Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

• During my block presentation, I was very proud that everyone was participating in my activity. They immediately became interested and involved. 

(2) Questions to Consider
a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.
AE       P          AP       CR       NC

• I believe that my presentation was very effective because all the information that I had was presented professionally and I was able to cover all the content at a good pace. I believe that my introduction really grasped the audience and gave them a better understanding of my topic and essential question because literally the video covered all the content that I covered in my design. My time was used properly and I was able to finish my presentation without needing to rush anything. I tried to use my prop in an effective way so I designed some iPhones with my essential question and placed on one every table for the students to see whenever they wanted. I also cited my mentorship in all of my answers so that the audience could understand them on another level. Overall, I feel as if my presentation went extremely well and the only thing I would change about it is cutting down some time from my activity and including another one in. 

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

• I would give myself an P/AE because I got my hours done, I did what was required, and I still plan to continue communicating with my mentor for help and guidance as I follow my career as a freelance visual designer. It was more than just a mentorship to me, it was guidance for life and I appreciated all the project had to offer.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

• My mentor, Sam Hernandez, worked really well with my schedule and dedicated a lot of his time to me. It was nice to know he was as committed as I was to the project.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

• I would've cerated a list of people I could communicate with to try and have interviews with. Finding other visual designers was a huge struggle for me. 

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

• It Really solidified the fact that I appreciate visual design. I plan to start off my freelance career in college while I work towards my major. I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience all I did and gain a lot of knowledge from this.

Blog 23: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

• My essential question is: What are the qualities that make visual design most impactful?
• My first answer is: Unity. My second answer is: Balance. My third answer is: Typography. In my opinion, my best answer would be my first one; Unity. Unity is what holds a design together and brings it all together in the end. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• One of my biggest struggles with any piece I designed either for fun or for work was having a feeling that my design made sense as a whole. It's very important that the whole design unites as one.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• It was kind of hard for me to find my third answer because I couldn't think of one last quality that fit all types of visual design. Once I started thinking out of the box, I realized the answer was right in front of my eyes, literally; Typography. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• One of my significant sources was Sam Hernandez. Another one of my sources would be the internet. If I went into specifics, I would have to list many websites but overall, the internet.

Blog 22: Independent Component 2

"I, Alexis Alvarez , affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 31 1/2 hours of work."

A lot of my sources that helped me finish my independent component 2 came from the internet. The internet is full of al to of inspiration and it helps plenty. I kept in contact with my mentor and he helped when i would get stuck with technical issues while designing. 

For my independent component 2, I designed my game board and anything else that had to be designed which ranged from money, character cards, and happening cards. Since I was the most experienced and we wanted to graphically design our entire game, I figured it'd be good practice to do it and gain a different aspect of Visual Design. 

This component really helped me put my Visual Design skills into play with another aspect of Visual design. Designing this came board was a lot more complicated for me than it was to design the website. For this game board, I had no template it was original ideas. My answer 2 really came into play with my Independent Component 2.

(MY LOG IS UPDATED. TO access it go to my Senior Mentorship Log)

Blog 21: Fourth Interview Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

• Managing your time when designing can be very crucial. If your taking on a big project, its important you break the projects into smaller pieces so that you're not overwhelmed by the idea of a big project. 

2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

• I had planned to design a logo for my last lesson. I gained a lot of information about how to prepare to make a logo from Efrain this last interview. 

Blog 17: Interview 3 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

• It's important to always know your client well and be patient so that the design comes out the best it can. Also, everything takes time so build up your reputation slowly as time goes by.

2.  How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

• I try to have open-ended questions so that my interviewee doesnt get stuck while answering the questions. 

Blog 20: Fourth Interview Questions

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

• I plan to interview one of my mentors peers called Efrain. Im still in the process of doing my third interview but i've finally found someone to get it done with. From what I've heard, I can interview the same person twice so I plan on doing both interviews with him. Efrain is a graphic designer based in Glendale.

2.  Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

• In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of Visual Design?

• What aspect do you find yourself to struggle with the most or spend the most time on?

• What has been one of the most successful designs you've created?

• How do you plan out what color schemes you're gunna incorporate into your design?

• To what extent do you prepare before beginning a design?

• How do you read into the fonts you use?

• How can I learn myself how to utilize my tools provided for me?

• How do you effectively communicate with your clients?

• What's one utility that you come to use a lot when working on your designs?

• Have you ever come across a client that was completely hard to work with? If so, how did you go about it?

• Are there any recommendations you have for me when designing a logo?

• What's the first step you take when designing a logo?

• What's the first step you take when designing a poster? 

• How does your clients thoughts guide you when designing?

• How do you manage your time most effectively when designing?

• What's an effective method which guides you in the right path when designing?

• How do you "tackle" a big project down?

• How do you overcome a creative block?

• What helps get your creativity flowing again when you lose it?

• When did you first begin designing?

Blog 19: Third Answer

• My EQ: What are the qualities that make visual design most impactful?

• Answer #3: Typography in graphic design can strongly affect how people react to a design.

• 3 details to support my answer:
1. Careful selection and consistent use of a chosen typeface can be just as important as the use of graphics, color and images.
2. You must anticipate how the use of fonts and styling will influence your audience, even in ways they are not conscious of initially.
3. Researchers found that when good typography is used, people frown less and perform creative, cognitive tasks better afterwards.

• Douglas, Julia Barrick. "The Importance of Typography in Graphic Design." The Importance of Typography in Graphic Design. FORTIS, 14 Aug. 2015. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.

• Concluding sentence:
• Typography is a really important, strong, persuading element of a design which is why I chose it as my 3rd answer. 

Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

• What are the qualities that make visual design most impactful?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• UNITY holds a design together and provides a fulfilling experience to the user.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• BALANCE helps a designer make sure their design is aesthetically pleasing and proportionately evened out to make it more appealing to the human brain, impacting the user.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• If the elements on the top feel a bit heavier than the bottom, it creates a lot of tension throughout the design. 
• You can incorporate small areas in your design with vibrant colors to balance out larger areas of neutral colors.
• Asymmetrical composition is intended to create a deliberate imbalance of the elements in the design; creates tension purposely.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

• "Understanding the Importance of Balance in Graphic Design." DigitalTutors Blog. N.p., 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

6.  What other source supports your answer?

• "Design Principles: Compositional Balance, Symmetry And Asymmetry." Smashing Magazine. N.p., 29 June 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

• Without balance, a design isn't complete It's as simple as that. In order for a design to be impactful on the user, it needs to feel whole, complete. Using balance, the designer can acquire a design that is truly exquisite and admiring to the target user, making it extremely impactful on them.

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• For my 30 hours, I plan on designing my own logo from scratch. My mentor and I have been talking about doing this for about 2 months now and we had decided to hold it off until my second Independent Component. I was skeptical to wether it would take 30 hours but according to my mentor, I might even need more than 30 hours which I'm perfectly fine with. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• There are many steps that take place into designing a logo. I will be logging all my hours minute by minute, detail by detail, on what it is i worked on that day just so that it is evident how important every little detail really is in Visual Design. 

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• My EQ is: What are the qualities that make visual design most impactful? Designing this logo, I will really have to dig deep and research how I'm going to bring all the elements to make a succesful logo. I feel like many qualities will be showed in the design once its completed which would help me come up with more answers for my Essential Question.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

• My Senior Project Hours link already has a log for my Independent Component 2. I will begin updating it once I kickstart my project.

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, ALEXIS ALVAREZ, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32 hours of work.”
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• https://www.codecademy.com
• Sam Hernandez / Mentor
• (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours. 
• To access my IC #1 log, click here!
• (d) Explain what you completed. 
• I completed a website for our Model Assembly project. The main goal of the website was for visitors to go on the website and have the opportunity to look at the bills created by everyone. Several of my hours for my IC were also tutorial lessons that I received from my mentor Sam Hernandez or online. 
• INTERPRETIVE 

• Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

• When I first started off in the beginning of the school year, I didn't have much knowledge on how to code or use HTML to code websites. I kept to the book and didn't try new things. Throughout this independent component, I've learned many skills and how much time actually goes into a project like this. At first I was skeptical to whether I would have enough hours but through the days, the hours just flew by! 

The picture below shows a picture of the layout of each BILL Page that the user can visit. It took quite a while to learn how to create their own individual page and have an embedded code  for their documents. This made it easier for the user to access the bills.


• APPLIED
  How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this. 
• This webpage I created helped me practice my first answer for my EQ, Unity. I had to make sure all the fonts and pictures complimented each other. 
• Designing my own webpage really helped me focus on the Visual Design aspect of creating a design. Its so crucial and important to make sure the design is visually pleasing.
• Learning how to code and use HTML Coding helped me understand a whole new language to the design world. 
• We as designers have the power to change anything. I had the ability to personalize my own Wordpress theme to fit my standards which really gave me a feel of how a Visual Designer feels when working on projects.

Blog 15 - Lesson 2 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

• I am proud that I was able to make tie without having to rush or go slow throughout my presentation. I was able to cover everything I wanted while keeping good time management. One problem I had last time was that I sped through all my information so I'm glad I improved upon that this time around.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

• I kept a very good voice tone and volume wise throughout my entire presentation. I was trying to speak as fluently/loud as possible so that even the people in the back of the room would have my attention.
• I used my time very efficiently; I made time both content and overall without needing to cut anything out or stall
• I was very organized, everything on my powerpoint was useful and covered in my presentation. I hardly left any blank space
• All my research took many hours to compile; all the information on my powerpoint was as clear as I could've made it

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

• Something that really helped was having my powerpoint up there with me. It helped me stay on track and make sure that I wasn't missing any information. During 1st presentation, we weren't allowed to have powerpoints which really didn't benefit me at all.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

• I think I would have added more questions to my activity that the audience could answer. My only problem with that would be that I would need more time since I could've gone overtime with more questions.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

• As of right now, I believe my answer #2 is going to be Balance. Balance is a really important element in visual design so I plan on researching a lot more into it to see if I find sufficient enough information for my answer #2.

Blog 14: Interview 3 Preparation

"Essential Question: What are the qualities that make visual design most impactful?"

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
I plan to either interview Ms. Freeman (Amir's mother) or one of my mentors co-workers. Amir's mom has a degree in graphic design and has done a lot of freelance work throughout her life. My mentors co-workers all work at Disney so I'm more than sure they are qualified for their job and know what they're talking about.

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 

I have let Ms. Freeman know that I might need to interview her the last week of February. She has agreed to it and said she looked forward to it if it happens. My mentor hasn't gave me the co-worker that I will be interviewing but I plan to get on top of that ASAP. 

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
What do you find that you dedicate the most time to when you're designing your product? 

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

Are there any classes that you know of that I may benefit from? What helped you really master what you do?

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 
How is it that you best unify all your elements that you incorporate into your designs?


ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

We all have our own vision as to how we want to design or projects, but how do you go about when your clients visions are the complete opposite? Who's opinion and styles do you hold to a higher standard?

Would you considerate it bad to have a bunch of different shapes on your design? How do you make them all come together?

What element do you feel has to be perfect or else you won't feel satisfied with your result? 

When do you decide on what color scheme you want to use on your design? 

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship alongside my mentor Sam Hernandez. We usually meet up at a Starbucks to talk about our work and cover new material since Disney doesn't allow me to come and shadow there. We cover a lot of information and its still as if I were to shadow him at Disney. I've had the opportunity to shadow one of his freelance assignments.

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

My contact is Sam Hernandez. He's an expert because he's been working in this field for more than 10 years. He has a lot of information that he's already taught me and there's a lot more he has in store for our mentorship together.

3.   How many hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

This year I have completed 12 hours with my mentor. We haven't been able to meet weekly but we plan to set a schedule for us to follow from now up until May to achieve the 50 hours required.

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

We've covered a lot of information and topics so far in our mentorship.  We've gone over website designing, logos, and a glimpse into motion graphics. We began a mini project that he planned for me and are in the works with it and he's been helping me learn how to design my independent component #1 website to the best of my ability. We work together very well. From the very beginning, we got off to a good start and it's never been hard to get along/ work alongside him. When my mentor comes back from Australia, we are going to meet up to set weekly appointment for when we come meet and set up future freelance work days in which I can shadow and assist him. From what we already discussed, it's going to be quite simple to finish all the hours.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

It is important for me to be always working on my senior project because I enjoy learning more about Visual Design. It doesn't really seem like a burden to me having to work on my senior project. Over break, I met with my mentor and started my first independent component.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

I learned how to put together a website strategically. At first I just though, put al your content on there , and just make it look presentable, but there was a lot more to it than I was covering. The source of what I learned was my mentor. He really helped me pay attention to all the little details that really change the dynamic of a website. 

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I plan to talk to one of my mentors coworkers. I've already interviewed my mentor twice so I needed to find another visual designer to interview. I had already asked my mentor ahead of time, so he told he'll work out a day with one of his coworkers so I can interview them. It will be good to  get another persons point of view on visual design.