Second Interview Questions

I will be interviewing my service learning person, Mimi Orth, who is the representative of Herff Jones Yearbook Publishing for iPoly. She has worked in this profession for very many years, working with schools in the LA area to help them produce great yearbooks. In addition to iPoly, she works along side many award winning staffs such as Brentwood HS and Walnut HS, whose work I really admire. Also having studied design at UCLA, I feel that with her experience, she will have great insight to this subject that would help me greatly with my senior project.

The questions I plan on asking, in no particular order, are:

1) What does your job at Herff Jones call for? What can you say from your observation about the transformation of graphic design in yearooks from what it was when you started to what it is now?

2) How is working with so many different schools' designers like?

3) How is it like working with graphic designers within the yearbook realm? What encounters have you had with them? What knowledge did you gain, if any, from working with them?

4) What is your educational background in design? What did you gain from it?

5) How did you first become interested in design? Why?

6)  How did you become the "Font Queen"? What are your favorite fonts? What makes typography so important to you?

7) What do you do in your job that involves design? What skills does that require?

8) What is the typical work day for you?

9) From what you've observed in you job and in your overall design experience, what qualities do graphic designers possess that make their designs impacting? Which of those qualities do you think you possess?

Presentation Reflection

Q: In what way did the first interview affect your presentation? Please explain, be specific and use an example.

My interview with Cynthia made me realize the overall picture of what yearbook design really is; you're designing an entire book, not just page by page. I always saw yearbook design as the little details of each spread, but never as an entire look to a book. As a result of the interview, my idea for consistency came in because it's the key thing to the entire book's design. Also, in the interview, Cynthia mentioned that good staffs look to magazines as inspiration for design so that's where my visual and lesson came to play; I used magazines to point out good design since everyone reads magazines. It was sort of a way to ease everyone into yearbook by using a familiar example.

Q: What do you say stood out about your presentation performance and why?

I would say my visual was pretty much the only thing that stood out. I really integrated my visual; it wasn't just a prop that was there to look nice. It really helped lay down a foundation for my presentation, and since my project is about design, I couldn't simply just talk about it. Other than that, I really don't think my presentation went that great. I could've done better.

Q: What was the most challenging to do and why?

The biggest issue I have when presenting is that I psych myself out beforehand, making me blank out when I start presenting. I practiced, I knew what I was talking about, I knew my facts, I rehearsed every detail the night before, but then sitting in the classroom made my nerves build up. I tried to breathe and calm myself down but by the time I got up there, everything went over my head and I basically had to improvise. I don't know why I have this problem, since I'm comfortable with being in front of the class since I know everyone, but I just froze for some reason. 

Another issue was my pace of speech. I naturally talk fast, so with the time restriction, I pretty much accidentally pressed FFx6 during the presentation. And because I spoke too quickly, my mind couldn't keep up and I completely lost my thoughts and consequently said, "Umm... Uhhh... So yeah..." I mean, I recovered, but still saying that is no good.

I really think my grade suffered because of these.... Actually, now that I think about it, I think my nerves came because I was anticipating all this happening. Oh well, I guess this is just another thing for me to learn and work on for the 20 minute presentation. 

In summary, most challenging was coping with my horrible presentation skills. Why? What I stated above.

Senior Project Presentation 1

Objective: Students will be learning about the importance of consistency in yearbook design.

Procedure:
1. (20 sec) Ask the class, by a show of hands, how many people has ever read any sort of design-heavy magazines such as Seventeen, Vogue, Nylon, or H&M.
2. (40 sec) Contrast those magazines to more text-heavy magazines or newspapers to show the importance of design and it's effect on the reader. I.E. consistant use of graphics in magazines help keep the reader engaged and makes everything look "clean".
3. (1 min) Explain the strategy used in the magazines to how they apply to good yearbooks. I.E. same as above.
4. (1 min) Show that a yearbook with non-consistent design generally has the same effect on the reader as a magazine with no design at all. I.E. rather than boring the reader to stop reading, inconsistant design can distract the reader too much.
5. (1 min) Check for student understanding. See below
6. (20 sec) Conclude that consistency is key in yearbook design because it draws the reader to continue on.

Check for Understanding:
There will be a few ways I will check for understanding.
- After procedure two, I will call on a few people to ask how they feel when they read something without design (i.e. they will say it's boring or something along that line.)
- After explaining how consistent design applies to yearbook, I will ask a few people the same question as I did with the magazines to show that they relate.
- At the end of the lesson (procedure 5) I will display a few (bad) spreads and ask them what elements on the pages do they think make the book inconsistant.

Materials:
For now, I plan on having my visual on 2 poster boards:
- One poster with a graphic-heavy magazine and a text-heavy magazine
- One poster with a consistant yearbook and an inconstant yearbook (design).

LIA:
Literal - Consistency is a key aspect in yearbook design
Interpretive - Inconsistant design can deter the reader from continue reading
Applied - A good yearbook design is consistant 100% of the time.

Blog 2: Interview 1 Preparation

For my project, I will first be interviewing Mimi Orth, who is the representative of Herff Jones Yearbook Publishing for iPoly. She has worked in this profession for very many years, working with schools in the LA area to help them produce great yearbooks. In addition to iPoly, she works along side many award winning staffs such as Brentwood HS and Walnut HS, whose work I really admire. Also having studied design at UCLA, I feel that with her experience, she will have great insight to this subject that would help me greatly with my senior project. edit 091811: Cynthia Schroeder, the former Editor-in-Chief of the iPoly Globe. Before holding the title of EIC, she was the assistant design editor the previous year, therefore having a strong background and knowledge of my topic. She pretty much taught me most everything I know and was the one who got my feet wet in the yearbook design world. I feel that she can really help me since she's been through this process before and gained so much from her senior project as well

Along with the five required questions, some other questions I plan on asking, in no particular order, are:

1) How long have you been working for Herff Jones? What can you say about the transformation of yearbook design from what it was then to what it is now?

2) What sets apart the designers at the award-winning schools such as Casa Roble or Antelope?

3) What is the best way to find inspiration when designing?

4) What makes an award-winning book so notable? What's their secret when it comes to their design?

5) How is working with so many different schools' designers like? Are there any differences you've seen, subtle and obvious, between the schools with notable books, such as Walnut, and others including iPoly?

6) What do you recommend I should keep in mind when designing in order to have the best impact on the reader/ have a strong design.

7) Are Herff Jones book better designed than other publishers? If so, why?