It's hard to believe our time in Multimedia Authoring has nearly come to an end! As the semester draws to a close I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the rhetorical skills I've learned through each unit.
Unit 1: Marry content and design. Through making a collage I learned to choose visual elements that not only reinforce but enhance the message I want to convey. Create visual elements that direct the viewer to the text and frame your message appropriately. Attract the viewer's eye with interesting and well-crafted visual imagery, and you've got their attention long enough to communicate your argument.
Unit 2: Target a specific audience and communicate intent through design. In creating my website I chose a design that I felt would appeal to the student audience I hoped to attract. By referencing zine culture and activism in my design elements I communicated the "feel" of a grassroots movement to my audience, reminding the viewer that his/her opinion can make a difference. While "content is king," design is the vehicle that supports and communicates your argument.
Unit 3: Communicate content through design. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've come to rely on my writing abilities as I progress further into my major coursework; as a result I have few opportunities to communicate a message exclusively through visual imagery. Though we all think in pictures to some degree, it's difficult to capture just the right images that will express our thoughts in a logical fashion so that viewers unfamiliar with the context can receive the message. As I often process my thoughts through very literal images, leaving room for abstraction and conjecture in my images for this project has been challenging. Through this final project I've learned to communicate abstract, complex content through image in a non-literal way.
It hasn't been an easy ride and there have been a few surpises along the way, but I know the skills I've learned and practiced in this course will serve me well throughout my college career and beyond. As our society continues to integrate new technology into nearly every aspect of life, today's artists and writers must become technologically literate or become left behind in today's fast-paced, consumer-driven world. I believe the multimedia skills we've learned this semester will be indispensible not just in our careers but in our everyday lives as consumers and creators of media content.
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