As someone who came into this class with weeks of prior thought about my book design, the advice I most need to take to heart is to revise, edit, and rethink my work. Because I’ve been planning to create my book for my Honors Capstone project since junior year, I’ve already thought a lot about some aspects of it. However, I know that I need to expand upon my original ideas and push myself further by talking out my ideas with my classmates and professor.
In my previous graphics class with Prof. Strong, I know that my work was greatly improved after critiques and office hours. By taking the criticism seriously and being willing to edit my work, I produced much better projects. Still, I considered those projects more as class assignments, as opposed to my project in this class, which I intend to print and distribute widely. I am slightly worried that since I am already confident in some of my ideas, I’ll be more hesitant to make drastic changes to my plan. My goal for this semester is to let go of that hesitance and show flexibility about the direction of my project to create the best final version possible. I am grateful for the reminders from these previous students to recognize that the first ideas are typically not the best ideas, and good design takes a lot of time and revision.
