Semester Reflection

Accomplishments

Magazine Spread

The magazine spread was an interesting project where we had to interview a professional designer and design a magazine spread reflective of their style. The project took around a month to complete, however the class ran into a substantial problem when we lost nearly all our progress due to server issues. I learned that due to the possibility of a catastrophe like this, it's important to keep backups of our files. I'm happy with the design of it, however I feel as though it would've been significantly better if I had not run into issues along the way. In the future, I will keep backups of all my files.

Prom Poster

The design for our school's prom poster was a friendly competition for our class. The theme was "A Touch of Jazz". We designed posters and tickets for the theme. It took roughly three weeks from start to finish. A struggle I ran into was knowing when to stop adding the small details and focus on the picture as a whole. I found myself worrying about small elements more than I should've, and once I noticed that, I redirected my focus on to the picture as a whole. I'm very happy with the final outcome, my favorite aspect of the poster is the neon effect, I feel as though I've really mastered that effect; it looks fairly realistic.

Robotics Projects

As a part of my robotics team, I design many different products. This semester, I worked on a t-shirt, and multiple posters. I'm very happy with all of these. A problem I ran into however was forcing myself not to spend too much time on just one project. I would've loved to continue refining each poster, but I learned to make sure each individual poster got the time it deserves. Very happy with all of these projects.
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
Project 4

Branding Project

Our final project had us all create fictional companies and the branding around them. My company was called "Hello Space!" where customers can buy tickets to space. I didn't run into many problems with this one besides the recurring struggle to decide exactly what percentage of my time each individual item should get. I'm getting much better with making those decisions, however. I'm very happy with the outcome of this project.

Time Management

I would like to say that I managed my time well in this class. I personally feel that although I did spend time talking to others, I've been better about still making progress and not getting completely off track as to result in no progress while I'm communicating with others. I did have to miss many days this quarter due to school-trips and also a number due to a wrist injury, though I always made up for what I missed by working on stuff after school. I allotted a significant time outside of class woking on items not assigned in this class, such as the posters for robotics.

Strengths

I'd say my biggest strength is still the technical aspect of designing. I know Illustrator like the back of my hand and am confident that I know the most efficient way to utilize a large majority of the tools in Illustrator. Other aspects of designing are still not as strong as my technical skills, but they are catching up. I find myself having continually more creative ideas as I learn to utilize sketching better and knowing how to find solid inspiration for projects.

Weaknesses

My biggest weakness would be communicating with my peers aside from the ones who are already close. Having a wider range of critiques makes for a better project, so this is something I need to work on.

Summary

The best thing about this semester for me was watching my creative process grow. Before, I had began to worry that my imagination had stagnated, though now I'm the most creative I've ever been. What I would change, and what I will do more of is sketching. Sketching is very important because you aren't constrained to a mouse and keyboard, where it's very hard to let your imagination apply itself to full capacity. Overall, I'm very proud of my growth this semester and look forward to the future.

Semester Reflection

What did I do this semester?

Name Typography

The name typography project consisted of displaying my name in twelve different ways to show different aspects about me. It took a couple of weeks to nail down the twelve ideas, starting from a broader list and funneling it down to the final twelve. For some of the names, it was really hard to create a design I was satisfied with. Some of them I really wish I could've done more with, but it this was a learning process within itself. Some of the solutions I came up with, I would've never thought about during brainstorming. I found myself focussing in on certain ideas for some, and not being satisfied unless it met that idea. But then I found that taking a step back and approaching it from another angle helped me overcome this. A design like this was the writing one. I actually spent maybe half an hour brainstorming and creating it in illustrator, but I think it's my favorite design of the project, and a lot of my peers agree with me. 

Having feedback on this project helped me a lot. My peers told me what they thought looked good, and also helped guide me to the conclusion that some of my prototype designs were just not working and that it was time to move on. It was really helpful to have this guidance. Once I accepted their advice, I threw out my designs that lacked the structure I needed and created something better. This project was helpful in getting me to think about my designs in a creative and more abstract way, and I think it was beneficial for my skills as a designer overall.

 

Hand Typography

The hand typography project was one of the hardest projects I've ever done. We had to create a greeting card with a hand drawn design. When we were done with the design, we would scan it in and format it on the computer. I wasn't expecting it to take as long as it did. It was extremely challenging to have to redraw the design multiple times trying to get it perfect and symmetrical. It was too easy to bump a ruler as I was trying to draw a straight line or to push the paper out from under me as I'm trying to perfect a curve. But in the end I learned that even if it takes a long time to perfect, the final product can still be worth it. I learned to really enjoy using hand drawn designs, they provide an element of authenticity to the design that you really can't get with a keyboard and a mouse. 

As I was creating the project, I was rushing to get the design on to the computer because that's what I'm most comfortable with. After I was stopped and sent back to drawing on paper, I was able to create a design that was much more solid than what I had before. It lacked a lot of structure and there were many blaring errors I had made. I was planning on just correcting these in Illustrator, but that would've taken away from the design. I've grown to appreciate the process of hand drawn designs a lot more, and will be sure to use them in future projects.

Branding Project

For the branding project, we had to create the image of a fictional company given nothing more than a number, two letters, an animal, and a mineral. This was challenging to come up with even the idea of the company, but it was also nice at the same time because I could let my imagination run with the things I was given and create something much larger. It was the longest project we did this year by far. It was hard to come up with a good logo, as it's still something I struggle with to this day. I've learned that I try to get too complex with my logo designs. Once I settled for simpler shapes and ideas, I created something I was a lot happier with. This was in part due to the feedback I was given, and without it, I would have created a project with a much worse logo that would have looked like a mess when placed on the products.

I really enjoyed this project, and I think it may be my favorite that I've done in eComm. I really like being at the end result of it and looking at what I've created. We're cutting out designs that we sent to the printer and compiling a board displaying our fictional companies. It's really nice to be able to see it come to life the way it is.

How did I use my time in class?

My time in class was mostly productive, although in recent weeks I've found myself falling behind. With so much going on in and out of school, I need to manage my time better than what I have been. I haven't been making enough time for graphic design outside of class mainly, and I would definitely benefit from doing so. Graphic design takes a lot of work if you want to be able to create something that you're proud of. I've learned this from the times where I thought I was done with something, but on closer inspection, required a lot more work than what I had thought originally. Such as with the Hand drawn greeting card, if I hadn't have gone back and ironed out the mistakes, I would've ended with a much inferior project. Now I'm always trying to not say that I'm done with a project until it's time to turn it in, because I find that there's always a way I can improve it if I look carefully enough. Outside of projects for eComm, I spend upwards of fifteen hours a week on robotics projects, and lately I spend a bit of time making stuff for the restaurant I work at. I actually created the main t-shirts for this years robotics team, and I'm really proud of that. At work, I've been creating recipe cards for us to use in the kitchen because the old ones are worn and hard to read.

Strengths/Weaknesses

My strengths in graphic design are my creative and technical skills. I've learned to use Illustrator really well. I make an effort to learn new tools and such in illustrator as much as possible. I have a mentor on my robotics team who used to help me with using Illustrator, but now he says that my skills with it have surpassed his own, which I am really proud of.

My weakness is still my time management. I find it hard to focus in and use all the time I'm provided with. I find it especially hard to find time outside of school to work on graphic designs projects, but I am making an effort to overcome this, and hope to have a more organized schedule by the beginning of the next semester.

Summary

I'm happy with the way things are going this semester, because I feel like I'm making bigger projects now rather than simple postcards. It makes me happy to see my designs being printed onto physical posters and t-shirts. The thing I want to change most is setting aside some designated time everyday to work on my graphic design stuff when I get home from school. That's my take away and goal, is that I need to manage my time better and I will be a lot happier with the projects I make. Overall, I'm happy to see myself improving, and I really can't to see where it goes.

Chrome Extensions

WhatFont

WhatFont is a chrome extension that tells you what fonts are used on the page. When you hover over an element on a page, it'll show you the name of the font. This plugin is designed for the use of designers who want to use a font that they find on a website somewhere.

To use the plugin, you simply click on the WhatFont icon, and now wherever you hover, you'll see the font used in that element.

This extension is very easy to use. I didn't need any instruction, it just worked. I would definitely recommend this plugin to anyone who finds themselves working with fonts.

HTTPS Everywhere

My next extension is HTTPS Everywhere. It does exactly what it sounds like: it makes sure you have an HTTPS connection on every site. This means that all information you send back in forth is in the Secure Socket Layer, so it's encrypted.

There's not much to say about this plugin, once it's installed, your information is protected from anyone trying to spy on you.

This extension doesn't take any learning. Even if someone doesn't know what SSL is, they'll still understand that this plugin helps protect their information.

LastPass

LastPass is a password protection service. With the extension installed, you have an easy way to store your passwords for a variety of sites. Your passwords are encrypted, so this is useful for anyone who's concerned about their security while browsing the web.

LastPass has many features, but it's easy to get started with storing passwords. You can simply add a new password with the plugin and use it the next time you visit the site.

LastPass is very easy to use, the developers made sure to make instructions easy to find and made the program very functional.

End of Year Reflection: Web Design

What Did I Take Away?

Technology

Technology is my biggest strength in eComm. I work with computers very well and I'm always learning new things. My skills with HTML, CSS, and the likes have grown since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, I didn't have a great understanding on how webpages worked. I have a much better understanding now, and would consider my work up to industry standards. With technology, I learn best with experience.

Collaboration

There isn't a lot of room for collaboration in web design, but I would say that I collaborate by working with others and getting help when I need it, or returning that help.

Communication

In eComm, communication is key. I communicate with Mr. Olson when I have questions about web design. Sometimes my computer may be acting up, or my code may be buggy, but with communication, I can have those problems fixed.

Project Management

I'd say my project management is fairly strong. Intend to get stuff in on time, although sometimes I think that I spend way too much time trying to make my projects something they don't need to be, for example, with my CSS Transition project, I was originally gonna do something completely different and harder than what was assigned. I wasted a lot of time on this, and it was turned in late.

Leadership

I like to exercise my leadership whenever I can. I think it's one of the most important guarantees that eComm offers. I try to show leadership by helping out my classmates when they need it. I have put a lot of time into web design outside of school, so I like to use my skills to help people who don't understand it as well as I do.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My biggest strength in eComm is my technology usage by far. I have really developed my skills when working with the coding languages we use. I've definitely improved on this throughout the year as well, this is due to the amount of time I've spent working with them. However, there's always more to learn, like PHP and MySQL. These languages are a lot different than HTML and CSS, so it's going to be a big challenge.

A weakness for me would probably be my communication skills. Although I feel like they have improved, I feel like I need to reach out more. I can do this by pushing myself to do it more next year.

APPLYING WHAT I'VE LEARNED

I think the skills I've learned will prove to be very valuable. I use my web design skills all the time in other aspects of my life, for example, I entered a portfolio in eMagine this year, and got second place.

CHANGES?

I don't think there's anything I would really change. eComm provides a great environment to grow one's skills. I really like how open-ended it is, and how it doesn't hold back people that are more advanced or leave behind anyone who doesn't quite get it. Everyone improves their skills all the time, and I really like that about eComm.

IN SUMMARY

In summary, eComm is a great learning experience. I'm glad that I have this opportunity, as my skills have grown immensely, and I feel like it has better prepared me for my future. The skills I learn in eComm prove to be very useful in other aspects of life, and I find myself applying them all the time. I love seeing the products that I have learned to produce, and how they've kept improving ever since I joined eComm.

End of Year Reflection: Graphic Design

What did I takeaway?

Technology

Technology is one of my biggest strengths in eComm. I know the programs that we work with very well and I'm always learning new things. My skills with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have definitely improved since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, we worked on simpler projects, like the Postcard, but now I'm able to complete big projects like the Branding project. With technology, I learn best with experience, the more I work with a program, the more comfortable I am with it.

Collaboration

When collaborating in graphic design, we give each other critiques on our work. I'm very proud of my Infographic, I think it turned out really well, and this is in part to the feedback I received. It's always good to have someone else's input as they might see something that I don't. I try to help out the creators as much as I can, because I know that they also appreciate feedback. Critique's are very important when designing something.

Communication

Communication in eComm is another important factor. Communication is essential to being a successful employee. I try to enhance my communication skills by asking someone for advice when I'm stuck on something, whether it's design advice, or technology issues. For example, with the Branding project, I struggled with coming up with symbols that fit my brand well. But after talking to a few different people, I was able to get the ball rolling again. Effective communication boosts productivity by a lot.

Project Management

My project management skills have grown a lot. At the beginning of the year, I was kind of behind on projects like the Vectored Face project. As time went on, I was getting my stuff done sooner. I was able to complete the Branding project a day before it was officially due, in contrast to the Vector Face which was a few days late. This is in part to my increased technological skills, and also my improved creativity. Project management is extremely important, if you don't get stuff done on time, you're hurting yourself. If employees are behind on projects, they're going to upset clients and it will hurt their reputation.

Leadership

I use my leadership skills in graphic design to help my peers out with projects. For example, at the beginning of the year when everyone else was still learning Illustrator and Photoshop, I already had some experience and was able to spend more of my time helping others out with things they didn't understand. I hope I could help people a lot, because I know if I was struggling with something, I'd be more than willing to accept help in order to have a better project. Leadership is important because it helps everyone grow.

Strengths/Weaknesses

My biggest strength in eComm is my technology usage by far. I have really developed my skills when working with the all the programs. I've definitely improved on this throughout the year as well, this is due to the amount of time I've spent working with them. However, there's always more to learn, like new features I've never used before. These programs have a lot to offer in them, so it can be challenging to learn every aspect about them.

A weakness for me would probably be my communication skills. Although I feel like they have improved, I feel like I need to reach out more. I can do this by pushing myself to do it more next year.

Applying What I've Learned

I think the skills I've learned will prove to be very valuable. I use my graphic design skills all the time in other aspects of my life, for example, I'm able to make presentations that look very nice in my AP European History class. With good design skills, I'm able to present information in a more effective manner than I would have if I just through the text on the screen. Now I know how to pick good colors, fonts that serve my purpose well, along with other things.

Changes?

I don't think there's anything I would really change. eComm provides a great environment to grow one's skills. I really like how open-ended it is, and how it doesn't hold back people that are more advanced or leave behind anyone who doesn't quite get it. Everyone improves their skills all the time, and I really like that about eComm.

In Summary

In summary, eComm is a great learning experience. I'm glad that I have this opportunity, as my skills have grown immensely, and I feel like it has better prepared me for my future. The skills I learn in eComm prove to be very useful in other aspects of life, and I find myself applying them all the time. I love seeing the products that I have learned to produce, and how they've kept improving ever since I joined eComm.

Using Dreamweaver's Templates

This project as us working with one of the templates Dreamweaver has to offer. Instead of designing and coding the page from scratch like we have been, most of the designing was done for us, we just had to put the information in ourselves. A downside to this is that I had a hard time understanding what was going on in the code without careful examination. I know that nowadays, with websites as complicated as they are, it's often not worth the web designers time to design something from scratch. This is why companies like WordPress exist. WordPress offers thousands of different templates to choose from and requires next to no coding on the user's part. I would personally prefer to design my own templates so I understand what's going on in the webpage.

Responsive Design Overview

Responsive design is the practice of making your website adjust to the varying screen sizes of the website's viewers. This is important because people use their phones as much as they use full sized computers. Viewing a website designed for a different screen size can hurt the website's functionality by making it harder to read or use. I incorporated responsive design into my website in order to make it more usable on mobile. I did this by making the text larger relative to the screen on smaller screen. In addition, I made the array of projects have fewer columns on smaller screens.

On the desktop version of my website, we can see that the text on my splash page takes up about a third of the screen width. This looks really nice when viewed on a larger screen, but if it were to take up a third of a smartphone screen, it may become hard to read.

By using media queries, I changed the text so that it would use nearly 100% of the screen width. This works well on a small screen, but if it took up a 100% on desktop, it would be annoying to read.

Responsive Design

Responsive design in websites is when the website you're viewing adjusts to the screen size in order to convey the message most effectively across devices. The amount of people viewing websites on mobile devices is increasing, so now it's important to account for desktop and mobile users. The best way to do this in web design is by using media queries. Media queries can be used to apply certain CSS styles only when the viewing width of the page fits within the limits of the media query. When developing a responsive design, you have to pay attention to breakpoints. You can find breakpoints by slowly decreasing your window's width until the elements on the page don't look like they should. This is where you insert a media query. By continuously finding and fixing breakpoints, you can make a website responsive.

This is a screenshot from the laptop version of Papa John's site. This screenshot has the most information on the page as possible.

When shrunk down to the tablet size, the site retains most of the same elements. One change is the removal of the promo code bar and the reduced size of the shopping cart button.

Finally, the smallest version has a hamburger menu which you can expand to see the remaining navbar content. The splash content was also reorganized to move the text under the picture instead of covering it in order to use the space most effectively.

Marks and Symbols

In the world of graphic design, marks are used frequently. There are different classifications of marks, and we learned how to distinguish between them today. The first type of mark is the symbol. Symbols are marks without type that identify a group and can be legally protected. These make a quick impact, however they have to be explained due to the lack of type explaining the mark. Pictographs are public symbols able to be used by all. These are often associated with public safety. Lettermarks are letters used to identify a company that aren't pronounceable. These are often shortened versions of a longer name. Logos are words that represent a company but are pronounceable. Combination marks are a combination of a symbol and logo, also called signature. Finally,we have trademarks. All of the previously mentioned marks qualify to be trademarks. Trademarks are the legal name for unique mark. These can be registered and protected by the law.

The difference between a symbol and a logo is that a logo uses type to represent a company, and a symbol represents the company without any type. When the two of these are used together, a combination mark is created.

I learned that there is a difference between a logo and symbols. I had never paid any attention to the distinguishing factors between these. I also had never realized that lettermarks were separate from logos as well. In addition, pictographs were new to me. I didn't know that there were separate names for symbols not protected by the law.

My favorite thing I learned would just be learning the classifications in general. I feel like this would be useful when working with clients and designing the right type of mark for them.

Flash

    In it's prime, Flash helped give life to the websites we visited. Instead of just a GIF or flashing text, you could make your website much more interactive. The use of this plugin would ensure that a website would load exactly the same way for everybody who visits the page. With Flash, we saw the beginning of web based video, animations, and games.

    When the first iPhone was announced in 2007, Apple also announced that the iPhone would not offer Flash support. The functionality lost as a result of this was not much of an issue, as the release of HTML5 was imminent. HTML5 would replace some of the functionality Flash offered, so developers began to move away from Flash. Later, in 2010, Steve Jobs published a note on his website justifying his reasoning for not supporting Flash. This plugin was insecure and resource-intensive, and Jobs believed that it's better to use open standards, like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

    Despite this, Android still supported Flash, and you could still develop native apps for iOS. And on the web, many of Facebook's games were made on flash, and YouTube used Flash for video playback. However, HTML5 would soon be able to support video on YouTube. The idea of a plugin free internet was spreading. In 2011, Adobe stopped the production of the Flash Player for Android and released Edge Animate, a new way to create HTML5 content, which only made Flash more obscure.

    In 2015, Adobe discontinued Edge Animate and renamed Flash to Animate CC. Now it would be the “premier web animation tool for developing HTML5 content while continuing to support the creation of Flash content".

    Facebook became one of the last big users of Flash, however they were looking for an alternative. They had tried to create a library of HTML5 games in 2011, but quickly shut down the project. Although they are trying to distance themselves from Flash, their library of games is still up and running.

    In an effort to move away from flash, Google has announced that from now on, Chrome will block Flash by default, with the goal of eventually blocking Flash altogether. I feel like Flash doesn't have a future on the internet. The alternatives have become used even more, and are beginning to perform better than Flash.

Designing Posters

The Character and Function of a Poster

    In graphic design, posters are used to spread ideas. This idea can be anything from advertising a product to propagating a political campaign. In order to spread the idea, you want to maximize the amount of people looking at your poster. This can be done by printing multiple copies, but in a world where we're bombarded with a constant flow of information, you have to create an eye-catching poster to get any attention. Most posters go unread because they fail to do this.

The Laws of Poster Design

    Creating a poster that will get attention can be extremely challenging. There are many aspects that go in to making a great poster. Overall, a poster must be legible, easily understood, and interesting. It's helpful to make your poster large in order to increase the distance at where it can be read. The lettering on the design is also a vital detail to pay attention to. The font has to be easy to read, and properly integrated with the style of the poster. Even the writing itself should be concise and simple.

    The use of shapes in poster design is really important as well. When properly used, shapes give your design a sense of rhythm. Shapes are responsible for bringing attention to the poster, so you want to make sure that you're using them properly.

    Lastly, but definitely not least, is color. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that color is extremely important in any form of design. For your poster, you want to make sure the colors catch the readers eye. You have to be careful not to use too much color however, as this can make it hard to comprehend the information on the poster. Use color theory to your advantage, and choose a palette that will really help get your message across.

The Keys to a Great Poster

    I believe that the most important aspects to a good poster are the color, placement, and the information. The color and placement are what helps to get attention of the reader. As I wrote before, the colors must stand out, but not be too overwhelming. The placement refers to the size and location of the poster. You want to place your poster in a place where people who are interested in the topic may be gathered. The size is also important, the larger your poster, the greater the distance people can read the information from. Now that you have the attention of the viewer, you want to get the information to them in the most concise way possible. You don't want to hit your viewer with a huge wall of text, or they are likely to just ignore it and move on.

What I learned

    The most important thing I learned from this article was how to get the attention of your audience. You have to make a poster that stands out from the rest, and once you have that attention, you have to know how to maintain it. This can be applied to many aspects of life, not just poster design.

Semester Reflection

What did you do this semester?

This semester in graphic design has been very helpful for me. Though I came in to this class with quite a bit of prior knowledge in Adobe Illustrator, it was helpful to learn Photoshop as well. My skills with both programs have increased by quite a bit, as well as the quality of my designs. We did a few projects to help develop our skills, so I'll talk about each one.

Learning Photoshop

Our first project in this class was to learn Photoshop. We spent a couple weeks following tutorials that would teach us how to use and apply certain tools. A challenged I faced was working with clipping masks. Before these tutorials, I used to just erase what I didn't want of a picture instead of clipping it out. I was just so used to doing it that way, but using clipping masks is a lot better because you still have the rest of the image if you ever need it. I didn't really receive any feedback for this project since I was following a tutorial the whole way through.

Learning Illustrator

After learning Photoshop, we started to work with Illustrator. We were given a tutorial to follow that would help us build a raccoon in a few days. After making my raccoon, we built a scene around it and printed out postcards. Since I had prior knowledge with Illustrator, I was able to work efficiently and had extra time to add some extra polish to my design. I really like how it turned out, the only challenge I faced was trying to think of an original theme for my Raccoon to be placed in. I was given a lot of positive feedback for this project, a lot of people seemed to enjoy it.

Vector Face

Once we finished our raccoon, we moved on to something a little more challenging. We spent a few weeks vectorizing our faces. It was a challenge to create an accurate depiction of myself that I was satisfied with. I learned that making hair in Illustrator is VERY hard and I wasn't really satisfied with how it turned out, even though I spent many hours outside of school trying to make it look good. I used gradients to contour my face, which I feel was a mistake and people I showed agreed with me. I shouldn't have tried so hard to make it just like the photo, because it ended up looking unnatural. I wish I would've had time to change it, but I ran out of time. I do like how it turned out though. I actually made a stencil version and I carved a pumpkin with my face on it for Halloween.

Infographic

This next one is my favorite project we've done so far. I made my infographic over Internet Connectivity Around the World. The idea behind this is that over half of the world is still without internet, and I believe that we should fix that. The whole project took a few weeks to do, and I'm very happy with the result. A lot of people seemed to like it, some feedback I received was regarding the header and the text inside. So I messed around with the way the text aligned and I think it turned out well. I really can't wait to get it printed out full-size, I'm likely going to hang it up in my room once I get it.

Massimo Vignelli

Finally, we did a research project over the history of graphic design. We were each assigned either a style of graphic design, or an artist. I was given a couple weeks to research and create a presentation over Massimo Vignelli. I didn't know much about him before doing this project, but I'm very glad I was assigned him. He did a lot to influence graphic design and designed many long lasting pieces still used to this day, a significant one being the signage for the New York Subway System. I received positive feedback on how well my presentation mimicked the style Vignelli used in a lot of his designs. I'm very proud of this project, I can't wait to present once we get back from break.

How did you use your time in class?

I used my time in class effectively, I was often done with my projects before they were due, which left me time to improve and build upon them. Often times I would help my peers out with their projects if I was ahead and help them catch up. Outside of class, I often find myself looking at other designs, from people doing cool things with typography, to websites, and even architecture. I like doing this because I feel like it can make me a better designer and make me more creative. I'm also on the school's FIRST Robotics team, where my job is to create graphics for the team. This helps to keep me on my toes, the extra practice does a lot.

What are your ares of strength as an employee or graphic designer?

I say my biggest strength is creating layouts for designs. This helps me out with many aspects of life. It obviously helps out with graphic design, but I also find myself applying those skills when working on things like websites too. I like applying this wherever I can, not only to make my stuff look nice, but also to improve my skills.

What are your areas in need of improvement?

I wish that I was better at being creative overall. I want to get better at creating unique designs that look really cool. A goal of mine is to create a new logo that reflects who I am. My current one is a little too similar to other designs I've seen, so that's part of the reason I'm wanting a redesign.

Summary

The thing I loved most about this semester was being able to have a teacher who could give me input on how to make my designs better and actually telling me why it looks better. I feel like the best way to learn anything is to have a mentor giving you input, so that's really helpful. I don't think I would do anything differently. My overall takeaway from this semester is that the hardest part about graphic design definitely is not actually using the program, it's being creative, at least for me. A goal of mine for next semester would be to learn how to mix fonts. I feel like that's a really useful skill to have, and it would help me out a lot, especially in web design.

Overall, I'm very happy with this class. It gives me a place to create and learn how to create higher quality works. I'm fairly certain that I will be continuing graphic design through my junior and senior years. As long as I'm creating, I'll be happy.

Hexcode Color Sampler

I made a website demonstrating how hex codes represent the colors that display on our computers. I added colors of the rainbow, a lighter version of the rainbow, and shades of gray. Here's a demo of what the colors looked like.

#e30000

#ee8800

Learning Photoshop

Overview

I've worked with Photoshop in the past, but with these tutorials, I feel like I have a better understanding of how to use it more efficiently. With these tutorials, I got familiar with:

• The Quick Selection Tool
• Using Refine Edge to get a more accurate selection
• Using the Patch Tool
• The Clone Stamp Tool
• Masking parts of an image

Here are a few of my practice photos

Removing the logo from a surfboard

This is one of the first photos I worked on. Before, there was a logo on the surfboard, but using the content aware tool, I was able to get rid of it all together.

Removing blotches from the background of a photo

In this photo, there were originally signs of wear on the wall behind the subject. Using the patch tool, I got rid of the peeling paint, and the wall looks much better than it did before.

Removing distracting elements from an image

In this image, there used to be a large pole in the background directly behind the fathers head. It was distracting from the subjects of the picture, so using the clone-stamp tool, I got rid of it.

Cleaning up dirty faces

For this image, I had to clean up the kids face. Before editing, he had a lot of dirt all over his face. To fix this, I used an image mask to get rid of the dirty spots.

The Girl with the Black Hat

For this image, I had to use everything I had learned up to that point, along with a few new techniques, like the content aware scale.

Sol Infusion

For this one, my task was to create an advertisement for a brand of lotion. I learned how to deal with linked smart objects in order to make things quicker to edit and replace in the future. 

The Landscape Man

This was the final project I had to create using the tutorials. I was on my own for this one, there wasn't a tutorial for this one. I had to use my existing knowledge and let my creativity take the wheel. I made sure that I had used all the tools I learned to create this.

I started out with just a picture of a normal looking man, along with some pictures of landscapes. I decided to put a couple of these together in order to make the setting. I placed the man behind the ocean to make him look both large and far away. I changed his clothes and hair to be made out of materials found in nature. I then added a couple of islands in the background to give closure to the picture. I'm proud of the result, and I look forward to working with Photoshop in the future.

WayBack Machine: 3 Sites, Then and Now

Amazon.com

The content on Amazon has stayed the same over the years, they've just added features. Style wise, they've gotten rid of many of the rounded borders and their outlines. The content has also been spread out more in the 2016 version.

In the 2016 version, there isn't as much text, which makes the site easier to digest. Their code has obviously changed between these versions, so let's check out the differences.






This is what their code looked like then:

<a name="top"> <!--Top of Page-->
</a>
<table border=0 width=100% cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
<tr align=center bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<td>
<a href=/web/20000229110136/http://www.amazon.com/g/v11/nav/tabs/top-nav.map/ >
<img width=590 height=75 border=0 src="/20000229110136im_/http" >
</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

And here's what the same thing look like now:

<img src="/web/20160616140023im_/http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/gno/sprites/nav-sprite-global-sprite_bluebeacon-1x_optimized._CB29559;
<!--[if IE 6]>
<style type="text/css"><!--
#navbar.nav-spirte-v3 .navsprite {
background-image: url{/web/20160616140023im_/http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/gno/sprites/nav-sprite-global-sprite_bluebeacon-v1._CB327533;
}
--></style>
<![endif]-->
<!-- -->
<script>
(window.AmazonUIPageJS 7 AmazonUIPageJS : P).when('navCF').execute(function() {
(window.AmazonUIPageJS ? AmazonUIPageJS : P).load.js('/web/20160616140023im_/http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/01o2nt7QnvL._RC|71seGE;
});
</script>

As we can see, the code now is much more complicated to accommodate for different web browsers, when back then compatibility wasn't much of an issue because there weren't many options in the first place.

BestBuy.com

Back when the internet was brand new and connections were slow, the goal of web designers was to design a website that had a small file size. This led to webpages looking fairly empty, as we can see here with Best Buy's website in December of 1996.

Now, in 2016, connections are much faster, so we have more content. This is an an obvious improvement from the old version.







Once again, the code for the old site is much different than the updated version:

<p align="center">
<img src="lites3.gif" alt="Best Buy - Just the Store You've Been Shopping For!" width="599" height="47">
</p>
<td valign="top" width="200"><a href="insert/">
<img src="Insert.gif" alt="Weekly Best Buys" border="0" width="178" height="96">
</a>
<p>A sampling from our weekly
        circular. Check it out!</p>
</td>

In the current version, all of the code is completely different, here's what it looks like:

<div id="header">
<!--<![endif]-->
<a href="#headerskip" title="Skip to content" class="skip">Skip to content</a>
<div class="header-inner">
<header>
<div class="secondary-fullbleed-wrap">
<div class="secondary-wrap">
<div class="value-prop"><a href="/web/20151009082825/http://www.bestbuy.com/site/misc/expert-service-unbeatable-price/pcmcat345300050032.c?id=pcmcat345300050032" data-lid="hdr_shi">Expert Service. Unbeatable Price.</a>
</div>

ChefBoyardee.com

The Chef Boyardee website has also gone through huge changes. The old version is extremely cluttered and hard to look at.

They've cleaned up the website a lot and made it easier to navigate.









Here's the code for the 2003 version:

<embed src="/web/20030801082330oe_/http://www.chefboyardee.com/flash/home.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="770" height="500" name="chef" align="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

I found it interesting that for their website they just embedded a flash file, but in the 2016 version, it's much different:

<a href="/web/20160405091719/http://www.chefboyardee.com/" class="brand"><img src="/web/20160405091719im_/http://www.chefboyardee.com/assets/images/common/chef-logo.png" alt="Chef Boyardee"></a>
            <div class="main">
                <div class="inner clearfix">
                    <a class="toggle-main-menu" href="#"><span></span></a>

Some common themes I noticed between these websites is the use of tables in the older version. As the languages used to create websites are updated, you can create much nicer looking sites and even better looking code. The internet has evolved since it's creation, and it will continue to do so in the years to come.

Motor-Sthetics: Robo-Dough

I'm very proud of what our team has accomplished. We were good with assigning roles in order to get the job done. We struggled most with getting our website done on time, but we came in outside of school and got it done. Next time, I want to set deadlines and make sure they get met. There isn't anything I would really change, but I have learned how to work in groups better. I worked on graphic design, and web design. Here are some screenshots of what I worked on.

Webpages

I made these webpages about me using Adobe Dreamweaver, I learned how to use various HTML tags and CSS styles. Here are some screenshots:

360 Tour of my House

I made this house in SketchUp, I was able to make the basic design really quick, so I added a bunch of extra stuff, such as a patio, driveway, stone pathway, and a Ferrari in the garage.

Doghouse

I made this doghouse in Sketch-up by following blueprints. I used many tools, such as the push and pull tool. I got the dog from the warehouse, but I made the bowl and trees.

Tables and chairs

I made this set of chairs and a table using Sketchup, I used many tools, such as the push pull and follow me tool.