The first project of the year was the homecoming package: students were assigned to make a homecoming poster, infographic, breakfast invite for the court candidates, and finally tickets. The project took about a month just a week or two before homecoming. Some challenges that were faced along the way were communication with group member(s), coming up with completely different ideas since the colors and general theme made it hard to think of new ideas. During this project, I learned there is a lot of outside work required to be able to complete a project on time. I found myself coming in more often than not. Feedback received for this project was mostly from group members before we submitted our project. During this project I changed the amount of time I came in from outside of class to put extra work into a project. Overall this project was a good eye-opener on how to better communication with group members in the future.
Greeting Card
The second project of this year was a greeting card. For this project, we were required to make a welcome or different type of card. In my case, I decided to make a fall card because in my opinion,fall is a time of year that appears to be very welcoming and the neutral season that most people seem to like. In total, the project took about a month and a half. First we had to sketch some ideas of what our card would look like. Next we had to make a big version of what we wanted our type to look like and then fill it in with a sharpie, and scan it into the computer. We then designed our card, and finished it off. Some challenges I faced were getting the final hand written version perfect because otherwise, it wouldn't look good when it were to be scanned in. Some feedback I was given was color choice, hierarchy, and contrast. The color issue I had just came down to a couple tones, and it wasn't too long before I found the colors I was going to use. Hierarchy came into play when I was trying to find a background wood texture. At first I had a lighter wood for my texture when I needed a darker color for better contrast. Overall my card turned out better than I had hoped and I gained some much needed experience from this project.
Branding
The third project that was assigned this year was the branding project. Trunks (my company's name) is a fictional company that sells swim trunks. The process in which my company was created - as a class we picked a random animal, number, two letters, and a mineral. The animal I picked was an elephant, the number 12, the letters being C & O, and my mineral was Topaz. The project took a month or two to complete and proved to be much more work than most had imagined. The main challenge I faced was coming up with new ideas for different logos. Logo design has always been one of my weak points, which I hope over time that will change and that it will eventually become second nature to me. This project changed the way I approach completing a specific task-to plan out how to complete something instead of doing it within a day or two. Overall this project turned out very good and the overall theme was appealing to me and all of my design packaged well together.Time Management
This semester I had used my time in class very efficiently in comparison to last year. In class I have been always working on something graphic design related. Even if I were to "finish a project early" that wouldn't cause me to stop working. I may take a break from that project for a little and then come back later with a fresh pair of eyes to see the project from a new perspective and find any minor or big changes I could make to improve it. So far this year I haven't completed any projects early but at most a day or two before they are due. This has allowed me to make some last minute changes to better my projects. When it comes to working outside of class I often find myself coming in after school to work and sometimes staying late to make sure a project is completed on time and that it looks good.
Strengths & Weaknesses
In class I have found that my main strength is finding something I like, and going in that direction when working on a project. For example, when we were assigned the greeting card I quickly found something I liked and went in that direction and it bettered my project as the result. However I am aware that I have quite a few weaknesses that I need to work on. The main one is always having new ideas on how to approach a project. 9 times out of 10 the longest and/or hardest part of every project for me is sketching. I will have a couple of great ideas and then get stumped on what to do next. This is something I believe has changed from the current project we are working on but still has been one of my weakest areas I need to work on to be successful.
Summary
In conclusion this has been a very successful semester and plan to do the same the next. This semester the thing I've liked the most has been that I have gotten to know all of the other seniors this year as opposed to the people in my corner like last year. I also don't think I would change anything. I've really enjoyed how this class has been going this semester and hope it will be even better the next! The big take-away that I will get from this semester is that as long as I work hard that I will continue to grow in this class and be successful. My goal for next semester is to grow even further as a designer and be better prepared for college. Overall this has been a very successful first semester and hope for the next to be even better.
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