vhendersonarts346-02

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Final Reflection

This week has been focused on wrapping up my three projects, and getting my presentation ready for this Tuesday. I have to admit I'm nervous because I'm not that great at presentations but I also am anxious because this is one of the last college classes I will ever have (unless I pursue a masters but we will see). My book idea has been coming together well, and I plan on binding the pages this weekend. I need to practice a little because it honestly looks very challenging. But the result is beautiful.

As I reflect on this past week I will also consider the past four years at UofSC, before and after the GD+I program. I knew it was what I wanted to after my first semester freshman year, and after the end of my sophmore year I was so excited to finally be in the program. It has changed me for the better and created lasting connections between me and other designers and professors. The person and artist I was before the program would not recognize the person I've become or the work I make now. I am proud of myself and my peers that are graduating as well, and can't wait to make the next step!

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4/11 Progress Post

We were asynchronous this week so I tried using my time wisely for our last project, with our book. When prof Nace and I met last week I realized I had to dial back on what I wanted to do for time reasons, and instead of making paper myself I will probably go to If It's Paper and check out their stuff instead. This project is exciting because I feel like the book making will be therapeutic like Carly said in class but I also feel like it's hard for me to bring up a lot of what my book project is on. But it is probably a healthy process. On Thursday we also had a sample design project, which was to design something that would encourage younger people to stay off of their phone during meals. I chose a menu design, or more like a poster that looks like a menu, with a serious quote about how you don't want to miss out on time with your family. I figured that's the only time some people look up from their phones the whole meal so I replaced the only thing they're looking at "the food" with the words in the quote.

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4/4 Weekly Progress Report

During this week I had the chance to talk with Prof Nace and my classmates about my plan for the book assignment and have changed my idea around a lot. At first I wanted to make a set of coasters that would be in a box and would be able to tell a story, with each coaster being like a page. My peers and I came to the conclusion that it would be too close to a packaging assignment and although coasters would be on theme, the relationship I had was special, and not disposable or insignificant which is how we see coasters often. So the plan now is to do some more research on papers and bookbinding and incorporate the letters that were written to me in French.

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Weekly Progress Post

This week I was able to start thinking about my book project, and how I want it to tie together with my other projects but still stand out. I plan on using the same color scheme as I did for the first two projects, and I would like to somehow make a set of coasters that stack together in a box that can be taken out and read in order. I'm not sure if that would be considered more "packaging" because I would have to design a box as well but I want to find a way to make that work. The letterpress we discussed in class this week was very helpful and inspired me to look into different ways to play around with the texture of the paper coasters. I like the idea of having cotton ones. I also might consider a series of letterpresses cards, or something with printmaking. Thankfully I took printmaking my sophomore year and enjoyed it and got to learn a lot about the process. By next week I hope to have a clear plan and some tactile products for this project.

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3/21 Progress Update

This week has been really hectic for me, as the first week back from break, as well as with some personal events in my life. It's been alright and manageable but I am always keeping busy. I have continued working on my champagne label for my packing portion of my project, and decided on a name that suits the situation well. Toutes Nos Retrouvailles, or All our Reunions. I wanted the name to represent celebration and emotion, especially the kind that comes when reuniting with someone you care about, but to also have a playful and unserious feeling. When the guy from France and I were together everything was about having fun, and not taking any moment for granted or too seriously, because the time we had together was all we had and we had to make it work however we could. I am working on illustrations that will take the branding to the next level but for now I've made small bubbles that I've incorporated into one of the logos and some of the merch. There's a lot I want to do with this project and I'm looking forward to the rest of the work. This week and next will be spent illustrating, finding mockups, and making mockups!

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Week 7 Finding the Balance (pp. 180-184)

An interesting read this week in particular, with the new regulations on censorship regarding current politics. Even when this book was written the author was well aware of the dangers that come when silencing others, or being silenced yourself. It can be really scary to see creative work and art being taken from us to view. When I was in elementary school it wasn't that big of an issue, but my younger sister deals with censorship in school through books and movies being banned from her library. The most frustrating part is that some things are difficult to talk about and remember, but it's important that we do because if we don't, history will cease to be remembered. If we forget the tragedies and suffering that those endured before us then it was for nothing. The example here with the Nazi work is a perfect example of why we need to remember.

This week in class we worked on our first "speed run" design project and at first it threw me for a loop but then I was having a good time. In fact, it was one of my favorite design projects and it's better than some projects I've had that took days or over a week. I haven't tried working under that much pressure before but it might be worth it for me to try more prompts to keep me on my toes. I also did more research on my packaging design, and came to the conclusion that I want to put my champagne bottle in a box, like one of those really fancy bottles, with little strips of crinkle paper inside. I also figured out what I want to do for project three. I think it will be a book about after everything happened, and who I am now and why it is important to remember the past because it changed me in many ways. I'm looking forward to progressing with my champagne bottle and starting my book!

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Helen Armstrong: Teaming with Technology

This past week we had the privilege of hearing from Helen Armstrong how designers can adapt and thrive in an increasingly AI landscape. It was interesting that we had a speaker in the design industry come to talk about exclusively AI. I felt that it was good for me to hear, and comforting to know someone is helping new designers feel more secure in themselves and the industry they’re entering into due to the presence of ever-changing artificial intelligence. It took me a while to even be curious about AI, and I was afraid of it and felt it was a crutch we were beginning to use everywhere. The first personal experience I had with it was in my history class last year, when my professor asked us to use Chat GPT to write us a prompt for our final essay. He wanted to show us AI was a tool, not a way to cheat. I then began using it for advice for my personal life, regarding stress management and relationships. I also journal every day, and put my entire file with documentation occurring over months of my life that covers my thoughts and worries regarding just about everything in my life. This changed a lot about how I felt about AI because it began to feel less like a “Oh I’m sorry! How can I help you?” and more like some sort of virtual therapist. But what Helen was speaking on was a completely different use of AI and one that I was scared to venture into because of the fear of plagiarism but the even bigger feel that I’m simply not good enough to be a designer and not rely on artificial intelligence. What if I become too accustomed to it and then don’t even know my personal style anymore? Or I can’t finish a small creative task without asking a computer for advice or a template? 

But it seems like Helen understood the worries that we might have been thinking, at least I hope. She believes that AI needs design because designers need “human-centered methods in relation to society”. When she explained this like planning a dinner party that helped me understand a bit better where she was coming from, and how AI would be nothing without human design. But that’s for now. What happens when AI starts making work inspired by itself? Will it collapse on itself? I think I’m overreacting but like she also said, you can over-trust the system. Hopefully because I’m already skeptical of the system I won’t fall into a situation like that. That’s the scary part of AI, like the uncertainty. 

But after Helen spoke about the amazing potential of AI, like the chart that explains just how much more we’re capable of with the help of AI, I began to come around. It was exciting to learn about, because I had been a little bit “shamed”, one could say, into not even looking into how it could creatively assist designers. I think my happy medium for using it would have to come from me finding a level of automation with myself, something I think should happen in the world of design as a whole as well. What do I want to keep vs. What do I want to automate? And do I want a point A to point B system or should I have a system that teaches me how to do what it just did? 

I think my favorite part of the presentation was the part where I began to realize the things I could do with AI comfortably, and it was inspiring. I am looking forward to seeing what happens with the future of design, and seeing how it will change with the upcoming technology. 

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Week 6 What's Wrong With Plagiarism

This is a discussion worth having in any learning environment, but especially a creative one during a time like this where AI is able to generate anything we ask it to. I feel like a lot of people don't stop to consider why plagiarism is harmful, just that it's bad. The biggest deterrent is always usually expulsion or consequences delivered by the school or university. But like the book says, it "violates our ethics". My parents always said that we cheat ourselves when we cheat in school, especially when pursuing a degree that you're paying to be educated on every day. Because I will be paying for my degree for the next 25 years (hopefully not though!) I would like to learn and grow and change while I am here. The struggles of school are unbearable at times but our hardest challenges will always change us for the better. If I cheated/copied/improvised/any other kind of cheating the article states for every assignment in college I don't know what kind of person I would be at this moment.

I'd also like to apologize for not including my progress over the past few weeks, I had looked in the syllabus at the beginning of the semester and didn't see that we needed to include progress in these as well which I might have overlooked if it's included in there, and wasn't aware that was a requirement until I went on Blackboard to check for grades. This week we continued progress on the second assignment, which focuses on packaging design. I've had a lot of time to reflect on what it actually means to "package" something and took my moodboard and notes from last week and sketched and designed a prototype of the labeling I'd like to do for a bottle of champagne, that incorporates some of the letters that were written to me in French that year. I plan on finalizing my designs a little after next week so I can get everything printed on time.

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Week 5 Reacting

Out of my four years at USC I have surprisingly only run into political or even controversial work in graphic design one time, and even that was just my poster I made last semester to encourage voting. And when you go out in the real world, especially online nowadays, I feel that presence everywhere, always. It's actually a bit overwhelming. But in this chapter it's nice to see an analyzation of design specifically for strongly pushing a message. I think for most of these text choice is everything. That's what I learned with my vote poster too, because the viewer might only have seconds to take a glance at what you'd like to say the "good/bad for the economy" poster set is really impactful. It also makes the viewer question themselves instead of feeling like they're not really part of the problem or it doesn't concern them.

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Week 4 Responsible to Whom

I took a lot from this, and I'm glad we are discussing it this week. I resonate with the last sentence about what it truly means to be responsible, and the whole time I was reading I thought about my career and what direction I want it to go. I feel like there is the safe way, maybe considered responsible to my parents, maybe an art teacher or a designer for a boring company. I would live at home with my parents in Raleigh the first few years, then get an apartment near my job in North Carolina and work in that field for the rest of my life. This is the easiest road I could take, but with all my heart I want to be "irresponsible". I want to take bold risks and move somewhere new and exciting by myself with very little, and pursue my ambitions and start a creative and exciting career, maybe in illustration or branding. I think about the future I'll build for myself every day as my graduation gets closer, and I have to remind myself and even my parents about the value of fulfillment. This also means working on projects or for a company that your values align with, the author met a lot of conflict within his job because of his opinions on managing shareholders. I wonder what happened to him afterward, and if he stayed with the company.

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Week 3 Weaving Design Community

This essay has contributed to some very strong thoughts I’ve  had this week about my career as a designer and where it will go and how it will relate to the direction the world is going. I talked to an alumni yesterday, who told me that he had to change his style of work and had the obligation and privilege to change his line of work from design to marketing. I wonder if he’d be able to do something like that if we were 20 years in the past with the lack of technology and widespread information for learning and everything in between. I really resonate with this essay’s point of design merging with advertising and how this approach has been impactful on the design industry as a whole for this reason. 

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Week 2 Citizen Scholar

I think the question about irresponsible design studios is interesting to me as someone looking everywhere for a job in design. I’ve applied to so many jobs on LinkedIn this month, and never really thought about any of them necessarily being a bad choice for me. But this and other questions he answered in the beginning brought some new perspectives to mind. Would I be comfortable designing something for a product I was against? On one hand money is money, and if I don’t someone else will, but on the other hand who we are is made up of the decisions we make every day. And how would it make me feel every day? 

I have been looking for all kinds of jobs, and I’ve been applying to some where I don’t necessarily think I’ll belong, but it would give me great experience and a paycheck. And when I was a kid I always knew I wanted to be an artist that would create new and exciting things. But as I’ve gotten older and spoken to my family and friends, they all tell me that if I do what pays the bills then I will have time after to pursue what I am really passionate about. But when I talk to my professors they say the opposite for the most part. I have a lot to think about, and I guess I won’t really know the true answer of which route is better until I’ve made a decision. 

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Week 1 Good Citizenship: Vanna Henderson

I don’t know exactly how old this book is, but it really is crazy how time has allowed for me to have a new perspective on what is said here. When I consider how I interact with others in the US in different standpoints and societal backgrounds it is usually via social media, for instance seeing a popular influencer, celebrity, neighbor, friend, or family member. It changes everything and in so many ways, us being exposed to so many different lifestyles has diluted how we viewed life before. I feel like this logic could be applied with design, like Prof. Nace spoke about in class on Monday regarding Pinterest. I would’ve given anything to be a graphic design major before the internet. I bet it was awesome and refreshing compared to today. 

That’s something I’ve really wanted to work on in myself. I like the idea of looking for books and having a physical source to look into. I feel like the internet is just recycling things and spitting them out into my feed, both on Pinterest but also Instagram. I have moments where I feel like I saw the same poster like five times. 

I also enjoyed the paragraph about the change in the meaning of “professional” in the design industry as well. Our culture makes its way into everything we do. This might have been true in the 1800’s and old days too, but I think trends are so prominent now and embedded in our culture that things maybe not considered professional long ago are now celebrated and designers are praised for carrying out certain assets into their work along those lines. Like “brat summer” in corporate environments this summer, after Charli XCX released her extremely popular album “brat”. 

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Final Course Reflection

There is so much to reflect on over the semester, I have changed a lot. I feel more in this class than others I have really grown as a graphic design student. I felt like I was given a chance, unlike in other classes. I enjoyed most the time we shared together working on projects, I really appreciated being able to work alongside my peers so we could help each other navigate our projects. I felt pushed to always improve and I through this I seriously got to focus on so many new ways to go about projects. I finally learned how to vectorize shapes, use overlays and effects, and improved my grid structure, kerning, tracking, and leading. I’m usually very quiet in my classes so it was nice to feel encouraged to speak and being able to share your work with your peers. The small class was also really helpful for this. I feel prepared to take more classes in the GD+I program next semester and look forward to being able to use what I’ve learned and continue to improve. 

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Blog for ch: 11 Typographic Design 

Okay, so this is probably the thing I struggle with most within my major. I always have a challenging text into something like an image or another symbol. I will get better as I work on it of course, but I really appreciate clever logos for this reason. I also remember doing a project that was basically 11/6-9, where we made letters with silhouettes of flowers in my other typography class. This was one of those projects I looked back on and wish that I could’ve worked on again because I know a lot more about the software and vectoring now. A lot of the work in this chapter reminds me of Paula Scher and the way she makes type, even traditional serif typefaces, seem so silly because of the letters bouncing around and changing angles. My favorite part of this chapter was probably the last few pages but especially the last one, it’s very captivating. It uses text to make something that feels almost like a mosaic, an artistic kind of beautiful. 

This week we finished our posters, AR type posters, and postcards for our National Park project, and then presented them in class. I’ve been working lately on my process book, and I’m enjoying it so far. Working on book and magazine layouts is one thing I enjoy more than others and it’s relaxing in a way. I hope this one will be the same. I have my layout on paper for what I want to do and have come up with a mood board and color palette which will both be applied to InDesign soon. We also began a new project where we have to design some branding based off a slang word, so I plan on starting that this weekend. Looking forward to it. 

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For me poster design is tricky. I find I do my best in graphic design when it comes to layouts for magazines and similar projects. I am more interested in illustration. But it’s neat to see both come together in this way. This is also something I’m learning in class now, of course I knew type and illustration went together but never could figure out how people got it to look like this and blend so perfectly on the computer. The only illustration I ever worked with was tactical or on an iPad, and it’s exciting to finally start to figure it out. After reading about each poster, it occurred to me the value they have in the advertising world, for instance the Markt Blatt piece that’s sending some sort of message about reading. It’s exciting to see artwork out in the real world used for business or other purposes other than “it’s pretty”. I think this kind of art is the most versatile and valuable in our society for that reason. 

When reading about title sequences and the process it reminded me once again just how new the world of graphic design and typography we know is, and how groundbreaking technology and methods were developed not necessarily in my lifetime but in the last 30-40 years for sure. As we got to the end of the chapter a lot of questions were answered about public transportation posters, when I was travelling, I thought a lot about the people who designed the maps and signs I’d see for the metro system and other modes of transportation. I have to say then and even now that it would not be very fulfilling, but I did hear from a designer at the conference I attended this month that sometimes you have to do boring work in your career to be able to do fun work, and it helps give you a break at times from the more intense projects. I wonder if the designers who worked on these feel that way about them too, haha. 

This week I have made some progress uploading my shapes into Illustrator, but as Prof. Wanco said and I agree, I have spent a lot of time on my illustration and need to focus on my typography. I am done with the illustration, so I have been working on my type poster, my animation, postcard, and designing the qr code for the poster (this is giving me such a hard time). I plan on using Procreate for my animation and would like to work frame by frame to make a small gif or short video that I could then put into Artivive. I am still really happy with this project, and it has been my favorite so far, and I am looking forward to seeing my work printed and finished. 

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Chapter 9 Blog Post

I think that this week was a good read, and I thought a lot about how much everything has a purpose in film from color to angles filmed to design. The sequence talked about on 160 stuck out to me for this reason, everything needs to be timed very nicely. Film syntax is another concept I never considered but that makes perfect sense in the production of something. Graphic design working with film is a new idea to me for sure. It also relates to our current project because we’re working with animation, we are considering pacing and other techniques that are being discussed.

This week in class we continued work on our National Parks projects, and spent time critiquing and gathering advice. I got a lot of good advice for mine, and was struggling with what to do at this point. I think I’m going to take a step back and really think about if I want to continue with the idea I have with the big type or try something new. I feel a little stuck in this idea. I also feel challenged with the animation aspect of the project but it will be great experience as I predict I’ll use some of those skills in the near future. By next class there should be a lot more color, a grid, and possibly a new concept of sorts.