Professional Practice
Moral Reasoning & Ethics in Media Design
Media designers have an obligation to their audiences and themselves. Telling the truth is a moral imperative. The individual is the authentic moral agent and it is with each person that ethics is fundamentally concerned (Christians, Fackler, Richardson, Kreshel, & Woods, 2017). Practicing the highest advertising ethics builds the highest brand loyalty and company value. Doing what is right will benefit the client, the designer’s career, and the industry.
Consequences of unethical practices are a disenfranchisement of the valued and hard-won audience of a brand. Misleading children, blurring of advertising with news and entertainment, confounding privacy concerns, omitting material facts, or flat out cruelty in messaging are a few ways that lack of ethics and moral reasoning can take down a brand. It therefore, falls upon all media designers to practice ethical fortitude and exercise sound moral reasoning in their work.
References
Christians, C., Fackler, M., Richardson, K., Kreshel, P., & Woods, R. (2017). Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning (10th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Personal & Professional Development
Upon completion of the Media Design MFA degree program, each course has contributed to my personal and professional development in the following ways:
1 Personal Development & Leadership – I discovered what inspires me and motivates me in this industry to succeed, as well as what mastery really means.
2 Defining Client Needs – I learned how to use Adobe InDesign to create interesting posters. I also learned about the Golden Section, Typography, and Hierarchy, Scale, and Contrast.
3 Brand Development – I learned how to develop a brand from the ground up, through research, experimentation, logo design, application, and presentation.
4 Effective Copy Writing – I learned about the Catalog of Needs and Types of Spokespersons to design testimonials ads.
5 Design Research – I learned about telling stories and using narrative, brand attributes, and imagery to communicate a brand and its cause.
6 Organizational Structures – I learned how to use Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, as well as animation principles for a motion graphic and promotional video.
7 Design Strategies & Motivation – I learned how to plan iteration and revision into the design process.
8 Design Integration – I learned how to step back from a design and see a new vision for its existence, to begin again, and evolve a logo to convey the brand’s promise and theme.
9 Multi-Platform Delivery – I expanded my knowledge of Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro by revising a previous logo animation and promotional video.
10 Measuring Design Effectiveness – I learned how to use audience focused surveys and questionnaires to retrieve valuable feedback regarding design decisions, navigation, usability, and appeal for a website comp.
11 Presentation of Design Solution – I learned how to create a website on the Wix platform, as well as convey my experience with each project during the program in terms of the degree learning outcomes.
12 Professional Practice – I have learned how the boundaries of ethics and moral reasoning can be blurred in this age of advertising over the Internet and mobile technologies. And it is up the individual designer, as the authentic moral compass, to speak up or to guide clients when it can be a detriment to them.
Thesis Presentation
I was able to utilize the concepts and techniques I’ve learned from the program, to design, develop, and complete my MDMFA Thesis Project. The program helped me convey a stream of consciousness in a meaningful way. I could share the process by which I achieved each project, discuss the challenges, and communicate how newly revised iterations brought the work to a higher level. And with all the training on creative software applications, I was comfortable manipulating the Wix website platform to achieve the desired results.
Personal Triumphs
My most outstanding personal triumph in each course has been:
1 Personal Development & Leadership – filming a turning point video of myself to discuss my intentions and motivations.
2 Defining Client Needs – creating original Romeo & Juliet posters.
3 Brand Development – presenting a comprehensive brand presentation for a fictional children’s toy store, called Rainy Day Toys.
4 Effective Copy Writing – creating original testimonial print ads for FIRM, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, through many iterations and concepts.
5 Design Research – creating an original website comp from a moodboard, wireframes, sketches, color, typography, and photos.
6 Organizational Structures – creating an animated logo and promotional video for Beach Party for The Sea Turtles non-profit live event concert campaign.
7 Design Strategies & Motivation – revised testimonial ads to be clearly understood and readable, while conveying the most important essence of the message.
8 Design Integration – recreated Sea Turtle logo design.
9 Multi-Platform Delivery – creating a new logo animation and incorporating it into a revised promotional video for Beach Party for The Turtles.
10 Measuring Design Effectiveness – getting positive feedback on my moodboard, website design, and the proper communication of the purpose of the event and cause that it supports.
11 Presentation of Design Solution – developed and designed a website for thesis presentation that communicated my work throughout this program in a concise, meaningful, and visual way.
12 Professional Practice – completing this course, as personal issues clouded my thoughts and actions. I do feel proud to have accomplished, and reflected on, this mastery goal and I appreciate the instructors and classmates that have helped me achieve this goal.
Experience Map
Entering the MFA Media Design program, I was just coming off the exhilaration of earning a Bachelors in Internet Marketing from Full Sail. My goal was to continue my education on the more creative side of marketing over the Internet. As the program began, I was pleased to get right into learning new skills with Adobe Creative software. Each new month brought more learning insights on creating a brand, conducting background research, and designing ads, websites, videos, and logos. This was all very exciting, and I continued to climb to new heights in my skills and knowledge.
Much of design requires iterating solutions to make deliberate changes that improve or elevate the work to its best. And so, several months were dedicated to revisions of previous work, which helped to improve my design solutions, but left me feeling less interested. This plateau lasted until we had the opportunity to share our work with others in our network to gain direct feedback on aspects of our designs. I chose the live concert website comp to share and received positive feedback, which seemed to lift my spirits.
Finally, I was coming to the end for a landing and was looking forward to wrapping up the master’s program with a bang. However, one of life’s interesting twists came in the form of my father’s passing, which consumed my every thought and actions. I got behind in my assignments and struggled to catch up. Although, it may end in less that my best effort, I have learned a great deal in this program and have appreciated the guidance from instructors throughout.