multimedia experience, the reflection.

Nervous yet excited, is where I would have placed myself when this project started. I was hopeful that the group would end up with this nice project; it was just the getting there that I was a bit nervous about. Our friendship has continued to build over the semesters since sophomore year first semester, when we slowly started to all three hangout in Studio. We each had different aspects that we can and did bring to the team, which I think is what really helped + hurt us.

The initial start of figuring the community really had us unsure of where to go because we have a bit of variety of interest; thus choosing something that all three of us agreed on was the difficult moment. Also, our visual styles as well as our wording style started to create walls throughout the project. Although we did not stick with our initial chosen community, I think that we ended in a much better place.

Due to using those outside of our direct contact groups and those not attending KCAI we struggled with making sure that we had the right type of content to not only portray the community, but to also rise to our standards (which yes, are a bit high). Not having much previous exposure to video cameras, movie software and three member collaborative teams, we really ran into issues from the final design stage to the final video.

We did however; end in a pretty nice place with the various technologies with a similar stylistic feel. There still is much work that can be made with the video in forms of an overall or clearer narrative, as well as through camera shots. I know that the three of us have talked about further refining this video to make it a piece that we are more proud of and hopefully this happens.

design systems, the reflection.

I can’t say that I was super excited for this class when it started, not in the dreading it, but in feeling like it was going to become one of my largest failures. I’ve continued to struggle with the concept of identity. We spend our whole lives discovering + defining to later rediscover and redefine ourselves, yet somehow I was to recreate an identity for an organization, not even an individual. I’ve struggled with my own identity for my life, so trying to create someone else’s was really intimidating for me.

I struggled throughout this project, trying to break away from this very gridded and safe aesthetics that often uses Helvetica that I personally have an attachment to. I started to fall into that safe aesthetic in the beginning of the project. So I delved more into research, which helped to create more of an overall concept, and later when I ran into more difficulty I was encouraged to write it out.

That was one of the best pieces of advice that I received. The content that I actually wrote during that moment ended up guiding the story throughout the rebrand book. I still struggled a bit while using that written content to guide my design pieces. I ended up looking at the overall themes between the content that I had written, the research that I had originally done and KC Fringe’s current social media promotion.

I think that even though I still have stuff to change or further refine on the various touchpoints and pieces of promotion that I created, I ended in a rather nice place. It is one of my most successful pieces that I would say that I’ve created to date. The system represents KC Fringe Festival, as well as promotes it in what I hope is a better light than their previous logo. My system focused more on the idea of what the festival was like and what people could expect to see.

visual advocacy, the reflection.

I really loved the experience of designing for social change. I'm pretty passionate about helping others that truly need the help, connecting with people + creating impact. I'm addicted to stories + information, both of which directly connected to working with Manheim Park + designing for social change in general. There also is this direct feedback + positive emotional state that comes from helping others that truly appreciate what you did for them. I've always been connected with volunteering and working with those who didn't have the greatest start in life and then overcame it. There is so much power in that push for helping others, especially when and make a name for their self...and to be able to help is a great feeling; it brings importance + life + pride back into my life. Designing for social change + volunteering, truly is giving back with no expectations of reciprocation + it's one of the best feelings. I just want to make an impact + be helpful + possibly be remembered somewhere in there; we are but the footprint that we leave, it's up to the finder to add meaning to it. So it was definitely an enriching + overall good experience for me.

From the interaction that we had with community members, our work appeared to have a positive impact on them. In the beginning of our interactions, they seemed pumped about the idea of us helping. Throughout the process, all the way to the end, they seemed more excited each time that we met. The community members were excited that we: listened to what they had to say, took interest in them and created work that aimed at what they were needing.

Overall it was an interesting way to spend a semester + definitely was a semester of more involvement within the Kansas City community. I connected with more proactive + motivated individuals within the community as well, which is always a great person to keep contact with, you never know when you may need to make contact with them again.

user experience. my experience. reflection.

User Experience has been an enigma, full of its successes and not so successful aspects encompassing all projects: the practical, persuasive, and poetic.

     Success-wise, I’m most proud of the poetic project. We successfully created a system that not only encouraged participation of the intended age group, but also would get families to travel throughout the Kansas City Sculpture Park to find all six sculptures. This project as well as the practical really forced me out of my comfort zone this semester.

     Failure-wise, the persuasive was my golden ticket; I got too caught up on the unknown that I forgot to leap and explore.

     Impact-wise, I think the struggle with the persuasive really pushed me into gear with decisions with the poetic. These projects focused on different aspects that my future design work will be based on: practical, persuasive, poetic. 

vizcom2. v2. kidwell class. reflect.

I honestly had no idea what exactly was going to be covered in this class, as based off of the name it was a continuation in my mind off Visual Communication1(VisCom1), except there was a different professor. I was honestly waiting the first day to receive a subject that I would have the whole term, same as VisCom1; we never did. We dived into terms day one and I believe that is the day that we took a class photo.

the day that we all decided to wear dark colors. ;)

It's been an interesting semester, full of many frustrations and break downs on my side due to this class. Our first poster had become my favorite project...the first project at KCAI that I didn't hate; I was progressing. I didn't fully know how, but assumed either I was growing, it was Kidwell's doing, or something else. I went back at the end of the semester with a better head on my shoulders and reworked on the train poster. I am still proud of the poster; I know work still can be done, but I am on the road to effective communication. I really strove to make myself work and grow, so I had pushed myself to use no images or heavy colors, only text. It was an extremely difficult task, but I needed to know how far I could push myself and still succeed. I ended up successfully portraying both emotional and informational perspectives in my California Zephyr AMTRAK train poster.

The second project forced me to work with a partner; I chose someone who I was attempting to design like, Wendy is awesome. I thought with her design abilities and my words/concepts we could take over the design world! We didn't do that yet, but one day we will. It was a bit of a difficult partnership as we both had our own ways of completing projects, but we ended up with a fairly successful How-To that I think incorporated both of our styles. 

The last project as basically rebranding, even though it wasn't really rebranding. This project was one of the most difficult for me during the semester because we needed to narrow on one pop culture reference and change how it is seen, make it a better icon of culture. I put a lot of research into this project, as well as past knowledge as a fan of David Bowie. The most exciting and interesting part of the project for me was using our 8 visual elements to create a t-shirt design, calling card, CD + case and a website. 

Throughout this course I learned more about the ways to work in a partnership, combining not only both schedules, personalities, and automatic design responses. What I mean is how we, as designers naturally respond to a given design problem/prompt. I also learned more about making smaller, subtle changes in typography, color, and lines to add emphasis, following along the lines of "less is more." I have definitely changed as a designer, and become more calmed with my design skills. I still need to figure out how to push myself further than I am comfortable going; that is one of my major setbacks as a designer.

typography. reflection.

The literal definition based on typography reflection reminds me of the first project this semester that I struggled greatly with. I won’t stray from the truth, I wanted to quit. I didn’t know how to make a typography exercise represent the seven design elements: anomaly, convention, direction, gradation, repetition, space, and texture and the quote that we had chosen in relation to design. Not only did we need to do this digital, but also analog. It was one of the most difficult assignments that I had done so far. I am used to working abstract, but it was too difficult for me to figure out how to bring all of those ideas together to create one cohesive unit. I feel that by the end of the project, it made more sense to me, but I still greatly struggled with how you make letterforms look like an idea, that people could understand. This project ended with a window wrap, which I thought was an interesting application. I had never really thought about how much work goes into creating window wraps.

The second project, the design lecture poster had one of the largest impacts on me this semester. It began with research on our assigned graphic designer, mine was April Greiman. Being an avid research buff I threw myself into the research. It was an extremely rewarding process because I was able to learn more about a designer’s process and inspirations. I then was able to look more into my own process and inspirations, which is actually the largest part of being a designer, the process to the final product. I also worked more with layout and attempted to be “less Swiss” as I often have a tendency to be. My edits to my poster post the final iteration show my progression with typography. It is still a work in progress, BUT I am getting closer to where I should be at the end of sophomore year.

I have gotten better with adding emphasis to words by only making small differences such as using bold and roman together bring emphasis versus using smaller roman text and larger bold text. I am finding the ability to add just a bit of emphasis instead of an in your face extremes. This allows my work to look more refined, elegant and thought out; which is what I am trying to prove with my personal style.  Overall I know I still have work to do but I know by adding subtle differences I will be able to keep a cohesive look that is effective and not distracting.

communication theory is a way of life

When we first started this class, I was nervous yet excited. I had yet to be as excited about any class as I was this one. I am a lover of research due to my previous major and life choices. I helped one of my professors at my previous school do research for the book that she was writing; I also formatted her Works Cited pages for the book. Phi Theta Kappa, international honor society involvement had a large impact on my love of researching and learning. We had to create projects that related to an honors study topic. While I was part of Phi Theta Kappa the study topics were: The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges, and Consequences and The Democratization of Information: Power, Peril & Promise. I am just a lover of information, which also tied in nicely to my previous major of English & Writing. So, after the first day I was the most excited to do research, although we had done research for previous projects, this class was based on researching, learning, and then creating.

The one thing that I have struggled with for a while is the act of communicating, which may be why I keep choosing careers that cause me to focus on communication; I like the challenge, but also communication is such a fundamental tool that I really need to get better at. The overall focus of this class was communicating and the basics of how to effectively communicate, which was the most amazing thing ever. Basically it was a semester long tutorial about how to communicate, and I feel that I am definitely on my way to communicating better. Before I had incorporated the use of comparisons, but through tropes I learned more about different kinds of comparisons and how they can support or alter my intended message. This leads me to believe that I will be more specific about what comparisons I end up using when I talk to specific people. Sometimes there are the times that one needs to be more abstract or focus on explaining a comparison on a logical, emotional, or ethical way to be more efficient.

Going along with that, what we learned were the basics for design. These basics are what we will be using in all design pieces. Although we may not always be using ALL of the parts of the communication process that we learned, we will use all of them at one point or another in our career. Some of the elements will be used more often than others, but each holds a specific purpose. What this class has really does, is push me more into wanting to research design and design theory. I was engrossed with what we learned. I had some difficulty in creating design based on what we learned that was quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed researching and learning about our field. I really think that in order to understand design now, we need to know about where design and its theories came from. Thus this summer I will be doing more educational reading on design and can’t wait.

reflection: describe a scene that doesn't exist

I was constantly plagued by struggles in this class. It's as if my eyes, hands, and mind were afraid to create and explore. The class started out difficult - although I'd seen the color wheel before and done projects related to it, I wasn't used to being quizzed on it repeatedly. I came face-to-face with my fear of the camera tripod. It was a only half-admitted fear, but one that I seemed to stray from. I wasn't used to being confined to one specific setting, unless I wanted to spend more time resetting it. I'm impatient, despite all that I've struggled through in different situations, I like the feeling of instant satisfaction. With a tripod, it's the long run that's the real prize, coincidentally it's the only one that matters.

With this course I also learned how difficult it can be to photograph some materials. In this specific instance I am referencing mirrors, but not only a couple mirrors, but pieces, all aiming different directions. I was faced with the struggle in this project of not only preventing myself and my surroundings from being in the reflections but the ability to create a successful message within one confined photo shoot. I was not used to using various objects within a scene to create a statement that may or may not be understood by the user.

In my most favorite, but most difficult to start project I learned more than I thought I would. This may sound like a negative statement, but I mean it in the most sincere way. I used digital manipulation skills that some may call "my style," but I did each with reason. Within each composition I was trying to portray a certain idea through manipulation of images and later the incorporation of text. I was challenged by taking and combining images in the best way to portray the message. I was then challenged again in the adding of text to the book cover compositions. I was more in my element of designing with layout, but also struggled with incorporating text that went along with the image. My main struggle was trying to make the typography speak at a matching level to the image on the covers.

I definitely became more comfortable with recognizing colors in a scene and how they can add to a meaning. The ability to describe and illustrate a story through photographs is the main lesson that I take from this class. I know that I am still struggling with the successful conquer of this concept, but I am getting closer to an acceptable level for this point in my career.

It's Quantity Working to Quality : my reflection

I really had no idea what this class was all about, prior to the first day.  Coming in as a transfer student with graphic design and writing as my background, I figured visual communication might be some kind of wrapping of the two.  This is kind of what the class was like.  I definitely learned more about time management than I already knew.  I was used to a workload, but I was not use to a high quality workload. 

One of the largest concepts that I started to learn and am still trying to push myself to use it to its fullest is starting at quantity and working to quality.  My mind is set up at focusing on quality right away, not really allowing a large number of tests to be done on any project.  I have a fear of being wrong, which is what I often equate with design concepts that don’t work.  But I am slowly starting to accept quantity working to quality.

I also learned more about connotation and how everything has more connotations that we may realize.  To go along with this, one of the largest things that I realized was how complex one word can be.  I mean the whole semester’s assignments were based on one word that we were given.  All of the projects that we did were in no way exactly the same; instead it was different ways of viewing and portraying an object.  Although during the semester it was most likely more difficult for me to look at the word lawn and pull different aspects from it; but I am now happy that we did this.  It forced me to realize how complex even a most “basic word” is and how often we forget that and simply take a word at face value.

My Life Is Grids: a reflection

I came to KCAI as a transfer student most excited for Typography class.  At my previous school, there was one main Typography class that I had to take for my Associates in Graphic Design; that class started to change my thoughts on text and how to effectively incorporate it into design.  So, I was excited to continue to learn more about typography while at KCAI.  This was the class that I struggled with immensely in the beginning.  I started to have more difficulty with the assignments; I wasn’t used to being dedicated to iterations, variations, craft, and wasn’t comfortable using my voice to vocally state my thoughts.

This class definitely reinforced the terminology that I’m still pushing to fully understand, remember and use.  Another thing I definitely learned in this class is an emphasis on craft and how it can really make or break the piece.  I also was able to relive, re-love, and relearn my love of grids.  I am sure that grids will forever define my life; in the way that I organize, eat, sleep, and attempt to maintain sanity in this design world of ours.  Grids make and break sense, as well as rules of design.  This is what I will continue to live my life by.

Even though I started this class shaky on my craft, time management, and terminology; that has all greatly improved.  Although I’m still working on the terminology, my craft and time management has been restored to a higher level.  Time management is definitely something that I prided myself on at my last school, but I realized I was not as good at time management and quality as I should be.  So Type1 class forced me to hit more constant deadlines with a higher quality of work.