sofinelli

[sofinelli]

Final Reflection

This semester has been an impactful few months that I am ultimately proud of! My original response to this project was to explore someone else's story rather than my own with the biographical telling of Elornor Rosevelt's life. While that could have been interesting I doubt it would have been as challenging as the topic I went with instead.

My ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder) has really only been something I've spoken about with my family and close friends. It's something I have found challenging to recoincile my feelings towards. This project allowed me to explore these thoughts in a tactile and visual way. Although scary to present to my peers, I have found it has helped me better explain my expierence to those around me. I really enjoyed the way this class pushed me to be voulnerable and experiment.

The only regret I have is making my on screen portion too complicated. I had it in my head the way I wanted to see it come to life but due to a lack of time throughout the semester I was unable to fully realize what I had envisioned. I was able to convey what I wanted to in basic terms but not seeing it fully come together was a bit disheartening. The lesson of K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) is still one I really need to embrace moving forward. For the sake of my projects and my sanity.

All in all I really enjoyed this class and seeing the individual stories of my peers come to life. In fact seeing everyone's stories come together was my favorite part of the class. As difficult as it was to open my self up I found so much comfort in going through this expierence with everyone else! I am so thankful to have been able to take this class and explore the parts of myself I have trouble expressing.

[sofinelli]

Week 8

This week's reading explored real life examples of designers using their craft and creativity to actively improve their community. My favorite of all of them was the replate concept. It reminds me of a grassroots ad council campaign or PSA. No money or profit, just the spread of useful information that can help those around you. Such a simple application of design was able to draw attention and serve the underserved in communities. That one really felt powerful to me becuase it is able to do so much with objectively very little. It's so cool to think for a couple of cents a piece of paper can encourage someone to make a change in their routine that results in a stranger being fed. This reading again reminded me of the impact we can have as designers.

This week's process has been a bit tedious but rewarding! Compared to my screen concept this aspect of the project has been coming together relatively quickly. I'm still having a lot of fun with it and I look forward to seeing how the piece will come together!!

[sofinelli]

Week 7

This week's reading took a very interesting look into how designers approach free speech and an example of a difference in opinion. The conversation back and forth regarding the poster exposed an issue within how we approach certian topics as a society. In the begining of the reading the author states that in order to prevent the spread of hate speech and bigotry there are compromised freedoms we face in return. The piece the author submitted work to capture a period of history that is undoubtably ugly and disturbing by utalizing an image that many find triggering due to the hate it represents. The work aimed to work against the evil the symbol represented but due to how often it has been used to hurt others that message was lost and unable to be shown. Overall this reading did a good job of explaining both sides but ultimately showcasing an issue in society we face in terms of free speech.

This week I continued progress on my packaging by scultping the brain puzzle.

[sofinelli]

Week Six

Discussed in this week's reading, was the issue of plagiarism. I found that in following this week's artist discussions about Ai this was an interesting comparison in thought. The author does a good job of covering all angles of the argument to best explore the topic. Concluding this text the author makes the same point I felt I came to following the AI discussions, "It's no damned fun." Both plagiarism and the use of ai cut out what I would argue to be the most critical portions of process necessary for quality work. This parallel makes me wonder if an overuse of Ai could be considered plagiarism. The data sets used to create the Ai are other people's uncredited work. This raises the question of if something is made largely using Ai, even though the user inputted the prompt, could they be committing plagiarism? This was an interesting reading that raised some pretty interesting thoughts!

Progress on my packaging has gone well and I've decided to package a puzzle of a brain. I'm sourcing materials and continuing to develop what I want the final product to look like. I believe the most interesting thing to figure out will be how I will approach the text on the package. I hope to use kraft board so I'm not sure if I can print directly onto it. I might go in by hand and ink all what I hope to include but I fear my hand writing is too shaky/sloppy for a convincing design. I'm interested in exploring the different ways to approach this!

[sofinelli]

Week Five

This week's reading included the many ways designers have used their art as a way to promote change. I really enjoyed witnessing the creativity of each work and reading the accompanying text explaining the context surrounding it. I think my favorite was the 29 reasons to vote due to its intricate illustrations and ability to represent complicated debates visually. I found myself looking at that piece the longest and thinking about what each symbol represented. I definitely believe the artist was successful in creating a conversation starter.

This week we moved past our on screen project and onto our packaging design. This weekend, now that I have more of my supplies, I plan on spending more time on my screen project and hopefully making more progress. Truthfully I'm not entirely sure what my packaging for this project will look like but I will also take time this weekend to further develop my ideas.

[sofinelli]

Week Four

My immediate thoughts while reading Ken Garland's text were that I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style. He did a fantastic job of explaining the situation while simultaneously expressing his views through descriptive language. His examination of corporate hierarchy and its circumvention was very interesting, especially from the viewpoint of a graphic designer involved in branding.

I interpreted Garland's text as providing an overall sense of the performance seen within organizations. The "song and dance" of corporate meetings contrasted with the more genuine conversations over lunch poked holes into how the system truly operates. I appreciated how he concluded by saying that, given the two options, he would rather be irresponsible if being responsible meant sticking to business as usual.

This week, I faced some health difficulties, but thankfully, I seem to be doing better now. My main focus this week was researching various automaton mechanisms and sourcing the required materials. This weekend, it's time for me to put all of my preparation into motion!(Literally and figuratively!)

[sofinelli]

Week Three

This weeks reading further explored how design can be used to help one's community. As someone who enjoys service work I more often find myself in roles outside of creative tasks simply because those are the roles that are predesignated. This reading pointed out the ways in which design can be a needed asset to a service or organization. I think moving forward I'll try and find volunteer opportunities where I can do some creative work alongside the other work that needs to be done.

This week we took a step back to explore the direction we hope to go as well as review of of our project's process. My goal after college is to work in some capacity with children's media. A specific goal I explored was working with PBS Kids. Having grown up on their programming I've always admired their messaging and content. After Tuesday's discussion I fell into a rabbit hole exploring their history, organizational structure and job opportunities. What I found was that their creative team was much smaller than I originally thought. As much as I would still love to work there I now see how difficult that goal might be. I think this week pushed me to really consider what my future might look like past college. On Thursday I received great critique and tips on how to move forward in my project which I really appreciated!

[sofinelli]

Snow Week!

This week's reading explored design that has the ability to make a positive impact. I enjoyed seeing the broad range of applications of design and reading about their impacts. I especially liked how Hunt explained what being a "responsible" designer meant to him. Being aware is something I've noticed creative people do quite well. We have a tendency to observe the world around us in ways that not everyone does. I think the biggest responsibility we have when crafting design is applying what we have observed in a meaningful way.

Although I missed being in class with everyone, I found the snow week to be a great time for me to explore what I want to do with this project further. I've decided to visualize my experience of being neurodivergent and explore how it has impacted me through this project. During the break, I revisited an old interest of mine—automatons. This mechanical art form, I think, will be an interesting way to visualize how my brain operates.

[sofinelli]

This first week's reading was especially interesting and surprising due to its publication date. Much of what it covered felt so relevant to today that I assumed it was modern. I was surprised to find that it was from 1993! It was enlightening to see how, in some respects, little has changed in 30 years. There were multiple instances where I related what the author mentioned in the text to modern trends in the design field today. The foremost being the corporate art style. This style, in my mind, is what Katherine McCoy refers to when she mentions the tendency in design to erase the artist's personal perspective and identity to better accommodate the largest audience and promote a product. The result of this practice feels formulaic and disingenuous to the audience, as it only speaks to them as consumers. This reading was a great reminder that good design stems from the human perspective and experiences of the designer. Erasing yourself from your design and limiting your voice can result in impersonal and unimportant work. This was a great reading to frame our project.

Going into this week I had outlined a project that would focus on telling the life story of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a remarkable woman, but I realized I really only picked her story because it was safe. I've told personal stories before through my work but have always found a way to make it indirectly about me rather than just having it be about me. Moving forward I plan on telling a story specific to my perspective through this project to step further outside my comfort zone as an artist.