As a junior, I had seen a lot of my friends go through GRA 217/218 already. They would complain nonstop about the late nights in the labs, and the crazy specific detail of every placement, every text box, every thing in general! And then when I told them at the beginning of the semester I was finally starting graphics, they would say how jealous they were. Huh? Weren’t they just complaining to no end?
Now finishing up the semester in graphics, I can see where my friends are coming from. Graphics was definitely one of the most beneficial courses I have taken in Newhouse thus far. I don’t even have a Mac (I know, I’m working on it), so I was extra nervous to start working with CS4—considering I barely knew how to right click on a Mac in general. Now I consider myself a seasoned pro with Macs, and know how to do just about everything. I can now also say I know how to use the Adobe Creative Suite! For the most part at least…
At my internship this past summer, I was given quite a few projects involving Photoshop, which I fudged my way through since I didn’t know how to use it. Because of that, my eyes really opened to the necessity of taking and excelling in this graphics class. I’m not gonna lie- this was one of the toughest semesters because of it. I now officially consider the Newhouse labs my second home. It was frustrating working for HOURS and then showing the draft to the TAs/teacher and having them rip it apart. But that was also good because I got real criticism and really learned how to perfect my work.
I think the resume and the logo projects are the most beneficial to real life (you always need a great resume, and you could actually make your own business cards!) However, we barely had any time to work on the logo project. I think the most overwhelming aspect of the course is that we never have a break. We always received the next assignment before even finishing the current one. The fact that there was no breathing room adds to the stress of completing the projects. I also think we didn’t have enough time for the magazine project. If I didn’t have the option to do a floating redo, there is no way I would have been able to hand it in. 2 weeks is not enough time to whip up a masterpiece.
I think that maybe there should be rough draft requirements. This would enable students to make sure they are on track with their assignments and to know that they are not waiting until last minute to complete them. Also, I think the lab should meet two times a week, while the lecture should meet once. I really enjoyed the lecture, especially the videos and cool examples we saw. However, the lab is where the real knowledge of the programs occurs, and if you get behind once, it’s really hard to catch up. I also took a ton of notes in lab, and it would be better if we had the opportunity to have a lab in the beginning of the week to learn the program, and a lab at the end of the week to answer difficult questions and to start critique of your work so far.
Because of this class, I can also now say that I am a font lover. I can’t even describe the amount of time I have spent staring at my name in Suitcase. It got to the point where I didn’t even know what I was reading anymore! I also now understand and appreciate the amount of hard work and time it takes to graphically design magazines, websites, and anything else.
All in all, the frustration of this course was huge. Getting kicked out of the labs at 12 when I’m not ready to leave even though I’d been there since 5, finding the perfect font to put on the magazine, cropping an image without distorting it, thinking of clever headlines that hadn’t been done before, having to start from scratch… But the fact that I now have 5 awesome projects to show off to my friends and future employers (which believe me, I will), is an awesome feeling. I’ve learned a lot from this course, and now even use InDesign to complete projects for other classes. So as much as graphics was a pain to go through, I agree with what my friends said. I’ll miss it next semester! But now that I have the knowledge I need, I don’t think I’ll miss it too much :)
1 day ago
I totally agree with the double lab time and single lecture idea. I think that having them as you said: one lab in the beginning of the week and then another lab at the end of the week would have been really helpful. Rough drafts would have defiantly kept me on track and I think having a hand out for each lab that kind of does a walk-through or at least a quick summary of the tools we were learning would have been really helpful as well. Kind of a sparknotes version of the program's book. But overall graphics was a really useful class and will defiantly come in handy in the future!
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