Before this class, I feel like I knew very little about typography. I learned the basics from Lorena in Type I, so I knew a lot of the basic definitions and rules of type. I do not think I could have done the Fulbright Book with only the knowledge I gained from Type I. Laying out large amounts of text and organizing the schedule felt very forced at first. It did not feel nature to try and manage that large amount of text. But through the analogy of “Massaging the text” I really started to understand how to construct complex hierarchy situations.

I really loved being introduced to After Effects. Even though I do not think I will be an expert level with that program anytime soon I believe that getting introduced to that program has enabled me to think of type a little differently. I was forced to think of it as a moving object or something that would eventually have to be manipulated to convey a different system of hierarchy. I also loved going through that huge text document. At first I was annoyed with the task, because that text document is ridiculous but I enjoyed the problem solving that came with it. I had to group things together and decide what was important and what needed to be on the same page, because of the limited number of pages we had to work with.

I do not know what “it” is, but I think I may have discovered “it” a little bit? I feel like the way I massaged my text had a high level of sophistication and I think it is some of the best work I have done in the program thus far. Towards the end I think I really started to understand how text can be organized and how it can be manipulated to to do what you want it to do. I really fell in love with typography this semester. I think I finally realize just how difficult it is to create beautiful typographic layouts and so now I appreciate good typography much more than before. I feel like I always have a question about something and I usually do not keep my questions to myself. Sometimes your answers only lead to more questions, but I guess that is the way you like to teach and now that I have gotten used to it, it honestly helps me a lot more than just giving me the answer, because I am forced to think critically about certain topics.

I put in a lot of practice time for this class this semester, the beginning of the semester it was a little difficult to put in a lot of practice time. But towards the end of this semester I really had to prioritize things in my life and I pushed design to the front so I could really focus on both of my major design projects. I put a lot of hours into the Fulbright booklet, because it was very clear that I could not properly organize all of that information in just a few hours. I definitely feel like I got a good amount of feedback. I feel like I am always one of the louder voices during class crits. Mostly because I have a lot to say and also because a lot of my peers do not really say anything. I was at desk crits. I really do value desk crits and the personal advice I get.

My personal life is not really in order, but does it really ever get in order? Professionally and in my design education I feel like I am really pulling myself together. I was offered a design internship at a technology company this summer and still have my interview at Wyatt Branding for a graphic design internship. I deleted all of my social media this Summer so that I can focus on really building my portfolio and the summer courses I am taking.

Advanced Typography is probably my favorite class and also one of my most challenging classes. I really enjoyed this semester. No mater how difficult something was or how much I complained, I was in honesty, enjoying my work. I think I would like to have more class discussions about our work and I know sometimes it is hard to get a lot of the class to talk, but I find that we have the most interesting conversations when everyone has something interesting to say to has an interesting question.

This semester, in combination with Advanced Type and Graphic Design II, I have grown tremendously as a designer. The work that I am turning in for my final projects are no where near the level of sophistication of the projects I was turning in at the end of last semester. If I were to go back and get those assignments again, I feel like I would go about them in a completely different way. Which I think is good, because that means I am progressing as a designer so quickly that something I did six months ago feels outdated.