Following ethical guidelines within graphic design is important because keeping your brand’s visual identity is important. Plagiarism is an important topic in the design world because creative ideas are so valuable. Having them stolen is just not ethically right but this does bring into the question of what is right and wrong when it comes to the design choices specifically using past ideas and expanding on them. The Fairey Copyright Hope Poster case is a good example of how using past images and changing them slightly could be seen as plagiarism or fair use. The Fairey Copyright Hope Poster case in my opinion was a perfectly fine way of showing off the presidential campaign poster having changed the iconic photo into a poster. I felt as if he used just the photo and claimed he took it, it would’ve been a different case.  After the settlement the court came to an interesting insight that, Though both photos at issue were shot by the same AP photographer, the fact that the solo shot of Obama was the source was important because the more one transforms a photograph, the higher the chances that the resulting art constitutes a fair use of the original work. I find this interesting because it leaves creative work to be used and make adjustments and have their work basically have a different meaning, whether or not this is okay is up to the beholder but to me I think it’s fair but ethically not that okay. 

So today lisa gave us another day off for us to work on anything we wanted since we completed our last assignment so i went to another webinar. The webinar I had went to was Redefining Empathy for an Uncertain 2021 from adweek and Danielle Sherman. She discusses how to get inside customers’ heads and connect on a more emotional level during a time of unprecedented change. Executing engaging campaigns and experiences faster, smarter, and more nimbly is critical. Covid Ads are what’s popular right now and figuring out ways to use it in a way to bring people together on a campaign could be beneficial. The word Danielle used a lot was resonate, we need to resonate with our communities, resonate with our brand and families. I agree that at the end of the day you are not selling to robots. You are selling to people so having feelings is important and I feel that’s what creatives never discuss when talking about why they make certain decisions. You need to connect to the people. She continues,”How to use advanced social analytics to quickly redefine your market and its key influencers?” This is where social media analytics software is vital. Without measuring and analyzing your content and its performance, there’s no sustainable way to improve and get the results you want. Are the jokes you’re making okay? Are you talking in a way where everyone could understand it? Do you creatively use your skill to bring together more viewers to your message without following a trend? The next question was “How to use quick-hit market research to launch impactful, empathetic content that resonates” Danielle went into a story about how last year her company went into a christmas ad. I don’t remember the logistics about it sadly but I do know one thing she was discussing how social media even though it’s effective if you’re boring then youre automatically at a disadvantage. No disagreements here everything makes sense so far with what she is talking about. “How to quickly envision future scenarios and prototype engaging experiences that build loyalty” This is easy too how can we prepare for a future where our campaign can easily be changed that keeps the loyalty. My answer to this is simply to have a good campaign that way your audience has something to carry with them for the rest of their future experiences. When the holidays arrive you can expect to hear certain songs and have certain commercials and shows. That how you future proof your campaigns have something reusable that’s a good experience. Overall this webinar was good and informative and i feel like creatives should tune in to more of danielles talks. 

Once again on the off week Lisa wanted us to attend a webinar or networking event so i’ll document once again the experience. The webinar I decided to go to this week was the one hosted by adweek once again and it was before their thanksgiving week off so it was one of the final ones of the year. It went over the basic design process again for applying for jobs in the work force and here are some of the main points they went over. First they said the degree helps your application get viewed. Even from their powerpoint it states, “Often, the quality of work in your portfolio and the caliber of the clients you’ve worked with will speak louder than the degrees in graphic design you’ve received. However, many people do choose to obtain bachelor’s degrees in graphic design, or in related fields such as industrial design, animation, or fine arts. In fact, some graphic design jobs require a bachelor’s degree in order to apply. There are also associates degree programs focusing on graphic design, which are a more cost-effective alternative to betting a bachelor’s.” I agree because time and time again from these blogs I always discuss having some sort of  meaning to what you do and a plan and having a degree is a perfect start. This board was made up of a few creatives in the industry from Glassdoor and their presentation was very helpful and it’s still up if you wanted to take a look at it. They continue with saying that when you apply make sure you want to be full time or some sort of freelancer. I apply to jobs wanting to be full time if the company is something that I look up to and freelance if I just want to make a quick buck. Here’s some of the info from that post. “Many companies and independent design firms are constantly hiring full-time in-house graphic designers. Opportunities can be found through job search sites – for example, you can set a job alert on Glassdoor, Indeed, or any other job hunt sites under the title “graphic designer”, and receive alerts each time new jobs are posted within your criteria of location, minimum salary, and more. Typically you’ll submit a resume, your portfolio, and in some cases, a cover letter. After that, you may be invited back for an in-person interview, and you may have to showcase your skills on a take-home assignment.”  This is true too because I sent my resume and letters out the same exact way and was able to hear back from everywhere that I had applied too. Overall I enjoyed this webinar. It wasn’t too helpful since I already was taking a class on it but information is free. 

Today I was talking about how far we’ve come in working in the marketing department, and was discussing where the internship could lead in future endeavors. I was talking to Daniel about it and it was the first time we had taken an internship in the field that we actually wanted to pursue. It was that bridge between education and real world experience that we were able to get. We both have an agreement that working during the covid crisis was definitely difficult for us. We couldn’t actually have a chance to be in the main office on campus and work on projects using their main systems but it was still helpful. We also gained the professional skills to have that edge over other applicants and what makes me happy is that it was only because of this internship. Who knew that so much information could be learned in three months? Daniel even said every time he blinked it was a new month. We were in august not too long ago. Then it was october and then now november. This semester is really flying by fast. I was going to the weekly board meeting and they once again were talking about their new campaigns for winter. They want to make a campaign where you get 3 college credits in a week. This is beneficial because most winter terms are usually 6 weeks and have similar requirements. This is to be one of cuny’s first accelerated master’s programs as well. I’m under an NDA but im sure im not revealing anything to major since it is on the sites coming soon page. Of course I wouldn’t leak the actual basecamp document for the campaign.  I feel like Brooklyn College is a good school for me to get my masters. I haven’t thought about getting it but ever since I started interning here and actually looking at the information that was handed to me about their programs I found out that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go for it at this institution. Also I’m pretty sure that they brainwashed me to feel like this haha. NO BUT IT’S OKAY I feel as if this college is better than other schools where you would pay hundreds of thousands for an education.  The other thing they do that other colleges don’t is give you hands on experience during your time there which I like a lot. Other than that the time i’ve had here has just been incredible and this blog might be redundant but I love it.

This week I’ve been busy with senior project and portfolio and was discussing with Lisa how creatives actually hire and what they base it off of. The first thing she talked about was the personal manifesto and having purpose in yourself. She said using words like personal brand make it seem like you’re not human, but having a more personal story and purpose makes you seem different from other applicants. I agreed and decided to edit it and this is what I came up with. 

• What matters most to me in life is making sure you give anything you believe in your all. The idea of giving your all into your relationships, work, and craft will never be negative. I value this for the reason that you become a better person when you try your best. I learn from my mistakes and figure out different approaches for situations because of it. This translates to my work easily because the process is better than the outcome. When it comes to design, figuring out an approach could be the hardest step however, trying your best to reach an audience will always be beneficial. You could try different channels for audience members to engage with and learn things along the way all because we decided to give it our all. 

The next thing I decided to change up was the site about me page and this is what I came up with after we talked. 

• Hey, I’m Elijah! I love making memories and meeting new people. I’ve had an eye for design for ten years now and wanted to make it my career after figuring out I could find new ways to express ideas. I am a creative strategist and I love making videos and using data to figure out the best approach to difficult tasks. I believe having not only a personal answer for campaigns and designs but also an analytical approach improves campaigns. Do not feel discouraged to reach out to me, I love answering all questions! 

So youre probably wondering why I decided to pick the wording for this different from the manifesto. I feel like a manifesto is stronger than an about me and you use it for two different things. A manifesto is used to see what your true values are and about me is just to give a basic description of your skills / introduction. Overall it seemed to be a productive week as we gear towards moving towards the end. 

The webinar that I am going to today is the “Zero In on Your Content Experience: A Framework to Better Meet End-User Expectations” highlighted on the adweek front page. The brief is as follows. “This is going to discuss how to branch out and tap into all channels at your corporation and it will be   All digital experiences are built with content: images, text, video, audio and even AR and VR. Content not only communicates your company’s value, but it extends and connects experience to all touchpoints end users encounter. Still, content experiences are evolving rapidly and coincide with the explosion of new interfaces and touchpoints. Developing and aligning your content to your customer journey can seem daunting but you can make your channels anyway you want!”  Going into this webinar I was nervous because unlike the adobe max webinar, this one is an actual zoom call where you could ask questions.  I came into the call and was greeted by zain and Keiani who were two ux/ui designers who worked at a design agency. They discussed some of the things that they had to go through which was similar to what I had to go through right now in college. Glad to know that the stress will never leave LOL. I just remembered in my older blogs that I never discuss the type of channels that I want to tap into. I want to go into more video channels and more motion based work. Everyone always loves how things move and how they can incorporate it into the basic ads that everyone makes day by day. 

Zain did UX for VR which seems very difficult but it’s actually the opposite. I love how everyone makes it out to think Vr is only games but it’s actually just what it stands for. Virtual Reality. You can literally make simulations for different groups by your computer. You could bring them to worlds they wouldn’t think they could imagine. Zain does this for events like if it was a neon event with different shades of a color, he would make a pop up with vr that has different rooms with that same aspect. I could see myself doing this because it’s another way to reach out to different people, plus i’m pretty sure if you put a vr headset on you would be pretty excited. Overall this was an informative webinar and it worked with the covid guidelines and it was enjoyable. 

The first webinar I am going to is one hosted by adobe max. Adobe max is the leading global creativity conference, a uniquely immersive and engaging digital experience. It’s also a free event, MAX features live and on-demand content, including more than 350+ sessions, labs, keynotes, musical performances, special guest appearances, and a sneak peek at things being worked on in Adobe labs. Lisa told me that I should look more into having more motion in my portfolio and I agree. I’m also taking the senior portfolio and they talk about having something similar to it. I feel like if I was able to go back in time and do college all over I would do more video and motion work rather than taking the classes that were theory based in design. It’s all the same thing in the end though probably having to teach myself it.

 The event from max i went to was the talk from Anna Prosser and she talks about being a brand that companies can feel comfortable around. Anna has been to different events in the media, convention, and gaming community. I was interested in when she went into having to have a good rhetoric to get anywhere. She was a model beforehand and was able to get started in the industry by just using some of the social skills used in her older field. She now works at twitch hiring new brand ambassadors to work with smaller creatives to grow. She also talks about what she looks for when interviewing someone new. She states “Employees who display leadership qualities are generally the ones your organization will want to hire and keep long-term. Leaders have potential to move up the corporate ladder, fill future management positions, lead teams, train new team members and boost workplace productivity.” I agree because some of the people I work with struggle to take initiative and I could see myself doing this at a corporation but this time i’m not doing all the work haha. She continues,”Hardworking, honest employees with ambition can keep your company’s morale high. Employees possessing these traits are marketable, can be trusted with increased autonomy and are the ones you want to stick around. Honest, ambitious employees can sometimes be hard to find—so once you have a high-quality candidate pool, find ways to keep them engaged and satisfied.”  I also found this interesting because my whole mentality is if you’re not sure about something you should try it, but not only that you should give it your all. This makes your process even better for anything. Overall, this was a good start and I can’t wait for the next max.

The Nassau County Museum of Art had a virtual show up for the blue exhibit. The concept was to take the color blue and use it however you had pleased. The following were the pieces that I had chosen. 

The first piece I chose was the BBC’s History of Art in Three Colours: Blue video made by Dr James Fox. The exhibit explores how, in the hands of artists, the colours gold, blue and white have stirred our emotions, changed the way we behave and even altered the course of history.  James had discussed this and compared it to how throughout history these colors were always important. In the Middle Ages, the precious blue stone lapis lazuli arrived in Europe from the East, blue became the most exotic and mysterious of colours.  Fox said in his presentation, “ it was artists who used it to offer us tantalising glimpses of other worlds beyond our own.” I agree, seeing a good color blue is what provokes emotion. We use it for graduation, uniforms and even work gear, it’s an important color but it shouldn’t be the only color. 

The next piece I looked at was the Blue storytelling lesson which was a slideshow presentation of a bunch of different blue photos edited together. There were different pictures like the history of the trail of tears and the industrial era. I like how the exhibit doesn’t explain what it’s trying to do and just shows the pictures only with the tint. It allows for the viewer to have their own interpretation of the events and what it means. Also I feel like it’s interesting that the only thing changed from these images were the tint and hue and it was able to spark some sort of conversation. 

Finally the last piece that I looked at during the exhibit was the japanese woodblock demonstration and the history behind it. What I looked at from this was the technique behind the woodblock and how it was different from the europeans and east asian countries. They went more into why blue was important and it was like from the history of color they had to gather lapis and sail it from europe to asian and vice versa. This made blue extremely valuable especially in japan so using it for art meant that it was an expensive piece alone. I agree with the price of the medium influencing the price of the work because of how rare the material was. Overall the Museum exhibit was informative and was able to discuss the influence of a single color. 

Today Lisa assigned us with finishing up learning the boot camp for basecamp and last minute finishes to the animation for the look book. With the basecamp boot camp there are a bunch of lessons that are pretty simple and have instructions on what to do to get the certification. I really hated this program in the beginning of the semester because I didn’t really understand why it was so useful, but then I came to realize that this program was extremely useful especially with the pandemic going on. It allows you to communicate  An additional feature with an upgrade is the ability to deal with clients within Basecamp. You can add them in and give them limited viewing/editing rights, but make them an integral part of your work. While I haven’t used this before, I can imagine it’s a huge help to keep everybody on the same page which would make this important especially for clients. You can finally give them what they want and they can tell you. One thing I figured out about Basecamp was that Basecamp integrates really well with Google Drive allowing you to easily link to Drive files (docs, sheets or slides) so I can keep the links to those files in one place. Sometimes Google Drive can be difficult to manage as shared folders don’t organize into the same folders that two different people have, but in Basecamp they can be in one place. Basecamp only does not allow adobe access which is annoying because if you’re able to link your  adobe cloud account it would be so easy to work on the same documents. You can already do it with Google and Video services you mine as well finish the cycle. These ideas are free basecamp. But other than that I had to do a lot of research on how to format in basecamp and how to make it more efficient. One feature I was experimenting with was the to do list. I was able to sort out the different programs with their own list so each team in the marketing department could focus on their own tasks. This was something similar that Lisa did with the teams with a big project but I was able to use it in a way for the department to finish the simpler tasks. It worked out perfectly. After all Base camp is made in a way for things to be simpler and easier for about 50 people to work on the same thing and was glad she showed us it. 

Today Lisa had sent us a new assignment to work on an animation for the school’s reconstruction of the bell tower. I spoke to my teammate Daniel on how to go about looking to complete the assignment. We both agreed that it would be easier to show that progress from scaffolding to the actual construction. We decided to also go about it from different programs as well. Daniel used premiere I believe and I used after effects. This was probably my favorite assignment to work on from Lisa. I actually felt like a high end designer. We had to talk to the team about how the meaning of the tower changed and how we planned on sending the work through wetransfer. I guess I’ll explain that real quick. WeTransfer is a cloud-based online platform designed to allow you to transfer different types of files for free to other users on the Internet. So we’re bouncing around these files and uploading them quickly and I figured out that I was able to do this. It was fast edits so I would pass it to Lisa she would share then tell me what I need to change. After effects were doing some wonders on these dated pictures I was able to update them. 

I handed them in the following day finally and we were able to use it for their website in the winter. I was also under a light NDA for 2 weeks but now I am off it. Overall this assignment was helpful with time management and overall going through the creative process faster and figuring out designs. The next thing to do would be figuring out if I need to actually edit anything else before going out on break. Which I most definitely need from taking 6 classes in a pandemic on my final semester haha.