My goal expert hours for the semester were 8 per week. This included 4 hours of class time coupled with four of my own time. Given this goal, I should be around 64 hours by mid-term. Looking back at my practice time throughout the project, I devoted an additional 1-2 hours per week than I initially predicted. This does not include time spent on other design projects and extra “stuff” I am working on outside of this course. A majority of my practice time was concentrated at the beginning of the week to prepare for crit. I do not have Creative Cloud on my computer, so I downloaded a 30-day trial at the beginning of the semester. Within this last week, my trial expired, so I was forced to schedule my work time based on when the design lab was open. This forced me to be consistent in my design time, and created less stress for me leading up to the final critique. As a designer, I have learned that I do not design well under pressure, and need to be deliberate about when I practice. Given that I have performed my estimated expert hours so far, I would give myself the rating as consistent in terms of my practice time.
The work I have produced in this class can be evaluated against some of the criteria for critique we generated for the Weather Report. The final project should have strong hierarchy, logical flow, consistency among colors and type, as well as strong readability, among other things. I think my work was sophisticated in terms of these criteria. I used font that was legible, and the clip flowed well without awkward pauses or sharp movements. I tried to make my transitions in After Effects as clean as possible, and make sure each key frame enhanced the readability of the sequence. I would rank the sophistication of my work as high based on the criteria, however I think there is room for me to improve my sequence.
We received critique various ways throughout the process of creating our Weather Report’s, and I think I responded fairly similarly to each one. Feedback is so important to a designer, and I appreciate critique of my work. Often times, I got so consumed in making a transition a specific way that I forgot the meaning of the transition. This made it harder to receive critical advice on how to change something I spent a considerable amount of time refining. I found critique this semester mildly frustrating because after each point I found it difficult to find motivation to re-work something again. However, this frustration was coupled with underlying acceptance that I knew the critique was good advice. Often I ignored my gut feeling that the way I was choreographing something was funky, so I needed to hear someone else say it to make it real for me. I think I found each critique meaningful and I used all perspectives of my work to make it better. On the last critique, Tuan told me my keyframes were choppy on my second sequence. At this point, I had spent so much time on that transition I felt completely defeated at the thought of having to work them again. Fortunately, I managed my time well to be able to figure out how to make them more smooth. As a result, I would say my use of feedback has been meaningful over the course of this semester.
I tried to challenge myself to experience with new ways to transition my LATCH series, but I did play it safe sometimes. I wanted everything to remain consistent, so I used similar transitions every time. I did still challenge myself to try and create seamless, interesting transitions that made the most logical sense in the sequence. I think I could have done more, but within the time constraints given I pushed myself considerably. I would give myself a level of in-between intense and medium for the level of challenge to myself.
Outside of class, I work for a company called Wexel Art. I prepare all promotional material including email campaigns, trade show signage, and advertisements (as shown below). I devote anywhere from 8-15 hours a week on Wexel stuff. Not all of what I do is design work, but a majority of it is. I am also involved in various student organizations and have created signage for event. I have just recently accepted a position with a company as a UI/UX Design Intern, so I plan to increase my expert experiences outside of class for the second half of the semester. As an involved student on and off campus, I would rank my level of other expert experiences as having lots of extra stuff.
I consider my social emotional development very high. As a senior, I have learned a considerable amount about myself personally and as a designer. I think of myself as mature and in control. I graduate in two months, so I would hope I feel this way. Although I am anxious and nervous and mildly freaking out about my approaching entrance into the real work, I feel confident in my ability to tackle any obstacles with confidence, I would rank my social emotional development as mature.
As a senior, I do find it more difficult to connect with the younger class. I do not necessarily see class as an opportunity for me to be social, but rather my time to be creative in the lab. However, I am very consistent and have been to nearly every class period, been respectful to my classmates, and provided influential critique when needed. I hope I am contributing positively to the classroom climate, but I find it difficult to gauge myself. I think this is one area I could focus on being better. I would rank my contribution to the class climate as in between warm and room temp.
I found it difficult to place numerical values on the levels between each criterion. This criterion is subjective and more complex than a number scale. The spectrum for each criterion cannot be split in to just three groups, but rather a continuous skill spectrum. As a result, I cannot sum up all of my points into a letter grade. My letter grade can be gathered subjectively by interpreting each criterion individually based on their hierarchical importance and relationship to one another. Much like the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, everything is imperfect, incomplete, and impermanent, including us. My level and ability as a designer is continuously changing and developing, but there is no end level that I can use as a relative point for where I fall in terms of experience as a designer. Last semester, I tried to create a spectrum to understand the philosophical concept of wabi-sabi, and came across the same obstacle; it is difficult to classify something that is intended to be subjective. Below is my final visual map that describes wabi-sabi. For the purpose of this assignment and this course, I think my letter grade is an ‘A’, but that does not mean that I am at the highest level of these criteria that is possible to attain. It means that I am where I need to be in terms of my ability as a designer, but I have a considerable ways to go.
