Hello all!
Well, it's incredible... the semester has gone by so fast! It looks like there's never enough time to work on all the projects for the different courses, and then, it all comes together (minus quite a few hours of sleep).
This past week, I have revisited some of the tutorials, which was very useful to brush up the second iteration of the business brochure. I am hoping to post this tonight. I still think it needs work, and I guess I will be thinking about the whole summer, before I actually have these printed.
Additionally, I have started to work on the presentation slides, and have practiced adding narration but I do not like my recorded voice. I guess I will not add narration to the slides. At some point I was considering adding callouts with additionall explanations, which I thought could be more hearing-impaired persons. Let's see how this goes. For the moment, I have decided to concentrate on the finishing the presentation, and time permitting make fancy additions.
(Will this be another of my wishful thinkings?)
Hope everyone had a great semester, with a successful project, and enjoy the summer!
Best,
Liliana
Monday, May 3, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Week 13/14 Report
Hello Colleagues!
This week I worked on and posted my brochure. I have been working on it for some weeks already; still, it is amazing how much time one has to dedicate to find out the right words and express in few pages what a business can do. My goal was to develop a brochure that would stand out from the rest I have seen related to my field of work (translation).
When searching for images to include in the brochure, I found quite a few that I liked; however, quite a few of them have been used already, such as groups of flags (these are mostly pictures from the front of the UN building). Also, I realized that most of those pictures did not show all the flags of the countries which languages I work on. I did find something that had the shapes of people around a globe, and the shapes were filled with flags (once again, not the flags I needed). That is what inspired me to work on my visuals. Hopefully, I will achieve what I am visualizing.
I would like to thank once again my peer students who review my work; definitely, they brought up excellent suggestions that will help me improve both the textual and visual content. Although I am not planning to use the brochure right away, it is great to have the opportunity to receive feedback from people who look at the brochure from a more objective perspective other than friends and acquaintances.
It was also interesting to see the many projects everyone is working on, and appreciate how those projects evolved since we started the class. Really amazing! I am eager to see the final iterations and presentations.
Well, that's all for this week!
Liliana
This week I worked on and posted my brochure. I have been working on it for some weeks already; still, it is amazing how much time one has to dedicate to find out the right words and express in few pages what a business can do. My goal was to develop a brochure that would stand out from the rest I have seen related to my field of work (translation).
When searching for images to include in the brochure, I found quite a few that I liked; however, quite a few of them have been used already, such as groups of flags (these are mostly pictures from the front of the UN building). Also, I realized that most of those pictures did not show all the flags of the countries which languages I work on. I did find something that had the shapes of people around a globe, and the shapes were filled with flags (once again, not the flags I needed). That is what inspired me to work on my visuals. Hopefully, I will achieve what I am visualizing.
I would like to thank once again my peer students who review my work; definitely, they brought up excellent suggestions that will help me improve both the textual and visual content. Although I am not planning to use the brochure right away, it is great to have the opportunity to receive feedback from people who look at the brochure from a more objective perspective other than friends and acquaintances.
It was also interesting to see the many projects everyone is working on, and appreciate how those projects evolved since we started the class. Really amazing! I am eager to see the final iterations and presentations.
Well, that's all for this week!
Liliana
Picture by Anthony Criego (c)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 12 - Report Log
Good morning!
We are so close to finalizing the semester! It seems that we only started yesterday... and yet we have done so much.
Last week, I submitted a flyer to a group of acquaintances and co-workers, to obtain their feedback. Some of them were not able to respond by the deadline, although I am still anxious to get their responses. The ones that responded were great, and even made suggestions for improvement, which I am contemplating as I write this.
I am still working on the brochure and an insert. It is taking longer than expected, probably because of lack of time to focus on one project and get it done. I feel like I am only able to work on chunks at a time. This may work well for others, but not for me because I feel I have to restart every time I go back to the project.
This week, I am also planning on reviewing a couple of Lynda.com tutorials on brochures, trifolds, and the like. I need some inspiration once again.
Well, that's all for now folks!
Thanks for reading the post,
Liliana
We are so close to finalizing the semester! It seems that we only started yesterday... and yet we have done so much.
Last week, I submitted a flyer to a group of acquaintances and co-workers, to obtain their feedback. Some of them were not able to respond by the deadline, although I am still anxious to get their responses. The ones that responded were great, and even made suggestions for improvement, which I am contemplating as I write this.
I am still working on the brochure and an insert. It is taking longer than expected, probably because of lack of time to focus on one project and get it done. I feel like I am only able to work on chunks at a time. This may work well for others, but not for me because I feel I have to restart every time I go back to the project.
This week, I am also planning on reviewing a couple of Lynda.com tutorials on brochures, trifolds, and the like. I need some inspiration once again.
Well, that's all for now folks!
Thanks for reading the post,
Liliana
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Week 11 - Project Report
Hello....
Well, I did forget to post yesterday. Times goes by faster than one can track.
This past week, I spend some time reviewing business publications to get the feel of how they announce presentations and how much information they give. That made me realize that I can be more free as far as fonts and layout (rather than what I have read-not more than two font types, and so on). I am trying to be creative rather than sticking to the rules.
While I am still not very happy on the layout for the brochure, I am almost done with the text, which is a big deal for me to include as much information as possible, but without overlapping what will be in the inserts or accompannying brochure from the ATA.
Just "recruited" one of the marketing and communications persons from where I work, as well as two students (who study marketing, and I know will be very honest in their observations), to give me feedback on my work.
I am also requesting input from a manager, to check to what extent he would be willing to attend such a presentation.
So, that's what I am working on during this week.
Have a good week everyone!
Liliana
Well, I did forget to post yesterday. Times goes by faster than one can track.
This past week, I spend some time reviewing business publications to get the feel of how they announce presentations and how much information they give. That made me realize that I can be more free as far as fonts and layout (rather than what I have read-not more than two font types, and so on). I am trying to be creative rather than sticking to the rules.
While I am still not very happy on the layout for the brochure, I am almost done with the text, which is a big deal for me to include as much information as possible, but without overlapping what will be in the inserts or accompannying brochure from the ATA.
Just "recruited" one of the marketing and communications persons from where I work, as well as two students (who study marketing, and I know will be very honest in their observations), to give me feedback on my work.
I am also requesting input from a manager, to check to what extent he would be willing to attend such a presentation.
So, that's what I am working on during this week.
Have a good week everyone!
Liliana
Monday, March 29, 2010
Week 10 - Report Log
Hello All,
Hope you all had a good week after Spring Break, although most of us were probably working.
During the past week, I had to decide whether to produce the brochure for my translation services business in a trifold format or a booklet. Since I wanted to step out of the box and have some different than a trifold, I considered other options such as a small booklet, but realized that this would most likely become an expensive option for printing. Finally, I decided on a trifold that will be included in sort of a fancy packet but that I can also send by mail if necessary. I would have never thought that coming up with these decisions would be so complicated.
Another decision I made after looking at other translators' websites (although these were mostly companies) is that the brochure will be available online but in the form of slides, for readability purposes.
I am putting together the reviews I received and will improve the flyer per the suggestions of my peers.
Additionally, I continue working on the content for the brochure, which is not an easy task. Deciding what to include is key to interest potential clients, and I want to produce something that has useful information and is pleasant to review at the same time.
Wishing you all a productive week.
Liliana
Hope you all had a good week after Spring Break, although most of us were probably working.
During the past week, I had to decide whether to produce the brochure for my translation services business in a trifold format or a booklet. Since I wanted to step out of the box and have some different than a trifold, I considered other options such as a small booklet, but realized that this would most likely become an expensive option for printing. Finally, I decided on a trifold that will be included in sort of a fancy packet but that I can also send by mail if necessary. I would have never thought that coming up with these decisions would be so complicated.
Another decision I made after looking at other translators' websites (although these were mostly companies) is that the brochure will be available online but in the form of slides, for readability purposes.
I am putting together the reviews I received and will improve the flyer per the suggestions of my peers.
Additionally, I continue working on the content for the brochure, which is not an easy task. Deciding what to include is key to interest potential clients, and I want to produce something that has useful information and is pleasant to review at the same time.
Wishing you all a productive week.
Liliana
Monday, March 15, 2010
Report Week#9 - Productive as a Working Bee
Good morning to all!
Aside from working on the drafts for the two fliers that will be used to announce a presentation on the translation industry, I started to work on the brochuer. This is a very important item of the marketing packet because it will be printed, and therefore, become a more permanent marketing tool for my translation services. I am working on the thumbnails and making decisions on whether or not to include some kind of picture. I would not like to include a picture, although some people do it, because I don't think it reflects my work (I am not a PR person). In any event, something to ponder over the week. The good thing is that the color palette is final, and I will continue to play with the background I have created. I am still wanting to find out printing possibilities. It looks like it would be quite expensive to do a green printing right now, but at least I can find out what it takes and design accordingly (for when I am a successfull translator/technical writer making big bucks!).
When designing the flyers, the most difficult thing is deciding on the layout and what information to include. I felt like if I did not give enough information, people would not be interested in atttending. However, I got valuable feedback on my work, and I am working on improving the appearance of the flyer. I was not able to obtain feedback on the flyer prepared for presentations before students. One thing I can say is that it never turns out the way I pictured in my mind.
Though I do not enjoy the luxury of Spring Break, I hope there will be less students showing up (and parents calling!) to see their advisors, so that I am not that tired when I get home from work. I am looking forward to watch couple more tutorials throughout the week on my beautiful 22in screen... feels like I am watching a movie!
Happy Spring Break!
Liliana
"The purpose of our lives is to be happy
." -Dalai LamaPhoto: Working Bee (c) Anthony Criego 2009
Monday, March 8, 2010
Week#8 - Update
Hello all,
The past week was productive in terms of tutorials and I also worked on thumbnails for the brochure and inserts. It was particularly useful to learn about Copyright issues; I will be taking a TWC course related to this matter during the fall. My impression is that it will always be kind of complicated to keep up with all the copyright information because of the way online communication tools are evolving.
Nothing went wrong the week... other than I am not completely happy with my designs. I guess getting feedback from peers during this week will help me see what I'm not seeing that makes me feel uncomfortable with my designs. I still have some time to tweak them before Wednesday.
So, the goals for this week is to continue working with the tutorials, polish the designs I am working on, and provide editorial review for some of my peers' designs/projects.
I wish you all a creative and productive week!
Liliana
The past week was productive in terms of tutorials and I also worked on thumbnails for the brochure and inserts. It was particularly useful to learn about Copyright issues; I will be taking a TWC course related to this matter during the fall. My impression is that it will always be kind of complicated to keep up with all the copyright information because of the way online communication tools are evolving.
Nothing went wrong the week... other than I am not completely happy with my designs. I guess getting feedback from peers during this week will help me see what I'm not seeing that makes me feel uncomfortable with my designs. I still have some time to tweak them before Wednesday.
So, the goals for this week is to continue working with the tutorials, polish the designs I am working on, and provide editorial review for some of my peers' designs/projects.
I wish you all a creative and productive week!
Liliana
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