Project 10 Yearbook

      This project is another group project. This time, I teamed up with Javier, Abraham, Ravi, and Johar. This task of this project is to design a yearbook for our class along with a theme that we choose to apply to our yearbook. We used Photoshop to create different designs and put all the things together as a book in Indesign. My job in the group is the designer. I have designed most of the gradients and the different backgrounds for each pages, most of the fonts that was used, the object placements, the collage, and the order of everything.
      In the cover page, we have designed an own looking at the sunset. And the sun was create from a clock so it can be related to our them, which is time.  At the second page, we created a table of content of what is in each page. The third page is a inspirational writing from Javier along with a background that I design to suit the inspiring theme of the page. The fourth and fifth pages are a collage of some of our teachers. Then the next four pages are all of the students in our class with a really unique background of a blue gradient with some white bubble details, so it won't look empty. And to add more things to suit our theme, we create the next two pages to show our Progress of as visual designers in this year with another collage. The next 2 pages are  another inspirational writing with a page for people to sign on each other's books. At the last page, which is the cover page, is a page to show who did this book along with our pictures and a pink background.

Project 9 Newsletter

      This is the second group project. This time our task is to team up with about 3 classmates and create a team to make a newsletter with a topic that are chosen or assigned to us. My topic in this newsletter project is "School Club." And I am teamed up with Zunaid, Sean, and Khirul. Me and Sean is the designer of the group, Zunaid is the researcher, and Khirul is the leader of the group. First, each of us decided to work on a school club and write a paragraph about it in Google dive document. I wrote about the tropical fish club, Zunaid wrote about the robotics club, Sean wrote about the creative writing club, and Khirul wrote about the rock climbing club. After we are done, we then transfer all the information into Indesign.
      As an designer of the group, me and Sean did all the text or image placement and most of the designs of this newsletter together. We even created a logo with Illustrator for this topic. We first started by the articles. We had to get the right font, size, and color so the text and images can cover up the whole page and still be readable. This might sound really easy, but this actually took us most of the time to complete. Later, me and Sean just created a cover and a table of contents for this newsletter. I know we have completed the work, but I am still not satisfied about this newsletter. I feel like there can be more things to be add to it or make better. Like adding more colors and more designs to it to make it look more interesting, because it looks kind of simple to me.

     

     

Lab 23 Illustrator Shape Builder Tool

      This is the next part of the tutorial papers that were given to me. This time we are experimenting with the shape builder tool. This time is something different. Unlike the other tools we experimented in Illustrator, this is not a tool use to draw things. It is used to create complex shapes by merging and erasing simpler shapes.
      First, I chose to use the star shape with a gradient of yellow and orange. Then I make a few of them in the different sizes.Use the selection tool to select the shapes or paths I want to merge. Choose the Shape builder tool and use it to highlight the area needed to be merged. This will create a new shape with them combined together. And last, I used the Erase made of the Shape builder tool and deleted some areas that were not merged that are inside the side.

Lab 22 Illustrator Blob Brush Tool

      After we finished lab 21 and 22. We started our lab 22. But since Ms. Ramirez is not here with us today. She left us papers of the tutorials on them called "How to draw in Illustrator." These papers includes the tutorial for the pencil tool, the paint brush tool, the blob brush tool and the shape builder tool.
      Since we already finished the pencil tool and the paint brush tool. We started to draw with the blob tool. The blob brush tool is really similar to the other two previous tools. So I just wrote a few lines of random things in different color and try to make it look good. And all we had to do after that is to split the vector shapes with the eraser tool and change the size of one part of the vectors shapes that was cut.

Lab 21 Illustrator Paintbrush Tool

      After the experiment with the pencil tool, which is lab 20. We immediately started this next lab 21. This time we will be experimenting with the paintbrush tool within Illustrator. I feel the the pencil tool and the paintbrush tool is really similar in terms of what is does. It also had different colors, different strokes, different sizes, and different opacity.
      The difference I've found about the paintbrush tools is that it can create different kinds of brushes, such as the Calligraphic Brush,Scatter Brush, and the Art Brush which is the one I used in green on the right bottom corner. I've also used a really special brush which I used a lot in this experiment, but I didn't really know the name of it.

Lab 20 Illustrator Pencil Tool

      This is lab 20. In this lab, we began our first step into the new software that we are not all familiar with. And that is Illustrator. This lab is fairly simple. All we had to do is to experiment with the pencil tool of Illustrator. There were many different kind of the stroke, different size of the stroke, different colors of the stroke, and different opacity of the stroke.
      As you can see, some of the colors I used are not just monochromatic. Some of the colors fades and some have more than one colors with patterns in them. And I think this can make things more creative. I also used a few stroke that this software has offered. It really made the lines look much more different. So it doesn't always look the same and be more diverse.

UTF Youth Empower Day

     
In Saturday, March 28th, 2015, I went to the Youth Empower Day event held by the United Federation of Teachers. The conference had given me many inspiration, ideas, and a really fun, memorable time. They have invited many successful people in different career fields explaining us their careers, their stories, and their backgrounds. They provided us great food, speeches, giveaways, music,a few dance parties, competitions, and many fun stuffs.
      We start off by listening to the 3 panels they introduced us, one was a Human resources manager, one was a NYPD lieutenant, and a Harvard Graduate who is a staff of the Brooklyn Nets. Two of the panels have told us that they started working right after they graduated high school, at first it was alright, but it is not enough for them to move up and pursue their dreams. So one started going to the college while working to get all the degrees and one study and learn in his current work. One told us that he needs to study 16 hours every day to remember a huge book size of rules, so he can take the test and move on to the next level. This shows us that college education is really important and having just the high school diploma can really limits yourself to have a better career. One told us about she studying abroad in China. She learned their culture, their language, and had more life experience from living in different place. And learning these new things can help you communicate better with others and be more versatile with different kinds of people.
      One quote I really like was from the lieutenant. He said that one would never lose its value no matter what happens. It's just like and twenty dollar bill, you can harm it in many different ways, but no matter what you did to the money, it still has its value. And by the end of the day, you can still use that twenty dollar bill to buy something that is worth its price.
      Later on we had a woman who works in the media to talk to us about her story. She said that her youth was not happy, she could have did all the wrong things if she wanted, but she decided to stay away of them because she knows that those things won't help her in the future in any way and would only ruined her life. And to pursue her dream, she create a good network of people. And knowing someone in the field you want to be in can be really useful, because the person she knew actually provide her a career in the media field in which she can make her dream come true.
      After listening to another speech about how the panels themselves have overcome many of the wrong things they did. They offered us a great tasty meal in which I enjoyed really much. During this lunch break, there were music and they were telling people to dance. Everyone was really enjoying. Also their were prices to win. Regrettably, I didn't win anything, but seeing people getting surprised as they win something, is enough for me to enjoy, since I never had luck. Later on this time, they also had a dance competition between each school. But our school was too shy, so no one wanted to go and even they were forced to go, they didn't do anything while all other schools were really intense.
      Later on, we have the author who wrote "Die Free," Cheryl Wills to talk to us about the past. She said that when she was a kid she and he parents never knew who they really are and where they truly came from. But until she did her research years later. She found out that her great grandfather was a slave traded from Africa to the U.S. Although he is a slave, but he was smart. He join the civil war and help the people. He and his wife did what was right and gain what they were suppose to have. After her impressive speech, she introduced a student to everyone. This student told us about his life when he was hanging out with the wrong people. He had about 5 injuries on his body and he's only 18 years old. And now he realized that you should never hang out with the wrong people and moved to the right path. He even show us his own original impressive rap song about this topic and it was really inspiring.
      Next, we have a business man who works in the advertising field to tell us about "Geniuses". He said that there are many different type of geniuses. And everyone is at least one of them. That's why some people are good and one thing and others are good at others. He even came up with steps and rules of finding what kind of genius you are. And he will be publishing a book about "Geniuses" later on this year.
      Overall I had a really great time in the "Youth Empowerment Day" event. I enjoyed all the fun. I am truly inspired by all these successful people. And I wish to attend this event again if I have a chance to.