Reflection & Summary of Learning

By Christy Montenegro

 

As Professor Croom stated, here’s the last piece of the puzzle for PR Pubs!

 

This class took me by surprise. At first, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and I soon realized, the course would not be easy. We quickly dived into InDesign and Photoshop our 3rd week into the semester with a lesson labeled “Welcome to Bootcamp.” That lesson definitely felt like bootcamp but in a mentally challenging aspect.

Here is where I made the biggest mistake during the whole course-

I should have taken notes as I was learning about both programs.

Let’s repeat that one more time so we learn from our mistakes. I should have taken notes as I was learning about both programs. I relied on my memory which proved to not be successful. I have some experience in Photoshop but not InDesign, at all. So as you can imagine, that was the start of my troubles.

I barely made it past my first InDesign project, which was a business card and letterhead design. I’m not too proud of the results but with the limited amount of InDesign knowledge, it turned out pretty good. This is where I used my precious baby nephew as an example of his attempts to talk but couldn’t because he hadn’t quite learned those skills yet.

Btw, my nephew is 7 months now and is the cutest most adorable little human being in the whole wide world! He already says mama and papa.

Next, we THANKFULLY moved on to Photoshop and my anxiety levels decreased quite a bit. I completed my direct mailer project very proud and with my head held high. I don’t mean to toot my own horn buuuuuutt the results were pretty impressive. I was very pleased with the results and the amount of effort I put into my designs.

The next project was super fun and made me wonder, where has Canva been all my life?!?!?!

I fell in love with the program and I’m almost one thousand percent sure I will be utilizing it forever and ever.

And then Indesign happened again….. #tear

I completed my newsletter project mentally drained and wondering if this is life.

The struggle was seriously real.

I could rant for days but I’ve already elaborated about my feelings for InDesign.

As the semester started whining down, we were asked to create a Portfolio page on our blog. This included pictures and descriptions of each of our design pieces. After reading all of my reflection blog posts, I can give myself some very important advice–give yourself more time. I seriously cannot stress that enough. I tend to be a perfectionist (not always… well kinda) so my desire to complete my designs as I envisioned them, produced a conflict with my poor time management skills.

I am now writing my final blog post for PR Pubs, which will include my final project. We were asked to create a Summary of Learning design using a medium of our choice. I wasn’t too fond of the idea of a screencast so I went with a storyboard using StoryboardThat.

It took me about 5 seconds to come up with a story because I already knew what the main topic would be….. InDesign.

My story represents the rollercoaster of my love/hate for InDesign throughout the semester.

The first scene is of me being clueless and naive to what my future holds. I was just excited to be moving up to my higher division major courses. The second scene is of me realizing what I had gotten myself into and about to have a meltdown. The third scene is of my relief to be working with Photoshop. The fourth scene is of me dreaming about being at the beach and not worrying about InDesign. The fifth scene is of my completed projects, which unfortunately, I was not able to upload actual pictures to the storyboard because that’s a premium option only available to subscribers. However, my portfolio has the imbedded pictures for your viewing pleasure. The last scene is of me sitting outside with my dog Coco ready to live happily ever after.

THE END!

XOXO

Christy