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Concept based on the "defunding" of Planned Parenthood. 

Michael Bierut on How to Think Like a Designer : Review 

American designer from Ohio, Michael Bierut, opens up his talk with a humorous story on how he first became interested in design at the age of 7. The concept of design first came to him at a very young age when he realized how someone had intentionally created a design to communicate a message or promote a product. Throughout his talk, he gives us examples of different big projects he has designed for and the creative process behind each one. He guides you through each personal case study by explaining his way of finding solutions when thinking like a designer. I particularly really enjoyed hearing about how he came up with the re-branding of Saks Fifth Ave and his clever way of working with the old logo. 

Creative Inspirations -Kit Hinrichs 

Kit Hinrichs, an American graphic designer, walks the viewer through the experiences in his life that have been his creative inspirations. Straight after high school, Hinrichs was accepted into Art Center, but found himself to be much younger than the average student. During college he decided to take time off and travel to Germany. He describes how this experience changed his whole perspective on culture. Throughout his trip he was exposed to other cultures which expanded his creativity and knowledge. After his return, he felt more inspired to work harder and dedicate himself more to his designs. 

Hinrichs, later walks us through his workspace and his future plans which give us more insight of an average day in his life. It's interesting to understand where a designer like Hinrichs builds his inspiration from. Which comes from experiences from the past as much as his everyday space and from people that surround him. 

 Cropping Photos: Review 

The video tutorials on cropping photos introduce cropping as one of the most basic tools a designer can use when working with images. They go over the seven different types of cropping that can be used for different designs such as hard crop, split crop, a share crop and false crop. John McWade goes over the importance of composition when cropping a photo. The videos demonstrate different examples that show the different types of cropping and how they can be used in various contexts. Hard crop is the most common type of trimming designers use. To crop photos correctly, we learn throughout the videos, you must become mindful of your eyes because cropping is all about lines and shapes and we must learn to identify those in all images. 

 Foundations of Typography- Hierarchy and Navigation with Ina Saltz : Review 

Ina Saltz is an art director, designer, writer, photographer and professor (at The City College of New York) whose areas of expertise are typography and editorial publication design. In her Lynda.com tutorials, Ina Saltz presents two essential topics in typography: hierarchy and navigation. In her videos she discusses the importance of placement of text which refers to hierarchy. Designers must be aware of how placement will influence the viewer by placing text of higher importance in certain key places. She covers details on orientation, size and color and how all these variables will communicate a certain message to viewers. Her video gave us a brief introduction to type and how to be aware of hierarchy and navigation. It is important to train your eye and to educate yourself on these terms so we can better understand how good typographic principles are can be applied. 

  Design Disruptors: Documentary Review 

‘Design Disruptors’ was an inspiring documentary that gives insight on the approach and processes of tech giants and successful start-ups such as Facebook, Uber, and AirBnb to name a few. The documentary delves into the world of technology as we know it today. We get to see the big designers behind some of the most popular tech companies and apps used by millions around the world. They talk about the 'user-experience' and how important it is for designers to constantly find solutions for everyday problems. Not only do they find solutions, but must keep updating and changing their design to meet the needs of people located in different areas in the world. This documentary also defined the difference between Art and Design: ‘Art is about questioning and Design is about finding solutions.’ However, we should look at Art as a way to give insight to Design in the creation and prototyping phase. This allows designers to suggest problems and perspectives for consideration without imposing solutions. 

It was very interesting to get to see into the minds of some of the most advanced designers in the world of technology. It truly gave an insight on how fast we are moving today and how technology can help us create solutions for everyday problems. 

Object to Mark