Jennifer Carrozza

Jennifer Carrozza's RISD TLAD MAT Blog

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Here is my project 5 video about Sara.  I had a fun time making this once I figured out iMovie! 

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Observation project photos

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Class Reflection 8/11/15

We’ve started to wrap up all of our projects for this class- from now on, we’ll be having studio time in class to put everything up on digication.  Currently, we are all a little exhausted in this class, but I think we’re all determined to still put out quality work by the end of the semester.

I am working on my observation book now, primarily.  I find it very hard to break away from my instincts to cram every page with as much text and images as possible.  I know now, that breathing space on the page is very important as to not overwhelm the viewer.

Other then some technical problems, I am also happy with how my video is going.  I have decided to use only still images as I thing video recordings would only distract, instead of enhance, the story I am trying to tell with the audio narrative I have constructed.

Hopefully we all get everything done, and from here on out its smoother sailing!  

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Class Reflection 8/4/15

Today’s class we had a visiting teacher.  Her name was Jori Ketten, and she, among other things, uses to video to document artistic experiences.  Prior to the lesson we looked at her vimeo account, but I found her lesson much more revealing then an unguided romp around her webpage.  

She works with a lot of video content, so she was there to show us examples and how to work some of the programs we are going to be using.  Some of the questions we dressed were: Why Video? Why do people document? What does the word Documentation mean?  Overall, it was a really interesting lesson because I had never worked with video before.  It was interesting to go though her work to see how it improved over time, and how we could use the information she had gained over the years to start from a higher standard of production.

For this project I will be documenting Sara who works mainly with three dimensional materials.  I have a little sculpture experience, but working so closely with someone who's practice centers around that will be a lot of fun.  

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Class Reflection (7/28/15)

Today in class we all gave our first draft of project 3 and met Everett Epstein who gave us feedback on our presentations, and also gave his own presentation on the sentence diagraming method he uses in his english classroom.  I thought it was exciting to get an outsider’s perspective on our powerpoints, and have a writer critique them, as well as a designer.  This way we can improve the strengths of our presentations in both ways.

I thought everyone’s presentation was really wonderful, especially for a first draft, and really liked how they were all so different, not just in the fact that they were about different studio practices, but the narrative, visual quality, and mood of each one was very unique to the presenter.  

Some of Everett’s talk was a little overwhelming, but I was very excited to see a non-art teacher work so closely with graphic design.  I think it was very clear that his teaching method was very personal and handcrafted- showing us that we can develop similar methods that might not work for other teachers, but work really well for us.  Creating a solution in the classroom like this, is part of what inspires me to want to become a teacher.  

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Class Reflection (7/21/15)

This week we are working mostly on project 1, refining our logos and creating a poster and handout with the image.  I think that as a future teacher it is critically important to consider how information is visually presented to our students. 

I have settled, with the help of the class, on working with my first logo, inspired by the small shark  taxidermy from the nature lab.  I have also been working on creating my handouts and posters.  The posters are very difficult for me, I think perhaps I need to see some of the work my fellow students are creating so I have a clearer idea of what is expected. 

The handout is actually kind of un to make, but I think I have too much information on them for a third grade audience.  I feel very reluctant to have any blank space on the page because when I think back to the handouts I received in grade school they always were absolutely crammed with information. 

Hopefully with a little bit of tweaking I can get both my handout and poster looking good and have them all ready so I can move on to assignments 2 and 3 without being distracted by both project one, and our tree project.

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Project 3: Multiple Page: Digital Presentation

Design a 10 slide digital presentation about your studio practice and post to voicethread.

Here is the very first draft of my keynote presentation for assignment 3.  I need to re-think if I need a title page, as well as the flow of my slides and the design of some of them.  Hopefully I can revisit these slides soon and get started on recording my speech to voicethread.  

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Project 3: Multiple Page: Digital Presentation

Five Rules for Presentations

By Duarte Design

Rethinking Powerpoint

By Ron Galloway

Reading Reflection

These videos were really compelling because I found that their content was all relatively new to me.  Instinctually, I like to think I’ve always been able to kind of discern when a powerpoint was good and interesting, and when one was cliche and overwrought, but having these videos make very specific mentions of what not to do, and what to do instead was very helpful.  Specifically, the video on the rethinking powerpoint channel when the man mentions how tilting the pie chart in the presentation so it “looks good” can ruin the effect of the information, was something I had never thought of before, but once it was stated plainly, it made a lot of sense.  Now that I have all this information and a few ‘tips and tricks’ under my belt, I think I am much better equipped to create a good powerpoint myself. 

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Project 2: Single Image: e-Portfolio banner

Design a banner for your e-portfolio using images from your studio practice and the TLAD logo.

Here are my banners so far, I still have a few more to make and they all need a few touch-ups, but I am happy with them so far.  I have been using images of my non-toxic prints and different filters to create, hopefully, a pleasing image where the focus is still on the textual information.  

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Project 1: Single Image: Logo, Poster, and Handout.

Here are my first sketches next to what are my current designs for this project. 

Our assignment is to design a logo and apply it to a poster and handout to help us meet Rhode Island Professional Teaching Standards 8 and 10

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Class Reflection (7/16/15)

This past Thursday was a studio day in the RISD Nature Lab, which I found to be really nice and refreshing after so many days of class lecture.  Not only was the Nature Lab absolutely amazing, but I found that being able to use art and design in such a practical way early on in this class really helped me grasp the concept of translating my studio practice into visual aids in teaching.  

I have never done much graphic design work, but doing the logos was a lot of fun, even though it was really challenging, in my experience.  I also thought the method we used, with the post-it notes on the logos we liked, was a great method for seeing where we stood with our projects without forwardly offending anyone.  It really helped me clear up what I was doing right, and what I was doing wrong.

Many of the basics of design that we learned in this class were also very helpful to me because they are things, that as a fine arts student, I need to make sure I keep in mind now that I am creating art for my audience, more then I am creating art for myself.  

I look forward to continuing these logo projects, and hope to use these tools to create meaningful work in the future.      

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Project 1: Single Image: Logo, Poster, and Handout

Rethinking the Colorful Kindergarten Classroom

By Jan Hoffman  

Sketching with Data Opens the Mind’s Eye

By Giorgia Lupi

Using Strategies from Graphic Design To Improve Teaching and Learning

By Kristina Sansone

Reading Reflection:

These three articles, although united by the motivation I had for reading them, are all very different in their content.  

The first article, dealing directly with the classroom setting, calls for educators to think twice about the excessive use of visual aids in a learning environment.  It challenges the look and feel of today’s colorful, busy classroom, and promotes a more sparse approach to classroom decor.  I had mixed feelings about this article, because although it wasn't saying that all visual stimuli are bad or anything extremist like that, I felt that it didn’t consider certain motivations behind having a lively looking learning environment.  For example, some children can be more distracted by a sparse room then they are a busy one.  It’s all about what they are used to.  Think about sitting somewhere mostly silent while trying to read or study.  Doesn't the one noise that exist (someone typing, or the turns of a page in someone else's book) in the space seem more distracting and disruptive then the overall babble that exists in a place like a coffee shop? Also, I think that, as the article said their study looked only at one small group of kindergartners, and that its results may not apply to everyone.  

The second article seemed less elitist to me, and was an easier read.  Although it didn't deal directly with the classroom or teaching method- as someone who has very little design training until this point it was a really eye-opening read.  I learned much more about the info-graphic design process then I even knew existed.

Lastly, the third article seemed to tie the everything together, focusing on how infographics and the overall use of graphic design in the classroom could help visual learners of all ages.  In a way i found it at odds with the first article, because it was more about how the use of visual hierarchy and eye catching graphics could focus a child’s attention on what was important whereas the first article seemed to declare visual aids as more of a nuisance then a helpful tool.

Overall, all of these readings were very fresh to me and really opened me up to other points of view when it came to the use of design in the classroom.