Week Two

1) Identify what you personally have completed since last week

This week I have been communicating with the other members in my group about a variety of topics, such as what each of our individual strengths and weaknesses are and how we’re going to divide up the projects, as well as trying to get in contact with other groups, especially the art direction team, to try and get the ball rolling and find out if there is anything that is needed from us either currently or at a later date, as we would like to have as much notice as possible to delegate and prepare ourselves. In addition, I have also spent quite a bit of time this week playing around with the Adobe programs that I believe I will be working with the most frequently throughout the semester in order to refresh my memory and potentially expand my knowledge. 

2) How you accomplished those tasks including any resources you used such as tutorials, meeting with group members, meeting with other groups, books, etc.

Meeting up with the other members of the graphic design group, as well as with members from a number of other groups, were the resources that were used for this week. Gathering together in person allowed us to communicate both more efficiently as well as effectively. Talking face-to-face versus trying to explain something over a text message or an email eliminates many communication barriers, which in turn, typically allows a group to produce better work in a shorter amount of time. Although we haven’t received any projects yet, I think meeting up and discussing things in person slightly helped with getting us on the same page about what we’re doing this semester and the approach we’re going to take. Furthermore, I also used Adobe programs, including Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, as resources to sharpen my skills and make sure I’m fully ready for any project that I am assigned.  

3) What your team has accomplished in the last week

This week my group met up for a fair amount of time, and as mentioned earlier, we discussed a number of different topics revolving around what this semester is going to be like for us. We also briefly met up with various members from other groups and we began discussing what we will require from other teams in order to complete their requested projects as well as what will be required from us and how to submit a request for a graphic design task. As I said above, there are no requested graphic design tasks at the time being so the most we have really been able to do is try to communicate with other teams to attempt to get an idea of what they will require us to produce for them this semester.

4) The biggest difficulty in the last week

This week there hasn’t been any real difficulties. Communication could be better, but it’s really not a big problem… at least not just yet. For the purpose of writing an honest blog, I’ll admit (based on some patterns that I’ve noticed so far) that I think it will become problematic for us this semester, and probably sooner than later. We all have a lot going on outside of this course, so it’s understandable, and probably inevitable, that communication will be something we’re all going to have to work hard at.

5) What you personally aim to achieve before next week

I would like to start working on some projects that other teams need completed, however we have not received any requests yet, so until we do I intend to continue honing my design skills using the Adobe programs that I referred to earlier on. I also plan on doing my best to communicate with other students, both on my team and on other teams, to find out what needs to be done so I can either begin working or prepare myself for the forthcoming task requests. Essentially before next week I would like to have a better understanding of what the other teams require us to create for them, and possibly even start producing some work.