SPE - 370 Twitter Logo

There has been a continuing rise of the craziness and popularity of a new social media site where people find new ways of complaining to a large amount of people at once, this social media site is of course, twitter. The company itself focuses on connecting almost everyone at one time, even to major celebrities. Twitter’s company serves as a simplified facebook and allows people to be more connected on a personal level through status. Companies and celebrities use twitter to advertise for free and easily to a large number of people, the idea of twitter is simply genius.

                The twitter bird is actually named Larry the Bird after the great Boston Celtics basketball player, Larry Bird. The lettering next to the bird is spelled in all lower case and bubble type letters. Both the letters and bird are a light blue shade of color. Since twitter only allows short messages sent at a time or “tweets”, the bird implies the old saying of “a little birdie told me”. In other words it is like a little blue bird is flying around the internet tweeting to the user what someone else said. This allows people to feel in the loop of things. Twitter is a relaxed and easy way of communication which is implied through the light blue coloring. Light blue gives off a relaxed and fun emotion to the eye, as well as the lack of capital letters. Capital letters would make twitter more loud and uncomfortable, and since twitter is a site to share personal information, they want to users to feel as comfortable as possible when creating tweets. The rounding of the letters also gives off a sense of comfort and relaxation along with smoothness. The bottom of each “t” is exaggerated to allow one’s eyes to easily flow to the bird, and the stomach of the bird is also rounded in the same style and direction. The bird’s “wing” is up and back to show that it is flying and has its beak open to tweet away as it is flying.

                The use of design, color, and image of the twitter logo has made twitter arguably the most famous thing in the world today. More people know about twitter than any actor, athlete, or celebrity. Twitter allows this by the innocent, fun, and relaxing atmosphere their logo promotes whenever and wherever it is seen.

SPE 210 Blog#2 Issue Identification

The invisible children have become one of the biggest overnight controversies in the world. Many may not know the horrors of what the invisible children actually are. In the last forty eight hours, through a thirty minute you tube video the world has been exposed to Joseph Kony and his terror on the children of Uganda. Kony has used religious manipulation on poverty stricken children to join his Army, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and kill their family members and force young girls into sex slavery. A group of humanitarians started a group called Invisible Children, led by Jason Russell used their film making abilities and the heart breaking story of one Ugandan child to call upon the efforts of the world to pull together for the arrest of Joseph Kony through this thirty minute you tube video. They call on everyone to donate money to their nonprofit organization and make Kony famous, not for his killings but for his arrest. The group is asking everyone on April twentieth to cover every major city in hundreds of thousands. The group of humanitarians has framed their case in public as a cry for help, using personal stories from Ugandan children and having these children travel with them and tell their stories publically, along with posting their stories on you tube. They say they are a nonprofit organization and send all the donated money to the efforts of the Uganda military in support of arresting Joseph Kony. They make the public feel as if you are a bad person for not understanding the conflict through the testimonies of the children and almost emotionally force donations. The major argument they make for this movement is by comparing this situation to the holocaust and claiming that the difference in this modern day holocaust is that everyone can now know about this through the internet. The Invisible Children group has been targeting big name celebrities to put public pressure on politicians to take action.

            The invisible Children group makes a very compelling effort for a very compelling cause, however not everyone feels this way about the current war in Uganda. Many believe that Invisible Children is a fraudulent group trying to scam money out of U.S. citizens. They question where the money is going and the actual intentions of the Uganda military. Many people believe the Uganda military performs acts on their people just as violent as Joseph Kony and his child Army. It has been pointed in opposing arguments that the U.S. has attempted to arrest Kony before, and it led to Kony creating even more violent and widespread attacks on churches during events like Christmas Eve. Concerning the money issue, people question the nonprofit side considering the leaders of Invisible Children made close to Ninety thousand dollars last year. The people who have been arguing against the Invisible Children group have been using feedback to explain to people why they should not donate money to this cause when they are asked to by giving factual evidence about things such as money.

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

http://www.vice.com/read/should-i-donate-money-to-kony-2012-or-not

SPE - 370 Font Types

                “You are party let! Hey what’s going on tonight? Any good parties? If anyone would know, it’s you. Your reputation as a diehard partier is legend, and you won’ let anything stop you from having a good time”.

                I would have typed that in the actual font, but my apologies because my Microsoft Word does not have the party let font. Now do I completely agree with everything that was said about my personality from this font test? Somewhat, but not really. I definitely like to party and have a good time, but in moderation. I like to consider my life a party because I have a good time, but not in the sense the quiz was implying as in drinking and stuff like that. For example during the week I get all my work done between school and football without drinking or partying of that sort. However football for me is what I love to do and I have a fun time with my major so how can I not consider everyday a party if I’m completely enjoying myself?

                The party let font can be used as the representation for the description for a couple of different reasons. The way the font looks makes the brain think of a party or a free spirit. For example, none of the lines in the font come to a sharp point, rather the lines all curve. The curving lines make it easy on the eye’s which lets the brain think of free flowing, smooth, and calm things. This idea can relate to the music exercise that we did in class. If the lines are pointy and jagged, the brain relates the font with aggressive or angry ideas. There are extra lines added to each letter which implies that this font is flowing away from the norm and creating its own rules. Also the letters are not all at the same height, for example when the word “is” is typed, the “I” is slightly higher than the “s”. This again goes along with the idea that this font plays by its own rules. Everything about this font screams party or a fun time.