For our presentation our main question/ the scope of the project is what it means to be an American. My group decided to take a racial aspect. Our stance on the project is America has raised the majority of people to be culturally biased towards white people through media production.Throughout this project, We have learned many things. We have learned that America today has raised people culturally biased towards white people, through media productions portray minorities in a negative way. We asked 20 white people and 20 black people to take a Harvard study on whether they have a cultural bias and we found that 12 people had a preference to white people, 7 people had a preference to black people, and one had no preference. We also learned that the wage gap between white people and minorities has only grown in the last 30 years. The wage gap in 1979 was 18% and now we are close to a 27% wage gap between white people and minorities. Lastly, we learned that police brutality in America is a large problem for black people. One statistic shows that African Americans have a 2.7 times higher likelihood of getting killed by police rather white people.
This week for our "What it Means to be an American" project we accomplished several things. One major thing we accomplished was getting another interview with one of our group member's dad. Again, in this interview Nick discussed with his father racism, how racism has affected his life, and how it has affected his relationships over the years.
Research for this Week
We also gathered more research that shows racism/ inequality in the work place. The research from the article I read from CNN News states "racial gender gap is worse than it was 40 years ago. The article goes more in depth with statistics asserting that "blacks make 27% less than the common white man where as 40 years ago the wage gap was only 18%. The group has also started to make a presentation, which shows what the group has accomplished throughout the entire project.
In this interview I interviewed my sisters boyfriend (Malcom Dillard) on what it was like to be an African American in America. The interview gives a broad overview on the prejudices America has on minorities and the struggles one faces throughout life.
Research
Our research highlights how racism in America has had an influx in the past decade. Also, the research dives in on how police brutality is more common among minorities, and how they have a 2.7 times more of a chance of suffering from police brutality. Another subject the research talks about is how America is culturally biased and raises Americas younger generations to have the same prejudices as the previous. We discovered this by using the Harvard IAT racial test and creating our social experiment of 20 whites and 20 minorities to see who they have a positive opinion on. To no surprise we found that America has more of a positive opinion on whites.
The piece of literature we are going to highlight in our presentation is "The New Jim Crow". This ties into our topic as the book describes how the Justice system in America still targets minorities in America even though it is 100 plus years later. For our project we are going to interview Nick's African American Dad (Tyrone Brown) and my sisters boyfriend (Malcolm Dillard), an illegal immigrant (Undisclosed name for ICE reasons) and my sister boyfriend's brother (Ronnie Dillard).
The music video project took my group and I around three to four weeks to complete. The whole process took around one week for pre production, one week for filming, and one week for editing. Now my group did things a little differently than planned, because we took so long for pre production (around two and a half weeks) we had 2 days to film and one day to edit. Some challenges I faced with this project was getting everyone able to film. However, I the mastermind behind the project of course made it happen. Another challenge I faced was battling the copyright claims that I ended up loosing. Along the way of doing this project I learned a lot of things. One big thing I learned was communication and how important it was. My group could have easily taken the L on this project as we were way behind schedule but instead we powered through and created the best music video in the class by a long shot. Another important lesson I learned from this project is all of Kanye West's music is unavailable for use regardless of what one is using it for. The only constructive feedback I was given came from a fellow classmate named Olivia Markey who stated "the video had no plot" this just happen to be the only negative feedback I got because the rest of the class was blown away with how phenomenal the video was. Furthermore, my group and I believed she was just jealous because her video was no where near as good as mine and she was just trying to bring me (the king) down from the top. Some positive feedback I received was fantastic video, best one in the class, great works, looks lime Kanye's actual video, and nice shots. After receiving feedback I did not change anything as my video was perfect and nothing needed to be changed. Overall, this was by far my favorite project of the year and it is a shame I can no longer show anyone. The reason it was my favorite was it allowed me to show my creativity and use one of my favorite songs.
High School Trailer
This video project my high school movie trailer. The scope of the project was to recreate a high school movie railer frame for frame. This project was designed to take four to five weeks with pre production taking one week, filming two weeks, and editing two weeks. My group (the same group who created the fantastic remake of "Runaway" music video, however, did not follow these guidelines and instead spent three weeks on pre production, one day filming, and one day editing. The challenges I faced while creating this video was not even eCommnication related but instead personal life related. I and my partners had baseball tryouts this week that the video was suppose to be produced. This meant we could not devote our time to completing the video, which explains why the video is trash. What I learned and am going to take away from this experience is don't let anything be more important than school. While I did make the baseball team and considered taking the hit on this movie trailer as a good thing I shouldn't of let something come between me and school. When it came to receiving feedback I didn't receive any negative feedback because the whole class knew this video was absolute garbage and they didn't want to continue beating a dead horse. However, I did receive some positive feedback regardless of how trash the video was. The good feedback was the voiceover was funny, and the video in general made me laugh. I could not change anything about this video because it did not fit into our class schedule. My overall opinion of this project is it is straight garbage, and I could have done so much better. I am embarrassed to say I even created this abomination.
Short Film
This is the last project we did this semester and it was a short film. The scope was to create a five to seven minute short films that had a beginning, middle, end. This project alone took around one and a half months to complete as it had multiple steps. The first step was researching short films, followed by writing log lines, then creating a treatment, then creating a script, then finally choosing a script out of our groups to make into a short film. Next step was pre production that took a solid one to two weeks of storyboarding and script altercations. another week was taken for filming followed by one week of editing the film. The challenges I faced with this video was group cooperation. None of the group could film on the same days as we all had different schedules meaning people were left out of the process of creating the film. What I learned along the way of creating a short film is how much pre production is put into to making one and how dedicated one has to be in order to complete a short film. The class really didn't give any feedback for this video as when we watched it it was a fun day and I don't think anyone wanted to give feedback. What I would change about this video is the acting. While the female role was great the male role was below average and we could have used a better actor, which would have made the film stronger. Overall, this project was very fun to make and I enjoyed really creating the project with my group.
How did I use my Class Time
I used my class time efficiently some times and other days not so much. It was really a toss up in terms of when I came in on how I was going to be. I stayed productive in this class when I finished early/ when I thought I was done by collaboration with students about their projects and how I could make it better. To enhance my work when I was done I would watch a lot of great films and get ideas on new shots, and ideas for films. Outside of class to make my skills better I did some clinet work and would help film sports games to improve my camera work.
Strengths as a Video Production Student
My strengths as a video production student is I work hard. Other than that I really have no strengths. I maximized my strengths by working hard and turning everything in on time.
Areas of Improvement
I personally think I need to work on everything as I am weak in all areas of this class. To improve these areas I will watch more movies and learn more about filming itself.
Summary
What I loved most about this class is the teacher and my classmates. What I would change about this semester is my high school movie trailer. I would completely redo the whole video. Overall i am going to take away that I need to work harder to become better. The one goal I have for next year is to become a better student than I am now and a better person. My final thoughts is I loved this class and had a blast being in it.
This semester I completed a variety of projects in my graphic design class. The projects I completed this semester would be 11x17 poster, typography 5x5 artboards, combination marks, business card, letterhead, and envelopes.
11x17 Poster
The first project of the semester is my 11x17 Bauhaus Poster. The project took around two to three weeks. Some challenges I faced while creating this project was I lost all my skills with the software Adobe Illustrator. This project was assigned to the class after retiring from spring break, which caused to to forget a lot of the software. Along the way I learned more about the Bauhaus Movement (a historical movement in the graphic design world that revolutionized the arts today). Some positive feedback I remember getting for this project was nice use of colors, I really like how clean your design is, and how it represents the movement perfectly. Some constructive feedback I got was some of the information on the poster is too small. What I changed on my finished product was the information I made it bigger and organized it a different way to give important information some hierarchy. My overall opinion about the project is it was okay it wasn't really my best work I have created but this project does show one thing. It shoes how much my skills have improved, which is what I would want to see, considering this project was in the beginning of the semester.
Typography 5x5 Artboards
This is the second project of the semester and it was 5x5 typography artboards. This project took around three to four weeks to complete because we had to start with sketches, then create it on Adobe Illustrator, then make a black and white version, followed by color scheme versions, then lastly we got to create our finished products. To the right I have my finished products which would be my best version of each inspirational quotes I created for the whole process. Some challenges I faced when creating these projects was finding the correct fonts needed for the quote. At first I couldn't really find fonts that worked together, or I just couldn't find fonts that looked good and fit the quote itself, which took me a long time to find fonts that satisfied me. Along the way I learned about color schemes and what colors work best together. This was the first time the class was required to use color schemes, which really helped me in the future as most of my recent projects dealt with color schemes. Some constructive feedback I was given for this project was some of the fonts are hard to read due to the picot backgrounds, the font needs to be aligned better, and lastly one photo was a little stretched. Some postive feedback I received was the quotes really fit you and describe what personality you have, great back story to why you selected the quotes and the photos, and nice color schemes. After receiving my feedback I only changed one thing, which was how my text was aligned on one of the artbaords. My overall opinion on this project was I really enjoyed doing this project because it was one I could make a personal connection on. Furthermore the project was just fun to do and I consider it one of the best projects I've done this year.
Company Rebrand
The company rebrand as a whole would include combination mark, business card, letterhead, envelope, and rebrand display. This whole project I would say took around a month to a month and a half because of how many parts were included in each part.
Combination Mark
The first step to the whole company rebrand was creating combination marks. It all started with sketches of 30 symbols, 15 word marks, and 6 final combination marks. the combination marks alone took around 2 weeks to complete as we first had to do research about the company and design a logo that really fit the company. Some challenges I faced while completing this mini step in a huge project is ideas. After a while I couldn't come up with any ideas about creating more symbols, word marks. after a while they all just started to look the same and had little variety. Along the way I learned nothing really about graphic design other than how hard it is to create an original logo no one has used. For this project there was really no feedback given as the work was not shown to classmates. There was nothing to really change with this project since we got no feed back and it was just sketches. I have no opinion on this project as it was not really important.
Business Card
This project was the second part to our company rebrand. The scope of the project was to create a business card with our company logo. This project took around 25 minutes to create which equivocates to around half a class period. I really didn't face any challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple to complete and didn't require much work or creativity. When doing this project the only thing I learned was how big a business card was. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was don't use a different combination mark for the front and back as it might confuse the viewer. I received no positive feedback for my business card. I did not change anything on this project as I felt nothing needed to be changed. Overall I really enjoyed this project as it was simple and didn't require much thought or work to be done.
Letterhead
This project was the third/ fourth step in creating or company rebrand. This is the letterhead I created for my company rebrand. This project took me around 25 minutes which again is around half a class period. Again, I faced no challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple and all I had to do was follow directions. Along the way I learned what a letterhead looks like and how big a letterhead should be. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was remove the second combination mark, and lastly make the information about the company bigger. Some positive feedback I received was I like both the combination marks being there as it adds variety, and I like how you used the second combination mark on the front and how it is faded. I changed nothing on this project as I was satisfied with my work and I don't care what others think. So I did what I thought looked best and what makes me happy. My overall opinion of the project is this was easy to complete.
Envelope
The envelope is located flesh right in the bottom corner. This project was to create a envelope both front and back for my company rebrand. This project took me around 5-10 minutes to complete. Some challenges I faced when completing this project was I did not know what a enveloped look like which cause me to have to redo my whole project. Along the way I learned what an envelope should look like and the correct dimensions of one. Some positive feedback I received is nice accent color used on the flap. Some constructive feedback I received was make the information about the company bigger. When I received this feedback I did end up changing the information size so it would become legible. Overall, I really like the whole company rebrand project as it was fun, and allowed creativity as we had little guide lines.
How I Used My Class Time
I have used my class time really efficiently. When I was in class I got to work and didn't mess around at all as I wanted to finish my projects as fast as possible. In the times that I finished early/ thought I was done I stayed on task by collaborating with students about their projects and helping them along the way and building strong relationships by doing so. When Mrs. Smith my (Boss) assigned me an eight hour project and when it only took me seven to enhance my projects by asking students for feedback and if they had good feedback that I agreed with I would change the issue, which in return made my projects better. What I did outside of class to enhance my graphic design skills was one doodle on my netbooks when I was suppose to be focusing on other subjects or working on homework. Furthermore, I enhanced my graphic design skills by creating personal logos and doing other work that increased my tech logical skills in graphic design. In terms of what I did outside of class to enhance my work is I did absolutely nothing. I could have came in to improve stuff but i didn't because I had more important stuff to do outside of class.
Strengths as a Graphic Designer
I do not have any strengths as a graphic designer as I'm pretty weak in this area of eComm. But one strength I do have is I turn in my work in on time. This is a good skill not only for eComm but for the rest of life as an employer does not want a lazy worker.
Areas of Improvement
EVERYTHING. I suck at graphic design, which is why I'm quitting it.
Summary
What I loved most about this semester is the classmates I had. I came into this class thinking I was going to hate every second of this class for the whole year, but it quickly became my favorite because of the loving environment Mrs.Smith created. What I would change about this semester is adding more detail to my projects as most of them were pretty plain. What I am going to learn from this semester and school year is I am not gifted in graphic design and in my future career of eComm I need to focus on SID. One goal I want to set for next school has nothing to really do with this class but is to get a unweighted GPA of 4.0 and a weighted GPA of 4.4. Final thoughts is I really loved this class because of everyone in the class they really made my school year better.
The scope of the rebrand project was to choose a local Kansas City company and create a brand new combination mark for the company to rebrand themselves with. First the process started with sketching 30 symbols, then sketching 15 word marks, followed by combining the two to create 10 combination marks. From the 10 combination marks the class was asked to select 6 of the ten and create them using Adobe Illustrator. After the black and white version was created the next task was to create the colored version using color schemes. After creating 6 basic color schemes the next step was to create 5 more color schemes for each combination mark. after completing this step the final steps was to select our favorite combination mark of the 6 and create a business card (Front and Back), Letterhead (Front and Back), and an envelope (Front and Back). The company rebrand display above is the finished product.
What I designed
First step to the finished project was sketching my combination mark. When I was originally creating my combination mark for the company rebrand I wanted a Italian feel so naturally my first instinct was to select colors that were on the Italy flag, which explains my color scheme choices. After creating combination marks that I was satisfied with to create a company rebrand was to create a business card. When I was creating my business card I eat for a clean look as I wanted al the information to be readable and wanted the logo to be the center of attention. To add some detail I added some colored bars on top to hold the information in which really added some character. Next was creating a letterhead.
For the letterhead I added both my combination marks to give some variety and added my second combination mark on the bottom of the front and made the opacity lower, which i rally think added a lot of detail and brought the whole letterhead together. Lastly, I crated an envelope and just wanted a clean look.
