GRA 500 was one of the classes I was most excited for going into this semester. I now know that this class will probably be the most challenging out of all of them, but the good news is that I’m still incredibly excited!
It was helpful to read some advice from past students, and the three biggest takeaways I got were:
- Don’t procrastinate
- This is a big problem for me, because as much as I love to plan ahead and mark deadlines in my planner, life just gets the best of me sometimes. Last year I was often scrambling to get things done, and one of my goals this year is to change that. Especially considering how much critical thinking is needed to execute a good prototype, I know I can’t afford to wait until the last minute for this class.
- Design takes time, and don’t be afraid to experiment
- This is actually something I feel I got a taste of in GRA 217. When I was designing the magazine spread, I spent hours trying to design my first spread by just tweaking around my original sketch. It wasn’t working, and it was until I completely scratched the idea and tried something totally different that the spread began to come together. I know that this openness to experimentation is something that I will definitely need to consider going into this project, as there are so many more spreads to design.
- Ask for help
- I’m not great with taking advantage of the office hours professors set up for students. This semester, though, I know that my best chance to succeed is by seeing Professor Strong regularly to discuss my progress. So many students mentioned how helpful it was to get feedback during OH and I definitely plan to follow in their footsteps.
There’s a lot of moving parts to this class, but I’m so excited to see how they come together over the course of the semester.
So glad you’re in the course, Haley … and that you’re excited about the work. 🙂