Introduction

This Unit was one of the most difficult yet interesting classes that I have taken through my high school career. Exploring Adobe Illustrator and Avid Pro Tools to do many things and advance my knowledge in different programs. We explored how stickers are made and how to make products in the real world, helpful for jobs in the future. This unit taught me more about work ethic and time management, as it was clear that Mr. Florendo expected everything to be turned in on time.

Stickers

To begin, I have my stickers, one of the choices we were allowed to create from the many different choices. I initially wanted to make a t-shirt but then switched to stickers because I thought that having stickers could be a really meaningful reminder to me.

Stickers Artist Statement

For this project, I wanted to draw something of significant importance to me, and that stood out to me. I wanted something that I could remember or refer to, and at first, I did not know what I wanted to create. At first, I was interested in creating a T-Shirt but on the last day, I decided to switch to a sticker because my design would have fit better on a sticker than on a shirt. I learned a lot from this, including how to use symbols in Illustrator. I also learned how to use more of the tools offered in Illustrator rather than having to use the pen tools and try to make everything. I enjoyed this project because it gave me the opportunity to create something that could remind me of my goals for the future. I drew a sticker with a backdrop of the Earth to remind me to keep working and one day I can achieve my goals in the world. I copied and pasted an online photo of the earth and copied that using my Illustrator pen tools and colored them in using the eyedropper tool. I plan on putting this on my computer to serve as a reminder for me to keep working and dreaming in order to achieve my goals for the future. This was one of the more fun Illustrator projects that we have worked on this year because it allowed me to be creative with what I wanted to do and how I planned out my designs.

Short Story

We were tasked to write a short story in English. Mine is about a young man, Johnathan Ross, who fights for his job at a Seattle News Company. I thought this would be an interesting topic to write about because of it’s

Narrative Short Story – Hidden Meaning

Rain bounced off the window. Dark clouds hid the sun. It was just another day in the gloomy city of Seattle. As I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, I checked the time—9:15. I had to be at work in thirty minutes. As fast as I could, I showered and brushed my teeth. I dug through my closet until I found my favorite t-shirt, a maroon t-shirt depicting Lincoln Memorial, one I had purchased 3 years ago when I went to Washington D.C. with my parents. After getting ready for work, I headed to my local Starbucks and ordered my favorite decaf coffee. Five minutes later I hopped in my car and drove to work. After hitting waves of traffic, I finally arrived at work.

As soon as I arrived at work, I heard some of my coworkers discussing a recent rumor that seemed to have shaken up the entire office. Everywhere I went, I heard murmurs in the hall of an event, but I wasn’t able to make out what they were discussing. I was still unsure of what event could have happened to cause such panic in my workplace when I was called into my boss’s office. 

As I walked into his office, I asked, “Mr. Gordon, how has your day been?”

He responded with, “Good, good. Johnathan, have a seat. I have some unfortunate news I must inform you of.”

I took a seat on the brown leather chair across his desk. 

“Recently, I’ve been monitoring your progress. It seems like you haven’t been meeting deadlines, the quality of your papers had decreased heavily, and you have come to work late every day last week. I am sorry to inform you that we must let you go.”

I was left utterly shocked and speechless. Not once had I been fired from a company, as I believed that I held myself self to high standards. I was only able to make out one word.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, to be honest, we recently received a candidate, a young man who recently graduated from Northwestern University. But to add him, we had to lose one of our workers here. And the person that we had to release happened to be you.”

I felt distraught. My eyes drifted from the nearly empty bookshelf in Mr. Gordon’s office to the windows. The overcast had overtaken the sky, with rain pouring down all over the city. Suddenly, the sun appeared from behind the clouds.

“Mr. Gordon, let me at least have one more day. Let me prove to you my worth.”, I pleaded.

“I’m not sure I can do that Johnathan. We are truly looking to add him because of an elite writing style he possesses. I don’t mean any disrespect, but your writing style doesn’t isn’t at the level of other writers in our company.”

“Please, Mr. Gordon. Let me show you what I can do. If you give me time, I can write one of the best articles that you have ever read.”

After long thought, Mr. Gordon came to a conclusion.

“We still haven’t hired him. If you come to me by tomorrow with an article, about anything you want, I’ll still give it a read it and decide.” 

I thanked him and headed out. Stunned from the experience, I started on a quest for the article that could save my career. I had been interested in the topic of Global Warming for years and I was finally given the chance to write about something of my interest. I sat down at my desk and began to write. 

“Seattle, Washington

   The Seattle Times

The Cooling Crisis

“Earth’s climate has been fluctuating. Since prehistoric times, Earth has experienced global warming on many levels, but every time, the Earth manages to cool itself to a normal temperature. As we look at Global Warming on Earth today, we discover why we have to take a different approach to solve Global Warming compared to the past.”

As my fingers furiously clacked on the keyboard and my legs slammed against the table legs, my coworkers promptly checked up on me. After bringing me water and coffee, I hadn’t stop writing. For the first time, I felt free in my writing as if I wasn’t being held back to write about topics in which I shared no interest. For the first time as a writer, I truly enjoyed my writing and felt accomplished.

“In today’s world, our new atmosphere is covered by carbon emissions and gasses that prevent heat from escaping, leading to an annual 1.4-degree rise in temperature. This may seem like a large number, and that is because it is. A society built on cars and factories is bound to release toxic pollutants into the air, resulting in problems for the Earth, such as global warming.”

As I kept writing, I rediscovered the initial passion that lead into journalism. I had been so caught up with other news articles that I completely forgot why I had gotten into writing in the first place, to write about what mattered to me.

“François Hollande, the former president of France, once said, ‘We have a single mission: to protect and hand on the planet to the next generation.’ In order to help save our planet, there are many steps we must take, the most important and easiest for common people—to cut down on Carbon Emissions. This entails walking or biking instead of taking a car, traveling less because Jet Planes are one of the leading causes of carbon emissions, or partaking in tree planting community projects. Although these are difficult to avoid, if society as a whole could cooperate we could save the planet.” 

Almost at the conclusion of my article, I wished that it wouldn’t end. The constant typing and kicking transformed from my release of frustration to music to my ears.

“Our planet’s future is determined by the actions that we take today. Future generations rely on our choices to save the planet, and by playing your part we can create a better environment for generations to come.”

After 5 hours of working, I felt like I was ready to get my job back. I gave my piece to Mr. Gordon, and he told me that he would contact me with the results tomorrow morning. As I drove back to my house, I looked at the cloudy sky and watched the sun appear from behind the clouds. When I went to sleep that night, I fell asleep with hope for the survival of my career. 

I woke up the next morning to the rain bouncing off the window. Instead of getting dressed, I opened up my laptop to my emails and saw one waiting for me from Mr. Gordon. I clicked on the email and read, 

“Dear Johnathan, I truly loved your piece and found it to be inspiring. Although I found your piece to be extremely well written, I am sorry to notify you that you will not be receiving the job. We appreciate everything that you have done for the Seattle Times and wish you the best of luck in your career moving forward.

David Gordon”

I stared at the email, but my eyes slowly drifted over to the window. I looked outside and saw the dark clouds engulf the sky, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sun creep out from the shadows. At that moment I realized that what mattered to me wasn’t the job, but it was the joy I found from writing. While I may not have gained the job I wanted, I gained my happiness, something ultimately so much more important to me.

Pro Tools Session

This Pro Tools Session includes my audio recorded file and extra music layered on top.

Design

In our design class, we were instructed to create a creature that related to our story. For this project, I turned the city of Seattle into an aquatic version, where there are newspapers and news buildings representing my story of the news.

This is the initial drawing of the creature without the background. We started off the project by designing the creature, and that is what is displayed here in the image below.

Falling Oceans – Artist Statement

Joshua Ichiriu

This drawing illustrates a creature swimming across a bridge into the city of Atlantis. When creating this artwork, I had imagined a story about a man who was being fired from his newspaper job. In this story, he was going to work but was suddenly fired from his newspaper job as a reporter. He was called to write the paper in order to show that he was an employee worth keeping. After he submitted the papers he ended up losing his job but found his happiness from writing as a result. In my drawing, I incorporated parts of the story by adding newspaper buildings, newspapers, and buildings representing the city of Seattle, where the story takes place.
Adobe Illustrator allowed me to display my creativity through artwork, and while it may have been only my first time using the program, near everyday use helped expand my skills with the Illustrator. In my creature, I included parts of an eagle, giraffe, dolphin, cougar, and scorpion. The eagle was demonstrated by a beak that was positioned on the side of the cougar head. The neck was drawn as the neck of a giraffe and was connected to a dolphin tail. Lastly, there are scorpion claws that are drawn to connected to the stomach of the creature. My color choices included red, brown, black, and grey. My initial drawing was not going to be a monster, but after analyzing the finished creature it had a monster look to it so I decided to use that as my theme. The characteristics of the creature are confident, tall, trustworthy, outgoing, independent. For my background, I chose the setting of a bridge going into the backdrop of an underwater city, specifically Atlantis. Some buildings are styled in the design of waves and sunken ships. This was drawn with a one-point perspective, and it is clearly evident in the bridge that leads to the city. If given the opportunity to try drawing the image again, I would focus on the creature and making it seem threatening and dangerous.

Geometric Light Cover

Geometric Light Cover Artist Statement

In my project, I wanted to display Illustrator skills that I learned from Digital Media and tie that into the culture that we live in now. Practice using Illustrator through Design and I thought that it was important for me to create a light cover that would strive for me to be grateful for the country that I live in, which is why I created my light cover with USA written on my geometric cover. It could serve as a reminder to me during the day that I need to remember why I am here and appreciate life more and more. During the time of the project, it was important for our citizens of the United States together as a country so I incorporated this idea into my Geometric Light Cover. When you light it up, it reflects the USA across the walls, a beautiful sight for the nighttime. 

It was important for me to pick colors that looked visually pleasing, black and gold. These guided my inspiration into creating my light cover. The other pieces are made from pieces that fit the requirement of the project. I drew those designs because they fit the requirement of the piece and looked interesting. I learned how to create bizarre looking objects by dragging around the pen tool and creating shapes. Throughout this project, one of the main things that I learned was the importance of the pen tool and further expanded my knowledge on the tool. The pen tool is one of the more powerful tools in Adobe Illustrator because you can do so draw an unlimited number of designs that fit your pleasing. My Geometric Light Cover showed an expansion of knowledge through the Adobe Illustrator application. 

Images of Elements of Design

In design, we were tasked with drawing different types of the elements of design and these were the different drawings that I came up with.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to visit my website.