Author: Abrianna

  • Portfolio Campaign (Portfolio Show 2025)

    Portfolio Campaign (Portfolio Show 2025)

    For the past weeks, I have been working on my portfolio campaign, in my design classes. We even had a contest for it to be the face of our portfolio for this year. We had already voted and everything and Even though I didn’t win I still was able to learn so much. We even critiqued each other so I got some very valuable critiques from my peers.

    This was my table tent design
    This was my main poster for the Portfolio Show, this is very similar to my invite.

    In this entire process, we made and mocked up a Poster (11×17), Invite & Envelope (A7 Env size), Guestbook or equivalent, Window Cling, Website Composition, Facebook Timeline Graphic, and a Table Tent. Some things were simple enough because it was just designing things like posters and invites. But the most difficult piece is probably the book mockup. It had the most pages to figure out, even though it was just a mockup, and it didn’t have a definite size that we had to work with. We had the freedom to pick the size and that was both good and bad. It was good because we had that freedom, but it was bad because it had to be a certain paper size. I had a small problem about it being too long for the paper so I had to make it smaller, which made me have to change the inside format as well.

    This is the first page of the student book (program)

    My favorite part of this assignment was probably being able to print out and cut out my work. I enjoyed being able to see it big on paper rather than just on a screen. We worked on a little bit of everything really fun to do. Trying to change the paper size and orientation while also trying to keep the same look, was a very interesting process. But I enjoy doing it a lot.

    Overall the project was both very stressful and rewarding. It also helped me vouch for my time management with printing and cutting. This was probably one of my favorite assinments. It wasn’t just focused on one thing but a bunch of things. I hope that I can continue to learn and grow so that I can get better and better in my skills.

  • Social Media Strategies (engaging your audience)

    In my Multimedia Portfolio class, we have been blogging. Also in my Multimedia Portfolio class, we had to do a presentation on a certain subject. I had the pleasure of doing it on Social Media Strategies, but more specifically how to engage your audience. Fourtualy these relate to each other and I can apply what I learned from it to my blogging. I can learn how to have an effective online presence and how to engage my audience.

    First of all, what is a Social Media Strategy? This strategy is a plan for how to use social media to achieve certain goals. You should use this because it provides a structured approach, helps grow your audience and yourself as a brand, and helps you engage with your audience. Which is what my subject will and was mainly focused on.

    Next, you should know what audience engagement is. This refers to the interaction and involvement of your target audience with your content, brand, or online platform. Your audience can engage with you by reacting, amplifying, and/or responding to your posts. Reacting is things like likes and emojis, Amplifying is doing things like shares and reposts, and responding is things like comments and replies. You should also know that the number of followers you have matters to a certain extent, but how engaged they are is more valuable.

    There are many questions you should ask yourself on this subject. Things like: Why should you try to engage your audience? How to engage your audience? And How do know if it’s working? So first of all why should you try to engage your audience? This is because it enhances your brand’s reputation, helps build trust and loyalty, helps broaden your reach or example, expands on people exposed to your content, gives valuable feedback, and lastly helps you stand out from others.

    Next is How to engage your audience? To do this you need to first Choose the right platforms, then Post consistently and at optimal times, then you need to Create engaging and high-quality content, Visual appeal, Variety, Storytelling, and Actively respond to comments and messages, while also asking questions. You can also use interactive content: polls, surveys, and quizzes to also make a way to engage your audience.

    So How do know if it’s working? To do this you can Monitor your likes, comments, and shares, watch and see if you have steady follower growth, you see you have increased website traffic, you see relevant conversations in your comment section, and you receive positive brand mentions. But there are also some things you should not do. You should not post insensitive or controversial topics that may offend people, Don’t post only what interests you: it’s ok to do this sometimes but you should do both so that you post things that also interest your audience, Overly personal information, Post too frequently, Not respond to comments: even hate/negative comments you can learn from those, or Fail to tailor content to your specific audience on each platform: each platform has a specific way it’s written and audience that is there.

    This subject was very interesting and fun to present. I learned a lot and reviewed and refreshed things that I had forgotten or didn’t think of as much. I think doing these kinds of assinments is very important, to be able to research and review for yourself and share it with others so that they can also learn and review from it. I hope to also write and communicate this to whoever reads this so that they can also learn from it.

    Work Cited

    Ahmed, A. (2024, February 15). Audience engagement: What it is and tips to improve it. Retrieved February 2025, from sproutsocial: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/audience-engagement/

    Dana. (2023, August 10). Retrieved February 2025, from SalesNash: https://salesnash.com/blog/what-is-audience-engagement-examples-and-tips/#:~:text=First%20of%20all%2C%20it’s%20worth,%2C%20brand%2C%20or%20online%20platform.

    Garcia, C. (2021, September 10). Why is audience engagement important? Retrieved February 2025, from Google for Creators: https://creators.google/en-us/content-creation-guides/audience-engagement/why-is-audience-engagement-important/#:~:text=High%20audience%20engagement%20helps%20you,monetization%20opportunities%20in%20the%20future.

    Gordon, R. (2025, January 24). 5 Steps to Engaging Your Audience on Social Media. Retrieved February 2025, from business.com: https://www.business.com/articles/5-steps-to-engage-your-audience-on-social-media/

  • Demonstrate (Printer Spread)

    In this blog, I want to explain how to set up a printer spread from readers spread. This process is pretty easy but it takes longer the more pages you have. However, nonetheless, it should still be remembered how to do it. And to also explain in the process what these are and the importance and difference of both. They each have their use and it is good to know how to set up both of them.

    This is a example of a reader spread
    This is how a printer spread pages would look like (for a couple of pages)

    First, explain what these two spreads are. First of all, a reader’s spread is like in a magazine how you would see the magazine as printed. This is so that you can have an idea of how it will look all together. Next is the reader spread, this kind of spread is used to be able to print your magazine in a way where you can cut and print it. They both have their use so you can’t use one for the other so you got to make sure you use the right one.

    Since making a reader spread is easy and doesn’t take much though it’s the easier of the two. All you have to do is put pages in your document and put the pages next to each other. But the tricky part is the printer spread this is where you have to separate the two pages that are next to each other, this sounds simple but it’s just time-consuming.

    So to do this you need to first separate all of your pages and start on the right side of the first page. Then zig zag your way down until you get to the bottom where you zig zag up. To make sure you did it right when adding the pages, you can always check by adding the two spread’s pages together, and they should equal the number of pages you have in your magazine plus one.

    This is a printer spread, see how the first and last page are next to each other. (see how they make 17)

    Making and printing a magazine was a lot more fun and nerve-racking than I thought it was going to be. It was still very time-consuming and there were still times when I was stressed about it. But I was able to print it and am now in the process of putting it together. As I mentioned printing is fun and there is a lot more work to it than I ever had to do, but it truly is very fun to do. It actually may be one of the most fun and engaging things we have done.

  • How to Print (educate)

    How to Print (educate)

    I have learned a lot here at Southeast Tech. One such thing is how to print. I never thought I would find this interesting. I knew it was an important part but never thought I would do it myself. I love how much we do and is available here. Teaching us the little things has helped me understand this industry and gives me a taste of what there is. I want to discuss all the settings we go through to be able to print things like our magazine or a poster.

    The only ever past experience with a print I have had was back in high school since we always dealt with PDFs until this semester. Whenever I printed before, like back in high school, all you did was make sure everything was on the paper correctly and maybe save paper by making it front and back. But these important settings you need are a check and recheck you always need to be aware of to not affect the printer or have the wrong look or paper. These settings are usually all the same but just a couple of differences, like to be able to accommodate each paper size and kind.

    This is what the page set up options look like (for printing a magazine)

    So, the first thing you need to do, assuming you are in Indesign. Is to go to File > Print. Then make sure that you are connected to the right printer, in this case, it’s a printer starting in 172. In Indesign, you then select setup for the next steps. Also in this first tab, you can select how many or what what pages you want to be printed.

    This is the setting you would see for a magazine

    Then in setup, you need to make sure to select pages if you need pages or spreads if you need spreads. Then you select which orientation is needed, landscape or portrait. Also in this tab, you want to make sure that your paper size is correct, see if you need to scale to fit or scale to width and height, and select the page position to adjust how the content looks and fits on the paper. Then still in Indesign you go to the bottom and select printer. Here you need to make sure the pages are the same as the ones you selected in the first tab, usually, this would just be all pages. You can also make sure that your printer is the same throughout this entire process. Then you can press the blue print button. You can also look at the print setup options and make sure everything is the same as what you had in the first tab.

    This is Fiery (the logo on the app, for visual referance)

    Your final setting and options would be finally in fiery. One printed from InDesign, it is sent here where you can two-click or one-click then press the properties button on the top. Either way, you want to view properties. Here you want to make sure that your paper size is still the same. Then here you can choose the duplex, the paper tray, and the paper type you want.

    So for example settings for printing our 16-page magazine we made would be the following. You first go to File > Print then connect to the 172 printer. Then in setup, select spread and landscape. You also want the paper size to be 12×18 and the scale to fit to be off, so 100% width and height. Then have the page position centered. Make sure that the settings under the printer and page setup options are the same as the rest. Also, make sure to print all pages. Then in Fiery, in properties, you want the 12×18 paper size again, duplex to be top binding, the paper try to be the bypass try, which is the one on the size for specific paper, then have the paper type be thick 1. And lastly remember to always choose print and hold, not just print.

    Me doing this, I was able to figure out that printing is actually really fun. It seems like a simple task but there is a lot more to it, enough that you can get a job in it. I don’t think I could only do this full-time. Nonetheless, it’s still very fun and interesting to do. I love that I was able to learn it and hope to retain this information in the future. And be able to look back here myself if I ever do need a refresher.

  • Computer Case Review

    I use my computer every day and considering it probably is one of the most expensive things I own I knew from the beginning that I wanted to protect it. So I got a nice cheap computer case that had a very good review from Amazon. This blog is a review of this computer case and how well it has worked for me these past two years and some things that I wish were better.

    This is the top of my computer case
    This is the crack mentioned in the paragraph

    This is a very strong and durable computer case. Considering I got it at the beginning of my first year, and even still have it now it’s held up great. It came with a computer screen but I decided not to use that. However, I love the keyboard cover. It keeps my keywords nice and clean and adds a nice grip to the keys.

    However there are some downsides to it, consider that I had it for this long the case has seen better days. There are a few nicks on the front case and I even managed to crack a corner of the case. Granted it did protect it that way it still cracked. Also, the keyboards are wearing down and you can see the keys that I often use. Also, it sometimes leaves residue on the screen when I close my laptop.

    Overall considering the price it is a very good computer case. I would most definitely buy or recommend this to others as a cheap way to protect your computer. But just to replace it maybe every couple of years. I am planning to get a new one soon but will probably be the same brand and type. It works very well and customizes my laptop in the cutest way, so I 10/10 would recommend it.

  • Fundraiser Part 2 (afterwards)

    The fundraiser was everything I could imagine. The music, the sweets, the entertainment—it was all wonderful. We ran into a small problem at the beginning but luckily I knew exactly what to do. I also love being able to help out and support the fundraiser in my way. This blog is part two of the other fundraiser blog that talks about my thoughts up until I went home for the fundraiser.

    I arrived around noon to start and set up the lights during a different rehearsal every hour or so. There was a technical problem with one of the monitors. It just wouldn’t turn on. But luckily I know how to fix the problem. I just had to do a manual restart but pressing a small bullon on the master board. After that, it all went smoothly, and with each act that came up, I just put whatever light and LED lights that looked good with them. I sometimes would ask people what they were wearing so that I could color-match the LED lights with them.

    Like I said before there are lots of wonderful acts that come to perform. But that would take a lot to mention them all, so I just want to mention my favorite and the most memorable ones. First, a favorite of mine was performed by the woman who called me. She both helped plan it and participated in it. It was one of my favorites because she is a good singer and she sang one of my favorite songs from The Greatest Showman, “Tightrope.” I also enjoyed it because some ballerinas came and danced to her singing it.

    Another one was the SDSU Jazz band. They came and blew the crowd away. They sounded so good and it was very interesting to watch and listen to them play. Especially since it’s a college band, you know it’s going to be good. They played three songs with one being sung by the pianist. This also includes my favorite memory because the drummer actually joined another act to add some beat to theirs that day and only practiced with them a couple of times. It really showed their professionalism.

    But out of all of them, my favorite would have to have been my old classmate and friend from back in high school. She has the most beautiful voice I have ever heard and have always loved hearing her sing. It was a real treat to see her and watch her perform again. She sang the song “Still Hurting” from the movie The Last Five Years, with her mom on the piano. Since then I have been constantly listening to it, it’s a beautiful song and I fit her voice beautifully.

    It was a fantastic experience to help out again. I love being able to help whenever I can and this is totally one of the top. I learned a lot from this experience and hope that they will message me again for this same thing or for anything different that they might need. I also learned that there are many ways to help out if you can’t one way you can always find another way. They kept saying how much they appreciated me and I appreciated that from them.

  • Worldly/Well-Rounded (languages)

    Not very many people know this about me, but I know basic Spanish. I don’t want to say that I am entirely bilingual, but I am pretty well-rounded in the language. I was able to take Spanish 1 and 2 back in high school and enjoyed both classes very much. I do like to practice once in a while to keep up with my knowledge and to keep my Spanish sharp.

    I know the basics pretty well, I know how to introduce myself and how to ask basic questions, like where something is. I also know rooms in a house and things inside one, colors, different foods, and even body parts. Body parts are probably my strongest point in Spanish communication. I always say that if I was ever injured in a Spanish-speaking country, I would be 100% fine. My pronunciation is not perfect, so I would also say that I am more confident in writing and reading Spanish than in speaking it.

    One funny experience that I had learning a new language is that I found myself speaking Spanish randomly throughout the day, even now, I sometimes use Spanish words instead of English words. Also, back in high school, I found myself switching back and forth from English to Spanish when I was writing in my non-Spanish classes without even noticing.

    During my two Spanish classes, I was able to learn so much about different Spanish-speaking countries. I have always loved learning about new things and even learning more things about topics that I find interesting. So overall, I recommend taking up another language. I have even started learning some basic French and Japanese words. I think that learning a different language is a very fun and rewarding thing to do. It helps you communicate with others that do not speak your language. And even learning the most basic words can maybe help you later in a dire situation.

  • Inform (Fundraiser)

    Inform (Fundraiser)

    Fundraisers are one of the best ways to make money for a certain cause or organization. I have done a few small fundraiser for my school, like World’s Finest Chocolate and Fruit Sales. But I have done this bigger fundraiser two times now. This fundraiser is called Snowflakes and Sweets, and it is put on by the Plus One Pregnancy Guidance Center.

    I get to have the chance to be a part of this very fun fundraiser event this Saturday. This fundraiser is put on once a year to raise money for the non-profit organization Plus One. Plus One is a guidance center for any expecting mother who needs some support or counseling. The money is used to support that money and be able to pay bills and expenses at the building.

    This years Snowflake and Sweets annual fundraiser poster from their website. (https://plusonehuron.org/snowflakes-and-sweets/)

    I love helping out whenever I can, so when someone from my hometown asked if I wanted to do the lights for the fundraiser, I instantly said yes. This event will occur on February 8th at seven o’clock in Huron, South Dakota, at James Valley Christian School, my old high school. This fundraiser is very fun and interesting to come to. Snowflakes and Sweets are where they serve sweets to guests that come where they can socialize before. Then, they put on a show with volunteers where they put on different musical acts, like singing or playing an instrument.

    Snowflakes and Sweets is very fun and entertaining, and I’m very excited to be able to get to do it again. The music and performances are always the best. I will have to do another blog next week to talk about how it went and all the different performances performed. If you ever get the chance, I hope you can look into it and be able to support this organization and maybe even make the trip this Saturday to come see it for yourself.

  • Critique (myself)

    Critique (myself)

    This is my poster, from my first year.
    This is a redesign I did today when writing the blog to see if I improved at all, what do you think?

    I am probably not the person to ask when it comes to solid critiques. I love seeing the best in things and mostly have trouble telling people to change something or, in this case, to critique them. It’s not that I can’t its just that I feel bad, and I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. But to be honest, I have come a very long way since my first semester. If you had told me to critique someone, I wouldn’t have said anything. Not that I would have known what to look out for specifically then. But, over these past two years, I can say that I was able to develop a decerning eye and how to critique someone. So now, in this blog, I am going to critique my first-year self. I have done a lot in my first year, so I will probably just do one thing, but I will try to do more in the future.

    I chose to critique my Info Poster from my first year’s first semester, so I was pretty new to this. Looking at my poster, I see lots of things wrong that I could change to make it better. First, I noticed that I wasn’t the best at typography. I am still certainly not the best at it, but I have noticed an improvement. Seeing how this is a text-based design, any text in this poster could have been better. In some places, the text is too thin and hard to see, and in one place, the text gets way too close to each other.

    The style had the right idea, but there were still many flaws in this part of the design as well. Besides the test, I would say there is too much blank white space. I think it might just be the background that is the problem. There could have been a way better way for me to do the background of this poster to make it look better. Overall, I would say the only thing I did right was the images.

    Critiquing myself was very harsh but necessary. I think that being able to look at and learn from my past self is very important to my development as a designer. I believe learning from my past self will help me know what to avoid and what to work on. And I entirely believe that learning from past mistakes is very important and a good skill to have, not just in this situation.

  • Inspire

    I have quite a few people that inspire me. Professionally and Unprofessionally, Related to the industry and not. Different people play very critical roles in our lives. In past blogs, I have mentioned some people who inspire me and who I look up to. But like other blogs, I will recap but also add to it. Mentioning people not just in the industry but in day-to-day life as well.

    First of all, some people who inspire me and who I look up to professionally are two small business owners I had a chance to meet and interview for my magazine. Their names are Christy Beving, owner of Downtown Designs, and Liz Erickson, owner of Atoley Solon and Spa. They both inspire me to work hard for what I want. They both started small and by themselves, but each of them was able to grow from that, and each was able to be a very successful businesswoman. I love their dedication and determination towards their line of work, and they make me want to do just as much.

    I also have many people who inspire me in a nonprofessional/business way. These people helped shape my life and made me want to strive to be just like them. From my oldest sister, who has worked very hard since she was in high school to help raise me, to women who filled the vacant mother role in my life. Both of these women have also taught me to work hard but in a whole different way, in a more of a day-to-day life way. They inspire me to be a better person and help prepare me for what is to come in my life.

    Having someone that inspires you is very good. They can help develop you and even change you in both good and bad ways. That is also why you must always be careful in who you choose to inspire you. Who you trust and look up to is very important. You find yourself always drawn to and listening to them. You need to be careful about who you want to follow and inspire you so that you do not go down the wrong path in life.