MONTH ONE: MASTERY – PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Being an accelerated program, I assumed the first month would dive straight into media design courses. I was surprised to find the focus in a general education course. As we began to discuss the content and apply it to ourselves, it became clear the importance. During the course we evaluated our grit. We discovered our personal niche. The course really defined what it means to be a master of your trade.

MONTH TWO: DEFINING CLIENT NEEDS

Month two we got started on our first media design projects. We conducted mind mapping and thumbnailing brain storming strategies to develop the best solution for the design problem, creating a design that would attract tourists to Reykjavik. We also researched Margo Chase, a graphic designer who creates amazing letterforms, such as the ones in Charmed or Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s logos. This course really helped me understand the true importance of putting the client’s needs first in design.

MONTH THREE: BRAND DEVELOPMENT

During month three, we turned our brainstorming about Reykjavik into an moodboard. We also studied what a brand really is. I really struggled here because I was taught in my undergraduate degree brand was the visual identity, but our reading and lectures explained that Brand is really the reputation a company has. We also began working to explain why we are making the design decisions we are making, how do the decisions enhance the brand and solve the design problem – to increase tourism.

MONTH FOUR: EFFECTIVE COPYWRITING

I expected this course to be extremely difficult, I am not a great writer, and when I took advertising copyrighting in undergrad I was extremely confused. This course was very well organized and I found the scientific advertising formulas for good copy an easy way to create effective copy. It was also really helpful to begin thinking about copy as a part of the brand, writing in the voice and tone the brand would use, how would the brand talk if it was a person? These formulas really help to elevate my skills as a designer, being able to include copywriting on my resume puts me ahead of other designers.

MONTH FIVE: DESIGN RESEARCH

During this course my research skills improved even further than in previous courses. We focused on the differences between primary and secondary research, and conducted both types. I had to interview locals and ask questions about their experiences in the new craft district of Salisbury and conduct research on the history of the area. Learning about the variety of ways to collect information was very helpful, the data I collected from in person samples was very different then the data found online for this small town.

MONTH SIX: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Organizational Structures was an unexpected twist. I had not previously worked much in video editing software. During this course we learned how to use After Effects and Premiere Pro. We also discussed the importance of motion graphics in the future of a media graphics career. With social media (youtube, facebook, Instagram) becoming the main source of advertising, motion graphics help to catch and keep the attention of audiences.

MONTH SEVEN: DESIGN STRATEGIES AND MOTIVATIONS

During Design Strategies and Motivations, we conducted in-depth design research for Boxpark Sushi. During the research, we focused on understanding the direct competition or indirect competition, the target audience, and developing a creative brief on the company. The goal of the creative brief was to determine the target audience in the area and how to differentiate Boxpark from the competition. Understanding differentiation really improved my design thinking skills, not only should a design be fresh and not a copy cat of other ideas, but it should stand out and be unique in the market in a way that attracts the target audience.

MONTH EIGHT: DESIGN INTEGRATION

During design integration we developed a voice and tone for boxpark sushi. We also developed static and dynamic moodboards for the restaurant. My understanding of brand development really elevated during this course, as we translated not only our understanding month three, but added in the variety of research and understanding we gained over the last three five months as well. This course also included a large amount of academic writing explaining why we are making the decisions we are. I struggled with this, but this process really helped me determine if I really am making the most effective solutions to the design problems based on my design research.

MONTH NINE: MULTI-PLATFORM DELIVERY

During the ninth month, we turned our moodboards and design brief for boxpark into a brand guide and a variety of media assets for both print and web. This is something I had done many times in my undergraduate work, but it was interesting to create work with the perspective of creating work that I am writing so much about, and determining that it is effective because it attracts the target audience, it stands out in the market. This course really taught me about crating purposeful designs.

MONTH TEN: MEASURING DESIGN EFFECTIVENESS

After spending three months developing a concept, this course was extremely nerve racking. We created a survey asking members of the target market if the design would attract them to the business. In order to find the audience, I posted on facebook pages with young adults. With almost 200 responses, it was a mixed bag of responses, mostly positive. During this course I found several things I would improve upon in the design to better attract the audience, most importantly, I learned the importance of testing your designs with the target audience to see if your theories of how to attract them are accurate.

MONTH ELEVEN: THESIS – PRESENTATION OF DESIGN SOLUTIONS

During month eleven I developed a thesis proclaiming my personal mastery of media design in regards to the program learning outcomes. During the course we talked about the element of storytelling and page layout. Using these techniques, my thesis improved into a cohesive story about my journey to mastery in connecting, synthesizing, and transforming ideas, innovative thinking, problem solving, and acquiring competencies. After completing the thesis, students updated their portfolios. Many students created behance pages, for some crazy reason I decided to recreate my whole website this week. I am really happy with how it turned out and to now include all the work I created during my graduate experience.

MONTH TWELVE: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Professional practice covered a variety of important topics including business and ethical practice and resume and cover letters. I found the business practice extremely useful in a career as a designer, having proper contracts is important. Acting ethically and morally in advertising is critical, as a media designer, you not only represent yourself, but the companies you are advertising for. If you cross moral grounds, their brand can be in jeopardy. This course helped outline practices I will take with me into my career in media design.

During the third week we created an experience map of our experience during the degree. I found this project interesting to look back at the last 12 months. During this period a lot of other exciting things have happened for me. In August (month 2) I began my dream job as the lead faculty of my program. In February my wife and I bought a house. THEN in March a global pandemic hit the united states and the whole country has shut down and I have been locked inside my house for 6 months except to go out to get food once a week. I tried to focus this map on my experiences with full sail alone.

Thesis

This course focused on reviewing the entire program and determining how what students have learned relates to the four Degree learning Outcomes. Connecting, Synthesizing, & Transforming, Solving Problems, Innovative Thinking, and Acquiring Competencies.

A thesis is “a long essay or dissertation involving personal research, written by a candidate for a college degree” and that is exactly what students created this month. Students have completed in-depth research in a variety of topics from copywriting and storytelling to design research and design effectiveness. Reviewing this content looking to prove their expertise in Media Design, students developed a thesis.

Students began the thesis with thesis abstracts, before choosing photos and designing layouts for their thesis websites. As one with a visual mind, choosing photos and creating a layout really began to create a story. Sykes, author of Stories that move Mountains, writes that no matter what format one uses to tell a story, it is like a tree. Having a story structure is like the tree, the images are the fruit, while the writing like the leaves. Once the thumbnails and images where chosen, the thesis really began to come to fruition, all that was left was to add the leaves.

Academic Writing

Adding the content to the thesis was the most difficult task of this course, possibly the program. Academic writing, or writing in general, has always been a weakness of mine. Struggling to avoid personal pronouns and terms such as “the designer” was a challenge. In order to overcome this, I realized there are infinite ways to write a sentence. One could write “I solved problems by thumbnailing.” In my early academic writing, I was told to avoid the I by saying “The designer solved problems by thumbnailing”. But while working on my thesis I realized that “Thumbnailing was used to solve problems.” Easily communicates the same message without any person involved. Using this tactic, I was to work sentence into an academic format.

Portfolio

As a designer, having a strong portfolio is vital to obtaining a position in the field. Hiring teams, us your portfolio to determine your competencies. During the MFA degree, I became competent in several new skills from motion graphics to design research. It was essential I had to add these skills to my portfolio. I had been in the works of recreating my website this summer, so this assignment really pushed me to go ahead and finish. I added the three items I am most proud of from this year, the motion graphics infographic, boxpark sushi, and reykajavik. I already have had hosting with godaddy, so I went ahead and updates this to my new coding. On my portfolio I also added a student work tab that I previously didn’t have. Indeed (2019) recommends catering to the career you want, as an educator, my student work is important at showing my ability to transfer my knowledge to my students.

Sykes (2014) references a similar concept to Indeed, when telling a story, knowing your audience is vital. Knowing who will be reading your portfolio, a potential employer is going to be different then telling your mom about the project. As an educator, it is likely not an art director reading my portfolio. They are likely the program chairs or HR departments, they may not understand all the media design language, but will still appreciate a wide variety of high-quality artwork, explanation of processes, and clear language.

Being I am working in academia, I also added a journal section, where I can place academic writing samples on topics I believe in (note this section still needs updating) but will ideally include topics such as importance of adding motion graphics to curriculum and importance of the fundamental design principles such as balance, emphasis, and hierarchy.

References

Sykes, M., Malik, A. N., & West, M. D. (2013). Stories that move mountains storytelling and visual design for persuasive presentations. Chichester: Wiley.

Indeed. (2019) How to Make a Stellar Graphic Design Portfolio. Indeed.com. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-make-a-stellar-graphic-design-portfolio

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

Design Effectiveness started by researching methods to test design effectiveness. Once students had an understanding of this concept, students created surveys and collected data. Students began the second half of the course by researching infographics and data visualization. Students used these new competencies to create infographics with data visualization to communicate the results from their surveys.

Surveys + Questionnaires were examined while researching method for testing the design effectiveness. Students found that surveys collective quantitative information buy asking participates a set of questions (O’grady, 2009). Student’s not only studied types of surveys, but effective ways to write questions to avoid bias and measure specific values. A design’s effectiveness is not about how visually appealing the design is, but also testing if the design is appealing to the target market. A design can be visually appealing to a designer but without understanding the market conditions and the target market being drawn to it the design is ineffective. Student’s also studied Design Hierarchy of Needs. Designs should attempt to be functional, then reliable, then useable, then proficient, and last creative (O’Grady, 2013). Student’s created collections between information and determined that having the most creative innovative idea does not matter if the concept is not effective for the target audience, if the brand identity is not clear and consistent. The design community often puts innovative ideas at the forefront, but quality effective designs may be a more achievable goal for every project.

During the second half of the course students created infographics to visual express the complex data from their surveys. Student’s learned about data visualization, using charts and graphs to express data is a visual manner. Using the visual data students incorporated them into infographics. Students read that there are many types of infographics (Ritchie, n.d.) and had to determine the best type to express the results from their surveys. The infographics were then designed to match their brand personality. Colors, text, and images can portray brand personality in a way that easy for consumers to digest but also create an engaging and fun viewing experience (Sheikh, n.d.). After fully understanding infographics and data visualization, students began sketching infographics and then created them in a digital manner to match their brand identity.  Below is Ryland’s final design.

Problem Solving

During Design Effectiveness, one problem a student may have encountered would have been deploying the BoxPark Sushi evaluations survey. First identifying how to reach the target market and then collecting results from those within the target market. At first Ryland struggled to collect results, first posting for facebook friends, Ryland’s results were rather skewed and did not include much of the younger age demographic. Ryland had to widen his search field. The target market is specifically young adults in East Side Milwaukee. Finding enough results in this exact market during the timeframe would be near impossible, so Ryland had to decide if a wider geographic area or a wider age range was going to maintain the most accurate results. Ryland decided focus on the age range and picked a series of facebook groups that generally have younger demographics including the local LGBT group, SCAD Graphic Design Students, and a local exchange facebook group. Ryland still gained some results outside of the target age range, but did receive a large variety of experiences from senior designers working in corporate settings to people with no concept of design theory. 

Innovative Thinking

Student’s learned from the User Hierarchy of Needs (O’Grady, 2013) that having innovative unique ideas really isn’t the most important thing. The infographic created this week isn’t extremely innovative, it doesn’t include animations, it doesn’t have any WOW factor, but more importantly, it hits the other primary foundational principles. The infographic is functional, reliable, useable, and proficient. The design follows the brand guidelines and clearly communicates the data. It does exactly what it was indented to do and that is the most important thing. Adding additional “innovative” ideas may have altered this brand identity or taken away from the clear communication. 

Acquiring Competencies

	Academic	Occupational
Technical	Data Visualization Data visualizations are the visual representations of numerical values. Data visualizations include charts and graphs. Infographics Infographics are a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations text and images to tell a story	Surveys and Questionnaires These are used to collect information about the opinions and preferences of a defined group
Conceptual	Hard Values Hard values refer to things that are tangible and concrete. An example of hard value is the production on outdoor signage. Soft Values Soft values are intangible, subjective and more difficult to measure. An example of soft values can be the positive impressions the photography, typography and color of a design can bring. The feeling and emotion that the user experiences is the soft value.	Measuring Design Effectiveness Measurements help designers gain a better understanding of the field, make inform decisions and provide an understanding what they want and need to achieve Hierarchy of User Needs Maslow’s hierarchy of needs inspired William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler, authors of Universal Principals of Design, to explain user needs and design function. In their version of the pyramid, the hierarchy from low to high would be functionality, reliability, usability, proficiency and creativity. Much like Maslow’s concept, designs must first address basic user needs before it can go on to fulfill higher level functions.

References

Jennifer Visocky O’grady, & Kenneth Visocky O’grady. (2009). A Designer’s Research Manual. Gloucester, Mass. Rockport.

Jennifer Visocky O’grady, & Kenneth Visocky O’grady. (2013). Design Currency: Understand, Define and Promote the Value of your Design Work. New Riders.

Overview

During Multi-Platform Delivery, The Boxpark Sushi branding project came into fruition. During this month, not only was the logo for Boxpark Sushi was developed, but also a series of media assets and a brand guide to establish guidelines and preserve the brand for years to come.

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

During the month of May, a series of reading and video tutorials were used as guides for the development of the logo, media assets, and brand guides. David Airey’s book Logo Design Love proved to be most useful. Airey discusses the guidelines for creating Effective Logo Design. Keep it Simple, Make it Relevant, Aim for Distinction, Commit to Memory, Think Small, and Focus on One Thing (Airey, 2015).  The Article on How to Proceed with Sketching of logo Design by Henna Ray was also extremely beneficial. It is important to always design a logo in one color first before adding color (Ray, 2018). Particular connections in effective logo design were made. Task 1: Logo Concept Development really pushed me from my original generic ideas into a unique distinctive design that sets into a motion the groundwork for an effective brand identity.

Problem Solving

During Multi-Platform Delivery, The Boxpark Sushi branding problem emerged when working to keep all design elements constant with the messaging developed in previous classes. Boxpark Sushi is a friendly, community driven restaurant who strives to only serve fresh and healthy options. Creating a brand that communicates all these things at the same time was difficult at times. Concepts #33 and #23 meet the majority of Airey’s elements of effitice logo design, but it deviated from the brand’s messaging and look and feel. In order to maintain the brand’s mission and communication identity it was decided to develop the concept #27 into a full-fledged visual identity.

The second iteration of the logo not only added color, but added a border that encloses the logo into a 1970’s style encapsulated logo. This also creates a background that will ensure the logo will remain legible over the bold patterns of the identity. Overall, the new logo clearly communicates the brand attributes, Friendly, Community, and Fresh & Healthy.

The friendly attribute is communicated with the bold colors and hand written type. The Community attribute is communicated with the existing culture behind 1970’s beach vibes. And the fresh & healthy attribute is communicated with the natural tones in the logo, along with the background information that fresh fish comes from the ocean.

Innovative Thinking

During this course I believe my creative process has evolved into something better. I have always known the process begins with research, then thumbnailing, then digitization, and finally a brand guide. During this course and the previous, I have learned I never was going deep enough. Henna Ray writes in How to Proceed with Sketching of logo Designabout how before you can ever begin, you have to fully understand your brand (Ray, 2018). Brand is not the element you are about to create, but the story behind the company, their mission, their voice and tone, their attributes. Knowing the company inside and out before you start is vital.

During this project, I knew the Boxpark Sushi inside and out, and therefore, I created an innovative solution that fits the needs of Boxpark Sushi.

During my process, I refined and developed the visual identity. For example, at first I had the Retroking typeface used for headers, but while designing the media assets in practice I determined this was not working, so I updated this on my brand guide. The brand now uses a series of the Avenir typeface.

Acquiring Competencies

	Academic	Occupational
Technical	Master pages – a nonprinting page that you can use as the template for the rest of the pages in your document. Issuu – A digital publishing platform that can be use to display multiple page documents.	Clear space – Specific and scalable space around a logo to ensure it keeps its legibility and impact. Post-Mortem – Analysis at the end of design project to evaluate what you could do better in the future.
Conceptual	Airey’s Elements of iconic design – Keep it Simple, Make it Relevant, Aim for Distinction, Commit to Memory, Think Small, and Focus on One Thing	Project Management – The practice of managing multiple projects at multiple different phases.Production Plan – A plan for design production used to schedule deadlines for the designer and client.

References:

Airey, D. (2015). Logo design love: a guide to creating iconic brand identities. New Riders.

Ray, H. (2018, March 10). How To Proceed With Sketching Of Logo Design. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/how-to-proceed-with-sketching-of-logo-design/

This is the 8th month of the program. I am over halfway done, and this has been the HARDEST month so far.

It wasn’t the program itself, but many outside influences, I knew going into this month I was going to struggle a little because of a conference mid month, but planned to get ahead. Instead, life had to happen, my wife was in a car accident and I ended up spending the first half of the month cleaning up that. My car stopped working during the extra stress and we ended up carless for a while. We finally got her a new car, and now have one, but having to share when we work in opposite directions adds 2 hours to my day dropping her off and picking her up. Because of this, I have already decided to take the next month off until I get myself a car and can get back to being able to spend the right amount of time on my course. So writing this, I am up front going to admit, I did the minimum needed to get by this month, and barely that.

During this month, I connected and transformed ideas when I took my understanding of voice and tone to a new level during week one. I connected Baer, Kenny, & Felton when I realized effective ways to create tone.

During this month I solved problems, I really struggled with the dynamic vision board. Technically, I am not very good with premiere pro, and that was a challenge. One major problem was when it was too long and I had to determine what to cut. I realized I can cut it down by increasing the speed. That really helped.

During this month, I used innovative thinking when I was designing my vision board. Many students picked either bright colors to be fun or red and black to be traditional. I decided to instead use color to specifically represent the voice of the brand. The green is knowledgable, the blue is welcoming, the the salmon is witty. Using the voice to create the entire brand creates a sense of unity and familiarity to the entire brand. It’s almost like the brand is a person you might want to hang out with.

Some months I struggle to figure out how I acquiring competencies, but this month I truly grasped voice and tone. The first time we talked about this in copywriting, I didn’t fully understand it, but now I feel a whole lot more comfortable with it and the differences of each.

I also feel more comfortable with Premiere Pro, I believe this will just come with time, and I look forward to making the advertisements I discussed in my Design Brief that will need Premiere Pro.

During this month off, I also plan to update my dynamic vision board, I found videos that will work better, that include some scenes of Milwaukee and several effects that are appropriate and make the video more professional. This will also help with my technical competencies.

References

Baer, J. (2019). 4 Ways to Increase Share of Voice. Convince and Convert: Social Media Consulting and Content Marketing Consulting. https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/4-ways-to-increase-share-of-voice/

Felton, G. (2013). Advertising : concept and copy. W.W. Norton & Company.

Kenny, J. (2017, November). Know the Difference between Tone and Voice to Set Your Brand Apart – Mojo Marketing – Cloud, IT, & Telecom Marketing. Mojo Marketing – Cloud, IT, & Telecom Marketing. https://gimmemojo.com/2017/11/01/tone-voice-set-your-brand-apart/

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

During Design Strategies And Motivation we conducted in-depth design research for a fictional Sushi Restaurant in a Boxpark Mall in East Side Milwaukee, WI. The final deliverable for the project was a creative brief. This creative brief included an understanding of the industry, competition, and target audience. Building up to this over the course I worked to understand each of these as a master’s level.

As an example of connecting, synthesizing, and transforming, I learned about competition. Before beginning this course I understood competition as direct competition or indirectcompetition, though with very fundamental understanding. A direct competitor would be the same product located close by, an example would be McDonald’s & Wendy’s, both fast food serving burgers. And indirect would be a different product but similar market, this can erode/impact your business by selling/offering an alternative product/solution. An example may be Wendy’s & Taco Bell. Taco Bell doesn’t sell burgers, but is a similar product in a similar market. My reading and research expanded this understanding to also include replacement competitionand inertia. Replacement competition is when the buyer decides to something different, going into a different market. Very similar to indirect, but the taco bell is still eating out, replacement would be buying shoes for work or buying groceries. The last option, inertia is doing nothing. This is the hardest to track because you don’t know when a customer thought about getting a burger and decided to keep driving.

Understanding why customers pick a competitor (or didn’t pick anything), allows you to design your communication to maximize your advantages.

If they picked McDonalds over you (wendy’s) you may say your beef was never frozen. Differentiation. 

If they picked other fast food over you, you may help them see you have lots of options, not only burgers, but snack wraps, spicy chicken, baja salads, etc.

If they decided to go to the grocery store or not eat anything, you may talk about your value deals, getting more food for a great deal.

Between the Felton, Burnstein, and Garnett, I connected the facts and understood why knowing a wide range of competition matters, and how discovering the entire market will help you pinpoint the communication that will act most effectively.

Problem Solving

The problem that needed to be addressed happened during t he final steps of the design research. Sushi is something many people are afraid of because they do not understand it is not all raw fish. Boxpark had to find a way to get people in the location in order to help them discover their potential to enjoy sushi.  Boxpark addressed this issue by ranking sushi, this allowed those interested in sushi to see how many options they can still enjoy if they decided they didn’t like raw fish. This also allowed them to ease themselves into the more adventurous options. Another solution to this problem may include adding entrees, such as teriyaki chicken and rice. This would allow those who do not like sushi to have options while still being in the environment.  

Innovative Thinking

For Boxpark Sushi I thought it would be interesting to create a conveyer belt sushi restaurant. No other location in Milwaukee (east or otherwise) uses this, but this is not that innovative, several dozen exist in the united states. What I have not seen in the industry is a ranking system. Most places sort the sushi into standard or specialty, and the difference here is mostly price. Understanding the problem (people not wanting to eat raw fish) and working to find a clear solution for them to be sure they can stay within their comfort zone when pulling sushi off the conveyer helped me think of this idea. The concept would include a system ranked between 1 – 5. 1 would be timid rolls such as a cucumber roll and over vegetable rolls. 2 may include a California roll and other cooked fish. 3 would start to include raw fish. 4 may include more adventurous options, maybe such as eel. 5 would include the outrageous options such as sea urchin. They would need a clear ranking system, maybe color coding. Blue to Green to Yellow to Orange and Red. Blue being 1 and Red being 5.

Acquiring Competencies 

During this program I have grown tremendously. Academically I have improved my writing skills, this has always been something I struggled with, but I see myself struggling less and less each assignment. Occupationally I see myself growing not only in my design’s is practice but in my academic instruction in the classroom. I recently completed a logo for a client, and my research process was much deeper than I had ever completed previously, and because of this, I would without a doubt say it was the strongest conceptual pieces I have ever done. Technically is probably my weakest area of growth, but mostly because my undergraduate was very heavy technically, so I came into this program ahead. I have learned a lot about Adobe After Effects though, and more importantly I discovered how great the adobe help section can be. I wasn’t looking to grow technically in this program, so I cannot say I am disappointed. Conceptually have been my greatest area of acquired competencies over the last 7 months, and this course specifically I learned a lot about developing a design strategy. Before beginning this course, I would have told a client much of this work is up to them, and I need them to give me this information because I don’t understand where it comes from. And still, much of this I could not do for a client, I couldn’t tell them their sushi place should have a conveyer. But, I can research their market and ask them questions about their business, and see how they are different and focus on what is making them different, and develop a strategy around this. 

References:

Burnstein, Daniel (2012). Market Competition 101: The 3 Types Of Competitors To Keep An Eye On. Retrieve from https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/competition-types-to-watch/

Garnett, Doug. (2016) What is Direct and Indirect Competition in Marketing. Retrieved from: https://www.quora.com/What-is-direct-and-indirect-competition-in-marketing

Organizational Structures was much more technical then I had expected and has been one of the most technically challenging courses so far. During this course, I expanded my knowledge of motion graphics, storytelling, employment within the design industry, and I developed skills in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. In addition to the provided materials, I found many online tutorials helpful, with a quick “how to ____ in after effects” I was able to overcome problems. But my problems were rather elementary. I had not worked in the video programs much before this course, and my knowledge grew tenfold in the design challenges.

For the first challenge I had a lot of time because it was thanksgiving break. I took this opportunity to push myself down a really creative path. I had a lot of trouble animating this, and took a very difficult path where I mostly worked with making each frame and placing them together. I didn’t realize tools like after effects have an effect built in that will type each letter at a time, instead I literally made 20 different images and placed them each at .10 of a second to make it the words seem like they are being typed. Knowing now that I took the hard way, I can see better ways to approach making this same video.

During week one, I acquired competencies in Adobe Premiere Pro, though it really was just emergent at this point. This could be considered academic and occupational. It is diffidently technical. I learned a lot about the motion graphics process, developing a story, storyboarding it, animating it, and all the steps in between. This is conceptual.

The second and third challenges were infographics. I found myself incredibly interested in the design career paths. I really made a connection here, as I struggle to help my students understand possible career paths, it will help to be able to show them this infographic. Sometimes they believe they can just graduate and become a freelance graphic designer. But without them really knowing the industry, this could be a disaster. I came from the print industry. I worked similar to a creative director to my own team of designers inside a print shop. We printed our own designs. Being in this role, it has been hard to explain to them the options outside of my own understanding. In the city I am now in, I moved in order to teach, here they have a lot of options in large corporations such as Belk, Food Lion, and Wells Fargo. Now I can better show them the two paths they have right out of school and help them pick a possible path.

During week two, I acquired competencies in Adobe After Effects, though I would far from say I am competent in this program. This is technical. I also learned a lot about telling stories and persuasive appeals. Telling stories can help with creating advertisements. This is conceptual and occupational.

During week three, I acquired competencies in Adobe Premier Pro, I learned a lot and became much better with this program. This could be considered academic and occupational. It is diffidently technical. I learned about possible career paths, advantages and disadvantages of these oaths and human centered learning. These is conceptual.

During the annotated bibliography I read a lot of additional information and watched The Pixar Story. During this, I learned a lot about the complex processes in creating movies and films. I have understood that animations start with storyboarding. But I didn’t full understood that step itself could take years. They basically make the entire film first in storyboarding before they every animate or film any part of it.

During week four, I acquired competencies in combining Adobe Premier Pro and After Effects, I really struggled to get them to work together, but I definitely advanced technically. This could be considered academic and occupational. I also learned a lot about storyboarding during the annotated bibliography.

References:

Adobe. “Premiere Pro Tutorials | Learn How to Use Premiere Pro.” Adobe.Com, 2019, helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/tutorials.html.

Iwerks, L. (Director). (2007). The Pixar Story. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

• Connecting, Synthesizing, Transforming— During the last video in the section the assignment was the adjust the colors from the unsaturated greens to a more saturated green. In watching I noticed it would all connect together if clipped into one film. It was the same scene filmed with 5 cameras. I did some research and found on adobemasters.net that Premiere Pro can synchronize clips with the audio. This really helped to align the films. Doing this challenge going beyond the video telling me what to do really helped me push my knowledge.
• Solving Problems— I solved problems in this challenge by picking videos in a variety of tools. I learned to edit colors, edit audio, add transitions, create visual composites and more. I did more videos than in the youtube video posted, but again, some videos don’t require much editing and I decided to exclude those.
• Innovative Thinking— In this assignment, I subverted expectations by pushing myself to go beyond just editing to the how to video, but using knowledge I learned on previous videos and applying that to edit the provided film further.
• Acquiring Competencies— I learned about audio and video translations, I learned about color adjustments, I began to understand audio, and visual composites. After doing many of the provided videos by Adobe Premiere Pro Help, I feel a lot more comfortable with the programs general layout. I can adjust the levels of film, synchronize audio, put some video clips together with transitions, and more.

Before this challenge, I hadn’t worked much with Premiere Pro, I had used it a little in this class, but I had never edited video as much as I have here. I learned to add transitions, edit colors, adjust audio, and much more. Previously I had really just added clips together and exported. It’s becoming really clear how different after effects and premiere pro are and what they are used for. Premiere Pro is where the editor places long sets of video together, while after effects is where the effects are created.

Looking back at the very first challenge I did in this course trying to push myself over thanksgiving break, I should have approached that completely differently. I drew everything in adobe illustrator, then using a combination of animate and premiere pro. I should have used after effects. I watched a little of the advanced challenge by Demafiles from this week, and it seems after effects can even understand the vector graphics and work with them to create more seamless animations.

Moving forwards, I may recreate my first animation from christmas break and use the correct programs to fully develop an understanding of a real world application.

References:

AdobeMasters. (2018, March 13). How to Quickly Synchronize Audio in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from AdobeMasters website: https://adobemasters.net/quickly-synchronize-audio-adobe-premiere-pro-cc/

Adobe. “Premiere Pro Tutorials | Learn How to Use Premiere Pro.” Adobe.Com, 2019, helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/tutorials.html.

Demafiles, Alan. “Watch the Online Video Course After Effects CC 2019: Character Animation Essential Training.” Lynda.Com – from LinkedIn, 12 Aug. 2019, http://www.lynda.com/course-tutorials/After-Effects-CC-2018-Character-Animation-Essential-Training/504062-2.html.

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The lessons present design into three paths; in-house designers, agency designers, and freelance designers. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. For the timeline I broke a graphic design career into four sections with average income and responsibilities of those titles at different levels.

Before this program I worked for 5 years managing a print shop / design studio. I managed a team of designers and was creative director of the work. I loved working in design, though I have always wanted to be a professor. In my research I found that a master degree is required, so I decided to return to school. I did not include this as a path because education kind of breaks away from the general paths.

Currently, I am an adjunct graphic design instructor at the local community college and teach graphic design at the local high school.

After graduation I hope to find a full time position as an instructor at a community college. Often this position is leading the department. If not, I hope to advance into this position within a few years. I do not want to constantly advance. I don’t want to be a dean. This often takes you out of the classroom where I really enjoy being. I would love to stay in a job for 25 years like my grandpa did. I am 24 now. If I get a job next August, this would have me set to retire around 50.

Acquired Competencies

Academic

Conceptual	Technical
• Possible Career Paths • Advantages and Disadvantages of Paths • Learned about Human Centered Design	• Adobe Premiere Pro I have used Premiere before, but I learned several new features this week.

Occupational

Conceptual	Technical
This week was really interesting, my students often ask about possible career paths. If they should freelance, etc. This helped me really be able to compare, and I will likely hang this in my classroom.	• Adobe Premiere Pro I have used Premiere before, but I learned several new features this week.

References:

Björk, Johanna. “The Ins and Outs of Working In-House.” AIGA, 12 Mar. 2010, http://www.aiga.org/ins-and-outs-of-working-inhouse. Accessed 15 Dec. 2019.

Castillo, Ram. “In-House, Agency, or Freelance—What’s Right for Me?” AIGA, http://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/in-house-agency-or-freelancewhats-right-for-me/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2019.

“Glassdoor Job Search | Find the Job That Fits Your Life.” Glassdoor, 2019, Glassdoor.com.

“Graphic Design Career Path and Progression – Blog – Fifteen.” Fifteen, Fifteen, 5 Apr. 2017, http://www.fifteendesign.co.uk/blog/graphic-design-career-path-and-progression/.

Outcomes and Knowledge

This week in Organizational Structures we studied Storytelling. This course covers a lot of content, and has a lot of reading. But as we are learning, infographics and motion graphics help viewers digest large amounts of information. During this week I worked with after effects and did many. tuorials learning many new tools and I created an infographic with some of the key elements from our readings and live session.

Acquired Competencies

Academic

Conceptual		Technical
Elements of telling a story, such as Visual Elements, morals, values. Persuasive Appeals: ethos, logos, pathos. Synaestheasia	I learned a lot about After Effects this week. I know I still have a lot to learn, but we all start somewhere.

Occupational

Conceptual		Technical
As we learned about story telling, it stuck me so many different places I can use this material, from social media advertisments to the way I talk to clients and students. Learning to take listeners on an emotional journey, keep them engaged with questions, this applies to most communciation.	Technically, again After Effects was the big thing this week that I learned a lot about. I see myself using this in many settings, I would love to add some animation to my presentations for students to keep them engaged.

References:

Huber, A. (2017). Telling The Design Story. Focal Press. Retrieved from https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/telling-the-design/9781351849210/

Krasner, J. (2013). Motion graphic design. Applied history and aesthetics. 3rd, rev. ed. Oxford: Focal Press. Retrieved from https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/motion-graphic-design/9780240821139/

Wujec, Tom. “3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.” Ted.Com, TED Talks, 2009, http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_3_ways_the_brain_creates_meaning#t-94. Accessed 8 Dec. 2019.