PBL

Week 1: SDG Collage

This is our group's collage based on the SDG Quality Education. I was in a different group than the one I am in right now. We added different images from random magazines that are related to the collage into it to make an impression and show how important quality education is.

Week 2: Currency Redesign

This is our group's 1000 NTD currency redesign. I was in my final PBL project team already. We changed the original image into Tsai Ing Wen since she was the president who agreed to same sex marriage and also is a part of the indigenous community.

Week 3: Mood board

This is our group's second mood board. We have done one before based on food waste. However, we decided that we wanted to work on the topic of imported food. This is why we made another one. All of the fruit images on the mood board are the fruits we have in Taiwan.

Week 4: Project Pitches 1

G4_Pitch1.pptx

This is our group's first project pitch. We worked on the explanation of the imported food issue in Taiwan, the tangible design we will make in the future to make donations in exihibition, and the magazine content. In class, we presented to the class and listened to both teacher's feedback.

Week 5: Project Pitches 2

G4_Pitch1.PPTX.pptx

This is our group's second project pitch. We changed our topic from Taiwan's imported food into Chinese ableism language. This is because we noticed that it would be too difficult to find an organization to collaborate with for imported food. After our presentation, we received feedbacks from our teachers and from our peers.

Week 6: Logo Design

This is our group's logo design. My classmate is in charge of it. We wanted to add a flower with special meanings into our logo to promote positivity. We will also change the group name into petals of kindness.

Week 7: Brand Kit

This is our group's brand kit. One of my teammates carried this. She collected colors from the mood board and added images from our slide and mood board to make the process of making the magazine easier.

Week 8: Logo design

This is our group's logo. The other two of my teammates took charge of this. The logo is a sunflower with a clockwise spiral in the middle to symbolize transformation, growth, action, and warmth.

Week 9-13: Magazine & Logo - Drafts, Feedback and Revision

This is our group's magazine, we worked on it for a very long time. You can find the explanation, affected group, how to help, and also the root of the issue inside our magazine.

Week 14-15: T-Shirt Making, Mock Exhibition, Project Pitch 2

This is my project pitch two's preparation. After the mock exhibition, I realized that I needed a more detailed script for me to memorize in order to present more naturally.

#1 Reflection on Growth:

After receiving the feedbacks, we noticed that we should try our best to not say the "offensive slangs" out during presentation. Even though it is just for clearer explanation, it is still disturbing and might be unserious to some people. We will certainly adjust and change our presentation because we are trying our best to not be rude and we want to stay professional.

This pitch is connected to my geography final project last semester. I had to do a case study and research on the Philippines' native language. We also had to make a board game based on the countries that colonized them and how it affected their future economy. This is when I was struggling to explain everything I could to make people who came to understand the entire project when I worked for a entire month to understand. This is what I think is the most important and what I should practice more in the future. During PBL's exhibition, I'll also have to present to people I don't know to my PBL project. It would be difficult but I'll try my best to let them understand every part and be willing to make donation. To achieve that, I'll always make a script before any presentation and practice until everything is smooth.

#1 Social Justice investigations:

Our project topic is about reducing ablism language that are commonly used in this generation. There are more and more Chinese slangs that are used to insult people with serious illnesses that are actually congenital. This is extremely offensive to a certain group of people with certain illnesses or disabilities. In our PBL project, we are trying to promote positivity and stop the usage of ableism language. This topic is considered better to our group compared to the last one (imported food) since it is a lot more connected to us because in modern schools nowadays, many many people use this kind of words and languages.

#1 Graphic Design Growth:

I thought that I might dislike this class because I was afraid that the teachers might value the visual more than the actual effort and the actual project. After I entered the class and actually started to work on different assignments, I noticed that the teachers will constantly check on your group to see the progress and always discuss on the topic to give you help. I also loved lectures of visual arts since my teacher always give examples of famous art pieces so that we can actually understand the concept and meaning of what he was talking about. I think I will use calming colors and less contrast in our magazine to show that we are trying to promote positivity instead of spreading awareness.

#2 Reflection on Growth:

In this semester, our group made a magazine based on our topic, ableism language and discrimination toward people with certain disabilities. For the magazine project, I was in charge of researching the issue, contacting our community partner, and co-writing the essays you see in the inner pages of our magazine with my teammate Chelsea. My main contribution was the Affected group and How to help pages. During the drafting process, I received specific feedback from my teachers suggesting that we should avoid any kind of bias language and try not to make the affected group the helpless victim since this is a very sensitive topic. This feedback significantly changed my work because I started to do many researches about this kind of language to make our project professional and represent our affected group with full respect. This part of the PBL project partially connects to geography last semester because I also had to make many research on the local language disappearing because colonizers' suppress in Philippines. This was also a very sensitive topic where I had to introduce our affected group and colonizers in a very impartial way.

Compared to my past working habits, I now do things differently by outlining each paragraph before I write an essay and also communicating more with my team. Through this experience, I have grown as a better writer and researcher because I learned how to check the trustworthiness of a source and to give a brief explanation sentence of a paragraph before I write. Looking toward the future, one thing I still need to improve in PBL is using more data and statistics in my speech and writing. My plan for improving this in the next project is to write a more detailed script with all requirements contained before I freestyle or just talk about things that aren't related.

#2 Social Justice investigations:

This semester, my group investigated the social justice issue of ableism language and the usage of Chinese slang that are offensive. Before starting this project, I made the assumption that many people use the words like down syndrome and autism as slangs to make fun of people who have them. However, as my understanding of the issue changed over time, I was most surprised to learn that most of them don't even realize how harmful their words can be, instead, they simply just use the slang because they were trending. This realization shifted my perspective because it showed me how dangerous unknowingly following trends can be.

Despite the facts, I realized that many people still misunderstand or ignore the importance of respecting everybody no matter what. Last, this investigation changed the way I think about responsibility and community action. It taught me that my role is to be an example myself and tell people how spreading kindness is easy.

#2 Graphic Design Growth:

Over the course of the semester, my graphic design skills and confidence grew significantly as I originally believed that every single design such as logos and magazine should be symmetrical. Throughout this learning process, the specific design principle or technique that helped me the most was balance. Balance are better in a way where images and illustrations don't overpower the texts. Mastering this technique allowed me to make our project more organized and professional.

Last, graphic design played a significant role in our project because it helped us communicate our social justice message by capturing our audiences' attention by using colors, values, and shape. Looking back at the final magazine, the specific design decision I am most proud of is the brand kit page. We used the shape circle to get people's attention but made them smaller so they create a balance where the texts are the first thing viewers see. I am proud of this choice because the magazine looks great and everything was worth it.

Page updated

Report abuse