Wrap-Up Post: Matt Colon

As many have said on here, I wasn't sure what to expect when I took this class, but I was very excited to learn graphic design. Messing around with Photoshop is something I never really did, ever, so I wanted a chance to finally get to do that. And I certainly did, over the course of many all-nighters and absurd hours spent in the labs, but I got a strange sense of pride for what I made that I never really have felt for any essays I've written in the past or anything like that. And since I at least like to think I'm pretty creative, it seemed a great outlet to channel that creativity and approach things from a unique perspective.

Except that's when things went wrong. I really felt my creativity being stifled in this class. Anytime I tried to do things from a unique perspective, I'd be greeted with a C or B- grade on a respective project and nothing but comments from Taylor about how, essentially, it would be better if I did what she wanted. AKA standardize it. In my opinion, design is subjective and so there really is no such thing as a fair way to grade, but I really believe that everything should be given the benefit of the doubt and appreciated for what it is. Uniqueness is what makes the world an interesting place, or else everything would be the exact same.

And really when it comes down to it, Taylor's grading system literally makes no sense to me. I'm not doing badly in the class, but it's more the principle of it. If you tell me in one project NEVER to center-align things, but the next project how a stair-step alignment is weird and would be better center-aligned, where does that leave me? Confused and slightly annoyed by the hypocrisy. Being docked points for grammatical errors within the magazine article we did not have to write kind of makes me wonder if she's just out to get us for whatever she can, regardless of how much is actually wrong.

Great class, all in all, but severely ruined by Taylor.