Self Evaluation

Introduction
In August of 2007, I began working on my Systems Engineering II senior project. The overall goal of my project is to create a design scheme that will be used to advertise for my high school’s production of Beauty and the Beast in May of 2008. This design scheme consists of flier, ticket, playbill, and T-shirt designs. I have finished designing the products, shown them to the cast and crew of the play, and I’ve surveyed these individuals to gain an understanding of their opinions on the final design. The performance of the musical will be in two weeks; this will be the final test of the efficacy of my designs.

Solution Description
The goal was to create a simple and elegant looking design to suit the theme and romance of the play. I began the design process by brainstorming styles to use on the title. Then, I chose a design that I liked for it and began to work on a colored final format of it. I settled on writing “Beauty” in script, “and the” in small capital letters below the first line, and “Beast” in a bold serif style.
The words were written in a silvery-gray marker on a piece of black construction paper. I drew a rose in the bottom left corner of the title with the same color and filled in the petals with a gold marker. This design was somewhat low quality, being on construction paper and done completely by hand. I scanned this into the computer and created more contrast and intensity using Photoshop. I then added copyright information such as authors, composers, and original director/producer.
I then adapted this final design using Photoshop to fit on the flier, playbill, and T-shirt. To do this, I moved some of the copyright information around, made sizes smaller or larger, and added borders. In order to create the tickets, I used a similar design with a white background, black writing, and a red and green rose. This was featured with a dark black background and white writing with a white border. Everything was formatted and edited in Photoshop while completing the original versions by hand with markers and paper.

Differences
My designs changed somewhat along the course of construction. Originally, I hadn’t planned to do so much work in Photoshop, but I ended up spending about a week of class working with the program to edit my designs. Also, my original design did not have enough copyright information. When I met with the Creative Arts Club advisor to discuss my designs, he said that the company said we must have more information on the designs with larger sizes as well. I had originally designed the rose to look differently, but my mentor corrected me and showed me the way it needed to look, so I made those changes. I also moved and rotated the text and drawings at various points. Overall, the design itself remained very similar to the way I’d originally planned it to look, but a few minor things changed, including the boldness of color, small details, and placement of information.

Successes and Failures
General Organization
Overall, I feel that my I was quite organized for this project. Most of the time, I was able to stick with my planned schedule for each marking period. I was just late or last minute with a couple of documents throughout the year. My calendars may have been a little over optimistic, but I always tried to keep to it. Also, at a few points, a Photoshop file did not save correctly or I’d forgotten to send myself something, which also set me back in completing my work.
Developmental Work & Construction
Because my developmental work was simply my final designs in detailed forms scanned into the computer, this process was fairly simple. I was able to use my brainstorming designs and modify them to create the final products. At first, I had no idea how to use Photoshop, so my early work with it did not turn out well. However, I sought help and quickly gained the necessary skills to do the work.
Logging
I did pretty well with consistent posting on my blog throughout the year. Most weeks I was able to post on Tuesday and Friday (give or take a day). Only on weeks when a lot was going on in Systems or in other classes did it become difficult to keep up with logging my progress.

Lessons Learned
I have learned to be more realistic when scheduling my time. Although I was mostly able to complete everything by the time it was due, I did not account for possible mishaps and complications that would delay my progress. Also, I have learned that when taking part in a mentorship program, it is very important to have multiple mentors. My mentor had surgery during MP2 when I was working on my developmental work and was unable to remain in contact with me. You never know what will happen when working with people so it is important to plan ahead.
I also learned a lot about design in general through research and practice. I learned a lot about the math and science and technology of advertising design, how to choose colors based on theme and emotion, and I learned a lot about the programs and methods used for design processes.

Design Flaws
When I was modifying my drawings some of the words and pictures became a little pixilated and distorted because of the way the files were saved. This could’ve been avoided by saving it as a vector file before modifying it. Also, I used a lot of color in my black design and this caused us to have to mainly use the less professional white flier to save ink.

Self Improvement
Problem Solving
Throughout the course of the year, there have been many complications with my project. First, I had to halt work on my designs when the play was changed from Little Shop of Horrors to Beauty and the Beast. I had to start over from brainstorming half way through the year and redo my designs to fit the new play. Also, at one point, I had to modify all of my designs using Photoshop to add in the proper copyright information. I had to work quickly and creatively sometimes during this project in order to complete work on time and remedy problems.
Communication Skills
Mostly due to the mentorship program, I have greatly increased my professional communication skills. I had to seek out and contact a mentor in the field of graphic design and/or advertising who would help me throughout the year. I kept in contact with her throughout the year and utilized her professional knowledge of the field to aid me when I got stuck and needed advice.
I also was able to communicate myself through design and writing during this project. Using drawings and color choices, I depicted the theme and title of the play. Excluding the assignments for class, I utilized writing to highlight the details of the play. All of the fliers and tickets explain the date and location of the performance in order to inform the audience. These design principles and use of information all allowed me to help my communication skills grow and prepare me for mentorships and internships in the future.
Organizational Skills
As I stated before, I did fairly well with staying organized for my project. I usually had all of my designs and files in the same place and was quite regular with my online updates. In the future, I will try to stick with the schedule I make for myself and keep up with logging my work. Sometimes, I scheduled too many assignments and drawings to b finished for one week and ended up getting backed up and mixed up. In the future, I will not only plan my schedule more realistically, but I will also try to budget my time more effectively.

Conclusion
Overall, this year has taught me so much about design principles, scheduling, proper communication, advertising, the math and science of design, and the importance of organization. I have also learned a lot about myself as a student and as a designer. Sometimes things get piled up and I become stressed out. But I found that I end up pushing myself to complete the work that needs to get done. I enjoyed this year in Systems Engineering II and I believe that I have learned many lessons that will aid me in college and even after that.