Month: November 2022

As a photographer and visual media student, whenever I see the graphic design students or their work out in the hall, I always have the utmost respect for them. Despite us being on the same floor and under the same “creative academy”, our fields have completely different skill sets.

One thing I admire about the graphic design students that I would also like to emulate myself is their extremely sharp focus towards an end goal. Oftentimes when discussing or working with them, they have an extremely clear and thorough idea of what they want their final product to look or feel like. Though of course there is always a trial and error element to all work, the precision they have towards a final concept is always inspiring to see and a great asset to have when working on a team with them. 

The versatility of what graphic designers are learning as well is very admirable. While us as visual media students have a somewhat narrow scope of work, the graphic designers seem to have an expansive catalogue of skill sets to learn. Not to say that us as visual media students don’t have a large skill set, it just appears as though the graphic design students have a diverse curriculum that allows them to branch off into more workspaces.

From my limited work with the neighboring program so far, the way in which they approach tasks creatively always inspires me. Of course all artists have unique visions, but the way in which the graphic design program is able to hone in their artistic vision to follow a prompt or a task while maintaining their creative voice is always great to see. I believe this is why they are in such high demand in the business world, they are able to give a creative edge to industries while keeping the scope of a companies “aesthetic” in line. Oftentimes, more so than most visual media work, the work that they create appeals both to the world of art and the world that makes money.

One of the most inspiring takeaways I have from our graphic design neighbors is the way in which they take inspiration from other pieces of work, and shifting ideas to create their own pieces. Often as a visual media student, I feel like my work isn’t original enough, or my works are too inspired by other works. However, the way graphic designers approach this dilemma is something I myself am trying to do as well.

Though I do not often find myself in conventional leadership spots, I have found myself exhibiting some of the core Amazon Leadership Principles.

I was on the school broadcast news team in high school, where each week one of us was voted to be the core producer of the episode. I often found myself in this position and perhaps at these moments is when I exhibited my best moments of leadership. Insisting on the Highest Standards was a trait that I had whenever managing the news team. Though at times I may have been an asshole about the work that we were doing, I knew that everyone in the class had pride about the work that they were doing and they themselves wanted their best work to go out to the school’s population. I tried to motivate and critique the work of my peers in the room when I had to.

Another core leadership principle I have practiced is Delivering Results. There was always a strict deadline for the news episodes produced each week. Wednesdays at 11:05am there was a time slot in the day where teachers would air the show and we had to have all our prerecorded news stories ready by the night before to have a soft cushion before the airing of the show. When producing the show, timeliness was always my number one objective: getting the show done in time, pushing people when they were slightly lagging behind and taking part and physically involving myself with groups that would need extra help to finish their segments in time. I always thought that an imperfect result is better than no result at all.

Disagreeing and Committing may have been something I partook in too much to be honest. If I felt like something wasn’t working I would be very vocal about it. Though as mentioned above that I may have come off as an asshole at times, I always tried to be more constructive about arguments than destructive over ideas. 

Of the core Amazon Leadership Principles, I would say the “hardest” for me is Be Right, A Lot. I’m an idiot, so I am often wrong. However I try to combat this by attempting to listen to others, I surround myself with people I think are smarter than me so they call me out if I am wrong and I try and understand/hear them out. 

The information-over-audience quadrant graph made me look at the work I create in a different manner than any way else I have viewed art in the past. Though I would like to think of myself as someone who is able to rest in the (0,0) vertice within the graph and be able to translate into any of the other hemispheres, at this current point, the area I want to shift my future focus towards is more towards specific audience, low information density.

I myself have a rather specific taste in most things, so the range of my work follows that as well. As an aspiring filmmaker, I want my work to cater to a group of people that relate to the work, but I still want it to be somewhat accessible to more general audiences. I guess that would put my x-axis point at (3,0).

This is why I believe lower information density is the work I will push myself towards. Though I don’t really believe low or high information density in art is a thing; the scope of the information relies purely on what the person absorbing the work takes in. For me I interpret the y-axis of the graph as how much “effort” is needed to grasp the work. As stated above, I want my work to be accessible and oftentimes the things I enjoy are more laid back experiences. Lower information density will allow the work I create to be able to penetrate more audiences.

Throughout highschool, I was not the most outgoing individual. Though I did make a lot of meaningful connections during that time, I didn’t feel like my impact around the school was too high. Before the start of my senior year of school, I was approached by my economics teacher about a proposition regarding school involvement. Surprisingly, no one had signed up for a position within the ASB leadership team, school vice president.

Upon hearing this news, I wasn’t sure why or what to do with the information she had laid upon me. But Ms. Landau being both an econ teacher and in charge of the school’s ASB program, I realized that she wanted me to help fill in that role. I declined fast and clearly once she had told me about the opportunity as at the time I thought about myself as 100 percent NOT qualified as a person for the spot, alongside the fact that I had no interest in it either. Ms. Landau proceeded to not try and convince or persuade me to change my mind, rather she told me to “sit on it”.

As a few days passed by, though I didn’t feel like I was perfectly up for the task, the thought of being able to contribute to the school and learn to work in a different type of team environment that I had not done in the past intrigued me. I approached Landau a bit later, accepted the offer, and ran uncontested for ASB Vice President.

The following year was quite difficult, more so than exciting. There was a steep learning curve of the way the full ASB system was run, and I was thrust into it rather unsuspectingly. However, though not everything planned was a complete success, the wins throughout the full journey, such as actually finishing setting up school dances or social events with literally minutes to spare before doors open made the stress of the situation completely worth it. I learned skills about planning and teamwork that will forever be in my catalogue of assets, and though I hope to never be an event planner again in my life, I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity.