Passion into Purpose

Mastery: Personal Development and Leadership

During the Mastery class I was glad to have the opportunity to re-read a book that I really feel has brought clarity to my life in several ways. It gave me re-focused approach on how to move forward with this master’s program and the items that would be expected of me. Professionally, I learned to manage my time. It was the beginning of adding to an already busy schedule, so I relearned how to do a lot of the items on my to do list. Getting an A+ was my highlighted triumph.

Defining Client Needs

It was really great working on my drawing skills and being able to get back into a sketch pad with pencil. It had been a while since I’d done so. Professionally, realizing that taking in additional research steps made for the opportunity to create logos not based on preconceived notions but to actually make decisions based on fact. The technique of drawing at least 80 options, per idea, is a technique I’ll be using in my professional practice.  My highlighted triumph must be how beautiful I could make a snake look in vector

Brand Development

Brand Development was a really fun for me! I loved learning more about making complementary color options, creating logos into vector. During this time, I began to deal with a lot of personal issues that made life difficult. However, I lost myself in my studies. Professionally, learning the unique ways that laying out a logo would allow for it to become more appealing to the end user is something I’ll use regularly. This is a technique I acquired. A triumph was finding a complementary color that matched the traditional color of Marrakech and turn my logo into a vector.

Effective Copy Writing

Personally, this is when life was getting harder with my stalker among other new personal issues. I saw my focus starting to shift. However, I’ve always loved creating copy and being able to place ads together. It was looking forward to this class more than most. I enjoyed that the organization I picked was also an organization that I would support in my “real” life. Laying out print ads was something that I began to use professionally immediately and also the most important technique I acquired. I also really liked the way the MDMFA program taught us how to layout personas versus the way that I had previously used. Being able to add the mock-ups made to my portfolio was my absolute highlight!

Design Research

Personally, during my first try in Design Research I was just trying to survive. But I did!

Professionally, I was just trying to keep my job and learn everything I could about Marrakech.

I had never worked with motion, so this was my first try and it was a lot to learn, especially at such a hard time. By the final take of the course, I really enjoyed what I learned and loved being able to incorporate motion. Actually, creating a single piece in Adobe Premiere Pro is most certainly a triumph!

Organizational Structure

During Organizational Structure, life was still difficult. I was trying to maintain my job, my clients, do a group project and actually take in this work. Because of all the back and forth with my inability to complete Design Research, I was placed in Organizational Structure before I finished Design Research and it made some things difficult. I even had a new city while others worked on their previously assigned. It was confusing but I persevered. I started using everything I learned in laying out static and dynamic vision board on my clients and in RFP responses immediately. I absolutely love motion! I was always so “afraid” of it being difficult that I missed out on how easily it relayed a message to an audience. OI finished the class with a B and that worked for me.

Design Strategies and Motivation

FINALLY! No more Pretoria or Marrakech. Being done and far away from the branding components that the first half of this program consisted of made me happier than ever. I know everything in life isn’t a passion project but learning that I’d be doing the rest of the work on my actual neighborhood that I love and enjoyed learning more about was great.  Professionally, I began to use the comparative analysis taught in this course immediately. I acquired new research skills such as canvasing and taking location photos which is so important in place branding.  Highlighted Triumph? Adding place branding to my skill set.

Design Integration

My personal life was getting back into the swing of things post domestic violence.  Getting to keep my focus on Reynoldstown Next was really nice. It forced me to stay connected in my community while staying safe. Professionally, I was stressed with adding a new client. Financially, it was worth it. I made a very fun dynamic vision board now that I knew how to actually use Premier Pro beyond its basic functions, so I was able to integrate humor into some of my designs. I’d highlight that creating a fun, exciting, dynamic vision board for my neighborhood was a prideful moment of triumph.

Multi-Platform Delivery

Personally, I left like I was finally getting to the part that I knew well. I was creating mock-ups with confidence that I never had before because of the feedback of my peers and professor. Being able to take in constructive criticism to get better was a positive experience. Professionally, I created some of the best logo design work to date and have already used it for my client searches in real estate. Really digging into gradient was a technique I (re)acquired. I forgot how fun it was to use gradient! Highlighted triumph was sharing this with my new way to set up mocks with my team.

Measuring Design Effectiveness

Having Dr. Cleveland again as a professor was a treat. Her feedback on my work was also so helpful and her assignments and live sessions well thought out. Professionally, I enjoyed putting together a survey. Surveys were always an achilleas heel for me. I preferred focus groups but seeing now that I can gather so much information with a survey sent out to my online community of over 12K…. why not?

Presentation of Design Solution

Being able to actually say I successfully put together thesis website for my MDMFA program was the best feeling! Going back over all of my work, I saw the positive changes that my art has taken. I enjoyed reflecting and writing out what I’d learn, similar to this exercise. I use Wix as a preferred website builder so I didn’t acquire any technical competency, but my writing became stronger and I really appreciate the feedback of the professor. Highlighted Triumph? Passing the class with an A.

Effective Storytelling

Through reading and digesting Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations by Sykes et al (2013), it was very helpful to understand the best ways to convey messages to clients. Much focus hasn’t been placed on copy since effective copywriting, thus, being able to switch focus again to narrative was beneficial for a designer who has a strong background in literature, copy and marketing. Being able to really hone in on the process of telling a story and engaging an audience was learned and emphasized in the thesis writing process.

Portfolio Set Up

I have always used my portfolio as a place where I put works, I am very excited to share with potential clients. After being more intentional on the set up of my academic workspace in the final assignment of this class, I think I will be able to structure my work in a way that gives it more value for the reader.

Understanding A Thesis

Before this class, I was overwhelmed at the thought of creating a thesis or defending my mastery of content. However, the breakdown of each DLO and being able to focus directly on what has been learned really reflected that the DLOs were mastered and it wasn’t as daunting as I thought. Actually, having been able to articular what I’d learned and how it will make my a better designer and business consultant, made writing the thesis website a great way to end this class and begin the last class on this program.  

Reference

Overview

This course focused on defining the design briefs created for Reynoldstown Next by creating logos and designing appropriate media assets to build strong a strong branding campaign.

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

Research was conducted to resolve the problem of identifying and differentiating Reynoldstown from Reynoldstown Next. Reynoldstown Next is a subsection of the area that, unlike its neighboring Reynoldstown and other East Atlanta neighborhoods, is 100% pedestrian friendly. Research conducted by getting in the neighborhood with follow up questions to the original research done in prior courses. The course materials including David Airey’s Logo Design Love provided a simple to digest elements of iconic design list. Keeping it simple and relevant are exactly what the logo of Reynoldstown Next became (Airey, 2014).

Problem Solving

The design was created to differentiate Reynoldstown Next from neighboring neighborhoods as the next big thing to hit East Atlanta. The branded materials allow for the opportunity to differentiate the area by promoting it’s 100% sustainable transportation set-up. Reaching beyond the simple to recognize attributes of the neighborhood and designing a logo that is hip and more inviting than current logos for other neighborhoods in close proximity also keeps the area front and center.

Innovative Thinking

The logo is clean and fun; unlike similar neighborhoods, its logo is both colorful (representing the artistic vibes of the area) but also clean and easy to digest. The gradient allows it to have a fun and unique approach compared to just a single set of 4-colors.  The logo is represented by a gradient bicycle in the neighborhood’s main colors. Streets and sidewalks finished for bicyclists, pedestrians and transit make a bicycle a unique representation of the neighborhood (Walkscore, n.d.). Because the neighborhood is trendy and up and coming, gradient was used to create an attractive, colorful logo. Gradient made a comeback in 2018 and seen in a lot of current design work. Gradient allows for depth and bold statement pieces (Quovantis, 2018). Arrows are a symbolic of direction, so it is fitting to have arrows in the logo as a representation of onward motion or progress to the next big thing (South, 2019). Keeping in context with direction and motion, the arrows create the wheels of the bicycle.

By paying attention to the sustainability (or walkability) factor rather than the expected arrows approach in Next was an innovative turn compared to what could have been. The gradient stands out from other logos produced. How is your work innovative?

Acquiring Competencies

My schedule does not allow me to join majority of the live class sessions during my time in this MFA program. Going back and hear the critiques can sometimes be frustrating because there is not opportunity to defend my reasoning beyond what was writing in the rationale. It’s very similar to working with clients. Being able to take the critiques and use what is valuable to continue to perfect the design brief was very helpful in this course!

References

Airey, D. (2014). Logo Design Love: A guide to creating iconic brand identities. Peachpit Press.

South, H. (2019). Doodle Symbolism – Arrows. Retrieved from https://www.liveabo ut.com/doodle-symbolism-arrows-1122630

Quovantis. (2018). Why Gradients are back to rule in 2018? Retrieved from https://uxplanet.org/why-gradients-are-back-to-rule-in-2018-8b36711c335f

This course allowed for the opportunity to do hands-on research rather than being stuck in a book. A great change of pace! Getting into the community and understanding the items that made my focused area, Reynoldstown Memorial Drive, a unique place meant a lot of trial and error and understanding what true differentiators were. For example, in my original work map (below), I gathered information on Reynoldstown as a whole instead of getting closer to a specific segment of the area. Understanding that place branding requires you to be very unique in differentiation, I then needed to go and truly understand what made RMD different from all of Reynoldstown or other neighborhoods in close proximity (Place Brand, 2015). RMD’s walkable live, work and play set up is it’s strongest differentiating characteristic.

Problem Solving

Trying to find a place in Atlanta that wasn’t already strongly branded was the largest problem faced in the course. Being able to get creative and realize that right in my own backyard there was an area of this city that was different, memorable and needing of some place branding was an extraordinary discovery. Reynoldstown Memorial Drive (RDM) extends only 0.3 miles of Memorial Drive in Reynoldstown but makes for the perfect place to live and visit. In less than a mile, you can choose from several stores, shops, grocery stores, wine bars, coffee bars, apartments, homes, lofts, and more.

Innovative Thinking

Taking a unique city like Atlanta and branding a place that is differentiated from the competition required innovative thinking. East Atlanta is essentially filled with several artsy neighborhoods. Recognizing that a unique new approach to this segment of an established neighborhood truly is its own space.

Acquiring Competencies

Interview Question Structure: Although I conduct interviews as part of my sports podcast, talking to athletes and collegiate partners is completely different that connecting with local residents or just average people who aren’t used to giving interviews. Therefore, recognizing the resources that are helpful to set intentional questions is tool that will work in several different ways.  

Differentiating Closely Similar Places: It took a lot to really try and differentiate RMD from other areas close. Recognizing that this was one of the largest factors to successful brand development meant really digging deep into what set an area apart.

References

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming – In this course, there were several opportunities to connect, synthesize and transform research into production – especially with the help of Lisa Blazer’s Animated Storytelling: Simple steps for creating animation and motion graphics. The way that the book broke down each step into the process to creating an effective motion piece allowed for a designer to really breakdown specific components of each element (Blazer, 2016).

Wanting to be sure to have representation (as best as possible using free stock b-roll), in my dynamic vision board, I was able to find several young adults from multiple backgrounds. Understanding that the goal of Rediscover Pretoria is to show the diversity of the city and its people and their interests, showing that through the experiences of those in the 30 second storyboard really allowed audiences to connect with who they saw in images (Cary, 2017).

Problem Solving – Solving to attract audiences to rediscover the colors of a city they already live in means trying to get people out of the ruts of their home/work/family life. This is hard for anyone. Using colorful, vibrant, and inviting colors, audio, and visuals allowed for the opportunity to bring a piece of light into the work and, hopefully, a motivational piece of light into the lives of the audience. Sometimes being able to picture exactly what could be if you stepped out of your front door is a very helpful first step. Therefore, images in the vision board and motion concept both were full of light and positivity very similar to the bright and positive events and activities that are available to the resident of Pretoria (Britannica, 2019).

Innovative Thinking – The work submitted for the vision board and the motion concept both relay on simplicity and clean images, fonts and compatible colors. Nothing is extremely over the top or risky. In design less is typically always more. Therefore, deciding to not overcrowd any of the work and keep everything minimalistic is an approach appreciated by many. Pretoria being a city full of vibrancy and color could easily become overwhelmed with color and ideas, however, sticking to the plan and keeping it clean and congruent allows for simple translation and ease of viewing for potential residents considering the Rediscover Pretoria campaign (Wheeler, 2018).

Acquiring Competencies – Being the second time I took this class, I really was able to use what I struggled through the first time (ie. Premier Pro and After Effect) and now really apply some of the tutorials to stretch my thinking. Instead of spending all my time trying to understand the controls in each program, I was able to follow faster and really take my thoughts and create them as I felt fit. This class also reemphasized just how important motion is in branding in 2019. I continue to see motion in everything from my Uber app’s splash screen to the motion posters at the AMC next door and on the back of city buses.

References

Blazer, L. (2016). Animated storytelling: Simple steps for creating animation and motion graphics. Peachpit Press Publications.

Britannica, T. E. (2019, March 01). Pretoria. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Pretoria

Cary, R. (2017, October 9). Why Representation In Branding Matters, by Paige Ricks.

Synthesizing

This being my second time taking the course, and the first I was unable to complete, I genuinely enjoyed the deeper dive into synthesizing my research – especially that sparked by Professor Argo’s feedback. One of the strongest connections where in Basic Design 02: Layout by Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris. Typically, when structuring design components, I always just rely on my “eye” to understand what the best layout or grid would be for a piece of work. However, understanding that there is an actual logic to the hierarchy of information laid out on a page (or site) will allow me to reach specific audiences with the most critical information atop while also remaining balance (Ambrose, 2011). In an article published by William Motes, Chadwick Hilton, and John Fielden titled Language, sentence and structural variations in print advertising, studies were conducted to show the enormous importance that writing styles, word placement, and page layout have on what information readers digest first. When completing my infographic, vision board and style sheets for Pretoria’s “Rediscover Colorful” campaign, I placed emphasis on “Rediscover” and “Colorful” as the boldest words outside of the city name itself to place importance on them as fixtures on the page (Motes, 1992).

Problem Solving

My most difficult design problem was landing on how to translate the vast colors and textures of Pretoria into a clean format rather than allowing it to get messy or distracting. Deciding on a clean, bold, typography (AZO and Raleway) allowed me to be creative with the many other colors that would take over the rest of the page (Ambrose, 2019). Below is an infographic that I believe to be way too crowded with information and imagery compared to my own where I believe it’s clean, easy to read and digest. This way, it leaves the reader wanting to know more about Pretoria and how they can rediscover colorful without becoming overwhelmed. One of the goals of an infographic is to “re-research and curate relevant sources to follow other lines of inquiry, harvest potential sub- questions, and identify common knowledge (Abilock, 2014)”.

Innovative Thinking

When designing concepts for the Rediscover Colorful campaign, I wanted to be intentional in making sure my work did not look too basic or copied. When working in an online class, it’s easy to see everyone’s work and quickly become convinced that you’re designing something incorrectly – or not follow directions. This sometimes threatens my innovative thinking. For example, am I looking at the right Pretoria? Am I going too “left-field” with these pastels? However, in Graphic Design The New Basics, Ellen Lupton shares, that “like fashion, graphic design cycles through periods of structure and chaos, ornament and austerity. A designer’s approach to visual hierarchy reflects his or her personal style, methodology and training as well as the zeitgeist of the period (Lupton, 2015)”. Understanding that your idea may not fit the mode does give confidence to a designer. This is something I have taken away from this class,

Acquiring Competencies

1.   Really understanding the importance of hierarchy and layout is one of my strongest takeaways from the reading in this course. It’s so valuable to be able to go beyond just my “eye” and understand why there should be a specific structure, font, etc. in on a page or visual.

2.   Professor Argo’s feedback on making sure that my theme spoke through my design and narrative was critical. I was missing the mark on making the connection. Trying to show how “rediscovery” and “colorful” could be seen through the imagery and narrative was no easy feat. I’m also pretty sure that I haven’t mastered it yet. Each time I submit – I think of something better or different. For example, dropping the “re” from “rediscover” and inviting residents to simply Discover Colorful.Forever evolving.

3.   In all honesty, I mastered creating and releasing clipping masks in Abode Illustrator, as well as, optimizing PDF sizes. That feels like a huge win for a self-taught designer.

References

Ambrose, G., & Harris, P. (2011). Basics design. Lausanne: Ava.

Abilock, Debbie; Williams, Connie. (2014). Recipe for an Infographic. American Library Association.

Ambrose, G. H. (2019). Fundamentals of Typography. S.l.: BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS.

Lupton, E. (2015). Graphic design: The new basics: Second edition, revised and expanded. Princeton Architectural Press.

During Organizational Structures, I focused on turning my static vision board into a dynamic vision board while learning more about the use of motion in branding. This course really stretched my abilities as a designer who has never even opened Premier Pro.

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming

The beginning of this course started with storyboarding my concept for a 30 second dynamic vision board for the city of Marrakech. During y study of Marrakech is focused specifically on the night life and the culture that happens after nightfall. In translating that into motion (for the first time) I really wanted to be sure that my transitions were fluid and communication was flowing; making sure that my message displayed clear facts and each scene. Enjoyed João Verissimo’s take in the medium.com article Keep Your Communication Flowing with Motion Design. Verissimo messaged the value of motion as the following: “It is used to instill more life into the message, it makes it easier to capture your audience’s attention when you must display some complex facts, and they generally render your whole presentation more energetic and relatable (Verissimo, 2017)”.

Problem Solving

I placed a focus on making sure that the motion clips I created were clean and simple to follow. We see so much stuff being thrown at us as smartphone/smart TV/smart everything users. I really wanted to be sure that I kept everything clean and concise, yet, magical. According to Milana Saric of AdWeek, “Facebook users spend an average of 1.7 seconds with any piece of mobile content on the platform, compared to 2.5 seconds on desktop. Those interactions become even briefer with younger audiences, and they are growing shorter all the time. This presents a significant challenge for brands as they increasingly using mobile as part of their marketing mix (Saric, 2017).” As I am targeting young adults who would be interested in traveling abroad to experience another country’s nightlife, I knew that keeping frames interesting, cleaning, and fluid would be helping in keeping my audience engaged for the 30 second vision board and my short motion concept where I used kinetic typography. Keep the business component top of mind while working on motion, really allowed me to take the new knowledge I was gaining about motion and immediately translate it to actual skill I can replicate as a branding consultant.

Innovative Thinking

My goal was to stay far, far, away from the typical “Word Art” I felt when I see some cartoon images. Again, keeping in my mind my target audience of young adults who are willing to travel abroad, I wanted my motion vision board to be full of fun and clean motion clips. In my motion concept, I created a short kinetic typography clip that would allow for the client to drop a short clip on social media to seed traffic to the actual dynamic vision board of Marrakech. It’s alluring to magic is seen through clean kinetic typography.

Acquiring Competencies

I learned so much! First and foremost, I successfully used Premiere Pro. That was a miracle in itself. I gained experience in storyboarding and why its important. Everything starts on the story board.

Outside of technical competencies and processes, I now understand the value of adding motion to a brand as an added layer of emotion to bring to the audience. Did I mention the 100% greater appreciation I have for the art of motion? I’ve always loved film and can watch pretty much any film – black/white, foreign, short, whatever – and fall in love with the art and the story line. However, having gained an understanding on even just a smart part of the work that goes into the process will hopefully be helpful to my clients.

Draft Dynamic Vision Board 

Final Dynamic Vision Board

Motion Concept

References

Saric, M. (2017). How Brands Can Still Win Over Customers as Attention Spans Decrease on Social. Retrieved from https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-brands-can-still-win-over-customers-as-attention-spans-decrease-on-social/

Target Audience Profiles

I absolutely love creating personas! Selfishly, it is the most exciting part of each marketing campaign I create for my clients. Being able to get really creative with these target audience profiles was great practice and helpful in creating the voice of my campaign. As I started this project, I found myself with six potential personas: the veteran, the active duty servicemember, the child dependent (retired), the child dependent (active duty), the spouse dependent (retired), and the spouse dependent (fallen). For the personas project, I selected the active duty servicemember and the spouse dependent (active duty). As the project progressed, switching the target audience away from the active duty soldier to the dependent and those removed from active duty made more sense. As the granddaughter, daughter, sister, niece and cousin of military servicemembers, much of my research was based on the life experience I have witnessed between my own family and those of the many people I know having lived in the military community all my life. As a military dependent, you are many times bred to have this need to nurture. Because military life is full of sacrifice, affiliation and closely being associated with another serious who understands your woes is so important. Affiliation and Nurturance played a large part in creating the voices of my personas (Felton, 2013).

Reference

Six Sketches

Being able to relay on the pen and paper to translate my thoughts for these ads into the first step of the design process was powerful. Although, I knew that relying on free stock images was going to limit bringing the ideas into fruition. I didn’t move forward with the ads I wanted to bring to life (i.e.: the “Welcome Home” ad) as I couldn’t find a stock image that relayed the message I wanted to get across to my readers. In Advertising Concept and Copy gives us two things to keep in mind: “Finding a likely candidate is only half the job” and “Decide whether you’ll press the truth button or the whimsy button” (Felton, 2013, p. 241). I knew I wanted to keep put emotional images behind bold copy. My idea was to keep the spokesperson “real” and the copy “realer” (Felton, 2013).

References

Three Initial Comps

The comps I created, I didn’t really want to create. Frankly speaking, I knew I was limited in the stock images I would find so I worked with what I had available to me. I’m really big on loving what I create so that was tough for me. Eventually, I was satisfied.

Anyone who has ever lived or worked on a military instillation knows that at 4:30 PM (or 1630), 5:00 (1700) or at sunset it’s time for Reveille and Retreat. You stop what you’re doing and stand to face the flag. If you are driving, you are required to stop and/or pull over. It signals the end of the day. Therefore, the Ad with the American flag speaks to my target audience of military depends (and even servicemembers) who know that we stand for Reveille and Retreat (Military Spouse Team, 2013). I used this to create a parallel headline (Felton, 2013).

In creating body copy I made sure to be persuasive and include action words in tight and sharp sentences that relayed the message quickly but thoroughly (Felton, 2013).

References

Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: Concept and copy. New York: Norton & 

Three Revised Comps

MDM555 Effective Copywriting Reflection

Recognizing the textbook, Advertising Concept and Copy, by George Felton as the guide for MDM555 Effective Copywriting, this text was a solid foundation for the fundamentals of writing effective copy and expanding on the basics. The text covered all aspects of the ad creation process from conceptualization to execution (Felton, 2013).

Having used Felton’s Advertising Concept and Copy as a go-to reference in prior projects, being able to really dive into the text with intention beyond quick research was very beneficial. The reading assigned as part of the coursework in MDM555 Effective Copywriting was precise in showcasing the best of this great tool; the reading was especially helpful in completing assignments. Chapter 9: Establishing Voice reflects on the importance of creating a voice for a brand. For different projects establishing a voice can mean creating a brand voice from scratch or building on an existing voice. A client may also want to completely demolish the voice they have already created and start over. Chapter 19: Testimonials: The Power of Personality spoke to the power of using personas in ads. Speaking to ways that celebrities, “normal people”, extreme users, and even personification can all be used to build a strong ad was extremely helpful in completing the ad project (Felton, 2013). I particularly drifted towards using “normal people” because my non-profit, Children of Fallen Patriots, helps ust that: normal people in extraordinary situations (Fallen Patriots, 2018).

As someone who has zero formal education in design or copy, the tutorials provided by Craig Smallish and others were so important to success in this (and other!) courses. As a YouTube learner, following videos is a common reoccurrence in my day-to-day. However, the educational direction Smallish provided helps make connections between ideas, the actual process and research-based validity on “the why”. Being able to follow Chapter 8: Developing the Final Comp in Smallish’s Designing a Print Ad tutorial was key for me in visualizing a comp and understanding how I wanted mine to look (Smallish, 2014).

Effective Copywriting Takeaways

· Synthesizing: This course allowed me to really sharpen my synthesizing skills. I was able to really put research-based decisions into my work whereas before I created copy solely on emotion and creative drive.

· Creating Comps: I never created full comps before. Understanding how to create them and use them in my futures and with current clients will be very helpful.

· Creative Problem Solving: Clearly, I won’t be having photo shoots to capture the images I see in my head for the ads I created in this course. Knowing I had limited options when it came to stock images to create my vision, I really had to find other options and “make it work”. I did think of ways to continue to push artwork. That experience will prove helpful in the future.

Out of the twelve courses in the MFAMD program, Effective Copywriting is the course that I found myself most eager to take. I’ve also been passionate about creative and persuasive copy that entices readers to take an action. I love that effective communication that persuades a person to take an action is everywhere around us. In the world of social media, we use it in our captions or personally in our text messages. Regretfully, it fell in a month where, unexpected, my bandwidth did not allow me to give 100%. I’m satisfied with my work as I gave it my best effort. However, at times I rushed and found myself wishing I had tweaked something or wanted to go back and make minor edits. This will surely be one of the courses that I look forward to taking again as a Full Sail graduate!

References

Fallen Patriots. (2018). Children of Fallen Patriots. Retrieved from https://www.fallenpatriots.org

Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: Concept and copy. New York: Norton & Company.

This months logo assignment was very rewarding for me. As one of my first instructor led design courses, I learned a lot and rethought many of my original ideas - such as this diagram. At first, I had no doubt that the linear diagram below was what course of action I took on this project.

I started with research, came up with some creatives after choosing to work on the Marrakech logo, went into prototyping and began the design and production. However, after this week’s peer review and the feedback from Dr. Cleveland, I see myself definitely following the below diagram.

As I’m still learning, there is a lot of back and forth in my process. Taking the feedback I received from peers and Dr. Cleveland, I am excited to go back to the design + production phase and sharpen my work. I’m looking forward to expanding on the below concepts that I think really capture Marrakech.

FEEDBACK

During my first week of Defining Client Needs, I’ve been able to review the groundworks of what will be this course and courses to come. I’m becoming more in tune with the workings of the 1-month course schedule and my responsibilities. The key takeaways that will have the most impact on my experience as a graduate student are the design of the thesis project, the capturing of the Mastery Journal, and the impacts this will have on my portfolio. Between this journal and the hands-on work I will be doing, I am going to create so much art that my portfolio (and life experience) will put me in a category of my own.

My only concern (not sure I’d even call it that) is that as a self-taught designer, my graphic design skills may not be as up to par as someone who has their BFA in Design. I know that my work translates well and that I carry across my client’s needs, however, am I using the best programs, am I doing it “right” by industry standards? I’m concerned that my lack of professional training will require me to do more self-research for assignments that should be more elementary. However, this isn’t a “worried” concern. It’s more of an “excited” concern. I’ll learn more than I even expected!

My vision and expectation of the MDMFA program is to master my craft. I am 100% committed to this program. As an MBA drop out who tried to learn something at this high of a level that I have ZERO interest in – even in the first week of my second course, I know I’m doing what I was called to do. Having that passion to learn more will make it so rewarding to get this degree. My plan is to continue to dedicate much of my “free” time to studying and assignments. I plan to remain engaged with my classmates and professors. I am excited to use this network of creatives that is right at my fingertips at Full Sail!