Junior Semester 2 Reflection

What did I do this semester?

Magazine

Behance

What was the project?

This project was a long process that consisted of setting up an interview with a local graphic designer, and then creating a magazine spread to showcase their work and allow the reader to learn about the artist.

How long did it take?

This took me a very long time. It actually started in mid-December but wasn't completed until early March. This is largely due to technology issues.

What were some challenges that I faced?

A little bit into January, my entire project was deleted from our server, which is the only place I ever saved my work. I had already restarted the project once because I disliked my original. It took me another month to actually build up the motivation to finish the project

What did I learn along the way?

I learned to make copies of my work and to not trust the district's servers. I now save my projects on a flash drive as well as the cloud, and I don't even bother with the server anymore.

What was some feedback I was given?

Once I had revamped the entire look of the project, my peers were very impressed. The original was very busy and not very cohesive.

What did I change?

The whole thing was changed. The original was just kind of slapped together with no thought, while the second version was designed to fit with my artist's work

My overall opinion on the design process and final outcome.

I am so proud of this. It honestly isn't my best work, but I'm proud that I even finished it. My original was horrible, and I'm so happy that I redesigned it, even if I had to do it twice because of server issues.

Prom Branding

Behance

What was the project?

This was a small branding project for our schools 2018 prom. It includes posters and tickets.

How long did it take?

This took me about a month. It was started in early February, and finished in early March.

What were some challenges that I faced?

I had some issues with the overall "brand" of our prom. Our Junior Committee, who was organizing Prom, kept changing the name. The theme was supposedly "not Gatsby-themed," though their inspiration all came from Gatsby. 

What did I learn along the way?

I learned to do my best with what clients provide. Clients won't always be cooperative, and this was a great learning experience.

What was some feedback I was given?

My peers really liked my phonograph with the pearls draped over it. It gave it a personal touch, as a lot of my peers' posters were just dark backgrounds with text over it.

What did I change?

I messed around with the orientation (landscape or portrait?). I had trouble figuring out where I wanted the text in relation to the graphic, so that took a little bit of messing around.

My overall opinion on the design process and final outcome.

This wasn't really my best project. It was honestly rushed, and it was difficult to make something original since our client's needs were so vague.

Tarot Branding

Behance

What was the project?

This was a branding project where we picked a service and created a fictional company based on that.

How long did it take?

This was started in late March and finished in late May, so this took about a month.

What were some challenges that I faced?

I had a hard time with my color scheme. It was very limited palette, so it was a fun challenge to figure out what to do with it.

What did I learn along the way?

I learned to have patience. I originally thought this project was going to be much shorter than it was, so I was frustrated when more and more parts kept being added on.

What was some feedback I was given?

People really liked my logo. I didn't really get much specific feedback other than they liked it, but I guess that's not really a terrible problem to have. It was just kind of hard to figure out ways to improve with no negative feedback.

What did I change?

I changed my color scheme of my logo before I actually began the branding package. The original colors didn't really look great together, and they were kind of dull and muddy.

My overall opinion on the design process and final outcome.

I really love the final outcome of this project. When this project was introduced I immediately knew I wanted to make a tarot company. I love tarot, and creating a little company for it was really fun. I also really love all of my branding, because I feel like its cohesive and matches with itself.

KC Metro College Expo

No Behance. So small that it didn't feel necessary

What was the project?

This was a short side-project to create a new logo for a local convention for high school students to explore their college options. 

How long did it take?

This took about a week. I only really did one sketch and kind of slapped it together.

What were some challenges that I faced?

I had problems making the logo recognizable as a graduation cap with a check mark. Once I told people what it was they could see it, but I wanted people to get it right away.

What did I learn along the way?

I learned to balance to projects at once. This project was given when we were working on the branding project, so I had to put that aside for little bits at a time to work on this.

What was some feedback I was given?

Mine was one of five chosen to be sent to the company. I was told that it was visually different from my peers' logos, which helped it stand out and be chosen.

What did I change?

I originally had a whole different font, and there was a tassel on the cap. The font was kind of awkward looking though, so I found a more plain, "safe" font. The tassel kind of awkward, because I couldn't put it at a 45 degree angle or it would blend with the check.

My overall opinion on the design process and final outcome.

This was so lazy, but I actually kind of like this logo. I'm not sure if the company actually chose my logo, but I'm happy it was in the top five. I also like that mine was unique and stood out from others.

How did I use my time in class?

How have I used my time?

I was much more on-task for the majority of the semester. But honestly in the beginning, after my magazine was deleted, I actually spent a lot of time just sitting because my motivation was so low. I was also extremely depressed at this time because of the server issues and thoughts going through my mind that even I can't really explain where they came from or why. Once I actually went to therapy, got a better anti-depressant prescribed, got my motivation back and finished my magazine I was on roll. I was so happy that I finished my magazine that I worked diligently on my last few projects. Admittedly I was really slacking off towards the end because summer was coming, and I had a lot of

down time due to finishing assignments so quickly (I had also been prescribed adderall to help keep me awake and alert, so my energy levels were way up too).

How did I stay productive when I finished early?

I usually worked on assignments for other classes. I usually hate working on schoolwork at home unless it's graphic design, so I would do a lot of math or history here and work on graphic design at home. When I had the KC Metro logo project I would work on that in my free time.

What did I do outside of class to enhance my graphic design work?

I actually bought the Adobe Suite this semester so I could work on stuff at home whenever I wanted. If I thought of something once I got home, instead of hoping I would remember I could apply my thoughts to my work right away, which I feel really helped some of my projects along.

What are my areas of strength as a graphic designer?

I think my work is pretty varied style-wise. There are certain elements that make my work recognizable, such as my work often being line-less and clean, but I don't constantly use the same colors or design elements in my work.

How do I maximize my strengths?

I have a huge range of inspiration from other artists. I really love cute pastel colors as well as creepy macabre aesthetics. This is what helps my work stay so varied.

What do I need to improve on?

I need to learn to deal with obstacles better. The fact that it took me an entire month to actually start my magazine again upsets me. Especially when it only actually took me a week to re-do.

What can I do to improve?

I can't really improve without experience with obstacles such as these. I'll just try to work on graphic design a lot over the summer. I'm not really hoping to encounter problems as major as losing an entire project, but if I do I'll try to make a plan to fix the problem and avoid the problem in the future.

Summary

What did I love most about this semester?

I loved that I overcame my technology and mental issues. I'm so happy that I finished that magazine project, and allowed myself to open up an seek help to make myself happy again.

What would I do differently?

I would probably find more graphic design work to do rather than do work for other classes. I should have just gotten over myself and done my other classwork at home, and used down time to work on personal projects.

Biggest thing I learned?

It's okay to seek help. When my magazine was deleted, I tried to brush it off as nothing and hold in my emotions. Eventually they just built up and got worse to the point where I was crying and failing projects for other classes. When I talked to my teacher about it I was given a deadline to turn the magazine in by the end of the year and take my time. I didn't realize that a solution could be so simple, and that I don't need to worry about everything by myself.

Goal for next semester?

I want to do a whole lot of graphic design work next year. I want to make my portfolio amazing with a variety work from class, clients, and my own personal projects. Next year is my Senior year, so I want to make it really great. 

Final Thoughts?

This semester was a huge learning process. I'm actually so happy that it happened the way it did, because if I didn't seek emotional help and finish my magazine, I don't think I would have had the motivation to work so diligently on my last few projects.

Beginning Graphic Design in Sophomore Year

Back into Graphic Design

For the past couple of weeks in Graphic Design we have been closely following tutorials in photoshop to learn the different tools and features.

In this image I removed the tag from the
 coat to make the image appear more professional.

Skills

We mainly used things like content aware fill, spot healing, and clone stamp to seamlessly take out different things from photos We did about ten different assignments  with these tools and to show them all would make my post cluttered, so I've only shown one example.

This one took a while; there was a lot to
 be done, and it needed to be done correctly.

Collage

The biggest project we did by far was the collage, where we took three images of a girl and made a senior photo-type collage of her. We had to do things like remove backgrounds, restore broken parts, resize awkward proportions, and even join two backgrounds together.

I chose a more nature oriented theme for my challenge.

Challenge

Our last assignment was a "challenge". We were given an image of a model, and were told to use what we learned in the videos to create a unique edit of the model. We could use any pictures we wanted, and were only limited by our imaginations.

Valuable information

A lot of what I learned from the video tutorials felt important, but what I found to be the most helpful was learning how to use layer masks. I knew about layer masks but I never really learned how to use them and how useful they could be. You can use them to show certain parts of a layer and hide other parts, so as you can imagine, it was very nice to finally get to use layer masks.

What would I do differently?

If I had the option to do all of this again, I would have gone back and watched more closely in the videos. Most of the time I was working with Photoshop and the video open side-by-side, so I was working along with the video. Maybe if I had watched the video first, and then went to work and referred back to the video when I needed help then I would have learned more, but that's just me.

What would I leave unchanged?

I really liked how the tutorials were set up, so there's a lot I would leave the same. Maybe have more of a choice for what we got to edit, then these tutorials would be more interesting.

Overall these tutorials were very useful, and if you are planning on going into a career involving photoshop then these skills could stick with you forever. Nothing felt like it didn't make sense or wasn't necessary.

Reflection Over e9

This blog post is dedicated to reflecting over what has happened over the past first year of my time in e-Comm. It will be long but it's good to reflect over what has happened, especially when you learn as much as I have in only a year of high school.

What have I learned?

Over the past year I learned many things about how to create digital media, such as videos, websites, animations, and graphics.In regards to animation, I learned first, how to use Photoshop and how to set it up for animation, and then I learned different techniques of animation. In video, I learned how to take different shots properly, and then edit those shots to make a video that looks nice and makes sense. We did web throughout all four quarters, and in web I learned how to use Dreamweaver to make html and CSS codes to make a website that has a good color scheme and doesn't look like a mess of poor coding. In graphic design, I learned more about color theory and how different elements of design work together to make something that looks nice.

How did I learn this?

I learned by listening to my teachers when they were giving demos and writing notes. I used my notes to help me along when I eventually got to make my own project. When I forgot how to do something, I could just look at my notes to help me figure out how to do something.

Why is it important?

This is important because these skills will help me through my next three years of high school and eventually help my in a computer career if I should choose one. These skills are also nice to have if you just feel like creating something, like I really like to use Photoshop to make different things like phone backgrounds and gifs.

What are my strengths and weaknesses?

I feel like my strengths lie in using Photoshop, whether it be for animation or graphic design. Photoshop was just made really easy to use, unlike Illustrator , which I feel like it was almost made to work against you, I'm so bad at it. I feel like I do an alright job in web design stuff, and video was never really my favorite thing.

What am I doing with what I have learned?

Most of what I do with these skills involves making edits and gifs in photoshop. I like to do this for things like different video games and T.V. shows and post them on websites like Tumblr and Twitter, or Facebook if I feel like showing my stuff to my family. (I'm not on Facebook, like at all.)

What would I change?

I would kind of like to change how we're taught. Sometimes teachers will sit there and demo for the entire hour and have us take notes, and it's just about as boring as watching paint dry. I appreciate being able to take notes, but maybe we could work WHILE the teacher demos, and take notes as we go, so maybe we have something more interesting to do? It's hard to figure things out because not everyone learns the same, but these are just my opinions.

In conclusion,  I really enjoyed my first year in e-Comm. My favorite part of e-Comm has to be working with Photoshop, since it's so easy to use and you can do so much with it. I feel like I've learned a lot, and that these skills will be useful in the years to come.

My Website

For our final in e9 for first semester, we created a website as a sort of portfolio for our projects! We worked in Dreamweaver with HTML and CSS to create our website. While the website isn't live, it was still fun to make and really interesting to see.

We put our elevator pitch and bio on the first page. The page needed to be readable, so I had to change some colors around to do so.

On the second page we put one of our favorite projects from each strand to show what we do. Then we had to write a little bit about our post. I haven't been in Graphic Design yet, but I'll put something in there eventually!

MBTI Personality Test

In class we were told to take the Myer Briggs personality test. The result I got was INTJ.

How I feel about the results

I feel like this represents me pretty well. I'm pretty introverted, but not to the point where I can't go outside. I tend to think about the true reason for something happening. I really like to think about things, rather than depend on feelings, and I tend to judge situations pretty well. This helps me understand a little better why I act the way I do, since I was a little confused before.

How does this affect me?

This helps show how I act in large groups of people. I tend to dislike being a leader, but I really do think about what's going on. I might give suggestions to the leader, but I won't do the leading myself. People have thought I don't do much because I'm so quiet, but really I'm thinking, and judging situations all the time.

What have I learned?

There are many different types of one personality. There isn't just a black and white introvert or extrovert. An extrovert can still be quiet, but enjoy being around people. An introvert can be loud, but like less crowded settings. Personality is a rainbow.

The 6-Shot System

What is it?

The 6-Shot System is a way of deciding what to take a shot of when creating a video. Having these shots can really help viewers know what is happening in a video, and what your subject is doing. Without these, the video might be somewhat vague, and will be lacking in story.

Types of shots used

The 6 different shots you want you use are: close up of the hands, close up of the face, a medium shot, a wide shot, an over the shoulder shot, and an extra wide.They do not need to be shown in this order. Each of these will be explained below with a picture to provide and example.

Close up of the hands

A close up of the hands is used to show detail in what your subject is working on. What tools are they using? How do they use them? These questions are typically answered with a close up of the hands.

Medium shot

A medium shot can be used to show the subject, and their project. While other shots are good for just showing the subject, or just their work, this one is good for bringing everything together in an understandable way. This shot should be taken from the hips up.

Wide shot 

Wide shots are used to show the subject from head to toe. They show who the subject is, and a little bit of what they're working on.

Over the shoulder 

And over the shoulder shot is not intended to really show how the subject looks, but the subject's head and shoulder should frame the photo, as shown above. This can be used to see what they're working on with a view over their shoulder as if you were standing right behind them.

Extreme wide shot 

An extreme wide shot should give a view of the subjects working environment! The subject can still be seen, but they're not the main part of this shot. Everything around them is the main part! Sometimes you can see other people working in this shot as well.

Close up of the face 

A close up of the face is used to show the emotion of your subject. How do they feel about what they'r working on? What are their thoughts. In this picture, my subject looked like she was thinking, but not wracking her brain trying to figure something out.

Now what?

Now that you know the 6 different shots typically used in making videos, it could be easy to make a video of your own now. Be creative! Keep in mind that you don't have to use these in any particular order.

"They Loved your GPA, then they saw your Tweets": A Summary of an Article by Natasha Singer

A summary

This article had very good information about how colleges handle their students activities online. Most students dislike the idea of having their school looking at their Twitter or Facebook, but this article made some very good points.

Why are schools doing this?

Many schools across the nation are going through their students personal Facebooks, Twitters, and other forms of social media looking for bad content. Schools that do this would rather keep their good reputation by not having rude kids on the internet as a part of their school.

As of now, only about 31 percent of schools are doing this, and about 30 percent who do said they found bad content on their student's personal accounts.

Professors and Deans alike believe that a student's posts online really show who they are, and if they have been posting things they'd rather not have their professors see, then maybe they shouldn't be in their school.

Why should you have anything to hide?

Students online already shouldn't be posting rude comments about their peers, yet they do. They feel like the internet is a sort of mask or shield that can hide them from the consequences of their actions.

If a student isn't let into a prestigious school because they talked trash about another student on their Facebook, then good for them. Punishment for your wrongdoings.

If a student gets into a college because they know how to properly use social media, then good for them too. You have self control over what you post.

My thoughts

I believe that the schools who are doing this are doing the right thing. Students should be held responsible for their actions, and not just let in because they had a good GPA. After all, many people care a lot more about how you treat others rather than how smart you happen to be.

I was surprised when I heard that some high schools are teaching students to clean their profiles before applying to a college. That's like teaching them to put on a whole new personality so that others will like them. Like I said earlier, students already shouldn't have much to hide.

Something that had me scratching my head was that some students believe it's unfair for others to be let into a school because of their actions online. What makes it unfair? They're not really being rewarded, they're just let in because they show self control. Students who aren't accepted are turned away because professors know that these students could cause trouble, despite their possibly good GPA.

A few last words

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you don't already, watch what you post online. You shouldn't have to make a whole separate Facebook to say that someone's ugly or that you just don't like them. If you don't want schools looking at it, then why are you posting it online for the world to see anyway? You are what you post, and schools nowadays recognize this.