When initially taking this course, I imagined that it would provide us with experience creating our own eportfolio and taking some time to “smell the roses” in terms of the deeper significance behind the way visuals are conceived and executed. I never thought that this class would provide me a passion for understanding more of the underlying factors that could alter the meaning of any given visual, and would necessarily impact the way I go about enacting my own visual communication through the visual content I create. However, to my surprise, there are many insights from this course and trivia tidbits that will likely stick with me as I continue to venture into visual media making.
Before taking this class, as a fan of filmmaking and storytelling through it, I tend to use each chosen frame of work as a way to say something that the audience should pay attention to. This is an ideology I maintained when viewing the visuals created by others to some extent, although this would not be something I was actively engaged in at all times. However, as a result of this class, my ability to analyze and scrutinize the details has expanded in and of itself, and the amount of visuals that I analyze and scrutinize has also increased. While it can be exhausting at times, there is an element of fun to taking a closer look at how small elements could play a bigger part in the story that the image overall is trying to tell viewers. As cliche as it sounds, the class has opened my eyes to wanting to actively explore more than what has been in my comfort zone in recent years - by looking back on some things I am nostalgic of from my creative roots, and taking a fresh look at things I may have once overlooked before. Additionally, I’ve had to create a couple things through this course that I am kind of proud of.
From viewing and analyzing what others have done, I think what has stuck with me the most is the idea of using visual arts of any kind to express and connect a sense of identity or message to others (through principles of cognitive theory for example). Understanding that images might have a built in personal influence into making them how they are is rather profound and also captivating to me. Good art (or visuals attempting to communicate something) should make people feel something in response, and these principles being a part of the production process can largely make or break that pivotal connection to potential viewers. Specifically the way things as simple as logos (the hidden arrow within the FedEx branding) or typeface (how polarizing a font like Helvetica can be according to the documentary we watched) can be made into complex art forms in and of themselves was fascinating to me, and made me have a greater appreciation for them when I encounter them in other parts of my ordinary life or creative process (such as when I design thumbnails for videos or choose fonts for credits). In the class, we looked through the history of a vast majority of visual media and saw how key developments shaped the way visual content affects the world we live in today. Knowing these little fun facts makes me more appreciative of how far society and technology have come when it comes to playing a part in contributing to visual communication content. The histories of film and animation especially in my case were particularly important - as the trailblazers and risk-takers that came before me are the reason why I have the experience and opportunities I do. This history also made us as a class aware of how visual content and ethics are important to consider together - such as when we discussed how propaganda or marketing can sometimes become controversial or divisive, and how there is a sense of responsibility that comes when harnessing visual media to contribute to societal narrative in the context of both fictional and real-world circumstances. If we can help it, whatever visual work we do should either bring good into the world, or bring attention to something that might not be good in order to make it so.
In terms of creating, many of my reflections have allowed me to discover more about my own worldview and the worldview of others as a result of what we portray through our visual communication projects. Most notably, through the photo series, family photo, and comic strip assignments, I was able to explore my own artistic ability as well as my own personal history and how it has made me the person I am today - something I think all of us are fortunate to gain from this course. I didn’t think that introspection would come up as much as it did when seeing how my works reflected key personality traits or interests I had, and it made me more aware of how I communicate myself through what I make - I tell parts of my own story through the visual stories that I tell, and it makes my work all the more important to me and to those who I share it with.
Truth be told, there were far too many new things I learned for me to fit them all in a three page paper. I genuinely felt like this course made me learn about myself and the world in a way that made it very stress-free for the most part, which is all I could ask for in a college class. This was probably my favorite course I took online, since having a somewhat work at your own pace structure but still getting full lectures digitally really helped me balance the rest of my workload. Regardless of where class was in session, I don’t think my learning got hindered the way it potentially could have been. The key takeaway from the course is that it gave visual communication more value to me than I thought possible, and I forget it anytime soon.
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