I made my collage with items that I find dear to me and convey stories and information about me. Each item says something about my background even though

A collage telling my interests and stories about me. (Edward Bernays, 1923) (Gesta Hungarorum, by: Anonymous,~1200AD)

the meaning may not be obvious. I hope that my collage can be an interesting piece for viewers to grow their curiosity about me and possibly draw their own judgement and stories about me, before having them dispelled or reaffirmed from reading this blog post.

I purposely put each item in its position next to more relevant items to achieve harmony and follow an overall message of introducing myself through showing different aspects of myself. The top is politics related which shows my love of studying politics. It shows my background with the Romanian revolutionary flag from 1989 anti-Ceausescu protests which my family fled to the America to avoid. I replaced the normally hollow center with the mechanism from a watch to reflect that the overthrow of Ceausescu still impacts Romania and its people today. I also have a page from Gesta Hungarorum, that chronicles the Hungarian history by an anonymous writer which I am very proud of as I am related to the Arpad Dynasty. I am Hungarian from my fathers side, and Romanian from my mothers side of the family. While I was born In the USA. I put a book in the political upper section on the left side as my Hungarian side of the family was always more analytical while the Romanian side was more emotional. The book “Crystallizing Public Opinion” is very valuable for me as it not only opened my view on politics but gave me the inspiration to go back to college and pursue my Marketing bachelors.

The Lower Section I used a leather passport case as the background. This was a gift from my girlfriend and I especially use it in this collage not only because it has a more sentimental value but because I use to do leather work as a meditative hobby. It was very relaxing for me, which is why I chose to use it to be the background for another interest of mine which is world religions. The icon in the bottom left is a gift from my mother who would often go to different churches and try to bring back icons for my brother and I. The Buddha also reflects my explorations of other religions, although i do not have any symbols from other religions that I could have put into my collage.

Tying all these things together is my passport along with some Thai coins (which are oriented to the bottom of the collage as it is more sentimental). The Thai 10 baht coins are from my recent trip to Thailand with my girlfriend. The passports center orientation is to reflect my love of studying and experiencing cultures, politics, religion and business of different countries.

I also put the watch mechanism and the icon on separate corners of the collage so that they do not seem like they are 1 item at a quick glance. Their contrast to the colors around them keeps them meaning something quite separate, where as if they where near viewers might associate them easily because of their similar color. I followed John Lovett’s “Design Overview” in terms of size as I aimed to make the coins seem more “real” as they are pretty accurately proportional to an US passport.

This was my first time using Photoshop. I have used a free equivalent called “Gimp” before, and some of that know-how transferred over. I am still very new to image editing as I don’t even use filters for any social media. I had very many Geometric shapes that could be easily selected using the Marquee selection tool so that was by far the most useful tool. Despite the simplicity I still had to go back and re watch tutorials and do many quick google searches to find how to do things. Since I feel I am still not skilled enough I do not really enjoy nor dislike using Photoshop. I am neutral but probably will not delve into it much on my own.