I learned about infographics. I specifically learned what they are, why they are used, and what kinds of useful information they can provide. We learned to create maps in Illustrator using infographics.

2. What was easy?

Creating the roads and playing around with the colors and strokes was pretty easy due to having knowledge from previous labs. I am much better at tracing using the pen tool. It was a skill that I struggled with just a couple months ago, but I am much better at it now. Lab 7 taught me how to overlap lines are change their colors/sizes, so that came in handy for Project 4.

3. What was challenging?

I would say that the lab was pretty challenging as a whole. The live paint section was a nightmare for me. I struggled coloring in my areas due to the live paint tool not doing what I wanted it to do. I somehow accidentally grouped all of my roads and other pieces together, causing the live paint tool to not work correctly. It took me a while to solve the issue. Also, finding a good color palette was difficult for me to do because I could not find a color scheme that fit well, but I think the blue palette ended up working well in the end. Adding the symbols and labels was not very hard, but it took a long time to do. This project took lots of skill and patience. Although it took me a long time to finish, I am glad that I was able to learn how to work through my issues with the project and the map came out well in the end.

4. How could your submission be improved?

The labels do not fit the best with the rest of the project, but I figured it was okay how it was after a lot of trial & error. I probably could have make it look better, but I just wanted to move on to the other parts of the project since I had a lot of work to do during Finals Week. My compass and scale is a bit basic, but I did not feel too comfortable making a more complicated compass rose since my Illustrator skills still are not the best yet. I could have also just picked a different location to do the project on entirely. The town I picked is very small, so it looks kind of smooshed together. By the time I realized how difficult it would be to do the project on such a small town. I was a bit too far into the project to want to go back. Due to this, I had quite a bit of empty space. I should have filled it in a bit better, but like I said, my Illustrator skills are not so good yet so I worked with what I had.

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

Definitely add in step-by-step videos on the Google Slides presentations of how to create elements of the project such as the compass rose, scale, areas, etc. I had to scroll through multiple class videos which complicated things a bit. I struggled a lot with the live paint, so maybe a video specifically on that would be beneficial. During the final DMAAD Club meeting, a few of us discussed this project and all of us had a hard time with the live paint tool not cooperating.

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

This project gave me a much better understanding of Illustrator, so I will definitely use that for future projects. After using it so much for this project, I can finally distinguish the differences between Photoshop & Illustrator and point of what types of project each software would be better fitted for. I can use my knowledge for more complex projects in the future. I learned a ton of new skills through this project that could perhaps come in handy for future DMAAD Club designs since I wanted to branch out a bit from Photoshop. Illustrator and Figma are good options I have come to realize.

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

All of the recorded class videos helped me a ton, as I was able to go back and see multiple maps from my classmates that helped me determine what was going wrong when I was creating my map. It also gave me a lot of inspiration because I was a bit stuck at first. The Slides presentations were useful as well since I saw multiples types of banners, compasses, and map that gave me inspiration and were useful for comparing elements of my project to past ones.

I learned how to make a design that will go onto a package and I learned how to print & fold that package to look professional. We used Adobe Illustrator to create our designs. Then, we used video instructions, tape, and scissors to turn our designs into milk cartons.

2. What was easy?

Creating the cup design was easy. By the time I did that, I had quite a bit of practice using the pen tool in Illustrator. Although it is not perfect, I did a good job of tracing over a coffee cup design and changing it up a bit. I liked my color choice and design. Although I could not print the design in color, the design still looks nice. Everything that was not the pattern or the cutting & folding part of this lab was easy.

3. What was challenging?

Making the pattern in Illustrator was very challenging. It took me multiple tries and actually took me a couple of hours to make. It looks okay, but it could look better. I followed the class videos to make the pattern but I still struggled to get it to look nice. It looks okay, but it does not blend the best with my cup design. Also, the cutting & folding part was kind of challenging. It did not take me nearly as much time as I suspected it would, but I would guess that everyone struggled with it at least a little bit. should also mention that printing was tough because my color printer was not working correctly. I replaced the ink in my printer, tried printing using different programs, and changed the file type of my design, but nothing was working. I became very frustrated and it took me a long time to print because of these issues, but at least I got to print something in the end.

4. How could your submission be improved?

I’m sure the folding could have went better, but it still looks nice. I also could have done a better job with my pattern design and tracing the coffee cup. I am still not too good with the pen tool, but it doesn’t look too bad. I guess I should have been more careful, but I got tired of retracing multiple times. Also, my submission would be much better if my printer would work correctly, but I had to use the black & white printer. I could not figure out the issue with my color printer. It took a lot of work to try to fix the issue, but I remain unsuccessful for now.

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

While the project was kind of tough, I think Professor Dunkle did a nice job of helping students work through the project. He showed us how to create our designs step-by-step multiple times and showed us how to cut & fold the cartons properly. The Google Slides presentations definitely help and make finding steps much simpler than scanning through a whole class video on Zoom. I appreciate all the help that was provided with this project.

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

Before this project, I did not know how to use Adobe Illustrator too well. I now have a much better understanding that will now give me an alternative to Photoshop and Gimp. I also always struggled to use the pen tool, but I now am much better at using it due to the practice I got with the tool. This will be very useful for future designs for the DMAAD Club and future DMA courses. Plus, these skills will be very useful in case I ever find myself designing a professional package if I decide to get into the world of graphic design. It was a very interesting and helpful project.

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

The class videos that went over each step of the project were very helpful. I couldn’t have gotten this done without them and the Slides presentation. I did also look at multiple different Coffee Cup designs and abstract patterns for inspiration. These greatly helped influence my designs.

I learned multiple ways in which Photoshop can be used to create an interesting composition. Many tools were introduced to me with this project that I either never used previously or have do so very little. For example, I never really used the gradient tool, but I now find it useful and I may use the pen tool more often instead of always relying on the magnetic lasso. I learned how to create layer masks and manipulate them to remove pieces of an image’s background. The brush tools were used similarly and I will definitely be using those more, as they came in very handy during my time creating the compositions.

2. What was easy?

Adding in the images into photoshop was easy since I have done that many times before. I was also easy to play with the filters. That part was kind of fun too because I liked seeing how I can change a background to look more interesting, and then make them look even better using textures. Using the paint brush tool to add & remove pieces of an image was easy too, but it just took a while to get used to since I have not done that much beforehand. Playing with image adjustments was easy as well because the previous labs/projects have allowed me to get used to changing image brightness, levels, curves, etc. I now use that very often when creating something in Photoshop.

3. What was challenging?

Sometimes it was difficult for me to differentiate between layers as I progressed due to the number of layers growing rapidly. I tried to name the layers carefully, but it was still kind of confusing at times. Also, I had a hard time with the brush tool at some points. Once in a while I would accidentally click on the incorrect layer and erase parts of the image I did not want to erase. Some layer look similar, so that definitely played a role in my struggle. I also struggled to keep a nice balance between each of the layers in my compositions. I did not want any of my layers to take up too much of the composition, but at the same time, I wanted there to be a piece that captured the eye in the center.

4. How could your submission be improved?

The backgrounds and use of textures could have been improved definitely. I tried to play with the image adjustments a lot to make the background stand out more, but I did not have the best success in doing so. Also, it is kind of difficult to make out what my textures are and differentiate between the two that were used, but my composition was kind of complex in the end, so some pieces worked better than others. I could have done a better job tracing and image and removing it from the background using the pen tool, but I could not think of many good ideas of where that part of the design would fit in nicely, so it looks a bit out of place. The compositions turned out good, in my opinion, but a couple things looks a bit out of place, the text being a good example.

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

Perhaps a couple more labs would be useful before jumping into this project. There was just a lot of tools that were introduced to us, so it got a bit confusing to me. I do, however, appreciate the step-by-step videos that have been placed into the Project and Lab Demo Instructions. They have definitely made life easier, especially since it can be hard to remember specific details and then find them again when re-watching a class video for a class that is 80 minutes. Overall, there is not much that needs improvement, but a bit more practice would be beneficial before jumping into Project 2.

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

I feel that this Project really unleashed my creativity. I will definitely be using the brushes more for removing and adding to parts of an image in the future as well as the pen tool for removing backgrounds. This could be very helpful for pieces of art that I create for the DMAAD Club. Also, I want to get more practice with Photoshop during my free time, so the wide variety of new tools introduced to us in Project 2 will definitely come in handy. I find that when creating something in Photoshop, I kind of overlook backgrounds and more so focus on layers that are copied and pasted into the foreground. I will use my knowledge to make sure I don’t forget about how much the background of a composition can add to its appeal.

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

I did not use many resources this time around that were provided by Professor Dunkle, but the class demo videos and short step-by-step clips in the slides have helped me tremendously. I did look at a couple sites for textures since none of my images have ones that I felt were satisfactory, so I used a glass texture and a felt texture from cgtextures.com. The videos on using the pen tool and the brushes helped me the most, as I used the tools multiple times.

2. Using InDesign was easy in my opinion. Although I have not used it before Project 1, it was not hard to use at all for this project. Once I went back and saw how to place each photo in a frame, the process was pretty repetitive. It was a nice learning process that could be a good alternative to many of the programs I have used previously for presentation-like projects. Also, changing the image size and playing around with adjustments was getting easier the more I progressed through the project. It just took some time to get used to.

3. Taking the pictures was kind of challenging. I took many of them with my phone camera, but the quality was not so good at first. I was unhappy with how most of the pictures have came out originally, so I retook almost all of them. When I did that, I tried other techniques to improve the quality. I turned the lights off in my room and used my desk light to create a soft light that greatly improved the quality of my images. I tried a different camera as well, but the quality was not great so I went back to using the phone camera. That took a long time to do and a lot of trial & error. Once I did that, it took a while for me to get used to understanding which photos would go in which portfolio. After reviewing parts of the class videos and the Project instructions, my confusion was greatly lowered and I had a better understanding of what to do. After all, files can get a bit messy when you need to have 3 separate files saved for 16 different images. After progressing through the project, however, I felt more confident and less confused.

4. To improve my project, I am sure I could have done more to improve the quality of my photos in Photoshop. A few of my photos, especially towards the end, were a bit lacking in terms of how many adjustments I have made to them because a few images I thought looked better without a ton of changes. Maybe I could have done a better job with the compression of the images, but I think that went okay. I did not want to lower the image quality too much, but I had to get some of the images to a smaller size so they would fit properly. I also could of possibly played around with the image size better when taking the photos so that they would not look so weird in the InDesign frames, but I tried my best. Furthermore, I could have taken the images better because some of them I had a hard time cropping due to some strange angles I took the photos at, hoping those angles would improve the quality of the images. They did, but in doing so, they were kind of harder to make look better when cropping them in Photoshop.

5. To improve the assignment next time, I would ask the professor to organize the instructions document a bit better because I found it a bit difficult to follow at times even when a lot of my confusion was cleared up in class. I just took me a while to understand which photos were going into which portfolio and to realize which sizes each photo would need to be for each portfolio. The instructions could have probably been simplified a bit more and organized a little better to clear up confusion. I think I did okay though the more I progressed through Project 1.

6. Since I now understand image sizing better, I could use my newly acquired knowledge to change the size of the images to enhance their quality for specific reasons. Also, I would definitely use InDesign again because it was not difficult to use and would work well for many art-related projects in present and future DMA classes (In DMA, there is quite a bit of art-related projects.) I now also have a better understanding of how to improve image quality, so of course I will use my knowledge in other courses because I use Photoshop a lot for all my DMA courses. Also, since I now better understand file organization, that will come in handy for sure.

7. Going back and watching a couple of the class videos from the past few weeks have helped me a lot in understanding what to do because I could follow the processes that Professor Dunkle was showing us on his screen. I also read a couple articles on image compression so I could better understand how to do that since some of my photos were kind of big. I think those helped improve my understanding of the project. I probably could have watched videos on how to make better adjustments in Photoshop, but I think I did good.

Here are a few before/after shots of my photos:

The scanned photos of the drawing, 3D object, and the magazine ad came out much better than the photos that were not scanned. My family recently bought a new printer so I could not quite yet figure out how to scan with the new printer. Instead, I scanned the photos with the Office Lens app, which works well enough. I took each picture in my bedroom since I had better lighting in there compared to the other rooms in my house. However, the lighting still was not great but it worked. The colors in each scanned photo are much more appealing to look at than the unscanned photos. When the unscanned photos are zoomed in to, they appear to be extremely blurry like the dog photo and are not very exciting to look at since the colors are dull. In the scanned photos, the details are easier to make out once zoomed in to. Also, some of the backgrounds of the unscanned images are visible, making them look unprofessional and unorganized. The backgrounds are not so visible in the scanned photos, making the photos more appealing.

To improve the quality of the unscanned images, I could have found a better way to improve the lighting since the lighting in the room I took the photos in wasn’t the best. I could have attempted to better focus the pictures in my camera app before I took the photos. Or, perhaps, I could have tried playing around with the settings in my camera app to see if they would allow me to fix the photos. Maybe I could have placed the photos in a better angle or I could have zoomed in a bit more before taking the pictures with my phone. Also, I could have tried a better camera but I figured the phone camera worked fine. For the scanned images, I could have used a different scanner, but I have experience using the Office Lens app and I knew it would work well. Also, I could have tried to figure out the issue with my printer but I was not yet able to figure out how to scan. It also may not be set up properly since it was bought only a couple weeks ago and it hasn’t been used much yet. The Office Lens app allows you to crop out the parts of the photo that you do not want so it can better focus on improving the quality, so I could have maybe done a better job of cropping but I think I did fine with that.