Blog Assignment #4

For Social Media Week, since I already have a website and outright refuse to get a Twitter, I liked ten businesses related to my field of study. Below are the businesses I liked and the comments I left:

1) Peace Corps
“Hi! I'm a Graphic Design major and I plan on serving the Corps for 6 months-1 year after I graduate. I was just wondering if there were any art related ways I could contribute while abroad, such as teaching art classes to the children?”

2) Walt Disney Animation Studios
“What sort of majors and institutions do your animators hail from? Is there a particular grad school you’d recommend attending?”

3) California Institute of the Arts
“Is there any hope of offering an MFA in Character Animation in the future?”

4) Education Abroad Network: Study Australia, Study New Zealand, Study Asia
“Hi! I'm a pre-Graphic Design major at Iowa State. At the Study Abroad fair, I spoke with a representative about universities in Australia (preferably in the Sydney area) that offer Graphic Design programs. She suggested the University of Technology at Sydney, but I'm having issues finding further information on the website. Any help you could offer would be great!”
“Hiya! Any recommendations for which semester would be better for visiting Australia, Spring or Fall, as for weather and opportunities offered?”

5) College of Design @ Iowa State University
“Hi! I know there's been talk of a Digital Media major next year amongst the students, but I've been wondering what the official word on that was?”
“Hi! Are there going to be portfolio advice nights held next semester?”

6) University of Technology, Sydney
“Hi! I'm a pre-Graphic Design major at Iowa State planning on studying abroad at the University of Technology at Sydney, but I'm having issues finding further information on the website. Any help you could offer would be great!”

7) DreamWorks Animation

8) Pixar Animation Studios
“What sort of majors and institutions do your animators hail from? Is there a particular grad school you’d recommend attending?”

9) Warner Bros. Animation

10) Marvel
“What sort of majors and institutions do your illustrators hail from? Is there a particular grad school you’d recommend attending?”

What surprised me about the Twitter Elevator pitch was the advice about articles relating to your business. Personally, I've always seen social media as just that - social. When I have a job I hope to be passionate about it - but I don't want it to take over my life. I don't have Twitter, but if I did I'd hope it would be filled with things about my friends and family, vacations, and well... my social life. Another thing I found surprising was the recurring theme in most of the articles: that Twitter was a more professional tool than Facebook. I - like most people I assume - have always viewed Twitter as a dumpster full of pointless tweets like "I'm eating a taco." But the articles viewed tweeting as 'building a brand'. One of the articles even had statistics for politicians and athletes, among others, using Twitter. When I really sit down and think about it, I guess that all makes sense. However, I still don't plan on getting Twitter... at least for some time. I spend enough time on Facebook as it is, and at this point I don't believe I have a brand to build.

Blog Assignment #3

I've taken a few Personality Tests in my day; I've been around the block a few times. This time around, I resulted as ENFP: Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceptive. The results described me and curious, creative, and imaginative - some aspects that will definitely help me in my future design career. When I am designing, ‘good’ is never good enough for me. I like to push the limits and be the best at whatever I am doing. I'm also apparently energetic, enthusiastic, and spontaneous - my friends and co-workers from home will definitely attest to that. I am unusually perceptive of people and of what's going on in the world around me. Several weeks ago I took the StrengthsQuest quiz, and it also identified one of my strengths as Empathetic. I pride myself on my ability to read people and put myself in others’ shoes. In high school, I was friends with just about everybody. Peoples’ social and economic backgrounds don’t seem to phase me. I believe this strength will help me in Design when I am interacting with people. Whether it’s my employer or fellow colleagues, I feel like I’ll be able to relate to people and push past our differences to come to a beautiful, cohesive design. MBTI identified me as a person who likes affirmation from others; support others and readily express appreciation. I'm definitely a people pleaser! When somebody told me way back when to treat others as you would like to be treated, I took it to the heart. I believe that people work better when they believe they're valued and wanted. Along with that, came likely to value harmony and goodwill. I am apt to make decisions on the basis of personal values and empathy, and I am often seen by others as friendly, perceptive, persuasive, and versatile.

Many of my results on the quiz were only slight to moderate. For example, I only scored a 3 on Extraversion. I believe the reason for this is the fact that I am so 'versatile'. I tend to act very differently based on the situation. I AM a person who enjoys her alone time for getting work done, but if I was by myself all the time I would drive myself NUTS. While I abhor group projects, I LOVE being around people. Intuition was my highest score at 20. I would agree that I focus more on the future possibilities than the here and now. Which can be helpful, but I should also learn to appreciate the current adventure. I scored a 10 on Feeling. I very much believe it's important to consider feelings when it comes to decisions. Clearly, I would also consider logic and objective attributes but if the decision is offensive I'm not going to support it. And once again, I got a low score of 13 for perceiving. I like deadlines and planning when it comes to projects and schoolwork, but when it comes to my social life and just plain living I like taking on a flexible, spontaneous approach and like to keep my options open. As they say, life is what happens when you're busy making plans.