Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I am really proud of the way that everything came together. I based the style of my senior project off of a talk show, and it really did feel like one. I was a little scared to speak from a couch rather than doing a full on power-point standing up because I felt like my audience might loose interest in my presentation, but it actually turned out to be something that I felt engaged them much more than a regular power-point presentation would. I was glad I went out and tried something different and new for my presentation. The time I spent practicing and preparing for my presentation has led me to have a very successful senior presentation that I find to be one of the best presentations I have ever done throughout my four years at iPoly. Overall, I was proud to see my audience members actually being able to understand and apply what I was presenting into their activities, I was proud of myself for the way I presented my senior project, and I was proud of how much fun both me and my audience members were able to have while learning about this topic through my talk show presentation.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

AE    

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE   

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

Doing my presentation in a talk show style really worked out for me.  My mentorship was amazing also because they helped give me real life experiences in which I was able to learn from and apply my research into. Through my mentorship, I was able to see what it is really like to be an Interior Designer, which gave me a better understanding of my topic and also helped solidify answers to my EQ. My independent components worked for me also because it allowed me to act as an Interior Designer by decorating the interiors of my room and patio and putting into practice the different information I learned from mentorship and research.

(4) (What didn't work) 

If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

Everything pretty much worked out for me in my senior project. I had trouble with my mentorship because of distance, but I would never go back in time to choose someone to be my mentor other than Rey. 

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples. 

Because of my senior project, I have come to realize that I want to be a designer. Maybe not exactly an Interior Designer, but I definitely want to do something where I can be a designer. I always enjoyed the days spent at mentorship and I loved the process taken in completing my independent components. These two things have sparked my interest in pursuing a career that would allow me to design. If I ever do become an Interior Designer, I will know what path needs to be taken and how much work will be needed to go on that path. 

Blue Tiles

Completely loving this Azul Macaubas stone that is going to be used for a client's powder room.m.

Mission Tile West

Received new tile samples at Rey 3 Design Collaborative from Mission Tile West this week! Excited to see what projects they're going to be used for.

Inspiration

One of the most important things as an Interior Designer is being able to gather inspiration. When I talked to Deb Longua, she recommended I checked out this website, http://www.houzz.com/. On this site, you can look at over a million different designs for inspiration. It gets even better because if you see bedding or carpet that you like in a photo on this site, they might have a link telling you what store the item is from and how much it costs. So much inspiration on this site.

Revolution Fitness Plan

Last time I was at mentorship, the Rey 3 Design Collaborative team was brainstorming design ideas for this fitness studio. The sketches for the place have been done and so are the color palettes! We are now ready to show Revolution Fitness the next greatest thing since sliced bread. 

2 hour Presentation

2 hours lesson plan

Posted upon Ogden's request.

Rey3 Has Made it to Youtube

If you want to get a glimpse of what people do at my mentorship, watch this video! 

Mentorship

Literal

·     Link to Mentorship Log

·     Rey Viquez, 1(310)739-9096

   

 Interpretive

What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing I gained from the experience is learning what it's like to be an Interior Designer. At first, I just thought an Interior Designer went and looked inside some rooms in a home, then to some furniture store like IKEA, put the furniture into the room, and moved it around until it all looked nice. I mean, they do that kind of stuff too, but there is a lot more work that gets put into making the best out of a room for a client. I now realize how much time Interior Designers have to spend with their client. They have to know what their client really likes. They also have to have some artistic abilities to make sure they can draw out plans for their clients. They don't just go out and buy furniture from IKEA, but Interior Designers get their furniture custom made also! They design the furniture for a room, and then have a specialist make it. As an Interior Designer, you have to be there for all of the instillation's to make sure everyone does what they're supposed to. Depending on how big the project is, Interior Designers need to get the approval from the city for their plans. Then there's all the billing you have to make sure you take care of. Interior Designers also have to keep track of all their samples of wood, paints, fabrics, and etc. They also have to make sure they order more and keep up with all the latest trends. There's so much to think of! It takes a lot of work to be an Interior Designer. This was the most important part that I took from the whole experience because I saw this as a career choice possibility. I still do not know if I want to become an Interior Designer in the future, but I will at least know what it is going to be like if I ever do, which is a huge possibility because Rey hired me for a paid summer internship! :)

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  

This mentorhsip has helped me answer my EQ question by providing me with answers through hands on experiences. My first answer: Know what changes you want to make to a room,  was shown every time Rey had to sketch something out, or had me help put together pieces right before pitching a project for a client. My second answer: Furniture, was shown whenever I saw the before and after sketches and plans for a room. I also got to overlook some of the furniture Rey was trying to get custom made for a room, and helped arrange the furniture in places like our outdoor lounge. My third answer: Walls, was shown through sketching and plans for a room also, just like it did for my previous answers. We had the walls painted in our mentorship office while I was there, so I got to see the effect walls in a room had in our office as well. This experience  has helped me find answers to my essential question more than the research did. Not only because of the hands on experience, but because of the knowledge the people I worked with had about the Interior Design field, and their generosity in sharing that knowledge with me whenever I needed something to be explained. 

Finished my hours today!

I finished my mentorship hours and my mentor tweeted me about it.

They are all so sassy and high tech at Rey3. So awesome.

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

(1) What is your essential question?  What is the best answer to your question and why?
My essential question is, "What is most important in redecorating a residential bedroom?"  
My best answer is knowing what changes you want to make to a room. This is my most important answer because when you have plans to start making changes in a room, you have a starting point to build off of.  Also because those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

It was my first independent component that really showed me the importance of my first answer. During my independent component, I planned to redecorate my patio. I knew that changes needed to be made, but I didn't know what I wanted to change about the place exactly. Not knowing where to start resulted in me not starting at all for the longest time. After I talked to my clients (my parents), got inspired, and sketched out my plans for the patio, then I was able to go forth with the changes I wanted to make.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

The biggest problem I faced throughout my senior project was transportation to my mentorship. I don't drive and Rey, my mentor, is located in LA. My Dad is the one who drove me, but there were moments where he couldn't take me for weeks, and that started to become a problem because Rey was expecting me to be there every week. The way I resolved this problem was by telling Rey that I would have to leave if not being able to come in every week was becoming a hassle for him. After hearing this, Rey did not want to let me go and told me to come whenever I could. After that conversation, things were solved. Sometimes my research would be a problem for me because I wanted to find research that would tell what is most important in redecorating a residential bedroom, but a lot of them were tips on how to redecorate a room, or journeys that were taken by other designers when they redecorated a room. There was no step-by-step plan for me. This was not a major problem for me because I learned through experience in my mentorship and independent components.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My first most important source was my mentorship. Rey, my mentor, and Andrew, a designer that works for rey. Through my mentorship, I got to first hand everything that happens in the office as an Interior Designer. I also helped them prep for some of the biggest presentations. My second most important source is a book called Sketching Interior Architecture by Norman Diekman and John F. Pile. This book helped support the importance of my first and most important answer, which is know what changes you want to make to a room, to the essential question. This book opened the doors to know how much you could do with sketching. I always thought there was a certain way that sketching had to be done because of the way I see my mentor do his sketchings, but through this book I realized that you decide the certain ways that sketching is done. It was the book I applied to my senior project the most, especially when I was working with sketching the patio of my first independent component.

(5) What is your product and why?
Because of this Senior Project, I have been more aware of the interiors in both commercial and residential areas. For example, I was at the Souplantation last week and I noticed how they had tomatoes on their carpet and how they had paintings of tomatoes on their walls because a garden tomato was their theme. I learned to become more aware of these little details because they were something I had to consider when I was redecorating a room. Through my mentorship, I also gained long friendships and connections with other designers, and I gained more experience of what it is like working as an interior designer in an office. I also got published into my first magazine with the people I work with. My room has finally been redesigned too. The reason I chose interior design as my senior topic so that I could finally redecorate my room, and I'm glad I finally did it!

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1.) Who did you interview and what house are they in?
 Robinson Baron, East house

2.)  What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?
I would most likely end up volunteering and focusing on ER's in a hospital, as I have worked there before and find interesting. Also growing up with most of my family in the medical field makes it sort of comfortable to me

3). What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?
As I do not believe I could actually ask the head emergency room to be my mentor, I do know several people I have worked under that I believe would be willing to do so (RN's, RNA's)

4.) What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?
 I'm honestly not sure what to expect, I know that it's been played to be something very big as lower classman, I hope to be sort of relieved and take note of how well I must perform as well as learn what will be expected of me

5. ) What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?
I don't have any questions, senior year is something I've heard being talked about since day one at ipoly, I'm just ready for my turn to be a senior. 

Blog 22: 3-Column Chart

3 Column Chart