1) about your expert hours in relationship to your use of practice time,

For the Consistent use of practice time it would be if you were spending 6 hours on Graphic Design each week. The Uneven would be if you were able to do so some weeks but not every single week. Sporadic would be if you were not using the time that you got or you were using it doing other things that were not productive. I think that I would be Uneven, I have been able to consistently go to study at the library and work on the symbol project every week on Sunday and Monday as needed. With other classes I budget the hours as evenly as I can unless there is a class that is needing additional attention whether its due to an upcoming exam or a paper. I would say I spend about 3-4 hours working on Graphic Design every week outside of class, whether it be on the project or on the French Curves if I’ve had extra time in the library. I have been working a bit on the French Curves but not as much as I would’ve liked to.

2) the sophistication** of your work,

High sophistication of work is if you are following criteria closely and developing a complicated piece based on those criteria. Whereas Medium would be having a general awareness of what needs to be done regarding the criteria and lightly working with those in mind. Low would be a disregard to the criteria and just doing what you want. I think I had a Medium sophistication, I feel that I could’ve made my piece more intricate or thoughtful. I did follow criteria making sure not to make the symbols too bold or too lightweight in the stroke weight. I also made sure to have enough black in the symbol so it would stand out and not have too much negative space. I did have some instances where I had to change the stroke weight of some symbols because they would’ve been printed too thin. I also kept in mind from feedback that I got from others to not make it look organic since my topic was opposing that, so I made my lines sharp and harsh to avoid that. I used uneven line strokes to make the “bar code” within the eye look more uneven and bring attention to it as it doesn’t seem uniform with the whole piece.

3) how you dealt with feedback,

For Meaningful use of feedback it would be if you were taking in all factors such as the criteria and critiques that we had in class to work on improving your symbols. Useful would be if you were taking in critique passively and only tweaking minor things. Trivial would be if you were being dismissive to the critiques and criteria of the project and just doing your own thing. I think I was in the Useful category, I take feedback well, especially when we were rotating our printed symbols around. If there were multiple people that agreed with a suggested improvement I made sure to do it. It also helped to give me new ideas as I tried tweaking my symbols according to suggestions that students made about my symbols. An example being the image below which was suggested that I use zig zag lines instead of straight ones to make it more unnatural looking.

4) the level of challenge you gave yourself,

For the Intense level of challenge to yourself it would be if you were to pick a subject that may be difficult to interpret or if you chose symbols that needed a lot of time to work on. Medium is if you were struggling with creating the symbols but not excessively. Mild would be if you picked an easy subject or picked symbols that weren’t too complicated, such as premade shapes like circles or squares. I would say I was in the Mild section for this. I started off this project on the fence with what I should do for the meaning behind the symbol. I could either have made a symbol for my personal artwork or I could do the symbol for media photos that have been Photoshopped. I choose the latter because I thought it would be more of a challenge for me rather than making the symbol about an area that I’m comfortable with. I had never used the program that we used before so it was certainly challenging for me in that aspect but it was fun to learn it and I think I caught on quicker than expected. I think I could’ve ended up making my symbols more complicated if I had the time and inspiration to do so. Looking at other symbols, I think mine could’ve been more expressive, I feel that what I made was too simple in its nature. The simplicity of it can be seen below, I feel that I could’ve tweaked my symbols more as I went along. I was proud however of the images that I traced initially at the beginning of the project as I think I did that well, as seen in the second image.

5) other expert experiences,

Lots of extra stuff for other expert experiences could include being part of a Graphic Design club at St. Edwards or making posters for St. Edwards, it could also be attending multiple on campus or off campus events regarding Graphic Design. Just the class assignments would be if you were keeping up with your classwork and not doing much outside of it. Other “stuff” would be if you were procrastinating on work and not getting in the assignments on time because you are doing other unproductive things. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been doing anything outside of class other than the class assignments and the French Curves. Realistically, I don’t believe I would have the time to be able to join a club like making posters for St. Edwards as I know other students are doing. I believe in doing so it would directly affect the quality of my work as well as being able to hand it in on time in general. I have also been going on Pintrest to try and inspire myself for my class.

6) social emotional development,

Mature in social emotional development would be if you were surrounding yourself with positive people who respect your schedule and make you feel good about yourself. Young would be if you had a problematic friend who was somewhat hindering your classwork. Adolescent is if you are surrounding yourself with toxic people who are making you feel bad and you can’t keep up with school at all. I would say that I’m in the Young section, while I’ve been able to hand in assignments on time for a lot of classes, it’s been difficult to do so. This is the first semester I’m working and going to school. I work for 20 hours a week and go to school on Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-6:30. I really enjoy my work environment as I’m a receptionist at a privately owned small salon, my boss is very nice to me and lets me study while I’m working. While that’s said, it is challenging to study when the phones ringing off the hook some days. I’ve also had some health issues, that I only recently addressed, but after some blood work results I figured out that I’ve been very low on Vitamin D3 which has been affecting me often with fatigue and other symptoms that have been very bothersome. I definitely think that its affected my ability to do my best as I have low energy and caused me to have a negative mindset. I’ve been trying to fix this by taking supplements, although I’ve only started recently they have been helping slowly so far.

7) and your contribution to the classroom climate.

Warm contribution to the climate is if you are being friendly to your classmates and speak up often and let others feel heard. Room temp is if you occasionally speak up in class but generally keep to yourself. Cold would be if you were self-reserved and not participating in the class environment. I think I’m Warm, I’vebeen good about speaking up if I have questions that may benefit other students as well as helping my desk mates if they need feedback on the project they are working on. I wouldn’t say I’ve been acting dismissive to anyone unless I was having a particularly bad day.