Hello dear INFORMATION DESIGN students!
I am very sorry not to be with you on the first day of our class. Unfortunately I tested positive for COVID over the weekend.
Fortunately we are very lucky Professor Pat has kindly agreed to fill in during my absence. >>Professor Pat holds an MFA in graphic design from Yale University and has taught typography, data visualization, and cross-cultural design from private institutions to community colleges, and lectured at universities around the world and he is also an alumni of City Tech. So you are in great hands.
I would like to also take a moment to welcome you and introduce myself. I am a communication designer with a focus on information design and illustration. I am principal designer of >>ARTORIUM, a graphic design studio committed to communicating the essentials of complex information quickly, clearly, and appealingly. My recent work has primarily been as a contract artist for scientists at several research organizations.
I can’t wait to meet you all in person! In the meantime I look forward to learning about you here on this blog post.
Sincerely,
Prof. Hitchings
Add a comment to this post introducing yourself to the class. Please include your academic interests as it relates to Communication Design.
- What is you area of concentration? And why you chose your major?
- What has been your favorite class to date?
- What has been your favorite assignment? Please bring with you to our next class.
- Where do you feel your strengths lie within Communication Design?
- What would you like to get better at?
- Why are you taking Information Design?
- 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 Monday 9/5 It should be between 250-300 words. We do not meet next week, so this will give everyone plenty of time to read.
Before our next class Monday 9/12, 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? Be kind.
My area of concentration is digital arts and graphic design. I chose my major because I felt like it was A LITTLE BIT easy to do. Aside from the fact that, everything is hard in america. I just gotta keep working hard and grinding, to be a motion designer, within that field. (as an attempt).
My been your favorite class to date, is something i’m unfortunately not sure of right now. Since there are so many options, I really apologize, about my uncertainty of this, at this time.
I guess my favorite assignment was my self portrait project, for my vector art class, in the spring 2022 semester. (It should be in my flash drive, to bring in the next class on 9/5/22)
I guess my strengths lie within Communication Design, to the points where I can try to make any design project with pretty appealing colors, text and images to make any of those things (i guess) Even if i’m still learning “that language”.
I like to get better at being more appealing when creating any design, probably in any way, shape or form.
I am taking Information Design because it’s apart of my graduation requirements, it’s apart of my major, I used to make a few infographics myself and i just wanted to check this class out, since i put myself in this class.
I look up and browse anything i want, whenever i want online, i create any design whenever i want, i also like being cool, smart and funny in my own way, watch some youtube videos, whenever i want, I listen to music anytime i want and for now that’s it
Hello Joseph! Thanks so much for getting the conversation started! I can relate to not being sure what part of this field is my favorite. I’ve always enjoyed exploring new directions within graphic design and I think it pays off career-wise. I look forward to meeting you in person and seeing your self portrait!
thank you and come to think of it i don’t have my self portrait. like i said i show you, by any means. i’m sorry. therefore, as an alternative, you can look at my portfolio websites in these links here: https://josephasimengdesign.myportfolio.com/ and https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/jasimeng-eportfolio/
Maybe they’ll be better than the self portrait that is apparently absent. On my end. Maybe you’ll think that, or maybe you won’t. who knows? Until then at least.
oh yeah that’s right and i only said I don’t have my self portrait because I tried to remember where I put it if i placed in my flash drive and it’s not there or my google drive either. Therefore, once again I apologize. Anyway, you can still look that those links I provided asap and tell me what you think.
My area of concentration is to complete 120 credits to complete a degree, to learn about my passion job, which is graphic design, and most importantly, to learn more about Adobe software. The surfaces, patterns, tools, colors, and so forth. I chose to focus on communication design because I have always loved to color, paint, and draw as a child. My favorite class was a photography class that I took in 2019. It was my favorite class because I enjoy taking photos, and in that class, the professor assigned us a camera to use and allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted. I also have many more classes which were my favorites: Photoshop Class and Typography Class. I have a lot of experience in graphic design. I have a lot of favorite assignments I have done. They have been my favorites. The first assignment was a low-poly assignment I did last semester. This was my favorite assignment, which I did and had great fun doing. The other assignment, which was my favorite, was to create something impossible using Photoshop.
I enjoy communicating with others. It’s one of my communication strengths. I am good at interacting with people of various backgrounds. I would like the designer to respect my way of explaining the design or what I am about to present. I would like to get better at sketching and painting because I love images and sketching in my free time. It’s my passion. I enjoy reading my holy book, the Quran and listening to it in my spare time because it is relaxing and helps me learn more about my religion. Also, I like watching different country TV shows. I like learning new languages. I like going shopping, painting, and spending time with my family in my spare time. I love spending time with my little sister. I love to travel to different countries and learn about their traditions.
Hi Iqra! Thanks for sharing. It’s fun to read about your interests and pursuits in Communication Design. If you have any photographs you would like to share, I would love to see. Looking forward to meeting you in person!
My name is Destiny and my major is communication design. I chose this major because I enjoy graphic design and learning more about different adobe programs. I love to learn more about different adobe programs and learn things I knew before but find shortcuts in designing a project. My favorite class to date is probably the advanced typography class I took last semester. I enjoyed this class because I learned a lot in typography and I wanted a class on InDesign. My favorite assignment was making the type specimen book last semester in my advanced typography class. I loved playing around with different fonts and colors to make a book. My strengths in communication design are being a fast learner and helping others with those skills. I want to get better at planning projects out and getting them done the way I like them at the end, sometimes it feels like I can rush at the end changing things up because I don’t like it. I feel like if I plan out the mood board before I can get a project done easier. Sometimes I skip the mood board process of creating a design. I am taking information design because an advisor told me I would enjoy this class when I told her I was going to graphic design for the senior project course. I am curious and excited to see what I can create using graphs and charts to showcase my research with my design. I enjoy doing my nails in my free time, collecting vinyl records, and going to concerts!
Hi, Destiny. It was fascinating to hear how much you appreciate graphic design and to gain more knowledge of the many Adobe programs. These Adobe programs are excellent to use because we will utilize them in the future to develop the things we are passionate about. I also designed a specimen book, which I enjoyed. It was a great way to learn so much about typography.
Hi Destiny, Thanks for sharing. I find type one of the most intimidating parts of designing because there are so many rules and details to be aware of. But when done will it is extremely satisfying. I am curious to hear more about your type class and would love to see your specimen book if you would like to share.
Hi Destiny, I agree using shortcuts is so useful when creating projects. I’m always trying to learn new ones they make work so much quicker. I also really enjoyed my first typography class, I might take advanced typography next semester so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Hello, I am Freddy majoring in Communication design with an area of concentration in Graphic Design. Recently, I have also developed an interest in Layout Design as well as UI/UX. I chose this major because I wanted to gain knowledge and experience in creating visual content. Honestly, I know little to nothing about Information Design. Therefore, I am looking forward to learning how to collect reliable information in order to communicate with clarity. Last fall semester, I took Communication Design 2 which was a collaborative based course. Though each assignment was interesting, I preferred the project in which I had the opportunity to redesign and create a print ad of a potato chip brand, PopChips. Within Communication Design, I would say my strengths are being detailed oriented. Not to mention, most of my designs are minimal. Overall, I hope to gain self-confidence.
During my spare time I scroll through social media and the web for inspiration of other designers. Other than that, I have two pets, a dog and a cat, both just turned a year old!
Hi Freddy, I took communication design as well and we actually had to redesign deli logos which was cool. I hope to gain confidence in my design work as well. I have a cat as well she turns 2 later this year haha!
Interesting. Hi Freddy. Thanks for sharing. Information Design is one of my favorite topics. Looking forward to learning more about your work. And would love to see your PopChips ad if your up for sharing it.
My area of concentration is illustration because I’ve been drawing my whole life and would like to one day illustrate children’s books as well as produce my own work. I chose the major Communication and Design(COMD) because it was best suited for the career path I wanted to go into. My favorite class has been Professor Accardo’s class, Advanced Strategies in Illustration that I took in the fall semester. It was my favorite because I felt like I was really improving myself as an artist and was allowed to be creative and not forced into something I didn’t want to do. I thought the class was engaging and I learned a lot about what it takes to actually be an illustrator, how to get clients, how to construct contracts and all sorts of information about the industry. My favorite assignment that I’ve done is from my Narrative Illustration course where I wrote a story called Evervalley. In short it is a story heavily inspired by the Pixie Hollow franchise. I put a lot of work and dedication into creating the characters and lots of world building went into it. I also really enjoyed my New Yorker cover that I did in Professor Accardo’s class. My strengths are definitely in illustration, I also think I’m good at typography and design. Not necessarily creating your own fonts but designing a page layout and figuring out what looks good where and best for text. I would like to get better at typographic design, despite it being one of my strengths. I don’t spend as much time on it as I do with illustration. I am taking information design because it is required but also because I think I can learn a lot in this course. I enjoy watching tv and playing video games like Ooblets, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon. My favorite movie is Ratatouille.
Hello Angela, I am a big fan of Prof Accardo, so it’s nice to hear you loved his class. I would love to see your Evervalley story or any other of your works that you might like to share. I think at the heart of good information design is good storytelling, so hopefully this class will pair well with your interests.
Hello my name is Maria Iacono and I major in Communication Design specifically focused on the areas of illustration and sometimes typography.
My favorite class to date was called Advanced Strategies in Illustration. I learned a lot from the professor and enjoyed the assignments that were given. That class really helped advance my art (no pun intended) to another level, so im very appreciative for that class.
My strengths within COMD lie in the illustration route. With my art I’m creative (I think) so i think those strengths will help me with this class. And although I love typography I would say I’m more talented in illustration.
I would like to get better at typography because threes always so much more to learn when it comes to that side of things. I’m taking Information Design because it seemed like an interesting course and I felt like I could a lot from this class.
During my spare time I actually just started reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love the movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen so I figured it’s about time to read the book! I also love to draw on my spare time but I’m mostly playing video games or watching youtube videos of video games haha.
Hi Maria, Interesting. It sounds like you and Angela have a lot in common. I would love to see your work as well, if you have any projects you might like to share. As I was just saying above to Angela’s post, I think at the heart of good information design is good storytelling, so hopefully this class will pair well with your interests as well.
Hello my name is Guen Fung and in Communication Design I am specifically focused / invested into motion graphics.
My favorite class is Motion Design Techniques, I enjoy the time frames and using After Effects to create more in depth motions.
One of my favorite assignments I have done is a Google Maps animation. Where I was able to produce a short gif of Google Maps interface and input of text that shows animation on the buttons.
I feel like my strengths in Communication Design is being able to adapt and learn from mistakes, and being able to work with others.
I am taking Information Design, because I really enjoy infographics videos on YouTube, and want to be able to learn more about research and learn how to put ideas together.
As for my free time, I enjoy playing video games and self improvement in them. They let me be at ease as a hobby.
Thanks so much for sharing Guen. Please bring your google maps animation to class. I would love to see!
Hello, my name is Elvis Gordillo. I am currently a Junior here at City Tech and my major is communication design. My main focus in this major is logo design. I really chose this major because I’ve always enjoyed being creative and challenging myself on how creative I can get.
My favorite class to date would have to be (Communication Design I) class. In that class, we had to do a billboard banner ad and make it a pop-out ad. Basically have the billboard pop out. The ad was for a foot powder and advertise how it fights smelly feet. So my concept was to use superheroes to show how it is similar to fighting foot odor with their product. It was all done digitally as a mockup. This was my favorite assignment because I was able to combine two of my favorite things, digital design, and superheroes from comics.
I feel my strengths lie within the brainstorming part and writing out the strategy statement of a project. I can jot down a fair amount of ideas and then choose one that fits best for the project. Then I can comfortably write out our plan for the project to show to my team and the client.
I would like to get better at visually communicating with the public with my work so it is as clear as it can be.
I am taking this class because it looked interesting and useful for my major while I was registering for classes.
I enjoy reading comics and Japanese manga books. I usually watch horror or action movies in my spare time. One of my main hobbies I would say is playing soccer and building computers.
Hi Elvis! Please bring your billboard bannder ad to class. I would love to see. Looking forward to meeting you!
Hello, my name is Sherie Henriquez my area of concentration is illustration and logo design. I chose my major because I’ve always loved art, creating and designing, I just didn’t really see it as my path (or my dream career) until I was attending college trying to pursue a psychology major and I found myself not inspired or driven to take that path and then I just remembered back in Highschool while I was taking art classes. We would only use do projects photoshop and I remember loving it so much, so I said to myself why not ? why not try and go for a path in which I actually enjoyed ? and that’s what I changed my major to graphic Design. My favorite class to date would be illustration I, Drawing I and a photoshop class I had in the past. My favorite assignment was a time where I had to do a self-portrait illustration in any style I wanted. I Believe some of my strengths in Communication Design lie within designing for major companies or illustrating. I would like to get better at sketching and im taking information design because I don’t really know much about it and want to learn more.
I love listening to music, painting with acrylic and oils, and just going out with friends/family on my free time.
Good for you Sherie. Thanks for sharing! It’s always interesting to hear how designers find their path. I look forward to seeing your work and continuing the conversation!
Hello, my name is Kyle Nam. My area of concentration is mainly Graphic Design, but I have also taken classes on 2D Animation and UI/UX Design, and am willing to branch out into other specializations if necessary. I chose the Communication Design major in the first place because I enjoy working with design software like those found in the Adobe creative suite. My favorite class so far has been COMD 4701 The Design Team. I liked this class because it allowed me to see what designs I created might actually look like in real life through the use of mockups. My favorite assignment was a logo design exercise where we were asked to use the initials of our names to create a series of potential logos. I enjoyed working with the different shapes and fonts in this assignment to create various designs. I feel that my strengths in Communication Design lie mainly in quickly coming up with a workable design, and immediately knowing the steps I need to take to create it. Something I would like to get better at is not being stubborn about sticking to the original vision I have for a design and being unwilling to make significant changes to it. Specifically, I would like to be able to more quickly understand when a particular design might have issues so that I don’t waste time on it only to realize that I have to rework it later on. I am taking Information Design firstly as credit towards my degree, and secondly because I would like to learn how to more efficiently utilize data in design. I occasionally use streaming services like Netflix or Hulu to enjoy watching movies.
HI Kyle! I so agree with you. I wish I were more flexible and could try out a range of possibilities before settling on a final. We will be talking a bunch about process this semester. I find it really interesting to learn about how others work – helps to gain perspective. Looking forward to meeting you tomorrow!
Illustration and advertisement are my areas of expertise in communication design. I’ve always had an interest in drawing and sketching since I was a kid. That is why I went into graphic design because I want to be an artist but also like how graphic design looks. My favorite class so far has been Identity design where we made a logo and packing for a hot sauce label. It was the first class I had an opportunity to show my design skills. I believe I have a good grasp on all programs, but I specialize in a lot of illustrator and photoshop. I would love to get more depth with InDesign and make design with typography. I’m taking information design to learn and better use text and using information to covey a message. I learning how to use procreate on my free time to make use of my iPad more.
Hello everyone, my name is Mercedes. I am majoring in communication design. I originally chose this major because I had an interest in design such as logos, posters, and typography. However, I was not very sure what direction I wanted to go toward or what my end goal was. After many classes and learning more about the field and its many possibilities, I became very interested in brand identity and design. That is something I plan on getting more familiar with and eventually pursuing as a career. I believe my favorite class to date was the design team. The projects in that class taught me a lot about cohesiveness throughout branding and skills in photoshop that I wasn’t familiar with before. My favorite assignment came from that class which was creating a logo for a surf shop in Rockaway. I think my strengths lie in my attention to detail. I would like to get better at illustrator and photoshop. In illustrator, I would like to learn more about manipulating texts and using that to create logos and unique brand designs. I am taking information design because I believe it will be useful to understand how to efficiently present information. There’s more to a presentation than just looking nice and that’s what I hope to learn in this class. In my spare time, I enjoy reading self-help books such as Atomic Habits, or biographies such as The Legacy of Luna which is one I’m reading currently.
Hi Mercedes,
I enjoyed reading. Interesting. And I so agree with you ‘there’s more to a presentation than just looking nice…’ This class will hopefully underscore that point!
My name is Faye, my major is communication design, concentration in advertising and UI/UX area. Design is always my passion and interest, to have the ability of turning ideas to a real-life product is what I always desired to. This is the main reason that I chose this major.
I enjoyed all my major courses because I learned a lot of very useful design skills. My favorite classes are probably typography and UI/UX. Typography is the foundation of design, and this course taught me a lot. UI/UX courses are more in line with future trends in the industry in recent years. User experience design should start from the perspective of customers and combine design with behavioral psychology. I learned a lot of interesting survey methods in this class, which made me very interested in this industry.
There are also many of my favorite projects, whether it is the design of advertisements or posters, I think they are all very interesting. Because I try to make myself interested in the subject, so that my design will have my passion and soul. Therefore, it is hard to tell which project is my favorite one.
I think my strengths in design industry is that I like to study user psychology very much, and I am also very willing to design products from the user’s point of view. I am willing to spend a lot of time doing research first, and then making targeted design.
I like to get better at software skills, I know these skills take time to accumulate, I’m willing to learn more and more design tricks.
The reason of taking information design is that I want to learn the techniques of digitalize and visualize information. In the future era, being as a designer, it is very important to master this skill. Because people are getting used to speaking with pictures instead of words.
During my spare time, I like to read and watch documentary videos and financial related videos. I like to read fiction, such as mystery novels and some modern literature. I read Chinese books most of the time because my native language is Chinese. I will watch different types of documentaries through different channels, both in Chinese and English. For Chinese documentaries, I like to watch some Asian history, culture, food and travel topics. For English documentaries, I like to watch popular science, economy, environment, nature and other themes. Recently, I watched “the social dilemma” on Netflix, the film depicts how modern people are being manipulated by social media without knowing it. I think it’s very interesting and would like to recommend it to everyone.
My name is Calvin Garcia. I’m focused on UX/UI, web, and brand design. I chose this major because I’ve always been a creative individual and decided that I should take a gamble on myself and go back to school and pursue creativity as a career.
My favorite class up until this point has probably been UX design. It was such an eye opening and intriguing class.
My favorite project to date has been the UX design project that I did with my team which saw us designing a recipe finder app.
My strength in communication design is in using typography and symbols to convey a message.
I would like to get better as using typography as a design element as well as manipulating typography to create custom work.
I’m taking information design because I believe that in UX design you need clever ways to display large amounts of data in a small space. I would like to learn the methodology behind it.
I’m a complete nerd, I love wrestling, comic books, and video games, and owe most of what sparked my creativity to comic books and video games.
Hi my name is Wilna Michel, most people call me Winnie. My concentration is Graphic Design and Branding. So far my Favorite class has been Design Team. That class was fun, my favorite Project was designing sneaker design for converse. My strengths are color and Typography. I would love to get better in illustrator, AfterEffects and Photoshop. I have experience in all programs mentioned but I still need more practice. I amm taking Information Design to get a better knowledge in this topic. I had a project within my internship on information Design, but had a problem grasping the idea. I love to read books and listen to music in my free time, it helps me relax .
Hi, my name is Sadman Hafiz and I’m a Communication Design student. My focus is on illustration but I’m still thinking about other platforms that interest me. I’m taking a few illustration classes this semester for which I’m very excited and can’t wait to see what I will learn from these. I always enjoy getting better at doing illustrations.
I’m taking Information design this semester because it’s a requirement for my major and also because the title “Information Design” seemed very interesting to me and I wanted to know what this class is all about.
My favorite class so far in my college career was professor Maureen’s Vector Art, she is by far the best professor I had. I learned so much from professor Maureen, I would love to have her in my future classes. I have loved every project I did in her class but my most favorite project was a team project that I did with my partner Younique. It was a project where we created 6 different posters to represent the struggles of LGBTQ community. This was a project that we did in professor Vishak’s Communication Design II class.
I love painting and using traditional art mediums, I have done many paintings and sketches for fun. I mostly do paintings of landscape and nature and I recently started to enjoy doing fanart and digital painting. Moving forward I want to keep painting as one of my career choices along with graphic design. I also enjoy Anime and gaming, my favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and my current favorite show is The Squid Games.
Hi Sadman,
Thanks for sharing. Is your focus illustration or graphic design or both? I also loved ‘Catcher in the Rye’!