Tag: New Media

As someone fairly new to the design field, there are many tools I have the opportunity to advance throughout this program & beyond. Luckily I’ve always been quick to learn new concepts when I can put the work in. I’m great at visualizing ideas in my head & feel like I have a better understanding of technology & computers than the average person.

I’ve always been a creative thinker & problem-solver, however, my health has put a damper on this in the past causing an uphill battle. So far in class, I’ve learned new ways of thinking that are helping to grow these tools. The program teaches me that there is so much more behind design than you initially think. Understanding design theory, the principles, color, type, etc. are new concepts to me that I’m getting a grasp on for the first time. Thanks to Jason & my quick learning skills, I’m beginning to learn a lot about design software. Although the skies are the limit when it comes to these skills, I feel I have a good foundation right for growing them throughout my career.

3 major tools that I need to invest a lot of time in are time management, communication & presenting. Having ADHD has made managing my time a struggle & I always seem to be pushing at the last minute to get something done. In high school, I was never great at communicating or presenting my ideas. After COVID kept me out of school for 3 years, I realized I never had a chance to strengthen these skills before SCCA.

Unfortunately, I am a perfectionist. Although this has benefits when it comes to the final product, I’ve always struggled with letting my ideas be. When I’m sketching it’s difficult not to judge my ideas or latch onto an early one. I also have a tendency to never be satisfied with the work I have done. I always want to push myself & fully fledge out every idea that I have. Well unfortunately my mind & body can only handle so much & my limit is almost always less than I wanted. It can be difficult to be happy with a project or feel satisfied when I know I’m not able to put in as much effort as I want. Luckily this is slowly turning around, as my grades surprised me last quarter. But, there’s still a ton a progress left to be made & I know that I am not going to be successful if I can’t learn to just let things go.

My chosen prompt was playing frisbee with a cat at the park. When I think of this I imagine a sphinx cat catching a frisbee in their mouth mid-air like a dog next to a tree in a grassy park area. Their owner is in the corner of the image having just thrown the frisbee.

Here’s a rough sketch of what I had in mind;

The free image generator I chose was craiyon.com. I began with a simple prompt: “A sphinx cat catching a frisbee that their owner threw in a park next to a tree.”

Here was the best result:

The cat clearly DOES NOT look realistic nor is he jumping mid-air. The tree looks like a stump & the owner is nowhere to be found. Somehow this was the best result they gave me, half replaced the cat with a human.

After figuring out the problems I went back in for round 2.

“A sphinx cat jumping and catching a frisbee in their mouth next to a tree in the park. Their owner is off in the corner after throwing the frisbee.”

Better… although the cat still looks very alien-like. The tree looks more realistic & the cat is in mid-air, though you could argue they’re climbing the tree. Still no owner in sight.

I get one more chance to make it count. Here’s the final prompt:

“A person throwing a frisbee to their sphinx cat that is jumping mid-air to catch it in their mouth in the park next to a tree.”

Although this was butchered, it’s still the most accurate of the 3.

Now I’ll admit, I haven’t spent too much time yet experimenting with AI image generators. I may just not know how to write prompts correctly or this just happens to be an awful free generator. I wanna lean closer toward the latter considering I know I’ve generated better images in the past on sites I don’t remember.

There are definitely more cons than pros for this site as you can see. It was never truly able to capture the prompt I was looking for & the correct aspects looked like something from another planet. Either way this has taught me that I should spend more time exploring AI, practicing writing prompts & absolutely trying out different sites.

My entire life I’ve been living with chronic illness. Fortunately, I’ve never had any major issues or hospitalizations but it has absolutely made an enormous impact on who I am today & where I am. Without it, I may have never gone to the Mariners Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Night, never become obsessed with the Mariners & never have sparked an interest in design in the first place.

Throughout my 21 years, I’ve had to solve problems in my life that most people will never experience. Frequent doctor visits, a hefty daily care routine, missing out on much more than I’ve wanted to, among many other things that I’ve had to adapt to.

Pre-COVID when I was really just beginning to get serious about design, I took a lot of things for granted & it never truly set in how different some aspects of life were for me. Now that I’m finally able to work towards something I wanna do in my life, I’m realizing how dealing with my illnesses has helped me become a great problem-solver.

I’m not quite sure yet if it has had any impact on my specific style or the kinds of work I like to do, I still have at least 2 more years of the program after this. However, dealing with the illness during school has made me realize that it’s not going away & if I truly want to be a designer I have to push through with whatever energy I have.

Managing everything back in high school was tough because it was so easy to just give up since it wasn’t stuff I was even interested in. After taking a step back I knew I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted despite still graduating.

I believe that my illnesses have given me the fear of failing & knowing how unpredictable life can be. That sounds bad but I see it as a great thing. These struggles have taught me to give it my all, ask questions, try different things & design what I want to design.

There’s still a long way to go for me. We’re just about a quarter in now while I’m about 4 years removed from my last schooling. Every aspect of my life right now is a huge learning experience & it’s making the program so fun. Although I’m not always going to have the energy or ability to make every assignment or job I do perfect, I’m going to strive to get as close as I can because I never know when I’ll get sick again or just have a day of fatigue. I gotta give it my all now & strive to become the best designer I can be.