Well, I can't say that im going to drop everything and become a graphics major. But, on a more positive note, I am glad that I took this course. As a photo major it helped to show me how photos can intertwined with design.
I also thought learning indesign was very useful. I am sure that it will come in handy at some point down the raod. I also liked lab but I think we could have learned more from our professor about the programs if we worked with them in class too. I hope everyone has a nice winter break.

wrap up

the labs in this class were really helpful in learning the programs.  I think these programs will really help with my advertising career, and I'm glad I learned the basics on how to use them.  I don't really have anything else to say about this class

Wrap Up Post

Not until now did it occur to me that it is the last day of class of fall semester 2008. I was always jealous of those who can design when I was young. Now, the feeling that I can tell others that I can design is incredible. 

I shall say this is one of my favorite classes so far, and what I've learned from this class is beyond expectation. I develop my interests in design, and hope I can go somewhere with it. 

We all live in a visual world, what GRA 217 has given me the most is the power to discover the beauty around me. Everything is designed, some poorly, some smoothly. But they are all equal parts of design, equal parts of a process that may generate a brilliant poster, logo, magazine, etc. 

Thank you Wasim for all your help with everything, photo, graphics, career, web, and a lot others. Thank you Sherri for being a great professor who generously gave me lots of excuses to go into Starbucks to get a cup of hot coffee in the cold weather. And thanks everyone for this great class. 

Good luck with the finals, and bye, GRA 217! 

GRA Wrap Up

Overall, I thought graphics was really useful and informative. I was not very familiar with Adobe Suites until the class and now I feel really comfortable using all of the programs. I also thought that the skills we learned outside of the class were really useful to- like design principles and learning to create drafts- those are skills that we are going to utilize in most fields of communications. I thought it was nice to learn the programs with a purpose of having a project to accomplish, rather than just using them.

My favorite project was the magazine project. I liked the idea of taking an article that we were interested in and making an effective design around it. I thought it was just a really intricate project that utilized a lot of the skills that we learned throughout the semester. All of the projects were really useful, I felt. We did something that was tailored to every major taking the class- for example, magazine majors are going to be putting together magazines, and PR majors are going to be making posters. 

This was just a really good class to take and I would recommend it to anyone in Newhouse, even if it is not a requirement for them. I learned so many skills that are going to be useful in the future. The only complaints I have are that it is extremely time consuming as far as the projects go, and also that we did not learn a lot in the lab until Professor Taylor had a talk with the TAs mid-semester. Other than that, the class is really enjoyable.

GRA Wrap Up

Throughout this semester, I would have to say that Graphics was probably one of my favorite classes. Although I was somewhat familiar with the softwares, it was incredibly beneficial to learn how to use them in a classroom setting. Moreover, I know the experience will help me as a I apply for internships and jobs in the future. 

One of my favorite projects was the Logo Project because I felt as though I had to challenge myself to make something that was both professional and reflective of my personality. In the end, I developed a great design and picked a color pallet that I thought fulfilled not only the requirements for the class, but expectations I had for myself. I definitely want to send my design to a publisher where I can have them professionally printed. Never before had I thought about having a business card at such a young age; yet, as I moved through this project, I realized it is actually a great idea! Additionally, the stationary and envelope designs really helped me form a cohesive thought with this project. Therefore, I will probably have these professionally printed as well. I will most likely use these for internship applications and interviews as I continue throughout school. 

In addition to the logo project, I found the resume project to be incredibly beneficial, as I have used this resume to apply for various internships since. 

I would recommend this class to anyone who was required to take it as well as students who were permitted to take it as an elective. Even though the projects were undeniably time consuming, I think once I finished any given project, I felt a great satisfaction. I look forward to expanding my knowledge of these programs in the future, whether be taking another GRA class or exploring on my own. 

Web Design

I took a floating re-do for my web design, which is why this post is late. 

I decided to make a website for the Joshua Kahan Foundation's annual Super Scooper event. It is an all-you-can-eat ice cream event in Philadelphia that raises money for Leukemia. I decided to use a lot of color in the design, mainly to attract the eye as well as a quirky font. Because the event essentially revolves around ice cream, I used a lot of ice cream cone visuals throughout the page, whether is be in the horizontal container, tag line, etc. I made six pages: Home, Leukemia Info, Volunteer, Photo Gallery, Donate and Contact Us. I think this was a sufficient amount of links, as it includes information about the event, the disease, prior events and how to get involved. 

Wrap Up GRA 217

I really enjoyed this course because it was so new to me. Before this class I really hadn't done specific projects that are useful for right now and in the future. My resume had been done in such a plain way and this class taught me to focus more on the smaller details because they make such a difference against stacks of other resumes. The logo was so much fun to design and put to use on letterheads and business cards. My favorite, yet most challenging, project was the magazine especially because I am a magazine major. Before this class, I had never realized that magazine majors dealt so closely with the design and graphics of a magazine. I only have experience with writing for magazines so this opened up a huge door for me to explore and learn about making a magazine from start to finish. The website was fun to design as I pictured what an easy website looked like, simple and organized. I entered this class with no experience of the programs that we use, and now I am very familiar with many of them. I can truly say that InDesign is a program that really has endless options and I learn more everyday with it. I learned a lot from this course and for one thing, I will never look at color and typefaces in the same way.