This has been one of the funnest projects I have ever done. To summarize what this assignment was, there were groups of 4-5 that consisted of people with various Myers-Briggs types so that each team could be balanced and would perform well. Once people were in their designated groups, everyone was getting down to business! The objective of this project was to create a product and be able to advertise, commercialize, and make graphic designs and a website for it. Since we started after Spring Break, this project took around 8 weeks to develop.
Embrace Global's (my team's) product was called the LI; it stands for Language Interpreter. To sum up the point of the product, it's a pair of earbuds and glasses that can visually and audibly translate any language. It retails for $350.99 together. But, if some were to want only one aspect of this two-for-one deal, then they can purchase the items separately; the earpiece would cost $186.99 and the glasses would cost $172.99.
To showcase our design and how it's used, EG created a Romeo and Juliet spinoff where their families weren't the problem; their lack of understanding each other's mother tongue was. In the commercial, Juliet is given the LI earbud and can finally understand what her lover is saying. In the end, the lovebirds skip off into the distance to signify a happily ever after.
With our ads, Nandini, Steven, and I tried to incorporate our global feel into the outlay. We used colors like green and blue to give an earthy and inviting feel that would catch our audience's eyes. This also applies to what we were going for our website and graphic designs. We wanted to display a universal, sleek, and welcoming feel.
Some challenges Embrace Global faced were creating the perfect logo that would strike our favored audience and creating the perfect commercial that would peek everyone's interest. Throughout this dilemma, however, everyone in the team was trying their best to progress and obtain results by stating their ideas and giving good criticism. Some critiquing my team gave me was on my advertisement; they told me it wasn't bad, but needed a little fixing up here and there. They helped me better my ad and get more comfortable using Adobe Premiere Pro, so I'm thankful to them. They also gave me their opinions on how I should shoot the commercial. Without their commentary, I believe my shots for the commercial wouldn't be as good as it turned out.
Overall, I think I did a pretty good job during 4th Quarter (especially compared to my grade during previous quarters). I did my work, made sure everyone was always included during each process we were in, and led the group into the direction we ended up on. I felt like the leader of a well oiled group that was ready to rumble! During class time, I was always working on something related to the Shark Tank project. If I was done with my given work, I would constantly check in on my fellow group members and see how I can either improve the work I've already done or lessen their work load. I always made sure EG was happy with my outcomes, and would go back to business if they wanted me to edit anything.
Outside of class, however, I never really went out of my way to do work except for the lunch prior to the day we were going to present and the morning of our presentation. My team and I never felt like we needed to meet up that often outside of class.
After one year, I really do believe that I can use my e-Communication skills in the world. Now, I see more of the beauty, creativity, and work put into animations, graphic designs, and even movies. I come up with better ideas for my own projects I hope to showcase in the future. Though I see my prowess expanding, I know there's definite room for improvement. I need to get better at using the programs given to us, and need to speak up more to the teachers when I'm confused or need help (I am getting better at both of these problems though! I'm getting it now; slowly but surely!)
I loved how this quarter really made me think by creating any device I wanted and to work off of that. It gave me an infinite amount of options for product ideas and really pushed me to think outside the box. I'm quite pleased with the final outcome of our designs, but I would for sure change the website banner and the color scheming. To me, the banner and the website color scheming really threw off our initial "sleek and classy" feel. Next year, I plan on pushing myself once more to create a product by myself and/or with a group of friends and see if I can implement the last criticism I got for this project to the next. I'd like to see how far and how well I can make this future task turn out.
