Reflection Journal
I will summarize what I learned in this first semester. First of all, I want to say that I really learned a lot of knowledge through this course. Although sometimes I have some difficulties and challenges while doing the projects, but I have solved the issue by the helping from my Andy and Karen or group discussions. Therefore I think that I have achieved my personal goals.
I have learned the soul and style of ancient art through photos displayed by teachers in class. For skills, I have to do exercises and try out a lot of experiments through group studies, including the production of letters, splicing questions and some other exercises. Of course, I also have my own opinions on some concepts and ideas, and I will also think about putting myself on the audience’s view and designing different styles of works.
My inspiration came from the group discussions in the class and the ideas through tumblr. There were different cultural in the class as we have many oversea students. I will discuss the homework with them, through the discussion , I learnt the cultural differences between China and the West. Then I combined the two together to make a mixed design. For example, there was an activity in this course that I remembered. The teacher divided the class into several groups. Then each group will get a package of paper. The color and the shape of the paper in each package are different. Such as squares, semicircles, triangles, etc., red, green, blue, and yellow. Each team was going to use them to make the 26 English letters. I thought it would be even harder to add one color each time, but with the team’s hard work, the results of the artwork was great as everyone had put their effort in this activity. I learned a lot of skills in this activity so I enjoyed the workshop very much.
The Chinese Silk Road is the historical movement which moved me lot through the research. Silk is a very gentle and very flamboyant Chinese silk. In ancient times, the silk fabric were purely hand-made and then hand-carried by people. Therefore the road that Silk walks through is called the Silk Road. It not only represents their hard work but also is a very rich story. Silk patterns and designs are very traditional and is a non-negligible culture. I really appreciated for this great piece of art.
Finally, through this first semester of study. I really learned a lot of design skills and experienced different styles of design.I summarized experiences and methods In these exercises. I hope to improve my design level in the next semester. And I appreciated the help of classmates and teachers. I will try harder for the next coming challenges.
