The first day of the term was almost everything I feared because a summer vacation is enough to give students time for nearly forgotten the stuff they had learned from the past at school including me. On the class of Topics in Graphic Design, professor Trofimova first asked our understanding of this course. But to be honest, my mind went blank at that moment. As the discussion progressed, we briefly recapitulated the history of graphic design, self-promotion and job proposal of a graphic designer.

Currently, being a graphic designer as the objective of my struggles, so it is important to know the past development of graphic design. Graphic design was started from Industrial Revolution during the 19th century.  Due to the mechanization of typography and invention of photography, it created a new communication tool to promote industry manufactured goods based on the quality and aesthetics of their design. Afterward, the establishment of Bauhaus lay the foundation for the trend of modern graphic design in later, which includes Russia’s Constructivism, Swiss International Typographic Style, and the New York School.

Besides the knowledge of graphic design’s history, the second emphasis of being a graphic designer is self-promotion.  An educational skill of typography, illustrator, and Photoshop is fundamental and necessary; however, clearly branding ourselves is the most significant point to stand out from others. Because the employer is looking for the people who can identify the uniqueness of their design style impressively, these employees can precisely sell the ideas and market products for the clients. As for me, my strong suit is the concept, and Photoshop, therefore, my design campaigns would focus on the visual communication of images and graphics. My weakness is copy writing; English is not my native language, which causes my body copy is often sloppy and wording even though it can convey the gist of the idea.

Also, the job proposal of industrial design is also the main concerned topic of people related to are in communication design especially the undergraduate students who do not have experience of starting their job and reach out the real market place. Thus, I am excited about taking this class, to have a thorough understanding of the internship, employment, and proposal of my major in the real world. At last, Professor Trofimova shows us a video of Chip Kidd’s TED talks who is an American book designer. Although his primary field is book cover design, I appreciate his design concepts and ideas highly. I also believe that a good design concept is inspired by the life and created it by our creativity and imagination.

Overall, I do enjoy today’s class; it helps me to refresh my knowledge of graphic design and acquire new knowledge. With the brief introduction to Topics in Graphic Design, I also have simple recognition of this course, which involves a brief of graphic design history, the method of self-promotion, and the job proposal of graphic designers.