You're happy.. But in the same time you're kind of sad.. You feel this emptiness that can't be explain and you just sit there like "now what?"
I guess it's partly because the school's ending soon.
(Warning; this post may be cheesy)
Thursday was our last official day at high-school! (not counting the examination days + the interview day) It's a bitter-sweet feeling. On one hand, we've been waiting so long for this, on the other hand this declares the end and the beginning of a new chapter in life; a chapter that i'm not too sure if i'm ready for yet.
I can't even begin to describe how emotional Thursday was for us. For all the seniors. I know it sounds a bit dramatic and all. But we've grown so attached to each-other it's almost impossible for us to absorb what's happening too quickly.
Ahh where to do I even begin with?
So it started off as any other normal school day, few of my class-mates had to stay in class for a test, while we prepared some things for our little exhibition and headed to the school's theater; where we began to adjust everything in place. Everything looked beautiful, organized and overall it wasn't as how I expected it to be. Okay next, our teacher came along and said our group was too big for our space and that only 5 students need to remain for the opening and then we can all come back later on, to see everything and everyone. We didn't mind that because we already had a lot of things to do. I guess that was somewhere around 9:00AM. From that moment I can only remember going to the academic guidance office with my friends and chatted with some of our favorite teachers ever. Luckily for us these are the last days in school which means that no one can shout at us to head to classes.. 'Cause well.. There are no classes! Hahaha. After that we just walked around school for a bit and headed to our building due to the heat. Unbearable man. We then began working on the video.. We decided that we're going to do a video.. Seniors video? Gather all the pictures/videos we took through out the last two years and create a video that will always be something to remember everyone by. We almost got along with everyone in class, despite our ups and downs. We all liked/loved each-other. I had already chosen the music and had about 200 pictures. We gathered more pictures at school from everyone else and even added brand new ones that we took on Thursday. We had roughly about 1000 pictures? Yeah. A lot. I had to narrow it down to at least 300 something. Somewhere around 11:30AM or something, my friends decided that they want to do something.. Since we haven't done much lately.. We basically did some flash-mob around different classes and got in some of the staff rooms =))) Did I mention they were all covered and had some goggles on? Well, not all of us.. But yeah. It's nothing big but we had a great time/laugh. Anyway! Moving on. One of our teachers came to our class after the dance thingy. She had few things to say to us, which I guess was not something we expected from her. One of the things she said was that, she was proud of us and we're the reason behind her love for teaching. I guess it's not only the school i'm going to miss. I'm actually going to miss some of my teachers too. OH, she had a cake too. A little graduation gift. " I <3 (our class's name)". It was all so sdkjadajskd. OMG THE TABLE BROKE DOWN TOO YOU GUYS IT WAS HILARIOUS. Somewhere around 1:00PM our video was ready. Being the one who made the video, I wasn't as emotional as everyone was. I'd turn around while the video is still playing and see several of my friends with their red-puffy eyes and holding a tissue in one of their hands. Others were shedding some tears. The music made it worst, sad piano tunes have that effect on people. I was listening to it before adding it to the video and my sister was like "I am not going to graduate nor am I in one those pictures BUT STOP IT WITH THIS SAD MUSIC OK". It didn't hit me as hard as it did for them at that moment. The video included our memories of the last two years. I keep mentioning those two years because were I live, you're stuck with the same class-mates in the 11th and 12th grade. Our time-tables are fixed. You can only have same gym classes with other grades. But other than that, you're pretty much stuck with those fellas 7 hours a day. It included some of our happiest, saddest and craziest moments. After it ended the day turned into the universal hugging/crying day. I've never seen some of my class-mates shed a tear before Thursday. Woah. It's fair enough to say I didn't think that this is how I expected it to end. I was expecting it to be more.. Joyful.. Where I'd return home and be like "YAYAYAYAYNOMOREHIGHSCHOOLWEAREOUTTTTT!!!" or something. But that's not how I felt at all. After the school day it clicked. This is it. No more high-school. No more waking up early in the morning. No more seeing the faces of my stupid class-mates. No more class insanity. No more of that annoying bell. That's when it hit me. I grow attached to people after talking to them for literally a week. Their existence matters. Let alone two years. Two years. I honestly have no idea what am I going to do. A friend told me that "to every door that close, a new window opens." Completely true. But it's going to take some time for me to get over it.
As much as it hurts (YES) for me to say this, i'm actually going to miss school (ouch). Mostly my friends and the awesome teachers that bring food for us but yeah. I'm going to miss our buildings and the morning assembly, as boring as it might be sometimes (more like most of the times). The random competitions and stuff too <3
Woah. This is one of the longest posts I ever had to write. But I had to get it out of my system.
In graphic design history, we were asked to create a symbol/logo for a cause of our choice. After researching human trafficking all semester long for my advertising class, I decided to chose this cause to design a symbol for. For the past couple of years, human trafficking has become a problem larger than we could imagine. It's become a problem that has targeted teen girls and young adult women. Due to this, I chose to depict a female in my symbol. The symbol was left black with no features showing to represent how females trafficked have been stripped from their identity. The sewn-shut mouth was used to represent those who have been trafficked and have no voice. They are fighting to be heard and fighting to live as they once did. Lastly, the bar-code was placed on the neck to represent that they are no longer seen as human beings in the eyes of those who are trafficking them. They are seen as just a number.
Overall, this black and white symbol was created with the intent to bring attention to those who have been trafficked and for others to be aware. Hopefully, through such symbol, a call to action will occur—for others to be aware of what is happening in their own neighborhoods and "Give them a Voice and Beat Down Human Trafficking".
The goal of this project was to establish a visual format for continuity and identification related to graphic design history. For the identity series, I created buttons for the Blanton Museum of Art, which resembled the Dada movement showcasing a system I created. My system was made based on the days the museum was open and various artists who had an impact during this avant-garde movement in the early 1900s. In my system, each day was dedicated to one of six artists—Francis Picabia, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Raoul Hausman, John Heartfield, and Hannah Hoch. Artists are in order of the year of one of their most popular works. Attendees have the option of choosing between one of the three buttons made for that particular day of the week.
Along with the individual buttons, we were to make a poster that showcased our system where it was to be interpreted as a way to pitch the museum staff of our ideas, system, and representation. The poster showcased the actual size of the button and how it would look when placed on a t-shirt.
In addition to the recipe card, I designed an accordion book which included the instructions on how to make migas along with a coupon for Picante Pace Chunky Salsa. The same elements and colors were used in the accordion booklet for the exception of the arrangement which was simplified to fit in a smaller space. The coupon shape and size was designed to fit perfectly on a large Picante Pace Chunky Salsa cap. This project really helped me think outside the box as I was challenged to fit many steps and illustrations in a small constrained area without leaving anything out.
In Graphic Design 2, we were to choose from common tasks that most people already know how to do but put our own twist by creating something new and innovated using instructional design, instructional experiences used to make knowledge and skills more efficient. While being aesthetically pleasing, our design would have to correctly communicate instructions graphically.
My chosen common task was how to make eggs. However, I put my own twist by doing a specialty dish, migas. I chose to do a recipe card and accordion book which included instructions and a coupon. My intention was to do these two creations as part of the brand Pace because I use Picante Pace Chunky Salsa in making my migas. The 4 x 6 recipe card is back and front and the color scheme was chosen to correlate with Pace's branding. The recipe was created with the intention to be passed out at grocery stores where sampling of the salsa was available.
My personal geography consisted of my walk from the parking garage to the art building. My interactive map had initially started out very detailed but then got to complicated to try to communicate my experiences through my icons. My final map was left simple as buttons were incorporated to show what I saw along my walk. My buttons included heavy acorn mess, squirrel sightings, bike racks, crow crossing, lawn mowing, and heavy traffic as the remaining icons were just used to explain what that one icon in the map represented. The map is navigated by clicking the two sides arrows, right arrow to go forward and left arrow to go back. Once you get through the path with the side arrows, you can then click on the icons to show where you might see the specific sightings. My last component involves viewing the history of the buildings and what goes on within them. You can mouse over any building and read up and see photos of where you're at on my journey.
After drafting many symbols on illustrator, I was able to finalize the three symbols for home goods, machinery, and technology. However, once choosing my final symbols I was to document my process on finalizing them. The video above shows how I narrowed down nine of my symbols to the final three, one representing each category.
In graphic design 1, we were assigned a project exploring symbolic form. The project was to familiarize ourselves with the conceptual aspects of signs by creating symbols. We were to choose a topic to base our symbols on and make sure that our symbols clearly communicated our topic. The topic could range from a certain industry to a current issue.
Once I brainstormed through industries, I chose to focus my symbols on environmentally friendly products. The three logos focused on home goods, machinery and technological devices that were considered to be environmentally friendly. The intention of the symbols was for them to be placed on products found in these categories in order for consumers to know they are Eco-friendly and energy efficient at the same time. My first symbol represents home goods by having the silhouette of a home with half of the recycling symbol place on it. The second symbol has a machinery gear with a globe placed within it to represent the environmentally friendliness. My last symbol represents technology as a leaf is used as a USB device. My topic was chosen by considering the wide-spread issue of being energy efficient and environmentally friendly now-a-days in order to help prevent/lessen issues we are dealing with today.
