I decided to take the news story approach of making use of the interviewing process. I asked a fellow teammate of mine, Aaqila McLyn about her experience here at Washington State University while playing on the women’s soccer team. I asked her questions relating directly to soccer, how soccer has impacted her time here, and also I asked her about the mental part of this journey we are on. This project idea relates to my course topic of, “My Collegiate Soccer Experience” because through my blog, people are only hearing my side of this difficult process of being a student athlete. I thought it would be a good idea to let people hear what another person’s feelings and thoughts about all of this are. The feedback that I received varied in different areas. Some of the feedback I got was complimenting the structure of my interview, which was asking the questions all at the beginning, and my teammate answering them all together in that order. Some people thought that I should chop it up and have the question, and then answer immediately following. After a lot of thought, I decided that I liked my set up. It was not typical nor confusing because when Aaqila would answer the question, she stated the question in her answer. I did not feel like following the norm. Another suggestion that I received was to have a “wrap up” to end my Final Audio Draft. Then I realized that that was a great idea because it ended so suddenly. I decided to add a tad bit at the end that ties me and Aaqila’s experiences together. Something else that I changed was equaling me and Aaqila’s voices out, so that there was not a change in volume when combining the first and second track’s. In my last track where I tied it all together, I decided to up the volume a little bit because I think as final summary for it, that really puts a stamp on it and brings it all together and to an end nicely. This Final Audio Story really helps compliment my blog. I think this because now the blog has a different layer to it. A personal voice for people to connect to, along with another experience other than mine to hear about.
Raw Audio Draft
For my Raw Audio Draft, I decided to take the news story approach of making use of the interviewing process. I asked a fellow teammate of mine, Aaqila McLyn about her experience here at Washington State University while playing on the women’s soccer team. I asked her questions relating directly to soccer, how soccer has impacted her time here, and also I asked her about the mental part of this journey we are on. This project idea relates to my course topic of, “My Collegiate Soccer Experience” because through my blog, people are only hearing my side of this difficult process of being a student athlete. I thought it would be a good idea to let people hear what another person’s feelings and thoughts about all of this are. This process from start to finish was not too difficult, but I did run into a little stutter when trying to get the full track to process on sound cloud. The first thing I did when putting this whole Raw Audio Draft together was record myself introducing my teammate, while stating the questions that I wanted her to answer. Then, I recorded her answering the questions in order. I made sure she included the question in her answer so that no one would get lost and confused about what question she was answering. Talking clearly, and slowly was something that I struggled with at first. I would play the tracks back and realize how rushed I was being. But as time went on, I learned to slow down and pronounce my words clearer than clear. The news story approach worked well for me I think, especially with my topic. Getting other peoples interpretations of this experience is essential to a productive blog. Yes, the blog is about my experience here, but it is also good for me to know of others experiences.
My raw footage includes me asking questions and introducing the person that I interview, and then her answering the questions about playing womens soccer here at WSU. By recording this, people can get an inside look on a personal experience with soccer here other than my own.
Final Logo Project
For the soccer ball, I looked online and searched how to turn a picture into a vector. I then image traced the photo and then expanded it. The place where I got the photo from was, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soccerball.svg. The logo design is a little bit different from my sketch that I did before, which I was very happy about actually. It improved a whole lot! The soccer ball and placement of my soccer number is the same, but instead of the G and C being connected more to the outer part of the circle, it is now more of an overlay lettering. The G and C form Go Cougs, but also it draws the logo back to me because my first name starts with a “G”, and my last name starts with a “C.” Coincidence? I think not! For my words, I just used the simple text tool and played around with my sizing and fonts.
After reading the amazing feedback that I received, I realized that a common theme of suggestion was the need for color in my logo. My suggestions were to add a splotch of color within my soccer number within the center of the soccer ball, to add color only to the isolated “o” and “ougs,” or to just add it to the “G” and “C.” I liked all of those ideas, but I later decided that I would add color to the whole “Go Cougs” because that is what I want to stand out. Also, I was told that my letters were too close together, so I decided that I would spread them out so that it was not such a distraction to the eye. My inspiration for my design came from a variety of places. I looked specifically at Nike, Adidas, and the wording of major sports stores and companies. I realized that what they all had in common were special fonts, simple black and white, and a sharpness about them. So as I was creating my logo I took that into consideration. I think I did a good job at putting my own style into my logo, but I also did well at strongly taking into consideration what has worked so well for the popular, high end companies like, Nike, Adidas, Soccer west and so many more. I am excited to share my logo.
My Collegiate Soccer Expedition 