Acquiring Competencies
I have always been a one-dimensional designer, meaning, limited in design skills, theories, and principles. My expertise was print media but demands in motion media and copywriting increased. To overcome this weakness, I enrolled at Full Sail University in the Media Design MFA degree program. I have learned many principles, strategies, and tools related to design that will make me more competitive in the design field.
TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE
This tool was used to create a fictional character to convey a specific personality within a targeted demographic. The personas were effective in formatting a message that communicated the correct voice, tone, and needs of brand buyers. This is a valuable tool I will use in the future for brand development. It will help me identify and target the right audience with the right message, give them a face, and help me keep the end goal in mind.
Studying the Competition
This was an interesting strategy I learned that helped to identify competitors in marketing and advertising. The competitors were identified in three categories: 1) Direct - Those with the most similarities to your client. 2) Indirect - Competitors with some similarities, but are probably in another segment or have a strong enough differentiation from your client. 3) Replacement competitors - Those businesses that have no obvious similarities to your client's product or service. This is a great strategy to use in the future to help a business gain an advantage over their competitor by identifying their features and benefits.
brand guide
This was a fun tool I learn to develop for companies that want to present their brand consistently. A brand guide creates rules for how the brand looks, feels, sounds, and communicate a variety of things about the brand, both internally to their organization, externally to their partners, and the general public. This will be a beneficial tool to use for future clients who want their brand looks and feels to be the same when different people are working on it for marketing, design, customer service, or sales.
premiere pro
This software was fun to learn. I experienced some challenges at first remembering the processes for importing video and placing it on the board but after repeating it multiple times it became second nature. The software possessed valuable tools for video editing and motion design for tasks like sound mixing, editing still and video images together, creating titles, and applying filters and other effects. Because I have gained motion and editing skills, I will be more valuable as a freelance or in-house designer in the future.
PLACE BRANDING
Place Branding was a great experience for me. I have branded companies before but never a location. However, I did discover some similarities. Just like branding a company, place branding involved developing an identity for a specific location to improve visibility, personality, and the community. This was done to build a positive reputation for the location and separate it from its competition. In the future, my skills in this area will allow me to create, develop, reconstruct, and define a community's traits to help attract employers and home buyers to their area.
CINEMAGRAPH
This was an exciting technique to learn. I had seen this effect before but had no idea how it was created, nor did I know it was created in Photoshop. Why did this shock me? Because I had been using Photoshop for over 10 years. I had no problems learning how to make a small element move in a photograph while the rest of the elements remain perfectly still. I learned that it took both photographs and videos to make it work. I can see myself utilizing this skill for freelance work. There are many cinemagraph opportunities around us waiting to be captured.
mind mapping
learning mind mapping was an effective tool used for the logo development process to explore new ideas and interconnect them appropriately. The objective was to write down as many ideas as possible and the results would assist in pinpointing the unique qualities of a company brand and help create an effective message. This process was time-consuming but it is a superb guideline to use in the future to generate concepts for logo identity as it relates to a company's characteristics and core values.
after effects
After Effects is a software that seemed intimidating until I used it in this course. It was an excellent tool for creating motion graphics, special effects, editing, and compositions. Creating a motion piece promoting the film "The Maltese Falcom" was a rewarding experience because I saw the results of my proper use of color, imagery, tone, and theme. Learning this software has made me more competitive in the design field. This was a great accomplishment and I plan to utilize this skill aggressively in the freelance market.
copywriting
I never thought I would improve on this skill. As a designer, my focus was strictly on design, not writing. Taking this course made me realize how crucial knowing how to write copy is in the design industry. Well-written copy can initiate the voice of a brand, and when connected with the appropriate images, the voice and tone become one, resulting in effective communications. For this course, I utilized copywriting to develop multiple concepts for testimonial ads for a nonprofit organization called "Feed My People." I was able to compose a message to their target audience through a compelling headline, informative body copy, and a call to action while establishing the organization's voice and personality. I have gained much appreciation for this skill and will continue to use it in the future for marketing campaigns.
