End of Senior Year

Projects

Finish Magazine

We finished the magazine layout that we started last semester. We actually lost a lot of progress on this project as our server crashed and did not save some updates we had made. This experience taught me about the importance of having back-ups and copies of my work. We were allowed extra time to finish the project and I think it still turned out okay. 

Stuco Class T-shirts

I was asked by the Olathe Northwest Student Council to design class t-shirts for the school year. This entailed a design that could be versatile and be worn by every class in the building as well as staff members. I came up with many options and the council voted on this one as the shirt design we would sell and distribute. 

Youth Group Basketball Jerseys

My youth pastor once again approached me with the idea to design a jersey for our basketball team that would play other churches in the area. I again came up with many different designs and got a feel for what the players were wanting and expecting. The design was chosen by the pastor and the color of jersey and print was chosen by the players.  

Personal Branding

We were told by our advisors that it would be necessary to have business cards for our Senior Show at the end of the year. We were expecting this and many of us have been brainstorming ideas for our own brand for a while now. I struggled with finding a design that not only looked good, but that truly represents me. It took many trials and we all were in the same boat, but we helped each other and actually created a word bank for each student and wrote words that came to mind when we thought of that person. This helped multiple of us narrow down what we wanted to showcase through our logos. I love traveling and really have a passion for doing my work anywhere and everywhere I can. I wanted to show that aspect of myself through this design. Pinterest and other sites helped me narrow down how to do that: paper airplanes. I thought these looked fun and light-hearted but still got my point across. The rest of the design came from sketching that idea. The deciding of colors took another journey very similar to that one in that it was difficult for most of us to decide what color schemes represented us. We helped each other narrow that down as well and as soon as someone said navy for me I knew that was the color.

Senior Show

Senior Show is an event that allows us seniors in the eCommunication Academy to showcase our work from the last four years. We set-up a table that shows our personality and can hold much of our work. We get computers to show our portfolios as well. This is a large event that we put on each year and us students lead the process. Two of us from the graphic design class were chosen to aid in the planning process. We designed the promotion pieces such as the poster and brochure. We also made name plates and endorsement signs to clarify the status of each senior at the show. 

Crawling for Down Syndrome

We were asked to come up with a company that would sell or provide a product or service and design their brand. Around this same time I was approached by a friend of my father's to brand a fundraiser he was leading called Crawling for Down Syndrome, and I was allowed to use this as my project. This fundraiser was a off-roading event that donated their proceeds to research for down syndrome. It was not a new event, but each year that have had a different logo and they wanted to improve their marketing this year. They only needed a logo, poster, and brochure, but for the class we added web-ads, and infographic and more advertising. 

Class time

My time in class was spent focused on my work. I spent most of my time working on the computer or my laptop in order to get my work done on time. I also collaborated with other students whether through critiques or just asking for a second set of eyes. If I was ever done early, I first took a step back for a few minutes and came back to the project with a fresh set of eyes in order to see if any adjustments needed to be made. I am also the Editor-in-Chief of our school's yearbook this year which means that I spend an additional two hours in my school day working on graphic design and journalism. This has drastically helped in the improvement of my skills and my versatility.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Some of my strengths have been greatly improved this semester. As part of the committee that lead Senior Show we were supposed to be led by one of our advisors, but in the middle of the process she had a family emergency and was unable to be present during the rest of the planning. We were pretty much on our own from there. It was great to see each of us step up and work hard to get everything we needed done. I saw my time management improve even more as it was necessary to work on that planning while still creating the advertising materials on time to be sent to print and still working on a separate project for the class. Everything was completed on time and I think we all improved our abilities to work well with others. I have also improved on a weakness mentioned previously: my ability to push my creativity. This year has pretty much been one big work out for that part of my brain. I have had to manage designing for the class, yearbook, and internships which was not easy. But, I am very grateful for it all because I have grown a lot in my versatility and my ability to work on multiple projects while constantly improving.

Summary
I have loved my experience in the eCommunication Academy. It has helped me narrow down what I want to do in my future as well as improve my employment skills in general. I have had the experience of working with others, working for a boss-like leader, and many chances to grow in communication skills. I do not think that I would change anything if given the opportunity as I have learned from every experience and appreciate that. I am very excited to continue graphic design in college at Creighton because I know now that I love it and I can continue to improve.