Month: February 2023

Create and Foster Trust (with the client):

Last summer, I was working at a retail store located inside of a mall. And due to constant use of illegal substances in the bathroom, the store decided it would no longer have a public unlocked bathroom. We were told to refer to people to the next closest bathroom which was in the food court. As the cashier, I was only allowed to let people into the restroom if they had just paid for something or if I had noticed them browsing through the store. But we were not allowed to let people in who had immediately came in and asked to use the bathroom. And we were especially not allowed to give the code to anybody, we had to personally let them into the restroom. These rules were a tad strict but when someone did use substances in the bathroom, it would make the whole bathroom smell terrible and we would have to close it to everyone until it was cleaned. Sometimes this would take hours depending on the damage done so it was easier to only allow paying customers or people who are clearly shopping into the bathroom. One day, I was working at the register closest to the mall entrance and I noticed a women come in and head straight to the bathroom. Like I stated, it was locked so she came back to ask me for the pin code. It was busy and I also did not want to be rude so I asked if she had a receipt. She said no and I said that I was sorry but that I was only allowed to let customers into the bathroom. She immediately got very defensive and started saying she had just shopped with us last week. She said she was a high paying customer and did not understand why I was ostracizing her. I told her we changed our policies and no longer have a public restroom but that there was one in the food court. She then asked me why there were girls standing outside the restroom, I told her I did not give them the code to the restroom. She did not believe me. I explained we are not allowed to give the code out and have to personally let everyone in ourselves. She did not believe me and asked to speak to my manager. My manager eventually came over and gently told her the same things I had already told her. My manager did not let her into the restroom either. As she walked out she told me that “my manager is going to tell me how to do my job right.” My manager came over briefly after and teased me about it but ultimately did not care since I was just following our policies. Sometimes I look back at this and wonder if I could have worded things differently. Perhaps I should have been more direct and specify I saw her dart to the bathroom and for that reason alone I was not allowed to give her the code. Or perhaps she was already having a bad day and needed to release it in some way. This is one of the most recent times a customer did just not believe anything I said until they heard it confirmed from someone else.

Top 3 Hard Skils

1. BilingualI am fluent in both English and Spanish. In my current workplace, speaking Spanish is useful when talking to clients or coworkers who primarily speak Spanish. It is the 2nd most spoken language in the U.S and is definitely useful to know.

2. Microsoft OfficeWe were required to take a Microsoft office course in high school and it has been immensely useful in office workplace settings. Currently, I primarily use excel but still feel familiar with the other programs.

3. WritingTo be honest, I am not sure how many papers I have written over the past few years. But I do know I spent most of my time at the University of Washington writing analysis or research papers. Formal academic writing is something that I feel confident about and can show examples of.

Top 3 Soft Skills

1. CommunicationThough I have had a variety of jobs, they all revolve around customer service. My jobs are all about providing a service and being kind even when it feels nearly impossible to do so.

2. Collaboration Understanding the way other people work and figuring out how I fit into that has been a journey. Focusing on the end result is often more beneficial than avoiding working with others.

3. Punctuality I am never late to work and schedule time off weeks in advance. I will call out perhaps once or twice a year if I am particularly sick but will otherwise be reliable.

2 Hard Skills to Improve

1. Adobe Creative SuiteThough I feel like I have learned so much about the adobe programs, I still have so much room for growth.

2. HTML/CSSLearning about html and css has been so tedious yet satisfying at the same time. The projects we work on have been my favorite part of this program.

2 Soft Skills to Improve

1. Public-speakingPublic speaking is not intimidating to me, but it is something I want to improve at. I am naturally a soft spoken person and do not always notice if I need to be louder unless being told.

2. OrganizationI wish I was organized to the point of being able to work on assignments a few days before they are due. I can mostly manage to finish an assignment the day before it is due, but it can be so draining at times.

Hi my name is Paola and I am a graphic design student at Seattle Central. I have always been a creative leaning person and after spending the last few years working from job to job, getting bored after the 6 month mark, I finally decided to turn that passion for creation into a career. I feel like I have already learned so much in such a short amount of time and I am excited to keep growing in this field. I cannot upload the video at this time but I will try again later today.

The Power of Personal Projects
 Please describe the project and what you hope to gain from it.
For my personal project, I would like to complete a self-portrait piece. The last time I completed a self-portrait was over a year ago when I had blonde hair. When I look at the print I have of it, it doesn’t feel like me anymore. My art skills have also improved since then and I would like to see how that progress translates into a new self-portrait.
 Produce a rough timeline of what you think it would take to do the project. What would you need to execute the project (other than time)
Besides time, I would first have to collect various reference images of myself. From there, I would sketch out the general composition of my piece. And finally, I will begin to add detail. This isn’t a lot of steps, but with the little free time I have, this will likely take a month to complete. When I’m not at school, I’m working.
 How much would this project cost to produce?
I already have all the materials I need. The only additional cost would be printing it if I wanted to do so.

At the creative academy, the most stressful project I have had so far was one where I had to work with an uncommunicative partner. The worst part was I had missed the class when the project had been introduced so I was not quite sure what was going on. I had the project description but not the due date. They reached out to me to tell me what the theme of our project would be. I was thankful and asked if it was due in one or two weeks. I received no response and decided not to worry about it because I was already stressed out by another project going on. I had planned on having my sketches finalized by end of the week and then getting my design on illustrator afterward. This person then reached out to me the day before the assignment was due to clarify that it was due the next day and that they had already done all the work but that I was welcome to contribute. At this point, I had finalized my sketches and spent my entire day getting my designs onto illustrator. I was able to send them my work in the evening. It was frustrating because I had not seen them in person all week to talk more and they assumed that I had not done anything at all. Now looking back on it, I think both of us could have put in more effort towards the communication part. During the presentation portion, it was very clear we had worked separately for the most part, and also gave me some inaccurate information in regard to our guidelines. I was able to present my work and turn it in one time which I am glad for. But at the same time, if I had more time my work would have been more congruent with my partner’s. Going forward, I will be less hesitant to double-text if I need to know something urgently.

This image was made using procreate. Procreate is a program I wish I had the opportunity to use more often because of how easy it is to use. This assignment seemed like the perfect circumstance to use this beloved program. I knew I wanted to depict fruit and first searched for a reference image. The only reason behind selecting fruit as my food is that I love fruit and all the potential colors that could be incorporated. My original plan was to draw a fruit bowl but I fell in love with the draping of the fabric in this image. From there I sketched out the placement of everything and then proceeded to add color. It took me about 3 days to finish and yet I still feel like there is still room for improvement. Nonetheless, I am pleased with the result.

Our team decided to focus on food spots in the Capitol Hill area. More specifically, we all chose places that were within walking distance of our building. I created my panels with Figma. The about m2m section is taken from the company’s website. Their main website is the HMart website so it was a bit difficult to find information specific to m2m. In the quick facts section, I wrote my own brief description of this food spot and wanted to highlight that a food court would be available soon according to some local articles. I exported these panels as images and also included a jpg of their grab-n-go section.