Author: cjohnsto

I did not really know much about type aside from the basics I learned in Type 1 and the differences between typefaces. This class helped me learn to think more critically of typefaces and consider what uses type has as well as contrast between type. I loved having Tuan as a professor this semester but this class was grueling. “It” was using and formatting type which includes selecting typefaces, finding contrast, and massaging text. They fit together through similarities but enough contrast to be unique. I think I asked a lot of questions but answers were vague which I ended up misinterpreting sometimes. I personally believe I could’ve put in more practice time, but given my schedule this semester, it would’ve been near impossible to. I would’ve preferred more feedback with my Fulbright booklet because after looking at other people’s finished products, there are a lot of things I would’ve done differently. I was a part of class and desk crits but I benefitted most from desk crits because they were about my program specifically rather than ambiguity on what the program should have. My life is far from in order; I now have a boyfriend from here but goes to school in New York, I’m taking American Dilemmas, Graphic Design 2, and Image Methodology. I’m also moving into an apartment here in Austin and my parents are selling my childhood home and moving. The only thing that could improve Tuan’s class is free food. I have grown because I think I actually developed grit by dealing with a chaotic amount of assignments for all of my classes but still putting in a balanced effort into all of them. I’m much more proficient with After Effects than from the beginning when I knew nothing and that knowledge actually helped me with my Image Methodology project.

 

 

Full Booklet

The assignment for this project was to design a program and format all of the text from the Fulbright raw text document and fit all of it in 32 pages. My process for this was making the InDesign document letter size, the maximum size we could do. I decided to implement all of the text first and then massage it from that point. The main concept for my program is minimalism because I wanted to focus on the content. I focused more of my attention on the speaker bios because that was the biggest challenge due to how many there were and it seemed impossible to fit all of them and more into 32 pages. My color palette is mostly green and blue resembling our world’s colors which fits the theme of world connections. I chose Avenir because it could be scaled down to a small point size and still be very legible. Through my color palette and usage of Avenir, my program is legible and simple but relevant to the world challenge theme.

Since I had to start over my project twice, my practice time was extensive. In addition, instead of settling for the first animation type I tried for something like for example changing the opacity, I decided to play with it and even tried to experiment with the animation filters before settling on the finalized animation style. I did this inside and outside of class.

I think my lllustrator files are sophisticated in my own fun style, which shows major improvement from when I was just learning Illustrator. I have crisp, clean designs. However, I consider my animation skills average. Since I’m still developing my animation skills, I chose to focus more on the whole of the project rather than the details, such as using funky animation styles. My transitions are relatively smooth except a color jump between two compositions that I have chosen to accept.

I think I dealt with feedback well. I listened to everything Tuan said to do, but apparently misunderstood some things. I took what my peers said about my work into account from details like typeface to the whole of the project like timing.

I feel that this project was already challenging enough for me, but I chose not to take the easy routes and made the challenge level intense. Since I screwed up initially, I could’ve pressed on and finished my already incorrect work, but instead I decided to redo the project. I took extra meticulous steps by separating each symbol and word for each composition into it’s own layer and color coded the layers for a total of 197. I didn’t have to go this far but for my work to look how I imagined it, I chose to. I was also set back about two weeks when I restarted my project but miraculously caught up for the final submission.
Other expert experiences include looking up tutorials for After Effects and even a few Illustrator files.

My social emotional development was hectic. I was almost having a panic attack leaving class one day when I realized I had to start over my project to put me two weeks behind everyone else. However, I powered through it. I’ve also been dealing with a crush on a guy friend.

During critiques since I was so behind, I didn’t pay much attention and instead focused on my work. I did ask my peers questions and also answer theirs. I also provided some sick jams for the class to listen to a few days and people told me after class they really liked it and it helped them focus so I was influential. (plus Raymond and other students asked me for the song names so they could download them)
After looking at the rubric, I think I deserve an A minus. Although the project itself isn’t perfect, I worked through my own problems and caught up despite being so behind and became more familiar with After Effects. My effort was there, but because of so much going on, I was forced to submit what I had.

 

My practice time for doing my graphic design assignments was fairly consistent. I often didn’t use the allotted class time to work on my assignments because I was always dead at that time of day. So later on in the day when I was re-invigorated I would work more and even googled some Illustrator tutorials to help me accomplish what I wanted to try. I didn’t attend any workshops for my expert hours this half of the semester, but I did research lots of graphic design work on tumblr and pinterest and also attended an art exhibition. I also spent numerous hours practicing printing (hahaha) for visual studies in the lab.

From the beginning I knew my work wasn’t as sophisticated as it could be. I was fairly clueless with Illustrator but I at least had an eye for what good work was, and I knew mine was never good starting out. I always had new ideas in mind though to improve my work after doing group reviews in class. Comparing my initial iterations of my maps to my final ones (posted below), I am proud and confident of my work and I feel that I was able to reach a new level with it.

I dealt with feedback well in my opinion. I was very social in group reviews and asked specific questions about my work, for example, in my decision map I asked about curved lines versus straight lines in the flow of the map. I tried to incorporate the ideas of my peers that I couldn’t think of myself into my work.

The level of challenge I gave myself, especially toward the end in finishing these maps, is substantial. In the beginning of these maps I produced basic iterations because I couldn’t figure out how to do anything else beyond that. Using my practice time and expert hours however, I was able to go beyond my level of my experience and greatly increase my knowledge with Illustrator.

I didn’t really have any other expert experiences other than what I mentioned to begin with. I often sought out the opinions of my non graphic design friends and asked them if my work was helpful and appealing and whether the work flowed or not.

My dog Lily that I’ve had since I was 5 has had lots of emergency health problems this semester and I’ve always been worried and anxious that she might be put down, especially when I’m not even home to say goodbye. I’ve also been dealing with lots of boy drama as I’ve been casually dating and even been harassed by several guys, but I tried my best not to let it bother me. My local Youtube celebrity crush also reached out to me on twitter in private and then stopped responding to me which broke my hopes and dreams 🙁

My contribution to the classroom climate has to do mostly with feedback. As I said before, I was very social with feedback and contributed my ideas to all works that I could think of. I also enjoyed that day in class where Tuan and I arm-wrestled and everyone was really entertained by it, and that other day when a lot of us were working and watching Shia LaBeouf watch his own movies. I also feel that I provide a comedic relief for the class which greatly helped my confidence and becoming more of an ambivert than an introvert.

I never give myself A’s because I think it’s pretentious, but I actually feel that I deserve one for my maps. I feel that I went above and beyond with trying to improve my work into something I could be proud of.

 

 

 

well i cant submit the indesign file here but i turned it in

Tuan: I liked how involved Tuan’s work was within his family and friends and uses such situations to create unique art.

Hollis: I’m interested in eventually creating a graphic novel or webcomic so it was interesting seeing an illustration book about childhood experiences and memory.

Bill: I liked how Bill said although he was making lots of money photographing celebrities for magazines, he didn’t enjoy it as much, so he decided to stop and pursue what he liked doing.

 

Part 2:

I’m undecided about my major so this is especially difficult to create.  My main goals in my plan is to graduate with a bachelors degree and a minor or double major. My main goal outside of college is to get a job I like doing that can support my and my future dog.

 

Part 1

Lynne’s work focused on her personal experiences and loss in life. She stressed to us to attempt to study abroad and I feel that her sharing her experience in Xi’an, China encouraged us to do so.

I felt that Miranda’s presentation was more information-based rather than about her work. However, she gave valuable information about all the things designers need to know other than just design: print and digital work is important too.

Dustin’s presentation was my favorite because he didn’t know what he wanted to do with photography but gave photography students a helpful tip in that wedding photography is easy to get into and easy to keep that kind of job. Although I’m not a photo major, I thought it was cool how he was relatable.

 

Part 2

http://roosterteeth.com/about/career-position/45

http://www.internships.com/graphic-design/Graphic-ArtsDesign

https://graphic-design.thecreativeloft.com/graphic-design/jobs/part-time-designerinternship-georgetown-2