April shower of stuff

Expanding on the note sent to you by e-mail on March 28.

Class was cancelled so you could attend the "launch" event of Communication Week, included a presentation by the Web-based "social networking" director of a major public relations and marketing firm. See the full schedule and the school's new Facebook page about it, including Friday panel with two Web developers whose careers began in our classrooms and at http://ruwhim.com (See just how far back Whim goes at http://stepno.wordpress.com/old-whims/

Canceling Monday's class meant postponing the "jargon" follow-up quiz. Read the additions to that page for a few more key terms.

For March 30 and the first week in April, see Sam Jennings' calendar for his assigned library-archive reading on Web page banners:
http://www.radford.edu/~sjennings15/com226spring2011.htm. If you are on campus or logged in as an RU library user, this link will to to the article: Banner ad study. (Otherwise Sam's page has the detailed citation.)

For samples of banner ad formats and discussions of their use, see the articles at these sites:

As the Google adwords, IAB and Digg pages shows, advertisers are using different shapes of Web ads in addition to the classic "banner," because Web site layouts and screen sizes have changed over the years.

When creating banners of your own, feel free to use any of the shapes mentioned on the Google site. That will help break the monotony of the "10 banners" assignment. If you run out of creative ideas, SIX images will be enough for this assignment -- and they do not all have to be advertisements. Think of some of these small, clearly defined images as company logos, "branding," or nameplates/headers for Web pages. (A "banner ad" is intended to get you to click and go somewhere; a header or nameplate is intended to tell you where you are. Both often include logos.)

Later, you can add text to your Web page explaining what Photoshop tools you used and what the purpose of the image is: ad banner, a company logo, nameplate, page header, etc.

Here are some sites that teach you how to do creative things with text in images, design banners or logos and more:

If you find other useful tutorials on YouTube, Adobe.com or elsewhere, share them on your website "about.html" page.