I came up with ideas by consulting my peers, my teacher, and examples online. I was able to narrow these ideas down by a similar process, but my own opinion had a heavier influence than others. For the most part, I favored ideas of which I thought to have the most potential as opposed to those that could be easily made. Furthermore, I chose ideas that were reflective of my personality. The logo design, for example, was a project that I had many sketches for, but my final choice was the giraffe, for it was indicative of my awkward physicality and personality. I revised my projects through meetings with the teacher, and her assistance proved to be very beneficial in creating the final product. I made this decision by looking at all my versions simultaneously and choosing the one that best fit the criteria on the rubric. I looked for inspiration in the published work online. I found the work of the minimalist design era to be the most beneficial in finding inspiration, for I prefer to convey my message in a simplistic, informal manner. The direction of my ideas evolved over the semester. Initially, I did not acknowledge that my art should have a message, but through Mrs. Crane’s assistance, I was able to create products of which had a purpose and influence on those that viewed it.

The tools I needed to transform my ideas into designs were the many Adobe programs available such as illustrator and photoshop. Additionally, in order to work efficiently, I also needed lots of assistance and guidance from my teacher. The abundance of said tools allowed me to make designs with ease. I was able to translate my ideas to art by first starting with a sketch of the rudimentary features of the design. Then, through revisement and feedback, I began to use the computer programs. Before I could start though, I had to familiarize myself with the many specialized tools in their respective programs. The tutorials my teacher gave to us, along with her expertise, made my experience much easier. As the semester expressed, my ability to make use of the programs became much better, for the abundance of projects allowed me to improve upon my skills.

My projects are reflective of my interests, tendencies, and personality. I am often very stern and inconspicuous in the way in which I interact with others, and I thought the minimalist design era was very complimentary to this aspect of my personality. Consequently, I modeled much of my projects after those associated with this movement. My propaganda poster, for example, was very unambiguous in both its message and targeted audience. Projects such as these are indicative of my peculiar personality, and my teacher’s guidance has allowed me to better express it through my work.