Introduction
In this project, we were challenged with a very difficult task to create a magazine and for my design elective, a book as well. To do this we had to answer the question:
“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”
We start with finding people related to this topic and interview with a minimum of a main interviewee and secondary interviewee, find five outside sources that would help come up with a story. Then in English we would write an essay with three chapters, an introduction, and preface to form all the aspects of a book. After that, take photos that would better enhance the story and illustrate graphic design elements. Then we would put it all together in Adobe Indesign to create both the book and magazine.
English & Digital Media Production
As stated, in English class we had to create the backbone of the whole project by putting the interviews, outside sources, and narrative pieces all into one document and have a clear consistent line of reasoning. After many hours of editing and revising from multiple people such as Mr. Greco, my mother and a community reader Mrs. Lin, I was finally able to put the finished product into the magazine for Digital Media but since I also wrote the essay for the book for Design, I had to shorten lots of the actual media for my magazine.
Design Production
When it came to my elective class in design, our assignment was special as we got to create an entire book with 34 pages. This was the much more enjoyable parts of the Documentary project as having the final product at the end was very rewarding.
The process required us to first create a color scheme and overall theme. I chose an alternating theme of blueprint and solid color drops of more construction colors. I had to illustrate graphic design elements which are small drawings made in Adobe Illustrator. I then took photos around Stanford on many occasions, and one of those photo ops, thanks, to my main subject Scott Pinson who gave me a personal tour of certain closed off parts of Stanford such as underneath the Hoover Tower to get more behind the scenes photos. After collecting all the information, photos, and illustrations, I was able to put it together into Adobe Indesign for the layout of the book.
Interviewee Bios
This is Scott Pinson. A Senior Project Manager of 22 years with these last 11 years at Stanford University. He was a an important source of information to revealing my topic of construction project managing at universities.
My secondary interviewee is Karla T Smith, Scott connected us via zoom to interview and I regrettably do not have a photo of her but I have to include her because she gave her own perspective and valuable insight into her practice in the construction industry.
Reflection
5 months. 5 time consuming, stressful, difficult and rewarding months. When we were first told of this project in December before we went on Christmas break, I had no idea what I was going to do. Even when we got back and a few weeks into school I still didn’t know. But, through the power of networking, I think I found a great and inspiring story to tell in my community. The work after that, coming up with questions, researching, drawing, writing, photographing, organizing, was like nothing I had ever done before. There were some times that I wanted to completely give up, that I didn’t want to write anymore. But thanks to peer pressure, my friends, family, and teachers, I was able to power through and complete this project.
Thank You
I am thankful to the Freestyle teachers Mr. Greco, Ms. Parkinson, and Mr Flo for giving this opportunity to me and one that I would most likely not find anywhere else, and I would like to thank their patience as I am sure they were just as stressed with my unorthodox time managing skills. Regardless, I am glad I was able to get through it and have a published book under my name.