G9 PBL A

Week 1 🏫 - SDG Collage

The first week we were working on the SDG collage. I worked with Chelsea and Luna, what we picked was SDG 4 as our collage topic. Luna decided the design look, Chelsea and I were working on picking newspaper we could use. Luna designed a book frame and choose to put the newspaper inside the frame. Inside the book frame, there are many words that create knowledge. We want to spread awareness that not everything the school will teach, but these knowledge is something you must know. After we were done, we had critique to find out whether some parts need to fix or not. Someone told us our vocabularies on the collage looks really weird, but becasue somone in our group disagree with changing it, we keep the design.

Week 2 🏫 - Currencey Redesign

The next week we were working on the currency design. We were searching for people or protestors that are dighting for community's rights. We also had to combine the drawing elements such as color, shape, line, form, texture, space, and value. We mostly focuses on color, line, space, and value. These four elements is used to show our main character of our currency. We were struggling with the elements we used and puts almost everything we can imagine inside our currency, but my peers told me too many elements only made our currency crowded, so I chose to delete some elements that do not fit our vibe. There are many spaces left and made our currency looks more similar to current currency.

Week 3 🏫 - Mood Board

We were working on the mood board in week 3. Mood board is to put your feeling and what you wan to express on the board to let others understand the emotions behind. Our mood board is about migrant caregivers' dignity, bravery, hope, and power. So our mood board used yellow and brown to present warmth, dignity, and hope. Red to present power and bravery. Blue is to mark important information.

Week 4 🏫 - Project Pitches v1

This weeks's work is was to plan the project pitch. Our project is about migrant workers facing discrimination. What we want our audience to know is "even these migrant workers facing so many unfair treatments, gossip and discrimination from others, they still try their best to live a better life." We made a canva and share our ideas about the tangible design. We decided to create key chain as our tangible design, but Mr. Ciliers told us our tangible design is still biased, and we did not include our charter and working timeline.

G1_Pitch2.PPTX.pdf

Week 5 🏫 - Project Pitch v2

A week later we finished the previous project pitch, the teachers asked us to fix some parts. I was absent that week so I did not participate much in it. I only redo the key chain design, I added an airplane and choose to put a luggage next to it to present migrant workers fly abroad, far from their hometown. This presentation my team members added the missing charts and introduced my tangible design.

G1_Pitch2.PPTX.pdf

Week 6 🏫 - Logo Design

Week 6 we were working on our logo design. First, we had to draw 50 different logos and pick the one we think that fits our group the best. After the 50 drafts were done, we had a discussion with the other group and give the best answer. Then, we had to pick the best design we think and add elements inside it. I chose to use color, shape, and line as my elements. Next, Dexter used my design and recreate a better logo for our group.

Week 7 🏫 - Brand Kit

We were working on the brand kit last week. Brand kit is kind of like a mood board, we chose pictures and arts that feel warm and empathy to the magazine readers. We also hsd to pick the fonts and the colors we're gonna use in the magazine.

Reflection on Growth

One project from the first seven weeks that I think could be improved is the Week 1 SDG collage. In our collage, we used a book frame and put newspaper words inside to show knowledge. However, there are a few specific things that could be improved. First, the vocabulary we used were not suitable for SDG 4 - Quality Education. Some words did not clearly connect to SDG 4 (quality education) such as abortion and cannidbolism. Second, the layout inside the book frame was a bit messy. The words were placed really unclear, so it was hard to read, and the word is too small. Third, we did not use color strongly enough to guide the viewer. Everything looked similar, and the words are mixed, so there was no clear focus. During the critique, someone said our vocabulary looked weird. But because one group member disagreed, we decided not to change it. If I could do it again, I would fix the vocabulary and choose clearer words related to education, I would also organize the layout better. And one more thing to is feedback, the most important one I got was in Week 4 Project Pitch v1. The teacher said our tangible design (keychain) was biased. It only showed one side of migrant workers and did not fully represent their situation. Also, we did not include our charter and timeline, and this made our project look incomplete and not professional. In Week 5, we had a redo presentation, and my group members added the missing charts and explained our plan more clearly. I added an airplane and a luggage so that it won't be so biased. This shows migrant workers traveling far from their hometown. They are facing unfair treatments, but they still try their best to live a good life. This project connects to other classes because we are working on a real social issue. In Week 2 currency redesign, I think I put too many elements, and it made the design look crowded and confusing. After the group discussion and the feedback, I removed unnecessary parts and make it more easy. Now my designs look cleaner and more similar to real currency. One thing I need to improve is my participation when I am absent. In Week 5, I did not contribute much, and this kind of affected my group’s progress. Next time, I will try my best to stay connected and check updates online with my group. Another project that could be improved is the Week 3 Mood Board. Even though we used colors like yellow, brown, red, and dark blue, the meaning was not very clear to the audience. Some colors were used, but we did not clearly explain why they represent dignity, hope, or power. Also, the images we chose were not strongly connected, so the overall feeling was a bit unclear. If I could improve it, I would choose more specific images and make sure every color and picture clearly connects to our theme.

Social Justice Investigation

Our group is focusing on discrimination against migrant workers and what is their attitude facing life. They often get unfair treatment, gossip, and people discriminate them. Many people think migrant workers are less important, even though they do important jobs and contribute themselves a lot in our society. The people affected and what we want to focus talking are migrant workers, especially caregivers. They often leave their families and come to another country to work. However, they may face long working hours, low salary, and discrimination. This issue is local to us because there are many migrant workers from Southeast Asia in Taiwan. But many people still do not understand their situation. Our project wants to show that even though they face many difficulties, they are still trying their best to live a better life. We use words like "dignity", "warmth", and "bravery" to represetnthe hard working and strong soul they have.

Graphic Design Growth

At the beginning of the semester, I thought graphic design was just about making things look nice, so I did not think too much about meaning or message. After seven weeks, my opinion has changed. Now I think graphic design clearly shows the core idea of our topic. The most important thing I learned is how to use design elements in a better way. For example, color can show emotions, and space can make things easier to read. In Week 2, I think I used too many elements in the currency design. I tried to include everything, like many colors and shapes. But it made the design look crowded. Now I not get do into on fewer things and make the main idea clearer. This helped my project because my designs now match our message better.

week 8 🏫 - Logo Design

WE finalized the logo into the last version and changed the handrawn into a clearer one.

week 9 🏫 - Magazine

We started the magazine process. My responsibility is to design the magazine layout. First, we drafted the first draft, and we jut need to kind of sketch the frame out and place where the title, subtitle, pictures, text, and decorations are. We had to make twenty pages, include the cover.

G1 Magazine Content Draft 2 Sherry

week 10 🏫 - Magazine

This week we were working on draft 2. Draft 2 is the time to start some deeper planning like finding pictures we can use to put in there. I searched for some pictures about protesting and spreading awareness and built a folder to save all pictures inside.

G1 Magazine Content Draft 2 Sherry

week 11 🏫 - Magazine

This week we started on Draft 3 which we now have to paste the information onto the magazine. I am the one designing the layout, so another group member was working on writing articles inside the magazine. After he was finished, I pasted the articles onto the magazine Draft 3 and to make sure everything fits the best and kept on adding pictures.

Copy of G1 Magazine Content Draft 1

G1 Magazine Content Draft 3 - Sherry

week 12 🏫 - Magazine

This week we were working on draft 4. We had to finish most of the magazine in Draft 4, so I researched for pictures on some NGO's website because their information are more fair and less bias. I put every pictures into the frame we kept for pictures and added or changed the articles in the Draft. Te problem is, we found out the color we use as backgroud color is too bright, and I used yellow with blue which also looks too strong, so i changed our color use into similar colors such as yellow, orange, and green. Yellow represents warmth, orange represents happy, green represents hope and life. WE also worked on the sketches of our tangible design, and we first drew 50 thumbnails for our tangible design for this week.

G1 Magazine Content Draft 3 - Sherry

week 13 🏫 - Magazine

This was the last week for our magazine process, and was also the final check before we sent out to print. I checked whether the text are out of the margine or not, and changed few page with this issue. I also repicked some pictures because in feedback from our teachers, they said the picture does not fit, so I changed one.

G1_D5.pdf

week 14 🏫 - T-shirt making, mock exhibition

were working on making t-shirts for our exhibition. We first had to prepare for the ink, and then put the ink on the frame and use a wiper to wip the ink to make sure the color spreaded equally. After the color is printed on, we dryed it with hair dryer. We printed for both sides of our t-shirts.

During the mock exhibition, we talked to many students and explained our project. I mentioned about our magazne, tangible design, and working process. Our group DQ is "How do we take care of people taking care of us?". And this represents the affected group - migrant caregivers. OUr issue is migrant caregivers facing unfair treatments, include unfair contracts, discrimination, and disrespectful law.

week 15 🏫 - pitch 2

We had pitch practice this week, and we were working on the pitch (exhibition practice). We had to explain our project to our teacher by our own. I first mentioned about our school DQ, class DQ, and group DQ. Then I mentioned the issue, affected group, cause, and our community partner.

Reflection of Growth

One part of the magazine that I worked on was the layout design. We were making magazine about a social justice issue-migrant caregivers' unfair treatments in the society. This magazine is for people that may hire migrant caregivers but do not know well about this community.

My job is to design the layout and place the articles and pictures to make sure everything fits the magazine. I also did some research for pictures about migrant caregivers learning Chinese , protests for no discrimination, and spreading awareness. During the final checkpoint, I checked whether the text was outside the margins. I also changed some pictures that did not match the articles well.

I think there are three things I could still improve. The first one is I can improve my research skills because I sometimes rely too much on the first source I find. Second, I can improve my layout planning because some pages took a long time to adjust when the articles were added. Third, I can improve my color choices because I did not realize that some color combinations would make the magazine harder to read. One specific piece of feedback I received was about the colors in our magazine. My group members said the bright yellow background and font colors looks really uncomfortable. After hearing this feedback, I changed the colors to yellow, orange, and green. The magazine looked more organized and easier to read.

This project also connects to Chinese class because we researched social issues and learned how to build arguments with evidence. It also connects to English class because we practiced looking at different perspectives and analyzing issues. It also connects to my previous PBL project. Last semester, my group made a game about migrant workers to spread awareness. This semester, we used a magazine, exhibition, and tangible design to spread awareness about migrant caregivers. Compared to before, I am more willing to revise my work and accept feedback. One thing I still need to improve is research. My plan is to compare information from different sources before deciding which information to use.

Social Justice Investigation

This semester, my group's topic is about the issue of migrant caregivers and unfair treatment. Our DQ is, “How do we take care of people taking care of us?” which represents the migrant caregivers. During our research, we learned that migrant caregivers may face problems such as unfair contracts, discrimination, long working hours, and limited legal protection in Taiwan. These issues are important in Taiwan because soo many families hired migrant caregivers to take care of elderlies and people who need support. The thing that surprised me the most was the limited legal protection can be for migrant caregivers, this reflects their difficulties in Taiwan be we rarely know. Before this project, I thought all workers had similar legal protections. After researching, I found out that migrant caregivers will face difficult working conditions while having fewer protections than other workers because they are not being rpotected by the LSA. I also think many people do not understand how much pressure migrant caregivers face every day. They often work inside private homes, many of their challenges are hidden from the public, or people just choose to ignore. This project changed the way I think about social justice because I realized that some problems are not always visible, it may also be hidden. This also taughts me that spreading awareness is important because people cannot help solving a problem if they do not know the issue well.

Graphic Design Growth

At the beginning of the semester, I thought graphic design was mostly about making things look good and draw. After working on the logo, magazine layout, and tangible design, I learned that graphic design is also about cconnect to the theme. A design can look nice, but if people cannot feel emotionally connect to the message, then it is not a good design. The design skills that helped me the most were color selection. I learned that every design choice should help the audience understand our DQ better. Graphic design helped our group communicate our social justice issue about migrant caregivers' rights because it made our research easier to understand with simple drawings. Through the magazine and exhibition, people could learn about migrant caregivers without reading long reports but through our logo and tangible design. The design decision I am most proud of is our tangible design. We created a migrant caregiver on one side and a contract on the other side. The contract side was heavier to show how unfair contracts can put pressure on migrant caregivers and affect their lives. I think this design was successful because people could understand the message quickly without needing a long explanation.

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