PLS1: Practicum Log Sample & First Design Project

Practicum Log Sample 1

Hello all!  I will have to apologize once again for the lack of updates; we had a big Teen Mania group come to Torre to do ministry here and in Turino, and they were a handful to say the least.  I will be sharing my thoughts (read: criticism) on this group later, however.  For now, I wanted to kick off sharing some of my entries from my daily practicum log.

Without further ado, let's turn the dial two and a half weeks back...

7/06/09 – Monday, July 6, 2009

Two friends/recent graduates from Taylor, Sam & Trevor, arrived on Saturday. They had been touring Europe and came up from Rome to spend the remaining days of their trip with me in Torre. All has been put off to spend time with them as they will only be here for a couple days (Trevor leaving Tuesday morning, and Sam Thursday morning). I can foresee this delaying these practicum reports and my blog posts as well. We are definitely taking advantage of the time, though—checking out local shops, a cookout on the 4^th, going swimming in a river of recently melted snow from the Alps (so cold!), and plans to drive up the mountains to Villanova (one of the last villages before hitting the highest westward mountains that form the French border).

Work for today included developing initial concept work for the prayer card and working on newsletters. “Newsletter Day” is tomorrow so I will detail it then. My concept work was slow and a little discouraging but it was a start. The break for newsletter work started some time after lunch.

The prayer card mentioned above was my first design assignment.  I wanted to have something quick, easy, and tangible to put out right from the start as so much of my time would be focused on web design.  A family was set to return to the States soon and OM Italy needed a (new? Not sure if we have an older one...) prayer card that can be given out to friends/family/supporters/etc.

Below is a screenshot I took while working on the prayer card, some days after this entry.  I arrived at the "Italy flag composed of colorized pictures" theme after the slow concept work noted above, driven by some of Anna's helpful criticism:

(from entry on Tuesday, July 6)

Afterward I asked Anna for critique on where I was going with the prayer card and she pointed out that my design was narrow in what it was communicating about Italy, on a card that needed to communicate a request for prayer for Italy as a whole—for the nation, for the youth, for Christians and OM workers in Italy. I began to work a new idea out around this thought.

Coming together!  I am looking forward to sharing the final design for the information it presents on the back.