QUESTIONS-

1. What did you learn?

For this final project, I learned how to align text and make it seem uniform, which gives it an appealing and clean look to it. I also worked on spacing the words and setting them equidistant from one another.

2. What was easy?

From my experience, this was by far the hardest project for me this semester. Prior to this assignment, I never really tinkered with text or the typographical aspect that was needed to complete this task. This was definitely a fun yet difficult experience that I hope to improve at in the future. Nothing was necessarily “easy”.

3. What was challenging?

The biggest thing for me that consumed a lot of time and energy was trying to fill the gaps. While aligning the text was tricky, having to fulfill the space while keeping everything uniform was a hassle, but at the same time taught me a bit about how to make a clean “print” using only text, which forced me to be creative and traverse through serveral stages of trial-and-error.

4. How could your submission be improved?

Regarding the spacing and overall layout for the text, I think I did an okay job. However, some frames look better than others. If I had more time, I would redo a few of these frames or at least alter the layout so it “flows” better. Such can be seen with the second and fifth lines in this rhyme.

5. How could I improve the assignment for the next class?

Had I been given another chance to “rework” this assignment, I would definitely spend more time on those two frames I mentioned in the previous question and tweak the colors a bit. I feel like while colors don’t always matter, they do help to bring the rhyme to “life”.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

In the future, I would have experience of working with text alone from this project, but I would still need a lot more time with this topic as I think that I haven’t really gotten the hang of things yet.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

The only thing that inspired me for this project was the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” that I used for the first project, “Principles of Gestalt”. Having some prior experience working and thinking about this rhyme really helped me when it came to choosing a nursery rhyme for this task. Other than that, all of the “layouts” and format that I used for each frame just came with time and experimentation, whether it was picking different fonts, emphasis on these fonts (italics or bold), or deciding how big or small I wanted the text to be. All of this combined to fill in missing pieces that was needed to complete or enhance that line. Such can be seen for my third and fourth frame “Up Above The World So High” and “Like A Diamond In The Sky”.

QUESTIONS-

1. What did you learn?

This project, different from the previous two, dealt more with images rather than vector shapes. When working on this assignment, I learned quite a bit about Photoshop, such as using different filters, layer masks, and various tools such as Magnetic Lasso Tool and Eraser Tool to remove a background from an image.

2. What was easy?

The only thing I considered to be easy in this project was importing the images and adjusting the light using the “curves” feature. This allowed me to have a lower brightness and contrast, which suites my theme quite well. I also was able to tint a few of the images to once again, capture that “dark and gritty” appeal of my project.

3. What was challenging?

There were a few components of this project that gave me a hard time. The first being the metaphor. While many common metaphors exist and are recognized by a number of people, I wanted to find something that was original and revealing, so “Money is the Root of all Evil” came into to my mind. The other difficult task was to illustrate the money serving as the roots. This was quite tedious and the section I put most of my time into. Having to duplicate each dollar bill wasn’t so bad, but getting them to align in fashion, that was a different story.

4. How could your submission be improved?

I feel that for this project, I could’ve spent more time on layering the dollar bills and add a “root-like” appearance to them, as while I don’t think it looks horrible, it could definitely appear a bit more “realistic”, but I just didn’t find the time to do this. On a second thought, instead of using Napoleon as one of the dictators, I probably should’ve picked someone else such as Hitler, however I wanted to add some variety, and still felt that Napoleon wasn’t all good, carrying out some malicious attacks and betrayals

5. How could I improve the assignment for the next class?

If I were to take another crack at this assignment, I would focus even more time on the root part, since that to me is the most important part of portraying this metaphor. I might also add more of a “vignette” style to the two dictators, those being Stalin and Napoleon, to make them “float”, as I was originally going for a “ghost” effect, but couldn’t reproduce it well in my project.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

In future tasks or a job setting, removing backgrounds, although a fairly novice, yet crucial skill can come in handy whenever working on a project where you want to make an image out of multiple pictures. Also, using tints, color-correction, and layer masks serve as useful tools when it comes to photo editing.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

For this project, the only thing that really inspired my idea was some research. Everything else, from the trees and evil figures, came to my mind separately. At the time of the “brainstorming phase”, I was thinking about create a mind map, but I figured that since this metaphor is fairly self-explanatory, I decided that it would be best to use my original blueprint, that turning out as my final product. Looking back though, I regret not drawing a mind map since it probably would’ve influenced more creativity and variation in this assignment, but i am still satisfied with the result.

Just as a side note, I know that we were supposed to use a pattern, but I decided to not include mine since I felt that it didn’t suite my project as well as I thought it would.

QUESTIONS-

1. What did you learn?

When working on this project, I was able to learn about the different color schemes and how they can be integrated to represent different environments. Not only do the color schemes complement each landscape, but with the right choice, they can bring the landscape to life. Aside from the color side of things, I gained some more knowledge on how different tools work in Figma and the unlimited types of shapes that can be produced using certain tools at each given moment.

2. What was easy?

Compared to the last project, this one was much easier. Going into this project I had gained more confidence in using Figma, so as a result I feel that my shapes are “unique” and portray the landscapes quite well. Determining the color for each shape wasn’t all that bad, as my only rule to myself was to stick with the appropriate color scheme and not go overboard with the colors, mainly to keep things somewhat “realistic”.

3. What was challenging?

In my honest opinion and from my time spent on this project, I think the hardest thing was creating those “abstract” shapes. Compared to a more advanced piece of software such as Adobe Illustrator, Figma still has quite a bit of power when it comes to stretching/bending vertices or edges. The Pen Tool is what I’m referring to, and while it is able to set different points, there’s not a whole lot that this tool can offer unlike Illustrator’s variety of tools to select from. I still have some trouble with creating curvatures with the pen tool, which is why the bridge in my Urban Scene appears to be a bit out of place.

4. How could your submission be improved?

The biggest thing that could be improved would be the bridge in my Urban Scape (mentioned in Question 3) and the fish in my Aquatic Scape. The fish were super difficult to create, let alone being able to perceive these fish as being “realistic”. Again, I had to use the Pen Tool for this object, and I don’t think it turned out as good as some other things that I created in my other scenes (ie. the planets in my Extraterrestrial Scene.

5. How could I improve the assignment for the next class?

If I were to repeat this assignment, I would’ve definitely spent more time utilizing the Pen Tool in hopes to find myself become efficient with it. This would improve my fish and the bridge. Besides those two aspects of my scenes, everything else seems to fit in quite nicely with each scene. Overall, I am still content with the final product.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

For future projects or work scenarios, I will keep focusing and experimenting with the Pen Tool, as I feel that was my biggest weakness of this project. Also, I am inclined to spend more time on gradients since they are not only beautiful, but add the sense of “depth” to the design, something that has always fascinated me.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

For each scene, I would search up an image that corresponded with each scene I had in mind. For example, to get the “blueprint” for my Desert Outlook, I would look up something related to that designated scene, such as “sand dunes” or “desert sky”. Keep in mind that this only served as a starting point and I didn’t base my landscape from only one picture. Had I not done this, I feel that my scapes wouldn’t look as nearly as good, so taking the extra time to do some brainstorming and researching beforehand was a fabulous idea.

Representative

Questions-

1. What did you learn?

For this project, I learned how to manipulate different sorts of primitive shapes to create detailed, complex objects. At first it was difficult, but it really forces you to be innovative and experiment. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to construct unique pieces that I would then try to implement into each scene, fulfilling the principle at hand.

2. What was easy?

Nothing in this project was necessarily easy per say, but I think the concept I had to least amount of time learning was the process of duplicating/layering shapes, which saves a ton of time in the long run.

3. What was challenging?

The hardest task of this project was by far trying to entail Gestalt’s principles while using all kinds of shapes. The abstract set was tricky as you couldn’t make every object look realistic, as that would defeat the purpose. Instead, I gave it my best go and attempted to maintain a dynamic style, and not go too overboard with things, all while keeping the corresponding principle in mind. This allows for the frame to catch that sense of ingenuity, but also have a way of representing said principle.

4. How could your submission be improved?

I think that repetition and similarity (the last two frames in the Representative section) were not easy by any means. I felt like I could’ve done a bit more with both. I also think they don’t completely relate to their principle, which is something I had trouble layering out for this part. Everything else seems to appear fine to me and I’m quite satisfied on how this turned out.

5. How could I improve the assignment for the next class?

For the next class, I feel like making use of more shapes via combining and layering, would definitely provide the essence of creativity, but I think that for now it has enough to tell that I didn’t just stick to using stock shapes.

6. How might you apply your knowledge in future assignments or work scenarios?

For assignments in the future, I will keep working on my “merging” technique for shapes to build notional objects. Also, I will try to make use of keeping in mind that “it doesn’t have to look perfect”, mainly referring to symmetry. I understand that having things lined up and parallel seems to give it a cleaner look, but I can see that this could hold you back from developing peculiar designs.

7. How did a specific reading or video inspire or help you?

For my nursery rhyme of choice, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, I didn’t find any video or reading to be super helpful, but I did find some images on Google that managed to fuel my imagination for creating the star in the last frame of the Abstract set. I didn’t copy the design entirely from the image, but it served as a starting point in which I could build off of.