March 2018 – Joanne's Portfolio

What is success? A word hard to define, its meaning different for each person. According to the dictionary success is the accomplishment of a goal, for some it could mean making their bed that day, or going to the gym. “To not to have entirely wasted one’s life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself,” a goal for yourself, self satisfaction. A question to ask is, what is success to Chetan Bhagat? From looking at him, we can clearly see many successes, from being a best selling author to having Bollywood movies about his books. However, as Helen Hayes said, “Everybody starts at the top, and then has the problem of staying there. Lasting accomplishment, however, is still achieved through a long, slow climb and self-discipline” the problem is to stay successful, constantly achieving new goals and going further. The question is, how has Chetan Bhagat stayed successful and continue to stay successful?

About Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is a best selling author, publishing multiple books and having them made into Bollywood movies. He has done this to reach as many people as possible, from years of experience of trial and failure he has realised that for people to understand, you have to be entertaining. To reach as many people as possible, you cannot be boring, this is why he has decided to reach people through entertainment. Some would say he has accomplished his goal, he is successful now, however for him this was not enough. Something Chetan Bhagat values is adapting, in order to stay successful you have to keep adapting. If he were to stop when he became a best selling author, he may have not stayed successful, people could have gotten bored and left thus failing his goal to reach as many people.

Stepping out of your comfort zone

Chetan Bhagat has adapted numerous times, he started writing in newspaper columns, going on social media, he has done things that some stayed away from. By going out of your comfort zone and trying new things, you can benefit greatly. People tend to stay away from Bollywood movies, with the mindset that it was inferior. With this mindset, you will not get anywhere, you are blocking yourself from experiencing new things and reaching more people. Chetan Bhagat has only gotten more successful, with each passing day he has reached more people. He is getting through to people because of everything he has done, the work that he has done has payed off. A quote from George Bernard Shaw is “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” with an open mind you are able to make a difference. You need to think differently, be creative, be open to new opportunities to be successful, Chetan Bhagat has done just that.

These are some books written by Chetan Bhagat, the 3 mistakes of my life being the biggest selling English novel in India’s history.

Taking the first step

Although Chetan Bhagat is successful now, he was not always happy with where he was in life. He was once unhappy with his job, being a banker and having a bad boss. However, he decided to take his mind somewhere else and write a book. By making this first step, he was able to get to where he is today. We must have an open mind, keep changing, keep trying new things and you will be one step closer. This is an important message we must all keep in mind, we all face doubts in our life, unsure whether to take the first step. From the journey Chetan Bhagat had, we can see how important it is to take the first step. To not lose motivation, and keep trying to reach your goal. Once you have reached your goal, and you can call yourself successful, you must keep changing and adapting to go further.

What success means to us

An important quote we should keep in mind is “You are what you love, not what loves you,” in this day and age people often think of others opinion on them. They forget to think about themselves, only thinking about others impressions of themself. This can be connected with success as we each have our own success, how someone else defines success will not be how you define it. This is important, it is okay to call something some may see as small a success. We should not be making goals we think represents success, instead we should form a goal that will bring us where we want to be. A goal that will help you go further to where you want to be, that should be what success means. Making a goal we think represents success leads to disappointment, as we realise the outcome is not what we wanted. We have our own goals in life, being successful depends on your goals, we shouldn’t think of others opinions. We should not compare ourselves to other people, our friends and role models will have a different definition of success, success determines on ourselves, our personal goals.

We each have our own definitions of success, it is okay to be proud of something small. However, once succeeding something, we must think about what to do next. How do we adapt from this to do more? This is important to stay successful, to stay ahead. It is also important that we remember where we started, to stay humble, by doing this it is easier to have an open mind. To welcome new opportunities, to go out of our comfort zone so we can create change. Often times we will find ourselves stuck, not knowing what to do next, this is okay. In order to be successful, we must know how to get back up, to continuously try again. The question left to think about is, are you successful?

Bibliography

Dreams Media, Mumbai India – www.dreamsmedia.in. “Books.” Chetan Bhagat, 19 Aug. 2016, www.chetanbhagat.com/books/.

Dreams Media, Mumbai India – www.dreamsmedia.in. “Pictures.” Chetan Bhagat, 25 July 2014, www.chetanbhagat.com/about/pictures/.

“Chetan Bhagat Photos.” Sucess Story, successstory.com/people/photos/family/chetan-bhagat.

http://conclave.intoday.in/article/india-today-conclave-2012-chetan-bhagat-best-quotes/3481/38.html

“Adaptation.” Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/adaptation.

“Charles Bukowski Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_bukowski_752453.

The Design Basics

Proximity

Proximity is using visual space to show the relationship in your content, this means making sure related items are grouped together. Blocks of text will be together, and visuals will be together, this is to show how the items are related with one another. It will make your work easier to read and understand.

To have a stronger use of proximity in my draft, I could have deleted the cherry as there were already fruits in the background, and the texts were together. The cherry was the only one there, it did not belong with another visual.

White Space

White Space is negative space, the space between your content, between lines and outer margins. The purpose of white space is to help you understand the different sections, giving room for your work to breathe, making sure the work is not too tightly packed.

I think the white space in the sides are okay, the content has enough room to breathe. However, to have a stronger use of white space I could have left more space between the text and the top of the border. The margins at the top are too close, I could either make the box on the inside bigger, or make the text smaller.

Alignment

Alignment is to have each grouping evenly spaced and aligned with equal sized margins. Alignment will make the composition easier to navigate, without this your work will look disorganised.

I did the alignment myself in the logo, so I could have improved on paying more attention to the detail. For the word ‘Friday’ I am not sure if it is aligned well, if the margins are equal. For the other text I could have also looked more carefully as looking at the draft again, the margins don’t look equal. The text seems to be heading towards the left, I need to make sure it is in the middle.

Contrast

Contrast is when item is different from another, contrast helps catch the readers eye, create emphasis or make them pay attention to something important. We can use contrast by changing the colour, size, shape or visual weight of the object, we can also use contrasting styles of text.

In my work I see contrast between the background picture and the red, with the white text. This calls attention to the text, and makes the reader see the text first. This is important as I want the reader to see what the logo is about first, then look at the other visual elements. There is also contrast between the border and the picture of the fruits, making the logo easier to see.

Repetition

Repetition is to have a consistent look and feel, this means reinforcing your design by repeating or echoing certain elements. For example, staying consistent with the colour palette, using the same header style. Staying consistent will make your work easier to read, this is so that viewers will know what to expect which will allow them to focus on the content.

I stayed consistent with the font, using the same font in the logo. Although this is because I did not have much text, I could have made the word ‘Friday’ have a different font. I mainly focused on staying consistent with the colour palette, this logo is mainly white and reds. I used white for both the border and the text, to create a divide between the reds in the logo. I used the same red the Cherry had for the red in the background.

Rough Draft Work

https://lifehacker.com/5864004/the-done-manifesto-lays-out-13-ground-rules-for-getting-to-done

Process of creating a logo:

Touching up with FOTOR:

After reading the article, I realised that I could have experimented more, instead of trying to make it perfect it would have been better to try different things out and make mistakes.

Thinking about my client

The road to success

I want my logo to communicate the purpose of writers fortnight, to show the passion of the speakers and those who were listening. The empathy map connects to this as when listening to the speakers in writers fortnight, you will feel passion, admiration and inspiration. I want my logo to communicate this idea, showing how impactful writers fortnight is.

I was already familiar with the Illustrator, however from experimenting with different tools I hadn’t tried before I found myself learning new things. I did not know about the type on a path before this, however from looking at the tutorial I could follow how to do it. When dealing with problems, it’s important to think of a different solution and keep trying.

I had empathy by helping someone that was not as familiar with Illustrator. I did not have to persevere with an optimistic mindset in todays class but when I first learnt Illustrator this was something important to keep in mind. It took a while for me to understand the different tools and use them well, so being resilient was an important skill.

Joanne's Portfolio

The Story of My Learning Starts Here

Month: March 2018