Mastery Reflection: Presentation of Design Solutions
Month eleven of my mastery journey in media design has been a culmination of all the sweat and tears, of failures and triumphs, of how my design solutions were obtained and justified. I found this course to be a tremendous insight into how I see design and how design is structured in an academic setting. Having always considered myself “self-taught”, it wasn’t until my late thirties when I was able to get the tools to create in the digital format, I knew I needed to acquire a solid understanding of the design principles.
My understudies introduced me to the color theory, the elements of a composition, page layouts, and many rules of design in addition to the tools of the trade, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and After Effects. Knowing all that my understudies had to teach me had prepared me for the projects I would be assigned during my MDMFA - design wise, however, I wasn’t prepared for the amount of writing and rationale that the degree entailed.
With many years honing my particular drawing style, I also developed a very cerebral way of designing my own personal projects. I could do the brainstorming and development of a design in my head, similar to how Albert Einstein would conduct thought experiments. I am not attempting to equate myself to a genius such as Einstein; just that I was very comfortable designing in my head. I would surmise that that could be attributed to me being frugal about wasting paper.
Nonetheless, that was my development process. And it worked for me in a way that I was able to come up great ideas quite quickly. So when my innate creative abilities met the structured academic world, there was some bending I had to do because the curriculum needs to be a standard to a diverse demographic in order for the institution to be able to measure a student’s success. Being flexible to conform to the requirements set on each of the assignments has focused my thought process so that others can follow my reasoning for my design choices and to justify them.
When it came to rationalizing my design decisions during my MDMFA, I had initially felt I failed on this on many occasions. On the contrary, my perceived failures can be an eye-opener. This brought to mind something I had read in Mastery (2012) by Robert Greene, where he reminds me that failures are a means for my education because failures point out my inadequacies, the flaws that are revealed through the execution of the design, and, most importantly, learn want the audience I am designing for is actually looking for the design. I still have some work to do to overcome any fear of failure; instead learn from my mistakes so that I can become a stronger, more efficient media designer.
With the presentation of the four learning outcomes of Connecting, Synthesizing, Transforming; Solving Problems; Innovative Thinking; and Acquiring Competencies, I was required to use the wix.com website format. During this project, I struggled with applying each of the learning outcomes into a third person voice while addressing my rationale to the design decisions. In the end, I just hope I was able to meet the requirements. Whichever way, I have begun to learn to rationalize my thinking – now to refine that skill.
All in all, I felt there were two projects throughout the past year that encompassed everything that I had learned in my MDMFA: the Aqua Horizon Sea Turtle Charity Concert and the Reykjavík project. The Aqua Horizon Sea Turtle Charity Concert encompassed a website design and a thirty second commercial, whereas the Reykjavík project consisted of the Reykjavík logo design and a thirty second travel promo. Both have ties to media design, especially in the area of motion graphics. Clearly, motion graphics is an area I would like to pursue as I enhance my design fundamentals and further my skills with the relevant programs to execute the exact solution to satisfy both the clients and their audience; or in the case of presenting my work, my own audience.
Reference
Greene, R. (2012) Mastery. Penguin Group. New York, NY
A thirty second video promotion of the Aqua Horizon Sea Turtle Charity Concert that is being performed by electronic dance music (EDM) artists to provide awareness on the plight of the docile sea creatures.
A thirty second travel commercial to promote the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik as a viable travel destination for committed adults that enjoy spending time outdoors.
