The Adventures of Karen Wrap-up

This is my postcard that I put a lot of effort and thought into. I am proud of my work and how far it has come from the very beginning of this project, considering it took a lot of hard work to even think about how I wanted it composed. At the beginning of the project it seemed like a lot, but once you get going with it, it was fun and a great learning experience. This assignment was an essential exercise in design communication because it gave students an opportunity to use their creativity and create something that could be beneficial to them in the future. It used composure along with technical skills that people in the future can look at and see that we reached the goal of completing this project. I used colors that were not completely vibrant, because I am quieter and don't need to have bright colors in my postcard. Choosing colors for mainly anything are usually natural for me, which really shows my personality. That is why I chose these colors for my postcard. My fonts are simple because I am a simple person. They are also easy to read, because I know that I do not like it when I can clearly read someone's work, so I don't want anyone to get frustrated with mine. My design hierarchy was simple, yet showed my personality. At first, I wasn't sure how I wanted it to be exactly, but as the project went on, I found something that really fit for me and showed who I am the best. The design is the most important part of the project because it attracts the viewer’s eye first. If your design is not attractive, the viewer is not going to want to look at it at all and will breeze past it. That is why I moved a lot of my objects and text around many times. I think that this project was also important for that reason. It shows how long some projects take just from choosing a specific color or text. It was a challenge to get the perfect composition for this project for me and probably most other students too. The hardest part was the final touches to the InDesign project though, because after looking at it for so long, you want to make sure that it is perfect. Using all three applications and learning from this project will help us all in the future. It was a requirement because it shows students how to use each platform separately, and then take what we made in each application and put it together at the end. In the working world in the Media field, this is going to happen a lot, so it is good to learn these skills now.The mountains in my project represent that I like to explore, hike, and adventure. My portrait shows that I am a happy and kind person. In the photo I look happy, and want others to see me like that, and not looking so dull and serious. The colors once again represents my personality the best, and the whole picture as a whole does as well. My experience with this project gave me one major struggle. The struggle was the text wrap. It took me a long time to figure this out for some reason, but after really paying attention and hard work with it, I finally figured it out. This point in the project showed me that you should keep trying even though you really want to give up. I tried so hard many times, but my problem was that the hand tool was stuck on there and wouldn't work for some reason. Then, finally I got the white cursor to work, and learned how to use the text wrap tool to make my text wrap around my mountain graphic. I love to use all of these programs. Photoshop does work the best for cutting out the image and then adding it to the InDesign project. Adobe Illustrator is also a lot of fun, and probably my favorite to work with. This is because you can basically create anything you want. It will definitely be useful in the future. Finally, InDesign is also going to be very useful in the future for bigger projects and bringing different designs together in one platform. I have used all three of these applications before. I am constantly using adobe features to be creative with my everyday life. That is why most of these projects are a lot of fun and allow me to show my creativity.

The Adventures of Karen: Thumbnails and Ideas

When I first saw this project, I was excited because it should be fun to create a postcard based on my own life. Many thoughts popped up in my head, but two things came to mind very quickly. I decided to create my thumbnails based on the two things I am most passionate about. Those two things are adventuring and creating. I love to hike, kayak, and just go to the Adirondacks in general, so a lot of my designs have earthy toned colors, mountains and paddles as the shapes, and a clean look. This is because in the Adirondacks, there is so much nature and you feel calm. That is what I want viewers to feel when they are looking at my postcard. My titles such  as "Explore with Karen" and "The Adventure of Karen" should also show my personality in this postcard. My goal is to create visually stunning content for this postcard that is nice to look at and will represent who I am. I chose pictures of myself that represent what I love to do, and make sense with the theme. I am also a creator because I film weddings and am passionate about photography. That is why my last design has a camera and some brighter colors to it. Each postcard has text boxes or text that will pop with interesting facts about myself. I believe that each of these postcards are well thought out, and will help me create a design that I will not only love, but those viewing will now understand me a little bit more.

Let's Learn about Karen

A hard working, passionate girl, who is always smiling would best describe Karen Kreppenneck. With a love to travel, she is always exploring and finding new places to go. Her favorite place to go with family and friends is to the Adirondacks, since she has been going since she's just been a little girl. Her passions are photography and videography, which is why Media Production is such a perfect fit for her. Karen plans to attend Buffalo State for two more semesters, which leaves her to graduate in the Spring of 2019. She couldn't be more excited to start her journey following college. A goal of hers that she has in mind is to continue growing her Wedding Videography small business, and finding a job that she will be content and excited to go to each and every day. She says that the most important thing is that she is happy with her life and doing what she loves. Currently, she is employed with the YMCA of Buffalo Niagara, and loves to work with children. Karen has a such a sweet personality and a dedicated mind that will help her be successful in the future with all of her goals.