I am...

Project Brief

For this project we are reflecting on our own positive qualities. We will be looking at our own identity and creating a key ring based on a word that describes us.

Process Journal

I chose the twelve words below as words that I think describe me:

Creative Professional Leader Thoughtful Friendly Trustworthy

Empowering Compassionate Active Anti-Racist Balanced Open-Minded

I chose creative, because I think it is a part of what I do everyday. I see teaching as a way to use my creativity to make my classes interesting and useful to my students. I also enjoy playing guitar, drawing and just making stuff. I also have a hidden talent for laying down some funky rhymes.

I have always loved to be active. I'll be honest, I also love to be sedentary sometimes, but that never lasts too long. I have a need to be doing something. That can mean things like exercise or sports or hiking or yoga. But it can also mean reading or taking a class or learning a new song on my guitar or bass. I like to have things to do.

Living abroad had helped with this in so many ways. I've learned to listen and to be patient and see that the first solution is not always the best. I've learned that what I was taught growing up was not always the whole truth. There are many different sides to each story and many different solutions to most problems. It is important to see people for who they are and where they come from and take time to learn from them.

I decided to include a fourth word because I think it is an important one and one that I want to continue to work towards. Showing empathy and concern for others could not be more important in our world today. In my home country, we are struggling with violence on many levels. Racism and hate have once again reared their ugly heads and are showing the problems that my country still struggles with. These issues are not isolated to the USA though. The entire world could use more compassion toward one another. I think I exhibit this trait in my daily life and in my teaching, and I want to remind myself how important it really is.

My Identity Chart

Starting to get ideas on paper...

These are my quick sketches for possible products. I chose three words that I thought I could turn into good final products. I wanted to choose things that I thought I could find icons for as I move into creating. I happen to have a line drawing image of myself in the proper format, which is why I included that in the first option.

Even though I liked some of the other words I chose better, I struggled with how I would illustrate them with icons. I chose these three because I felt like I could represent the ideas through images.

Making those ideas digital

Using Gravit Designer I created these four protoypes. I used the "libraries" tab on the left to search for different icons to add to my designs. For the "I am a designer" prototype I uploaded an SVG file that I had created for a different project and decided to try it out here. I added the compassionate prototype when I came up with the idea while searching for icons. I wasn't sure that I could find an icon that would illustrate that idea, but I think the four icons representing different people with the heart in the middle shows the concept of compassion towards all people.

Final choice and reflection

In the end I chose compassionate as my word and my design for my keyring. I chose this for two reasons. One, I think that compassion is incredibly important in our world right now. There are so many issues with race and equity in our world, that being compassionate and standing up for what is right is something I want to make sure I am reminded to do every day.

I also felt like that this was the most interesting of the designs that I created. Even though the graphic was something I found, it has the potential to be a cool cut on the Glowforge as I think that I can make each of the people look a little different by changing the power settings for each. I look forward to having this hanging from my backpack.

Alternate Ending

In the end, I chose designer as my word and my design for my keyring. I chose this because I feel like it is at the base of all that I do. As a teacher, my work is to continue to learn more about design and use that knowledge to design learning experiences for my students. As a parent, my job is to design a safe and loving experience for my children to grow and thrive within. Design is a part of all that we do. From the clothes we wear to the decisions we make throughout our day. We are all designers and we all benefit or suffer due to the world that has been designed around us.

I think this design is simple and clean. I like that it has a nice balanced feel to it with the text and images. I am a bit worried that the design cycle icons may be a bit too small to come out well, but I still like it. I also like the way the image of me turned out. You would never know that in the original I'm wearing a hoody.

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