"The Spice Girls" Design Rationale

When we were assigned this project, I wanted to create a powerpoint that was exciting, fun and unexpected. I began to create powerpoints with artists such as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, but soon realized that they were too popular and other students were doing them as well. I knew the use of the Spice Girls would be original, and when I began to create this powerpoint I was hoping to achieve a colorful, fun powerpoint that was not only interesting but paired the high intensity beat with the slides to create a really unexpected presentation.

One of the major decisions I made when creating this powerpoint was deciding which artist to use. Because each student was given the artistic freedom to choose an artist or band of their choice, I overlooked the Spice Girls until one day my roommate was discussing how they were still on her iPod and I remembered how much fun their music was. Other decisions I made were how to bring back a group with the right backgrounds and facts, because they are a somewhat '90's outdated group. Working with different colors was also a big decision, because I could not decide if I wanted one constant background on all slides or not. Eventually, I made each slide their own, just like how each Spice Girl has her own personality.

There were quite a few challenges to this presentation. Because I constantly use powerpoint, I figured creating a powerpoint would be an easy feat; however, incorporating music and having the slides move on their own got quite frustrating. My main goal was to have the music and slides work together, having each bullet or picture appear with the beat of the song. Although it took a while, I eventually got the music and the slides to cooperate with one another and work together. Another challenge I had was having the slides move on their own. I am used to having them move by clicking them on the computer, so allowing them to move at the right times was confusing. I wanted to have each piece of information move quickly enough to finish the powerpoint on time, but I also wanted there to be enough time on screen so people can view and understand the information.

When I encountered the challenges above, I was able to overcome them simply by being patient and looking for the correct button on the computer, or use trial and error. To fix the issues with the slides corresponding with the music, I simply had to use trial and error and see which timings fit within the song. When I couldn't figure out how to allow the words to appear on their own, I had to find the application that said "appear after previous" or fix the delay time. It was not hard, but I played through the powerpoint at least 50 times to make sure it was right!

I am most pround of the music, and some of the timings during the project. My main goal was to line the pictures up with the song beats, and in slides 1, 4 and 5 I really think I did that well. Because I used familiar songs by the Spice Girls, people can antcipate the change of a slide or new information because of the beats in the music. I also liked that they were a group extremely famous growing up, so everyone knew the band when it was placed up on the screen in class.

If I had more time, I would have changed little details about the powerpoint. I probably would have changed the backgrounds in all slides, expecially in the first slide, and added more pictures to the last slide. I also would have made the bullets fade more, to make the effect greater. Overall, however, I was happy with the results.

Spice Girls F I N A L

View more presentations from Meg.

Font Poem Animation Design Rationale

The font poem animation was somewhat difficult, but overall a very exciting computer skill to learn. In this design, I was hoping to achieve fluid movement with the appearance of each word. I tried to have each word appear on its own to demonstrate that every word in the poem was important. I made it so some appear faster than others to make it appear like how you'd read this poem. Some words such as "trade winds" appear faster that ones like "lines. Sail" because trade winds is in one sentence, and spoken faster. Lines and sail are the beginning and end of a sentence, so there is more of a break in between them. With the final collage at the end, I was hoping to create a beachy scene that demonstrates all the things people think of when they see "sail, bow, cast away" because that is what I imagined when I read the poem, and why the poem's words create a boat.


Some decisions I made in this project were the appearance of words, and the times they appeared on the page. "Away, Explore, Dream, Discover" are words that appear slowly because I wanted them to stand out more. "Explore dream discover" were three wrods that I wanted to be the most visual in the poem, so I had them slowly appear. I also chose to use flip flops, colored sunglasses and a child's sailboat as pictures in my collage because they remind me of adolescent years, which is what this poem reminded me of, also. Marc Twain's poem to "catch the trade winds in your sails" made me think of being a child, where anything is possible. This is why I playfully made some words slowly enter the page, and ended with some childhood pictures of summer.

Things I found challenging in this project were integrating the collage into the final frame and deciding which words should appear, when. It took me a while to figure out that the eye icon next to each layer should be switched on only if that layer should be included in a frame. After that, I figured out how to get the collage into the last layer, and not include it anywhere else.

I solved certain problems by simple trial and error. I tried many words appearing together, which I did not like, and certain words fading in and out, which I also did not like. It took multiple tries before I decided that only certain words should be fading into the frame because they stand out.

I am most proud of my design as a whole. I really do like the fact that my poem slowly creates the image of a boat, and then the final frame is all nautical themed items from a childhood summer. I am proud of the fact that my project has fluid movement, and that it all has a common theme of summertime and nautical.

If I had more time, I would have tried to either add more images to the collage, or attempt to make the collage the background of the font poem. Although I like my current background, it would involve much trial and error with colors and spacing to get the collage into the background, since multiple colors are used.