Bootcamp Reflection

For the bootcamp, we were asked to watch several Lynda.com videos and follow along on Photoshop and InDesign, in order to learn the basics of the applications.

I’m just going to start off and be completely honest here: I absolutely  underestimated the amount of time this bootcamp would take.

This is the first time in my life I’ve truly had experience with Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. I thought, “I use technology all the time, how hard can it really be?” To answer that question for myself, pretty when you’re a newbie Courtney, pretty hard.

Okay now, just because it was a difficult task to adjust to does not mean I didn’t enjoy it. Because although I did spend hours going through the videos and following along on the programs (it might have taken me longer that the average person because I struggle with being a perfectionist and everything has to look so right or I’m not satisfied… I’m going to work on that) I loved every minute of it. I thought it was fascinating to see how much you could change with the click of a button.

After I got the hang of it, I truly felt like I was just designing for fun. I enjoyed matching all of the fonts and placing the text boxes where they needed to go. I’m an extremely visual person, so I understand that the look of a publication is important to conveying the overall message.

For the Typesetting Assignment specifically, I was asked to recreate only the textual portion of the front page of a newsletter. At first, I freaked myself out by looking at the blank page we had to fill in and just forgot everything I had previously learned through the videos. I took a step back and just started clicking and adding text boxes, adjusting the fonts and sizes accordingly. I did initially feel stressed with all I was asked to do, until I began to do it.

My reaction to what I  completed was surprising to even myself. I felt extremely proud of myself, and I know this isn’t a major milestone in my life or anything, but I looked at the publication and I just thought, “Wow, I made that. And it looks cool.” I think I reacted the way I did initially because this was all new to me. My reaction afterward was so deep because not only did I complete an assignment, I learned a lot of valuable information that will not only help me in this course, but in everything I need to do in order to create publications. I think I also got a little excited because now that I understand the basics of InDesign, I can use my knowledge towards my photos to advertise OU Mary’s Meals.

Overall, the bootcamp week was very time consuming, but it was even more rewarding and I’m honestly thankful I had the opportunity to go through that instead of just guessing on how to make publications. Bootcamp made me a stronger designer with extremely helpful videos and instructions. I’m excited to begin more assignments for this course!

 

 

-Courtney