M. Genevieve Hitchings | COMD2400 - OL07 | FALL 2020

Discussion: Introductions

Add a comment to this post introducing yourself to the class. Please include your academic interests as it relates to Communication Design.

  1. What is you area of concentration? And why you chose your major?
  2. Did you enjoy COMD2300? What was your favorite assignment?
  3. Where do you feel your strengths lie within Communication Design?
  4. What would you like to get better at?
  5. What do you enjoy reading, listening to, watching, and doing in your spare time? Or anything else you want to share!

Please add your introduction by this Friday 8/28. It should be between [250-300 words].

Before next class, read the comments and get to know your classmates! 

For extra credit, reply to one of your classmates’ comments. Do you have something in common? Did you learn something?

15 Comments

  1. Andrew Chen

    As a Communication design major, I am focusing on advertising. I really enjoy the idea of creating digital work that gives a meaningful message. It is also fun to come up with ideas to reach out to the target audience. On my free time, I practice food photography. My Instagram is mainly sushi experience, but I am transitioning to local restaurants to help small businesses. From my experience, I always felt that I have great ideas and structure on how I want this project done, but my execution is below average. Sometimes I feel that my work are out of style or too boring and I want to make it more alive. I need to practice more with editing, using Adobe.
    Last semester I had an amazing learning experience in Communication Design I, I got to create many poster projects. One of my favorite works was making a poster for Kids Breaking League. They were recruiting young kids into break dancing, but they needed a persuasive poster. This project, I got to play around with colors to make the splash art and had a silhouette break dancer in front of it. The splash art expresses the dance form and the silhouette is the message, the person who is looking at the poster can feel that it could be him or her. With great critiques from my classmates I was able to make big improvements. I needed a background, so I added a brick wall with a graffities on it.
    With a great 1st year at City Tech, I want to learn and grow more in Communication Design. I hope to find more new skills and knowledge and build a strong portfolio, so I will be ready for the design world.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Thanks for sharing Andrew! Very interesting to hear. Is your Kids Breaking League posted anywhere? Would love to see. I can relate and feel it can be so hard (and disappointing) to make that original idea come alive in the way one had intended it to. But I have also come to realize that often it’s the unexpected mistakes that happen along the way that can morph into even better concepts than one had originally intended. Iteration and creative flexibility can be strengthened through practice, practice, practice – just like playing the piano or skateboarding…

      I only saw that your video and audio froze after all had jumped off today. Let me know if you have questions about anything. Have a good weekend!

  2. Avion Bailey

    As a senior in high school, I didn’t really have a clear path on what I wanted to pursue as a career. In that year, I took a Graphic Design class and fell in love with it. In that class we had to design a poster for my city to get a bond for upgrading the schools. This was probably my first taste of advertising and I found it exciting. Throughout college experience, I find my interests leaning towards logos/ icons or branding. In Comd 2300 I found the final project, which was a poster design, the most interesting of all the assignments. We were required to make a poster that advertised an exhibit of a famous designer. Making a piece that not only captures one’s eye but also draws them in has been a goal of mine when creating. That project gave me that opportunity. I’ve found that one of my strengths when designing is being direct with what I’m trying to communicate. I enjoy bold, in your face design. Art that doesn’t try to be too complicated but contain subtle hints of it. However, executing a design to completion has been a struggle for me. Getting more knowledgeable with the software has been a goal of mine. In my spare time I enjoying, sports (primarily soccer), gaming, and anime. When it comes to books, I find graphic/ fantasy novels enjoyable.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Hi Avion! Thank you for sharing. Good to know. Welcome to 2400! I so agree with you: ‘Making a piece that not only captures one’s eye but also draws them in has been a goal of mine when creating.’ Good design can be so powerful and has the ability to persuade and change minds. Looking forward to working with you this semester and getting to know your work!

  3. Ana Santana

    Hi everyone!

    I am working towards my BFA in Communication Design and I want to concentrate on web design & graphic design. I’m also curious about advertising and illustration but I’ll keep that as my side options for the mean time. I am the type of person that would like to know everything about anything that really interests me. I chose this major because it is the one thing I can keep my attention on and I do find myself thinking about design and often draw out layouts and making things look pretty to the eye.

    I did enjoy COMD 2300 and my favorite part was the making and forming of ligatures. There’s just something about type that I adore!

    I realize I work better at life when I am surrounded by creative minds. I want to get better at inspiring myself on my own now that we have to do distant learning.

    My strengths within COMD are definitely in typography and the ability to play with placement of words and letters on their own to create funky designs.

    As of late, I’ve really been into Japanese reality shows! One called “Terrace House” on Netflix actually inspired me to go back to school and finish up my BFA!

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Hi Ana,

      I am so excited that you love typography! I find it the meat and potatoes of design. And I so agree that it’s exciting and inspiring to be connected to others who share a similar passion for design. Each week we will look into the archives of the graphic design/ advertising world for inspiration and reference. I will provide more detail about that next week.

      Thanks for sharing!

  4. Shandale Ricketts

    My area of concentration is Graphic Design and I’m still deciding if I want to add some advertisement apart of my studies as well. I chose this major because I took a graphic design course at BMCC and thoroughly enjoyed my time in that class and making the graphics I made. I did enjoy COMD2300, my favorite assignment was making a dust cover for a book just based on small prompts and the title of what the book was supposed to be. Some strengths I think I have are spacing and choosing the right kind of type, I go through about 5-10 different fonts to get a feel of which one would bring my project together the most. I want to get better at doing more stuff in photoshop, for example creating stunning images that would catch your eye on a flyer, billboard or etc. I don’t read much anymore but I have started Farenheit 451 and enjoying it! I’m not currently watching anything and I mostly play video games in my spare time.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Hi Shandale,

      Good to know. It’s great to hear how you came into the field of graphic design. I’m thrilled to hear you also love typography. Photoshop is a fun program as is Illustrator – the possibilities are endless. As I mentioned under Andrew’s post it can be hard to turn a ‘vision’ into reality. Both programs are so endlessly time consuming, but if you love designing the time passes much too quickly…

      Looking forward to getting to seeing your work.

      P.S. I read Farenheit 451 a thousand years ago. I remember really liking it even though it was terrifying . A timely book!

  5. Favian

    Hi!
    Sorry, a little late for this introduction. I don’t really have an area of concentration because I’m only going for my associates but after taking COMD, I realized I do enjoy doing typography like magazine layouts and such. If I had to choose though, I would probably go for graphic design. Honestly, I chose this major because I would rather do projects than write papers and solve problems. That’s the main reason but growing up, I have been drawing until high school, where I sort of became less interested in it. I did enjoy COMD2300. My favorite project that I did for that class was a cover we had to do for a magazine for a designer and I did it on George Bokhua. I feel like I’m very average as a designer so I would like to have a better sense of design. In my spare times, I like to watch movies, watch youtube videos and make music.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Welcome to COMD2400 Favian! Thanks for sharing. You will find that a large part of what we do as Communication Designers is solve problems and writing plays a big role as well, but hopefully you will discover that comes naturally when you need to be creative. Looking forward to discussing in more detail in Friday’s class.

  6. Yvan Zoniaba

    My name is Yvan Zoniaba and my area of concentration is Graphic Desighn/Advertisement. I thoroughly enjoyed COMD2300 and my favorite assignment was the one in which we were tasked to create an advertisement campaign for a break dancing studio. It was very exciting because we actually got to work with a real client and it allowed us to simulate the class as a real design studio. My strengths are definitely Adobe Illustrator, that is the software I am most comfortable using when doing my graphic design work. I would like to get better at Photoshop and InDesign since those are other standards of the industry. I would also like to develop my skills in the motion based software such as Premiere, Animate and After Effects. Web Design is also a discipline I would like to continue learning. I am avid fan out fantasy, horror and mystery novels, I also love mangas and comics. I listen to every type of music but recently, I am very much into African music and Kpop. My spare time consists of eating, sleeping and working on personal and freelance projects.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Hi Yvan – good to hear. I will agree there are so many programs out there that can really push one’s work in new and amazing directions. I find it overwhelming at times but the potential of it all keeps me going. Finding the time needed to learn the new, is the frustrating part but I try to pick away at things and if I stick to it long enough it does lead to the occasional success. 🙂

  7. Kimba Alleyne

    My name Kimba Alleyne, I am a transfer student from BMCC. Overall I enjoy all aspects of graphic design. I currently do freelance work for friends and family. I have done birthday invitations, programs for events, brochures, and a little more. The area of concentration that I am leaning towards is Packaging Design, Product Photography, and possibly Web Designing. Being creative is what makes me passionate and inspired to be a designer and that’s why I chose this major. At BMCC I took Visual Communication I am not sure if this class is similar to COMD2300 but in that class, we had an assignment with creating a map (I called the project Map of my Heart, it was a shape of a heart cut up in pieces that represents my past, present & future) and designing logos (we had to design for 3 clients 3 different ways) in Adobe Illustrator which I really enjoyed. Those projects made me realize how much research is important when designing anything. I usually work in Illustrator, Indesign, and XD but would like to get better at Photoshop. In my spare time, I like to watch DIY projects on Youtube and on TV. Also coming up with creative ways to entertain my 3-year-old.

    • M. Genevieve Hitchings

      Welcome Kimba! Fun to hear. Research is key to excellent work. Glad to hear you are so immersed with it all. I look forward to getting to know you and your work!

  8. Florence Litchmore-Smith

    Florence F Litchmore-Smith

    My area of concentration is Communication Design. Why i choose this area was based on Graphical Design, not Typographical Design. Although I like to design my own text-form, but as a piece of art, and not “just text”. My strength in Communication Design is more of a feel in Graphical Design using “Text form and picture form” although i understand that colors and spacing are important in Communication Design. As the class progress, i will know what I like to get better at. In my spare time I like to rest first, then set priorities for unfinished projects, with a feel to do completions. It may be just reading a piece of art; i have promised myself to do, or speaking to individuals about the weather, in relationship to feeling hot or cold; and what is current as News Feed.

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