Saturday, December 13, 2008

Conclusions


This quarter was probably my favorite DesCom quarter I’ve had so far, and I mean that in full sincerity. The fact that the content was tailored to our requests, and that it had professional relevance, was extremely valuable. I didn’t feel like I was wasting time on arbitrary assignments… rather, I felt like I was accomplishing something that was clearly relevant to my development as a designer.

I especially liked learning how to fuse 3D renders with 2D Photoshop work to create intermediate steps in the ideation process. I’m pretty excited about using that skill as time progresses. (Learning Illustrator rendering was helpful too.)

Additionally, the talks about how to give well-thought out professional presentations were very helpful. In the future it might be more beneficial to cover that content at the very beginning of the quarter so it could be the overreaching “vision” for the rest of the quarter’s work. I know for me personally, it probably would have helped solidify my thinking earlier in the process.

So overall, I got a lot out of the class this quarter. And Mike, (if you’re reading this,) I thought your teaching style was really good—the way that you explained things made a lot of sense to me and helped me to understand concepts I hadn’t thought about before. So thanks.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Bad News and Hope


Yeah, so about my work this quarter… I’m disappointed in myself. And I get the impression I’m not the only one disappointed in me. I can’t help but feel like I really dropped the ball, and that’s a horrible feeling.

So I want to do better in the future. For next quarter, my goals consist of

1. Learning time-management skills (and the self-discipline to follow through with them)
2. Practicing my drawing (and getting good at it)
3. Developing my software skills so I can comfortably (and quickly) construct and render products.

I guess there’s hope for me yet—I just have to do a better job of staying on top of things. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Afraid to Open


Blogs are funny creatures. They enable a vast number of people to create specialized networks that share information, and they connect individuals from across the globe. But they’re also visible, exposed. The world can read your words, and there’s no denying what you’ve said. It’s a powerful medium. And it makes me somewhat afraid. What if I say something foolish, something I won’t be able to live down?

You see, I’ve been keeping a private journal for over 10 years, and in that context, I don’t separate my personal thoughts from my professional insights. They all blend together into a conglomerate that is myself. That’s fine for what it is, but posting things publically is entirely different. I have to work at dividing my professional statements from my inner thoughts, and quite frankly, I haven’t had much practice doing so when it comes to written communication.

So in one regard, I’m not entirely comfortable using a blog myself. But I can recognize the benefits of leveraging it as a communications tool. It’s a great forum for gathering resources and connecting groups of people with similar interests. It’s also a fantastic medium for facilitating conversations that can shape and develop an industry. And it’s just plain good for sparking ideas.

So overall, a blog is a good tool for discussing design… I’m just not sure if it’s the right tool for me.

Awaiting Reply


I still haven't heard back regarding my "design professional interview," so I'll post it when I do.

A Look Back


So I said at the beginning of the quarter that my goals included growing as a person, both spiritually and intellectually. I suppose that this is inevitable in the natural course of things, though it’s also possible to backslide. And I’ve done both.

As for my design skills, I’ve made some progress, though not as I would have liked. I learned some good techniques for communication in my DesCom class, but I failed to implement all of them as I should have in my studio project. So I’m left feeling disappointed in myself, because I know I could (and should) have done better.

I did get better at Alias, and I’m glad I got the extra exposure. I didn’t, however, venture much into SolidWorks, so that’s still on my to-do list for the future. And although my drawing improved a little, I didn’t put in the hours I needed to make a significant change.

But I’ve heard that we learn from our failures as much as we do from our successes, if not more so. So I suppose that this is a good learning opportunity for me, in a way. I can look at my life this quarter and see where I fell short, and hopefully I’ll be wise enough to avoid those circumstances in the future.