Urban-alliance.net

You made it to my finalized website !

Let me tell you it was NOT easy!

If you check out my blog post from the CT 101 website, you will notice a lot of things have changed. And I mean A LOT!

For refreshers this is the original route i went with the website

Different right !!

Since the beginning, i wasn’t too pleased with how the website turned out. But I literally worked on it for so long that day I decided to just leave it as that, but it’s a new day; different mindset !

While looking for new templates that seemed like forever to find, I really loved this template. It’s called Seahorse (name is very deceiving) . I loved the colors, fonts, the layout and how the photos were laid out.

That being said, it was completely different than the last one I had chosen and even editing wise was completely different. The dashboard options were different when editing which made things very confusing.

I felt like customizing the old page was eaiser yet harder at the same time. Everything was just organized but it was still challenging !

But with patience, dedication and perseverance i was able to make it through!!

Lets start with the tour of my new website !

Home page ;

Here we have my homepage ; the first page the user will be loaded into.

A few years ago I learned that colors that attract people the most are red and yellow and iIm just noticing that thats what my page consist of haha. I made a little phrase that rhymes which i thought was cool!

ANYWAY Right below that i have two buttons that will bring you to the shop page ( which i will disscuss more later). Not only can the user access the shop page from here, but can also access it from the top menu.

As you scroll down i replaced the template default photo to a logo rug we made for a close friend’s business and thought it will be cool to mention we go as far as doing logos for companies.

Now scrolling even more down

The user can read more into who we are and our main mission with this company. I will definitely change this in the future when I get closer to finalizing the website for retail!

Underneath that there’s a photo I generated on dall-e  and the contacts of my friend and I with socials!.

Shop

When you press the shop button it will lead the user to the prices of the rugs. I was able to get this block by scrolling at the different price templates they have. I thought this was the most fitting.

First Blog Post

This is just where we had our first assignement for our blog post. The photos listed are first original rugs we created.

REFLECTION TIME

links to all my post on CT 101

• • post 1

• • post 2

• • post 3

• • post 4

• • post 5

• • post 6

• • post 7

• • post 8

I learned many things from digital classes in ct 101. I learned how to use creative outlets even when I have no knowledge about it. CT101 helped explore different creative routes such as photoshop, editing, animation, blogging, creating a website and more. I learned how to express myself with memes and getting more familiar with the universal language !

I definitely will keep this website, I might pay to change the name because I had to choose a random one because I still don’t have a name for my actual tufting business, but once I find a name that I like I will be changing it. I do like the new layout I choose too. I hope to use this website as a place where customers can look at. As for grades, I believe I deserve an A. With each blog post and assignment I made sure to put 10010% into it. I had fun but also made sure I was doing what was required.

• • SMALL     20×20    $70-$140

• • MEDIUM  32×32    $105-$185

• • LARGE    44×44    $200-$310

• • X LARGE 56×56    $400+

I picked a name, now its time to design the website!

I decided to challenge my self and try a theme other than the ones that was suggested. Not going to lie, I now understand why ryan suggested the other ones because it is kind of challenging and complex, but if it becomes a real challenge i will change it but for now i wanted something more appealing to the eye.  I decided to go with the Inspiro theme because I really liked the layout of it.

After I edited sub-title and tagline that suits what my website is about and went to google fonts to choose a font that I liked.  I ended up going with Unna.

I think it will be super fun to create a website for an upcoming business my friend and I are in the works for. In the next couple of weeks, we will be tufting and selling rugs, so I thought this would give a cool inspiration and practice for when we actually have to make one. Im super excited to do this assignment because not only do I find design fun, but I will connect with it personally. 

According to Wikipedia, tufting is ,”…a type of textile manufacturing in which a thread is inserted on a primary base.” We plan on doing so much with this business and we are super excited about what’s ahead of us.

I don’t really have a favorite website. While searching, I found Balenciagas layout to be pretty cool. I like how as soon as you enter the webpage, there is a video playing and as you scroll down more photos are displayed but everything’s the same width and length. Each media takes up the full screen which is cool.

Not saying this because of this class (haha) but I genuinely like the giphy website too. I like how the background is black so you could literally have so many colors going and it wont look weird. The fact there there’s so many different colors, images and content sizes all fits so well together.

For the domain, it will be named Urbanalliance.net

Walking into this semester, I had no idea what to expect. I changed my major about 4 times prior to communications technology and honestly, I was losing hope. As soon as I walked into my classes, specifically this one, I knew I was in the right place. I enjoy going to every class and doing every assignment in this class which is something I never thought I would say! I am able to dig deeper into my creativity and yet do what is expected. I really enjoy learning and having fun with it. Being able to digital story tell has completely changed the game.  I learned so much so far and its only mid way into the semester. What I have retained the most from this class is the importance of art and how it differs from person to person, yet it still unites us all . For example, using memes. This class has differently opened my eyes on how its such a universal language.  Art communicates emotions, societal issues, really anything in a fun way. From taking this class, I improved my ability in storytelling. Growing up, I absolutely HATEDDD any kind of English class. I was never good at writing. But in this class, I definitely enjoyed writing and storytelling. I am able to express weekly assignments in a unique way. Honestly, I never took into consideration how impactful a meme is. This class has opened my eyes on how important and revolutionary it is. Actually, just recently I just got a new job and for the training videos that every employee has to complete, the company added memes in every module and in every single page. Just seeing that not only made the training videos automatically enjoyable, but it made me forget about the anxieties I had walking in. Comparing this to my other job, when I first started and  was completing the training videos, it had no memes. Just text. It gave such a different energy whereas as soon as I was completing the tutorials with the memes, it altered the way I felt. Memes affect mood,  its strange yet super cool way of communicating and brings a universal unity. In regards to grades, I think I am maintaining an A- at least. I say this because I tend to forget to comment on other peoples posts which I am definitely going to complete as soon as I finish catching up on some assignments. Other than that, I genuinely do put so much effort in my post because its something I genuinely enjoy completing.  From where I first started. I see a lot of improvement especially in the storytelling aspect. As mentioned before, I hated anything that had to do with literature. I think I have gotten the hang off storytelling, even using a digital medium like giphy and my own work to execute what is expected. Truthfully, I have not been responding or commenting on posts since the beginning of the semester. But starting from now, I definitely am going too, especially because I want a really good grade in this class since I’m super proud of the work I’ve put out. Completing this reflection has definitely made me sit down and actually realize and reflect my progress so far in the semester. when we were first assigned this assignment, I didn’t really know what I could write about but now its clear that I actually have retained so much. I’m excited to finish this semester !

As i was scrolling through the endless possibilities of options we had to choose from, i came across this stunning assignment

I knew I immediately had to do this and I already had the song vibe I wanted to put in mind. SO it was time to get to work.

First i had to choose a painting from google’s digital coloring of famous artwork. There were a bunch but I ended up choosing this one. I just looked at the photo and knew it was going to be such a relaxing piece just to color and chill with music on. 

15 minutes later and i was finished….but not quite yet. It was editing time. The editing software I used to edit the video was Imovie. I have some good experience using imovie from when I was younger so it was a piece of cake for me. 

For the background music, I went to youtube to look for the audio. I knew I wanted to background music more on the chill side, so what better music to choose than LO-FI! And of course I had to go with drake.

So now I just needed a third party website (opps) to download the audio. I used this music converter to download the audio into a mp3.

Now it was editing time

This part was really simple, I just imported the screen recording of me completing the coloring page and the mp3 player and layered them on top of each other and trimmed the screen recording to fit the length of the audio. 

I had a lot of fun doing this assignment. All the way from reading all the cool assignments and picking one, to getting to color as my project and then editing it all was such a cool and fun project. I love how everything came out too 🙂

Click here to see the final result !!

__________________________________________

Second assignment; Whisper Challenge 

The second one I chose was the whisper challenge, i thought this would be really fun to do with someone else, unlike the other assignment I chose where it was just me. For this one, my boyfriend Luis joined me 🙂 Here are the assignment details

Now we just had to get to recording, the video was pretty fast because it was a very fast 3 rounds where I ended up winning. 

We each wrote down some vocabulary words that had to do with the class.The left photo are what luis wrote down and the photo on the right are mine.

After we sat down and filmed the video, i again used imovie to edit it.

I decided to have a little fun with it and add some sound affects like this famous one from sponge bob!

Using imovies toolbox, i was able to add text on top of the video too to add more of an affect to it.

and that was all it ! It was really fun to sit down and film something i can even look back at and have a laugh.

Check out the video by clicking here !

The big question, are memes really art? 

After doing some research about this question, I learned different points of views that made me question if memes should really be considered as art. Ive came to the conclusion that…. YES OF COURSE

Art grows adjacent with time. As time progresses and things change around the world, so does art both in a technological way and a societal way. This article that I read showed from thecourseonline made a great point that if we just have one standard to what art is, then it creates a hierarchy and any art that doesn’t fit into that becomes undesirable which ignores the creators definition of art.  

So yes, that being said, memes is a form of art. There is not a single category that everyone has to follow to be considered art. Art can vary due to culture, environment, time etc.

Another article forms newsrecord further support and explains what i just discussed.  Art expresses any topic in the modern age that expresses any emotion or to inform certain issues in society.

In my opinion, memes are amazing for art. Its an awesome way to communicate emotions, societal issues really anything in a fun way. Memes is a universal language almost, just by an expression from the meme communicates what we might feel. Its such a good way to bring others together (which is exactly what art does!) 

I don’t see how memes are bad for art. Everyone expresses/communicates differently. And art is now a new way added to the list.  There is plenty of art that I just don’t understand/like..but that doesnt mean those pieces aren’t art. Some people might feel like its easier to communicate in a humoristic way. As leo tolstoy says, “ “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experience and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words so to transmit that feeling that others experience the same feeling, this is the activity of art.” If that’s the way one express oneself, it is art. 

Here are my favorite memes saved in a special folder on my phone called “memes<3” LOL

I picked these four memes because honestly they have a special meaning to me.  Sadly I had a friend of mine pass away and these are just some of the four memes we would always send to each other. So not only do I genuinely find them funny and they are easy to use to react/communicate, but they have a sentimental meaning behind it. 

Here are some memes i made

I was really pleased with my first day for CT101. To me, this is all very new but yet very exciting and definitely nothing like classes i’ve taken before. I already love the environment and the material we get to discuss and work on in class. Walking into a whole different field than what I was used to was so interesting.. Almost like a cultural shock ( not really but i hope you get the point! ) The environment, professors and people bring such a different energy. It really does make my learning experience better. Ryan Selsow has already  been an amazing Professor and i can’t wait for this journey ! 

Hearing about the course and its creative content makes me feel very excited ! To go deeper into what I mentioned before, I am currently a senior in and I have changed my major 4 times now and I honestly feel like this was the field for me. I’m excited to work and study material that I find interesting ( finally !) 

This class compares to NOTHING to my old classes. The previous majors I was in were in the business field. I started from Social Work to Aviation Management to Business to now CT. ( Hoping this is the one LOL) One thing they all had in common was none of those classes were interactive. All we did was read textbooks, weekly quizzes and repeat. For me, I can’t enjoy learning when its like that. Just week 3 and that’s definitely not how this class or any Ct classes are which i’m very pleased about !

Editing, creating anything to do with being creative I absolutely love and appreciate so much. Ever since I was little, I was always the “good one” with technology. Every single family member would come to me to fix the simplest things ( like even turning the wifi on ). In middle school I would make random videos and edit them on Imovie just for fun.  Learning different internet tools/skills is definitely what i look most forward too. 

One thing that makes me really happy this week is music. I used to dance when i was younger so music has always been the key to happiness for me. Recently I’ve been listening to new music / genres of music more than what I was used to. That being said, i feel like music has just been hitting different since i’ve been discovering new music. Thanks to  Spotify ; where I get to listen to all my music :)).

My favorite song at the moment would have to be Cinderella by Mac Miller Ft. Ty Dolla Sign. I’ll post the song below

I would say this is my favorite song because of the way it was just produced and how everything just comes together so well. I feel like some people don’t  really like long songs (this song is 8 minutes by the way) but I feel like this is a huge exception LOL.  I love how Ty Dolla Sign just fits the song perfectly too.

My favorite artist to listen to this past week would have to be…

YE DUH

Kanye was the first artist to really show me there was more to what i was used to in the past. His recent album Donda is what really got me into Kanye and other hip-hop/rap artists. I love his style and really love to just sit and blast his music and just appreciate it.

Thanks for reading !!