This blog post is in response to the prompt: “Talk about a time when you had a plan but had to make changes.”
The example that i’m thinking of was in first quarter, for the final Illustrator assignment which was to make a recipe infographic. I use this example because it was the first time I had to really go off course from my plan, while also not having that much time (a tight deadline). Up until that project, I had managed my time perfectly, but it was at this project that I took my sweet time asking for feedback until about halfway to the due date. I thought I was going in the right direction but Jason’s feedback was basically to tell me that I was not, and that I would have to really course correct. This of course was stressful because my plan assumed that I would have the whole time and be making progress steadily. I hadn’t accounted for the scenario where I was going to have to scrap my entire initial design drafts. In the end, I still made something that I’m pretty proud of and that satisfied the communication goals of the brief, but I suffered for my project mismanagement.
Now as I’m writing this, I’m thinking of another, more recent example of where something similar has happened. This is a design project from outside of school. A couple weeks ago, I was hired by my friend to create a poster for her. Again, I mismanaged my time and showed initial drafts far too late. Well, it wasn’t too late. But it was too late under the assumption that I wouldn’t have to revise any of the drafts and start from a totally new concept. Eventually, I busted my ass to produce the poster by the deadline, and once we got past the initial ideation stage (getting down the general aesthetic direction) it was a breeze, because all I had to do was to tweak the copy and make other slight changes.
Here’s the first draft I gave her:
Then, I produced two more drafts.
My client seemed still not too happy with what I had made, but they said that the first option was the best so far. I asked them why, and they said they liked the “distressed look” and the “vibe of the fonts”. So I then went further with the direction. Producing these two subsequent drafts took another day.
This was the fourth draft I made, and my client was still unhappy, saying it was too difficult to read. So I produced another draft to overhaul the layout, while keeping everything else the same.
This is the final version of the poster that got approved. Upon seeing this version, she was extremely happy with it, which also made me happy. I really spent a lot more time on this entire process than I was planning for, and it caused my schoolwork to suffer as I had a monetary as well as social incentive to prioritize making this poster.
Anyway, this is all to say that the lesson I have learned about planning in the project management sense, is that I should start my initial drafts and concepts and get feedback as early as possible, and set myself up to have enough time and flexibility to account for changes in direction. Additionally, I should be hasty with ideation, because it’s probable that I may not be going in the initial direction I set out for.
Now I know.