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The first principle from the list of leadership principles I think I have exhibited before is “having backbone: disagree and commit”. I think this because I can recall multiple points in my life when I was designing for someone one else and had to tell them no. The first example that comes to mind is when my friend who is not into design asked me to do a logo for his landscaping business. He wanted me to add a bunch of unnecessary extras to his logo and I had to tell him he didn’t know what he wanted and that it would look awful. The second principle I think I have exhibited is “deliver results”. There are times in school when I had a design project due and I wanted to keep making small changes but ultimately had to step away and accept it for what is was just so I actually had something to turn in. The last principle I think I have exhibited is “Learn and be Curious”. I think in any project I work on I’m always open to learning or figuring out a new way to do things. Lastly I think the hardest principle to implement is “Insist on the Highest Standards”. I think this relates back to “deliver results” because it can be hard to know when you need to stop changing things. Perfect is the enemy of good.

Last Friday we heard from Jessica Aceti about her experiences and her career path. One thing she contained to stress throughout her presentation was the importance of collaborating with friends on creative projects. Another point she stressed was how important she thought it was to say “yes” to challenges and opportunity’s even if you aren’t complete prepared or qualified to do so. Jessica’s presentation made me think about times in my life where I had said yes to opportunities I was not full prepared for. One example of this is all the time I’ve taken on projects for friends or family when I already have a pretty full workload. There have been multiple times where I’ve agreed to do covers for my friends SoundCloud or a design for a T-shirt. Probably the worst example of this is when I agreed to create a logo, business card, and letterhead for my aunts furniture restoration company. At the time I was working on my senior project which was also creating a logo and business card and trying to juggle both of those projects, my normal school work, and a job was a lot. I became really invested in the logo for the furniture company because I thought it was interesting and as a result the quality of my senior project faltered slightly. I’m ultimately glad I took on the project firstly because I really enjoy how the logo came out, but I’m also glad I took on the project because it taught me the importance of managing a workload. I still try to take on projects for friends and family when I can but I also try and make sure I focus on my own commitments and what I have to get done first. In the future I will try to say yes more.

After hearing from Joe Hallock, the principal design director at Microsoft and seeing the diagram he created to illustrate the different types of work he encounters for commercial design I began thinking about the kind of work I would like to do outside of the Seattle Central program. Hallock’s chart was comprised of four different sections; high information density, low information density, broad audience, and specific audience. On the high information density and low information density spectrum he had examples such as specialty icons on the lower end and medical illustrations on the higher end. For the broad audience and narrow audience spectrum he had the examples of airport signage on the low side and research portals for the high side. If I had to choose, the type of work I would ideally want to make would fall somewhere in the lower left square in the low information density and specialized audience area. I think I would work best in this portion of the graph because I enjoy creating logos and icons as appose to page layout and user experience design. I also think the types of designs I do don’t appeal to a very large audience. I’m not saying this to try and portray myself as edgy or different I just think the work I create has a more industrial and pragmatic twist to it which I understand is not everyone’s cup of tea. On the other hand I also think designing for a very niche audience is a negative aspect as much as is it a good one. First off limiting yourself like that limits the amount of people you can work with and people who will appreciate what you do. I also believe it’s always a good thing to try and design outside of your comfort zone when possible. I’m happy with my ability to design but I don’t want to get to happy with it and stop exploring what else I may be able to do.

For my mashup I started with a digital illustration of a smiley face I created in Illustrator. I then went on a walk and took a picture of trees to use as a background image. I started a photoshop document at 300 x 300 pixels with a dpi of 72. I shrunk the image and graphic down to fit and to get a lot of compression. I then applied too much diffuse glow and grain to add to the messy feeling created by the compression. I then scribbled on a napkin and made a scan of it with a broken pdf scanner I have. I shrunk that down and applied the same filters to it. Finally I exported it as a jpeg in the lowest quality possible to get even more compression and artifacts.

This piece shows my feelings in the first weeks here because I’m confused and not sure what’s going on. Things feel messy but I am smiling through it and trying to keep good faith.

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