LO5 - Personal leadership
In the starting phase of building Sakura creative brand, the team had to come up with a logo. It was mostly Sanne’s part, but I decided to help to kick-start the process by sketching some prototypes. I looked up for inspiration in Pinterest and found many pictures of Japanese trees inside the red sun. This sparked an idea, to embed the blossom tree in the circular part of the letter “a”. I drew a couple of versions of the logo, tried adding in the falling leaves and also played with the size and boldness of the “creative” text. I then saw an opportunity to implement the sun and the mountains on the edge of the letter. Another thing I tried was turning the left part of the letter “a” into a branch itself, so that the leaves follow its curved path instead of having a tree to be a separate thing. After showing the sketches I’ve made to the team I developed Figma prototypes, to view the logo in digital form. I played with colors, fonts and positioning to see what works and what doesn’t.
Thanks to this idea of mine my teammate used the inspiration form the circular shape and a tree in it to create a final logo that looks great. I am glad that I did this extra work to help the team out and to develop a nice logo.
I found a way to document the learning outcomes within my study. I needed to create a system where I could put in the learning outcomes to not forget them and what I did.
To do so I decided that after performing some task I will write down the name of the action in Notion and put it under a specific outcome. For example, if I create a website prototype I will put a name of the project that it is connected to “Sakura Creative” and the name of the action “Website prototyping” and then put it under the lo3 section. At the end it would look like this: Sakura Creative (Website prototyping). This way I never forget what I did and what outcome it goes to. Moreover I could write simple notes under the outcomes in which I could elaborate more on what to talk about.
It also proved to be an effective sheet to ask feedback for. I wanted to make sure that the outcomes that I have written fit the right lo, so I asked Dirk for his opinion. He gave me a few suggestions and also questioned the outcomes that I put in lo1, but after explaining that I put those as media products that I created, not interactive ones, it seemed like the outcomes could have a place in there. That Notion file also became useful in marking which outcomes I have already written down, so I always know what is left to do.
Last year I joined a Dutch class that was organized by Fontys within its walls. After a semester of studying I managed to pass the A1 exam and move to a higher level. Currently I am doing the A2 course which will take two semesters to complete. I have lessons every Tuesday from 16:00 till 18:00 in which I learn to write, speak, listen and read in Dutch. This classes aren’t mandatory for anyone, but I still take action and am proactive in gaining this extra skill. There are dozen of reasons for me to learn this language, starting from respect to the country and its citizens, to gaining that extra advantage in job seeking. Lots of my friends believe that they don’t need to learn Dutch at all, because everyone already has a decent level of English, but I believe that knowing the language helps to build a better connection with a society. It surely shows the effort to integrate and understand the Dutch culture. Learning Dutch would also bring benefits in professional settings. Knowing it can be a valuable asset, when working in a company, allowing to build stronger relationships with colleagues, clients and other native speakers. Having a decent Dutch level sets you apart from other candidates who rely solely on English. That’s why by the end of my study I want to have a B1-B2 Dutch level.
By the end of the first portfolio review I will deliver a website that would have 5 different pages with learning outcomes. There wouldn’t be a design yet, however it will be an informative website that is easy to navigate through and review the outcomes.
For the second review I am planning to fully design and code the website. Obviously I would also add many new learning outcomes and would make sure to constantly use Git during the coding phase of a portfolio.
By the time I have my third portfolio review I will have the projects I have done combined and written on their respective pages. Basically documenting the overview of the projects and I might link the learning outcomes to the projects they are from (as I did in my last portfolio {image on the right}), so you can access the outcomes from the projects pages as well. I will also add new outcomes to the pages and will create a reading guide for my portfolio.
By the final portfolio review I would have all the learning outcomes written down. I will also plant a hidden easter egg on my website and will do a trouble shooting session to see if the website functions as it should.
During this study I try to constantly engage with teachers and students to get feedback and learn something new. I don’t ask for Feedpulses that much because I believe that sometimes it ruins the connection and networking that you get with a teacher, I believe that it is more important for them to just know that you are an active student, who is always present, works a lot and shares with his progress. Those times that I did get feedback it was rated very highly and different teachers were happy with my progress.
I think I have learnt a lot during the half of this semester. I definitely enhanced both design and coding skills and have learnt to collaborate with a broader team. I have learnt more about semantics and html writing, as well as automated my GIT skills and CSS writing. A goal of mine for this semester is to learn to write JavaScript without any AI help, to learn to create simple functions and to practice this skill so many times that it becomes effortless and almost automatic to write simple functions. I believe that I have upped the game this semester and plan for being Advanced in all the learning outcomes.
One of the important aspects of studying in ICT and collaborating in a team environment is knowing who you are and being able to share it with others. This semester has been a good practice for learning my strengths and weaknesses. One of my biggest strengths is being proactive. I always crave for more, to learn more to practice my skills, to get into extra classes and lessons. I believe this trait has got me far my whole life and it is one of the main reasons why I already have an impressive arsenal of skills and knowledge. Another strength of mine is shooting far. I always aim for higher results than expected, I like to do the work to the 101%. That trait has also proved to be an advantage over others my age, who don’t tend to work extra work that better result. This could also be my weakness as well. Because of my high expectations and setting hard to reach goals, I could overdo things and not be able to fit in the timeline set. So for me it is important to be ambitious, but I also must be aware of the downside of it and be able to make the right decisions at certain moments.
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I got myself a task for the Media crew to present the open day event at Fontys ICT in front of the camera. I got the timeline script of the tasks to do during the event and after preparing the equipment went to uni.
During the open day I managed to showcase 3 different squares of Fontys ICT in which I interviewed a teacher and a student from each theme. This was a first time I worked as an interviewer and presenter so I was happy that I managed to perform the tasks well. Because the video had to be short, not all the interviews made it to the final cut, but there was still lots of interesting content to see.
I think networking is one of the most underrated skills out there and by going to the open day as an employee rather than a visitor has benefited both my skills and connections.
I attended the career day on 14th of November at the TQ Fontys campus. I got a chance to talk to many companies and see what kind of internships they have to offer. I was engaging a lot with people, asking them questions and learning about the future opportunities they have to offer. One of the crucial things I have noticed that many organizations require a basic Dutch knowledge to work for them, most were requiring a B1-B2 level. It was important to know as I am currently learning Dutch and want to reach that level of proficiency. Companies that I liked the most and felt that it could be a good internship place were the Stuurmen Branding agency and Cape. Their works are very impressive and I think it would be a very useful experience to try myself out in these professional environments.
By the end of the day I went downstairs to review the specializations for the 4th semester. I found it quite underwhelming compared to all the things I have seen before that day. Most probable it is because by that time everyone was just tired and didn’t care that much about pitching their topic. From what I have seen, the most interesting specialization was Future innovators, despite me not being interested in VR and AR at all, the guy described the study structure and projects well, which made the topic interesting. By the end of the week I filled in my study choice to be Future innovators, but unfortunately after a week or so I received a message that the specialization didn’t gather enough people so they couldn’t provide this study, which resulted me in having to choose another theme. The only other good option that didn’t seem boring was smart mobile, so I picked that to be my specialization.
Dirk invited me to participate in a demo recording in a pixel playground. There was a rendered scene of a robot invading a city and my role was to be an actor within the scene and be a part of the story. This was a demo to showcase to Fontys so it could be a Minor study for some students in the future. I was acting as if it was the end of the world and was scared of the robot. It was a fun experience and I got to work with scripts, lights and acting as well. I will link the final result of a 30 second video soon.
One of the things that I keep talking about through out this website, is how proud I am of myself for pulling of the passion project. It was a risky shot, doing this project as I did not have enough knowledge on the topic. If suddenly during the project I realized that I couldn’t code it how I wanted, the whole project would collapse. There was no room for error, as there was no time to start another project, at least of that dimensions. I am the kind of person who would rather try and fail, then never even try and do something average. I am happy that my persistence was enough to go through this project and successfully complete it.
This semester taught me many things:
1. Dream big, aim high. (Extra work to create a Sakura creative website; Passion project theme and execution; Personal portfolio designing).
2. Never hesitate to talk with someone. (Aligning ideas with the client during Partout project; Talking with teachers and asking for feedback; Being open to criticism and different opinions).
3. Networking is the key. (I have grown to realize that the best in these Media niche are the ones who have the most connections. It is important to join events, be able to advertise yourself, be active offline and online).
4. Think more of yourself. (I have grown enough to realize that I am damn good at what I do and how I do it, and I should not think of myself of someone not yet ready to work in the Media Design field).
This lessons from this semester were more important that some JavaScript functions or design principles I have learnt on the way, and I am grateful for the teachers and students that have helped me grow during my journey.
