Ashley Kritzstein’s Portfolio
cover letter
resume
self-analytical evaluation
actual production skills: I learned that getting upset and yelling does not solve anything. I also learned that if there is something you are able to do then you should just step up and do it even if it technically is not in your job description. I can use this skills of staying positive and not slacking in all parts of my life. I still need to improve on being patient and communication. Even when I asked the teams that were struggling if they were doing well they would lie and say yes. If I took more time to make myself available then maybe the the deadlines would have flowed more smooth. deadlines: I learned that people procrastinate. Our secret deadlines did not work and next year each team needs more specific schedules instead of letting them time out projects for themselves. I learned that I should have checked up on the teams more in the middle of the deadlines rather than the beginning and end because the content could have been improved if we spent more time on it. In the future I would add more work days like Saturdays that are seperate from the deadline where people could come and work without stress. journalism ethics: I learned how important it is to uphold the true ethics of journalism because everything comes back to you. No matter how small mistake is people can get their feelings hurt and that is on you. The yearbooks are a time capsule that people look at when they grow up so it should be taken seriously. We should stress the importance of this more next year because it really matters. dedication: I was an asset to the staff because I really stretched myself into a lot of different types of spreads and had to learn a lot about edesign and flowing portraits. Also I was able to make important decisions about design on the sports pages along with scores. I am extremely dedicated to the book and stayed later than ever and took a lot of job home with me this semester. This will be the end of my third year on the book and even at the end I was trying harder thatn ever and submitting spreads while I was away on vacation. self-reflectoin: I faced similar hardships this semester as I did last. I felt like some of the staff just gave up and did not take me seriously. It was like they completely disregarded their responsibilities and left entire pages blank, I got really frustrated. I learned a lot about myself and how I handle situations. I was so upset becasue the book is something I have worked hard for over the course of three years and I took their actions personally. If somethings like this happened again I would take more time to breathe and not get so insulted because it is not like anyone intentionally meant to hurt me. In the future I will try and detach my personal life from my work and just continue to do the best that I can in all projects.
reflection #2
I still believe that my most significant contribution to the book was the work i have done outside of the classroom. This semester, apart from the weekend deadline days I spend with Korie and Mia, I actually did a lot of work in New York. During deadline four, we had a really hard time because there were so many spreads incomplete only days before the deadline. However, I was on a trip and had to work from the city and make calls. That deadline was really rough and we had to make the decision to not submit several spreads and just do out best make the spreads we could submit good. On top of that deadline I had to finish the book while we were in NY for the field trip. We were still working on the sports spreads and I was able to get the baseball page finished and keep the everything consistent. If I didn’t submit these spreads and keep a positive attiude I think that the last few deadlines would have substantial differences from the rest of the book and I am glad we never gave up. In this process I learned that sometimes you just have to take work into your own hands and not rely on other people. I would have ended up really dissapointed if we just gave up and I am glad I pushed through and was able help finish it. I am most proud of how much I have grown and my efforts to stay positive and perservere in the most difficult situations.
tear sheets
The colors and simplicity was based off of ideas of Mia and I and the title and entire theme was my original idea
I applied the folios to every spread in deadline one and checked for correctness in deadline two. Also, I went over every page before submision to ensure correct spacing and design. With Korie and Mia, I designed and edit every spread the weekend before the deadline.
for all of the senior ads pages I had to create a new folio and check over them all before final submission
maintaining a dominant color within sections and the proper spacing between mods and photos was hard to manage however I believe most of the spreads, like this one, turned out great.
We developed several mods that placed cutouts in circles throughout the entire book and maintaining consistency so all of them looked like the one on this spread was a part of mine and the team leader’s jobs
I was in charge of recieving and flowing every portrait page and delegating other jobs to Cecilia
I made the decision to keep the index simple and worked with Alexa while she flowed it.
We had a blank page and although it was an unpopular element by judges, I wanted us to have superlatives, so with Mia we created this page.
Here is another example of using the sideways divider on reference page and I added the lines as a statement of the book.
I just think this page is really cute but Mia did the whole thing.
all about me
all about me