Source of Inspiration: Arial Font

People say that for a painter a blank canvas has endless possibilities. Well, Arial font is my blank canvas. When I'm creating graphics either for The Rocket, this blog, or for anything else, Arial is one of my favorite fonts to use, second only to BaseOne. I like Arial because of how plain it is. It is extremely simple and thus, extremely readable. And because it is so simple and so readable you can pretty much do whatever you want to it and people can still read it. You can add what ever effects, make it whatever color, make it bold, italic, bold AND italic, it doesn't matter. People will still be able to read it, This kind of creative flexibility is why I almost always use Arial in graphics.

Here it is colored red and with a stroke. Still readable.

Here it is colored green with an inner shadow. Still readable.

Here it is colored blue, beveled and embossed, with an outer glow and a drop shadow. STILL READABLE.







Long story short, you can pretty much do whatever you want to Arial font and you will still be able to read it. Which is why I love it.

The Pirates' rotation troubles and how to fix them

The Pirates has had some, let's say, less-than-staler starting pitching to begin 2016. Gerrit Cole (1-2, 2.70 ERA) and Francisco Liriano (1-1, 4.11 ERA) should be fine, but Jon Niese (3-0, 4.24 ERA), Jeff Locke (0-2, 7.24 ERA) and Juan Nicasio (2-1, 4.80 ERA) all might end up being big question marks.

Niese's job is probably the safest out of the three, as he seems to be the most consistent and have the most upside. Locke has always been inconsistent and somewhat ineffective at times and I think he might be gone by season's end. Nicasio will probably end up in the bullpen, as he has trouble sustaining success throughout his starts.

Reinforcements are on the way for the rotation in terms of top prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon, but neither of them are expected to be promoted to the majors until mid-summer. So until Glasnow and Taillon make it to Pittsburgh, what are the Pirates to do?

I think the first step should be moving Nicasio to the pen and moving Ryan Vogelsong into the rotation. Nicasio will be more valuable than Vogelsong in the bullpen and Vogelsong put up good numbers as a starter last year with the Giants.

From there I think it just turns into a waiting game. They're better off just waiting for Glasnow and Taillon than try to make a trade or sign some guy. Like I said, Niese will probably be fine and Locke isn't the worst  pitcher in the world. So barring an injury I think the Pirates need to just put up with the starting pitching they have right now and hope that Glasnow and Taillon will be here soon.

Youth movement responsible for Penguins inspired play

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Rangers 6-3 today to advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs. The Penguins really got hot at the end of the season and turned their year around, storming into the playoffs on an impressive hot streak.

What is responsible for this change? Youth. The Penguins have brought up a bunch of young, talented players this year that have contributed a lot in the bottom lineup, as opposed to years past when every depth player on the Pens' roster was 30-something.

Conor Sheary (23), Bryan Rust (23), Tom Kuhnhackl (24), Olli Maatta (21), Brian Dumoulin (24) and Matt Murray (21) all played huge parts in this series win over the Rangers and look to be consistent contributors for years to come.

With actually competent bottom-six forwards and three solid defense lines the Penguins are a scary team in this year's playoffs and the young guys have played a huge part in that.

Source on Inspiration: Typography Design

One thing I really enjoy, design-wise, is when type is used to create a design element. A lot of company logos use certain letters or typography in such ways that they create a part of their logo or just some subtle message. I'm going to go through a few of my favorite typography design examples and try to explain why I like them so much.

I'm going to start with Tostitos's logo. You probably already know this, but the last two T's in the word Tostitos are supposed to be people dipping chips into a bowl that is the dot one the I. I like this because it is so subtle that most people probably don't see it right away, but at the same time it's so genius because it shows how Tostitos wants people to use their products.

 A lot of people probably already know this one too, but the white space between the E and the X in the FedEx logo creates an arrow. This one is extremely subtle, but still pretty cool. It just shows that FedEx moves stuff from one place to another using the white space between letters.

Hilary Clinton's campaign logo uses something similar, albeit not at all subtly. Here I believe that it's supposed to represent that Hilary is going to move the country forward. I'll leave my own political views out of this post, but I personal believe that Hilary has the best logo out of all the candidates.

Finally, the absolute best one is Amazon's logo. This is one that I would expect not a lot of people have noticed. The arrow under the word amazon starts at the A and ends at the Z, and Amazon likes to say that they ship everything "form A to Z." It's so stinking subtle and clever you probably never even noticed it, but it's amazing.

In conclusion, I get way too excited over clever uses of typography and am prone to geeking out whenever someone uses type to in new and creative ways.

Source of Inspiration: PSAC Blue

"PSAC Blue" is the official color of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Its RGB values are R = 0, G = 73, B = 144. This is another color that I often use when designing things for The Rocket. Slippery Rock is a member of the PSAC and so I often use this color when talking about SRU in respect to the other PSAC schools. I like this color because I think it's a really good looking shade of blue. I also think it works very well as a background with white text or visa versa.

This is the PSAC logo and you can see the PSAC blue color is used throughout.

This is a graphic I made this week that was posted to The Rocket's Twitter. This particular athlete won a weekly award from the PSAC and so I used the PSAC blue color when talking about that award. I then used pantone 342 (Slippery Rock green) when talking about her individually.






I also use PSAC blue throughout the print editions of the newspaper, mainly when talking about things that happen in the conference or conference standings.

Source of Inspiration: Pantone 342

Pantone 342, aka "Slippery Rock Green". Much like BaseOne font, Pantone 342 is something that I use extensively while working for The Rocket. Pantone 342 is the official color of Slippery Rock University and is used almost anytime anything regarding the university is made. I actually think that Pantone 342 is the color I use most often in my designs. I completely would never have used it if I did not come to SRU and I probably would never even have explore the pantone series of color swatches if not for Pantone 342. The pantone series are basically the only colors I use anymore.

Here are some examples of my use of Pantone 342.

Source of inspiration: BaseOne font

BaseOne if a font that I found while working in my job as Assistant Sports Editor for The Rocket. Since finding this font I have used it many times for The Rocket, both for publication design and for web-based graphics. I use BaseOne mainly as a headline or title font and try to not have too much text at once in BaseOne. I think it works well as a title font because it stands out. This font is sans-serif and exclusively capital letters so it is easy to read when used as a title or headline and BaseOne very much just looks like a sports font. I use this font in a variety of colors and on a variety of backgrounds, even placed on photographs.

This is a graphic I made that was posted to The Rocket's Twitter account. Here I use BaseOne as a title and to show scores. I have the text white with a black stroke on  green background and as you can see it is easily readable.








This is another graphic that was posted on Twitter. This time I used BaseOne in three different colors and in three different ways on a photo background. First I used it again as a title font in blue with a white stoke to indicate what the information on this graphic is. Then I use it more as a body font for the list, this time a white color with a black stroke to keep it readable against the photo. Finally, I have the words "Slippery Rock" in green with a white stroke to make it stand out and catch the viewers'  eyes.


Examples of how I use BaseOne in p the print publication can be seen every week on page C-2 of every copy of The Rocket. On that page there is a list of team standings for every sports where I use BaseOne again as the title of the list and as a title for each sport.

My thoughts on the Pirates' starting line-ups

A lot of people have been talking about the Pirates' starting line-ups this week. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

VS RHP

John Jaso - 1B
Andrew McCutchen - CF
Starling Marte - LF
Jung-Ho Kang - 3B
Josh Harrison - 2B
Gregory Polanco - RF
Francisco Cervelli - C
Jordy Mercer - SS
Pitcher

This is the line-up that Clint Hurdle has been going with during Spring Training and I think it's what he'll do for the regular season as well. Batting McCutchen second means he won't bat with two outs and nobody on as much as before and Marte's speed means that if Cutch or Jaso manage to get on opponents most likely won't be able to double him off. Kang is the best power threat on the team and Harrison and Polanco have shown the ability to drive in runs in clutch situations.

VS LHP

Josh Harrison - 2B
Andrew McCutchen - CF
Starling Marte - LF
Jung-Ho Kang - 3B
Francisco Cervelli - C
David Freese - 1B
Michael Morse - RF
Jordy Mercer - SS
Pitcher

I think Freese will push Morse out of the first base platoon, freeing him up to platoon with Polanco in right. Morse is a poor defender, but Hurdle is not stranger to defensive subs and Morse's bat vs lefties well makes up for the difference.