2016 Fall End Term Assessment
When it comes to practice hours, I would say 20 hours per week would be kind of excessive. This is of course taking into account the fact that as students we have other classes that also require attention. Not to mention the fact that we also must meet all of our needs such as eating and sleeping in order to perform as well as we want. However, I think only 5 hours per week is too low to create any kind of sophisticated work. Working for only an hour per day is less than a class period for graphic design 1 or image methodology. In short, you’re producing very little work per week. I like to situate myself somewhere in the middle at 15 hours per week. Working 3 hours per day allows me to focus on my work for an extended period of time and still be able to complete other assignment, eat, and sleep. In terms of producing sophisticated work in those hours, I feel that I am still learning, but am on the pathway to creating work that is sophisticated.
In my mind, sophisticated work is work that contains and takes a lot of conscious thinking in the way that the design is constructed. There should be logical reasons for each design decision and the designer should be able to walk us through the thoughts behind those decisions. Taking into account my definition of sophisticated work, I think that I am still learning and that my work is becoming closer to being sophisticated with each project. Especially in my last map, the lipstick decision map, I feel that I was starting to think more and give reasons to my design decisions. I chose colors that corresponded with night and day, I made icons to showcase each lipstick color to show the viewer what the color of the lipstick looked like, and I tried to make my text more varied in terms of style by putting some type into italics and making type smaller.
I remember mostly the feedback I got on my decision map. I was told to vary my type by changing the size of certain phrases or even choosing a secondary font for parts of my map. In the end I decided to play with the size of my fonts and put some words or phrases into italics to differentiate them from the rest of the text. I was told also change up the colors on my map and to give the colors meaning. When I was told this my map was monotone so it was a huge change to add multiple colors to my map. I decided to choose colors that were symbols for night and day, I put my questions into red, and I added a light pink background instead of leaving it white. Orientation and the size of my map were areas where I was given some feedback also. I changed my orientation to portrait and changed the size of my map to the standard poster size.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the hardest, I would say a 7. On all three maps the most difficult aspect was figuring out how to layout all of the graphics, text and information so that it was comprehensible and pleasing to the eye. The easiest part was choosing colors that went well with each other. The most enjoyable part of the process was doing all the fine tuning and making the symbols for each map, especially the last one.
Outside of class I helped work on the design of the semester issue of the online literary magazine I am a designer for. I helped come up with the layout with Logan and our president. In terms of creative work I’ve taken up creative writing again due to taking the creative writing class here at St Eds. That class gives me a nice break from design being my main creative outlet.
My life outside of school did not really impact my design work. Nothing really drastic happened to me that would impact my work. If anything maybe the stress from my other classes but not even really that effects me.
The most ideal classroom environment to me is a place where I can work on/ experiment with different design elements. My ideal classroom would feel comfortable and open, where helpful feedback is given. What it means to be part of a class is to be an active participant that gives and receives honest feedback that will help others improve on their projects and their abilities as graphic designers. This semester I tried being a bit more open to receiving criticism or feedback and also giving it. I mainly gave feedback with my peers when they asked for my opinion, rather than during the critiquing process. Personally I feel better giving people feedback when its one on one so that I can explain what I mean better.