Hannah Koo

Response to AIGA Ethics

Response to AIGA Ethics

#1 Client’s guide to design

AIGA is a professional organization for design. They offer a lot of resources and guides for designers. One of the first guides provided in the Design business and Ethics section is Client’s guide to design. And I liked it very much. When I was new and inexperienced in this field, I met several clients asking for pro bono or spec work. Also, their demands were unbelievably difficult. I don’t blame them because they don’t know anything about design, much less how it works.

We, designers will have to be the ones that lead the clients.

There are also a lot of memes for designers that joke about how ignorant clients are.

I think if every designer had their client read this guide it would be a great help. Not that I will comply with someone’s request for a spec work but if friends of mine ask, at least they will have to do their homework.

#2 Use of illustrations/photography

Guides for use of illustrations and photography are intended for clients and designers also. It is simply talking about how designers can work with illustrations and photography providing guides to Contracting, Specifications and deadlines, payments, fees and rights.

#3 Guide to copyright

This guide provides detailed information about copyright law from what is copyrightable to Transfers and terminations, Copyright duration, and even how to register creative work.

This one is closely related to the previous blogpost about Shepard Fairey.

The Shepard Fairey case wouldn’t have happened if Fairey had considered the copyright laws more discreetly. Thus understanding of copyright is necessary for designers and clients.

Response to Shapard Fairey’s Copyright Case

Response to Shapard Fairey’s Copyright Case

AP And Shepard Fairey Settle Lawsuit Over Obama Image; Fairey ...

I’ve seen this poster so many times researching for graphic design inspirations. Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster is definitely one of the most well-known posters. Especially, if you look at poster designs on Pinterest, algorithms will keep directing you to this image.

I didn’t know the artist of this poster was going through a lawsuit over copyright.

In short, Shepard Fairey is a graphic artist and used the picture of Obama that was shot and posted by The Associated Press. And then, the poster became a huge success that The Associated Press recognized that the silhouette and angle of the poster matches their photo and sued Shepard Fairey.

It is quite alarming to me, because as a graphic design student who doesn’t look at photo references to generate a vector graphic? So I got to look into the term “fair use”

Fair use is decided by four factors as follow:

Who the user is, what is being used, how much was used and how does the use affect the original.

In this case, I guess Fairey violated all three points except what is being used. Because I personally don’t think the original photo was highly creative work. However, Fairey’s poster was used for profit and the original silhouette is the 100% of the work– not like it was a small part of a big painting. Moreover, it became famous enough to outshine the original photo.

Online Exhibit Review #1: Show must go online “We=Link”

Online Exhibit Review #1: Show must go online “We=Link”

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the physical side of the world has been on pause. As a result, the digital side of the world has been utilized to the fullest. Musicians throw free concerts on YouTube and also many organizations and institutions are holding online webinars, workshops and classes. Even though the last thing I expected to see online was Exhibit, here is an online exhibit “We=Link” conceived and curated by ZHANG Ga of Chronus Art Center.

Online exhibition: https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/we-equals-link-ten-easy-pieces

When you click on the exhibit link, you will see the list of artists’ projects as follow:

Projects are basically digital arts programmed with CSS and Javascript.

There was one artist that specifically captured my eye. This artist has journals of days of quarantine. Each journal differentiates in format for instance, drawing, digits and video etc.

And there was another artist who displayed a massive amount of typical expressions in well wishes.

정신과 영수증

This reminded me of a Korean author who wrote a journal with her daily receipts.

Interestingly, I got the same feeling when I went to the physical museum. The feeling of quiet, fascinated, focused and curious. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of online exhibit very much.

Creative App Review #2 Google Docs

Creative App Review #2 Google Docs

Google Docs is a free web-based word processor offered by Google. I have a lot of apps and I try to use everything equally in an effort to experience and study UX. However, Google docs is still one of the most frequently used apps that its screen time beats social media apps on my devices. Although there is room for improvement, I chose this app because I cannot complement enough how much Google Docs has improved my college life.

Firstly, I tried it because I needed to write things and convert it to word docx.

Secondly, I completely switched from cloud notepads and Microsoft apps because of poor sync issues or complex UI. Google docs supports real-time collaboration and updates of document editing. I was able to easily save documents online and edit them with different devices with no errors. Plus, it works within Google drive which makes it even stronger and more convenient.

Lastly, Google is always upgrading. I started noticing Google Docs’ auto-correction is not only checking spellings but also grammars these days. I don’t see the reason to install grammarly or some sort.

It became essential to my life immediately. Despite Microsoft’s effort to overtake, chances seem to be low. I purchased a subscription for One drive that came in a package with Microsoft office apps. My user experience is not as satisfied as experience with Google docs.

Creative App Review #1 Otter.ai – Speech Recognition App

Creative App Review #1 Otter.ai – Speech Recognition Apps that auto-caption videos or live speech

You can add captions to videos or speech notes automatically with this speech recognition service app Otter. Video captions make recorded content accessible, searchable and can help people understand video when the environment is noisy, or if the sound is muted.

This app will accurately transcribe most of your words, but you may still need to edit and correct.

Otter.ai

Generate rich notes for meetings, interviews, lectures, and other important voice conversations with Otter, your AI-powered assistant.

I personally think Otter is by far the best voice to transcription app because this one has versatile features such as adding photos to the speech note, tagging speakers etc.

Second, Otter offers basic service for free which provides 600 minutes of voice recording to transcription monthly, whereas other live captioning services only offer free trial in the beginning. Premium service is only $8.33/month which is very affordable as well.

It’s very convenient for recording the meeting and you can share the voice note by just typing in the email address of your colleague. The voice memo is saved on Otter’s server not on your phone, so the receiver doesn’t have to download or anything. So basically it is like a Google Doc but with voice memo.

I use this app for meetings and I even use this app to record the online worship and share with my mom. Highly recommended!

Webinar #3 Learn UX/UI Design With Thinkful

APR 20 MON / WEBINAR : Learn UX/UI Design With Thinkful

Link

https://www.bigmarker.com/thinkful/Thinkful-Webinar-Becoming-a-UX-UI-Designer-Info-Session3-2020-04-20-08-00-pm?bmid=b6c36511ec52

How I found/got in this webinar.

As a design student specializing in UX/UI, I google that term often. Big data took that bait and started throwing a bunch of advertisements related to UX/UI. The ad about this webinar just popped up on Facebook feed as a sponsored ad. Honestly, I never heard of their name before, but some of my friends were already following Thinkful company and their website and branding seemed to be very professional and legitimate so I decided to sign up for their webinar.

How it works

This webinar’s host didn’t necessarily show his face. He had his Google slide open and explained what UX/UI is, what the related job titles are, and what they do. And attendees were able to ask questions on the chat.

What was it about

Thinkful is a company that offers courses for people who are interested in becoming a Product Designer. This was a good chance to learn what a Product Designer does—from user research to iterative design, to rapid prototyping. Product design is a field that brings together art, business, and engineering. It is a career path that allows room for growth and expansion in a variety of areas, including design research, art direction, or even freelancing.

As you can see, he explained what UX/UI is, how the process works, and where to see the reference. We also had a Q&A time, which was really helpful and then, the host moved on to explaining how Thinkful courses work etc.

The webinar was so fun and useful, I’m totally sold. I might consider taking the course. But I will put my thinking cap on before doing so because it is quite expensive 🙂

Class work : The Highlights of My Internship

Entry#11 Class work: The Highlights of My Internship

Looking back at the journal entries, I realized my internship at Office of Image and visual communications at City Tech got me a good amount of pieces of work that adds to my portfolio and also I got to experience various equipment such as professional cameras and gimbals.

Mock up animation for Promo Video for fitness center

Animated Distance Learning Guide

Professional Equipment I got to work with.

photoshoot — tripod used for video camera

Video Camera used for promo video shooting

I’ve done internship at a named company’s graphic design department before. To be honest, there is nothing much you can do as an intern. I’m not saying it is a bad thing but my current mentor Professor Vargas gave me a chance to work on real projects. If you want to make a lot of portfolio pieces –Especially motion graphics–I strongly recommend working for Office of Image and visual communications at City Tech.

Webinar #2 Kriota Willburg: Advanced Strategies in Illustration

APR 2 THU / WEBINAR : Kriota Willburg: Advanced Strategies in Illustration

This webinar was offered by illustration class at City Tech and was held on Zoom. Professor Sarah Wooley was the host and most of the crowd was her students so even though it was a webinar, it felt more intimate and students were actually able to speak to Kriota with video face to face.

Kriota Willburg was invited to speak about advanced strategies in Illustration. Even though I’m not an illustrator, this webinar was very interesting because she gave me a great insight that penetrates any types of creative job.

“Find a career path that parallels your artistic creative practice”
said Kriota. She is an illustrator/massage therapist/educator. Her illustrations specialize in human and animal anatomy. So she has three different jobs that all involves anatomy. I also have clustered majors and interests and this webinar was very helpful.

WEBINAR #1 Teela : Animation Basics with Procreate Watercolours

APR 2 THU / WEBINAR : Teela : Animation Basics with Procreate Watercolours

How I found/got in this webinar.
During the crisis of Covid19, a lot of professionals and organizations started offering webinars via emails. One of the calligraphy artists I follow, Teela Cunningham emailed subscribers that she will have a webinar about how to create an animation using Procreate. Since I’m a motion graphic major, have a huge interest in calligraphy and just recently purchased Procreate, I signed up for a seat.

How it works
After signing up, I received a confirmation email and link to the webinar held on CrowdCast. It was my first time attending a webinar but I loved it. It was easier to hear and see what the speaker was presenting and also asking a question on the chat was more convenient than waiting until the end of the speech and raising my hand etc.

Male host was the first one who started speaking on the screen. He introduced Teela on a dual screen and started asking her what she will be teaching us and he read the comments from the chat and asked the speaker. There were about 3000 people watching it from various states and countries.

What was it about
Teela runs a website that offers a lot of free/premium tutorials and graphic design freebies. She showed how to create an animation step by step that will showcase your typography skills strongly on social media such as Instagram.

Webinar was definitely different from online tutorials
Overall the experience was very delightful and convenient, especially because of quarantine. I haven’t been able to go out and mingle with people, and the webinar felt like I was actually sitting amongst people which felt pretty good. I did purchase Procreate but wasn’t sure how to utilize it so It was very helpful too. I think I will attend more webinars more often.

Day #10 Completed Animated Guide for Distance Learning

MAR 30 Mon / INTERNSHIP JOURNAL : Completed Animated Guide for Distance Learning

I have finished synchronizing royalty free music with the animation I worked on last Thursday.
The duration of the video is 55 seconds. 1:1 square ratio 600x600px.
and.. Of course I have a typo! I’m going to have to fix that next time.

I tried to make this animated guide as delightful as possible because people are already stressed and scared. As a student I also follow a lot of official school accounts for info. I’m glad that I can provide fellow students useful information for this crisis.