This blog post examines the key elements that make an Industrial Design academic plan stand out. It provides specific guidance on how to naturally incorporate creative thinking and a user-centered perspective into your writing.
Writing About Academic Experience and Reflections
“Driving Academic Improvement Through a Proactive Learning Attitude”
Up until middle school, I achieved excellent grades through rote memorization. I believed I could get satisfactory scores without needing to find special study methods. However, after entering high school, I realized that the approach I had been using actually reduced the efficiency of my learning. Relying on memorization rather than approaching theories or problems from multiple angles to understand and explore them led to a gradual decline in my intellectual curiosity and interest in learning. To solve this problem, I consulted my teacher about study methods and then created my own ‘study notebooks’ for each subject to support self-directed learning. Using these notebooks, I organized the key points, themes, and details of each subject’s lesson content by diagramming them into mind maps. Furthermore, whenever additional questions arose while studying, I supplemented my knowledge by adding in-depth content through newspaper clippings, academic paper searches, and related book materials. After actively utilizing my study notebook, I achieved better-than-expected results on my first midterm exam. By applying a learning method that suited me, I was able to consistently maintain excellent grades even in my second year. Discovering my own learning method allowed me to proactively strive for achievements and experience the joy of accomplishment, gaining self-confidence and problem-solving skills. Meanwhile, during my sophomore year English class, I overcame learning difficulties through group activities. As the group leader, I took responsibility by creating and distributing my own vocabulary materials to my teammates and guiding our learning. We also shared unfamiliar words and phrases with each other and practiced direct reading and interpretation of one page of the text. Despite the challenges, I persevered, worked harmoniously with my friends, and improved my sentence interpretation skills while reducing my reading time. For someone who had only studied individually until then, group learning was a valuable experience that introduced me to the fun of studying together. It was especially surprising and rewarding to see my reading comprehension skills, which hadn’t improved when studying alone, grow through group activities.
Writing about major school activities and reflections
“Expanding my dream of becoming an illustrator through diverse school activities”
In my second year, I participated in the ‘Career Presentation Contest’. I created a PowerPoint presentation explaining my dream of becoming an ‘illustrator’ and detailing my efforts so far. This project began as a way to gain a broader understanding and explore the illustrator profession, as well as to reflect on my own future. While researching materials for the presentation, I learned about the history of illustration. I realized that while illustrators in the past were simply referred to as people who drew pictures, in modern society, their work can be utilized in diverse fields such as characters, animation, advertising, multimedia, and fine art. This made me think I needed to further develop my skills. Additionally, while compiling my solo practice drawings into the presentation, I resolved to dedicate effort toward cultivating my own unique artistic style. After the presentation, friends who previously knew little about illustrators praised me, saying my presentation helped them understand the profession and that my dedication to pursuing my dream was admirable. Winning the Excellence Award brought me even greater joy, knowing I had contributed to raising awareness about my future career.
“Creating Diverse Works Through Art Club Activities”
Another memorable school activity was my role in mask production for the school art club event. The biggest challenge was designing masks that wouldn’t be uncomfortable while singing and would allow the voice to project clearly through them. After much deliberation with club members and repeated failures, I devised a rubber band fastening system to prevent the mask from slipping off during singing. To avoid obstructing vision, I cut and pasted colored paper to create hair. Ultimately, we completed fantastic masks featuring various anime characters. Making these masks myself made me realize that the hardest part of designing future lifestyle products will be tailoring them to user convenience. I felt even more grateful to my club members, knowing I could never have finished alone. Seeing the masks we created together reaffirmed the importance of collaboration.
“Participating in the Caricature Drawing Contest”
Finally, the endeavor I found most meaningful was participating in the Teacher’s Day commemorative ‘Caricature Drawing Contest’. This contest involved humorously caricaturing teachers’ appearances. I chose my first-year math teacher, playfully depicting his short hair and prominent front teeth. Approaching my teacher’s face, which I usually only looked at during class, from a different perspective was fun. It felt meaningful to express my respect for the teacher through drawing, which I’m most confident in. After receiving the drawing back from the contest, I gave it to the teacher who was the subject of the caricature. Seeing the teacher genuinely delighted like a child filled me with pride. Seeing someone else happy and satisfied with my creation also gave me a great sense of accomplishment and joy. It further solidified my dream of growing into a future illustrator.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation and My Reflections
“Coordinating Class Opinions and Promoting Cooperation as Vice Class President”
During my second semester of second grade, I participated in festival preparations as vice class president. I felt a heavy sense of responsibility and was highly motivated, but once preparations began, minor conflicts arose with my classmates. I was extremely busy preparing for the festival while also working on the class anthology. I became frustrated with classmates who didn’t actively participate in meetings to decide our booth and performance themes, and I felt disappointed by those who attended meetings with a lackluster attitude. Rather than just getting angry, I tried to approach them more proactively, asking for their opinions and working to incorporate them. I also shortened meeting times to reduce boredom and set aside time beforehand for everyone to think about potential topics, making the meetings more efficient. My friends, responding to my sincere efforts, began to show consideration for each other and pool their ideas. We decided to create our class booth with a magic theme and perform a group musical piece together. What I realized most profoundly while preparing for the festival was that ‘harmony’ and ‘cooperation’ must come first in any endeavor. So, I actively encouraged my friends’ participation, spent ample time discussing together, and worked to harmonize everyone’s opinions. Furthermore, to match the class booth’s concept, I used my drawing skills to design the classroom interior and create promotional posters for the booth, fostering unity among my friends. When friends, seniors, and teachers who visited the booth complimented how well the classroom matched the concept and how pretty it looked, I felt a deep sense of pride. For the class performance, since many friends couldn’t read sheet music, I held numerous meetings with the class president every weekend to coordinate practice schedules and overcome difficulties. Leading my classmates in a major event wasn’t easy, but we delivered a great performance without major issues and earned a valuable encouragement award. Through this experience, I learned that a leader must listen to team members, foster an open attitude for collaboration and gathering opinions, and lead by example with a dedicated effort.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation and Career Plans
“Efforts to Grow as a Game Industry Illustrator”
Having loved games since childhood, I was always fascinated by the vibrant graphics and animations featured in them. In fact, South Korea’s game industry has grown tremendously, and Korean games are gaining worldwide recognition and advancing globally. I aspired to become a professional illustrator who creates new illustrations implementable in game graphics and simultaneously executes graphic design with fresh, innovative ideas. During high school, I mastered specialized Photoshop courses and enrolled in a computer skills academy to learn various techniques essential for illustrators weekly. However, I still feel my skills fall short compared to professionals. Furthermore, since high school education focused heavily on college entrance preparation, I felt compelled to pursue my goal of becoming an illustrator at a more specialized academic institution. This led me to apply to Konkuk University’s Department of Industrial Design. I was aware that alumni from Konkuk’s Industrial Design Department were active not only in the game industry but also in diverse fields like art and content. I wanted to systematically learn art and design within this prestigious and established department. To become a game industry illustrator, I actively played and experienced various games during my studies, compiling hundreds of illustrations into a scrapbook. Since creation stems from imitation, I constantly studied and observed the outstanding works of renowned artists and successful games to implement techniques and ideas I could learn. Among these, the famous game ‘Lineage’ stood out for its vast game world and the stunning characters that emerged from it. I observed how its game graphics, with their flashy and original style, captured consumers’ hearts and gained popularity. I also captured and scraped game graphics and illustrations, then practiced drawing them myself. I traced designs onto paper on my computer and actually worked on them. I collected these pieces into a separate folder and developed the habit of printing and studying famous illustrations from each game. Long-term, I believed this habit would help me perform various tasks like drawing and character conception when I chose the profession of illustrator. Furthermore, encountering diverse game-related illustrations allowed me to capture even the subtle details consumers desire in game characters, backgrounds, and concepts, making it a valuable experience. Building on these efforts to become a game illustrator, I will continue striving to become Korea’s top game illustrator by enrolling in Konkuk University’s Department of Industrial Design. Furthermore, I aim to grow into a professional illustrator who consistently supports Korea’s game industry and contributes to the global recognition of Korean games, thereby helping to create national benefits.
