Category: Uncategorized

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.

● How did you come up with your idea?I looked up a greeting card tutorial for aero where the phrase was “have an earthy day” and used elements from the origami and nature pack. I wanted to do something similar but still make it my own. I decided to go with the phrase “Happy Earth Day” and create my own nature scene with the origami pack. 

● Did you run into any issues/How did you solve them?
Yes, I including a proximity behavior for the deer and sun but I cannot seem to activate either of them on the preview. I went to download the app on my phone to see if it would work there but I cannot download it. I am not sure if there is something I am doing wrong or if it does work on the app but it just does not show on the preview.

• How did you come up with your idea? I am not very comfortable with photoshop yet so I wanted to make something that was simple enough for me to be able to make into a gif. I love drawing animals and figured a bear face would be easy enough for me to create.
• What program did you use to create the animation? I sketched out what I wanted to create first and then did the rest on photoshop.
• Did you run into any issues/How did you solve them? I accidentally made my layers too large the first time and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to crop with the transform tool before I realized the crop tool existed. Additionally, I am not sure if this happens often with the eyejack app but it would always take a few minutes to load my camera before I could even scan the qr code. I tried closing the app completely and trying again but it did not help the load time, unfortunately.

From my perspective, the visual media program seems more generalized. They seem to be being taught in a jack-of-all-trades kind of way. I have not had the chance to interact with the visual media students too much this quarter but they seem to be preparing for a wider arrange of work environments. In other words, versatility seems to be more emphasized in their curriculum. I am glad Friday’s class allows us to get to know each other and learn the basics of topics that they are learning about. Even though my knowledge of premiere and after effects is limited, I am glad I now have the language to comfortably talk about these programs. Working with other creatives seems to be about being able to communicate your needs and trusting that a result everyone will be satisfied with is reached. I have learned knowing the basic language of someone else’s line of work is essential to making sure everyone is on the same page. Other than that, I do not have any other major impressions of the visual media program. The few times I have talked to visual media students, I did notice they were very knowledgeable about classic films. They are also really good at breaking down the different components of a scene. Perhaps this is a sign I should reach out more to the visual media students in my Friday pod group. I am looking forward to getting to know more about the visual media program in the next quarter.

1. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit: There is no hesitation when it comes to standing up for myself in the workplace now. For instance, I was once accused of stealing at one of my previous workplaces. My supervisor asked me where an item was and I replied saying it was not there when I arrived. She then said, “you know we have security cameras right?” At that moment, part of me wanted to avoid confrontation and simply apologize for losing track of this item. But deep down I knew there was no valid reason for being accused of stealing inventory. So instead I replied with “Check them then, maybe you’ll also see the bag I had with me that day and see it wouldn’t have even fit into it.” She did check the cameras and never spoke of the incident again. We had a delicate relationship afterward, I have no regrets.
2. Earn Trust: When starting somewhere new, getting to know the team is just as important to me as understanding how to do my job correctly. One of my favorite ways to do this is simply by asking everyone what their sign is. It is definitely my favorite icebreaker. In my current workplace, I am by no means familiar with anyone yet. But making the effort to get to know everyone as my day goes by has already made it so much easier to transition into the flow of the team. I have noticed people tend to show me more patience and trust with bigger tasks if they feel comfortable approaching me.
3. Learn and Be Curious: I honestly used to hate asking questions, I had this fear that asking anything would make me seem incompetent. This fear of mine would often put me in situations where a small mistake that could have been avoided turns into a series of small mistakes. Because it is something I have had to learn the hard way multiple times, I try to ask as multiple questions as possible. And if I am not completely sure about something, I would rather make the customer wait while I check in with my manager or supervisor first. I also get bored fairly easily if I am not actively learning something new at my workplace. Thus, I try to take on new tasks when I can.
4. Customer Obsession: The customer is not always right. I am a strong believer in “minimum wage, minimum effort”. When I worked for Amazon Go, there was a strong emphasis on going above and beyond for customers. While I was willing to do what was required of me, I was not going to bend over backward for a company that treated me as replaceable. I am willing to fulfill the job role but I am not going to go the extra mile for every single customer I interact with. I feel like that is an unrealistic expectation. Perhaps it would be easier if every customer I interacted with was kind and low maintenance, but that is not always the case. At the end of the day, I am a person too, I am not going to remain calm when someone yells at me about something that is out of my control.

About 2 years ago, I had a coworker whose dog had given birth to 5 chihuahua/dachshund mix puppies. It was not planned and they wanted to give them away as soon as possible to whoever was willing to take one. I grew up with chihuahuas always around and immediately felt tempted to inquire about it. But at the same time, I did not feel confident in my ability to take care of a dog on my own. I chose not to say anything and a few weeks went by without seeing this particular coworker. When I saw them again, they mentioned there was still one pup they had not given away yet because it was extremely shy and no one so far was willing to take it home. One thing led to another and suddenly I was on the way home with my coworker to meet the shy puppy. At this point, my coworker was desperate to give away the dog and I wanted to feed into my curiosity. This puppy was not shy at all, he was very excited when we arrived and clearly wanted us to play with him. I was shocked because I was expecting a timid small creature and my coworker was shocked because apparently, he was not usually playful in front of strangers. My coworker begged me to take the puppy, and at that point, I could not resist. 2 years later, that dog is my best friend. The first year was the hardest, but I have developed so much patience since then. I have also lost many pairs of shoes and quiet mornings are no longer a thing in my life. Sometimes I look back at how he came into my life and wonder if he was the one who chose me. I still have no idea what a shy version of my dog looks like, but I am glad it prevented anyone else from taking him home.