Rousing Reflection
Professional Reflection
I learned a few lessons during this capstone course and on my degree journey—like improvement can always be made on a project you may think is already perfect or a client and/or peer’s perspectives can differ wildly from your own just to name a couple. Not knowing what to expect, I admit that my capstone experience was a bit difficult. I had an idea that projects would be placed together, and a portfolio would be put together because previous classes progressed in such a way that each part of the end project of a class was worked on during the preceding weeks. In this sense, I thought the capstone course was going to be a simple culmination of the previous courses. Contrary to my expectation, feedback received by peers required substantial updates to projects I’d already put what I felt like was 100% into and didn’t require any enhancing as I liked them as they were. I did see the validity with some projects, but not all—especially the ones from courses with detailed client briefs. Similarly, I was puzzled with conflicting feedback regarding my own business branding where I am essentially the client. I understood certain viewpoints on typeface readability—leading me to increase font sizes instead of changing them since my fonts were integral to my messaging—and it is noted “whenever you select type, you are not only using the type you think is correct but also relying on the perceptions of your viewers” (Wiley, 2014). Likewise, I wonder with the size of my portfolio being a little larger than A3 in size, if it is necessary to have more than 18 pt sized font for copy text as advised when most reading material is 12 pt. It is said “desk and floor space will be at a serious premium and a portfolio of manageable size (one small and light enough for the interviewer to place comfortably in their lap and flick through it), will be greatly appreciated” so keeping text to a minimal size seems best to avoid increasing portfolio size beyond standard (Taylor, Clark, & Antoniou, 2012). Then coming to more subjective things such as color usage together affecting legibility, my opinion differed more since I could read with the contrast as is. These struggles, along with others, brings the following excerpt from Forbes Advisor to mind:
“Learning by doing, as they say, is the best way to find out if something is right for you. Since a capstone project involves using skills from your field to create a product that mimics the professional version of what you’d like to do after school, this prepares you for the workforce in a practical way” (Cole & Beagle, 2024).
This course has reinforced the notion that I would like to ultimately work for myself, but has prepared me for the reality of working for an employer, as well as clients when I have my own business. All this is to say, my capstone experience overall has taught me increased patience, perseverance, keep striving to improve, and your work can never make everyone happy, but the goal should be to get as close as possible.
Although not a part of the 10 design works, I fortunately received helpful critique(s) on each piece of my personal brand, included in my portfolio, whether it be from peers or the professor. I was also required to give feedback to my peers and made sure to be helpful by always providing at least one critique or suggestion that may improve a work and when it comes to feedback for myself, I include my brand and work pieces since updating these affected both my print portfolio and portfolio website content. Going in the order of my portfolio, the item I probably followed advice on the least is, my business branding for the reasons mentioned in the above paragraph. Specifically, I did not fix my logo as I was instructed previously to keep it compact, and thus I did not revert it back to its earlier iteration where the name was in a bigger point and separate from the shape. As one of my first courses in the graphic design world, working on Upper Crust Bakery stationery was a fun project for me. Feedback received, focused on fixing the spacing between my design elements and text which I heeded to give a less crowded look on the business card and letterhead. Another peer was unsure about the green logo being by itself in the middle of the card and it seeming random with nothing else around it, so I opted for repetition rather than omission. Lastly for this suite, I followed the advice to use two lines of bricks in place of one originally under the contact information on the letterhead, so it communicates the brick feel rather than a colored, block line. The next piece was not part of a school project, but upon presenting this to current course peers, I received constructive feedback that the wedding invitation and rsvp art styles did not match. I agreed they didn’t and overhauled my previous work for both pieces. I improved the art to my current style and used my knowledge about color, unity, and patterns, adding the wispy lines to the invitation to match the rsvp cards and doing vice versa for the flowers of the invitations—also updating the flower colors to match better. I thought I did a pretty thorough job when initially completing this subsequent project, but some recent feedback received showed me where improvements could be made. One peer suggested putting the brochure on a mockup, showing where the brochure will fold and what is on the front cover versus the inside and in accordance I made the update. I agree it definitely helps to get the full effect of this piece which inspired me to also do the same for the table tent after revising the bottom and inserting a dark rectangle background so the copy text could be read more easily and with clarity. For the menu, I fixed the inconsistent spacing throughout at the suggestion of the same peer mentioned above. Although the following two pieces—book covers—were not assigned projects I received a few critiques. Many stated having a hard time figuring out what the cover of the autobiographical book said. So, on the advice of a more specific peer, I went back and thought about color options. While I didn’t change the text at all as part of the critique proposed, I heeded the advice to change colors of the background and remove a gradient to assist in legibility. These changes helped significantly because as noted by the MasterClass website, “color helps establish a mood for your composition [and]…is used by designers to portray mood, light, depth, and point of view” and in the same way it can harm a composition (2021). So, by changing the background to deep red, I can elicit feelings of deep fervor, while increasing readability. Then, the only comment I received on the romance book cover piece was a logo above the author’s name being disliked. I had purposefully left the logo on the man’s purple shirt to sit right on top of the hyphen in the author name [the aspect the provider of the critique didn’t like but couldn’t explain why] but in hindsight, I adopted the idea of its removal as I had removed other images on the other man’s shirt to discourage the appearance of biased beliefs, so doing so for a popular brand logo and dissuade the expression of favoritism to a certain brand is apt and ethical as well.
This segues smoothly into answering how will I maintain ethical principles and incorporate social responsibility in order to advance the graphic design industry and/or create artifacts that leave positive lasting effects on people and societies. So, before I continue regarding feedback for the last five portfolio pieces, I want to share something I endeavor to keep in mind:
“Perhaps the most important aspect of ethical design is deciding which projects to take on as a designer. You are amplifying the message and making it accessible to the world, so is this message something that will have a positive impact on society?” (Pajouh, 2019).
This notion will encourage me to do proper research on any clients and read their books before agreeing to illustrate their covers. However, for all pieces, I strived to be inoffensive and sensitive to any cultural faux pas. For example, although the autobiographical title [which would be the author’s] may offend some, I was innocuous in my use of image and shapes. The simple image is meant to diminish that possible offense while still being relevant. As far as leaving lasting effects on people and society, I plan to choose projects which align with my values, as those are important to me, but maintain the golden rule of doing onto others what you wish to be done to yourself. This means, forewarning of any possible offenses, being upfront, and being considerate among other ethical traits.
Now, returning to feedback I chose to incorporate, the book Exploring Adobe InDesign Creative Cloud states, “it doesn’t take the average reader more than a glance to decide whether or not to read a printed piece” (Rydberg, 2015). Likewise, after drawing in your audience, a designer would want to communicate their message quickly as a target’s attention is quickly drawn away. For that reason, I made sure to have proper contrast and used bold colors to draw attention when working on my two magazine covers, spreads, and one ad. This ties into why collaboration is important as current classmate’s suggestion to break up the straight list of text I had on the magazine covers in order to draw the readers’ eyes about the cover and maintain visual interest improved the works based on the above concept. For the magazine spreads, I appropriately handled what little feedback I received, focusing on spread 2. I received critique that the curve in the grid style may be making the copy text hard to read. Since changing that would go against the purpose of the assignment to use different grid styles, I instead increased the boldness of the text and with it, the legibility, hopefully. Other feedback I adhered to was getting rid of the orphaned word at the end of my sub-title in the same spread. Lastly, I received a suggestion to remove the triangle picture from behind the slogan in the Amethyst Bay magazine ad as it may be too distracting. I didn’t exactly follow this suggestion, but instead of removing the picture altogether I made the triangle background white and moved the picture to the right side of the ad so the pictures in the small boxes wouldn’t get lost or create confusion.
In the spirit of collaboration, I tried to be equally helpful in providing feedback. Whether it was constructive criticism or applause on a job well done, I made an effort to give specific feedback on what was done poorly and how it could be enhanced or done well and how. So when peers gave me detailed feedback, I made sure to consider it seriously. It is important since “something as simple as changing the color of a button can increase desired behavior by double, even triple-digit percentages” so heeding peer advice can not only be beneficial in showing you work well with others and consider what they have to say, but it is helpful in earning work when your projects are enhanced and thus draw more attention (Chapman, 2018). This consideration is one of the lessens I learned since regardless of my thinking my original creation was better, if I gain valuable feedback, I need to study it and understand the need for change such as if someone can’t see what the product may be about, they may overlook it completely, which would defeat the whole purpose. So as mentioned above, the lessons I’ve learned will be carried forward in my academic and professional life.
Next steps for me will include reaching out to departments with my current employer where I can use my degree. I have previously participated in informational interviews, but will take the all-important advice that preparation is key, and get more information before starting the process. Even though I am a current employee, making the jump to marketing, communications, or advertising, may still be difficult. This capstone has definitely helped in preparing me substantially, by not only providing resources, but by assisting in establishing a portfolio. After all, “if you’re a designer, an online portfolio can help you attract new clients or score your dream job. Publishing your most compelling work samples creates a valuable promotional tool that’s sure to expand your professional opportunities. It’s a must-have!” (Shorr, n.d.).