Journal #22: I think this project is going pretty smoothly so far. My main role in our group is to create graphics and write a few mission statements/bios that we could use in our brochure. I think one of the things my group and I can improve on is meeting times and communicating. We’re alright with it, but I feel as though we tend to do most of our work independently and then meet to discuss, which isn’t necessarily bad. I feel like we all have the same vision of what we want our brochure to be like. The benefits of collaborating are that we can have different viewpoints of how things should go/work, and we can gather new information from each other in terms of how to use graphics and designs. When it comes to dealing with people who aren’t listening to my ideas (which hasn’t been the case in my group!), I always try to meet them in the middle. In life, things don’t always go your way 100%, which is why compromising is incredibly important. If you and your teammates are willing to compromise on an idea, the product turns out better!
Journal #23: This project was really eye opening for me. Normally in my major, I’ve had to work independently on projects and lab reports. The brochure project forced me to collaborate with others, which is something that can be outside my comfort zone. My group, however, worked really well together and even utilized our abilities to work independently of each other. I feel as though this allowed us to complete our own ideas of what our brochure should look like and then let us expand upon each others ideas when we collaborated. It was eye opening for me to see that even if people need to work codependently, they can also utilize independent work for the whole project. Overall, I think our brochure looked nice, even though some of the drawings definitely looked a little wonky (I made them it’s okay). I think that our brochure really went through multiple designs and drafts, but the end product seemed to genuinely represent what our product was (cleaning critters). While there is always room for improvement, I think my group and I can be proud of what we accomplished, especially since this project was completed over quarantine. Regarding the process of making the brochures, it was a little strange for me. I’ve never made a brochure for anything before, so I was trying to compare it to a little trifold presentation that kids do for science fairs. I think that hindered me a little, because I was constantly trying to follow a set format and trying to place certain things in the “correct” spaces. However, my group (and other groups) showed me that there really isn’t a “set” way to make a brochure. It just depends on functionality, clarity, and concision. I think the project, along with the readings about the AIDA model, helped me to really understand what a professional brochure should look like, but also allowed me to understand that even if something needs to be professional, it doesn’t need to sacrifice creativity. Personally, this project helped me to understand the importance of collaboration as well as compromise, and gave me the skills to work well with others (since I’m an introvert, I definitely lacked this). Overall, this project was fun and my group worked really well together!
*Progress update over zoom due to quarantine 🙁
