personal+branding

Personal Reflection

Since specializing in Visual Culture and Communications, I have taken courses that exercised practices with foundational theories. I have thrived to become a visual designer, but becoming one isn't just about creating visually appealing pieces. At the foundation of any piece of work is a means of communications. What am I trying to get across to viewers? What is my role in problem-solving? Those are the types of questions that CCIT has taught me to answer to my fullest ability.

The online market has been rapidly growing, and it positions us perfectly to learn about the changes that new technologies pose on the advertising world. I have learned how important it is for us to follow new trends that emerge on the internet. New methods of marketing and advertising can pop up anywhere. Facebook and Twitter were unheard of ten years ago, but social media has become the new platform for online marketing and advertising. It is beneficial not only to learn about the effects on the market today, but studying new technologies also prepares us for future trends worth noting. Technologies might change over time, but the foundation that we learned in this class about the different factors and target markets will always remain the same. New technologies only come as tools for specifically targeting groups, we have to understand methods behind it to truly adapt with oncoming future.
 * What stood out for you?**

CCT356 also emphasized the importance of knowing the client's company and their target audience. Only then can we apply the strategies that we have learned and effectively create a campaign that fits their needs. Knowing the company means knowing what models like PCP, PPC, etc) would best apply to them to reach their company goals. In the first assignment, we studied online campaigns that have worked for companies. Since the campaign has already been designed, we are able to look at what target audiences the companies are aiming towards. We can measure whether their choices were accurate and brought the best effects. The second assignment had us create a small online advertising campaign that fits either a company we made up or one that's preexisting with little brand identity. This was more difficult because we had to research on who the target market was as well as how to reach them with different advertising models. Some are more effective than others, and it's in our discretion for which ones we'll choose. Targeting the younger audience would entitle moving the campaign to social media compared to an older target audience, where it would be more beneficial to move to newspaper sites.
 * What did you learn?**

The last assignment applies everything we have learned in this course into a proposal for an existing company. Much like real world practices, we have to rely on teamwork to get the project done. We were able to delegate the jobs within our group based on our strengths. This collaboration only worked because we all put our best ideas forward and made changes as a group. We set goals within ourselves on the level of quality we wanted to create, and create a proposal that could actually be presented to the client.

I found it was a lot more beneficial meeting professional that are currently in the field compared to learning straight from course readings. Textbooks only give you a foundation of theories, but looking at how real professionals using them gives a practical use to all the terms we have learned. This class was on visual learning, discussions and hands on experience. We have learned how to apply things learned through discussion (like personal branding) that is not found in the textbook. In a few years, we won't be referencing textbooks, we'll be out there exercising them.
 * What did you learn about how you (and others) learn?**

The one thing that has challenged me is the personal branding. Not much the idea of how and why it is necessary, but actually applying everything I learned and creating an online identity for myself. I do have an identity currently, but I have always kept it separate from my personal life. However, since this course, I found it was better to associate oneself with a variety of things.
 * What challenged you?**

The challenges of this course is the main thing that has inspired me to create an identity package for myself. Social media and the ability to follow online trends and communities is important in this field of study, so it has caused me to really think about the sites I need to join, the comments I need to make and the people I need to meet. I do have a personal site, but I personally never found time to put it up. So that would be step one, where I can showcase my online portfolio of the things I have worked on along with my resume. I should be more active on Facebook because it's the hub of our current communication age, along with Twitter and Linkedin. I can meet future employers everywhere, and it's best to be prepared.
 * Inspired you?**