The power of Teamwork

Fellow Visual Communications, Design students generally look out for one another, helping the other person when needed, and being honest when criticizing work. Being in Visual Communications Design here at Purdue has really helped me become a more valuable team player. In the major, we all experience high stress situations that force us to feel for one another and help each other out when needed. For instance, our professor surprised the class and I one day and had people come in from Purdue Convocations. My professor had not emailed or told us in advance that people from Convocations were coming. I scurried to print my designs and trim them down. As I trimmed one of my email designs down, my hand shook a bit, and I trimmed one side crooked. Nancy, who works at the monitor station where VCD and industrial design students print things, saw me make the mistake. She immediately took action and printed another copy. Nancy was in the earlier section of the same class that day, and she knew I was moving fast because of our unexpected guests. Once all my designs were printed, Nancy held down the paper for me in order to help trim more precisely and prevent another mistake. Without Nancy’s help I could have panicked further and been more stressed. It certainly would have made the trimming process more difficult without an extra set of hands working towards completing the same task.

Over the past couple of weeks in our web design class, we have been working on coding an HTML email on an event hosted by Purdue Convocations. We each got to choose an event from the Convocations page, which I was so excited to do. It was a nice change of pace, to be able to pick my own subject matter for the email. I chose Philip Glass, a piano prodigy, not only for his music and creative talent but to add something diverse to my portfolio. In the beginning stages, we just worked on tweaking the design elements of the email and layout. As the class progressed, we went forth with our chosen design. After choosing a final design, we got into the nitty gritty of how to code the HTML email. Our teacher taught us how to code it through drawings on the board, visuals, explanation, and trial and error. As a class, we had no choice but to come together to ask our professor and each other questions. We would often have to stop him and ask questions before he would continue to the next steps. As I asked my professor questions, I realized others would nod their heads, assuring me that they too were stuck on the same thing. Then, someone else would ask a question, and we would do the same. The slight head nod was encouragement of question asking. I learned just as much from other student's questions as I did from my own. With a more difficult topic, or any topic for that matter, learning really becomes a team effort.

There was another instance when as a class we were individually coding the same table our teacher chose for practice. Some of the class was stuck on making the colors exactly match the model table, while others were stuck on the alignment of the text or getting the right font in Dreamweaver. We all would communicate with each other from behind our computers helping to solve our different coding issues. Even in a classroom of design students, who are all visually inclined and similar thinkers, we still have our own individual strengths. This really came through when we were under a time crunch and needed to problem solve quickly. Teamwork is essential in the classroom and in the workplace. It contributes to a healthy bond with other people while gaining the most knowledge possible in a given situation.