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The most important aspect of studying abroad, besides the experience itself, is being able to document and understand the cultures in which you are living. During my stay in Angers, France, I have been keeping a weekly journal, documenting everyday life, my travel experiences, and the memories I am making here. In each journal entry, I include pictures, drawings, writing, and souvenirs that I can fit into my journal. The journal has helped me with going more in depth into the many different cultures that I am experiencing, but also allow me to personally document my travels while being a creative outlet for me to continue designing and exercising my creative freedom.

While being in another country has this effect on a person, where everything is amazing and wonderful, making every new experience in the country feel like breathing air for the first time, it can also be suffocating. It can be overwhelming. It can be tiring, constantly struggling all the time. Not being able to communicate or being able to get around easily, and missing every little thing about home can really exhaust you.

I’m currently in this state of exhaustion. I am loving every experience I have here in France, but I also am tired and homesick. I completely agree with Barna’s statement, “the innate physiological makeup of the human animal is such that discomfort of varying degrees occurs in the presence of alien stimuli.  Without the normal props of one’s own culture, there is unpredictability, helplessness, a threat to self-esteem, and a general feeling of “walking on ice”—all of which are stress producing.” His representation of culture shock is extremely valid, mostly because I am feeling it. Recently, I became sick, as most of my fellow students have as well, but I found this sickness extremely unsettling. Not because I was super sick, which I was, but mainly because I felt so helpless and defenseless. Not only was I extremely sick, but I also had to go to the doctors, go to the pharmacy, and go to the store, all while being sick. Normally, these would be easy things that I can handle on my own, but in a foreign country with a language barrier and no car, it made things a little bit difficult. I think not only being sick was bad enough, but the stress of being sick and having to do all these things by myself made it even worse. I was able to get everything I needed done moderately easily, but I felt so agitated towards the end of the day because of the struggle that I was mad because I knew I could have taken care of all of these things easier back home in the states, and I would have felt better in no time.

It is just subtle things that can make one go somewhat mad while abroad, at least in my opinion, but in the end, that is all that the struggle is; little things that do not really matter in the first place. We can adapt and learn to be more self-sufficient. I believe 100% that culture shock is winning in my scenario, although I continue to still fall in love with this country more and more each day. I think that culture shock effects most people very dramatically, but we all handle it differently, and ultimately, even if we are having problems and exhausting ourselves, at least we get to do it in a beautiful country.

I am very critical about myself and my work, sometimes even over critical. I definitely think there is always room for improvement on my designs and I always take critiques and criticism in mind whenever I continue designing. I do feel like I need more practice and improvement always on my design work. I want to spend this summer working and improving my design work and working on building a portfolio and making my work more diverse.

FULBRIGHT PROGRAM

Design Statement

The monogram project paved my way of understanding into the typographic world and introduced me into the complexities of a font. By giving us a limited range of shapes, along with only a few ways we can change it all while being intentional. We were made to look more into the shape, construction and elements of a font. With being given a small amount to work with, the creativity that was produced was even greater than if we had freedom. I created mine to look futuristic and modern, with sleek lines in varying weights and geometric shapes.

Table of contents:

1. Intro- ED (full page)
2. Intro to Fullbright (about, what they do, etc… 2 pages)
3. Lists/special thanks(1/2 page)
4. Map, fold out and perforated with schedule on the back
5. People profiles w/ summary, pictures, titles, info about the speakers. (10-15 pages)
6. Another schedule (full page spread)

Plan of action:

1. Theme: Coming together from all parts of the world for the same reason, to “meet world challenges” head on… I like the idea of making a sort of pattern system to know what things are going on. The different patterns are all representative of whatever the page’s contents are. The different patterns and colors represent all of the different people even from all over the nation and the world, who all come together for the same reason.
2. Color Scheme: Colorful, for the patterns to be distinguishable. Could play with shades of 2 colors, like orange and blue, or blue and green, etc. Must be interesting and understandable.
3. Type: Interesting sans serif font for titles, numbers, etc. More normal sans serif font for main body text, must be legible so text size is normal for page size, (8-12 point for body depending on typeface).
4. Layout: typical design layout. Keep in mind amount of pages I can use, so will use as much of the page layout without making it look too cluttered or making the type too small. Average borders and margins.

https://www.pinterest.com/shelbyshelbs97/program-inspiration/

The Mystery Project

Since we are becoming more and more proficient using After Effects, I am assuming we are going to continue to use the application. Seeing as there is so much content we are given, and with my experience with Jimmy’s project I think we are going to be making either a video with the information being given, or we are going to make something like the User Interface project we did for Jimmy. If we go in that direction, I think we would end up making like a website User Interface, where all of the information is in the file and we make it so that we have to hypothetically navigate through a website that has all of the information in it.

Shelby Charette

I declared that I wanted to do at least 10 hours per week and I greatly exceeded that, just working on the video we made. I probably worked about 3 to 4 hours a day each day that I worked on it. I would probably keep my goal around 10-20 hours per week, that will give me plenty of time to work on this classwork and develop as a designer, but also allow me enough time to work on my other class assignments. I do definitely put priority on my design classes when it comes to putting time in.

I still believe that sophisticated work is well revised, it is better than the work  you did before, and it grows in strength. I definitely saw significant improvement starting from the beginning of the project to where I ended up. I started to be able to do more and learn to do new things in After Effects. Problem solving was definitely a strength in this project, because there were so many things that needed to be done in it, that if there was an issue, being able to figure out the problem and find an effective solution was absolutely necessary or else your video would be a mess. I believe that working on the weather report made made my work more sophisticated because I had to make sure that every single detail, from the design to the movements and choreography was perfect, so I definitely think attention to detail helped in making my video more sophisticated.

The assignment we had to do for Image Methodology on the user interface definitely prepared me a little bit for the weather assignment. It made it easier to navigate already having previous knowledge, seeing as After Effects is a complicated application. Also, knowing things about color choices, typography, and design added to my videos effectiveness and it allowed me to create a more cohesive and effective design.

I would still like to work in After Effects, because there is still so much to learn. I hope to just work on new techniques and improve on my work.

This project is very valuable because it taught us basically how to use a brand new application we have never used before. I talked to a design intern for Margin Walker, and the first thing he asked was if I knew how to use After Effects. He said it was extremely useful and a lot of people do not know how to use this application. The 2 projects I believe relate in some way to this project is the user interface and the map projects we did in GDES I. They both have similarities, seeing as I had to use typographic, color and design in order to create a successful design. Then the user interface relates to it with the movement and using of After Effects. This project is rated higher, because I was able to use very many design qualities.

7 Ask me or express something, you feel like you can’t in class or even my office: http://tunarice.tumblr.com/ask (Links to an external site.)

In this project, I worked in After Effects to make a hypothetical, futuristic representation of an interactive weather map.  I feel like I definitely made immense improvement in my after effects skills. In the beginning it was a slow process making just one of the LATCHs, but towards the end, I saw that my pace was changing, and it became easier to do as time went on. I challenged myself in this project. And for sure, one thing that is definitely important is the little details, and knowing why you make every design decision that you did. I knew before hand that organization was important, but when you are working with over 100 layers, you learn to organize your stuff better to make your life easier. Definitely a life lesson there. I learned how important a type face is to the design, like how the design of the things around the typeface go well with the typeface and what you are trying to portray. Your work has to be cohesive, and flow nicely. I believe my After Effects skills have improved dramatically in using this project. There was so much that went into this project, and I believe it made me a better designer in so many ways.

how much a week = 10 hours a week

what should be the mid-term total = 70

what should be the semester total = 140

(your current grand total =   1,000-1,500 )

Shelby Charette

GDES 2313

Tuan Phan

December 13, 2016

I would consider over like 35 hours of practice per week would be excessive as a student because we have other classes going on at the same time as well as work. Obviously it would take a lot of time to make extremely sophisticated work, but I believe about 25-30 hours would make sophisticated work. It would give you time to create, as well as continuously revise. I believe I make good work, although there is always room for improvement. I usually do about 15 to 20 hours of work each week.

Sophisticated work is well revised, it is better than the work  you did before, and it grows in strength. I definitely think that in the maps, I did a lot more illustrations than I have before and that required a lot of trial and error. I also believe I had to work outside of the box a lot of the time. In the end, I believe that I grew because a lot of my designs had illustrations which I never usually do on computers, and believe that my work definitely became more sophisticated with this project.

I believe that all feedback is helpful, but there were some helpful hints that really helped in my designs. I really need to keep in mind the context that I use that are boundaries for my work to follow. In my graph map, I did not keep in mind that my spread was going to be used in a book. I learned that I need to be more meticulous and pay more attention to detail. Also, I had a comment on my map of the campus to change my colors, in order for it to be a more powerful design.

It was challenging at some points because there were so many things to keep in mind, that I got side tracked a lot of the time. Some what like there was too much to process, I would be all over the place. I would be designing one map and think of an idea for the other maps and then go do that idea, and then forget what I was doing on the other map. I definitely learned that time management is very important, and that I need to improve my focus, that was probably the hardest part. The easiest part I believe was coming up with good ideas for the maps, because we had free reign with our choices, it made coming up with ideas so much easier. I really enjoyed making the illustrations, it was challenging, but I really enjoyed it!

I went to Zine Fest, which was art related, and I really enjoyed it! I really liked seeing how people come together and sell their art, and it was really interesting seeing such a diversity in art. We all came together for the same reason, but it was all so different. Also, I went to the Andy Warhol exhibit opening party, which was amazing and a really new and exciting experience. I also go to a lot of museums on my free time. I definitely love involving myself in the Austin art community.

 A lot of things outside of school impact school work, although I make it a point to keep school as the most important aspect in my life, and I really try not to let things distract me. I believe I am a rather focused student. Although I do have some family issues I have been facing lately, I’ve been trying to keep focused.

I believe our TH108 classroom is an ideal classroom. The students, the teacher, the environment, and the vibes. In our classroom, people are comfortable sharing their work, we receive very good and constructive criticisms, and have all the help we need in order to grow as designers. I believe that the relaxed and welcoming environment really effect how we approach class. To me, it is not a normal class, to me, it is a comfortable place to learn, create, and critique work. I’m never not happy to go to that class.

This map is a financial status of Tony Pierce. When looking at the data I was given, I saw that Tony Pierce spent so much money on bills and a small amount on fun for himself. It is important to treat yourself, so I decided to show Tony Pierce how much he needs to treat himself. I chose fun, very vibrant colors to represent a fun feeling. Altogether, I feel like the work is a very successful piece.

I did this map to help out the bikers on campus! Since we live in Austin, where practically everyone bikes, I felt like doing the students here on campus a favor. On my map, you can see the places with the best shade, so when you get out of class your seat is not hot, or where you can park closest to your class, or even how many bikes each rack holds, so you can know if there is a possibility it could fill up.

For my flow chart, I decided to do a map to help me choose what shoes to wear since I struggle with the choices. The map is not just for me, I also made it because on Pinterest, I always see these little maps that show you like what to wear or the best makeup to use, and it gave me the idea for this map. I want to be able to help someone choose what shoes to wear when they are indecisive.

I made the icons for some of the points, because I did not want the flow chart to be too word heavy. I believe it balances it out pretty well.

Shelby Charette

October 15, 2016

Mid Term Essay

I believe that my practice time needs improvement.  I would say I fall between the categories of consistent and uneven. I do a lot of practice work outside of class, obviously I have to work a lot on homework, but I do work on my own designs whenever I get inspiration or time. I do need to make more time for my design work, which is a goal I am setting for myself.

My work sophistication varies on different adobe programs, but all together I believe I am in the medium category. I have a lot of knowledge and experience with Photoshop, since I started in high school. Last year I learned to use Indesign a lot in typography, and seemed to grasp it very well, very fast. In Visual Studies we learned about Lightroom and Bridge, but only briefly. Before this year, I had never used Illustrator, so I am new to it. Although I am a quick learner and seem to be understanding it pretty well. I do have a lot to learn, but that also means that I have a lot of growth in my work in the near future.

The feedback I receive on my work is absolutely important to the development of my work and furthers me in my design career. The critiques we have in class, really help me in seeing different ways of doing my work, it helps me look at it from different perspectives, and problem solve in a lot of my work.

I like to challenge myself a lot. I love to learn new things, and when I see some intricate work my peers produce, I always ask how they did these things, so I could learn to better myself! My peers challenge me in a way, because I believe we are a competitive group. In  a way, we always want to be the best, and push each other and ourselves to be better.

I do a lot of expert experiences outside of school work. I work on a lot of designs for our on campus organization, Topper Radio, such as posters, flyers, etc. I also work with Command G, which helps me learn new things, and I do posters for the organization as well. I also worked on an internship last year for an up-in-coming app company, and helped give feedback on the designs for the app.

 For the social emotional development I would think I would score myself a mature. To me, this touches on my development along with my classmates, and my growth as a student. I have experienced great growth I believe in the classroom setting. Critiques and work days definitely aid in this growth. Everyday, I come into class gaining more experience and learning new things from my peers and professor.

The classroom climate, I feel is all together very warm. I feel extremely comfortable with the surroundings of the classroom, and the energy in the room feels inviting. I believe everybody contributes to this feeling of welcome. The comments we give are all very helpful to the development of our work. I always feel like our class gives extremely good critique comments and improves other’s work by helping them see what the designer has not yet seen. Overall, I would like to think I personally contribute to the climate as a warm feeling. I feel like I get along very well with everyone in the classroom, I usually give helpful critiques, and I appreciate any comments on my work.