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Week 5 Course Reflection Digital Graphics I’ve enjoyed taking this Digital Graphics course. My past experience with graphic design was in the 80’s, when I would watch my college roommate, who was a graphic design major, work on class projects. I never really understood why he would move different elements around so many times, and looking at different design elements on the page. I usually would comment, “Get it done, so we can go out and have a beer.” Now, I can see he was not just being “slow,” but he was really critically looking at his work as it related to our first week’s design elements. I now look at design elements more critically than ever before. I think this could now become my new excuse when I don’t complete a task on time. While taking this course, I found myself wishing we could spend more time extending and/or redesigning some of the assignments we worked on each week. The instructor was correct when she taught us the “crap” principal in the first week of the course. I like to think I had an eye for what “looked right on the page.” The four design principals really helped me to focus my eye when I started to design new projects. In a course I teach, I ask the students to design an ad campaign dealing with issues of substance abuse. I will now teach a lesson on the design principal before the assignment so that they can hopefully design a better project for class. The lesson on branding was very interesting to me. I always had a concept of what I wanted to stand for, and our week 2 logo design assignment was beneficial to help define me personally and professionally. When working on my brand, I remember Alcantara’s statement: “The best way to go about tackling this project, in my opinion, is to pretend you’re an amnesiac.” Alcantara, L. (2009). So I did just that. I went and wrote statements about myself so I could look to the basics of what I wanted my brand to be about. I then referred to Alcantara again: “now ‘reduce’ all the knowledge to the bare essentials. In short, **stereotype yourself**.” Alcantara, L 2009. Finally, I tried to pull it all together with contrast. According to Yearwood, J 2009: “Contrast is the single most important element in a design, usually. Properly done, it makes the design come to life.” Yearwood, J. (2010). I thought my brand came out well for my first real attempt at branding.

In this course, I would have liked a little less time spent working on the weekly discussion board questions. Rather, I think more time spent discussing each person’s weekly project could have been more beneficial. I know others thought the same thing, because they would post links to their end product for the week and ask for comments. Digital technology is an important part of my life. I enjoy incorporating these design elements into my classroom. I think it is necessary to pick relevant elements of digital graphics and show students how these elements can enhance their assignments. I also think it is important to use different aspects of digital graphics to grab the attention of our students in a new an exciting way. As an educator, this course is just the start of my ability to develop good digital graphics, not the end.

References:

Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding, Part 1 Retrieved from [] Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding, Part 2 Retrieved from []

Yearwood, J (2009) Basic Design Principles, Week 2 EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics Reading/Lecture