will tell you that it is distracting and in some cases it causes them eye-strain.
Anti-glare monitors not only prevent screen glare, they also reduce eye-strain, they can protect your eyes from any harmful UV (ultra-violet) light, they can make the images on the screen sharper and they can give your screen brighter and deeper colours.
Different types of anti-glare monitors allow for better glare protection at the cost of a slightly less crisp image while others cut down on just a small amount of the glare but allow sharper images and brighter colours.
There are plenty of options available for reducing screen glare and UV light other than anti-glare monitors. For example you can buy anti-reflective screens from most major entertainment retailers that you can peel off and stick over your monitor. This is a cheaper way to go but it isn’t as effective as a monitor designed to reduce these things.
Being ergonomic is important for our health and wellbeing. Below I will list some different things relating to ergonomics and I’ll list an ergonomic principle for each of them.
Having a clean and organised desktop layout will allow you to focus more on your work and you’ll have the space to place all of your essentials (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) in the place that is most comfortable for you. Symmetry should be a rule of thumb because having the keyboard and monitor perfectly inline with your body will feel much better and it will keep you from neck strain and sore arms and hands.
Chair
You should always do your work on a comfortable chair. If you aren’t relaxed or sitting in a position that is good for your muscular health, you’re work and your body will suffer for it and it is easy to avoid by either adjusting the chair to your needs or by buying an ergonomic chair that is specifically designed to give ease and comfort.
Keyboard
Using a keyboard seems harmless enough but using it incorrectly can cause damage to your arms and wrists. Sitting in an upright position and placing the keyboard close enough to you that you don’t need to reach for it or bend your elbows too much will prevent any physical strain or damage and by feeling comfortable, you’ll find it easier to complete work.
Rest Breaks
Rest breaks are very important for your health because if you are sitting at a computer for hours at a time, you will become restless, sore and irritated. Taking regular rest breaks is essential and absolutely recommended for anyone who works with or uses a computer on a daily basis.
Green Computing
Using your computer and all of your computer products in an environmentally conscious and environmentally efficient way is both responsible and safe. Being energy efficient can save you a small fortune in electricity costs and disposing of any waste (old monitors or damages keyboards) is ethically required of you and in most workplaces, these ergonomic practices are commonplace.
Screen/Monitor
Staring at a monitor all day can cause eye strain and it can induce headaches and even migraines if you aren’t careful. Keep your monitor at a reasonable distance from your eyes, close enough that you can easily see everything on the screen but far away enough that you aren’t within an arms length of it. Setting the brightness of your monitor lower can help with eye strain tremendously and a good monitor height is key to avoiding neck and eye strain.
For this post I need to find one aspect of Adobe Illustrator that I require help with. I’ll be writing about what I’ve learnt and I’ll provide links to any sites I use for help.
The function of Adobe Illustrator that I needed help with was the ability to turn a neat looking object drawn with the pen tool in to an object that looked like it had been drawn by a child, a scribbled effect.
I typed my question in to Google and I was given over 100,000 links to websites. I clicked on the very first link which led me to the Adobe website itself and once the page loaded up I decided to take a quick look in the F.A.Q.’s (Frequently Asked Questions) to see if my question had already been asked or answered.
After failing to find my question in the F.A.Q.’s, I went to the top of the page to find some sort of a searching option. I found a search tab and i typed in my question. Almost instantly I recieved ten links to other pages that claimed they’d be able to help me. I clicked on the first link and I found a list of instructions explaining how I would have to go about solving the problem.
I followed every specific instruction and I ended up finding the option window I was looking for. In the Effects window, there was even an option to have a ‘Child-like’ look which is exactly what I was going for. Below I will provide a link to the website I used to help me solve my problem.
All of the following information was taken from the Teachers Drive at TAFE Lismore Campus;
Print Design-Paper and Inks
The environmentally friendly alternative to using petroleum based ink is to use vegetable based inks. The base liquid for this ink is made from a variety of vegetable oils such as corn, walnut, coconut, linseed, canola and soy bean. Vegetable oils are a renewable resource unlike petroleum.
Vegetable based inks are much easier to de-ink when recycling and results in much less hazardous waste. Paper from sugarcane waste has advantages over the traditional papers made from cutting down trees. The main advantage is not cutting-down trees. It’s biodegradable and degrades faster than regular paper and it’s also cheaper.
Some of the paper products for which sugar cane waste paper are preferred are tissue paper, napkins, disposable food containers, plates, bowls and trays.
Digital Design-Power and Health
To be sustainable in the digital age of design it is important to consider these things;
High use of electricity from computers, printers, and drains on environmental resources
The increase in Wifi and mobile use leads to increased insomnia which can result in poor health
Radio frequency may have negative effects on brain and cell health
Excess light from a computer screen can negatively effect our eyes and brains
Insomnia from increased wifi can lead to unsafe work practices and making mistakes
Furniture should be at heights and positions that provide the most comfort. For example, computer screens being set at eye level and supportive chairs
A good design of a workspace to reduce bending and lifting.
Technology can mean we are constantly checking our emails and mobile phone. This can mean that we never ‘switch off’ from work which can lead to mental health issues
Architectural Design-Environmental Impact
Precaution should be taken when promoting a product as we have to question its impact on all of our environment;
Does it promote a better environment instead of worsening it? Or can it at least improve on our current situation?
Can we improve our working environment to promote a healthier one that is more considerate of all things?
Can our product create more harmony in our environment than just being a tool to grab attention for short term gain?Do we have to move beyond this line of thought?
Are we looking ahead enough to judge the impact our product has in the long term? For example, climate change?
How can science help us to achieve our goals?
In regards to architectural design;
Can we create a product that engages and captivates our audience? Will it work?
Can we stay ahead of the modern day movement towards more thoughtful and engaging ways of communicating?
Can we amalgamate into cultural movements and their potential?
Does a bigger design mean more attention or can the audience be captivated regardless of size?
What are the constraints? For example, budget, time frame, design (colour, text or business logo)
All of the following information was taken from the Teachers Drive at TAFE Lismore Campus.
Privacy and Security
Information privacy, or data privacy (data protection), is the relationship between the collection and the dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy and the legal and political issues surrounding them.
Data security means protecting data, such as a database, from destructive forces and the unwanted actions of unauthorised users. Common information that is collected by banks;
Fair Trading, Moral Rights-Keeping Commitments, Work Quality, Professionalism and Contracts
Moral rights are rights provided to creators under copyright law in order to protect both their reputation and the integrity of their work. In Australia, moral rights were introduced in December 2000 through the Copyright Amendment(Moral Rights) Act of 2000. This legislation provides creators with three rights. They are;
The right of attribution of authorship
The right not to have authorship of their work falsely attributed
The right of integrity of authorship. This protects creators from their work being used in a derogatory way that may negatively impact on their character or reputation
Moral rights last for the same time as copyright in a work, the term of which is usually the creator’s life plus 70 years. Copyright is designed to protect the ‘economic rights’ of copyright holders. In comparison, moral rights protect the reputation and integrity of creators.
As a creator, you retain your moral rights even if you do not own the copyright in your work. Moral rights can only be held by individuals, so corporate entities and organisations cannot claim moral rights in a work. Moral rights apply to creative works such as;
Artistic works including drawings, paintings, sculptures and graphs
Musical works
Dramatic works including plays and film scripts
Written material including novels, textbooks, poems, songs and journal articles
Discrimination is essentially where a specific person or group of people are being treated as though they are below and/or lesser than another person or group in the workplace. Reasons may include race, colour, national or ethnic origin, sex, pregnancy, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, religion, sexual preference, trade union, political opinion and family or career’s responsibilities.
Discrimination can occur when applying for a new job or anytime during employment. This act of harmful behavior in a workforce is not tolerated and the majority of employers throughout Australia enforce the Fair Work Act of 2009 system. This system protects causal, part time, full time, apprentices, trainees and probationary employees. It was generated to create a safe and fair work environment.
However if you believe you are being discriminated against in your workplace you can lodge a complaint form by calling the Info line for Fair Work and they will assistant you to lodge your unlawful workplace discrimination complaint. This list can go on with other reasons under the discrimination and or human rights legislation;
There are other ways you can be discriminated against in a workplace and that’s with Wage and Pay discrimination. Wage discrimination can be seen in the payment or wages towards minority groups facing decreased earnings for the same job with the same performance levels and responsibilities of another person or gender (discrimination shown towards individuals with the equivalent educational backgrounds and qualifications).
Most wage discrimination tends to occur in lower-paying positions and involves minorities who are not empowered to file a discrimination lawsuit or complain there for being taken advantage of.
In this post I’ll be imagining that I’m designing a poster to advertise a new online fantasy game. I have decided to call it Eye of the Universe and it will focus on the player controlling the universe itself and it’ll allow them to create their own Galaxies, Black Holes and Star Systems among many other things.
The main objective of the game will be to not only create a universe for yourself but a universe that is capable of fending off countless human and alien threats who are massively expanding throughout your universe, using up every natural resource and destroying planets in their wake. Preserving your universe is of upmost importance and is the ranking tool in the game (E.g. You protected 40% of your universe from the enemy).
I’ll need to strike a delicate balance between the enemies and the enormous power that the player has at their disposal. The game will be an RTS (Real-Time Strategy) of sorts requiring the player to manage their arsenal strategically and on-the-fly against multiply threats spreading across the entire universe.
The playable area will of course be shrunken down massively compared to the actual size of the universe (whatever that may be) so as to allow a fast-paced form of play that doesn’t completely over-do it. Micromanagement will be an integral part of the experience but it won’t get in the way of your primary objectives.
Below you’ll see a couple of stock images that I will use in my poster design to give future players a small glimpse at what they’ll be getting in to;
These are the rules that the artist above (missiriswolfe) requires me to follow once I decided to use the image;
Give credit to missiriswolfe if I use the image
Leave a comment on DeviantArt with a link to the final image
My target audience for the game will primarily be anyone, male or female, aged 15 and up. The game will feature quite a bit of violence to depict the brutality of what is playing out over the course of the game and because of that I believe the game will be rated either MA or MA15+. I believe the game will be played mostly by teenagers, young adults and middle aged adults but I don’t want to exclude anyone that I don’t need to.
Some design decisions I’ve thought of (E.g. colour ideas, fonts, etc) that relate to my poster theme are;
A bright and gritty colour palette with an abundance of stars, planets and lens flares – Bright colours that show the beauty of space but plenty of gritty colours and textures that show the ruggedness and brutality of the aliens and their ships
Sleek text and logo design with a shine to it that’s easy to read but also sci-fi in look
Image of a black hole and a galaxy that show players some of the tools they’ll be able to use
A pair of hands at the base of the poster to signify the control the player will have over their universe
This is a rough thumbnail sketch of my poster that I have created using Adobe Illustrator CS6;
This post is about some of the different parts of my personality and I’m going to post a visual example for each that’ll accompany short descriptions about them;
All forms of game design and most forms of film design interest me a lot. In the future i would love to be a part of either the gaming industry or the film industry and if i’m lucky enough, both. Here are some visual examples of things that inspire me;
What is the name of the federal legislation covering copyright law in Australia?
The Australian Copyright Act (of) 1968 is the federal legislation covering copyright law in Australia. This Act covers all the bases for copyright in Australia and protects the expression of ideas but not the ideas themselves. The Act has been kept up-to-date over time and is strongly enforced not only in Australia but all around the world.
What does copyright protect?
Copyright protects anybody who creates original works and gives the copyright holder the right to enforce and pursue legal action if their works are stolen, left unaccredited or misused in any way, shape or form. The law is very strict when it comes to copyright and many people, intentionally or unintentionally, are taken to court and sued on a daily basis for hundreds and even millions of dollars.
How would you register your design for copyright and how much would it cost?
You wouldn’t and don’t need to register your design for copyright or even pay to have it copyrighted because it is free and it applies to your work automatically in Australia. Quite a few people don’t know this fact and they often end up confused or they waste time trying to protect something that is already protected. It is important to educate yourself on the rules and regulations of copyright.
What are ways you could protect yourself from copyright theft?
There are many ways you can protect yourself from copyright theft. Placing a watermark on your work is a great way of letting others know what is and what isn’t copy protected and when in doubt, a watermark can help you and others prove who owns what. If you are using a webpage or a blog, you should always try to have a copyright notice somewhere within the page that’s clearly displayed and legible.
Do you need to use the copyright symbol to be protected by copyright?
No, you do not need to use the copyright symbol to be protected by copyright but it is always a good idea to use it on your work whenever possible. This is so people can clearly see if your work is protected by copyright or not. It can look out of place or even draw attention away from your work but showing it is the best way to protect yourself against theft and misuse.
I have an idea about a logo design, is it covered by copyright?
Simply having an idea about a logo design won’t be covered by copyright. Ideas, concepts, methods, procedures, etc do not fall under copyright law but some of them may be protected by a trademark if you’re willing to pay and file for one. If you get to the point where you have a final design that is your own, then it will be covered by copyright laws. Never assume that absolutely everything you publish will be copyright protected.
If an artwork appears in an Art Gallery, does the Gallery own copyright for that item?
When an artwork appears in a Gallery, the Gallery may or may not own the copyright for that particular item depending on whether or not the original owner has forfeited the rights to their work by signing a contract. Most galleries take these issues very seriously and usually make sure they are working within the law in regards to copyright. Always take the necessary precautions when submitting artwork or exhibiting artwork.
If i’m employed by a company as their in-house graphic designer, who would generally own the copyright?
If you’re employed by a company as their in-house graphic designer, you will own the copyright to any and all works that you produce unless the company has stipulated otherwise in a contract signed by you. Even though you’ve been paid by the company to design something, you still maintain the copyright to your work because they’re only paying you for the right to use the work as their own and not to actually own the copyright.
If i’m working as a freelance Graphic Designer and create a logo for a company, who would generally own the copyright for the logo?
Again, like the previous question, if you’re working as a freelance Graphic Designer and you create a logo for a company, you have any and all copyrights to your work unless you have signed a contract transferring ownership. However, if said company trademarks your work then they’d have complete ownership over it but the copyright will always remains yours until you decide to sell it to them.
What evidence could you provide to a court to prove you’re the copyright owner of a logo you’ve designed?
To prove in court that you are the copyright owner of a logo that you’ve designed, present them with the original work and any documents relating to the original work. Show the court any watermarks or signatures present on the work in question and if possible, any emails or texts that prove that the other party and you have established contact prior to the copyright claim. Any early concepts or plans of your work will go a long way to prove you’re in the right.
How much of an artistic work can i safely use without infringing on copyright?
For research or study purposes you can safely use roughly 10% of a document without infringing on copyright but that can vary based on whether or not the copyright is in date or if permission to use the document is given by the owner. It’s always best to get permission first because the amount you can use safely is quite subjective and it could get you into trouble if you aren’t precise enough.
If you’ve done everything in your power to identify the copyright owner but they won’t contact you back, is it ok to use the work without permission as long as you use a ‘good faith notice’ stating you were unable to contact them?
If you use the work of someone else without permission, you will not be safe from copyright infringement even if you use a ‘good faith notice’ stating that you were unable to contact them. If the owner of the copyrighted work doesn’t respond to your request, always play it safe and use something else that won’t hold you liable in a court of law if the owner decides to press charges.
How would you go about obtaining copyright clearance for an artwork you want to use that you’ve found on the internet?
The best way to go about obtaining the copyright clearance for an artwork you want to use that you have found on the internet is by directly asking the copyright holder for permission to use it by emailing them or calling them and leaving a message. Even if it takes weeks for them to reply to your request, at least you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’re protected under copyright law. Don’t risk a lawsuit by going behind the owners back.
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