assessment

 I honestly don’t really feel overly self-critical about myself. I certainly take others’ criticisms of my work with a grain of salt and I work to improve my projects, but I don’t let myself get hung up on the negative stuff or the things I don’t like about a project. If I don’t like something, I ask other people what they think. I try to figure out what the most disliked parts are, and then I go fix it. Or I scrap the whole thing (rather, save it as a draft and start with a fresh canvas for a new approach). Perhaps though, if my OCD and perfectionist tendencies could be seen as faults, it would be because I tend to spend longer on certain parts of a project to get it to a point that I’m satisfied with it. Overall, though, I see those as good things that make me strive to do good work that I’m happy with and that I know I’ve spent effort on, and I still make sure that I have projects done by their due dates.

For my expert hours at the beginning of the semester, I said I was around 4500 and wanted to gain around 100 more by mid-semester. I certainly spent many hours learning new methods in After Effects (after spending hours doing something the long way). Additionally, I used several hours to iterate the graphics that I created for the animation in Illustrator before and during I worked with keyframes in After Effects. I would definitely say that my hours are enough.

I think that my definition of sophisticated work is still the same, but I think that this weather project made me work harder at a more sophisticated end product. This included making sure that each element of the animation is cohesive. Specifically, I had to pay much more attention to making sure that the style of of animations that I used for the elements on screen were consistent and harmonized.

Coming into the semester, I already had experience with creating graphics in Illustrator, such as the symbol and maps projects from GDES I. This made the process of creating icons and text for the weather report a quicker process, and in fact the quickest process of the project. I also had some experience with After Effects through the Interface App assignment in Image Methodology. However, the knowledge I had was very basic, so I grew much more comfortable with the application after using it extensively for this weather report project. Additionally, I was able to use the LATCH technique to work around the problems of keeping elements on the screen at the same time while making their movements cohesive and not cluttered. This I think can even be useful for static graphics and layouts outside of animations; how to be aware of space between objects and the hierarchy of how the eye perceives them.

I think that I’m still curious about how I could make the animation more appealing if I used different LATCH methods, or if I went about it in the most effective way. There was a conversation last class about what the best order of LATCH structures would be for these animations. I suppose I’m most curious to know if there would have been a better way to rearrange the structures that I came up with.

I think that as far as value goes, this project is the most valuable. In comparison to the maps that I did in GDES I, I was able to take what I learned on making sophisticated icons and put that knowledge to use to make effective weather icons and other related graphics for the animation. After years of iterating various symbols and icons, I’ve become very comfortable with using them. In comparison to the Interface App project in Image Methodology, this assignment is much more fluid and polished as an animation. I have had more time to understand how After Effects works. I can now easily dictate to the program what I want to happen, rather than letting the program dictate what I can do because I didn’t previously know enough about it. Overall, this weather report assignment is a culmination of learning experiences that is thus far the most valuable to me because of how much I learned from it.

Lastly, I would say that my own work and self-growth has contributed at most 40% toward the overall growth and creativity of my project within class. I tend to use my life’s experiences to influence how I might resolve a problem I come across, or as a starting point for what direction I want to take a project. I would say that quite a bit of feedback from my peers during class, my friends, and my family has contributed toward the other 60% (and below is a visual representation of such). I use their critiques and outsider perspectives to think differently about whether or not the things I make are coming across to other viewers the way that I want them to. And if not, I am able to discuss with other people how to make it more clear, and highly value their opinions.

I think that putting in nearly 40, or more than 40, hours a week on practice (more than six hours a day) is excessive, but I think that setting aside less than two hours a day is not enough time to dedicate to improvement. Practicing is essential to improving one’s level of sophistication in their artwork because through practice you learn to troubleshoot technical problems, or you learn shortcuts that can help you later. I’d say that between four and five hours per day of practice time (which can be spent on multiple projects throughout the day, not necessarily a single project in a single time period!) is how much time people should attempt to make to work on practicing and learning new ways to make work, and this is where I’d say I’m at, around four hours a day on various projects, whether they’re individual work or assignments for class.

To me, sophisticated work is careful work. And by this, I mean that sophisticated work has been scrutinized since the first draft by the artist, and has been improved as a result of personal feedback and intuition, but also from critiques from peers. It pays attention to design choices and elements that require an equal balance to be effective. I would say that my maps are sophisticated in the fact that I carefully took into consideration the critiques of my classmates as positive feedback toward improving my designs and making them clean and direct in their readability by the audience. Specifically I paid close attention to color schemes and icons and how to best utilize these elements for emphasis of certain areas of the maps, rather than simply “decoration”.

As stated above, I especially appreciated my peers’ feedback on my icons. I knew that I liked the icons I had done, but I was worried about how they worked in combination with text, and so I really valued the feedback and suggestions that my classmates gave for resolving the issues that I had with balancing my icons and text on my maps. With this feedback I received, I was able to pinpoint specific problems in the maps and make iterations that improved upon and resolved the problems. These critiques/feedback were especially helpful in my second map, as seen below (click to enlarge).

I’d say that the challenges I faced were minor to intermediate; I didn’t really face any extreme difficulties that I couldn’t work around or that caused me to start over on a map. I think the most challenging part of my maps was picking interesting fonts to use that are not default fonts, but rather fonts that are more fitting for the map and information they go with. But once I picked some I liked, I had some peers help me figure out which font(s) would be the most interesting, fitting, and readable for the maps I was doing, so now I have a better idea of the criteria to think about when picking fonts. The easiest and most enjoyable part of my maps was the icons by far. I love to mock up icons and symbols, so those were the most enjoyable for me to do and to fit into my maps.

Outside of class, I do a few other things that do relate to design. Specifically I am interested in mocking up logos for friends, and I also like to design aerial maps of properties, so I liked how the symbol and map assignments we did in class can help me think about design choices for the logos and maps that I’ve already enjoyed doing. I also enjoy creating digital portraits of pets for friends, as far as other extracurricular art projects go. Below are two examples of the most recent portraits I’ve done in two different styles.

As far as my life outside of school affecting my schoolwork, I’d say I’m somewhere between neutral and positive. I always make sure that my schoolwork comes first and that it is finished before I do anything with friends or family, but I also make sure that I do make time for others so that I can relieve any school-related stress. In addition to that, my family and friends are always super supportive of my artwork and even help to offer critiques themselves so that I can receive feedback from non-designer people, as I might if I were presenting a work-in-progress project to a client, so I really appreciate that.

The most ideal version of a class setting, at least for art classes, to me, is one that is fairly individual-based but the overall mood should be relaxed and welcoming, which is how I felt that this class was. By this I mean that students are expected to work in class for the whole class, but they have the opportunity to get answers, feedback, and other suggestions from peers or the professor throughout the class and not just on critique days. I never felt stressed coming to class, because I knew that if I was facing any roadblocks in my work, there were multiple people to get feedback from, or give feedback to. To be a part of class means to be one of these students that can give and receive feedback to peers and to be there to give positive critiques and suggestions where requested. I’d say that I was definitely part of this ideal vision as someone who gave feedback to my peers to help them resolve issues in their projects, and also took any critiques to heart to improve my own work.

Below are my final maps!
Map 1 – Good Reads
Map 2 – Needs versus Wants
Map 3 – Branching Out

In my opinion, the first meta skill correlates to the “ten thousand hours” that were brought up at the beginning of the class. Experience in general, of anything that relates to what we do in class, or anything that makes use of learning from the programs that are used and will be used for graphic design. This meta skill evaluates just how much practice one has made time for and used for improvement. On this skill I would give myself a consistent rating. I use programs like Photoshop and Illustrator nearly every day, and I’m constantly finding new ways to perform a task, such as finding and using shortcuts and “cleaner” methods.

I believe that the second meta skill evaluates how involved the creator is with the work. By this, I mean that here is where iterations are critical in producing the best possible outcome of a project through repetition, and smoothing out any “kinks”, physically or metaphorically, in the piece. For this skill, I would give myself a medium rating. I don’t often like to do iterations, but I understand how important they are in the production of a final piece.

The third meta skill regards feedback; to me, this is asking how much consideration I gave the feedback. It means that if I made good use of the feedback, I was able to explore more options to the process of my work rather than simply “tweaking” a few things here and there. On this skill, I would give myself a meaningful rating. I made sure that I recalled any “issues” that my peers had with my work during critiques and thought about several options to changing it. Not only did I just simply amend the problems, I used that as a reflection for figuring out how else the piece could be improved or changed. Often times when I went back to change something, I made changes from the critique first, but then I improved upon them by making other changes that needed to be fixed as a consequence of my first edits.

I believe that the fourth meta skill deals with my mentality throughout the entire creation process. It regards whether or not I did the project just to have it done, or if I did it because I was truly engaged with the process and the end result. On this skill I would give myself a medium rating. I would have given myself an intense rating except that I do not feel as though I engaged every single facet of the project and pushed it to it’s limits. As I stated above, I do not iterate often enough to say that I have gone above and beyond on challenging myself.

The fifth meta skill also regards the “ten thousand hours” like the first. However, this one is different because it does not just regard practice time of the projects in class; this one also includes other projects for other classes or for personal work. In a way, this meta skill regards a wider range of practice hours than the first meta skill. On this skill I would give myself a rating for “lots of other stuff”. I am constantly working in Photoshop and Illustrator for personal artwork or things for other classes that are not necessarily centered around my major.

To me, the sixth meta skill evaluates to my growth as a student pursuing graphic design and how I have learned and developed from my experiences in the classroom. It evaluates how I have reacted to problem-solving and critiques and practice time for myself and for my peers. For this skill, I would give myself a mature rating. I feel as though I have certainly learned new things and have developed through this course, benefiting from crits (both those on my own work and from others, I feel like I was able to use those to think differently about my own projects) and having to problem solve.

Lastly, I believe that the seventh meta skill solely regards my relationship to my peers. It evaluates how helpful and constructive my suggestions might have been in critiques. On this skill I would give myself a room temp rating. I would hope that I have given helpful suggestions for my peers to help them problem solve or think about something differently to work around an issue, but I honestly don’t think that anything I said would be more “mind-blowing” or complex than feedback any of my other peers could have given.