Reflections — HES Project

The end of this project was…an important learning experience. Well the whole thing was! But the last stretch of the project really burnt me out emotionally even though everything ended up being fine and I’m really happy with how my presentation went.

I’m consistent in putting over 100% effort into whatever it is that I’m doing. Generally, that’s a great thing but sometimes it’s a bad thing. I got my final piece done early in advance compared to most students if we’re only talking about content. I had done my rough draft ready for Tuesday when Stacie gave us more time that Thursday to refine things. Starting from Thursday I began printing until Monday, the night before the project was due. I became obsessive about the details and in getting the craft right. Maybe that’s because I’m so products oriented but also, craft is something anyone in the area of design should care about that. It doesn’t really matter if it’s environments, communications or products.

I know it may have seemed like I was over-stressing about the printing details maybe? I don’t think I wasted my time at all. I learned valuable lessons about printing (ex: how to print in Smillie, the difference in paper quality from CFA/Reese/Smillie, trying out custom paper, printing on different sizes, and most importantly printing double-sided sheets). I made multiple prototypes first with craft paper to make sure I got the order right/ I began with glueing panels square by square on to get comfortable but also to explore different types of glue (rubber cement vs. tape vs. scrapbook tape vs. Elmer’s glue). With more prints, I started noticing that I could glue down some panels like the Timeline as a whole chunk instead of individual pieces.

Sometimes I ran into frustrating and unexpected events. For example, I at one point had made a nearly perfect final print. I glued down the last panel, opened it all up again to check that things were okay and right in the middle of the timeline I noticed that somehow a weird smudge had occurred. Maybe the glue had bled through? The ink had rubbed when they were smushed together? It was horrible and I got nit picky about it and decided to reprint. Things like that got in the way of me finishing earlier than Monday. But through all of these accidents and mistakes, like I said, I learned a ton about how to work with printers, adjusting color profiles, glueing methods and more. I got to know my materials well. It was just like the cardboard carrier project of Freshman year or even the lamp project with the varying types of paper we used.

We had to manipulate sheets and sheets of cardboard hundreds of times before getting anywhere near the final piece and even then, things could not be perfect. And with the lamp project, we had to test all different kinds of light bulbs. Steve and Stacie would mention how some were just too bright, some were too dim, some were too yellow and some were too blue. We pretty much had to live, breathe, eat and sleep cardboard. It’s like…getting to know your target audience but in this case we’re working with materials — paper, glue, ink etc.

But to be honest, I was stressing over the detail of the print not so much because of the grades or anything at all…it was mostly for personal reasons. I had wanted to clarify to Stacie that when we had talked in person about how I kept mentioning getting a bad grade, I didn’t mean it in the literal sense of A’s and B’s. I use the word “grades” which should have translated into how a professor views my work ethic, quality of presentation, who I am as a person and how much I care. I poured a lot of effort into this project and to have the final print piece not reflect that and make it look like I threw things together in half an hour was what made me crumble. I need the quality of craft to reflect my efforts. It’s like working hard to put together a beautiful cake only to have the icing smush a little on its side because it shifted in the box you were holding it in on your way to the restaurant. How upsetting would that be…Those things make me tick and I would really much rather scrap the whole thing and try it all over again just to get it right. Again I know that that’s maybe not the healthiest approach and I should know when to stop. But I’m not somebody who likes to give up ever, especially when I’m so close. That’s was a big issue — the fact that I had already made 10 prints, and they were getting closer to what I needed them to be. If I never saw progress in the first 10 or so, or even the first five, I probably would have stopped and said okay I really need to think of some other method. But the way I was iterating, and stopping to think and ask for advice from various professors and upperclassmen did help me get closer and closer each time to a perfect print.

This really wasn’t about A’s or B’s like I said. I know especially now by Sophomore year that those are important but not so relevant in Design vs. any other major. This was something I was struggling to accept for personal reasons. Without getting too much into it, the stress really stemmed from the way my Dad has disciplined me in making sure that I always strive to get details in anything I produce to as close to perfect as possible.

Going off on another thought — I learned about type, color, composition of text, and more from this project. Like I mentioned today in class, it wasn’t until the second to last critique that I had made any realizations that I should fix up the rags and edges in the text found in the timeline. There were lots of staircases and such. I’m glad Danae took the time to point that out to me because it made all the difference in my final presentation of the piece. I also mentioned in my assessment that I feel like I crossed off a New Year’s resolution which was to feel more comfortable in Illustrator specifically with the pen tool which I can now iterate drawings super quickly with. I’m really glad that I got to work in Illustrator making those vector drawings cause it’s helped me learn how to really control the pen tool and make various shapes the way I need them to be.

And then like I said, learning about color and the importance of picking fonts, etc. were all great things that I’m fascinated about. I’m looking forward to the next project which will hone in on these skills even more!