Dong-Final Post

After taking this, I see things that I’ve never noticed from print ad or any other design. I feel like I am even seeing grids on print Ad. I didn’t know you have to think and consider so many things and put them into a  limited space (and how much this limitation gives you headaches). And I think Resume project was definitely helpful because I think many people actually made unique and outstanding resume through that project, not that I am saying that was my favorite project. My favorite project was a magazine project. I like reading magazine and collecting them, though people think it’s the best way to waste my money. I loved because I had a chance to create my own magazine putting my favorite elements that I’ve thought while I was reading it and yet never had thought of making it my own. Best part of this course is that I actually learn how to use programs fairly enough to use it in real life. I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to utilize those programs as I did for this class, I’ll be able to if I have to. Because I, and everyone, struggled so much with those programs, I won’t forget what I’ve learnt in this course. One thing that I hope from this course is that I wish there are more help sessions that people can get help from it and having lab course together along with the class. Because lab course is separated and a group of people from other class makes harder for lab instructors to teach right skills for our individual project. All they can do is just giving a general information. And there was only one help session a week and the time schedule was very flexible it was kind of hard to go there. I actually had to contact the instructor to get extra help. Other than this, it was an amazing class, and I am glad that I learned something that would help me a lot in the future and from now.

Final-Post

Before taking this class.I had no idea what graphic design is about. I never thought of appreciating the effort that all the designer put in when it comes to graphic design. After taking this class, i began thinking more creatively when looking at posters, logos, websites, magazines etc. I start standing in the editor or the designer’s point of you when looking at the designs, learn to view whether it is an effective design or its a bad design. I really enjoy this class, and Darren has taught me a lot , more than just the adobe programs, but also the mind-set of the readers and the designers.

Also, I’m really glad that i learned to know how to use the adobe program, though not professionally, at least know the basic skills. it really add the value to my college career, and i’m sure it will be very useful in the future in the Advertising market.

Cammett-Last Post

Well I will start off by saying this was by far my hardest and most time consuming class this semester. But, with that being said it was also my most helpful. I really feel like this class prepared me for all my other classes. These programs will come in handy for any project I do in the future. I do think there could have been one less project though so we could have more time to really excel on the others. It was definitely hard passing one in and getting the next project that day. I also feel like there could have been 2 labs and 1 lecture class since it was the execution part that I had the most trouble with; maybe a lab with Darren, which could also serve as office hours for people to get his opinion, since it was hard to get a time to meet with him sometimes. But overall I though it was a great class and I really learned a lot.

Sadkowski – Final Post

I absolutely agree that this class was definitely the most frustrating and time-consuming of all my classes.  I think I’ve spent more hours in the CRM lab than in my own room this semester!  To be fair, I definitely believe I have learned a lot so I guess it was all worth it.  Learning the Adobe programs was something I’ve always wanted to do, but never knew how to go about learning.  Well, taking graphics I was pretty much forced to learn it by painful trial and error and just simply asking other students!  Lab is kind of dreary – it goes over basic elements, but I could be using that time to work on the projects.

I didn’t love the fact that we never really had a break – it was just assignment after assignment.  However, I have some really cool things to show for it, so I can’t be overly negative.  Now that I’ve submitted my Interface (and am still in CRM about to start my rationale), I feel like I can almost take a step back and breathe!

I really liked the magazine project.  I feel like that was the one project I wasn’t too restricted on, so I felt more connected with it.  Tomorrow we will get our grades back, so hopefully my dreams won’t be crushed and I’ll still be proud of it.  Just kidding! (Sort of..)

Overall, this class was tough, for sure.  Very different from all my other classes, and in a way refreshing.  But I’ve had my dosage of refreshments after this and am ready for textbooks again!  I enjoyed the class and I am glad I got to get to know some of my classmates really well as we cried together in the labs all night long.

Gushlaw Post 11

Taking graphics is something that I didn’t think I really needed to take, but now that its over, I realize just how much I’ve learned. While the projects were difficult, I have learned quite a bit. My biggest criticism is not with the class itself, but the lab portion. The Lab TA’s went over the material very quickly and didn’t explain things as well as I needed, so when it came time to do my projects I was often lost a lot. But overall, I know that having experience with Adobe programs will benefit me later. I also agree that I did more work just for this class in two assignments than I did for other classes for the whole semester, which I’ve done better in. My favorite project would have to be the resume, because it is actually something I will use again. I am not very interested in graphics so none of the other projects really apply to me.

Jacquez – Last Poster

I have to say that as much as I liked the creative element of the class, the execution part of the projects was extremely difficult. I think the concepts were all really cool, and allowed us to be as creative and wild as we wanted to be in terms of designing. However, learning how to properly transform those ideas into actual work was hard because of my lack of knowledge on programs such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Often times I was lost during lab, and had to figure out how to do things using youtube or simply teaching myself. I did enjoy the lecture part of our classes though. I loved seeing student work, and really wish we could have spent more time looking at it to find inspiration for our own projects. I enjoyed that unlike my other classes, which are based on papers, tests, and other reading material, this class was nothing like that. It was my most time-consuming class and I wish we could have had either fewer projects or more time to work on them in between drafts. Overall, I liked the class and the experience and I really appreciate the skills I did learn in regards to graphic design. I am now wayyy more confident using Adobe programs and making flyers for the various organizations I am a part of.

Musacchio – Final Post – 11

Even though I’m not a graphic design major, I’ve always been interested in graphic design and creating graphic art. I found this class and the projects to be an enjoyable and creative break from classes where tests and papers make up the majority of the curriculum. Even though this class was my most time consuming this semester, I took advantage of the opportunity to be creative and do something different. I’ve never used any of the Adobe programs before, but this class really gave me a handle on them and I’m looking forward to using them in the future. I also think about design principles in a different way and try to use them in my work instead of throwing something together that simply looks good, but has no thought or theory behind it. I had the most fun with the poster and magazine projects because they gave me a lot of freedom in terms of creativity, but I think the resume and logo projects will ultimately be the most useful. Before this class, I didn’t have a well-designed resume at all and I’ve already used it on various interviews. I’ve also been able to use my business card on a few different occasions since creating it for this class. So, I would have to say the resume and logo projects were my favorites since I will be able to use them over and over again. In the future, I would change the deadlines for each project. I don’t know if it was just this semester, but it seemed like we got a lot of time for the resume, logo and poster projects, but less for the magazine and interface, which were much more time consuming. It seemed like the last two projects were crammed in at the end. Overall, I found the projects diverse and the lectures enjoyable, making GRA 217 a solid class.

Ortman-Final Post-11

I enjoyed this class but as others have already mentioned, I found it very difficult and challenging. It was hard getting the hang of the programs in the beginning of the semester when my experience with them was slim to none. I felt pressured to keep up with each project being right after one another. I wish that more concentration was spent on using the Adobe programs during class than just talking about them. I am a visual learner, so using those programs would have been a lot easier for me if I physically saw certain concepts displayed step-by-step during class lectures. I did not find the lab sessions very useful so including Adobe tutorials during lecture would have made up for the lack of instruction in the lab sections. Besides my beginning difficulty with the computer programs used throughout the course, I enjoyed GRA 217 very much. Class lectures were light-hearted and easy to stay in tune to. I liked the learning atmosphere I was in and it made it easier to not get so frustrated with the projects as much because of it. The student examples displayed for each project during class really helped me with my own projects and how to go about them. My favorite project would have to be the magazine project. Even though it was very time consuming, it wrapped up all the concepts we had learned up to that point together. I want to be in creative advertising so this project allowed me to express myself and put my abilities to the test. Overall, I found the class enjoyable but the projects not so much.

Yellin – Final Post

This was definitely my hardest class in college to this point. I did more work for some of the projects in this class than I have for entire other classes. I do feel like I learned a lot from this class about graphics and semiotics and gestalt principles, I just wish there was an easier way to show how much I learned than by using these difficult programs. I did get better at using the Adobe programs as we went a long but it was pretty hard to keep up. I think my favorite project was the magazine and my least is probably this interface project (which is not going well at the moment). Classes were always entertaining, I enjoyed them a lot. I do have one suggestion, maybe if all of the professors did the same projects or lab instructors were familiar with each professors projects, there would be less confusion about specific executions. Unfortunately I can’t write any more, I have to go work the aforementioned interface project.

–Greg

Cohen – Final Post – 11

This class was very frustrating for me. I had never worked with any of the Adobe programs prior to this class, and from the get-go I never felt like I had enough time to learn them. It seemed like the resume project was thrust into my hands after one 45-minute InDesign learning session. I constantly felt like I had ideas that would have made my projects better but didn’t know how to put them onto paper.

However, I did learn a lot throughout the course of the semester. I feel really good about my ability to look at something and see how the designer was thinking. So even if I couldn’t replicate it myself, I can at least see that.

My favorite project was definitely the magazine. It was the only project where I felt like I had an opportunity to work with a topic that I enjoyed. And this made me put forth more effort. My least favorite project was the logo project. I think it was really difficult to come up with something that defines yourself. Especially when we only had about 10 days to do so. In the real world, we would have months and months to come up with something to brand ourselves. It seemed unrealistic and harshly judged.

I would also change the schedule of the class slightly. I think removing the five class periods that we used to critique each other’s projects would benefit everyone. Instead, those class periods could be used as extra labs to help teach the programs to our class as a whole.