Before taking this class I had already taken a typography class before, but before that I had no experience studying typefaces. From that other class I had learned some basic things about typefaces, like san serifs and counters. I also learned a little bit about the placement of typography on a page from our last assignment of the year, but feel that it was pretty basic, especially looking back now with what I have learned since then. Overall I feel I had a very basic introduction on what typography is and how it is used in the real world.

This class greatly expanded my knowledge on typography, as I feel that when I after my first typography class, I still did not know much about how to effectively use typography and space in my work, whereas now with this class I have been forced to pay special attention to these things if I want my work to succeed. With this class I have learned how to think about not only the typeface I use but the colors within each typeface and the positioning of all these on the page and how this creates a hierarchy among the things being presented.

I really enjoyed the feedback that I got from Tuan during the year. Even though I was behind on some of the work at some points of the year, I still felt that Tuan was understanding and didn’t harass and criticize, but instead just expected you to catch up and be responsible, which I really appreciated. The feedback he gave was also helpful in that it made us think about why we chose to do what we did, and he made us defend our choices to him, which forced us to have more conviction in our work.

I still feel that I don’t see all of “it” but I feel that with more time and practice I will be able to see “it” more and more clearly. I think I have begun to look at my work more critically when I’m in Tuan’s classes, and I find myself why am I making choice, and other questions I think Tuan would ask me. I feel that this is helping me see “it” more and more with every piece I work on.

I feel like I always asked a question when Tuan was at my side of the room just because I enjoyed his input and I knew that there was always something I could work on and that I was missing in my work. Again I was always happy with the answers I got and always appreciated the feedback Tuan would give me.

I feel like my practice time wavers from week to week, but I do think if I fall behind one week I put in the effort to catch back up the next week. Overall I think I just need to be more consistent with the time I spend working. I do think I am getting enough feedback again as I feel that Tuan and my other classmates are always willing to share some advice on what isn’t working or what needs improvement. I was also always at class crits to help give back some of that advice, and I really hope I was able to help the others in the same way that they had helped me. I wasn’t always at desk crits, but the ones I missed were during one of the three days that I was sick and didn’t come to class. Though I did come to class some days I was sick, like when I drank bad milk and was in the bathroom a lot.

I do feel that my life has been in order for the most part during this semester. There were some hard times during the year but I feel that it did not really affect my work and I made an effort to be at as many classes I could, though I do wish more students showed up to crits to offer a larger variety of feedback.
I really enjoyed this class, as I really enjoy my classes with Tuan. As for making it more creative and fun, the only thing that I feel people would complain about the class was that it was so early in the morning, otherwise I don’t know what else could be done to improve it. I overall really enjoyed the atmosphere that existed during work and crits and hope to take another class with Tuan again soon.

     For my weather report I was really happy with my transitions from one scene to the other. I spent a lot of my time at my computer just thinking about different ways that I could intro and outro the things I would need and didn’t need for a scene until I found an answer I thought was clever but not too overbearing or distracting. However in the end I spent so much time trying to be creative I feel that I did not give the rest of the assignment the polish it deserved. I spent too much time focusing on the motion and forgot to also focus on the graphic and visual portion. I am proud of this work as my first work in After Effects, but disappointed as a Graphic Designer.

For my zine I wanted to express how powerful words can be in the place of action. I feel that I was able to get this across with my image on the back of my zine as the fist is being constrained by the words themselves, and I’m very happy that Jimmy told us about this optional part because I honestly feel that it is the best part of my zine. This isn’t to say I am dissatisfied with the inside of my zine. I was very happy that I made my own artificial typeface for the lettering and feel that the hand stitched look helped to emphasize the kind of motto you would see stitched on a pillow in your parents house. Although I feel that the visuals on each page were not as good as everything else, I am overall very happy with my work on this assignment.

     For my app I wanted my primary focus to be functionality, efficiency, and simplicity over everything else. I feel that I was able to get simplicity across with the minimal space occupying the screen at any one time and the simple color pallet. I feel I was able to get efficiency across with how all the options are contained into four main buttons that are activated by sliding, how the caps lock and shift buttons are different buttons entirely, and how instead of having a number button and a period button, the period was placed with the numbers and a new button was created for type options. I also feel functionality was shown through the fact that the interface allows for adding things like underline, bold, and italics while still staying in the keyboard and not having to interrupt the flow of typing to  leave to a special options menu. Overall I am satisfied with the typing portion of my interface but feel that I could have done more for the visuals of my sub menus.

     For the preppy book I had a lot of fun working on a project through its multiple stages of development, from conception and design, to execution and finalization. It was very interesting to be a part of a team and to be in charge of a small portion of a much larger piece. I helped with the layout along with posing for some photos and even designed the logo for the magazine. I went through some iterations but was trying to convey a sense of pride and prestige with the designs I presented. In the end the second was chosen which I feel was much better and had a more dynamic and interesting presentation rather than the more patch like first design.

     For my layout I am really happy with the professional look I feel I was able to get across. It was a lot more difficult than I first thought would be required to simply lie words on a page but I was very happy when I felt that what I had created looked like something I might actually see in a magazine. It was fun trying to figure out how to work around rivers or pools in the type and trying to balance it so not too much imagery was taking up the page. Overall I am very happy with this final product as I feel that it looks just as good as what I could find in the local newspaper, and this functional and informative look was what I was hoping to achieve in this assignment.

     I am more happy with my decision map as I could see myself or someone I know actually using it. I tried to get a cheerful mood across through the work so I made it Christmas themed and tried to make the transitions from one choice to another humorous and fun to go through. In the end I am very happy with the content of the poster but I am less so happy with the look of it. When I first made it I was very proud of it but looking back over it for this portfolio I feel that the background is too busy and the visuals suffer for this. I feel I should have simplified it further even though I had already done so a lot throughout the iterations of this map. In the end this version just feels like another iteration before the final complete one.

          For my informative map I found myself having the most trouble trying to figure out what I wanted to do, When I first approached Tuan with my first idea he said it was too complicated and was trying to do too much and afterward I shelved this map in favor of working on my other two. Getting back to it I still didn’t know what I want to do and in the end it just fell through as I had little to show when the assignment was due. I do not like this work and would never show it to any possible employer.  

     This map I feel is the best looking map that I made as it seems the most clean and polished of the three maps. I really like the calm color pallet used and the simplicity of the information that is being relayed. However I know that there is still a lot more that I could have done know that I am looking back. As Tuan told me, I could have integrated the colors of each of the buildings into the color of the people in that buildings tally section, intensifying the hue of the color as more people were recorded in the area. This efficiency and purpose in everything I use in my graphics is something I still need to work on and something I hope to achieve in my upcoming works.

     For my symbols project I had a lot of trouble simplifying down to a core idea, as a lot of my iterations still had too much going on within them. In the end with Tuans help I was able to get down to a simple idea with all of my symbols, though I feel that the polish of the visuals varied for each one. I feel that the “out of order” one was the worst as the varying line width was intentional to display sporadic noise, but it did not look so good when printed out as the lines seemed flimsy and almost unnoticeable. I feel that the “sunrise” one was the best though as I feel that the image overall seems the most sleek and polished.