Category: Uncategorized

  • 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.

  • Being Involved

    Being Involved

    Since college, I haven’t been involved with things outside of campus. But that is not to say that I haven’t considered doing it. But the main thing I got involved in mostly was the volleyball intramural they have here at STC. One other thing I can say that I was able to be involved with outside of regular classes was tutoring.

    My Senior Spotlight in volleyball in my high school yearbook

    I loved volleyball back in high school, so I jump whenever I get the chance to be able to play. It also allows me to stay active and not let myself go. Saying active keeps me in shape and supports my mental health. Also, being able to be involved in a sport is very fun. All while being able to meet and play with new people. Being on the same team really can build relationships, and that allows you to enjoy the game even more.

    The other thing I got involved with was tutoring. I was able to help out and tutor the first year of my degree. It was very fun and rewarding, and I even got paid for it. I was able to relearn some skills that I had learned when I was in my first year. I was able to get involved with the schools, even if it was just for one semester. But the experience and skills I was able to obtain from it were very rewarding.

    Even after college, I know how to get involved in things, but outside of college, to more community things. I have looked into many volleyball intramurals, and other things I could do that seemed fun. I am graduating very soon, so I wish to be involved and be more active for myself and my health. I hope to meet more new people on the way and hope to have just as much fun as I did in college.

  • Values

    I know I have done similar blogs mentioning what I value as a person. I do think that I will recap on some in this blog but also mention some other ones. I believe mentioning your values to future employers is a good way to build trust and community between them and you. I think that mentioning not just your skills in an interview but also your values can put you in a stronger standing than others in that interviewing process. In this way, you show character and who you are as a person. And I think employers will value that. And that even if you are experienced, if your values or characteristics don’t match with the company and you won’t work well with everyone, they probably won’t want to hire you.

    Some of the values that I have mentioned before are family and friends. I value my relationships with them and love to be with them. I think strong relationships help build a person’s character. I love every one of my friends and what they have done for me in my life, building my confidence and supporting me through my different stages of schooling. I value my family in all that they have done for me, they supported me growing up and built me into who I am today.

    Some other things that I value as a person are kindness, loyalty, and respect. These are also some things that I value with family and friends. There are other things I also value, but these three are probably the most important to me. First, I believe kindness is one of the most important things a person can have. Being kind to others is such a broad term, but that’s just it. I believe in showing kindness to someone and not being. Of course, you don’t have to like everyone, but never disregard and ignore them just because you find them annoying.

    Secondly, loyalty, I belive loyalty is an very import factor to have. Without loyalty, there is no trust. If you don’t trust someone that creates problems that are very tricky to deal with. Loyalty help create friendships and relationships that can be very benifical for you as a person and with company relationships.

    Lastly, respect also goes along with being kind to others. I know there are a lot of different beliefs and ways people think in the world these days, and because of that, people don’t get along. But I believe that being able to respect someone for what they think is very important. That doesn’t mean you automatically have to think they are also right and disregard your values and beliefs as a person, but to respect them in their decisions and not try to force them to change their mind to be like you and only have them change on their own if they want on their own accord.

    These are some of my many core values that I think are very important. Without these, I don’t think you can have very fulfilling relationships or even be a very successful or approachable individual. Not everyone needs to act the same, but I do believe people at least have a little. If you are always unkind, unloyal, and disrespectful, then you constantly push people away, and that is never good.

  • Last Semester! New Beginnings?

    As I begin my fourth and final semester at Southeast Tech, I feel very excited and nervous. It’s hard to believe that after this semester I am going to graduate and start my journey in the “real world” with a “real job,” not just a part-time job along with school. These past two years, I have been taught and have learned so much. I am so thankful for all my experiences and the chances I have been given during my college experience. I want to talk about and highlight some of the best moments and memories I’ve had over the past two years.

    What I loved most about my college experience was the volleyball intramurals they offered. I love volleyball and I play it whenever I can. I loved playing with all sorts of people. Another thing I loved was the classes they offered here. It offered everything I wanted and more. I was able to learn everything I needed to be successful in this occupation. I was worried that I wouldn’t be good enough to succeed in this industry, but I knew that with practice and time, I would improve, and I have. One last thing that I love about my college experience is the friends I made along the way. I was very worried at the beginning of this new journey that I wouldn’t be able to make new friends or fit in, but I was very wrong. I have met so many amazing people that I can confidently call my friends. They are all so very wonderful and I am very happy I was able to meet them and hope I will be able to stay in touch after graduation.

    Also, one last thing I want to talk about is the Portfolio Show at the end of the year. As I said earlier, I was very wary of starting my journey here, fearing I wouldn’t be able to be successful with my skills coming into college. But now more confident in my skills and excited to find joy in pursuing a lifelong career that I love. The Portfolio Show is used as a way to get connected to people and to show them our work. I am very excited to meet more people from the industry or those who want to hire for it.

    Overall I am sad that this part of my life is coming to a close, but I am also very excited. I want to be able to stretch out and get a good job. I want to be able to get a good, fun, and nice-paying job. I want to be able to live comfortably and not have to worry about money. And lastly, I want to always remember all the memories and experiences I had during this time. I am so very proud of myself for how much I have grown and hope to grow more in the future.

  • Resources

    I think resources are a very vital thing to have and use. They help aid you in a design, help you come up with ideas when you hit a blank, and help you design ideas, whether it be AI or using them to inspire your work. You can use resources for a lot of helpful things. These are three resources I recommend and like to use myself to help me. Either for ideas or for design, these resources have helped me a lot and I probably will keep using them to be able to create great work and writings in the future.

    This is my Package Design with my brand name that I was able to come up with.
    Conversation I had with ChatGPT to come up with the Grammarly example, to show how it works.
    Example of what Grammarly can do and help with.

    First of all, I probably say that I use AI the most, ChatGPT specifically, for a resource. I don’t abuse the use of it or ever use it word for word at all. I like to use it to come up with some ideas or prompts when I can’t think of something or to get product or brand name ideas for projects in my classes. One example of this is when we had to do a package design in one of my classes and I had to come up with a brand name. I had no idea and my only knew was that I wanted it to be a beauty sponge brand. I went to ChatGPT and typed in “makeup sponge brand name ideas.” It then comes up with lots of ideas on where you can base your name from. I then put two different parts of two different names I liked together and was able to come up with “Blendipuff.” This helped me come up with the name and allowed me to not waste any time just trying to think of a name for the brand.

    Another resource I like to use probably used just as much as ChatGPT, is Grammarly, which is also considered AI. Grammarly is used to be able to check grammar, punctuation, spelling, and much more. I am using Grammarly right now to write this blog. I use it for almost, if not, everything to be able to write effective and well-written work. Again it is entirely me writing it but it just checks and makes sure it is spelled correctly and professionally. I mostly used Grammery in my Media Writing last semester. I made sure everything I turned in was professionally written with correct grammar and spelling. This was always advised as a resource to use. One of my instructors would always say that one spelling mistake could cost you joy or the company lots of money. So being able to check and make sure everything is correct is very important, especially in this industry.

    The many option in Dafont.com that you can choose from.

    Lastly, one resource I like to use for my designs to either use or see how it would look in the design is Dafont.com. I use this as the main place to get free-to-use fonts for my designs. Of course not all of them are free but a lot of good ones are free to use and help in the typography of your designs, besides having the ones just from Adobe. Adobe has a lot of free-to-use fonts at fonts.adobe.com. They both are very good to use but I find myself using Dafont more because of the layout and all the different unique fonts you can find.

    But overall you still need to be wary and careful how you use them. Some resources, like fonts, are free but some do cost money. Also, some do have creative rights you need you need to look out for, to not get in trouble in the future. So you always want to be careful what you use and see if you can use it. But as long as you do, you are always free to use things to help yourself. One thing my instructors told me in college was to “use your resources.” They always said not to make things more difficult than they have to be. I agree with that statement and I think as long as you don’t plagiarize and follow all the laws that come with it, using resources is entirely ok.

  • New Connections

    The past semester has been enjoyable, especially in my Media Writing class. In this class we have done some assinments that I wasn’t very fond of the first time I heard we were going to do it. But surprisingly I enjoyed it. I have been able to meet some extraordinary people and learn so much about them and their thoughts. They have given me an insight into the real world and what it’s like. And I have been able to improve my social and confidence from doing these assinments.

    Christy Beving at our meeting at Zooks Coffee Bar

    The first assignment was when I met Christy Beving, she is the professional in the industry I had to interview. She is the owner and founder of Downtown Design. She was so fun to talk to and was very laid back. She was very inspirational and I learned so much from her. She is who I wanted to be, her business owner, and designer. She gave me a lot of pointers and talked to me about working in the industry. I loved talking to her and I respect her so much.

    Liz Erickson at our meeting in her salon

    The second person I interviewed and learned from was Liz Erickson. She is the small business owner of Atoley Salon and Spa in downtown Sioux Falls. She was my second choice when my first choice never contacted me back. I was walking back to my car from going into my first-choice cafe for the second. I then emailed her and the next day went into the salon. I got the date and time and was able to go in and interview her. She was so very nice when we started talking. She told me all about her hard work and what she did to get where she is today. If you are looking for a salon then I highly recommend Atoley, it is a great place to go. The atmosphere is beyond any place I have ever been, anyone would enjoy it.

    The last professional I had to talk to was for a promotional writing assignment. I had the privilege to talk to Caitlin Moen. She was so very kind and fun to talk to as well. She is the owner of Midnight Spark Permanent Jewelry. She told me how she started and what she wanted to do and achieve with her business. She is very inspirational and passionate about what she is doing and introduced me to a thing that I barely knew about.

    If you had told me last year that I would have enjoyed a assignments where I had to go and talk to people to complete it and enjoy it. I would have laughed and said you were crazy. I never thought that I would enjoy anything of the social aspect especially something like this. The college has prepared me for so much more than my degree. It is and has prepared me to be able to talk to professionals comfortably, and I am glad that I am here.

  • Coding (Second Year)

    Like last year I have taken a class entirely on coding. I still love coding so very much and I love learning more. I have learned so much from taking these classes, way more than I thought I would be able to. I learned how to create bootstrap html code and even a new Flexbox feature. This blog will mention my thoughts and process for making this website.

    Mockup of the website

    For the most recent and last assignment we made, Chef Jacqueline website. Just like the first website, we made we made a mockup in Photoshop then created it in Dreamweaver. It was very fun to make this website especially because it involved a bakery and coding. To start, I first needed to find a color pallet for a bakery website. I first thought of a more monotone pallet but then I thought of doing a bright and vibrant one.

    Top part of my website

    Next, I had to make a mockup. I wanted to use a basic and easy online that was easy to follow. I made sure to use the color pallet in a well-tough way and design. As well as fonts and graphics that will match as well. Next, I had to code the website. It was fun to figure out how to translate the look into code. I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do and more.

    Bottom part of my website

    This was a very fun and interesting assignment to do. I had fun and I hope to continue developing my skills. With that, I will be able to get better and be confident in my skills. I wish to someday get a job doing it as I know I will enjoy it. I hope to get a job that I will be able to get up every day looking forward to going to work every day.

  • Magazine Design (Part 3: Final Look)

    Magazine Design (Part 3: Final Look)

    This last part of this three-part post will show the final look and final thoughts of my magazine. I worked very hard on it and learned a lot, and I can’t wait to show you what I have done. Making this magazine has taught me a lot. I hope you appreciate I loved making it just as much as you will like it. I got to create so many meaningful designs that I think are some of my best so far. I also got to meet so many wonderful ladies in this journey collecting content for
    this magazine.   

    This is my product spread design

    The goal of Immersion is to keep you engaged and invested in reading my magazine. So I hope that when you look at these few pages, it will pique your interest. Like I said before, I worked very hard on this magazine. Figuring out every detail and putting it all together was a challenge. From the colors to the graphics, each was placed and decided carefully and thoughtfully. The final look showcases the final magazine, the culmination of my efforts. I am both sad and relieved it’s done, as there was a lot of work and time dedicated to this.  

    This is the lead in spread

    I learned to be patient and vigilant about everything I considered and placed in my documents for this magazine. It was so much fun to see just how well I could put everything together. I am so happy we had this chance to make an entire magazine and how each or most assignments were dedicated to this one magazine. Even some of our Media Writing assignments went towards our magazine, which is a whole different instructor. The crossover was very easy to manage so we weren’t trying to do an entire magazine in one class. I know that I have developed my design skills and I am more confident in my
    layout abilities.

    These are some ads I created especially for this magazine

    This magazine was probably one of the most fun assignments I have done. It was so involving and created a unique learning experience. I’m excited to see how I and my design will change as I grow as a designer. I appreciate my instructor for challenging us and providing this opportunity. I learned so much and I can’t wait for what my next, and last, semester has in store.