Sarah's

Review the models covered in Hugh Dubberly’s “How Do You Design?”. Have you identified any steps that should be added to your own creative process? Please provide justification for your thoughts.

After reviewing Hugh Dubberly’s “How Do You Design?” I think that collecting feedback would be helpful for my creative processes. I tend to only get feedback on copy but I think that once I have brainstormed and have ideas that going back to others for feedback or even once I have pieces sketched for feedback would be helpful. It would be better to do this towards the beginning of the process rather than at the end. I often work on admissions print ads and normally I just use the same idea/campaign and create different similar ads with a variation on the photos used etc. But then when I present it to the admissions director she would want to tweak the copy and tweak the photo etc. I quickly learned that I should go to her for feedback at the start to find out what she thought would best work with that publication. Certain audiences need certain things emphasized. This has helped me quite a bit so that I can start with more feedback rather than re-creating the first ad or creating multiple options. I honestly haven’t incorporated feedback in my other projects but I believe that it would be very helpful and would make my work better and life much easier.

Many of my steps are flexible and tend to overlap into each other as I’ve noted above. I appreciate any time that I can work in a collaborative environment to brainstorm. I think having other creative people around to bounce ideas off of and to offer ideas is my most effective type of environment to work in. I just always don’t have that available. I also think it’s helpful to have people in collaboration who are well organized and who bring different perspectives to the group. Even someone who isn’t “good” at brainstorming can bring insight. Our team has broken into a group of people who like to brainstorm and who don’t like to be included but I’ve found that when everyone is included those people who don’t like to brainstorm bring information about audiences or experiences that they have had. I mostly work in a school setting and we don’t have a lot of research for our target audiences. It’s sad but I’ve found this to be the case in may schools. Our best research seems to be word of mouth and conversations so this can also be a place where unexpected “research” can be done.

I had not heard of the concept of flow before this course. My understanding of flow applied to designing is when you are “in the game” and you’re working on a project that you are just so excited about and you’re working through how to get to your goal.

I’ve found myself experiencing flow at times. My brain tends to continue thinking and obsessing over projects when I get excited about them. Time gets away from me and even though it’s time to turn off the computer and shut down email for the day I don’t want to stop working because I’m experiencing flow. I actually find it frustrating when other people whom I’m working with on the project don’t experience it and it excites me even more if they do. It energizes me.

I’ve never really thought of this as a concept or a process so I’ll do my best to describe it.

First I get a project or a problem. Next, I work with others or do research on my own to find out more. Then I think about how I want to tackle the project and brainstorm with others on ideas. I tend to sketch out basic ideas and then start to create solution. Next I go through a process of choosing image and colors, editing, communication to aquire information, set deadlines, get quotes, direct photo needs, etc. And the act of designing the project. I like to get feedback and bounce ideas off of other people but I don’t like everyone to see a project until it’s final. I enjoy making decisions and directing projects but it would be helpful for my flow if I had an assistant to do all of the nitty gritty work and I could focus on the big picture and design work.

This project was done early because I had to travel for work and had very limited time to work on anything other than work. I would have liked to have more time to work on it but I think that I created a visual presentation that explains the topic well. I found it to be a difficult topic to find reviewed sources for.

Presentation Introduction -Excellent I think this was done well. I introduced the topic and explained why I choose it and how the research would effect my job and personal growth.

Presentation Tone -Excellent I felt that I did have command of the topic but did have some ums in my presentation. Looking back I wish I had written down notes rather than talking through the presentation. I did practice but I think cue cards would have been better. I felt that mine presentation was a little more conversational of telling a story rather than writing down exactly what I want to say.

Vocabulary Presentation – Excellent I explained my vocabulary terms well and use the terms throughout the presentation

Visual Presentation – Average – The visuals supported the topic but this was not the area where I put the most effort by creating original graphics etc. I tried to keep it simple yet find images that encased each subject on the slides. I was disappointed to find out that when I had uploaded the video to YouTube that it put DEMO across the screen but there wasn’t much I could do about that. I wish I had known of a different program to create or had time to re-do the presentation in a different software. I just had to get this done the Sunday before it was due.

Presentation Flow – Excellent – The content supported the topic and the transitions between slides were smooth from one to the other

Presentation Timing – Excellent – The presentation was within the allowed time.

I don’t think that my definition of graphic design has changed so far in this course. I do think that the course has altered my process of design and how I think about design – such as encouraging me to think more in processes, using tools like concept maps and looking at relationships between topics, and to do more research.

My original definition was:

Graphic design is a type of creative problem solving. There is a need or a problem that needs to be solved. The issue and surrounding appropriate areas that may include similar problems or products, audiences, and best practices are researched. Then, through creative and/or systematic processes ideas are obtained on how to solve the problem. Not only are ideas formed, but also as designers we want to find the most effective ways to solve the problem. Through the process there may be several people involved making decisions. Not only are designers creating but also there are managers, clients, etc. who in addition to the research may drive decisions and final outcomes. Different mediums, shapes, fonts, words, colors, etc. can be used to conclude the final project and outcome. At times these problems can be solved with simple solutions but I think that the most interesting and effective solutions come from a creative process of thinking out side of the box. For me it helps to have others to brainstorm with or to have time set aside specifically to brainstorm ideas of how to reach a creative outcome. I believe that this should be part of the design process. I began as a designer only thinking that we made things look pretty and had only the end product in mind. As I’ve taken classes at SCAD it has taught me that the process of design is just as if not more important than the end result and product. Graphic design is not only the product but the overall experience of problem solving from problem to solution.

I’ve been finding it very difficult to find lots of research material on my topic of marketing for educational institutions. I originally wanted to focus on secondary schools because that’s where I primarily focus my work and there’s just not a lot out there. I opened my research up to higher educational institutions and quite a bit more appeared (not a ton but more). I’ve found it interesting to see such a big shift in the two types of schools. The secondary schools primarily focus on marketing to the parents rather than the students and then the higher educational institutions focus on the students because it comes down to who is ultimately making the decision.

I wanted to find more on social media and current technological marketing. There’s a good amount out there on this but not a ton of reviewed articles. These tend to fall into blogs. I did find a report that talked about prospective college freshmen and how they saw social media and higher education as something that should not mix. I was shocked to find that many students like to see the photos and news stories but they don’t like the mix of their personal and professional relationships. They see their relationships with the schools as professional and social media as personal. How do we use social media yet balance this problem? Social media shows people things that they would have never seen yet these students aren’t seeing it as appropriate. How do we overcome that and find the right balance?

In Bootcamp Bootleg they discuss the mode of empathizing where one observes, engages, and immerses. By acting on these we can be become better human-centered designers. If we do a paradigm shift where we become the user, we will be able to create a better solution or product. We can understand more of how people will use something, what needs the person has, and learn more about the user or target audience overall. This also translates into the methods of interviewing and assuming a beginners mindset. Interviewing is not only for writing a story but for understanding a user or audience. What is the need? I do this often with people who have a project and I want to find out more about their problem or the audience that they are targeting. Practicing to prepare for interviews is always helpful and I find that people really do appreciate it when you take their time seriously and are prepared with questions, research, etc. Here you are also empathizing with the interviewer. I find that also going into certain interviews with somewhat of a beginners mindset can be helpful when it’s a brand new project and you really want truly empathize with the person you are working with or the audience. People tend to like it when you truly listen to them and feel like they are being heard.

We must find ways to use the opportunities that we already have in addition to creating new opportunities. I work with a team to grow the giving at our school. We were looking for opportunities to tell our community about the need and why they should give. Rather than creating tons of new events we saw that we already had built in events that were centered around other topics but allowed us the opportunity to interject this new information. This could mean a person speaking, having print material available, etc. We used our resources of pre-scheduled events in addition to new specific events to communicate the information.

We translate that into communications and design. When/where do we have “built in” opportunities where it’s natural to communicate or market to a community? This year our school decided to create a campaign around Christmas. There was no give or action other than touching our community and creating a warm fuzzy. It got rave reviews and spread like wildfire. This created good will within our community. Come to find out digital greeting cards during the holiday season is a common practice with schools. Here are several examples of greeting cards from 2012. Ours wasn’t as elaborate as some of these but it’s a good opportunity for a touch. Enjoy!

http://www.higher-education-marketing.com/blog/favourite-2012-higher-ed-holiday
There are a few schools in this list of videos, like Mohawk College, who uses solely graphics but I think people want to see other people – their students, friends, teachers, etc. I would recommend thinking about your audience and what they want to see.

Social media isn’t just to find out what’s going on in your friends’ everyday lives. Businesses and schools also use social media to reach audiences.

In my experience, I have found that visuals – photos and videos get the largest reactions. People love to seem themselves, their friends, their children, etc. Posting photos and videos of what’s going on at your business or school is critical. These also encourage sharing and the more users share the farther widespread your brand will be.

Facebook is always adding and changing what they offer. One of their newest additions is the timeline header photo. This is a photo that captures attention but shouldn’t have copy in it and sits at the top of your facebook page. You can learn more about timeline header images at http://patrickpowers.net/2012/07/5-ways-to-optimize-a-universitys-facebook-timeline-cover-picture/

This was just another thing for us to tackle and keep up with. Our school uses this large photo as a splash of color and as a visual capture for our school. We tend to change it as needed. When there’s a big event that happens and I have a striking photo I will update it.

At my school I like to keep our profile image small and consistant. I use an image of the school that is recognizable and use the header photo as the means to capture the users’ attention. You can view some examples of other school’s use at http://patrickpowers.net/2010/10/take-control-of-your-facebook-profile-picture/

I am guilty. My inbox is usually overflowing or I’m stoping in the middle of my work every few seconds to read my newest email. I also have a problem with hoarding my emails and not permenatly deleting them. Can’t you tell my IT guy loves me already? He recently held a competition at work to see who could clear out their delete boxes and free up the most space. I didn’t win.

I think that if we have help to organize our emails (and we actually take the time DO it) then we can be more effective designers and leaders. We can concentrate more on what matters.

My husband is always complaining about all of the “junk” email that I receive. It’s not completely junk but they are extra emails that I could unsubscribe from. Opening or deleting 1-2 Pottery Barn emails per day is time wasted. Start unsubscribing from emails that you don’t need or lower the frequency if you want to still find out about a sale just not that often. Many places now will allow you to choose once a week, once a month, etc. emails.

If the email requires a response or task takes you less than one minute to complete then go ahead and do it right away. If not, flag it or put it into a folder to come back and do later. I use a tool called Evernote that allows you to send copies of your email to it and then you can tag it put it into folders or save for later use. I need to use that more!

Schedule some time each day where you go through those emails that you’ve set aside and respond, sort, or do the needed task. This is a practice that the dean at a university I work for does. He sets aside about 30 minutes in the morning and afternoon and that allows him to work more efficiently.

This past week a leader in education sent my supervisor some tips on how they make email more effective at their school. He passed this along to us and I’ve begun implementing it. I’ve found that it already has helped me to organize and find emails for reference quicker than before. It’s also much easier not having to sort through lots of carbon copied emails. These guidelines are listed below.

Subject Lines:

• Write a short, accurate, descriptive subject line for every message. The subject is the message.   We should be able to glance at the subject line and know exactly what the email is about.
• Start a NEW email MESSAGE with a NEW SUBJECT line for each NEW SUBJECT or topic.
• Do NOT start a different topic in an existing email conversation/thread.

Message Length/Formatting:

• Keep emails short.
• Write your message in short paragraphs. Long complex paragraphs are hard to read and they make finding important information difficult.
• Bold key information, e.g., dates, names, amounts, etc.
• Use bullet points whenever possible.
• Most emails should not be longer than one computer screen length.  Minimize the need for the read to scroll.

Message Recipients:

• Do not cc or bcc others unless they really need to see the email.
• Don’t “Reply All” unless all need so see the reply.