Project 10 - Yearbook

   For this project, we were given 5 days to complete a yearbook. It wasn't an actual yearbook for the school but rather a yearbook for our class. It is an assignment Mrs. Ramirez always gives to sophomores using all the skills we have learned throughout the semesters together. We mainly use Indesign CS6 to put together the yearbook, but we were free to choose any other program we had already worked with. We were out into groups with different group leaders. My leader was Jose and he gave me the role of writing the intro for the yearbook. I think I did a good job at it. I really enjoyed this project. It was nice to see everyone cooperate and share pictures with each other of each other.
 

Lab # 7- Drawing

   For this lab, we were told to quickly draw a landscape picture as a Do Now assignment. My drawing was a house near a riverbed and grassy land. It would later be scanned, saved on our USB drives, and used for two labs/one project.

Lab #4 - Card Adjustments

    For this lab, we were given a picture of car as a Do Now. The paper with the car has instructions on it on how to change and play around with the colors on Photoshop CS6. I found it very useful since there were some things I had yet to understand. We were given the whole period to finish this lab. It was somewhat a test in order to see whether we actually mastered the skills we had just learned. So, the format of how to place the cars was quick. We just had to change the color using different Hue, Saturation, Replace Color and Black & White. It wasn't specific for any so it was at your desire to choose colors. Overall, this lab was really easy and fun to do. I finished on time, these skills would later be used for upcoming labs and projects.

Project 9 Newsletter Reflection

  In this project we were suppose to create a newsletter. This project required us to work in teams and use every individuals skills into one to create a great newspaper. The application we used was Adobe Indesign CS6. Indesign allowed us to layout our newspaper in an organized way because Indesign is  a place where you just add all your graphics or text to create any form of materials such as brochures, newsletters, ads, books and business cards. In addition, Indesign allowed us to package our file in order to share it with any of our teammates. This was an important factor in creating the newsletter as a group because I was able to create it all in one. In this case, my group decided to do our newsletter about art. In our newsletter we decided to have 3 subtopics relating to the topic art which were articles based on art paintings, sculptures, anime and music. We all decided to do our spreads based on the subtopic we were most interested in, except for myself since I was chief editor. After completing the spreads, they had to package their file and send it to me (chief editor) so I could combine all of their work into one. It was a lot of stress and pressure, but really great and fun! I learned a lot more with using InDesign CS6.
 

Reflection on CS Fair Trip

   On Thursday, April 7, 2016, the web design family went on an amazing trip to a CS Fair. It was a great opportunity for all of us as web designers. It would expand our knowledge as a person and we can reach out to other programs and colleges that offered us even better experiences. It was all knowledge filled honestly. So as always, to begin with, we all group up in Mrs. Ramirez's class to check off who we have and who we don't. This is kind of my favorite part before the actual trip since we all share our excitement towards the trip. It feels great to talk to each other and express our emotions and our thoughts before the actual event. We all gathered up, met our chaperon assigned to each one of us and soon set off to the train. I think what was really crazy about this trip was that two academy's went instead of just us web design.
   We had a pretty long train ride, transferring from the E to the A, there were many stops. It was really fun jumping from one train to another since we kept running and pushing each other in order to go inside the train. We soon got the stop we had to get off at. It was a few walking we had to do to get to the building itself. Once we got there, a huge line was already there. I felt so lazy to wait, I couldn't stand for a long time in flats, IT REALLY KILLS! We were all trying to waste time, whining about how thirsty or hungry we were in a cold environment. There were different schools next to us too, which made our wait even more annoying! After almost a hour and a few minutes of wait until we got inside! I was very relieved and pleased once we entered the warm building since I was really freezing. We got these really cool ID and a paper with information about the building. We quickly went upstairs to the third floor. We entered and it was really crazy and filled. We had to stay together as a group at all time. We got food and soon sat down at our assigned spot. After that hour, we went downstairs to explore what was out there.
   In conclusion, I met a lot of organizations, programs, and colleges that offered CS courses. It was really cool and fun meeting them since they provide you with feedback that can later be of use. I really liked the conversation with each person I met or communicated with. I was really interested at what there is provided for us web designers. Our train ride home felt even more tiring and got to the school at a late time, sort of. I did get some prizes from different stands like bags, stickers, and pencils. It was a really great experience!

National Museum of History Trip Reflection

   On March 24, 2016, the web design family went on an exotic trip to the Natural Museum of History. I was honestly excited since its been a while I've been there; besides that, it was great to experience some fun outside of school with peers. So, we all met up in the morning how we were supposed to. Apparently, some issues were occurring and we were waiting for another chaperon to come so we could all go or else the trip would've been canceled. Mrs. Ramirez ended up sending us to our second period class, which I thought was a bummer since I have global history that time. After that period ended, we went back to the lab and gathered up once again. We were still waiting for Ms. Deborah and Diego's dad to appear. Meanwhile, walking down the stairs to the main lobby, we were desperately hoping that the chaperon's would show up. Diego's dad did but Ms. Deborah never did. Fortunately, a sub that's usually at our school covered for Ms. Deborah; we were all relieved that he was able to cover. Anyways, we made our way to musuem on the subway. There weren't many delays which was good.
   As we got off the last train, what I found crazy was that the entrance to the museum could also be right there in the subway. I found it so cool and great, no more waiting on the line. Anyways, it took a while to settle down, get out tickets and so forth. We then started our way upstairs to the first floor of the museum. Our goal was to take a couple of pictures of the attractions but also taking pictures of the types of ad's they had. We would then use this pictures for later use in class. So we looked around, passed through many exhibits. We passed through the shop where you could buy little souvenirs as well. I was kinda upset we couldn't stay any longer since I really wanted to buy something to remember that day. After that, we were making our way to the marine life section. We first entered this cool dark blue-ish room filled with marine life facts and different pictures as well as models of them. I really liked this section out of all. We then made our way to the actual huge section filled with whales, dolphins, and many more big marine life species. I really liked this part too. I was with a couple of friends taking pictures with each other, enjoying this magnificent moment. We left that place pretty quick as well. Our last and final destination was the planeteranium part of the museum. We went inside this dome like place that explained the big bang theory. It was super cool and 3D like to me and many others. We were straight chillin' after thta great sight. Weighing each other on different scales, which I thought was funny!
  This whole trip was a precious moment to acknowledge.  I really enjoyed everything! Except for the ending, in which we left too early and weren't able to actually eat ): ! Besides this minor detail, everything else was great. I really enjoyed the butterfly section as well; 2 butterfly's landed on my hand that day! That was the best feeling ever honestly. I loved being surrounded with my peers, enjoying the whole place. It was truly a great experience for us to learn and be outside of school for a while, afraid of stress in school !

Lab #10 - Brochure Reflection

   In this lab, we did plentiful of things. We worked with Indesign CS6 and it took us a week for completion. The objective for this lab was to create a brochure emphasizing the topic, "Respect For All," meanwhile using prior knowledge and skills to create one. This lab was somewhat simple but at the same time, it took a lot of effort to put together information for the topic we individually picked. I chose to make a brochure based off drugs. Drugs are generally harmful in many ways disregarding the medical use of them. I have a strong passion against drugs, therefore making a brochure for the use of rejecting and stopping drug use was easy for me. It did take a while for me to gather intel on drugs overall though. But I'm pretty sure my brochure came out nice.
   To begin with, we first started with the basic outline and format of a brochure. We had an example given separately to us; it was used to give us an idea of how a brochure is formed and easily designed. We then clearly made out the pages and where exactly the cover and back cover were located. We were told what our brochure's were supposed to be based on and drew a quick draft. After that, we started to actually work on the computer's and drew out the simple and easy boxes as our outline for each page of the brochure. That was honestly the easiest part of the whole thing, we still needed so much more before it was complete. Soon after, we started working on the actual colorway of the whole brochure, making the cover and adding subtitles to the paragraphs. This part of the brochure was a pain for me since I couldn't make up my mind on how to organize it and not knowing the exact color that would fit the mood of the topic. After struggling on the physical features, I finally started working on the inside information. I tried making it all interesting and valuable of reading. I put basic and significant intel that was needed and tried to wrap up my brochure by spreading the fact that drugs are for no good use and should be rejected instead of constantly taking/doing them.
   To conclude, I really loved my final result. I know I tried my best on this first brochure and with the help of peers is what brought the best of me. I was given a lot of advice on how it could be improved from my original idea. I was also given a lot of support at the end, since I was running out of time. My peers pushed me all the way and I was able to complete it in the time limit we had. I was really glad. I did learn a few more skills in using Indesign CS6. All of this would be able to be used all over again in the future if I were to use Indesign again or in any upcoming labs or projects.