Stephanie Vasquez

This past week has been quite busy. Finishing up first year comes with lots of reflection and hard work. On Monday as I was working on a project, my head began aching. That was my cue to close my laptop and enjoy the nice weather outside.

I walked down to Olympic Sculpture park because it is my favorite park to go on long walks. The moment that sparked my imagination was when I decided to pause and just look out at the water. There was a couple of sail boats that looked straight out of a picture book and the seagulls flying across seemed larger than the boats. That made me realize that perspective is everything.

As I walked back home I held on to that thought. I thought about the fact that not everything has to be traditional or realistic in design to make sense or to feel like it fits. This quarter we have the Design Thinking class where we learn all about the design thinking process and storytelling through design. I realized on my way back home how I was using the design thinking process with that one moment where a seagull seemed bigger than a sail boat.

When I got home and got to work I kept that moment in mind and it helped me think outside the box for a few of my projects. On one of the projects I am working on we have to create a six page magazine spread using grids. I was struggling with the grids because it felt like a constraint. When i turned off the grids it gave me a new perspective and I began designing freely. I eventually turned the grids back on and adjusted my design to fit them. But it helped to just turn off that grid perspective and let myself design without feeling that constraint.

When I read the product details about the product I gathered two important key points. It is a nuanced and modern gadget and it is used to care and monitor pets. That gave me the idea of combining cool tones and warm tones to tie in those two. For the typeface I chose a typefaces that was friendly but somehow futuristic to bring that welcoming and modern feel. For the photography I gathered images of cats and dogs hanging out at home which is typically how we would observe and check in. on them doing their usual pet things like playing, napping, eating, hanging out.

Through my research on freelance, part-time, contract/agency, and full-time I learned each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, which can vary depending on the person and their desired lifestyle.

Freelance:
A freelance worker is self-employed and works on a project-by-project basis for clients. Typically more flexibility and control over their schedule and workload. They are responsible for their own taxes, insurance, and benefits.

Pluses:
+ Greater flexibility and control over work schedule and projects
+ Potential for higher earnings
+ Variety of projects and clients

Minuses:
– Inconsistent workload and income
– No benefits or paid time off
– No job security or stability

Part-time:
Part-time workers work less than full-time hours, usually less than 30 hours per week. They may or may not receive benefits, depending on the employer.

Pluses:
+ More flexibility than full-time work
+ Potential for benefits, such as healthcare or retirement savings plans
+ Can be easier to balance work and personal life

Minuses:
– May not receive benefits, depending on the employer
– Lower earnings than full-time work
– May not have the same career growth opportunities as full-time workers

Contract/Agency
Contract or agency workers are hired by a third-party staffing agency or company and work on a temporary or project-based basis. They may or may not receive benefits from the staffing agency.

Pluses:
+ Variety of work assignments and projects
+ Flexibility to work on different projects and with different companies
+ Potential for benefits from the staffing agency

Minuses:
– No job security or stability
– May have to pay a portion of their earnings to the staffing agency
– Limited career growth opportunities

Full-time:
Full-time workers typically work 40 hours per week and receive benefits such as healthcare, paid time off, and retirement savings plans from their employer.

Pluses:
+ Benefits, such as healthcare, paid time off, and retirement savings plans
+ Stability and job security
+ Career growth opportunities within the company

Minuses:
– Limited flexibility in work schedule and projects
– May require longer hours or overtime
– Potentially less variety in work assignments and projects

Personally I think I prefer Contract work to start and try many hats and different projects. Eventually settle into a Full-Time position at a company that I have enjoyed working for. Then once I have 5 years of professional experience do Freelance with a better understanding on time management and leadership skills.

Full-Time Graphic Designer at the University of Washington
https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=652e45e0fddf2bde&utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

Full-Time Retail Graphic Designer at Cotopaxi https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/retail-graphic-designer-virtual-remote-at-cotopaxi-3594059009/?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

Full-Time Graphic Designer at T-Mobile https://www.salary.com/job/tmobile/graphic-designer/j202303141133040916492?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

My design process began by researching the team and gathering their logos and emblems. I also looked at their current jerseys and got an idea of how to bring some of those elements. My second step was researching about the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. I went to the festivals homepage and decided to pull the color palette as well at the logo from their site.

Overall, I believe my design is adequate because it includes the Coachella Festival free spirit with soft gradients to mimic sunsets or blue skies one would experience at the festival. I also made sure to include the teams identity with the logos and emblems as well as merging team colors with the festival’s homepage.

Who are you?
My name is Stephanie Vasquez I am a 25 years old (soon to be 26), and proudly hispanic. I am a first generation Mexican-American who has had to learn many things including a new language from scratch. I have formed an identity which only a few can resonate with. I am caring, passionate, motivated, and goal oriented!

What is it that you want to do? Why?
I want to learn and absorb as much information as I possibly can in order to find the right path for me. At the moment I have a deep interest in packaging design but other subjects also spark my interest! If possible I wouldn’t mind giving all of them a shot!. If you never try you will never know…

Where do you want to go?
I want to go to places I never saw possible. I wan’t to surprise myself! 10 years from now I want to look back at my life now and see how far I have come. I think not knowing makes it equally exciting and terrifying. I want to make my family proud and be able to just live a good life.

What would you want to say?
I would want to say to never give up on your dreams and goals! It is never too late to try something new. It can be intimidating and scary to take the first step but leaving your comfort zone is essential to growth! I would also want to say to believe in yourself! You are your worst critic and your only competition! Be gentle and kind with yourself and others. Being kind is FREE!

The concept for a video that I find could reveal some interesting information is a Two Truths one Lie video. The video format would be 5-10 individuals say Two Truths and One lie to the group, then each person from the group has to guess which one is the lie. At the end of the video the person reveals which was the lie.

I think this prompt would work because of many reasons. It is cost effective because the only thing we need is people’s responses so not many props are needed. This video idea is a great way to check and reflect our misconceptions about others. When deciding which is the lie we factor in the very surface level information we know about the person. With this experiment we can delve into that and see how human and common stereotypes are. We can also get to know others better by hearing two truths about them. And lastly we get to learn who is good and bad at lying!

As far as who would make a good group for this video are preferably people who don’t normally interact with one another! That way the execution of the experiment is as true as possible, You get to guess solely relying on your surface level denominations about one another. Plus you get to meet people in the process and break the ice!

For this Metaverse event I looked at Decentraland.org events and came across a golf event being advertised as a golf event. I clicked it and continued my experience as a guest. I edited my avatar and chose its outfit and then I was transported into the world.

When I arrived at the event I had a tutorial on how to navigate through the world. I have zero experience playing games on a computer so it was a learning curve for me. I have to admit it was difficult. Another random thing what that I ended up in a soccer match event not golf. The event was organized by LaLigaLand.

I explored the event for a bit and practiced on the controls and all. There was about 4 other avatars in there with me and they had soccer balls. I didn’t know how to obtain one so I just walked around. One observation was that people love to troll around. I think overall it was okay. I personally am not a gamer of any sort so this was not something of deep interest to me. It was still very intriguing! I don’t believe I am interested in furthering my learning in this but things might change in the future!

There has been many times where I have failed at something. The most recent one was at SCCA. A little back story, I did great my first quarter! I had things under control and felt confident. It was a lot of work but I had my system and routine that worked for me. I delivered quality work for a first year student with no experience as far as effort goes… Well everything changed this second quarter for me.

In the second week of school I had a loss in the family. It was sudden and tragic and it really changed me. I felt ready for this quarter until that moment when I got the terrible phone call. I felt my world turn upside down and had to finish up my first project for Jason’s class that I had procrastinated on and left for the last minute. I was very overwhelmed and just tried my best but delivered something not as great as I would normally do. I guess I felt like I failed because I hold high standards for myself and know that I am capable of more. I also couldn’t make the excuse of me grieving because well the reality is I had enough time before the loss occurred.

It took some pep talk and advice from loved ones to realize I was being too hard on myself. Even if that project was a failure I still tried my best during one of the hardest experiences. I guess the biggest lesson I learned was to communicate what is going on to be better understood. I also learned that sometimes things out of our control happen and we just have to accept them and go through the emotions and motions. I have learned to communicate and to never leave something for the last minute. Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder!