The final personal and professional practice brief offers us the opportunity to reflect on the past year in the form of a 7 minute presentation.
For this we should we should be reflecting on ourselves as a learner and a designer and where our aims/ambitions currently lie. I should go on to identify my plans for summer and level 5 and what design wise I would like the explore.
As the brief suggests, rather than identifying just my mistakes and what I have learned from these, I should aim to identify my strengths also, which should hopefully improve my confidence.
I have decided to approach this brief by answering the questions that are stated on the brief -
What have you learned and what do you want to learn?
Type & Grids & Type setting - the basic rules
Design movements - modernism and post modernism
Where to find Graphic Design inspiration
Techniques - screen printing, mono printing, book binding, DSLR photography
Understanding of graphic design studios
Illustrator and Indesign
Stock
Presentation of work skills
General eye for good design
How to critique work.
I want to learn animation, improve my photography, learn more techniques on illustrator, visual skills improvement, a greater understanding of communication, how to be creative with materials.
What mistakes have you made and how have you learned from them? /What are your weaknesses and how do you intend to address these?
Using bad typefaces - understanding what typeface works and what doesn't
Not using grids because I am scared of them - now my work is gradually becoming more aligned,professional and neat.
Not creating test prints/mock ups - now I try and do these
Not making bookings in time.
Not taking time over my work but rushing instead- trying (but still learning to become a perfectionist)
Not spending enough time researching - my ideas have been limited.
How will this affect your future development?
I plan to take more time over projects and become a perfectionist with my work, my work should appear more professional as a result.
I feel that mock-up will lead to more professional results also.
What are your strengths and how have you/will you develop them further?
My illustration skills are strong and being able to take this into illustrator will take my design to the next level, I want to learn how to use the software effectively to create professional illustrations.
Producing a large amount of work over a limited amount of time.
Organisation skills - I feel I have developed a structure for approaching a brief and this has made my submissions more organise overall.
I am beginning to master photography which is presenting my work for professionally. I am regularly taking cameras out to practice this.
What have you enjoyed and why?
Book binding because it showed me that I can produce a professional looking book, and it has shown me how I can make my own products.
I have enjoyed the branding briefs as this has helped me imagine my designs on products. This is graphic design that I see every day and it excites me to have the opportunity to practice this. I am beginning to become interested in this as
What have you disliked and why?
Grids as I found them very confusing and I am still trying to understand how they work.
I have disliked research briefs as I was unsure what this was leading on to. I find it easy to get distracted when I am researching.
Blogging - again I have a very short attention span. I have found it difficult to know what I should write and writing about my work professionally. I have become lazy with blogposts and I feel that I need to write them as if professional graphic designers are reading them.
How does this affect your ambitions?
Not understanding grids will effect the professionalism of my work for the future. It is a concept that I really need to grasp in order to produce work to a high standard. Writing about my work is important to explain to clients and other designers. So this is a skill I need to acquire.
What did you want to get from the year?
Here are the 5 things I wanted to learn at the start of the year. This was our first task.
- How to use Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to a professional industry standard.
- How to extend my professionalism in all areas of graphic design.
- New techniques which I had never considered or experienced before.
- How to cook! (well)
- The reality of being in a graphic design job and how to prepare myself for this.
I have learned the basics of the software that I wanted to learn. This has been extremly helpful in extending my professionalism. I will learn more with each project but I already know what program is best to create a certain product and how I can produce this to the highest quality.
I am beginning to discover new techniques such as book binding, screen printing, foiling, embossing, debossing, lazer cut, different stocks, monoprinting, letter press, paper cuts and many more.
Cooking well on a low budget is becoming second nature to me.
I am only just beginning to understand the realities of a graphic design job but speaking to visiting professionals I am beginning to learn this and know that I can contact studios/designers to ask them first hand what it is like.
What have you discovered that you weren’t expecting?
Everything that I was doing wrong! I approached the course feeling that I knew a lot more about Graphic Design than I actually did. I feel that through the course I am developing a professional knowledge.
How has my learning journey influenced my future aims?
When I first came to the course I wanted to work in fashion editorial. Now my interest has grown and I am considering starting my own studio in the future or beginning some sort of business on my own. My interest has grown in handmade products such as books and I am very interested in branding. I am also beginning to work out that illustration is a form of graphic design I would like to develop further. I see myself as an illustration based graphic designer in the future.
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