Leadership Strengths

Last Friday, e-Comm students took a test to find our strengths and see how we tick. Similar to last year when we took a personality test and I received the letters ISTJ. I also took the test and found out my strengths as well as my weaknesses.

My Top Five Strengths

1) Intellection

I enjoy thinking, some mental games,generally I am the kind of person who rather be thinking rather than talking. I believe this fits me well for I am also a bit of an introverted person who enjoys the company of few. 

2) Analytical

It means that I challenge people by asking for proof, and facts rather than opinions or assumptions. It sounds a bit cold and demanding but the value remains unhindered. I look for patterns or connections to things and link them together. 

3) Deliberative

As a private person, I want my personal space but don't mind if a friend is the one to pop my personal bubble. I don't want to take risks unless I have a good grip of the possible outcome, otherwise I'll play it safe. I plan ahead and don't enjoy having plans mess up. I give credit where credit is do instead of handing them out freely. 

4) Harmony

I rather avoid a useless argument or look for an option where there would be little friction. With people who hold different view, I sometimes act as a mediator. I don't see the reasons for enforcing a particular view on someone else and I strongly believe in respecting others opinions and differences even if they are different from your own. Differences don't matter much as long as there's no bashing of a view. 

5) Input

I love collecting information. I like collecting facts or things only whispered of as well as material objects like pictures. I like to travel to learn new things and expand my view of the world as well as people. 

My Domains 

Strategic Thinker

From this test, it deemed me as a Strategic Thinker. I think this is pretty accurate but someone else might think differently. 

Intellection, analytical, and input are all under Strategic Thinker category.

Executing

Deliberative is under Executing, or the let's go do this kind of person. 

Relationship Building

And Harmony is under Relationship Building, which I'm a bit surprised in this because I don't exactly try to build relationships and rather let them happen on their own. 

Influencing

I have nothing in Influencing, which I'm not surprised about and kind of laughed. I don't try to influence others but rather agree, disagree, or find common ground. 

What is Graphic Design?

After several last minute changes to our final project this is it. To me, 'What is Graphic Design'? A question that changes for me every year since freshman year. Graphic design still retains to me as a form of art, but more or less the form of it still changes. 

I searched in Google what graphic design and it said "the art or skill of combining text and pictures in advertisements, magazines, or books." A relative answers but also boring. Graphic design is art; its a collaboration of different elements and principles created through digital means. 

Pictures Can Say More Than Words

To get back to the basics, graphic design was also used to record data.

Cave paintings to record people and also hunts.

Egyptian Hieroglyphics brought in the first pictures and words together to tell a story.

The Process of Graphic Design

The process of graphic design first must be learned. A problem turns to a concept, designing and building is the longest process and goes back and forth for a long time, then the product and representation method or medium is decided. A long but exciting process.

Graphic design always starts with ideas and sketches. This was from my info graphic and also served to fuel my other works when I was stuck. Sketches are an important to keep.

The creating process and designing takes the longest time. It can also be the most frustrating when you just can't seem to get something to work.

I created T-shirt layout and this was one of the most frustrating projects I've ever done. In this example the layer orders had to be in the right place and the right filters for my idea to work. The designs were individually made in Illustrator and then carried over to photoshop where the layers clashed and I had to relayer everything. 

Building the layout I had to switch back and forth from the two programs. When making a design with more than two programs, make sure the files are compatible with the other programs.

Being a Graphic Designer

You have to be flexible about designs and who you work with. Try to see things from all points of view and make sure that it's something you both can agree on. 

Keep up to date with the styles and know what is appropriate for the time. Don't try to put slang in with whatever you're trying to do unless you know for certain it's the correct use unless you want to look stupid. 

Here is my final T-shirt design. I see a bunch of galaxy designs everywhere and I really like it. A black shirt because everything goes with black and white text because it shows up for both the sweatshirt and e-Comm logo. I made the logo with a clipping mask that took a while to remember how to do and a lot of frustration and screaming. 

I wear a lot of black and white text looks great with it. I've been really liking all the galaxy prints everywhere and would buy the design if it wasn't so expensive. This has been my best project yet.

Infographics

The topic I chose for the info-graphic project was 'How to Take Care of a Pet'. Naturally i chose a cat.

I started with sketches of what I've researched on how to take care of cats/kittens. Most of the tips came from ASPCA (for some reason) and petco.com

Many ideas went through my head and lot of paper wasted on my sketches. After talking to my classmates I finally decided on which sketch to use.

After this was bringing my final sketch to the computer and turning it into a digital sketch that served as a template. I had a quick layout and notes on the paper that i could easily turn off the layer. I first traced the image in photoshop then dragged that file into illustrator where i finished it up and added the information I've simplified.

This is the final print. I'm actually pretty happy on how it turned out. I was going for a pretty simple look and maybe a bit elegant from how I vectored the cat and made the lines bolder on some areas. It gives it this heavier feeling especially to the tail.

The hardest problem I faced was during the vectoring process. I've never really been good at it but this is something that I went over so many times trying to get it perfect. I did ask for some help from people who were good at it and I asked for a lot of feedback too. I switched a lot between photoshop and illustrator and lost a few thing along the way but i thankfully found them again. If I was to do this again i would change the animal or change the topic. Instead of going for a simple look I would go for more of a lively and colorful look. 

VML Field Trip

Yesterday we took a trip to VLM near the KC Airport. We got to meet Executive Creative Director  Aaron Evenson and he talked about his job and answered our questions about the industry. 

For the time we were there, I got the just of the entire industry; 

• The entire industry is based on opinions, if your design is good or not
• You need to stand out
• There is no right or wrong
• This is a skill you need to build up over years of work
• Experience is something of a must have
• Keep track of all your experience 
• Need to know whats cool so you can choose the right design
• Maintain a blog or website
• Its better than books or print
• Fastest way of getting your name out to the world
• Basically your portfolio
• Teams will be interchangeable and can work on one or more project
• You get to travel a lot and meet people
• A team should only have one leader
• Needs to be crystal clear on instructions
• Draws boundaries but can still be leniant 

Also during the trip we got a tour of the department. I would really like to work there, everything looks so cool and the office cubes are all unique, some aren't even cubes, they're bubbles. The entire work place looks like a playground  for adults and all foods and drinks are stocked in the cafeteria.

Painting With Photoshop

Painting in Photoshop is my specialty. I'm pretty good with traditional art and I can draw pretty well with a tablet too. 

But landscapes aren't my style but I tried my best.

Above is the landscape we had to do. It was boring work so I played with the brushes throughout the process. You can see on the tree on the left when I really changed the brush styles. 

Next is the paint palette. We just had to mix some colors together which was pretty easy work. Clean the brushes, mix the colors, blending; these are all things you can do with traditional art just not as messy. 

This is my favorite painting we had to do. the calico's fur was set with water color and wet edges. Unfortunately the pixels on this was set really low compared to the kitten on the right. With the kitten on the right, he was painted with custom brushes that I've set on my computer.

10/24 Field Trip

Last Friday we took a trip to downtown KC and went to the Bill Brady Gallery. They had this really awesome display up. Literately up, hanging from the ceiling. The artwork was called 'WILD FUSION" by Michael Manning. What I really loved about this art was that it was a all on a screen with smaller 'worlds' around it. The worlds were made of small glass open orbs filled with sand and something else to make it look like it was living. 

You can see above of the hanging screen and the huge painted canvas all suspended by wires. The entire exhibit was huge.

Above, this is one of my favorite things I saw last week. It looks kind of creepy but I just thought it was so cool. This was un-named at the Unplugged  project where we went back to their back rooms where they conduct their meetings. 

Gradient Mesh

An apple and a rose gradient mesh created in Illustrator. 

I vectored to my greatest ability, but I've never been good in Illustrator. 

The gradient apple was created after I watch a tutorial online, I tried from a book but that doesn't work very well and can be confusing. It's best to watch from a video so you can follow an example. When choosing to vector something that you know that you'll have to color, try something simple first, something that doesn't have that much bends and shadows to. Trying to add a gradient mesh to something like an apple is rather difficult and I don't recommend doing. Its harder than what needs to be. Secondly, make sure you know what you're doing. Read ahead or watch the video ahead before you go in, and make sure you know your keyboard short cuts cause that will help a lot. Ask for help, I mainly asked people I knew sort of what they were doing, this was a really challenging project for something we've never done before. I tried this project to my best ability but this doesn't come naturally to me at all, especially trying to add a nice highlight. 

  The next project worked better. Something that was flat but still looked nice. The rose was a bit hard to vector but I simplified the petals to what you see below. 

       

I spelt my name out in a font I've seen that i really like. Actually, instead of just typing the words out I created them. I replaced the 'i' in my name with the rose itself. It gives the whole thing a more dramatic flare. To convert text to outlines, simply select your text and go to FILE-CHOOSE TYPE-CREATE OUTLINES expand the group and then you're free to play. I added extra anchor points with the pen tool and shaped them however i liked. 

I don't really know why I chose a rose, I just thought that i would try a different style as I usually do and simplified the lines. I've always liked the quote "Every rose has her thorns" and I guess thats how I ended up creating this. The font I wanted to model my text after was from a show called RWBY. I trie to make the flower look like some areas are glowing too.