Monday, May 14, 2012

Service Learning

1) Literal:
I worked with Mimi Orth, sales representative at Herff Jones publishing. Contact available upon request.

Interpretive:
The most important thing I've gained from this experience was something to keep me grounded in my work– the ability to edit. In other words, getting rid of excess design. When designing, your imagination can run wild, so you can easily got lost in your own creativity. With Mimi, she constantly critiqued my work and pointed out what worked and what didn't and etc. Most of the time, it was the latter. So, from that I was able to step away from my own work for a second and really look at what others see (since the whole point of graphic design is that you design for others) and really edit my work. I read in quite a few of my sources that editing your own work is one of the most difficult things to do. That being said, I really feel that because of this, it allowed me to grow as a designer and experience a bit of what designing is like in the real world. (In fact, during my interview for my internship at Terta Tech, my interviewer mentioned that my work "can be ripped to shreds" and I better be ready for the criticism. Scary.) I know for a fact that a lot of times, my work can be over-the-top and simplification is difficult for me to do so having Mimi indirectly teach me how to step back and edit my own work to something cleaner. I'd post what my original vision for the yearbook cover was but I can't find it. I can tell you though that editing played a huge role in how it ended up.

Applied:
This helped me answer my EQ because, again, it gave me hands-on experience in designing and I was able to conclude what best impacted an audience first-hand. Working with me gave me more and more options to consider because my EQ mainly deals within the design process (i.e. the making of). I can read books upon books on graphic design but personally, I learn by doing, and working with Mimi allowed me to actually try out and see what works and what does not, rather than sitting and reading and guessing.

For example, my second answer, utilizing strong and appropriate typography, came directly from my experience with Mimi Orth. In fact, I think my third answer, surround yourself with inspiration, came from her as well. Without my work with Mimi, I would not have been able to attend the typography lecture with Lynn Strause, where I learned so much about the impact that the words in a design made. I never would have guessed that the font and color and size and arrangement even mattered. There's so much more I can type but I can't think of anything; this was what stuck out the most. The same applies to my third answer; I learned of this in the design clinic I attended with Mimi in October. Later on in the year, I was hitting a wall trying to come up with ideas for a title page until I made a magazine run with Elissa to Barnes and Noble to look for inspiration. Without Mimi first mentioning it in October, I would have never been able to a) finish the yearbook and b) known seen how important that was until I experienced it myself.

2. Confirmation of Contact Person, Contact Phone Number, and 50 hours completed
Mimi Orth; E-mail and Phone number available upon request; log mentioned above.

The 2012 iPoly yearbook wouldn't have been completed without Mimi Orth. Should be evident of at least 50 hours...

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