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.






 

Words I Learned from "How to Export for Multiple Screens"

EUPB - Stands for electronic production, is a open e-book standard from IDPF.

XHMTML- Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, a type of XML markup language or a extended version of HTML to formulate web pages.

HTML - A language in which to formulated web pages.

HTML5 - The fifth reversion of the HTML W3C.

CSS - Stands for Cascading style sheets, a style sheet language for the look and formatting for a document of a web content.

SWF Video Format - a Adobe Flash format created for graphic with animations or interactivity.

Footnotes - words that are printed at the very bottom of the page.

Internal Cross-References - a instant in a document the refers to a other part of the same document.

Cell Stroke - The outline of each cell in a table.

Spry Data - an arrangement of a web document.

Lab 19 Feathering

      The purpose of lab 19 is for us to learn about what is smoothing, feathering, and blending and the difference between them. In this lab we each we handed a paper with all the procedures and the steps to blend, feather, and smooth, so we just need to follow the guide. Smoothing, feathering, and blending  are mostly used for irregular selection to make to edges to blend in to the new background. The picture we use in this lab can be our own or a picture we find online, so I just chose a picture I took of a car around the school
.
      To started smoothing, feathering, and blending, we first use the polygon lasso tools to create a selection of the main focus or the object. After the selection, right click, and choose refine edge. Adjust the Smooth to whatever that I like. Adjust the the feathering to increase the outline of the image, it's best limit to 3-5 pixels. Then click the decontaminate color option, and click OK. After we finished all the steps above, we created a new empty layer. This layer is for us to make a color behind our selection that we just create and applied with smoothing, feathering, and blending. I chose a color between green and blue and decrease the opacity of this layer to a point where you can see the color and also see the background at the same time.

Project 8 Brochure

      Project 8 is to create a brochure with the assigned group of people our teacher told us to work together. This helps us to learn to collaborated with everyone, even with people I am not familiar with, because in my future career, I will need to be able to collaborate with everyone and be able to produce the best work with the people I am working with. I am assigned in a group with Shamonie and Ravi. Ravi is the secretary, Shamonie is the manager, and I am the designer. In this brochure, we decided to create a informational brochure that shows you information about our school, Information Technology.

      In our brochure, we created the first panel for the title, the second panel for the introduction, the third panel for the classes that we have, the fourth panel for the special programs and classes, the fifth panel for sports, and the last panel for the CTE programs we have in our school. Since we have 3 people, we assign each person to take charge of 2 panels. We are still working together, we are just more focusing on our own panels. The design we used for the brochure is cutting it in half and use black, red, and white in different orders, because these are our school color. We also add a few small designs on the edges of the panels to make it look more creative and interesting.
      In the first panel, I put the title to the school along with a picture that I took earlier in the school year. In the second panel, I wrote a introduce about this school and the information about this school. In the third panel, we listed all the classes we have in this school. In the fourth panel, we introduced different classes and different types of clubs we have. In the fifth panel, we wrote about each of the CTE programs we have and the skills they teach. In the last panel, we listed different types of sports we have in each season for boys and girls. Overall, this project was really fun, and I have learned to be better at working with others, and that is a important skill in the my future workplace.

Synopsis

      The last video we watched from "Skills to Pay the Bill" is everything synopsis in the workplace, its like a summary of all the skills we need to succeed  in the workplace environment. The video tells us that when you are applying for a job, a positive attitude, enthusiasm, and a good networking can help you succeed in finding the job and applying for the job. And in the work place, you need to have good communication skills that you can listen well and knows how to communicate information and ideas to others. Good teamwork skills that you can help each other and complete the work better, which benefits everyone. Good critical thinking and problem solving skills can make your work easier, and more valuable in the employer's eyes. And last, professionalism, and that is to be on time, managing time effectively, and conduct responsibility.

Critical Thinking And Problem Solving

      The other video we watched from "Skills to Pay the Bills" was about 

Critical Thinking And Problem Solving skills. This video begins by showing a teacher in a kindergarten school and she was looking for a pair of shoes for a kid, because a another kid stole those shoes, hid them during nap time and can't remember where he hid them. After another of her co- worker comes in, she told her what happened. Then she used good critical thinking and create a plan for her so she was able to get the shoes back. And since these things happens from time to time she used colored labels for all the items to keep them in order. This video tells us that there will always be problem at the workplace, and good critical think and problem solving skills can help you be better while facing these problems. And people who are good at these skills are the ones employers are looking for. 

Networking

      The nest video we watched from "Skills to Pay the Bills" is about Networking. This video begins by showing Mark handing in a data compilation to one of his co- worker that he work for. Since he was a intern, she ask him how did he got in, and he responded by saying that he did a research of the companies that might want him as a worker. He found this company and the owner of this company. He saw that he will be representing the company in the job fare, so he went to the job fare, introduced himself, and told him that he was interested in his company in result at a follow up interview. Then he was hired after the interview. The video shows that networking is important, because network of people you know can really help when you are searching a job, since you get all the information you know from the people around you, and it can be as important as all of your other skills.

Teamwork

      The forth video we watched in class from "Skills to Pay the Bills" is about teamwork. At the beginning, the video shows a woman come in to Jessica and starts telling what a great work she did in her presentation, and claimed that she will show everyone the presentation and how wonderful it is. But instead of taking all the credit for the presentation to herself since she is the only there, Jessica told that it wasn't just herself who completed this presentation. It was also a few co- workers that she worked with who gave her ideas, plans, and worked together. The videos tells us that when you get credit for something, always share the with your teammates, because "teamwork is a essential for success at the workplace. And employers look for worker who work well with others." At the same time everyone accomplishes more and benefits.

Professionalism

      The third video we watch from "Skills to Pay the Bills" is about professionalism. In the video, the new employee shows up to work late,does only the things he was told too, and while he drop something he didn't want to pick them up until the next day. The other person with him seems to be his employer or a more experienced co- worker of his had to teach him every steps of professionalism. And that includes being on time, do the work that needs to be done even if no one told you to, and conducting yourself with responsibility. We have also talked about some examples of professionalism in class, such as good punctuality, good effort to work, do the things that needs to be done with out something telling you, and good time management

Attitudes and Enthusiasm

      The second video from "Skills to Pay the Bills" teaches you the correct attitude and enthusiasm during a interview or in a workplace. In the video, a young men showed up into the interview with unprofessional street cloth, he didn't show a professional attitude, didn't show much respect, and talk on his phone to his friend during the Interview. After that, the same person showed up in a different situation. He was prepared with business attire, gave good respect to the person he was in a interview with, and had a great attitude towards the workplace environment. Attitude and enthusiasm is important, because when you show good attitude and good enthusiasm such as dress professionally, be on time, good facial expressions, and be confident. It will give the interviewer a good impression of you and more likely to get the job you are applying for.

Communication Skills

      In my visual design class, my teacher  wanted us to be ready and prepared to have to skills we need for our future work place and succeed in our future careers. So she showed a series of video from "Skill to Pay the Bills" that teaches you what to do, and how to do the best in any job you want to have in the future. The first video we watched from "Skills to Pay the Bills" is about communication skill and why it is important to our future careers. In the video, a casher was using internet slang in her first day of her job to all her customers and none of them understood what she was talking about. This makes the communication difficult because it's a unusual language to use and it's not a proper language to use in the work place. Later on, her employer told her that the customers don't know what she was saying and complain about it. Communication skills are important because you need to send the correct message to the custom and also to receive the correct message from other, also a good communications skills can create a good relationship which others.

Project 7 Respect For All GIF

      In the previous lab, we learned how to create a simple GIF that can move around for a few seconds. And to continue what we have learned in the previous lab, we will be creating our own GIF for the Respect for All week in this project. This seems like a really easy project since there is no specific objective, and all we have to do is create a respect for all GIF in Photoshop. But in fact,I struggled, since there are no specific objective, there are no guidelines for us either. I really didn't truly understand the meaning of "respect for all". And I had no idea how to create a GIF to express the idea of this phrase. So I had went online to understand what it really means. It turned out to be more related to bullying than I thought, and its mostly about bullying, caring, equality, harassment, and discrimination. And I created my GIF based on these things.
      To create this GIF, I first created a gradient in the background to make it look better. I then used the timeline to create a video timeline for this GIF. In the first frame, I used the custom shape tool to create different kinds to people to show that "we can be different". In the second frame, I used the shape tools to create a balance with two people in each side while it's balanced, which means that "we were all created equally" to show equality. In the third frame, I used the shape tools and the pen tool to make a stronger person bullying a weaker person with a huge stop sign in front of it. This means that "we should stop bullying," and be friends with each other. In the forth frame, I used the pen tool and the custom shape tool to create 2 hands, one trying to help the other and a heart in the middle. This tells us to help people when they need you. And in the last frame, I used the custom shape tools and the pen tool to create a man bowing to different types of people. This frame symbolize that we should respect everyone even if they are different.

Lab 11 GIF

      Finally, it's time for the first lab for this new semester. Just right after I heard what we will be doing, I got so exited and wanted to start this lab so badly. This lab is about creating GIF. A really short moving animation created by a few pictures that last about a few seconds. And to start this lab, we had to learn about how many frames is in a second for Photoshop and learn how to use the tools to do the GIF. This lesson is really important, because in the future, we will be creating our own websites in to next few years, and knowing how to create GIF can really help me to create a better website in the future.
      To create a GIF, we first make a good background color using the gradient tool. Then create any shape we want using the shape tools and rasterize it. Next we show the timeline in Photoshop and create a video timeline. Click the layer and move the shape every time you move the frames in the position. To make it look better, click style, choose the frames then add effects to the shape such as outer glow or inner glow. As you play the GIF after following this procedure, you can clearly see that it moves to the place you put in each frame. Last, lower the capacity of the shape to 0% and the last frame of the GIF, this will create a fading effect of the shape as it moves and make it disappear at the last frame. After the work is down, save for web with the smaller file size that requires less time to upload and make it repeat forever.

CTE ExPo

      The CTE ExPo is a event held by the Web Design Academy and the Video Production Academy to show the new comers of the school about our CTE academy, what they will be learning if they join, and why should they join these academy.  I am a student of Web Design class of 2017 . And I was one of the host of period 1, period 7 and period 4 along with some of the other students in the Web Design class. In my class, we organize everything, placing all the business project boards that we completed and open the computers to show the projects of the juniors and the seniors.
      In period one, I prepared myself a little, and as the freshmen came in, me and my classmate welcomed all of them and started to show them what we did. I was a little shy and a little sleepy in the morning, I wasn't really energetic, so I didn't answers much questions. Only about 2 group of freshmen have asked me questions and most of them went to the other side of the room, because the juniors and the seniors were not shy and knows what to do in these kind of situations. They had more experience than us sophomores, because this is not their first time, but for us sophomores, it is. So I started to learn the from the juniors and seniors. In the next two periods, I have answer more questions than before. I was more confident and talk to them first, because I know that they are shy too. I explain what is the boards about, what I learned in this class, what we did in this class, and why they should join the Web Design class.
      The result was really good, everyone seems to be enjoying and the freshmen seems to be interested in our academy, which is our goal for this event. I have also learned that when you are hosting an event like this, you cannot be shy. You have to be initiative and get their attention first, and most importantly, be confident.

Process As An Visual Designer

      One of the biggest project we did in the fall semester was project 7. Which is the project where we get to create our our business cards with our own designed logos. First, we learned how to create a logo using graphic design principles and learned to identify what is a good logo and a bad logo. Then we create 3 drafts of our logo design on paper and select the best one, and use Photoshop to put everything together again. After that, we learned how to use InDesign and the concepts of typography for the designing of the business cards. We created 3 drafts of our own business cards with InDesign and printed them out. Along these business cards we also printed all the concepts, the steps, our goals, and what did we do in order to create these business cards. Last, we put them on a project board so we can present to the class.
      Following this process was really important. It helped me to much more efficient on my work, because following these process can make me experience what a real job as a designer will be, and also give me all the knowledge and skills to complete this difficult task. Without following this process, I won't be able to learn anything nor be able to complete this project. I have learned a lot through this process and it really helped me to be out of many confusions that I might have if I was not following this process, so I can have a great work while having it handed in on time.
      These are many ways can improve my project. I can asked for others opinions on what was good or bad on this project and see if I can change it or make it better. I can also create more drafts and take out all the good parts out of the old ones and see if it's better. Or I can just add more designs and try more things on the project. I will do these things to improve my project because the first result might not always be the best that you can create, so try it a few more times and put all the good things together, it might be better.

Fall Term Reflection

      For the fall term in my 10th grade year, I think I did fine, even though I didn't meet my goal that I set for myself in the beginning of the year. I wanted to get 95+ average on my report card, but I have got 94.67 instead, so close, but still, it is not what I wanted. I have learned a lot in my web design class such as Photoshop, InDesign, graphic design principles, typography, and more. They are really important skills to know to create a good website, which is what I will be doing later on in this class. One of my favorite thing in class that I felt it was fun, easy, and enjoyable was the labs. Some projects such as the logo design and project 5 was some what difficult and challenging for me, but having it completed was a great accomplishment for myself. Another thing the was difficult was the presentations. All presentations required me to be dressed up, but I don't even have a suit and don't really want or need one, maybe just for this class, so I never got one.
   

      In this spring term, I can improve myself by putting more effort into all the work that I will be doing, so it can done beautifully and earn a good grade. Everything I experienced in the Fall term was vital, because it really teach me what I need to know and the skills, the knowledge that I would need to be continuing this class. Also, many of these skills are really important to know and understand so I can use it in my future.

Lab 10 Business Card Draft Two

      This is my second draft of lab 10 for my visual design class. This draft is also designed and finished with InDesign. We need to redesign another business card, so we can make improvements from the first draft or make something new to see if it is better. We are making in a total of 3 drafts business cards, so we can see what we have done and see which one is better to use. This can help us to have more creativity and ideas of certain thing.
      To design this business card, I have created 2 sections of colors in the background. Black on the top and grey on the bottom. I have also change the orders of each elements this time. I put the Logo on the top middle in the black area along with the program name on the left and my name on the right. Then I have kept all the contact information on the bottom middle in the grey area. I have also used a different font this time, but the Kerning, Tracking, and Leading for each group of words are still the same.

Lab 10 Business Card Draft One

      This is my lab 10 for my visual design class. In this lab we are not using Photoshop as all of my labs and projects in the past. Instead we are using InDesign. Our task is to create our own business cards that uses the logo that we have recently designs in project 6. And this is my design of my first draft of my business card.

      I have created this business card for my basketball training program. So I put my logo on the left side, the name of the program on the top, my name under the program name with my background information, and put my contact information on the lower right corner. This way, I can keep things more balance, making the space of each elements more equal. I have also considered the typography principles, I have kept all the Kerning, Tracking, and Leading space of each group of words to be the same. I have made the name of the program larger than others to it stands out more, creating an emphasis of the logo and the program name. I did this because I think that you need to get people to have interest of your business first, in order for them to want to have your information and contact you.