Reflection

This week we were asked to complete the design bootcamp. The design bootcamp required us to watch several videos on Lynda.com that gave us an overview of how to successfully operate Photoshop and InDesign. Once we had watched those videos, we were required to markup a newspaper to identify and familiarize ourselves with the basic elements of a newspaper. Finally we were required to complete a typesetting assignment that required us to recreate the textual portion of the front of a newspaper.

When I first examined what was required of us this week, I was very overwhelmed with the amount I was supposed to accomplish. However, I knew by doing all of this I would become familiar with Photoshop and InDesign, which would make the rest of the year a lot easier. To increase my understanding of InDesign and Photoshop, I took notes while watching the videos so that I would have something to look back at if I had a question. Once I began to start the actual assignments, I found the notes very helpful as well as the video found under the typesetting tab in the assignment.

Though at first I was very apprehensive when beginning to complete the typesetting assignment, at the end of the assignment I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out and how much it looked like the original. When looking at my final product, I felt very accomplished and was very proud of myself.

I think my feeling of pride and accomplishment stems from my lack of knowledge of Photoshop and InDesign going into design bootcamp. I had never even opened the Photoshop or InDesign programs prior to beginning the design bootcamp. Having no experience using either program before this week, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I learned and how well I was able to complete the assignments required.