Blog #27: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I kept the audience engaged and involved throughout the presentation, making it more of a conversation to keep them interested. My activities also seemed very effective and tied in with my answers, and also lead to a better understanding of my answers. My keynote was also very nice - it is one thing I can say with absolute certainty was good about my presentation.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)? Why?

AE. I explained the yearbook in terms that everyone could understand, and gave everyone a good idea of theme and consistency that engaged them and made them understand the concepts. The theme activity I used for my 2-hour is an activity that has been done in the past with new yearbook staffers, but never has it been so successful as when it was paired as an activity to my presentation.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)? Why?

AE in theory, because I have over 400 hours for my independent components and my interviews were very solid, as well as my research, but probably a P/P+ because I turned in a few things late.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

The independent component. I was the best way that I could have possibly learned about my topic.

(4) What didn’t work for you in your senior project?

It was extremely difficult to focus on anything else but senior project, and due to scheduling it was also very difficult to get Editor-in-Chiefs from other schools for my interviews without being late. For my third interview, I had to scrap the people I wanted to interview twice before finally getting Cynthia Schroeder.

(5) Finding Value

I now know that I can do a solid keynote, and that my analogies generally get across to my audience (in the presentation.) I also know that I actually can present for an hour and a half, and that I can facilitate and execute (well) a 128 page publication, and also manage all of the ins and outs within it - staff management, organization, improving structure, brainstorming, and theme and visual execution.

Blog #26: 2-hour rough draft

Link.

Blog #22: Answer #3

My third answer for my essential question, what is the most important factor in creating an award-winning yearbook, is also, I believe, my best answer: a strong, defined, relevant theme. This has been stressed through multiple sources. For example, in the article Power by Design, the author, Rick Poynor, talks about how graphic designers overestimate their job. Designers think that they must make the design stand out, when in reality, you should let the theme or message speak, and everything else come afterwards. Better by Design, by Ann Akers and Paul Ender, talks mostly about the marriage of all of the elements in a yearbook through design - and the underlying factor is always the theme. The photography must go with the theme. The copy and the voice must whisper the theme throughout the book. The design of the book must illuminate the theme. The theme is what ties the entire book together. Both my second and third interviews also agree - Mimi Orth, my service learning, says that you must know your school, know your audience, and sell your yearbook to them through a relevant and theme. Cynthia Schroeder also stressed knowing your theme, and keeping it in sight throughout the book. In her words, "[Theme is] what determines what the design is gonna be, the voice, the copy, colors, the coverage. It really determines everything in the book and, you know, what separates the more amateur looking books from the professional, award winning books is the concept."

Blog #20: Room Creativity

1) How do you plan on addressing the room creativity expectation?

A few classmates and I are all investing in the black tarp/canvas thing that past presentations have used to cover up the current room decorations. In addition, I plan on hanging many of the spreads and copy drafts, simply to show the amount of drafts staffers and designers go through.

2) What activity ideas do you have for answers 1 and 2?

My first answer, consistency, will probably find its way in through a series of spreads, where an inconsistency in voice and design should be identified. For my second answer, staff management, I'm planning on making a little game based on a staff scenario, where a situation is given and each table is presented a set of options. Each table will pick their option and hold it up. Once everyone has chosen an answer, the reaction to each answer will be explained, and an additional scenario will be given. This is to show the unpredictability of working with such a large-scale staff on such a detail-oriented task.

Blog #19: Answer 2

My topic is Yearbook, and my essential question is: What is most important to producing a successful yearbook? My first answer was consistency, as in, making sure that everything stays solid throughout the book. My second answer is definitely a good staff and staff management. Each year, we get a wave of new kids, kids that we have to train in the ways of general yearbook, and in the ways of that years' specific book. Not only that, but you really have to figure out what makes them tick. On the way, there's a few challenges. We always have two kids, or three at the most, paired up with each other, usually a writer and a photographer. The first challenge, at the beginning of each semester, is figuring out who will work well together. After that, you have to use your people skills to the max: praise good work, give careful, constructed criticism where improvement is needed. Making your staff work means making your staff feel loved - which also means they'll feel more guilty if you're disappointed in them. It has to be a careful balance - "Kind, but firm," as said by Strand. The difference between books with good staff management and bad staff management is painfully clear; when (personalish story that I don't want floating around on the internet), "I feel kinda bad for them," said Will afterwards. "I mean, we don't really have that problem of us doing absolutely everything. Our staff works like clockwork." We had certainly gotten the better staff. But we also had better leaders.

Something like this.

Blog #14: Presentation 2 Rough Draft

My essential question is: What is most important to producing a successful yearbook?

For my 20 Minute presentation, I am basically going to be teaching the class the basics of yearbook, and going a little into how all of the rules in yearbook are meant to be broken - but you have to know the rules, first.

The filled out template can be found here.

Blog #13: Answer 1

1.) What is answer 1 to your EQ? Be specific in your answer and write it like a thesis statement.

Consistency makes a successful yearbook - consistency in design, in copy, and even in photo.

2.) What possible evidence do you have to support this answer?

I think one of the biggest pieces of evidence I have is my current experience in yearbook. Last year, as design editor, I noticed that one of the most challenging things in making a yearbook is making sure everything looks the same. The captions all have to have the same format, bylines need to have the exact same tint, font size, and weight, and the spacing between pictures needs to be perfect. Things like that. Messing up any of the little things will be a glaring sign of unprofessionalism to other designers. As Editor-in-Chief this year, I've realized that consistency goes much farther than design. As the theme executor, I must make sure that the theme shows throughout the book.

This is harder than it sounds - a theme is conceptual, and certainly left to interpretation. There is no way that you can sit down and write a list of theme-related material and say, "These things make up our theme. We will stick within these boundaries, and so our theme will be perfect." Since the theme is an idea, and a broad idea at that, it is impossible to assign a list of characteristics to it. You really have to know your theme inside and out, and have an artistic vision for it.

That's where the consistency comes in. The voice must be consistent in every single aspect of the book. The tone of the writing, if it is short, snappy, and playful, must stay that way, but must also be varied to show all sides of the theme. The design must be solidified so that the book fits together visually, but also malleable enough that you aren't looking at the same thing over and over again. Even the photos must be consistent - every single year, you basically have to re-train the photographers to get full-body photos, or lots of peoples' profiles, or pictures with exactly two people in them, or especially long pictures, or no, wait, this year it's long-shots. All of these things contribute to the voice of a book, and that voice cannot waver. It must stay strong and steady. That is definitely the most challenging part of the yearbook so far, and certainly one of the most important aspects of a successful yearbook.

3.) What source(s) did you find this evidence and/or answer?

Kazmierski, Crystal. "What makes theme copy work." School Yearbook Publisher - Walsworth Yearbooks. 1999. Walsworth Yearbooks. 09 Sept. 2011 . Personal experience

Blog #4: Interview 1 and presentation 1

1.) In what way did the first interview affect your presentation? Please explain, be specific and use an example.

The first interview didn't really affect the topic of my presentation, but it did sort of affect the content. I chose to talk about theme, but in order to properly explain theme, you have to have a good yearbook example. According to Joseph Chan, mastering writing, photo, and design is essential to creating a good yearbook. So, I picked one of my favorite books which I felt had mastered writing, photo, and design, which was Brentwood High School's "Where Brentwood Happens" yearbook.

2.) What do you say stood out about your presentation performance and why?

When I used the book for my presentation, I wanted to show what thought goes into making a yearbook theme smooth. It's sort of difficult to describe a "smooth" yearbook theme, but it's a kind of theme that doesn't get drilled word-for-word into your brain from repetition, or gets boring from being used too often throughout the book. A good theme plays on words, mixes and matches related phrases, and integrates itself into the very structure of the book (i.e. section titles, and how the book is designed or formatted.) A good theme doesn't scream at you. No, a good theme should seem gently patted and kneaded into the pages of the book. There, the theme becomes one with the format and the style of a yearbook, and becomes second-nature to the reader, an underlying and almost unseen part of the book. I wanted to show that to the class, and that it isn't just award-winning books like Brentwood that are able to do this. iPoly does it too. So, besides explaining Brentwood's book and how their theme was woven in, I also pulled examples from our past books, to try and create that little "a-ha!" moment in the eyes of the iPoly readers.

3.) What was the most challenging thing to do and why?

The most challenging thing to do, in my opinion, was try and come up with something for my 5-minute that I wouldn't need to use for my final presentation. I don't want to limit my options for activities and topics too much.

Blog #3: 5-minute presentation rough draft

Objective:

To help the class understand the concept of theme, and how it affects different aspects of the yearbook.

Procedure:

Because the students will not know what to look for if I don't explain to them what theme is, I will give a brief explanation of theme. I will touch on the different places where the theme is integrated into the book (such as: section titles, module titles, style of writing, etc.) [1 minute] I will then divide the class into 3-5 groups, each with their own yearbook (either a "My Paradigm" (2009-2010) or a "Know what I mean?" (2010-2011) book). Each group will have to find phrases that relate to the theme that are found within the book [2 minutes]. At the end, the class will share out what they found [1 minute].

Check for understanding:

Each group (or maybe one or two, depending on time constraint) will share what theme they had, which phrases they found within the book, and how it relates to the theme.

Materials:

• 3 copies of both "My Paradigm" and "Know what I mean?"
• Timer