This project consisted on getting to know Cesar Chavez St. We had to create a book about Cesar Chavez St. and we got to pick the topic. The hardest part of this project was the interviews because for some people it can be an emotional subject and they would not feel comfortable talking about it. I really liked the outcome of this project because I put a lot of effort on it. I would say that I have to work on my binding skills and cutting the spreads straight.
For this project we had to explore Cesar Chavez St. and take photos of each address. One photo of the full house and 3 more of details from that house. After that we had to make GIFS from the photos. I really enjoyed this project because I got to practice my animation skills.
My target of expert hours for this semester is 256 hours. For half of the semester I had 142 hours and I intended to have 256+ hours by the end of the semester. I ended up with 252 hours and I gathered most of my hours working outside of class.
Social/Emotional Development
Mature
This half of the semester I believe I moved from in between mature-young level to mature because I turned in my project on time and stayed on track with it. I set aside personal problems and worked at home on the Conference Book.
Sophistication of your work
Medium
In this category I do not feel I improved the sophistication of my work. I did learn a lot from the Conference Book but I know that I could have done much better on the project. I tried to make it look sophisticated but it was very challenging.
Use of feedback
Meaningful
Although I did not attend class frequently, I would ask some classmates for feedback. Since I missed crit days I listened to the feedback from outside of class and made a lot of changes on my project. I feel that the feedback given to me was very meaningful and it is projected on my project.
Level of challenge to yourself
Intense
This half of the semester was very challenging for me. It was my first time working on a long book and it was very stressful. First of all, I had a very hard time deciding were the text would go, how to accommodate what, etc. Second, it was hard for me to decide on the color scheme and what could help the book not look very simple.
Contribution on climate
Cold
Unfortunately for this category I did not do a good job. I missed a lot of crit days and did not contribute for my classmates work. I would give feedback to them outside of class but still I do not think I did by best.
Use of practice time
Consistent
Although I missed class frequently, I did work a lot at home. Like I have said on previous reflections, I like what I do so I do not mind working a lot at home. I like to take my time and revise everything before turning it in and I will try to fix any detail until I feel satisfied with my work.
Overall, I think I did good on this semester. I turned in my projects on time and I was satisfied with them. This last project was a challenge and I know I can do better; but I am still happy that I got it done because it was my first time working on anything similar. I believe I gained a lot of knowledge from this semester and improved my skills on Adobe programs. Considering that I did challenge myself and worked hard on the projects I would like to have an A but due to my absences I think I deserve a B for the semester.
This project consisted of designing the conference booklet with the information given to the class. It was a hard and time consuming project because there was a lot of content. I mostly took time on deciding the order of the content and once I figured that out I started thinking on color scheme. I put effort in this project but I know that it can be improved.
My target of expert hours for this semester is 256 hours. For half of the semester I was calculating to have 128 hours but I exceeded my target having a total of 142 hours in total. I believe I gathered most of my hours working outside of class and it shows that I am doing good with the use of my practice.
Social / Emotional Development
Mature – young
I believe that this half of the semester I stayed in between a young and mature level like last year because I am still letting things outside of school affect me. I still tried my best and turned in the weather report project and the latch exercises on time. I work at home and when possible I go to the lab in school to keep working on my projects. I keep on with my work and that is why I say that I do not fall in the young level completely but I am planning to get out of that level completely and stay in the mature level.
Sophistication of your work
High
I believe I have progressed a lot in my work this half of the semester. It had been a long time since I used after effects for motion and I am glad o got to better my skills at the program. I spent a lot of time and made every piece of the weather report in illustrator which I am very happy with. I learned how to move text with paths at the beginning of the semester in the LATCH practice and I applied that in the weather report.
Use of feedback
Useful
I consider feedback very important for my projects because it helps me to better my project. Sometimes I can get very attached to an idea that might not be the best for my project and with the feedback from my classmates I can realize that there are better ways to execute my project. The reason I think this half of the semester the feedback useful and not meaningful is because I missed some critique days and I didn’t received the enough feedback I would have like to.
Level of challenge to yourself
Medium
I feel that this half of the semester was quite of a challenge but not to the level that it was intense. It was a challenge to remember how to use after effects but it was more enjoyable than challenging. Making the pieces in illustrator was kind of a challenge too but it was applying the knowledge from last semester.
Contribution to climate
Room Temp
I think this connects back to feedback because since I missed some critique days I could not give my classmates enough feedback but whenever I had the chance even outside of class I would give them feedback. Sometimes they would ask me and I would critique their work so they could have another opinion.
Use of practice time
Consistent
The time that I spend practicing is very consistent. I not only work at school and during class but I like to work at home too. I like what I do so I do not mind working at home for long times. I like to polish my work so whenever I am not satisfied with something I work on it until I feel that is ready to turn in. After deadlines if I see something that bothers me I go back and work on it so that is why I feel that my use of practice is very consistent.
For this project, I had to pick a location from my classmates’ “Rules” project and make a video about the location. I also had to make a poster with the Knockout typeface of the location’s name.
This project consisted on getting to know Knockout typeface. We had to alter the typeface in the word “Desire” and we got to choose from several options such as pattern, image, transform, distort, etc.
In this project cohesiveness was very important when making choices on what to do. I thought of cohesiveness when looking at the movement. I looked out for cohesiveness too so everything could fall into place and not look unorganized and cramped together.
The color palette is important for this project because color has a meaning. For example in my project I picked red for the locator of the cities because it calls out attention and drags the eye there. I also picked red for high temperatures and blue for low temperatures portraying cool and warm through the color. I picked colors for the background thinking of not making the context less important by distracting the viewer by the color of the background.
I also thought of legibility when I picked the typefaces for the names of the cities. I was trying to go for a typeface that sort of portrays each city but for some the typeface was not easy to read therefore I looked for a similar one but that was easy to read. I made those decisions for the intro and the first latch but because my second latch has more movement I made a decision to change my typeface to a Sans Serif so it would be more legible, cleaner and it looked more cohesive.
From the projects of my classmates I learned that I made some poor decisions on the color palette. I think I have more colors from the palette than they do. The fact of not having many colors works better for unity. I also noticed they used the same typeface through the whole project and it helps legibility because they looks cleaner.
Target Hours SP 15 – 260
Total expert hours during college – 1010
For this Spring semester I am calculating I will gather 270 expert hours since I have 2 classes of design both 2 hours each twice a week, a creative strategy class where I will get to design ads and the class is 1hr 45 min long and it is twice a week as well, and I am taking a Directed Studies class that is 4 hours long. In total around 14 hours per week I will spend designing. Since the semester is 15 weeks long my total hours for this semester will be 210 but I spend quite amount of time designing outside of class finishing assignments among other things. Since I gathered 225 expert hours last semester I want to try to spend more and I am calculating about 250 hours to 270 expert hours for this Spring semester.
The assignment consisted of creating an experience via audio and then to create a momentum. For the audio tour we chose two locations and we had to alter the instructions of the journey by talking about why is that path important to us. For the packages with buttons we altered the journey as well but this time with written instructions.
The first package of momentums is for Red Bud Isle and I pinned the buttons in the front so they would not be all over the plastic bag and I had my instructions on the back. I altered my instructions by not only going to that location but taking their dog with them.
The second package is for the Rowing Dock and for this one I had the buttons inside the plastic bag and the instructions were stapled to the plastic bag. I altered this journey by asking the person to experience it alone and during the sunset.