The first and last time I took any
Digital Graphics class was back in the early 90’s, during my sophomore year in
high school. Back then I took a Desktop Publishing class and I remember being
the first class to use computers, they were the IBM computers- “Oh, Wow!” When
I first started this class I was excited to refresh all of the skills I had learned
many years ago. And as this class took way, I realized that what I was learning
here were the strategies and design principles behind digital graphics, as was explained
in The Non-Designer’s Design Book by
Robin Williams. Through this reading I learned about the 4 basic design
principles: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. By understanding
these 4 basic design principles I was able to plan and design for each week’s
assignments, from understanding how to evaluate a design, self-branding logo, creating
an animation, to designing a web site with my group. When I first learned about digital graphics in
high school, I had learned about how to balance and contrast a design, but I
was oblivious to the other principles. This course, the videos, the readings,
the examples, and the group collaboration have helped me better understand the
design principles. I feel that now that I have completed this course, I have
refined my skills and broaden my knowledge in digital graphics. It was helpful
that throughout our course the readings also served as work examples, for
example reading The Art of Self-Branding Part
1,2,3 by L. Alcantra gave me insight on the philosophy of self-branding in
addition to examples and strategies to follow (i.e. The Art of Self-Branding
Worksheet). In addition to the readings, it was helpful to have visuals to
guide me through my learning and planning, as was the purpose of the Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy by A. Churches.
Having group collaboration and discussions, helped me be critical of my work
and the work of my group members, especially when creating our group website
because our grade depended in part on how critical we were to our designs. We
would discuss the 4 basic design principles throughout our website design, we
agreed and disagreed, made suggestions and compromised on what the design of
our web site should be. Overall, our group designed an excellent web site (https://sites.google.com/site/lamartchnologyteachers/home).
By completing this course I have developed life-long learning and skills which will
help me throughout my professional career. I have refined my old skills and
learned about new strategies and principles in digital design that will benefit
me, my students, and my colleagues. I will definitely use these 4 basic principles
of design when I help with the design of our school yearbook. I look forward
into sharing my knowledge and skills with my colleagues during our Teacher
Development Days. And for most I look forward into teaching my students about
the C.R.A.P (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity), the 4 basic design
principles, which I’m sure they will be interested to learn more about when
they hear the acronym. In addition, I will use these principles throughout my
class web site, so that my students can see examples of them. Lastly, although
it might be a bit challenging, yet possible, I feel that my group members and I
(web site design group) have created a rapport through these couple of weeks,
and I hope, and look forward in continue our collaborations.
Work
Cited
Churches, A. (2007). Bloom’s digital taxonomy.
Retrieved from
http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670
Robin Williams: The Non-Designer’s Deign Book, Third Edition
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