Milwaukee Flag
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ExhibitionIn this piece, I wanted to portray Milwaukee in a positive light and to represent it in such a way that the flag would be shown everywhere. I used Google Slides to digitally manipulate the flag in order to get my final result. The old Milwaukee flag as well as old flag submissions served as my inspiration for this piece.
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Old Milwaukee FlagThe Milwaukee flag has been called "The worst designed thing you've never noticed", therefore needing a change.
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I used Sharpies in order to get saturated colors as I sketched a few of my flag ideas. I started off using grey, blue, red, and green. I used the red and blue to represent politics, the grey to represent industry, and the green to represent immigration. Green represented immigration for me because it showed the movement across land. I sketched two designs using those colors with simple lines. However, these designs did not represent Milwaukee in the way that I wanted them to. I started to sketch again, liking blue, a grey/blue, and yellow as my color scheme. The blue representing politics, the grey/blue representing industry, and the yellow representing the immigration and people. Although I loved the colors, I still was not in love with the design. Next I played with the idea of bricks pulling from the research that I conducted before. I used grey/blue to represent industry and yellow to represent the people (two things that hold the city together). Next, I put a red brick on top of those to represent politics, and blue to represent Lake Michigan and the access that we have to fresh water. I liked the concept but still struggled with loving the design. The next design that I created was similar to a previous one, but evolved, using the year that Milwaukee was declared a city. I knew that I was close to finding my ideal design. The final sketch had a background of yellow and blue. Both colors playing with the ombré effect. I let the yellow represent the people and diversity and the blue represent politics as well as the fresh water that can be accessed in Milwaukee. The gear in the center representing industry along with the year that Milwaukee became a city.
Creating in Google SlidesI decided to use Google Slides because I knew that I would be able to access it at home because I do not own Photoshop. I then hovered over the "Insert" tab, then the shape tab, and finally I clicked on the rectangle. I then clicked and dragged to create a rectangle on the slide. I then copied the rectangle and pasted it in order to have two rectangles directly next to one another. I made them meet in the middle of the sheet. Next I changed the colors, making the left side yellow and the right side blue. I then inserted an image that I found on the web which was clip art (from www.clipartpanda.com). I did not like the color of the gear however so I clicked the image and then clicked image options on the top right of the screen. Then a tab opened on the right side of the screen and where "No recolor" appeared, I clicked. Color option tabs opened up and I pressed the darkest grey that I saw in order to add contrast. I then inserted a circle the same way that I did with the rectangle. I then changed the color of the circle to white and right clicked it. After right clicking, options opened up and I hovered over "Order" and then clicked "Send Backwards" in order to make it go behind the gear. Finally I clicked the "Insert" tab and inserted a text box in which I lined up in the center on the flag. Lastly, I wrote "1846" in the text box.
ReflectionLooking back over my work, I am proud of what I've done. I went into it knowing that I wanted something simple but still interesting. I asked myself how I'd do it and I got frustrated. I procrastinated and only had a few sketches before deciding on an idea. I was a little worried about that, but I didn't want to give up that idea. I stuck with it and used Google Slide to create it at home. I wanted to use Photoshop but eventually figured that it didn't matter what I used as long as I got it done. I could've had more planning sketches, I perhaps could've come up with something better. Overall, if I could go back in time I'd have more sketches and develop my ideas more. I am happy with the final result however and I like that fact that I did research and made my flag reflect the research that I did. I enjoyed the project, and it was an amazing experience.
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