(6) Rethinking

In the review on Friday I got some good feedback but also felt defeated afterward. The people who reviewed my work liked the name “act up” and the basis of my project. They said they liked the speech bubble idea in the identity but felt that the other letters in the identity distracted from it. They suggested that I start with a sans serif typeface and work from there, and I tried explaining that I did do that and the feedback I got pushed me in the other direction. They didn’t think the photography was reading well and I agree, but I’m not sure what kind of photography for middle school students is going to work? This is something I’ll have to play with more. They said to try playing more with just typography or just image to get my message across — which I was exploring previously, but it’s kind of impossible to defend yourself in these reviews. I wished I’d just put out all my previous iterations so they could see how I got to where I was and the other things I did try.

The main thing they said was to talk to middle school students in-person and ask them what makes them care about a cause or event, what’s influencing them, figure out what kind of visual style they’d respond to, and what kind of artifact or thing I could make (instead of like a tote bag or pin/stickers). I agree, I have just been struggling trying to get in contact with middle school students!! They felt that surveys were too impersonal and not as good (which I know) but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get to talk to students in-person in the timeframe I have. I can try reaching out to schools again to talk to students and not just teachers. By the end of the review I wished I hadn’t taken the advice of the very first reviews last semester and stuck with an older audience, because I don’t know what I’m doing trying to design for middle school students. I know I don’t have to take their advice (I’m not taking all of it), and that everything is subjective, and if I’d had another set of professors they may have loved it (probably not) or had completely different criticisms, but I just feel like I’m really behind now. :/