What to do next...

SMART Goal #2

For week 2 I want to research more about infographics mainly by reading the books I found in the library. I also want to reach out to my potential mentors to make sure that I have enough time to find someone else if they’re not available.

Reflection

This week I made slight progress on my goal, but not quite as much as I wish I had. I’m really liking the idea of making infographics, especially since it combines the ideas of graphic design and presenting information. I’ve been doing some brainstorming about what I could actually make infographics of, and right now I’m leaning towards something with either the life of an HB student, or of a school sports team I participate in, such as the crew team or swim team. Either way, these would be valid options as pages in the yearbook, which is especially helpful. Plus, Ms. I told me that she really wants to revamp the club pages in the yearbook this year. Maybe, if all goes well time wise for making an infographic for one of those teams, I can look into making them for other sports teams or school clubs. I’ve also participated in the Red Cross Club and French Club, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to get in contact with people to find information about those groups to include. I don’t want to overcommit myself, so if I decide to make that many infographics, I’d definitely need to keep them relatively small and simple.

In the meantime, I’ve also looked into different computer programs I can use in place of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator because they’re super expensive. I downloaded Gimp, a free program very similar to Photoshop, but I have yet to find a supplement for Illustrator. I now finally have the contact information for Dan and Carol Richards, the two potential mentors I had in mind. They both work to make the advertisements for Canobie Lake Park, so even if they agree to help me this year, they likely won’t be able to do much until Screamfest (a major fall event at Canobie) is over. I’m more likely to try to work with Carol because she’s the one who focusses on the still ads, while Dan does more work with the film aspect like the TV ads. They both use the Adobe programs a lot, so it’s pretty important that I continue to look for alternatives that work well. If I can’t find what I’m looking for soon, I may just end up getting the monthly prescription for Adobe.