Parts of the Letter reflection
This reading pertained very much to our project. Knowing the parts of the letter made it easier to warp the letters into reflecting the meaning of our words. There were many technical terms that I have not mastered yet, however being introduced to those terms will be a good thing for future classes on typography. I thought it was interesting to see the many different fonts and their variations right next to each other. This highlighted the fact that when one chooses a font, it should not just be random because each font says something different. I thought the logo example of FedEx was a great addition to this reading. It is one of my favorite logos because it is so simple, yet at the same time there are surprises within the logo that I did not see for the longest time (the arrow between the “E” and the “x”). This reading also introduced the idea that people spend their whole lives analyzing fonts and their different parts and what those parts mean. I think that sounds pretty amazing. I enjoyed this informative reading because I enjoy looking at various fonts and it was interesting to start learning more about the individual parts of the letter.
Photography Essay reflection
One of the ideas I found most interesting in these readings on photography was the belief that anyone can be a photographer at anytime of the day if they simply know some of the basic rules. When I previously thought of professional photographers, I imagined them setting up a specific time and date to photograph. However in this reading, the mentioned some of the best photography can come from ones everyday life and therefore, one should always have a camera with them and ready to capture those moments. These readings helped prepare us for the photo aspect of this assignment. They provided us with the basic rules for generating good photos — ranging from symmetry vs. asymmetry to framing and everywhere in between. Those basic rues then allowed our group to showcase our letters in a visually appealing way. I also enjoyed simply looking at some of the examples within these readings. The idea of documentation also very much applied to what we were doing with this project. We captured our letters in a certain location to document them because they would not always remain in said location. It was interesting to learn about the difference between photographing a scene versus documenting something. I think in the most basic terms, documenting is when you are taking a photo of something that will only be there for a limited time (for example our letters, or war, or hurricane victims, etc.).
Word Collages/Designs reflection
The process of creating my word collages was very much fun and exciting. For the handmade collages I felt a little limited but I think that is because I didn’t push myself far enough. After our first critique of the designs, so many more ideas popped in my head and I started sketching ideas immediately. I enjoyed this part of the project very much because I like typography and messing with type to reflect the meaning of the word. Once we got on the computer I felt more capable of creating various designs. I learned a lot during this part of the project about illustrator. The pathfinder exercises and the color exercises showed me tools that I hadn’t worked with before (as I am new to illustrator) and through playing around with some of those tolls, I got some interesting results. The most difficult part of this part of the project was deciding how to place color within my designs. I felt as though support didn’t really lend itself very well to specific color choices, so I ended up choosing colors based on personal preference. However, after many revisions, I thought my color designs turned out pretty successful.
Big Words on Site reflection
When our group was deciding where to photograph our letters, we had so many ideas it was difficult to narrow it down to just one. So we didn’t. We ended up photographing our word, “transfer,” in an elevator at Snow Hall, on the bus, and next to an ATM at Wescoe. We choose the elevator because of the idea of moving the letters from one floor to another reflected the meaning of our word. The bus was successful because it relocated our letters all over campus. Finally, the ATM reflected the idea of a money transaction and transferring money from an account into ones hands. The most difficult part of this assignment was determining different angels to capture the letters in. We had to make sure our letters were set up just right, so that one could read them without struggle and then we had to be creative about the way we photographed them. Mackenzie (our group’s photographer) tried to capture the letters in as many different ways as possible and some of the photographs ended up being very successful. In order to have a variety we also tried setting up the letters in different ways at each location. During this part of the project I learned more about thinking outside the box. This assignment pushed us to not only come up with the most obvious solution, but to try and surprise someone. I think our ATM location was one that not many people would have thought of.
Team Dynamics reflection
I felt as though our group worked really well together. Everyone wanted the same thing — for our project to be successful. We all brainstormed various ideas and brought them all together. From there we decided as a group how we wanted to construct our letters, where we wanted to place them, and ways to photograph the word. Sera was probably the ringleader of our group; she did a lot of the actual construction of our letters (although we all helped — I did the math calculations of how to make our letters larger, Sera drew the stencil base off those measurements, and Madi and Mackenzie cut the letters out of the cardboard). I took most of the pictures of the working process, Mackenzie took our groups photos in their locations, and Madi was key in helping us decide on our locations and setting up the letters. I was happy with how well we worked together; it truly was a collaborative effort.
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