#professional practices

Primer: Copyright For Photographers

Photo By Barry Schwartz The Copyright Alliance recently put together a pretty comprehensive and easy-to-understand series of articles on copyright for photographers. Loads of reliable information based on experience and the law, not opinion (including when the law is based on opinions!). It’s less confusing than I’ve made it sound. It’s easy – and free! – to join up and get the newsletter and…

Majordomo restaurant, Los Angeles. Photo By Barry Schwartz I’ve had (at least) two careers as a self-employed professional; now as a photographer and educator, previously as a journeyman carpenter, contractor, and kitchen designer. Before achieving professional status in both careers I was told there were rules I must follow while at the same time other people instructed me there are no rules.…

1) How has each course contributed to your personal and professional development as a media designer?

Month 1: Master: Personal Development & Leadership – This course helped me to define my goals and outcomes throughout the entire program. The program was definitely a great stepping stone into the graduate level from being an undergraduate a few months prior to the start of the program.

 Month 2: Defining Client Needs – This course contributed to my connection of design and business. Even though I received a degree in Marketing, being able to apply my knowledge from a designers stand point helped to change my perception on advertising and the importance that each factor contributes. When designing for a client, we need to focus on their needs of their customers and truly connect with them on a specified level.

 Month 3: Brand Development – This course helped me to fully understand what a brand is and the purpose and meaning it provides towards the success of that business. Being a Marketing major during my undergraduate, I didn’t consider the importance of branding and its contribution to success rather than just the company’s stand point within the market.

 Month 4: Effective Copywriting – This course helped establish a connection and the importance between verbal and visual communication. Whether the work I create in the future is personal or professional, continuously establishing this connection within my designs will help with the success of their implementation. 

 Month 5: Design Research – Having already known the importance of research for Marketing, understanding that the same importance goes towards design has helped to strengthen my understanding of what it takes to be a successful media designer. After recently learning the purpose that design is meant to uphold, design research allows for those purposes to be developed and implemented with success.

 Month 6: Organizational Structures – Having to develop a narrative and being able to accurately communicate it through a few different platforms was something I was not use to. Having to maintain consistency and ensure the same message is perceived was in fact a challenge but a challenge that has benefited me both throughout the program and at my own job as well with maintaining consistency.

 Month 7: Design Strategies & Motivations – My strongest take away from this course was answering our client’s questions before they were asked, specifically through the use of a style guide. Before diving into the course, I assumed you only design and answered what is asked of you. However, designing and answering the questions that the client may have when it comes time to present the work shows that as a designer I know what I am doing and it can boost the chance of my success.

 Month 8: Design Integration – Being able to display my work in an organized manner from including campaign assets within the final presentation of the Transmedia Campaign for Launchpad has enhanced my organization and presentation skills. This is something that will be utilized continuously as a media design and within my current position as a Marketing Manager.

 Month 9: Multi-Platform Integrations – As the pace had increased throughout this course, it helped to develop a real world comparison of how we must manage projects as a media designer. At first it was perceived as a bit of a challenge that our time would be cut in half for our brand development, however it definitely helped to adjust my time management and organization skills

 Month 10: Measuring Design Effectiveness – As research is important in the beginning stages of brand development, so is measuring the effectiveness our designs from that research. Doing so has really allowed us to remove our personal instincts and truly listen to the community that our designs are intended to attract.

 Month 11: Thesis: Presentation of Design Strategies – Understanding the importance of visually storytelling and how it influences the audience, especially the key decision makers, is crucial to being a successful media designer. As presenting our work and findings happens continuously in this line of work, being able to present our materials in an engaging manner is key to successfully proposing our ideas.

 Month 12: Professional Practices – This course has definitely helped me to start a firm foundation to continuously share my work with others and potentially land another job closer to my goals. Being able to create a portfolio to display my work throughout the program and as I continue forward. Being someone who is rather private and does not like to share my life or my work to the world, this has definitely helped me to branch out of that bubble. 

2) How well were you able to utilize the concepts and techniques you learned from the program (theories, design process, and the creation of multimedia content) as you designed, developed, and completed your MDMFA Thesis Project?

Throughout the entire development of my MDMFA Thesis Project, a variety of techniques and concepts were utilized. From research and critical thinking to strategic placement and color coding for easy access. The information discussed throughout the campaign book was developed based of the research and analysis of the target market. The flow of the book not only relates to the company in relation to plant growing, it relates to the growth of the company throughout the campaign. Each element within the final project incorporates the company’s core values and was designed to reflect the fun, upbeat lifestyle that Urban Gardens To-Go represents. The campaign book was designed to excite and inform the success of the proposed campaign. The biggest challenge in designing a successful campaign was managing time to complete the project. Thankfully, the resources and tools provided to assist us helped to bring new techniques and ideas to the table throughout the project.  

3) Describe your most outstanding personal triumph in each course.

Month 1: Master: Personal Development & Leadership – Establishing a plan and goals to achieve throughout the program is the most outstanding triumph for this course. Doing so, helped create an ease and pace to program and helped to prepare me for the future courses.

 Month 2: Defining Client Needs – I gained the sense that even when you are planning towards a specific goal, you may not end up with the results you originally hoped for, and that is ok. Grasping the importance of trial and error both on and off the screen, set a good pace for me as a designer to move forward with.

 Month 3: Brand Development – The most outstanding triumph for this course is that everything and anything can be branded, including myself. Through a personal brand brief, we had evaluated ourselves from both a professional and personal level. Considering myself in this manner broaden my understanding of the importance of branding and to ensure that I as a designer, brand myself.

 Month 4: Effective Copywriting – Design is intentional. This is something that I never really considered up until this point. I had always considered art as a hobby, whether it be drawing, illustrating or photography. Something that was done for fun and not with a purpose. I never really made the connection or understood the difference between art and design until this course. This definitely changed my perspective in an extremely helpful way for the remainder of the program. 

 Month 5: Design Research – In this course, we began to dive into the importance of critiquing our peers work. Reading and writing critiques has allowed me to step back from my own designs and look at them from another point of view to ensure that I am sticking to my standards and guidelines as well as what to focus on improving next. 

 Month 6: Organizational Structures – Being a media designer is more than just being able to put together a design that looks nice, it is being also being able to explain why those designs elements fit to your campaign and how they will influence success. Something I definitely was not use to but I as we moved forward with the program I began to speak about my processes and why it works with ease.

 Month 7: Design Strategies & Motivations – This was the first time I had every developed a logo. It was in fact challenging at first considering all the factors that make up a harmonic logo. Going into the logo development I definitely overthought the process and allowed my work to be more complex than it needed to be. However, with a bit of critical thinking and through trial and error, the simplest design displayed the strongest connection to the company narrative.

 Month 8: Design Integration – The strongest accomplishment for myself within this course is the development of the TV Spot. Although the first time I had used After Effects was for the Dynamic Mood Board for Launchpad, developing the TV Spot was much more in-depth and time consuming. Being new to the software, I didn’t realize how every little detail plays a role in the development, and it was extremely rewarding to develop a successful campaign in the end.

Month 9: Multi-Platform Integrations – The pace in which we took for this course really forced us to step back and critically think about every design choice we made. Being that time was of the essences, critiquing wasn’t as readily available to assist ourselves. Knowing that I was able to research and develop our beginning stages of our thesis project strongly helped the further development of the project tremendously.

 Month 10: Measuring Design Effectiveness – Developing a consistent brand can be tricky if it is something you don’t do that often. Through the use of surveying, the effectiveness of my developed brand began to increase as my target audience successfully reacted to the materials presented to them. This was really rewarding to me to see that what I developed actually met the needs of the audience I hoped to attract.

 Month 11: Thesis: Presentation of Design Strategies – Although visual storytelling is a guide to successfully presentation our findings, learning how to attract an emotional connection with the key decision maker has definitely helped enhance my presentation skills as well as my confidence. Throughout my undergraduate I was always extremely nervous presenting my work to others. Throughout this entire program, being able to share my work and feeling confident in what I have created is definitely the most rewarding!