Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
-I will create a logo for a coffee shop and design the theme of it using photoshop, then post it on social media (like Instagram) to communicate with others and track my progress. This is what a website about graphic design I used for my research; it said that using social media to push you into working will help you improve and check how much you've done.
2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
-I will constantly create different logos first and see which one is the cleanest and best logo. I will ask people for advice on how to do it so communication is a vital component in my independent component 2, which is part of my EQ. I will also show the Instagram account.
3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
-This IC 2 will help me because social media and communication are being implemented into my project, which is what my EQ is: how can a graphic designer communicate their client's vision while maintaining their own creativity? Because I don't have a client, I can say that my audience is.
4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.
-HERE

Blog 15: Independent Component 1

• LITERAL

• (a) Write: “I, __________________________, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents ____ hours of work.”
• I, Scully Kuo, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 56.5 hours of work.
• (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• Yearbook

• (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.

• It has been fully updated!

• (d) Explain what you completed.

• I completed spreads to design that were assigned to me for yearbook. 

• INTERPRETIVE 

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

• Since my senior topic is about graphic design, and one of the topics in my topic is editorial design, it is something that I wanted to implement into my independent component. Editorial design is the structural arrangement of text and photo, such as magazines and newspapers. Yearbook does the exact same thing; in fact, we often reference magazines to create wonderfully designed spreads for our yearbook.

• Here are the cover designs for our yearbook. This is the old version of our yearbook's cover; the completed version is a classified and therefore cannot be shown, but it shows my progress and how I took time to fix it and create a good cover before its final look.

• APPLIED

• How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this.

• As mentioned, editorial designing (the designing with the use of text and photos, i.e. magazines) is one of my main topics. I decided to use yearbook my independent component because it was exactly what I needed to improve on my editorial designing, and since there are yearbook advisers, Mr. Strand and Mimi, who works at Herff Jones a.k.a. the site we use to design and create our yearbook, I could be given advice on how to improve my work. Overall it was a very hands-on experience and I was barely given any assistance on creating my spreads, only small measurement recommendations and how to use the site's controls. For example, if I needed two text boxes side by side to fill up space and the text was too long to fit the first box, I would press a small button next to the first box and the rest of the text would automatically jump to the second box. Mimi showed me many things that made my designing a lot more easier and less of a hassle. We would also go over spreads as a whole elective class, talking about what we needed to improve and what we could have done in terms of designing.

Lesson 2 Reflection

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
-I am most proud of my activity, it got a lot of good feedback and many people enjoyed the activity.
2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
-I did everything that was a P consideration, from remembering my EQ without looking at it to cleaning everything up.
3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
-My activity really worked.
4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
-What didn't work was that I didn't have enough research/intellectual content for me to make 10 minutes or more, so I had to pull out more than I thought I would need from my mind to make the 10.
5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
-My next answer would probably be "To have in-depth knowledge of what your client and their company does."

Blog 14: Third Interview Preparation

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

• I plan on interviewing one of my classmates' mentors or relatives. Either that, or I will interview my mentor's wife, Mrs. Sarah Chen, who is also part of the design industry.

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

• I will be interviewing them in 2 weeks, on January 24, 2016 at 1:00 PM.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

• "What is the best way to communicate your design to others?"

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

• "How can someone design something according to their client's and their ideas?"

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

1. What is a good way to show your client your designs with their preferences in mind?
2. How do you convince your client that your designs are good enough for them to use?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
-I am mentoring at Ultimate Printing in Rowland Heights, CA
2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?
-My contact is Ken Chen. He works with the printing and designing business and manages it. He has been involved with the design business ever since he was young because he always had an interest in it, therefore making him an expert.
3.   How many hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).
-During the school year, I have done 18 total hours.
4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.
-My mentor and I worked on a few projects he had gotten from his clients, and often made me a sort of "assistant" that helped him organize things. At home, he would email me things to do and I would create them on Adobe Photoshop. Right now I am still slowly learning how to master Illustrator with his assistance and guidance. I work very well with Mr. Chen; he always tells me to ask if there are any questions I need to ask and always tries to find time to help me grow as an artist. I plan to complete the remaining hours by continuing to work as his assistant and learn new techniques, therefore broadening my knowledge of graphic designing.

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?
-I worked with my mentor throughout the break, creating more designs and learning graphic design terms.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
-That communication is the best thing to create a successful business with your customer. I watched my mentor speak with a customer and they were very detailed about what they wanted and were very meticulous when it came to exactly what kind of design they wanted.

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?
-I plan to talk to either my mentor's coworker, or his wife, who is also in the graphic designing business.

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?
-I was able to know and cover all the major points I wanted to say during my presentation. Usually I don't do well under pressure or public speaking, but I did well for someone who is afraid of speaking in front of crowds.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.
-I would probably give myself an AE, because not only did I cover everything on there, I also went into full on detail, and showed extensive research and time with my mentor. I also dressed professionally, which I consider to be a small bonus.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?
-If I could go back, I would probably show the work I made during my mentorship, and go into even more detail about my topic, which I couldn't talk about because I ran out of time. I'll also be more well versed, so I don't have to look down on my notes too much. When I do my lesson 2, I will apply what I should improve from my lesson 1 by using more examples and not looking at my notes a lot, and know exactly what I want to talk about, and in order as well.