Microaggression

Everyone experience microaggression regardless of their race, gender, nationality, background or disability. I personally had several experiences relating to my hearing loss.

I was born Deaf and I currently wear a cochlear implant which helps me hear well. There are several incidences where people thought I speak English really good for a Deaf person. This makes me feel a bit offended because I'm not like a typical Deaf person who uses American Sign Language to communicate. I tend to respond to them by saying, "Well, I go to a hearing school, have a bunch of hearing friends, and my entire family is hearing."

In addition, I get offended when someone said "I'm smart for a Deaf person." To be honest, being Deaf is not a bad thing. It is interesting how people still perceive Deaf people in a negative way. Of course, being deaf presents challenges, but it does not prevent one from becoming a highly functional independent person in today's society. Also, being deaf does not mean she or he is dumb. I get this all the time, even when I was growing up. This needs to stop. It is not that I blame people, but I blame the media that portrays Deaf people in a negative way. 

   

Logos

My favorite brand for clothes is Kimchi Blue, a brand that is found in Urban Outfitters. Kimchi Blue is not that well-known brand, but they provide a wide range of clothing material from lace to chiffon. Their clothes are pretty simple and comfortable to wear. The reason why I'm drawn to this Kimchi Blue logo is because of its simplicity. I like things to be simple, not over the top. It's in one color, sky blue and the lettering is simple and recognizable.

 I like this logo below on the yogurt product because it is interesting to look at. I can see how the designer play around with the text to capture my attention.

38 Dots logo caught my attention because it contain a lot of colorful dots which directly relates to the company. I really enjoy looking at how the designer create this logo in terms of sizes of circles.

The text on the logo "What to Weather" makes me curious about what is this about. I can see how the designer tries to incorporate the theme of environment into the logo.

This logo below is quite interesting to look at because it reminds me of the optical illusions I've seen in the past. I can see a picture of a dog, cat, and a rabbit. I thought that this designer really put a lot of thought into what a vet would want to promote.

Finally, the last logo that I really like. I chose this logo because I'm drawn to how simple and straightforward it its. 

Overall, I noticed that I tend to pick combination logos simply because they're interesting to look at.

Blog Reflection: What's My Stance Poster

Throughout the process of creating a poster, I tried using various ways to portray my stance on Donald Trump's opinion on Syrian Refugee Crisis. To create a poster, I used the Adobe Illustrator to help me show people about how I feel about this topic. To be honest, I struggle a lot when it comes to using the Adobe Illustrator because it is very different from Adobe Photoshop. 

I personally feel that my poster does portray what I want to show the audience about my thoughts about Donald Trump's approach toward the Syrian Refugee Crisis though it is not perfect. The reason why I feel that my poster does show my stance is because I made sure that text is clear and straightforward. I made my poster more simple on purpose so that way people can recognize the message immediately. Here's my final poster:

My Final Poster 

As you can see, I placed the text in a form of stairs to show the steps that Syrian Refugees had to take on their journey to several countries. The majority of Syrian Refugees experience being denied access to safe homes. Once they are denied, they have to return to their homeland that is unsafe. I purposefully have the background color to dark blue to convey the dark mood. Syrian Refugee Crisis is a sort of depressing topic but people should be aware of this topic. In addition, I used the image of Donald Trump as an authority figure so to show the audience that Donald Trump should be the President of United States because he would refuse to let refugees and immigrants come to US simply because he think that they are criminals. I also used red and yellow shapes  to make the poster pop out which also helps the audience's eyes to move throughout the poster.   

The process of re-creating my idea from paper to digital wasn't easy. I had to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator tools which is totally different from Adobe Photoshop. As I started the project, I kept going back and forth in using the tools. So I feel somewhat successful in putting my initial ideas into a digital file. 

I originally thought that I want to make a poster that has text only like my initial poster above because it is a straightforward in terms of showing the message about Syrian Refugee Crisis. However, when I see more examples of posters, I started to realize that my initial poster wasn't effective in showing the message. So I decided to change the color of the background, layout of the pictures, and add more picture so that way I can show my stance effectively. I wanted to create something that catches people's eyes and make them think about what's going on around the world today.
                                         

     My Initial Poster 

Looking over the rubric for this project, I am a bit more confident in my design rather than skills and techniques because I put a lot of thoughts into formulating a poster design. I made sure to consider the purpose of each color, shape, and image. I also made consideration on the importance of text. Like how I place texts in form of stairs, this way I can emphasize how Syrian Refugees have to face in time of crisis. I am not great with technology so it was hard for me to used to using Adobe Illustrator. 

The most challenging aspect of this poster project conceptually is figuring out how exactly am I going to show my stance through representation of images and text. In the beginning of the process, I came up with my personal views on today's society. Syrian Refugee Crisis really captures me since it happened to thousands of people living in Syria. It is not like they asked for it; they were forced to escape their homeland in fear of being victims of violence. From here, I did quite a bit of research on this topic as way for me to think about words and images that associate with it. 

The most challenging aspect of this poster project technically is implementing my ideas digitally. As I mentioned couple of times, I'm not awesome when it comes to technology. Sometimes, things don't go the way how I wanted them to be. It takes time to create a poster the exactly the way I vision them to be. I learned to create certain shapes using the tools give on Adobe Illustrator which helps a bit in enhancing my message for the audience. Not only I learned to use tools that create shapes, but also how I create paths using pen tool. These skills allow me to create better poster than before.  

My Personal Opinion

What Do I Stand For?

I go on Facebook constantly on a daily basis for all sort of things such as socializing with friends, scrolling down the news feed to see what my friends share or like, and to keep up with the current events. So I have a wide range of knowledge in different types of posts people share with the viewers. 

Lately, I have been seeing several posts about the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Bernie Sanders. Posts on Syrian refugees are showing how difficult is it for families to flee from war. On the other hand, posts on Bernie Sanders are trying to attract young voters to vote for him. In addition, there are some posts on Donald Trump as well.

There is one post that I strongly disagree is having Donald Trump as the next U.S president. There was a mini debate over whether Donald Trump should be the next president or not. To be honest, I hate Donald Trump because of his plans if he is elected. He does not deserve to be the president of the United States. I do not like the fact that he thinks it is okay to ban all Muslims just because terrorism is associated with Muslims. I do not understand what is the point of having him as the president if he is going to discriminate other people based on religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, or ethnicity. I am quite offended by how he treats people with disabilities. It is like a slap in the face when I keep hearing news about Donald Trump treating disabled people in a disrespectful way. It just shows that Donald Trump is ignorant when it comes people living in the United States. Therefore, I do not support this presidential candidate at all.

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/ 

Secondly, when I was reading about the Syrian refugee crisis, I feel that the US government is not doing enough to help Syrians who want nothing but peace. I feel sorry for them the fact that they have to go through traumatic experiences being in the middle of the war. I cannot believe that the United States, a leading world power, would reject Syrians from entering the country. It is absurd if you think about it. It is like depriving them the right to have a peaceful home. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-andreozzi/turning-away-syrian-refugees-is-exactly-what-isis-wants_b_8585084.html  

I never really shared or liked posts on current events, but I often talk to my friends on Facebook Chat about current events. Donald Trump is the main topic that I talk to people about just simply because I do not see him being a great leader at all, though he may be a successful businessman.  

The biggest concern I have is college tuition. Nowadays, college tuition is ridiculously expensive. Even with financial aid from Federal government is not sufficient to fully cover the whole college tuition costs for private colleges. Typically, private college tuition costs around $40k which I still find it hard to believe. Honestly, college tuition is scaring me because next year I'm going to college and I'm thinking like how am I supposed to pay for my education. I do not plan on making myself going in debt when I graduate from college, which means I do not want to take on loans. Hence, college costs are stressing me out. I personally wish that there are some laws making college education more affordable or free for everybody. I truly believe that financial debt would definitely ruin the dream of doing something they want to do.  

Self Symbol GIF Reflection

My Self Symbol concept is annoyance. When I was brainstorming for this project, I struggled to come up ideas that describe me. I really thought about how I do in certain situations. This one idea popped up in my head: annoyance. I tend to get annoyed easily whenever I need a quiet space. There are always someone who would disrupt my peaceful time so I get really annoyed that I had to shush him or her. In my GIF, I decided to portray myself in form of fish living in my little world where it's peaceful and quiet. I also used the dog to represent as person who would loves to disrupt my quiet moments. 

Here's my Self Symbol GIF...

Going from my original idea to animated GIF takes a lot of time. When I first tried to come up some ideas, my ideas were really simple. For example, in my concept of annoyance, I simply thought of a fish swimming in the tank with a dog barking. To push further, I had to use Photoshop to effectively demonstrate my character trait. Using Photoshop, I made sure that I created layers to enhance my project. Creating an image on Photoshop is not easy at all when I'm trying make it more consistent in terms of color and size. Once I get all layers done, I started creating an animation. For each frame, I paid more attention to which layer should be seen. As I was making an animated GIF, I realized how is it important to consider the beginning and the ending when it comes to demonstrating my quality. I specifically make the GIF go forever because I can't really change my character. It is part of who I am. This is how my original idea has evolved through usage of Photoshop.

My First GIF

 

My concept is pretty straightforward. The concept is focused on food; when you are really hungry, you can eat a lot of food. I took a bunch of pictures of a cake I had during Thanksgiving break and incorporated into one single GIF.