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12.4.2 Week 4 Mastery

This week I get to write my final entry in my Mastery Journey. As any process which serves to elevate an individual to a higher level of Mastery, I learned a great deal about myself. I wasn’t quite sure how to outline all of the growth and perspective gained through this journey without writing another thesis. However, that a presentation might be the best way to sum it all up.

I think the sum of all parts is the image from my experience map. The feeling of jumping out of a plane and waiting for the moment that you can open your parachute and then pray for a great landing. 

That is what this journey has felt like. It has been a rush at times, totally and completely terrifying at other times and still other times, like the craziest thing I ever set my mind to. But now that the parachute is open and the landing point is clearly in view, the feeling that i have after looking back on how far I’ve come is that of accomplishment. Safe landing!

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REFLECTION POST: WHAT IS MY PERSONAL BRAND?

What is your passion? I am passionate about branding. I feel the most productive when developing brand identity elements for individuals and businesses.

How do you make things happen? My approach is immersion in the brand's product, service or interest. By developing a 360 degree view of the product or service for which and identity is being developed, an accurate depiction can be developed for all platforms.

What skills do you bring to make things happen? How does somebody benefit from your skills? Adding to my technical design skills and natural creative ability, I am also a motivational speaker and life coach for small business owners. My process is deeply dependent on client partnership. Someone who is open to taking a deep dive into their product and assessing its strengths and weaknesses will benefit most from my skills.    What makes you different from everyone else? What is your differentiator? My differentiator is that I position myself as a client partner not just a servicer. I am an extension of their brand and want to ensure that through the creative process product and brand integrity and authenticity is maintained.

Personal Brand Statement

I am a Brand Alignment Strategist.

I collaborate with bold visionaries to assist in the development of visual brand identities through product/service assessment and spiritual development/expansion.

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11.4.2 Mastery Project

This month was the completion and submission of my Mastery Thesis. Through completion of this project and reflection on the course I’ve learned how important it is to be able to present my work and substantiate the work with the research that supports my decisions, to use valid and relevant feedback to improve design solutions and to communicate the process by which I have done so.

From the course reading, Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive presentations, by Martin Sykes, A. Nicklas Malik, and Mark D. West, I learned that visual stories provide a select set of information, in a single complete picture, and draws the audience from the starting place to the desired conclusion (Sykes, Malik, & West, 2013).

Telling the story of my project development was challenging, as my design development process circled through many cycles of research and iteration.  In my thesis presentation I wavered between information that was repetitive and unclear and a story that did not completely capture the process or rationale for key design decisions.

Separating the sketches, thumbnails, vector images and final visual identity elements from the written rationale and remembering the process in stages helped me to visualize the progession of the designs, the moments where I felt confident in moving to the next stage and the research that supported the decision to move to the next stage.  

By creating a visual story for myself, I was able to develop the story as required for my thesis presentation. The process of exploration and elimination was then clearer to me and I was then able to document the process in a self-explanatory way (Best, 2014).

INSPIRATION

BRAINSTORMING

SKETCHING

VECTORS

FINAL LOGO

This process and identified learnings are important to me as a media designer because it aids in the development process of ideas and also the presentation of the ideas. Experiencing this process, presenting to peers, and professors and finally, the directors helped me to understand how to leverage the details of each stage of the process and tailor the information for the audience to which is was being presented. As noted by Best, successful design managers have the ability to see things from both the creative and unstructured perspective as well and the analytical perspective. This course and my thesis project have helped me to balance both perspectives to develop relevant design tools and present them logically and thoroughly.

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References

Best, Kathryn. Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation. Fairchild Books, 2014.

Sykes, M. R., Malik, A. N., & West, M. D. (2013). Stories that move mountains: Storytelling and visual design for persuasive presentations. Wiley. Retrieved from https://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/communications/presentations/9781118423998.

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10.4.3. Mastery Journal Reflection

This month, I faced one of my biggest fears--marketplace feedback. Although I have confidence in my work for my intended audience, brand visionaries growing or expanding their brands in the spiritual and service markets, I'm always very apprehensive sharing my design work with those who may not be clients or potential clients. I am terrified of the opinions of general audiences. This month, I had to share my design work with a target audience largely made up of individuals who neither understood or used my services before.

As a reminder, here is my toolbox/mood board with most visual communication represented.

The ten questions asked were formulated to gather data that would gather information to  assist in further development of Marrakesh brand voice to be used in marketing and advertising elements. The questions reference feelings, quality, likability and respondent identification with the color palette, images, logo and logo animation.

One interesting piece of information to note was that, after viewing the logo animation, many of the respondents had the takeaway that Marrakesh was a travel desitnation best suited for Personal Adventure/Solo Exploration. My intended positioning for the brand was as a group trip for friends. Further research into how this perception can be adjusted to match the intended positioning is underway.

Some other responses, such as the color palette being perceived as common, unimpressive and dull and the logo being perceived as boring and outdated, were a bit unsettling initially as I went through many iterations and several rounds of implementation of feedback as recceived. Once, I got past that initial feeling, I was able to objectively understand that those viewpoints were not the general points of view and that, for the most part, the visuall communication was successful as developed or needed minor adjustments.

Since the images were identified as the piece of the visual communication that most effectively communicated the desired brand identity, I have started development on a travel guide and will development an info video, both using the images surveyed.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and succesfully complete the process of receiving feedback from a larger pool of respondents than I have in the past.

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9.4.1 Mastery Reflection

The plan for this month was to create an animated logo for the city of Marrakesh. My initial plan was pretty ambitious when compared to my level of experience with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.

After the first iterations of the logo was submitted and feedback was received from Professor Kratz (Kratz, 2018), as well as classmates, Ewing and Peters, I attempted an additional iteration which incorporated better representation of wind more reminiscent of a mystical desert wind than a desert storm (Kratz, 2018) and attempted to incorporate animation techniques that are more complex to add interest and make the animation more dynamic.

However, upon review of the above animation, Professor Katz and classmates assessed that the logo animation iterations were “stark” and still pretty basic, with movement just for movement's sake (Krtaz, 2018). With this  I pursued a much more ambitious path with more complex animations (Nikitadot, 2012) which incorporated more techniques in After Effects that I wasn’t certain I could grasp at the level required to produce an animation of professional caliber.

After viewing tutorials on working with Alpha Mattes and Alpha Channels (McAfee, 2016) and Videos with Alpha Channels (shutterstock.com, n.d.) I felt more like I understood the process may not understand it enough to create the animation in the allotted timeframe of five seconds.

Through the quest to increase skill level, many different techniques were learned and other abilities were reinforced. However, the level of independent skill was still believed to be greatly lacking for the initial design intention and the thought occurred to go back and simplify based on current level of design ability.

Professor Kratz encouraged the class to stay focused on their original design intentions and learn and increase ability so that the desired level of technique is obtained. Development on the original intended logo animation has continued. Following is the current iteration that still needs some finessing but provides a more dynamic and interesting solution, closer to the originally intended design and work will be continued to refined to a higher level of expertise.

There was some additional feedback from classmate Peters to incorporate a 3D effect to the logo for addeded depth and interest (Peters, 2018). Iteration with that input in mind is under development as well. While I still believe there is a great amount of refining required to get the animation to its desired state, overall, I have gained additional knowledge, ideas and techniques in After Effects and have an animation that will successfully communicated with target audience when incorporated into other video elements for the brand.

References

Daniels, N. (2018, August 10)  9.1.2 Weeks 1-2 Mastery Project: Task 5 Peer Review 2. Multi-Platform Delivery. Retrieved from https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/33288/modules/93442/activities/619479/discussion

Ewing, 0. (2018, August 10) 9.1.2 Weeks 1-2 Mastery Project: Task 5 Peer Review 2. Multi-Platform Delivery. Retrieved from https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/33288/modules/93442/activities/619479/discussion

Kratz, A. [Andrea Kratz]. (2018, August 21). 650 WK4 August-201808212339 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/286129787

McAfee, Ryan. “Video Compositing: How to Work With Alpha Mattes and Alpha Channels.” Pond5 Blog, BLOG, 12 Oct. 2016, Retrieved from blog.pond5.com/10448-video-compositing-how-to-work-with-alpha-mattes-and-alpha-channels/.

Nikitadot. “Sand Logo.” VideoHive, Envato Market, 15 Oct. 2012, videohive.net/item/sand-logo/13183263_ga=2.15911797.258939924.1534711143-1854449341.1533569322.

Peters, J. (2018, August 24) 9.3.1 Weeks 3-2 Mastery Project: Task 5 Peer Review 2. Multi-Platform Delivery. Retrieved from https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/33288/modules/93443/activities/619480/discussion#p1842027

Shutterstock.com. Videos with Alpha Channels. The Shutterstock Blog, Retrieved from www.shutterstock.com/support/article/Videos-with-Alpha-Channels.

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8.4.1 Mastery Journal Reflection

This month, in order to better support the importance of archway/doorway icons in the presented design solutions for the city of Marrakesh, additional research on the religion of the city and the influence Islam has had on architecture in Islamic regions and elsewhere in the world.

Previous iterations of the Tradition logo for Marrakesh included archways as an iconic element, but research was required to support  the significance of this design element. In researching traditions in Marrakesh, Morocco, it was found that Islam is the constitutionally established state religion of Morocco ("History of Religion in Morocco", 2018). In the Islamic faith, there are eight doorways or gates to heaven and each of the names of the gates describe spiritual practices that Muslims strive to incorporate into their lives every day (Dodge, 2018). Since 99% of Moroccans are muslim (Sawe, 2016) and since the Muslim faith is entwined in the culture of Marrakesh,  it was important to incorporate some symbolism of Islam for the Tradition logo and the arch or doorway is a fitting symbol.

According to The Lonely Planet guide to Marrakesh, the city is home to some beautiful examples of Islamic architecture (“History of Religion in Morocco", 2018). The Koutoubia Mosque and Minaret and the Ali Ben Youssef Medersa are noted in the Lonely Planet travel guide for Marrakesh as the most impressive examples of such architecture. They also contain many of the arches that were mastered in design and use by the muslims (Saoud, 2002). Images of arches from the Ali Ben Youssef Medersa were used as inspiration for the iconography in the Tradition logo.

After finding this supporting documentation, my Creative Confidence mindset was solid and I moved to finalize the tradition logo. However, feedback from the instructor caused me to return to doubting the decision to include the archways as an icon. Professor Baldowski instructed that additional iterations of the archways could provide an ornamental, more interesting approach to the design and several iterations of ornamental solutions were developed.

The first version is a version previously explored, but was not pursued, as the original feedback gave the impression that it was dynamic or engaging enough. The first vector is the original iteration and the second shows an iteration with an added element (solid ellipse) which gives an added element of interest to the logo.

The second version of the logo is shown below with the initial iteration first, the 2nd version, which was noted to be too busy and distracting, and the current iteration, which scales back on the addition of arch/doorway iterations, but includes one additional iteration that adds interest and represents the simple, repetitive patterns found in Islamic architecture, specifically tilework.

The thir version of the Tradition logo for the city of Marrakesh is shown with the second version of the addition of a couple of more innings of the archway into the design to give it an illusion that it keeps going. The revised iteration is a more effective representation of the archway which marries the idea of repetitiveness/continuation and the ornate patterns present in Islamic architecture.

Upon presenting the revisions to peers, especially to design colleague, Otero, I was reminded of Airey’s admonishment keeping the designs in their simplest forms allow for ease of recognition and greater chance of “achieving a timeless, enduring quality” (Airey, 2014). With this in mind, and remembering the mindsets of Creative Confidence and Learning from Failure (IDEO.org, 2015), the simplest and final design from last month's course work was confirmed as the final version. The design communicates the importance of Islam's influence on the tradition of the city of Marrakesh through the use of the archway icon and through the use of the lowercase m as an additional doorway and uses one example of repetition in design by carrying the lowercase m through to the word mark below (Williams, 2014).

I believe I brought innovation to this project through to exploration of creating iconography that was simple yet memorable. I believe this iconography also allows itself seamless composition with other design elements to be developed in the future, such as patterns, that will be more ornate without creating clutter, overall, in brand imagery. In comparing this design solution to others already in market, most designs were extremely detailed or ornate, not clearly communicating one idea or another, but attempting to meld all of the ideas of the city together or creating a very typical communication of the city.

Throughout the process of creating additional iterations my Adobe Illustrator skills were further developed, specifically where paths are concerned. The additional iterations of the logo were developed using Shape Modes and Pathfinders. I also increased in knowledge of the significance of color and the development of color palettes.With stronger Adobe Illustrator skills, I am confident that I can use the professionally executed logo design to move on to the next stage of logo animation.

References

Airey, D. (2015). Logo design love: A guide to creating iconic brand identities. Berkeley, California: New Riders. Retrieved from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/branding/9780133812589

Baldowski, A. (2018, July 17) Retrieved from Full Sail University Online https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/33277/activities/603037#feedback

IDEO.org The field guide to human-centered design: Design kit. (2015). San Francisco: IDEO.

Otero, E. (2018, July 27) Retrieved from Full Sail University Online https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/33277/modules/89496/activities/594536/discussion

Williams, R. (2014, December 24). The Use of Repetition in Design. Retrieved July 28, 2018, from http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2268752

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7.4.1 Mastery Reflection

For this month’s project, I decided to revise my city logo for Marrakesh, Morocco.

Based on peer and instructor feedback, illustrations from previous sketch revisions have been converted to vectors for the Geography and Modern Culture versions of the logo.

After completing the last few courses I thought it would be less challenging to come up with new ideas and take good ideas to a level of greatness. I did not evolve as effortlessly as expected.

Here are the first rounds of revised sketches for the project

Additional iterations were required to move the ideas from good starting points to successful communicators of brand characteristics.

Here are the sketches for revision 2:

I was confident in the progression of the Geography and Modern Culture logos and therefore moved on to creating vector vesrions from the sketches:

The Geography vectors needed revision so that the transition in the M icon from the letter to the swashes were cleaner and more professional in appearance. The second iteration of vector logos follows:

The Tradition vesrions of the logo didn’t progress as well are still in progress. These are third iteration of sketches for the Tradition version of the logo. However, they are not innovative or unique.

Next steps will be to continue iterations of the tradition logo and create color palettes for the final versions of the Modern Culture and Geogrpahy logos.

Modern Culture

Geography Logo

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MDM570 Organizational Structures: Mastery Journal Reflection

The key learning from this course, as it follows, many months of personal challenges is that life happens, but the world will not stop turning. Personal adversities and setbacks are encountered by everyone. My decision this month was whether or not I wanted to do the best I could under the circumstances I was living, challenging myself to move forward and grow or delay the advancement of learning new things for a moment in life that may or may not be less challenging. I opted for the former and decided to do my best at this current moment in time.

Along with the ability to recall some very basic Adobe After Effects skills, I was able to created an animated logo that is not the most advanced or elaborate but solves the need for aa animated logo for the event succesfully, on brand. During the process of creating the animated logo, I needed to tweak the logo itself.

Moving forward with the first iteration of the logo, adding color and sound effect of the ocean, a final animated logo was created.

The second part of the process was to create a video to communicate information about the benefit concert that engages the audience and builds an emotional connection. Working with still photography, sand music, a 30-second video montage was produced to promote the concert event that was developed last month. This project has two stages--the rough-cut and final cut. 

The roughcut development required the use of Adobe Premiere Pro. After refamiliarizing myself with the program, a pretty basic roughcut was produced.

After receiving feedback on the roughcut, editing began for final cut of video, including the addtion of the animated logo. The previously selected track was replaced with a crisp guitar theme that would resonate with the taeget audience of young christian adults. Text and image animateions were added for interest.

The video requires some timing adjustments and a more creative way to communicate the opening frame, but I fully believe I created the best I could within my current limitations. Recovering from major surgery and completing this course and every assignment feels like a major win for me. I will be using the upcoming months to improve my skills in both programs so that I can add this area of expertise to my portfolio of projects with work created a higher level of expertise.

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Journal Reflection, Design Research

© TeroVesalainen

One of the determining factors for pursuing the masters journey was the insecurity I felt regarding my digital and web design capabilities. My career was established in a print environment and my knowledge base was built around print. My thinking was that in the course of my masters journey, I would become more open, expressive and secure in my design ability overall and thus, have gain more confidence in my digital and web design skills.

Reading the information from the Beaird and George text, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (2014), I began to understand that starting with the client requirement instead of the design was the perfect bit of advice I needed to get started with this class. Taking this approach enabled me to focus more on the required task and less on my fear of designing an inferior or subpar site. As the class progressed and more layout principles and supporting processes were explained, my perspective and approach changed more and I was able to explore ideas I may not have come up with on my own. Designs were adjusted and ideas further sparked as feedback from instructor and classmates was received and my understanding that “the most important point to keep in mind is that design is about communication” (Beaird and George, 2014).

Upon reviewing job postings on Indeed.com for Web Designer, the point that good design is more about following design principles and processes to successfully communicate to the end user is further supported.   One post for Digital Graphic Designer by Azalea Health, focuses on the requirements to “improve user experience” and have a “deep understanding of layout principles, design principles, web layouts, and responsive design”. Another posting by The Home Depot for Web Designer, requires the “ability to create visual solutions consistent with industry trends”.

This insight, along with the insight I gained through conducting peer evaluations and receiving evaluations from my classmates, reinforces my discovery that perspective and approach will be the largest factors with my design projects moving forward. Focusing first on the problem to be solved and brainstorming so that the information required to solve the problem is communicated in an innovative way that provides the best experience for the end user is my goal and technique for best design work, regardless of the medium.

Beaird, J. & George, J. (2014). The principles of beautiful web design. [Safari Books Online] http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/web-design-and-development/9781457174353

Krug, S. (2013). Don’t make me think, revisited: A common sense approach to web usability. [Safari Books Online] http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/web-design-and-development/9780133597271

Vesalainen, T. https://pixabay.com/en/thought-idea-innovation-imagination-2123970/

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Journal Reflection - Effective Copywriting

The past few months for me have been challenging. Personal and professional challenges continue to arise and this month is my third attempt at taking this class. Having completed the class and having produced work I am proud of gives me a great sense of accomplishment and makes me feel like I am back to more wins than losses.

Creating the personas for the target audiences was a good learning tool. This part of the process helped to get me into the mindset and the voice of the target and speak in a true voice (Felton, 2013).

 Our project for this month was to develop a testimonial campaign for print. In the initial stages, I wasn't confident that I would accomplish this campaign successfully. I struggled with my sketches.

My sketches initially were satisfactory, but after regrouping and remembering that this needed to be a cohesive campaign, I was nervous again.

Taking the final concept above. I was able to build out a cohesive campaign that effectively communicates the highest benefit of the organization in an authentic way to the target audience by using expert spokespersons.

Felton, G. (2010). Advertising: Concept and copy [VitalSource download]. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9780393733921

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The post features my revised SWOT analysis for my Marrakesh Toolbox pages. The feedback that was received and implemented was given by classmate, George Hopson. HIs feedback, in response to my listing minimal design approach as a weakness, adjusted my perspective. George’s reminder, based on his interpretation of the Forbes article referenced to create our SWOT analysis (Quast, 2013), that a minimalist design approach is not necessarily a weakness as long as it yields unique and innovative design solutions.

Based on this feedback, I kept Minimalist Design approach on my list of weaknesses, to remind myself to be cautious of it, but adjusted the strengths list to include my ability to connect, synthesize and transform as required to ensure maximum creative thought, output, and perspective.

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Quest, L. (2013, April). How to conduct a personal SWOT analysis. Forbes.  Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2013/04/15/how-to-conduct-a-personal-s-w-o-t-analysis/#3c009d7628d8

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SWOT Analysis of Marrakesh Toolboxes

THREATS

Designs submitted by classmates incorporated the direction to create three separate brand personalities. My initial design does not as I misunderstood the given direction. Additionally, because my design solutions, including the revisions I have identified to make, incorporate clipping masks on photos I am limited in the selection of photos available to effectively communicate brand personalities. 

OPPORTUNITIES

As revisions are required, I have the opportunity to reconfigure the design, unmodified imagery, allowing a broader selection. Also, I have the opportunity to reexamine toolbox samples presented in the Goto session for inspiration.

WEAKNESSES

My design style can tend to be perceived compartmentalized and minimalist as I tend to feel better about clear, simple and straightforward designs. My design solutions can also be lacking in emotional connection due to my tendency to simplify my design solutions.

STRENGTH

I have recognized where my.limitations can be pushed so that my design solutions remain true to my design style but offer a broader expression of creativity. I am determined to create the best design solutions possible and therefore, committed to pushing myself as necessary to do so.

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These images document the progression of my sketches for Geography, Modern Culture and Tradition concepts of logos for the city of Marrakesh, Morocco.

The feedback I received on my designs was that most concepts are solid beginnings of potentially great ideas, that need to be expanded. Each idea needs to be fully explored and expanded as far and as many times as possible. Also, initial designs were very detailed, which were a bit limiting in use and variation. Taking those ideas and creating more iconic concepts that explore basic shapes with the addition of one element of interest will go a long way to make the designs memorable.

In the future, I will be more focused in my sketching process, taking the time to explore individual ideas to a fuller extent to ensure that I am going beyond in my thinking, creativity and association with research. Also, thinking in a more abstract manner than literal will assist in elevation to mastery in logo development research and execution.

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This photo has been my inspiration over the course of the last few weeks. Doing research and sketchs for the city of Marrakesh, Morocco, I was very intrigued by the mounds of the colorful pigments for sale in the souk markets. The shapes of the mounds of dye has been incoporated in my sketches and has given me some new ideas for color palettes. 

Dr JD (2006, June 1). Dye pigments for sale [Photograph]. Retrieved from     https://farm1.staticflickr.com/117/292576237_a04b7ba1c4_z.jpg?zz=1