This spring semester, I decided to take the course ‘Topics in Graphic Design’. I am an Advertising Design major, but I felt like it would still be valuable to get more familiar with the graphic design world. This is my last semester before senior project so I want to know what potential jobs are out there for the taking. I hope to learn a lot about the design industry as a whole to get me prepared for the beginning of my career.

The first day of class ran like most courses before. The professor makes an introduction, and we go over the syllabus. It was good to see that a lot of the people in class I have taken classes with before. The Professor Marianna Trofimova was open and generous enough to share with us her insight as a current designer working the industry. Being that she in a veteran, I think we can learn a lot from her whether about how to get paid to how to even get a job in the first place. In the class, she started off answering questions on failing in the industry as a creative. I found this really interesting because of how relatable the story was. I knew failure would be a part of my career because failure is a part of life. But I thought it was interesting to see that her failure helped her realize she didn’t love illustration as much she thought. Ultimately, this mess up lead her onto a better path.

After the class discussion, we watched to TED Talks revolving around creativity and the design process. The first video was a talk regarding the power of doodling. I thought this was insightful because I have never really stopped doodling, but that probably has a lot to do with being in a creative major. The talk did make me think about people who are looked down upon for doodling and how their thought process must be hindered in a way. A good takeaway from the video is that doodling stimulates different regions of the brain at the same time. Maybe that can help someone who is around others that need to doodle more.

The next video was about the art of first impressions in design. The talk was held by graphic designer Chipp Kid who spoke on when in important to have clarity versus mystery in design. The main things I understood from his talk was the mystery in design demands attention. It’s good for things like book covers such as the work Chipp provided as an example of this idea. Another thing is that clarity is important for design that has a function. Whether it’s a notice, caution or instructions, the message should be clear. This is something I’m going to keep in mind for my own designs in regards to the client.

Ultimately, I’m excited for this upcoming semester, I think I am going to learn about myself more professionally and as a creative overall. So far I have learned some practices I’ll incorporate into my daily design life.