Industree & End Term Assessment

INDUSTREE

From mid semester to now, I have grown into being a more technologically-adept artist. As a photographer who had no prior experience with InDesign, I can confidently say I am semi-proficient in both InDesign and Photoshop. Beyond that, internally, I have noticed that I am now a more confident artist not only in my work but also in myself. The process in making this final book demonstrated to me that I am capable of a lot more artistically than I previously thought. Plus, I have gained a skill that I can use in future artistic endeavors.

The second half of the semester would not have been possible without the increased practice time I devoted to understanding the book making process. In addition to the class time we spent learning/troubleshooting, the making of my book involved a lot of trial and error, solved by searching Photoshop and InDesign forums. However, the majority of my practice time was spent in both printing labs working on multiple versions of layouts, printing prototypes on both laser and inkjet printers, and finally, assembling the final book with the saddle stitcher and guillotine. The final book proved the most challenging and time consuming by far; it took three attempts alone to print the pages due to the complex multi-step printing process. Regardless of my difficulties, I believe that all of the problems made me appreciate the final product even more–the time and energy I put into my final product resulted in a book I am proud of.

I took my peers’ critiques on my layouts and prototypes very seriously. For example, Rowan shared with me that all of my images should have a cool temperature to not only maintain consistency but also to balance out the heavy amounts of saturated greens in images. I agreed, altered my images, and, as a result, the changes really added to the book’s overall aesthetic. In addition, Hayley suggested I swap out two of my images that she believed detracted from my theme: the juxtaposition of natural versus industrial on South Congress. Her comment gave me reason to go out a shoot a final round of images–a lot of which turned out really well and ended up in the final book. Both of their critiques really helped me produce a more aesthetically-pleasing, stronger content-filled book. In turn, my comments on their books (both format related) proved beneficial in their final products, according to them.

I can confidently say that the level of love in my work substantially increased from mid-semester to now. Although I worried about the level of work and skill required to complete this project at first, the amount of pride and appreciation I have for my book is greater than from what I produced at the beginning of the semester. In truth, the extra practice time and trial and error endured in making this book made me love my final product even more. The process was in no way easy; creating this book required a lot of hard work, but I believe it was worth it. I agree with what Tuan says–it’s just as much about the journey as it is about the end.

I would say that my external “expert” experiences are unfortunately less than what they were the first half of the semester. This is not out of lack of interest, but rather lack of time. Mid-semester to now challenged me more academically than I had anticipated. I would have liked to go to more art shows, visit more museums, and shoot more images in my free time. I did, however, maintain my Pinterest inspiration boards, which is where the idea of my book came from. Collages and photos off Pinterest were very valuable inspiration in creating my own work for the book as well.

In conclusion, based off my experiences, I would give myself a “97,” retracting points for my limited external “expert” experiences this half of the semester. I think I demonstrated that I earned the rest of the points through my internal changes, increased amount of practice time, reaction to feedback, and love of work.

Side Note: For some reason, the PDF did not save as a spread. The order is correct, but it reads better when the images are side by side.