Adnan Mohamed

Again, I am two weeks late submitting this blog assignment. My apologies, I will be on time going forward. Our guest speakers, Spencer Glenn and Todd Duboraw, are SCCA alum currently working at Brooks Running.

For last week’s blog assignment, we were asked to research jobs based on the discussion that occurred during the presentation by our guest speakers. Firstly, we need to research the difference between freelance, part-time, contract/agency and full-time work in the design industry.

For freelance work, there are some pros that are appealing. There is a lot more flexibility for freelance designers, and they can achieve better work-life balance. There can also be more variety in the projects they take on, and can work in several fields at once. As for cons, there are no benefits (health insurance, retirement plan) unless you set those up yourself, lack of job security, and you have to constantly track invoices, taxes, and keep up with your clients.

For part-time work, there is also more flexibility when compared to full-time work, as you won’t be tied down to a 40 hour work week. The cons can include less income, fewer benefits, as some jobs require full-time hours to be eligible, and companies may cut down on part-time roles when layoffs come around.

For contract work, some may see a benefit to not being tied down to a specific employer. When your contract runs out, you can be placed with another workplace. If you find a place that you enjoy while doing contract work, there can be possibilities for your role converting to a full-time position. This can be a way to get your foot in the door. The cons can be that you are more expendable to a company, and conversions to full-time roles are a bit hard to come by. I noticed that where I work currently (I work as a security guard (contract) at a big tech company), that contract roles aren’t given the same benefits as their full-time counterparts. They are even excluded from company gatherings and perks, which can be quite demoralizing. Depending on the role, some contractors do the same work as their full-time counterparts, but miss out on these perks. (I do understand that there are legal reasons for distinguishing full-time employees from contract employees, in regards to office perks.)

Lastly, full-time roles offer benefits of more job security, benefits, and more opportunities to grow your career in a company. The cons can include less flexibility, as you are tied down to a full-time schedule. You will also be doing more specific work, which means there will likely be less variety and room to explore.

Since my last name falls into the H-P range, I was tasked with finding three job postings for Contract/Agency work.

Graphic Designer (12-Month Fixed Term Contract)
at The Pokémon Company International
Bellevue, WA
https://boards.greenhouse.io/pokemoncareers/jobs/5555296003?rx_source=Linkedin&rx_paid=1&source=LinkedIn

UX Designer 2/ UI Motion Designer – Onsite (Contract) at TekSystems, Redmond, WA
https://careers.teksystems.com/us/en/job/JP-003733075/UX-Designer-2-UI-Motion-Designer-Onsite?utm_source=Recruitics&utm_medium=equest&s_id=4106&icid=indeed_recruitics&rx_campaign=indeed22&rx_ch=jobp4p&rx_group=146936&rx_job=JP-003733075&rx_r=none&rx_source=Indeed&rx_ts=20230509T000052Z&rx_vp=cpc&rx_medium=cpc&rx_p=7JH8PXV9QY&rx_viewer=b6de21a4ee1811edb45a6362e479f31fdee13e1ee25448908069912a6d89fba4

Mid-Level UX Designer at UpTop – Contract, Remote (U.S.)
https://uptopcorp.com/careers/ux-designer/

My apologies, as I am responding to this blog assignment three weeks late.

Three weeks ago, we were joined by photographer (and SCCA alum) Cameron Karsten, who spoke about his journey and showed us the projects he takes on for companies like Garmin and Camelbak. He also walked us through a project he commissioned: a rebranding of his personal brand and website. He worked with a local design firm, and gave us insight into the types of stuff we will be delivering to our clients when we enter the field, which was incredibly interesting.

Cameron also talked about how he finds inspiration for his work, and how looking at patterns, textures, shapes, etc has helped him define his style.

For the blog post, we were tasked to shoot five images that fit into one of these categories. I decided to choose patterns.

Three weeks ago, we were joined by photographer and SCCA alum, Cameron Karsten. He shared his journey with us and showcased various projects he has undertaken for clients such as Garmin and Camelbak. Cameron also took us through a commissioned project where he worked closely with a local design firm to rebrand his personal brand and website. This provided valuable insights into the kinds of deliverables we will be producing for our clients when we enter the field.

In addition, Cameron discussed how he finds inspiration for his work, explaining that observing patterns, textures, shapes, and other elements has helped him in defining his own style.

For our blog post assignment, we were challenged to capture five images that fall into these categories. I haven’t been outside much lately, so the range is a bit limited.

(WordPress wasn’t uploading my photos, so I have attached a Dropbox link. Captions are below, in order of photos from left to right.)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nhvw6625ft1al26/AABS857l584LPY8QARJdBweta?dl=0

Photo 1 – Pattern on a “macawiis”, a commonly worn clothing item in Somalia (my home country). Very comfortable and casual.

Photo 2 – Live moss wall at my workplace.

Photo 3 – Grooved texture on my mouse, gives a nice tactile feel.

Photo 4 – Pattern on rolled up rugs in my house. I believe they are Persian inspired.

Photo 5 – Speaker grill on my headphones.

Last Friday, we were joined by Drew Hamlet, an art director for the NHL team Seattle Kraken. Drew gave us a very informative and engaging presentation, explaining how his early curiosities led to the fulfilling career he has today. He was also kind enough to share a brand guide for the Seattle Kraken!

For our blog assignment this week, we were asked to create a jersey for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, another hockey team owned by the same group that owns the Kraken. With this jersey, we were asked to create a special edition meant to promote the Coachella Music Festival. This is the jersey I ended up creating. I used the Coachella Valley Firebirds and Coachella Music Festival logos and wordmarks. The color scheme is based on the colors in the Firebirds logo. The Ferris wheel shown on the front of the jersey is one of the Ferris wheels that can be found at the Coachella Music Festival, which I then ran through Illustrator’s image trace feature. On the back, we have both wordmarks, and it’s meant to be read as “Coachella Valley Firebirds X Coachella” to note the collaboration. I also image traced some palm trees, which I associate with the aesthetic of California and the Coachella Music Festival.

For our final AR/VR project, we were tasked with creating a set of panels, using the panels feature within Eyejack Creator.

My group, comprised of Mark, Jon and I, decided to make our panels for bars and nightlife in Capitol Hill. I chose to create panels for Unicorn, which is just a few blocks away from school.

Our group made a shared Figma file and created our panels using a template that Mark created.

After constructing the panels in Figma, and exporting them, I then had to compress the images so that they would meet Eyejack’s file size requirements. This was a bit annoying, but eventually I got it to work!

I then headed down to Unicorn and tested out my panels. I had my friend Cindy put the QR code on her phone screen, then scanned it with the Eyejack app.

We’ve finally reached the end of winter quarter here at SCCA. 2 down, 4 more to go.

Last week, we were joined by the amazing Christiana Wu, who I think is one of the best speakers we’ve had thus far. I identified heavily with Christiana’s many interests, and how she wants to try everything. As a designer with many different interests, the idea that we have to “specialize” has troubled me. I do think being a master of a specific discipline is important, but I honestly have a desire to try to at least have a deeper understanding of all the creative content I consume. Christiana posed some important questions to us during her presentation. She asked: Who are you? What is it that you want to do? Why? Where do you want to go? What would you want to say? To start off, my name is Adnan Mohamed and I am a designer with interests in 3D and the web. I want to be able to create content at the intersection of these three interests. What is it that I want to do? I want to work at an agency and do design work that interests me. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to apply the 3D and interactive skills I am learning as well and take my projects further. While I would love to have a job that excites me, if that doesn’t happen I still want to create what excites me on the side. Why? I want to do this because it is the only career I think I can thrive in. I initially wanted to study chemistry during my first stab at college, but quickly burned out and realized my interest wasn’t there. I haven’t been this excited about school ever in my life, which I think proves that this is the right path for me. Where do I want to go? I do want to start off at an agency or in-house at a company, but I am not ruling out the possibility of freelance work. I think that starting off with a stable job would be the best for me. Finally, what do I want to say? This is a bit of a tough one. Honestly, I just want to say that joining this program has changed my life in many ways. What used to be fear of what the future holds has turned into excitement.”

The original text appears to be well-written with only minor issues. Here’s a corrected version with a few improvements:

“We’ve reached the end of the winter quarter at SCCA – two down, four to go. Last week, we had the pleasure of hearing from the amazing Christiana Wu, who I believe is one of the best speakers we’ve had so far. I strongly related to Christiana’s diverse interests and her desire to try everything. As a designer with a range of interests, I am troubled by the idea that we have to specialize. While I recognize the importance of mastering a specific discipline, I also have a deep desire to understand all the creative content that I consume.

During her presentation, Christiana posed some important questions for us to consider:

• Who are you?
• What is it that you want to do?
• Why?
• Where do you want to go?
• What do you want to say?

My name is Adnan Mohamed, and I am a designer with interests in 3D and web design. My goal is to create content that blends these two areas. I would love to work at an agency, where I can focus on design work that excites me. With any luck, I’ll be able to apply my 3D and interactive skills to take my projects even further. If I can’t find a job that fulfills my passions, I’ll still create what excites me on the side.

Why do I want to pursue this career? I believe it’s the only career where I can truly thrive. When I first started college, I wanted to study chemistry, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t the right fit for me. I have never been more excited about school than I am now, and I believe this is the right path for me.

As for where I want to go, I plan to start my career at an agency or in-house at a company. However, I’m not ruling out the possibility of freelance work in the future. I believe that starting with a stable job will be the best approach for me.

Finally, what do I want to say? This is a tough question. All I can say is that joining this program has changed my life in so many ways. What was once a fear of the unknown has become excitement for the future.

After last week’s presentation from Cut creative director Brooke Montgomery, we were tasked with coming up with concept for a video, question, game or challenge similar to the content produced by Cut.

I had a bit of a hard time trying to think of something that would be as exciting as what you can watch on Cut, so I focused on an activity that would deepen social connection in our cohort.

Our cohort is split into two classes, and while our classes are directly next to each other, I haven’t really connected with many of the folks in the other section. I want to get to know these people, as well as the second-years better, so I propose the following: a friendship speed-dating type of activity that pairs us up with people we don’t know well. I feel like my class is pretty tight knit, so I think we should all be cycling through people from the other class and the second-years. So this is less awkward, we can use questions inspired by the party game We Are Not Really Strangers. This game features three levels of questions and wildcards that allow you to connect better with others. I recommend we use questions from level 1, as they are a bit less intense than the others.

Using questions from this card game (or similar questions we can come up with) can reduce the awkwardness, as the topic of the conversation will be set beforehand.

This week in the AR/VR module, we were asked to perform a UI/UX review of an AR or VR app. I chose the app SketchAR, which I downloaded from the Apple App Store to complete this review. SketchAR aims to make learning how to draw easier with the help of AR and AI technologies. It projects an image onto a piece of paper, which is tracked by AR, which you can then use to follow along. It also provides timelapse options and guided drawing.

I found this app to be pretty good, besides a few problems. One of my main problems was trying to hold my phone at the correct position while trying to trace along. My hand is pretty shaky, and this is problematic because the camera needs to be able to detect your piece of paper. Holding a phone in one hand, while using the other hand to trace was a pain. This could be addressed by the user, who can buy a stand that can prop your phone up in a static position.

I believe this software would be great for children to use to learn how to draw. I think as a beginner that copying is the best way to learn. With this software, kids can begin drawing their favorite characters quickly, and learn how forms and shapes work. Also, kids are not expected to produce 100% original artwork, so it is more ethical. I do have concerns about people using this to trace artwork and try to pass it off as their own, but I guess this can be done without an app regardless.

I also saw that they were promoting a gimmicky NFT marketplace. I don’t understand why people would want to trace artwork and try to sell it as their own. I think companies trying to add Web3 technology to everything has left a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, I think that SketchAR is a wonderful, easy to use tool for beginning artists to practice how to draw. I think the user should be mindful of how they share the work they produce with this app, especially if it is not an original work.

Two weeks ago, Michael Pierce, a Senior Principal Design Manager at Microsoft OneDrive and SCCA alum, presented to our class. Seeing his journey from SCCA to an important position at one of the biggest software companies in the world was very inspiring. Pierce is also incredibly passionate about the metaverse, and he decided to show us its wonders. The “metaverse” has been a hot topic in the tech world for a few years, and its influence is difficult to ignore. Mark Zuckerberg is such a believer in it that he renamed his parent company to Meta and invested large amounts of money into his vision, especially in the AR/VR space.

The metaverse does not have a concrete definition, but from my research, I believe it describes an immersive world separate from our reality that is focused on community and connection in a virtual space. This can be through the computer or facilitated through AR/VR technologies, which immerse you even deeper.

Although I am late in completing this assignment, I found a metaverse activity to partake in. I decided to enter Roblox, a popular online community and collection of games that is incredibly popular with the younger Gen-Z crowd. Wikipedia describes Roblox as “an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program games and play games created by other users.” It focuses on user creation, and the majority of games on the site are created by Roblox users. My friend and I tried a game within Roblox called Outlaster, which is inspired by the reality TV series Survivor. In Outlaster, you compete in challenges and are voted out of the camp after each challenge. I was surprised by how the developers paid attention to detail, and made it feel like a real game show. My friend and I were impressed by how immersive and fun the experience was, even though we were voted out early. We definitely plan to try it again!

I also see the potential for Roblox as an advertising tool, and I think the industry has taken note as well. Companies have used Roblox and games like Fortnite to promote products, and the music industry has even hosted concert experiences for their artists on platforms like this.

While I believe Roblox will continue to grow, I am more skeptical of the whole metaverse idea, especially with the world of VR. I don’t believe that the general public will want to be immersed so deeply into something that isn’t completely real. I believe VR will continue to be a niche experience, even though companies like Meta have poured billions into this direction. Only time will tell how these investments will pay out.

This week in the AR/VR module, we delved into Adobe Aero – a new software from Adobe that aims to make creating AR content accessible and easy. I found this to be the case when using it. Aero’s modular, drag-and-drop workflow made it easy for me to start working and create the AR experience I wanted. While it is limited in some aspects, I think it’s perfect for beginners.

For my project, I created a birthday greeting card using the software, with a few tap interactions. I made the “Happy birthday!” text in Adobe Illustrator and then exported it as an SVG as directed by the Adobe Aero help section. The two other elements were a PNG of confetti and a transparent GIF of an alien dancing.

Most of my elements were flat, and I wish there were a way for me to extrude those elements so they weren’t completely flat, but it still looked great! There weren’t any major issues I ran into while creating this that weren’t solved by referring to the Adobe Aero tutorials online.

Overall, I had fun working in Adobe Aero, and recommend it to those looking to create simple AR content without the learning curve of other software.