At 3 hours per day, starting from the beginning of the semester until now, I should have 312 expert hours. From what I annotated on the calendar spread, I currently have 141.5 expert hours. This amount is merely half of my target, but this is without counting hours I forgot to record such as working on projects throughout the week. However, even with those hours, the current amount of expert hours I have is a fairly accurate estimate. As for expert experiences, I attended a Wacom tablet workshop and I feel it is a tool I can be able to use for future projects. I also know how to use AfterEffects now and have used the 3D effects, such as in this video I have created for Image Methodology. I also know how to prepare vector files for vinyl cutting.

My social and emotional development is mature. I recognize that my growth as a designer, or simply as a person, is solely up to me. I am the only one that can decide if I want to stay stuck in the same level of knowledge or improve by building upon the knowledge I acquire. This also means that I have to accept that there are other people who are much better than I am, such as my peers, but they do not discourage me. On the contrary, they are someone to look up to and if they are willing to share that knowledge, it is something I could take advantage of.

The sophistication of my work is high. I put hard work and effort into what I do that I would not be embarrassed to show it to other people. I feel my work speaks of me therefore I must make it speak well of me. The greatest example for this would be my final decision map, which is displayed in the following section. A work that was done almost entirely by me, from the flow to icons with the exception of the font, I believe the final outcome is something that can be pinned on Pinterest.

Feedback to me is meaningful. It has allowed me to see where it is that I need improvement and generally that is what has helped me grow as a designer. This can be seen in the second and third maps we created for class. For the second map, which was the graphing map, my first draft ended up looking like this:

First draft of graphing map

After being critiques by one of my peers and having taken her advice, I applied that to my final graph map. The result was a much cleaner outcome.

Final graph map

This too occurred with my cognitive thinking map. The first draft seemed incomplete due to lack of visual variation, such as colors. Also, I was critiques over its “blocky” feel.

First draft with pencil markings for changes

The person critiquing my work gave me advice on how to improve the lines connecting the questions to the answers. His critique allowed me to improve from the first draft to the final draft, which I consider one of the outcomes I am the most proud of.

Final decision map

The level at which I challenge myself is intense. For example, the first map we created in class had to include data through chloroplyth.

For my map, I proposed to map the lamp posts around campus to show the amount of light within an area at night. In order to do that, I had to count lamp post by lamp post, measure the cast of light, and record it on my map. Though I did not finish adding all of the lamp posts to the map, even though the map was already due, my personal next step for this map is to keep working and continue adding the lamp posts I am missing. After that, a possible next step would be turning it into an interactive map in which people can carry on their phone and update it to see if it is accurate at the time, in case a lamp post is not working or removed. Also, I just recently learned the basics of Adobe After Effects and learned about the 3D tools such as projection mapping. That is a skill I am looking forward to learn.

Because this class heavily depends on critiques, my contribution to the climate is warm. I, just like everyone in the class, has something to contribute to the table. My presence and contribution to the class is imperative for the benefit of the class. Like I said before, I find critique to be extremely important and it is what has helped me recognize areas of improvement. If I were to not contribute to the class, I would be denying someone of this step towards growth.

Though I do not spend the same amount of hours practicing everyday, the use of my practice time is consistent. I can say that even if I practice half an hour or two hours, I always make progress by learning something new and applying it to my work. Therefore no time is misused.

After taking this class, I will feel guilty if I do not create my own icons and images for my own work. All of my work throughout the semester has entirely been made by me, of course with the exception of fonts. The class also reinforced the importance of constructive criticism and it is something that I will always look forwards to in future classes for future projects. Therefore, because of the progress I have made in my work, I give myself an A.

I took advantage of this first symbol project to carry on with summer project I did not  get around to work on. The plan was to design a logo for an imaginary coffee shop that I have had in mind for a while but I simply did not know how or where to start. When this project came up, we were asked if we had something that required symbols. I knew I could use this imaginary coffee shop as my topic, the big idea, and so I had a starting point to a six week long process.

After having a topic, I had to figure out 9 words that were related to the topic and with one another. The purpose behind these 9 words was to look at the topic through different perspectives in order to get to a symbol, which does not look like a thing but is representative of something, in this case a coffee shop. In order to get to these 9 words, I first read Brian Westover’s “12 Surefire Brainstorming Techniques” and after it, I decided to use the technique of free-writing along with word association.

The way to get to these words was through writing words that came up from the thought of the original. For example, I started with coffee, being the closest to the topic, and from there I wrote words that came up in my mind at the sound of it, such as beans, aroma, and roast. I tried doing that again with those other words and so on until I had a variety of words to choose from. I also made a Pinterest board where I collected images based off of these words and also helped me come up with other words.

I chose the final 9 words based off what I was supposed to do with them. I was to divide them into three sections consisting of three words each. I had to trace a photograph of three words, stylize an image of other three, and create an abstract representation of the last three. Therefore, I chose words that would make this process easier leaving actual objects for being traced or stylized and choosing adjectives for abstract representations.

For the third week, I traced the photographs, which I found on Flickr through the Creative Commons license, of the words beans, cup, and bread which came from the word sweet. I also made three more icons by drawing the the words book, cottage, and aroma in my own natural style.

I found the tracing to be the easiest step of the process and thought stylize would be easier since it would be in my own drawing style. However, I did have trouble when making my own drawing of the house, especially for a symbol. The problem was that my first drawing for the word cottage was too intricate and for the purpose of this project was not okay. If this overly-intricate drawing was to be a symbol, it would not be able to scale down without losing these small details.

I kept working on new drawings by taking away those extra details to make it look more like a symbol, which must be simple yet in its simpleness still retain that essence of what it is representing. After doing several drawings, I had a couple of options to choose from. I decided to have also have more options for the other words that way I had more to work with and more possible combinations which were going to be a result through hybridizing.

The fourth week I had to create the abstract symbols, which were the easiest for me to do. The goal was to make this symbol not look like anything and for this I had to look at the word from different angles. The word association technique was very helpful in this case because I could expand from the main word yet still be associated with it.

For the fifth week, I already had symbols for the 9 words and it was time for hybridizing. Initially, I went through this process by merging two different symbols, each from a different word, to become one. I would crop part of one to fit into the other and create a balanced symbol. While I was making these symbols, I had to lose the fear of destroying them for the purpose of this new creation but at the same time I kept in mind that each symbol’s essence should be present within the new symbol.

At first, I felt I had done a good job reaching this point in which the new symbol had characteristics of the parent symbols and no one more dominant than the other.but the problem was that I only merged them but not really massage them into creating a new form. In other words, it seemed like one symbols was just really placed with another symbol to create one, but not a mixture of both. This was noted by the presence of generic forms such as circles and lines that could easily be created without any involvement of pathfinder.

The following step was to massage these forms. I had to move on from these basic symbols and evolve them to more nuanced and unique creations. I had to take ownership. Of course, the principles of design, such as balance and harmony, and the weight of the symbol, for the purpose of scaling, were still at play. I always had to keep in mind the ability to scale the image as small as 0.15 inches without losing its character.

By the sixth week, I was down to choosing my 3 favorite symbols and creating 3 iterations of each one. By this time I already had been through a couple of critiques through which I picked up what to work and improve on as well as picked up technical skills to come up with a more developed design.

In all, I feel extremely satisfied with the outcome of my symbols. These symbols are the result of various critiques, massaging, and scaling tests as small as the height of a 12pt line of type. They are simple, not overly-detailed, and feel like a baby, a new creation evolved from the original symbols.