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The Lisbon Bible consists of sumptuous decorations that were created by a team of skilled artists. The artwork is extremely detailed. A combination of eye-catching floral and filigree borders and burnished gold script is repeated throughout. The artistry of the Lisbon Bible is truly remarkable.
 * Week 1**

Examine the two central words on pages 25-26 with the magnifying glass. What are the similarities and differences between these two words and what does this teach you about Arabic writing? These two words look very similar upon first glance. Both words begin with what looks like a cursive "q", and they both end with what looks like two "l"s. The second character of each word is different, and that is where they are different. Both words also have what looks like a "v" about the middle of the word. The text about these two pages tells us that the meaning of the two words together is "the seventh seventh". This would explain why the two words look so similar at first glance. The fact that there are the number if differences that there are tells me that Arabic writing is very different from our English writing.

All of the texts in the Turning the Pages website show some system of alignment. Why do you think alignment is important? How does the direction of the reading affect the alignment? Do you perceive stronger horizontal or vertical alignment in texts from different cultures? I believe alignment is important because variations in alignment give a sense of life and excitement. Every element in a design should conform to some kind of horizontal and vertical visual relationship with other elements in the design. Each culture will script text in a way that is visually pleasing to them, however, all cultures may not do it in the same way. For instance, we are used to reading left to right. The texts we looked at were to be read right to left. If you are not used to reading text in a certain way, it will be difficult for you to understand. I perceive texts from different cultures to be both horizontally and vertically aligned.

On page 10, how many different kinds of contrast can you find, and what are they? There are many different type of contrast on this page. First of all, there are many different colors such as red, green, gold, blue, and black. There are also many different kinds of lines. There are thick lines, thin lines, straight lines, curvy lines, etc. These different types of lines add contract to the page. The letters on the page are also written in many different sizes. What did you like, not like, in this week's lessons? In the British Library site? Why? I wouldn't say there was anything about this course that I disliked. I may not be completely comfortable with it just yet because all of this information is very new to me. This is my first time learning about Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity in texts. However, I am excited to be learning about it and how it applies to digital graphics. In the British Library site, I enjoyed viewing the beautiful artwork and the it helped me to better understand more about each of the design principles. It's always nice to put a visual image with each example.

As teachers, we can manipulate the brand of our classroom by changing student expectations, and create a desire for the experience of school. It is important ot teach them to love to learn as much as we do. Even though we may get responses from students that we may not want to hear, it is important to work on any aspects of our "brand" that are not effective with our students. The real nature of our brand exists in the minds of our students. I would be interested in hearing what students think of my class and what ideas they may have to make learning more fun for them. This could serve a pedagogical purpose if more teachers would take the initiative to get their students more involved in the learning process.
 * Week 2**

My personal mission statement is to teach my students to enjoy learning. I attempt to teach with a passion for my subject so that my students develop a desire to become life-long learners. This includes life skills as well as the academic curriculum.

My logo would be something along the lines of a student sitting in front of a computer screen with a big smile on their face because they are enjoying learning about technology and all of it's benefits. I would incorporate this logo into the letterhead on my emails and on any correspondence that I have with the students and their parents so that it is visable to everyone.

No, I do not believe that the concept of beauty is really just an averaging of all of the different ways a thing or person can look. I think everyone is beautiful in their own, unique way. I do believe, however, that perfect symmetry might make a person look more appealing because it will have the end result of making the person appear more aesthetically pleasing.

I printed out a picture of myself and measured it that way using a ruler. In this picture, the length of my head from the top of my head to my chin is 2.75 inches and the width of my head from side to side is 1.62 inches. That gives me a ratio of 1.69, which is slightly higher than the Golden number is 1.618. The length of my face from chin to eyes is 1.25 inches, which places them slightly below the middle of my face. When measuring side to side, my eyes lie perfectly in the middle of my face. The picture that I used to make these measurements is attached.

Creating contrast in a newsletter helps the reader keep all of the stories seperate from one another. This is done by using bold colors, large headings, and horizontal rules to seperate stories. Using consistent type faces and consistent headlines styles helps create repetition in a newsletter. For proper alignment, everything is justified to the left margin and headlines should be equally spaced between the rule and the top line of the story. To ensure proximity, ensure all headlines go with their stories.
 * Week 3**

There are certain "vitals" that should also be included in the assessment of any newsletter. They are: 1. Name or logo of the newsletter. 2. Name of sponsoring organization. 3. What the newsletter is about. 4. Page essentials (page numbers, consistent design elements, and repetitive elements to give the feel of a sense of unity). 5. Contact information (how to contact the editor, how to correct a mistake or ask for clarification, how to get more information about a story, and how to submit a story or story idea.

I would weight each of the design elements the same because I believe that they are equally important in crating a successful newsletter. Contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity are all essential to produce an effective newsletter. These design elements, together, should carry the majority of the weight when it comes to designing a newsletter.

The purpose of a newsletter is to communicate news of interest to a select group of the public. The first thing you should take into consideration when writing a newsletter is who your audience will be. Different information will be includd for different audiences. The purpose of the newsletter and knowing who your audience will be are both essential in designing a newsletter. I believe that purpose and audience are just as important to the creation of a newsletter as the design elements (CRAP) are.

Creating a newsletter takes a great amount of skill and time. When this project is graded, I believe that the length of time it will take to create the project and the amount of skill required should be taken into consideration. All students won't have access to the same programs and software that will make the outcome of this project as good as it could be. That should be taken into consideration as well. I would be more concerned with the actual layout of the newsletter, rather than the text within the newsletter.

There are several essential things you should avoid when creating a newsletter for a classroom project. Stories need to be neatly designed. If you can't tell where the stories are, or the pages are a jumble of random images and statements, then you have confused the reader. You should also avoid over-crowding the text, and always make sure the headlines are clear and proximate to the text they belong with, and the repetition is clear. It's also important to make sure that all pictures and material used to create the newsletter was obtained and used legally and nothing was plagerized. That pertains to the making of a newsletter for a class project and newsletters made for public distribution beyond the classroom.