1 How many hours of practice time per week would you consider excessive? How many hours would not be enough to create sophisticated work? Where are you situated?

I would say that an ideal number of hours per week is between 8-10 hours per week. Ranging closer to 3-4 hours a week would not be enough, while 15-20 seems excessive. I hovered between 6-7, on average. I felt as though I went through fewer iterations with the mapping project than I did with the icon project.

2 What is “sophisticated” work? What is sophisticated in the designs of your maps?

Sophisticated work pushes past the default. In terms of the designs of my maps, I felt like i pushed past the default the most on the Tony Pierce map, while the other two were pushed less. I would like to continue to work and rework my maps, particularly the personal geography map. The decision map feels done to me, albeit simple. I hoped to achieve a clean, polished look with that map.

3 What was some meaningful feedback you received about the maps and what did you do with that feedback?

I received feedback about how to expand and integrate the information on my decision map, which I took to create a map that was far more interesting than a simple yes/no decision tree. I was able to have more than one decision lead to similar results, to make it more interesting.

4 Describe what level of challenge you encountered in the creation of your maps. What was the hardest part / what was the easiest part? What was the most enjoyable part of the process?

I was challenged by the personal geography map the most. I reached out to several people about trying to find the heights of buildings on campus — I contacted the city, the university, and the architectural companies SEU has used in the past to try and get some answers, but received no answers. So I had to change my concept a bit, and instead made a map based off of the levels of floors each building had. Still interesting, but it wasn’t as interesting as it could’ve been with more data. I was also challenged in trying to make a decision map — I had to research the busiest / least busy times for each of my favorite restaurants and then fit it into a cohesive flow chart. The easiest map (and most enjoyable for me) to create was the Tony Pierce map–the data was already provided, so I felt I had more time to be creative and make an interesting bar graph. I had a lot of fun creating that map.

5 Did you do anything else outside of class, extracurricular, related to art, design, or creativity?

I went to a couple of shows — EAST, Tammie Rubin’s show at de stijl gallery… I also worked on a couple of t-shirt designs for organizations on campus at my Stu Life job, which was interesting to work with balancing creative license within brand standards. I also made a piece for the Minute Gallery, which was a fun experiment in color optics.

6 Whether positively, negatively or neutrally, how has your life outside of school impacted your school work?

My life outside of school took a major hit this semester, and had a pretty large impact on my school attendance/performance. Some life-altering situations (read: personal behavior health crisis) happened, and getting my attention 100% on school was a challenge at times. That being said, I did my best to keep up with work and push my maps to the best they could be.

7 What does the most ideal classroom environment look/feel like to you? What does it mean to be part of a class? This semester, what was your part / role / contribution to this ideal vision?

I enjoyed the “round table”-style critiques and discussions. Being able to sit on the same level with my peers and professor made me feel far more comfortable with speaking up in class and voicing my ideas. I felt as though we were all equals, all learning together. I felt an important part in the process of not only my own icons and maps, but in helping everyone else to improve theirs as well (and vice versa). I especially enjoyed “swapping” maps with everyone, and getting written feedback really helped me to remember feedback later, after class had ended, when I was looking for ways to improve my designs.

 

 

 

feel free to add other dimension/criteria/rubric ratings that you deem important in the learning/changing process.

Overall, I feel like I’ve learned much more about the process of design, and what types of research methods go into creating graphics. I’ve learned that it’s not always just about the “look” of something–it’s the content itself. Something can look cool, sure, but if the information isn’t useful or accurate or productive, it’s not really a worthwhile design. So this has really changed the way I think as a designer. Not as just someone creative, but as someone who solves problems.