A Critical Introduction

WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SEE…AND WHY

            This semester, like many other students at the University of Illinois, Springfield, I was fortunate enough to take part in a Digital Rhetoric course, which challenged my thoughts and my place in the world as a designer. As someone who does all of their social media management for four different podcasts, three of which are scripted, and then is also the social media manager at their current occupation, I am someone who is constantly designing. From Canva+ to drawing to written word, I am constantly having to come up with new ideas that will impact the way people see things, hear things, and notice things, depending on certain demographics and meanings.

            In the first week of our course, I stated on the idea of rhetoric, “Overall, rhetoric is human interaction that is built off of persuasion. It’s someone saying the sky is blue, that person says it’s green, this person says it’s pink. The whole point is conversation which leads to new ideas.” With this in mind, it has become my belief that I am this type of designer. I am a designer who wanted to strike up conversations, whether they be newer ones, or ones that are based off of a recall of something of years gone by. The whole idea is to persuade an audience enough to talk about something and remember something. I want there to be a reason as to why people want to look at my designs, and in some way remember them.

            Because I base so much of who I am as a designer off of the effects of conversation, I instantly recalled something that stood out to me throughout this digital course, as we worked our way through the book White Space is Not Your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen. On the theme of graphic design, it was stated that, “While the forms of graphic design, like all design, change with the winds of visual culture and technology, the specific function of graphic design remains constant: to communicate messages visually. Graphic designers have to be professional communicators. They understand that, for better or worse, in visual culture we judge and are judged by appearances. In fact, everyone can benefit from knowing something about the mostly unspoken rules of visual communication. That’s called media literacy.” Simply put, communication is everything and it will forever remain crucial. No matter if it is a picture, a political poster, or a video, we are constantly communicating with ourselves and others. That is why designs need to continue to be more impactful than ever, especially as we compete with a more digital age, where everyone can realize their designing passions in a heartbeat and share those designs with such a diverse audience on social media.

            Speaking of the importance of digital designs, and the digital age we live in today, Kenzie Academy of Southern New Hampshire University once wrote a piece titled What is Digital Design, and Why is it Important? In the piece, the University comments on the ever-changing landscape of the digital world. Ultimately, one of the most important takeaways I found was when the written piece stated, “Digital design ensures we have useful experiences in the online world.” What we’re seeing in the digital age is room for designs to be more diverse than ever, and to reach a larger audience like never before. And when designs do reach a larger audience, when they’re shown to be effective, when the designer understands diversity, then that is something very special and a personal connection is then formed between any member that witnesses that design, passes it along, as everything then ties back to the original creator. Again, this is the type of designer I would like to think of as myself.

            Diversity and inclusion are topics that can help foster conversations that can then reach a large scale, and it is important to build a diverse and inclusive mindset when designing. A written piece from LinkedIn titled Benefits of Creating Accessible and Inclusive Digital Designs! Even states, “Inclusive design can lead to better engagement with your product or service. By catering to a wider range of users, you’re creating an environment that is welcoming to all. This can result in increased user loyalty and advocacy, as well as more frequent usage and higher levels of satisfaction.” This is a quote that summarizes quite well what it’s like to look at the world we live in today in broader terms. This quote asks others to allow themselves the understanding and the gaining of knowledge on how to open up the roads of communication, so to speak, and why such a thing is crucial in a digital age, and how these conversations can continue to impact design as a whole.

            With communication in mind, I ultimately wanted to choose pieces that would be close to my heart and impact a large audience. I chose the redesign of a popular author’s book cover, who has made his mark on the Mystery genre. I chose a sign at an eatery, which would help people who speak Spanish understand a very serious issue. I chose a poem that would help those ponder on their dreams. I’ve chosen a poster of a popular singer’s work, so people could have conversations about mental health. I also chose a page of a menu of an Italian restaurant, which I really freshened up. And then for the sixth artifact of my choice, I decided to design a business card for an English tutor.

            All in all, these designs were fun to reinvent, and really give some time to look through all I’ve learned, in order to make them much better. The goal was to showcase what I mainly learned in the course and through the course reading of White Space is Not Your Enemy. The decisions I made were to select better color schemes, and really let the words shine, as well as pick more central photos. I think this portfolio most certainly shows growth, and will hopefully spark conversation.