Answer 1

Q: What is answer 1 to your EQ? Be specific in your answer and write it like a thesis statement.
In order to have an impact, one must design with purpose; graphic design is not just decoration on a page. It's not enough to simply know how to use Photoshop and whatnot; a designer needs to know what exactly they are designing and why they are doing so in order to draw inspiration from tangible and credible sources/emotions.

Q: What possible evidence do you have to support this answer
I read this in the book Graphic Design: Brainstorming, by Ellen Lupton, where they examined a case study of the 3419 project in Baltimore, in which they wanted to raise awareness about the growing homeless population in the city. They broke down the interview process with the chief organizer, Charlie Rubenstein, and the questions they asked not only associated to how the client wanted the project executed, but also about the cause itself– statistics, stories, history, etc etc. From there, they were able to come up with a really clever awareness campaign. Had they not conducted the interview or done background research, the impact wouldn't have been the same because the client, not the designer, knows about the cause; it is the designer's job to become knowledgable with that cause in order to make a successful product.

I guess more evidence would be from my Independent component with Yearbook as well because our theme, which drives the whole book, relates to this by making us dig deeper into the student body in order to relate and connect to make a successful book.

Q: What sources did you find this evidence and/or answer?
Firstly, my service learning, Mimi Orth. There was this one instance that sticks with me. Before my sophomore year, I attended an editor meeting in August to establish that year's theme of the yearbook. I pitched that we should use something with "poly" in it and maybe play around with words. We came up with Polyphonic. However, when we got to yearbook camp, we had to scrap that because Mimi had pointed out that there was no real connection to our audience, the iPoly student body. Without that connection, there would not be a strong impact on OUR audience because a yearbook is supposed to mark the history of a certain year at THAT school; a weak connection could make it so that the book could be about ANY high school in the US. I guess this was when I first learned that there needs to be purpose behind a yearbook, or in my case, a design.

Secondly, the book Graphic Design: Brainstorming, by Ellen Lupton. That was where the case study was found. I'm still researching so there will be more info to come, but there seems to be an agreement that interviewing the client is necessary before designing for them.

ESLRs

1. I am currently focusing most on communicator because it's the one that I have most trouble on. I experience a lot of misunderstandings day to day. I also focus on iPoly citizen because I have a short fuse when I'm stressed out and I can come off as disrespectful.

2. I plan on doing this through the 20 minute presentation. I'll slow down my speech and plan out what I'm saying a little more. As for iPoly citizen, I'm doing it through yearbook since I'm contributing to the school.

3. I think it will help me educationally by becoming more confident in what I'm saying and I'll write better essays as a result of more organized and planned out thoughts... (?) uh, iPoly citizen helps me because it helps me see the big picture of things...

16HOURS Magazine

It came in the mail today. Here it is.

Cover

Spread

 

Bottom Right.

Credits

Service Learning

Where are you working for your service learning?
I am working with Mimi Orth, our school yearbook's Herff Jones sales representative. She comes to our campus ever other week for 2 hours at a time to check on our progress, most heavily with design, which is what I oversee.

What is your contact? 
Mimi Orth. She can be reached either by telephone or by email, which I provided in the beginning of the year. I'm not sure if it's an invasion of privacy to post her information here.

Summarize the services you have performed to complete the 10 hour requirement.
Mimi has visited on the following days (2 hours each day): 9/20, 10/14, 10/28, 11/10, 11/29, 12/9. Those days, she critiqued the progress I made with the design and basically used her expertise to guide me into the right direction. Most ofter times, she advised to completely rethink my original design and taught me new techniques in Photoshop and InDesign to utilize. I learned how to better edit photos and new spread shapes and "attention grabbers." On 10/16, I attended a workshop run by Mimi from 8AM to 3PM where she along with Paul Ender and Dan Austin consulted us on our design and our theme (this is where a lot of my designs died.) In all, I completed 19 hours of service learning.

Third Interview Questions

Definitely subject to change. Bold indicates the questions that were asked (She ran out of time and could only answer 10). The others will be asked in the fourth interview, if allotted.

1. (EQ) What is most important to impact an audience through graphic design?


2. What is the best way to find inspiration for a design?


3. What does one need to know in order to become a successful designer?


4. What is considered to be a "good" design?

5. What advice should young designers follow in order to become successful in this field?

6. What are current trends in successful graphic design projects and campaigns? How can one predict future trends?

7. What formal education, if any, do graphic designers need to take to produce successful work?

8. What should graphic designers keep in mind while designing?

9. How important of a role, if at all, does demographic play in graphic design?

10. What importance does type play? Photography? Knowledge of the program?

11. In order to become more knowledgable of the programs (Photoshop, InDesign, etc) should one take a class or simply experiment? Why?

I have more questions, which I will add later once I figure out the logical wording.

As for who I will be interviewing, I am trying to find a graphic designer to interview. I am in contact with a senior designer for Vegas magazine. However, if all falls through, I will interview Paul Ender, the "yearbook guru" who emphasizes strongly on design (notably type). At the moment, I am strongly leaning towards interviewing Trung Truong, the Art Director at Tetra Tech in Pasadena. He graduated with a degree in Visual Arts: Media from UCSD and entered the company as a design intern and worked his way up the company. I was referred to Sylvia Ly, a graphic designer at Tetra Tech in Pasadena. She is a 2006 Gold Crown award recipient and has a degree in Fine Arts from USC as well as a background in communications.