My name is Samantha Yu and I’m a second year student at New York City College of Technology majoring in Art and Advertising/ Communication Design. In the future, my plan is to be in the advertising field promoting new products that can influence a variety of people. This is the best career for me because I enjoy designing and designing allows me to be innovative, sophisticated, and impactful to the society.

Entering one of the most competitive fields in the world, advertising gives me the opportunity to give my designs a shot during my studies and in reality. Entering New York City College of Technology (NYCCT) for their technology and design as a Communication Design major can help me accomplish my goals. From the 2013-2014 NYCCT College Catalog, it states that, “The advertising AAS degree program provides students with a solid foundation in theory and current practices of the advertising design industry.” (NYCCT College Catalog, 189-190) After my studies at NYCCT, I am hoping to get jobs as a freelance at first, for starters, and then work my way up to being a head designer or even opening up my own agency. In Rebecca Vander Meulen’s, What Can You Do With an Arts Major? she states, “According to the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts, the arts and culture industry creates about 5.7 million full-time jobs every year, nationwide…art students go into fields like book design, advertising, art law, and medical illustration…art majors possess skills business leaders need: creativity and the ability to communicate.” (Meulen, 22) In this essay, I will further explain my reasons for pursuing a career in this field.

“Foundation Class Drawings” (Yu, Foundation Class Drawings)

One of my biggest passions while growing up was drawing because I like to be innovative. I would always randomly doodle on things or use my skills to develop cards and presentations. During my academic life in public schools, I never had the chance to take any art classes because there weren’t any art classes offered. As I entered NYCCT, I finally get the chance to take art courses as a Communication Design major. Along the way, I realized that entering the advertising field is the only way for me to pursue an art and design future. According to the 2013-2014 NYCCT College Catalog, “Students are offered a broad range of foundation courses- from figure drawing, design and color, typography, photography, and design studio procedures to advanced courses including digital media, video, animation, graphic design, advertising, illustration, web design, packaging design, and an advertising design internship.” (NYCCT College Catalog, 189-190) As I noticed this, I realized that this major is the major that I am going to go with. It states that there will be drawing classes, design studios, and photography, and all of these are things that I am interested in. I like designing and drawing because I have a big imagination. My imagination allows me to create and develop my own unique designs that differ from everyone else’s. According to Graphic Knowledge: Albrecht Dürer and the Imagination by Peter Parshall, “Painting calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not really exist. The painter is given freedom to compose a figure, standing, seated, half-man, half horse, as he pleases, according to his imagination.” (Parshall, 396) I think this quote is stating that even though imagination is not something that can be seen, it is something that works behind the scene of every person to make a good piece. Being innovative and imaginative is the first step to bringing me closer to my career goals because in the field of advertising, these are the most important elements.

“Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator” (Yu, Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator) 

Designing helps me be more sophisticated in the advertising field because it brings challenges to myself. I can develop new ideas and I want my ideas to be shown to the world rather than it remaining in my head. This field is not only just about drawing and designs though. It also involves knowledge of business, presentation, and sophistication. Even with a good design, a designer needs to know how to show sophistication and professionally present their ideas to their customers. According to A Day in the Life of the New Design Student, Shareen Pathak mentions, “…schools are increasingly combining design thinking (which focuses on user experience through anthropological research) with more traditional business programs. Design thinking is integral to solving business problems.”(Pathak, par.5,12) From these two statements taken from the article, it proves that designing is helpful to even business students. Even MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree students should have a MA(Master of Art) degree to better display professional ideas. As a result, being a design student isn’t only beneficial to me and my presentations, but also to people in the business field.

“Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements” (Yu, Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements)

Advertising means reality and reality means being impactful to the society or else you will be neglected and thrown aside. Every original idea that I would have to come up with in my future career will have to leave an impression to audiences. As an artist and designer, I would want my work to impact people whether it is positively or negatively. Kim Berman, author of Imagination and Agency seems to agree with what I think too. “Artists often sit on the margins of society; that gives us the opportunity to change its shape and to draw new outlines. Our ability to imagine, to visualize, to innovate, to put together things that don’t naturally belong together, permits us to collaborate effectively with others who are working for positive change in society.”(Berman, 3) Not only do we as artists want to change society, but we aid others into doing so too.

My education at New York City College of Technology prepares me for my future career in the advertising field. In my opinion, before any impactful advertisements are produced, I must take the proper courses first. This semester, I have a couple of very knowledgeable professors, but there was on that really influenced me. To pursue a career in this field, one would need to take Graphic Principle courses because this course teaches people how to visually look at things. I am currently taking the first part of it and we learn how to perfectly make a piece of art fit on a page according to perspective, proportions, colors, and contrast. This is significant to my future career because these things are needed to create a good advertisement. I found this course most useful, so I had an interview with my Graphic Principles professor, Stella Nicolaou, through email, about this field. “I had a great and privileged education, studied with well-known creative people in the field. They passed a wealth of information to me. Over the years, I have developed much curriculum to help students, published and displayed work, made numerous public lectures, work written up in the media, etc. Like any field one has passion for, it is important to always work on being your best. You also need to keep up with technology; software is always changing and the vehicle for communications. One also needs to be patient and persistent when seeking opportunities. Opportunities will come but not specifically when one expects them.”(Nicolaou, par.4,6-7) Like Professor Nicolaou, I would also like to be privileged with a great education, have numerous works displayed and published, and influence many people. So in order to pursue a career in the advertisement field, education is significant and a good impactful impression should be left with your audience and society.

Pursuing a career in the advertising field is not an easy thing. It is one of the most competitive fields in the world and there are many agencies. With just a passion of designing and drawing it is not enough to get into this field. In order to get a career in this field, one must be convincing, educated, imaginative, and influential. With these important elements, opportunities are more likely to come your way. Like Professor Nicolaou mentions, “One also needs to be patient and persistent when seeking opportunities. Opportunities will come but not specifically when one expects them.”(Nicolaou, par. 6-7)

Works Cited

          Berman, Kim. “Imagination and Agency.” Matatu: Journal for African Culture & Society 44 (2013): 3-14. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.

New York City College of Technology, College Catalog 2013-2014. 2014. PDF. 3 Nov. 2014

Nicolaou, Stella. Email to the author. 4 Dec. 2014. Email.

Parshall, Peter. “Graphic Knowledge: Albrecht Dürer and the Imagination.” Art Bulletin 95.3 (2013): 392-410. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.

Pathak, Shareen. “A Day in the Life of the New Design Student.” Advertising Age 83.86 (2012): 1-1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

            Vander Meulen, Rebecca. “What Can You Do With An Arts Major?” Careers & Colleges 29.2 (2010): 22-24. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Yu, Samantha. “Exploring High Value Contrast on Advertisements.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014

Yu, Samantha. “Foundation Class Drawings.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014

Yu, Samantha. “Graphic Designing With Indesign and Illustrator.” Flickr. 6 Dec. 2014.Web. 6 Dec. 2014

INTRODUCTION

In this project, I was given the opportunity to give my thoughts some reflection by recording everything I was thinking about throughout a day. Recording my thoughts every half an hour, along with taking pictures, gives me a better insight of who I am as an individual. It showed how my actions and memories can really bring beneficial and detrimental effects to my future.

THINKING IN WRITING

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

11:30: I should start on this eng project

the main character is being stupid

12:00: what time should I leave the house?

Should I lay here and just watch a little more?

12:30: I’m hungry.

This is boring.

I want to play volleyball.

1:00: when should I do this pile of hw?

I’ll do it tomorrow…hopefully.

1:30: my bed feels too good.

I should get up and play some ball.

Nahh…gonna keep laying and watching tv

2:00: I’m craving ramen.

Should I get up to make one? Nahh.

2:30: this show is boring and stupid now.

Should I start to get ready now?

3:00: ok, I’m going to force myself up now

Time to get ready.

3:30: what should I wear?

What should I bring besides my camera?

Do I need a ball?

4:00: should I go to Baruch’s game or Lab’s game?

Why is this train so slow?

I want to play volleyball really badly now

Dam, I’m awake. how did I miss my stop?

4:30: I’m early. I’ll watch the first game

Graphic arts sucks this year

ELRO is beast

5:00: ELRO won.

Should I warmup with Baruch? I will.

5:30: game time. Who’s going to win?

6:00: how did Baruch lose the first set?

6:30: Baruch won second set

7:00: this is dragging way too long

Third set.

7:30: finally finished. Should I go home?

What to do when I get home?

8:00: it’s so boring…I rather be playing

8:30: should I do my hw?

How long should this paper be?

This perspective drawing is confusing.

Which color should I use?

9:00: this is taking forever

I still have other hw to do

10:00: finally dinner time.

SOF vb team bugging me about playing on Saturday

10:30: gonna stall time by eating slow

11:00: should I continue hw?

I’ll just lay around, watch tv and continue tomorrow

12:30: I should shower, I sweat before

1:00: going to watch tv until I fall asleep

Can’t wait to coach Baruch and SOF on Saturday

THINKING VISUALLY

Doing My Foundation Drawing Assignment (Yu, “Foundation Drawing Assignment”)

Spectating Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session (Yu, “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session”)

Watching 22 Jump Street (Yu, “Watching Television”)

THINKING RHETORICALLY AND REFLECTIVELY 

How often do every individual actually take the time off their busy schedule to think about their own thoughts? Not very often, nor likely. To think about our own thoughts also means thinking about what connects to them and those connections are just memories, which leads us to be thrown off track about what we were initially thinking about. Confusing? It’s just my own thinking and logic by simply saying that even the process of thinking is a procrastination of our mind. My name is Samantha Yu and I’m an expert at focusing on things that I set my mind to and I’m also very indecisive which leads to me having an unpredictable future. Through this essay, I would be expressing my most important thoughts about my past, present, and future self, not only through words, but also visually through photos. To start it off, the assignment was introduced to us, instructing us to log our thoughts in a day every half an hour, and taking pictures alongside. The most important thoughts, themes, and pictures were then picked out and summarized to narrow down the significance of the day and ourselves. Now, going back to my day of thoughts, I can see that everything can lead to different consequences to my future personal, academic, and professional life. I argue that my thoughts are a procrastination, they’re all over the place, and I need to work on focusing them on the things that matter. From looking at all my different actions in a day, it shows that my thoughts lead to procrastinating actions that can affect my future personal, academic, and professional life.

From the moment I wake up till when I sleep again, there are always the same three thoughts that I think about every day. First, is the mountain load of homework that waits for me to complete it. The sight of my homework instantly gives me thoughts such as, “I should really start on this English project…” and “Should I do my homework? How long should this paper be?(SYu, par.1,39-40)” My mind is all over the place most of the time due to all the different amount of workload and stress given by my professors. With my personality, whenever I start something, I would finish it till the end. But before I start the things, I have moments of doubt, uncertainty, and indecisiveness. For example, sometimes I would say things like, “Do I really want to start this? Will I be able to accomplish it? Do I have the confidence to stay focus all the way?” And when I see all those words on the same assignment sheet, I just end up getting scared and try avoiding it. In the picture “Foundation Drawing Assignment”, I was attempting to complete my Foundation Drawing class’s homework, but all those words on the assignment sheet just looks extremely horrifying to me. Thoughts like these are what throws me off track. Luckily, I do try to remind myself about the significance and benefits of the workload every once in awhile. I would think about how doing and accomplishing these assignments would give me the satisfying grades I so desperately want and determined to get. Sometimes my own reminders work and sometimes it doesn’t work, so when it doesn’t work, I just end up getting lazy. I’m all over the place when it comes to commitment of doing homework and I should work on focusing on it more because it matters to my future academic life.

The second thing that I think about every day, are physical activities. As noticed from my first argument, I can’t commit myself to doing homework all the time, and the main reason for that is because I can’t sit still. My body always feel the urge to get up and move around. Whether it be running around the blocks, playing handball, basketball, soccer, or volleyball, I need to do at least one to be satisfied for the day. My love for sports lead me to becoming the assistant coach for the School of the Future High School Volleyball Team and Handball Team. Out of all the sports mentioned, I have the strongest passion for volleyball. I’m so passionate about it that at some points I could play eight hours straight without resting or eating. In the picture “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session”, it shows my main location of that day at Robert F. Wagner Middle School’s Gym watching the Baruch College Campus High School vs. Pace High School volleyball game. The picture brings out a meaning to me that is more important in my point of view than any other’s. It shows dedication, confidence, and most importantly, teamwork. These Baruch girls gave me the honor of coaching and drilling them for a day before their first game and I was more than glad that I could assist them, so I also went to support their first game. During their game, I kept thinking to myself, “Who’s going to win? They have a similar skill level. How did Baruch lose the first set? Baruch won the second set. This is actually dragging way longer than it should. Finally into third set, and Baruch won!(SYu, par. 31-36)” Occasionally, during those thoughts, I somehow start to think back to my stressful amount of homework and where should I go after the game is over. Like previously described, my thoughts are everywhere. Now, to tie back to my argument, volleyball is definitely described as part of me, but it’s also a distraction and the procrastination to my professional future, as my parents would describe it. They think that it’s merely something useless and should just be left in my high school past and memories because playing volleyball all the time would not help me pursue a career anywhere. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I do agree to their concerns because I never was the smartest in academics. The stereotype, Asian parents are very strict with grades lower than A’s, is mostly true. To most Asian parents, they are very strict when it comes to our grades, because they know what hardship is. They don’t want us to experience the same hardship as them because of their low educational status, so they demand more from their kids to have a brighter future. Having my parents and school work in thought, I cut down more on practices and play time this year for work and school, but I know that when next Summer rolls in, I’m going straight back onto the courts and Nationals. Now, unfortunately, the college I attend, New York City College of Technology, don’t have their own volleyball team and that made me a little unhappy. On the bright side, that will keep my mind more on school work and lead me to be focused on the more important matters.

The final thing that I think about daily is sleep and television. It’s obvious, I don’t have much time to think about things like these unless it’s my day off, but it’s actually a constant thing in my head. After the Fall 2014 semester started, I have been pulling all-nighters everyday because of school work and television. True, I have a lot of stressful homework but once I get it done or nearly done, most of the time ends up to be watching television instead of sleeping. The reason I do this is because I have a mindset of having to watch a little bit of TV a day, or else my day would feel completely non-entertaining. And since I have this kind of mindset, this leads me to watch into early morning without even realizing it, and the next thing I know, I have to go to school. In the picture, “Watching Television,” it shows me staying up after homework to watch 22 Jump Street. The most sleep I ever got on a school night was 4 hours and during weekends, I try to sleep in. Throughout the day, I just think about wanting to sleep and being lazy, but I restrict myself of having those thoughts. At night, I would think, “Should I continue homework?…Nope, I’ll just lay around, watch TV, and continue it tomorrow since it’s not even due yet.(SYu, par. 49-50)” Sometimes, in my opinion, I think sleep is not really a complete necessity and productivity is more important. Of course, in order to have productivity, one must have rest and sleep, but my opinion has no logic, it’s just my opinion. I think using every minute of your life to do something productive, rather than sleep, is more important. Like for me, I choose sports and television over sleep, but maybe it’s just because I’m already used to it. Saying this, brings it to how my third argument is about sleep being my third procrastination in life. So continuously being productive means continuously having thoughts and because I don’t sleep much, it gives me a lot of time to think about many things, whether it be important or not. My thoughts about sleep messes with my mind, and I should really change that because sleep is what matters most to every living thing and it would definitely show a detrimental effect to my future personal life.

The most important things in my life all show a beneficial and detrimental effect to my future whether it be personally, academically, or professionally. School work, volleyball, and sleep are all very important to me, but what I need to learn to do is how to control my thoughts of each thing in order to live a less-stressful future. Having my thoughts all over the place every second, leads me to take my mind off the things that actually matter in life.

 Works Cited

1) aznsam366 [Samantha Yu]. “Re: Project 1: Thinking in Writing.” OpenLab. ENG1101 D346 English Composition 1, FA2014, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

2) Yu, Samantha. “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014

3) Yu, Samantha. “Foundation Drawing Assignment.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014

4) Yu, Samantha. “Watching Television.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014