This semester has been quite a learning experience. It seems like every time another finals week rolls around, I have a whole new understanding of how I want to spend my time. And I’m getting better at following through! I think that for me personally, time management was the center of VisCom 2. My workload increased, the standards I hold myself to were raised, and the amount of time I had to devote to all of it was even less than I’ve ever experienced.
Looking back, I have some regret. I wish I had found a way to invest the right amount of time in this course. There is some degree of frustration, as I’m not always able to act based on my personal priorities, but I feel like I should’ve been able to figure out a better way to compromise. I’m disappointed with a lot of the work that I’ve produced this semester. Regardless of how much I learned from certain assignments or what time constraints I was under for any specific part of this portfolio, the fact is that I wish I had more work to be proud of.
Playing catch-up on my VisCom portfolio the past couple of weeks has been a ridiculous process. I have found that I work pretty well under pressure, and that I can work quickly, but I don’t think that the purpose of this course was to spend the number of hours that was budgeted. There have been many cases this semester where I have spent the alloted number of hours (and more), without getting things to a desirable completion point. Saying that the real purpose of this course was the quality of work we were producing rather than the time that we put into it is not an excuse for the amount of time that I invested this semester. My point is that in the midst of our goal being time-efficiency, the projects that were assigned to us offer so much potential for refining our skills and learning new ones. There are cases where I wish I would’ve thrown the budget out the window and spent twice as much time producing something. Even if that’s never how it will be in the real world, and even if it’s just as unrealistic for my current schedule, my priorities for education shift to a less desirable place when a schedule becomes the focus.
Pre-Midterm Projects:
Assignment 2: Type Specimen
Budget: 6 hours | Spent: 6 hours
Assignment 3: Jazz Combo Concert
Budget: 10 hours | Spent: 9.8 hours
Assignment 11: Stressed Out
Budget: 6 hours | Spent: 9.8 hours
Assignment 13: Forest Fire Prevention
Budget: 12 hours | Spent: 11.2 hours
Post-Midterm Projects:
Assignment 15: How Safe?
Budget: 9 hours | Spent: 8.8 hours
Assignment 16: The Secret of Feeling Full
Budget: 9 hours | Spent: 8.4 hours
Assignment 17: Wick Fowler’s 2-Alarm Chili
Poster Series Budget: 8 hours | Spent: 9 hours
Ad Series Budget: 3 hours | Spent: 2.8 hours
Label Budget: 8 hours | Spent: 5.8 hours
Assignment 18: Black History Month
Budget: 9 hours | Spent: 8 hours
Assignment 19: Society of Illustrators
Budget: 16 hours | Spent: 16 hours*
*These 16 hours allot 8 hours for artwork/graphics/illustration. The illustration I used in this project is a polyester lithograph that I produced in Printmaking I. The process of creating this illustration, in its entirety, consumed far more that eight hours.
Assignment 21: Beverage
Branding Ad Budget: 8 hours | Spent: 7.6 hours
Carrier Package Budget: 15 hours | Spent: 16.2 hours
Label (Sleeve) Budget: 11 hours | Spent: 10.4 hours
