My blog from this week actually has beginnings in a very different place than usual. From my British Literature class! I am taking British Literature to fulfill my upper English elective here at Marywood. English is one of my favorite subjects, plus from just being in England for study abroad I feel especially connected to the class. So you may be wondering how this relates to Graphic Design. Well, so was I the last couple of days! For an English assignment, we were required to write a reflection on how our major connected to our class reading, which happened to be poems and books from the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a bit of a challenge, but this is one of the things I enjoy about Marywood; being able to step back and see the bigger picture of your education.

Not only was this a reminder of why liberal arts general education classes are important, it also got me thinking about the connection between artist and writers. Both are trying to communicate their ideas and solve communication problems in different ways. Seeing these comparisons and contrasts can help to see how we artists can learn from writers.

So what did I write about then? Well after realizing that there were more connections than I originally thought, I chose to write about audience! Audience is so incredibly important in the design world, and it also happened to be important when Chaucer wrote his poems. While dissecting the different elements included in the poems we read in class, I had a better understanding of the context of the poems. Thinking about who a book is written for is a lot like thinking about the audience of design pieces. Comparing picking color palettes to Chaucer’s poetry choices may have been a bit much, but I am still glad to have this better understanding of both audience and my education!