Professional Reflection

My design career journey has been a long one. I started out very early on in my life with art classes as a child. From there, my creative spark grew and gained traction in high school with an introduction to Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. My creativity followed me to college where I majored in architecture but designed logos for friends’ bands. After seven grueling years, I dropped out of architecture school and reevaluated what I wanted to do in my life; I was brought back to graphic design during my tenure at a local record label. This life change brought me to SNHU to earn a degree in Graphic Design and Media Arts. All my years of designing have culminated in this final capstone project. In this reflection, I will touch on incorporating feedback into my print-ready and online portfolio, the importance of collaboration in this project and future design work, applying what I’ve learned throughout my coursework to my future professional life, and my goals for the future. I will also be reflecting on my current skills, abilities, and knowledge of design and how I will be building and applying them moving forward.

At the beginning of this capstone project, I had a lot of projects on my portfolio website to showcase my work. However, I didn’t include much in the way of written explanations of each piece. Some posts included a multitude of examples for one category of previous work I accomplished. This may have led to a cluttered and disorganized portfolio.

During this capstone project, I was able to stop and think critically about each piece included in my online portfolio. I selected the pieces that best represented who I am currently and who I would like to be as a designer. Narrowing down my selections and including written case studies of each piece helped organize my online portfolio. I also took the advice of my professor to remove the menu below my logo in order to clean up my home page. This allows viewers to use the top menu, thereby giving them a full view of my website instead of the limited options I originally had on my front page.

As for my print-ready portfolio, this project actually allowed me to create one. It seemed incredibly silly for me to not have a physical portfolio considering I see myself as a print media designer more so than any other kind of designer. This step allowed me to incorporate all the work I put into my online portfolio and create a cohesive single document to bring to interviews. The truest difficulty in creating this was implementing my brand throughout the portfolio. However, I feel the simple use of my CMY halftone on the left had side of the pages and implementing the same typefaces from my logo for headings really brought the whole design together.

Collaboration was a huge factor in completing this project. One big example of that was my Branding Style Guide for Lil’ Guppies Scuba School. In the first iteration of my online portfolio, this project wasn’t included. I felt that the project, although complete and cohesive, did not live up to the expectations I had given myself as a designer; it just didn’t show the professionalism I felt my other pieces showed. During this capstone, I decided to take another chance on this project to try and rework it. With the suggestions of fellow classmates and my professor, I cleaned up the pages by making the yellow text more legible and cleaning up orphans in other paragraphs to create a more aesthetically pleasing format.

The biggest change of this project was a logo redesign. This was by far the main reason I never included this project in my portfolio. At the suggestion of my professor, I removed the hand drawn lettering from the logo and found typefaces that would better suit the logo while still maintaining the fun and professional feel of the project. By collaborating with my classmates and professor, my branding style guide is one of my favorite projects in my portfolio, and it proves my skills have evolved since beginning this degree with SNHU.

One of the main things I have learned through my coursework and this capstone is the importance of treating every piece of critique equally. Even though I sometimes didn’t agree with critiques I was given, I still took the time to try them out. In doing so, I was able to make informed decisions and move forward with the better design, even if that meant nothing changed in the design. This is a vital lesson I learned because even if I don’t take the critique as it is stated, I could still find a better design just by reworking it and seeing it from a different perspective. I will always give constructive criticism serious consideration when I am given it.

Another lesson this has taught me was the ability to defend my choices. If given constructive criticism, I can rework the design and compare the iterations. From there, I can chose the better option and have actual reasoning as to why one idea works better than the other. This is incredibly helpful, especially when working with clients. I can take client feedback, implement it into the design, and possibly find another way to craft the overall project that may be even better than my original design or the client’s suggestions.

As I stated before, I hope to be heavily involved in print media. Currently, I am working as the main graphic designer at a t-shirt screen printing company. While this isn’t what one would usually think of when considering what is included in print media, it is still a very important type of print media. People tend to express themselves through what they wear; I’m proud to be able to design t-shirts that help people express themselves.

Looking further into the future, I hope to be able to get into some type of work that helps people realize their dreams. That has been my number one goal throughout my entire design journey. I want to be able to provide the creative side to projects for people who aren’t so creatively inclined. This includes branding for small businesses, merch design for local bands, and booklet or other print forms for local organizations.

In order to keep up with this career path, I will need to maintain my current skills and constantly continue learning. Newer and newer programs and updates to programs are coming out, and being able to work with them is a necessity to be able to deliver the best possible product for clients. I will also need to keep up with the design trends to either produce similar designs for clients and evolve those trends to better the design community. This could easily be done through collaboration with other designers to see their design process and offer constructive criticism so everyone can further develop their design style and skills.

Another valuable aspect to uphold throughout my career is my design code of ethics. I need to be vigilant that I don’t accept projects that go against my personal moral code. At the same time, I need to be aware of social and cultural issues in design to ensure my designs avoid any ethical missteps. This vigilance may be exhaustive at times, but it will safeguard myself and my design career.

After reflecting on the work I put in to my coursework and this capstone, I feel confident in finding work in the world of graphic design. I look forward to challenging myself with future projects. I revel in the chance to compete with and collaborate with my peers. Keeping an eye on the future while taking the lessons I’ve learned through this journey to heart will ensure my success in this career.