Final Course Reflection

For my Summary of Learning project I wanted to find a way to connect what I’ve learned from designing for my travel blog over the semester and what I’ve learning about creating PR publications in general. I made a video that shows my thought process and how it developed over the semester as I learned more about how to reach my intended audience while also developing my blog’s intention.

You can watch the video and read more about the project in this post on Destination Blank.

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In reflecting about the course overall through reading back through my posts, I noticed that my excitement about what I was doing and learning continued throughout all the projects. I was happy to learn all the different ins and outs of the programs (even if it was hard at some points) and I wasn’t afraid to ask for help or try something different between my drafts and my final projects.

I also noticed that my designs became much simpler in their final drafts, which I really like. I’ve found that I prefer simple content, but it’s had for me to think minimally when I start projects. I saw this in my social media designs where they were all very simple and straight to the point. I really enjoyed that project since I got to see interaction from my social media followers as well. My Instagram post ended up getting 146 likes with comments such as “Nice Page! Check us Out!” and “Outstanding!” (along with a few emojis). My Facebook cover photo got 70 likes and interaction with a tag and a response “So true !!” I was very happy with these reactions, especially because I really felt that the design concepts I learned in the course helped me create such effective social media posts.

I wish I could have taken more time to design the direct mailers or designed them for Destination Blank. I also really enjoyed using iBooks to work on the newsletter (the final draft of which can be found here Stephenson Newsletter), but I think there were several design elements that if I had taken more time on the project or widened my view of what I could do with the project, it would have had a better final design.

Overall, this course was very helpful and I even found myself using the projects in interviews to show my  capabilities with different design applications. I definitely think there was a turning point after the first project where I started designing more simply and more along the lines of how I envisioned my Destination Blank brand that carried over into the other projects for OU or the Stephenson Cancer Center. I’m excited to see where these new abilities take me next!