Review

10 Things I have learnt about myself personally on the course

I need to develop the way I write about my work on Blogger. Even though I enjoy writing useless things, such as Facebook statuses (lame) when it comes to writing on this blog everything sounds so samey and boring. I need to find a way to write that is engaging and more similar to how I interact in person.

I need to pay more attention to the PPP and Design Context blogs. I tend to focus too hard on one blog at a time and let the other ones slip. Despite this, I do feel like I have developed my Design Practice blog well, and have gotten the hang of communicating my ideas better, and producing more posts so that it is clearer how my initial ideas have been processed into the final stages.

I am very lucky to be on this course. This realisation can sometimes leave me feeling very out of my depth, because the work that others are producing seems to be in another league to mine.

I have a lot of ideas, but I never seem to be able to produce them to the standard I would like. I need to work on my technical skills so that I can begin to improve and begin working on things I feel more proud of.

It is important to be more sociable with everyone on the course, as opposed to remaining in my comfort zone, because I could be missing out on important opportunities such as collaborations or learning new skills.

I need to spend more time in University and take advantage of the studio spaces more. I think this would motivate me to blog more and manage my time better.

I should also take more advantage of the library and the photography studio, as they are valuable resources that I haven't been using as much as I should.

I am very good at budgeting. Unless I walk into Topshop. Then, not so much.

If graphic design fails me, (or more likely, I fail graphic design) I would be very happy to forge myself a career as a baker or a chef, which is my favourite way to pass the time when I get back from the studio - a relaxing and tasty hobby. I really loved being able to combine the two for Typogateaux, which really challenged me to come up with something a little more adventurous. Baking is also a confidence booster because I end up getting lovely compliments whenever I bake.

I am more capable than I give myself credit for. Considering the multiple stresses I've faced since I started - Commuting between Leeds and Chorley every weekend, maintaining a relationship, juggling 3 different modules, living in a student house with all it's flaws and problems, and working at Gamestation - not to mention all of the stresses I face on the course such as my mortal enemy, presenting, I feel like whilst I might not have mastered my anxieties, I have at least found a way to cope with them so that they don't completely rule my life.

10 Things I have learnt about myself professionally

I need to work on my sense of logic and maths. Before I arrived on this course, I had very little idea of how important a logical brain would be. Turns out very. I learnt this the hard way during the OUGD403 mail shot task, when my designs had to be rushed through and changed because I failed to get the measurements correct for my folding business card, which then didn't fold or create the shape I had hoped for. It's also vital for just my practice in general, in particular after learning about grid and layout, where a methodical approach is vital if you want your work to look professional.

My failed attempts for the Proverb task

The printing studio is where I belong. On my foundation course I experimented a lot with the printing resources, so this is probably not a big realisation, more just a confirmation of how much I love traditional printing processes. I've found the drop in sessions down at Rossington immensely useful, and I'm really keen to do some personal work down there once we're back into the swing of things. I love the feeling of not only saying I've designed something, but I have actually physically made it too. My main goal on this course now is to become amazing at printing and letterpress so that after graduation I can work on opening my own studio.

Creating interesting formats and finishing work to a professional standard are still areas that I struggle with when creating my designs. I tend to think either just about the design, or I am worrying about whether I will actually finish it, as opposed to thinking of all the design elements with equal importance so that I produce something that I think looks decent. I definitely need to research and think more about these factors if I want to improve, and start to create more mock ups, researching stock and folding techniques.

I need to push myself to make my work more innovative and daring so I can see what happens when I don't limit myself so much. This was the feedback after the first module hand in, but I've failed to really carry it out, I think because I'm too scared that it will end up looking rubbish. At the moment my work looks very generic, and I hope in this next module I can really force myself to take a different approach.

I need to be sourcing and researching graphic design via books and online everyday to achieve a better understanding of the practice, and hope that looking at the wonderful works of the world will rub off on my own designs. My favourite source for designers at the moment is Designworklife.com, which is a great resource and has great links to other sites as well.

I prefer to work with type more than image. This became particularly obvious to me looking back over all the work I've done so far, and it's also become obvious that I love a good pun/pop culture reference/play on words. But I still don't know whether I prefer type only because I have insecurities about my own capabilities with illustration and ideas for imagery.

When I really concentrate and focus on something, I am able to produce work speedily and to a good quality. Recently a friend of mine needed some designs doing within one night for a production of Guys and Dolls she is directing. When she first asked I really did not believe I would be able to create anything decent within such a small amount of time, but by the end of the night I had designed something she was pleased with and I found it really amazing how quickly the time went, and how motivated I managed to stay.

Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to find illustrator a really useful tool, instead of something to be afraid of. When I'm in the studio looking at the way others manage to use the software, I'm fascinated at how much they seem to be able to do with it. Instead of backing away from it and assuming that I'll never be able to create things to their standard, I need to just experiment and practice and practice and practice until I get it. 

In the last project, despite using very little illustration, I was still happy that I had managed to make some that didn't look totally terrible.

I really enjoy being able to use photography within graphic design. The DSLR induction we had in design principles was one of the most valuable to me, and I really enjoyed other photography tasks to do with photographing circles. I definitely want to explore more methods of photography, both analogue and digital. 

Although this is a competitive course, and there are a lot of very talented people in one space, I need to begin focussing on myself and my own design practice instead of simply focussing on what others can do that I can't. I am very aware that whilst I may never be the best graphic designer in the world, so long as I make use of all the workshops and resources available to me during my time here, I can still become a skilled designer, and become proud of my work. I definitely have a ways to go.