Paul Rand said “Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.” The design is complicated you can strictly follow design principles or just focus on self-expression or even do a combination of both. Last week I missed class, but I attended an event at Noble Desktop where Amit Schwartz discussed the different types of graphic designers. This session was particularity interesting because he was going to discuss two types of design that I’m interested in pursuing. This session is also relevant to COMD 3503 because it further explained different types of design and I was able to meet other people interested in design while they are pursuing different careers.

The first design that was interested in me is UXIUI Design. I learn that UX anticipates the customer’s needs with research, product development, user testing and more. Whatever you’re designing it should be enjoyable and user-friendly, again it should fill a purpose. Part of the research is a process where you built personas. Personas are different portfolios where you make certain specifications: age group, race, gender, etc, what the need and set a target audience. The following step is using wireframes: sketches of elements that will be used, then that creating prototypes: interactive representation of how the product will operate. Next is usability testing, creating experiments where one can observe, create questionnaires and recordings to further communicate in English of the results. I learned that UI Design is the visuals of digital products such as apps and websites. The designer is in charge of designing the layout, type, color, composition, and visuals. Unlike print UI also includes user interaction and animation.  It was interesting to see the different examples provided of fun interactive web designs. Another interesting element of UI UXIUI are distinct fields, but they can overlap, and smaller companies may combine those roles. Schwartz explained that at a large company, UX designers may focus on a single aspect of UX (research, design, user testing, etc) and a UI designer may focus exclusively on the visual design. He also discussed different apps that are being used within the field and gave a couple of examples of designer’s portfolios.

The other form of design that interested me is motion graphics. Motion Graphics is like graphic design for video and animation; uses design concepts like typography, color, composition, and adds movement, time and sound. This can be used for tv or movies as well as web and apps.