Resumé Hyperventilation

So I've been working on designing my resume, business card, and leave behind all weekend.  I am seriously losing sleep over it.  I am too young for this pressure, I don't even have a real job yet!

Weekly Recap 1/23-1/28

What I did:

Worked on type samples: 3 hours
Worked on resume: 3 hours
Got anxious about the unknown future:  infinite time

What I accomplished, encountered, discovered:


I didn't get nearly as much done this week as I was planning.  I found myself overwhelmed with the amount of design decisions i was facing and ended up distracting myself with work from other classes and my worries for the future.  Graduation seems pretty bleak and dark considering I don't know what will happen afterwards.  I am absolutely a planner, type A person who needs to know the plan; the lack of plan freaks me out.

I did discover a new way to format some of my spreads.  I'm not sure how successful it is, its not very resolved yet but I think it is working for both a complicated hierarchy and a simple one.

  I am not sure about a serif type face.  The booklet needs to look "official" and sophisticated but I don't think it needs to look stiff.  I want it to be approachable despite the education and class level of the applicant.  I would like to have a serif and a san serif font.  I just went with the basics for these.  Garamond and Helvetica.

This is getting away from the checklist idea I was going for before but I think it organizes the space better.  I need to come up with a way to signify things that are optional or "need one or more of the following" as opposed to required items.  I also want to attempt a redesign of the I-130 form.  That won't be for a little while though.

I have A LOT to do for Tuesday's crit.  I always work better on the weekends when I can come in to the studio without distraction.

I also have sketches for the "what am I eligible for" diagram from my last post but I forgot to take pictures when I was in the studio this morning.

I tend to get overwhelmed with the amount of things on my plate and don't know where to start, which only makes my obsessive compulsive side more aggravated.  I will get myself together this weekend.

Whats next:
Friday/Saturday:  Print portfolio.   Finish resume, business card, and leave behind.  Print.  Assemble.
Sunday:  Studio.  Work full throttle on IP all day.
Rest of the week, keep working and FINISH something.
Thursday: Career Fair.

Weekly Recap 1/16-1/22

What I did:

Worked on "I want to immigrate" book (beginning design and LOTS of content):  8 hours
Career Fair: 1 wasted hour
Portfolio compiling:  3 hours
Critiques and meetings:  4 hours


What I accomplished/encountered/discovered:


I have gotten a LOT done this week.  I've made huge progress on content but still have a lot of editing to do.  Now that I have more than half of the content in place for the immigrant book, the other 2 will be quicker.  It will be just a little bit of re-wordering and some additions.

  

I am still struggling with the chart that is supposed to make clear who is eligible for what.  I'm afraid it is doing the opposite.  I think I've taken a big step backward in this respect.  The older maps I had done are much more effective.  This needs to be scrapped.

  

(older version)

I am trying to make the rest of the pages more like checklists.  I have the "applying for permanent residency" section split up into who the petitioner is.

Meeting with Chris Pullman was so great today.  He had so many great suggestions.  I didn't really have enough visually resolved ideas to show him but I got the feeling that he really liked my project and the direction I am headed.  It was really encouraging.  Tonight I am going to try to do a few type samples to show him tomorrow.  I am lucky enough to get some extra time to possibly meet with him and then I'm chauffeuring him to the airport...no pressure.  Just an American design legend and a university car, no big deal haha.

Whats Next:  TYPE decisions.  I need to start designing based on the most complicated content and set of hierarchies along with the simplest.

I also need to find someone who specializes in writing for children, such as a text book writer or equivalent.  Hopefully the writing teacher can point me in the right direction.  Chris said I need to be at about a 5th grade reading level.

I also need to look more at Edward Tufte.  I need to take more consideration in my line weight and shapes, especially in my charts.

Good Magazine 2008

I'm not sure this makes understanding immigration any easier.  It is similar to the cartoon Susan gave me a long time ago in that respect.  I don't even know what to start looking at first here.  I guess that might have been the point, especially with the maze.

Quotes

Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.
Winston Churchill

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Thomas Jefferson

Weekly Recap 1/9-1/15

This week was really productive!

What I did:

6-7 hours on refining content for the "I want to Immigrate" Kit.
2 hours designing the "Can I Apply?" Section for "I want to Immigrate" Kit.
6 hours refining resume and applying for jobs.
1.5 hours designing pro bono logo for Michigan Immigrant Rights Project
1 hour meeting with Susan Reed


What I accomplished, something, and something and What's Next


Below are the samples I showed Susan about Part 1 of Kit 1 (Can I Apply?)

I've been trying different formats for the diagram for "What can I apply for?".  I've also been working on simplifying the language.  Susan gave me SO many great suggestions today that I'm excited to implement.  She also clarified a lot of the terminology for me.  Turns out there is actually a HUGE difference between a sponsor and a petitioner.

My meeting with Hannah went really well yesterday, I feel like I'm really moving forward and have a lot of work to do.  I would love to have the content somewhat solidified for each kit by tuesday and a kit mockup for each and then with the feedback from crit have even more refined mock ups to show chris pullman.

I was pretty excited to step away from fully focusing on content and more on design this week and SERIOUSLY look forward to continuing working on them at the same time.  Right now my grid is 3 columns and 4 rows but absolutely nothing is set in stone.  I really need to work on a color palette that will work consistently throughout each of the 3 kits but distinguish them as well.  It would be nice to have a system that would also distinguish what the immigrants are applying for as well.  Anything to help clarify and define is a plus.  Thats one thing I regret not doing in the last 4 years, taking a color class.

 

P.S. Stephanie's Lecture was by far one of the best all year!  Congrats Stephanie!!!!!

Weekly Recap 1/2-1/8

Well we are back in the swing of school, a rather abrupt start after a short break.


I procrastinated with my thesis a lot but I do think I added some good sources about using "Plain Language".  George Orwell wrote an essay in the 1946s entitled Politics and English Language that I quoted:


"Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase—some jackboot, Achilles' heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse—into the dustbin, where it belongs"


A more recent source is from Bryan Garner's Essay Legal Writing in Plain English. He writes that the plain English “…phrase certainly shouldn't connote drab and dreary language. Actually, plain English is typically quite interesting to read. It's robust and direct—the opposite of gaudy, pretentious language. You achieve plain English when you use the simplest, most straightforward way of expressing an idea. You can still choose interesting words. But you'll avoid fancy ones that have everyday replacements meaning precisely the same thing.”


These two quotes sum up in a much more eloquent way what I've been trying to articulate as my goal for the language.


More in the making side of things, I am excited to reformat my kits.  I am going to try and segment them by the user (ie. immigrant, u.s. citizen sponsor, and u.s. permanent resident) , not the process milestone (ie.  elegibility, filing, immigrating).  I want to have the content and a mock up for each ready for our small group critique on the 19th.


I feel really good about my project, especially after getting my write-up/feedback post review.  It cleared up my uneasiness about how the review went.