The positives of this module have been numerous. This year I
have been able to work on several live briefs that have informed my practice
and helped me to develop the way I work and communicate my ideas. This has been
evidenced in my work in collaborations to pitch for the Winterlight Festival
and the End of Year Show, amongst others. Being able to pitch and communicate
an idea to a client effectively is a valuable skill that until now I had had no
experience of. Going into third year I knew that this was something I would
need to work on and I am glad that I have achieved this, as it is a crucial
part of being a graphic designer. In general, I feel that my practice has
improved enormously throughout the year, in particular with regards to concept
generation. I have devoted time this year to thinking about my ideas in a more
thorough and critical manner, with much more consideration for audience than I
had previously done. Again, this is evidenced most in Suzanne, Mike and my
self’s work for the Winterlight Festival. When we pitched to the clients, they
noted that our concept had been well considered, with interesting and more
innovative ideas that would engage their target audience further. I also feel that I have been able to
successfully select briefs that have reflected the direction I want my practice
to take upon graduation, with briefs focused on publishing design and branding
for the arts and culture sectors.
I feel that my most successful briefs have been ones where I
have pushed myself to try and achieve something new and different with a
concept, for example Heartbroken Records, where I attempted art direction for a
photo shoot. Although the photos could no doubt be improved, I feel it was a
positive experience as it allowed me to begin developing a new skill that I
would like to explore further upon graduation.
In general, photography is a skill that I do feel I have developed this
year because I placed more of an importance on quality photography to bring an
end to the briefs. Where I can, I have attempted to photograph my work instead
of mocking it up, but unfortunately this was not possible for some of the
briefs where producing the designs to a professional standard would have been
too costly for me. Another skill that I have learnt this year is book binding.
This has only happened very recently, but It is something that I am not
developing an interest in, particularly important as it relates to one of my
main focuses of the year: publishing design. This meant I was able to hand
craft my design context publication, which is an outcome I am quite pleased
with.
There are several points that I feel that I could have
improved upon this year: the main one, as usual, being time management. At the
beginning of the year I was probably a little too complacent about the amount
of work we needed to do, and therefore I have ended up rushing some of my later
briefs and failing to develop and extend them to the point I had wanted to. For
example, I feel that Amass has become one of my weaker briefs because there was
not enough time available to develop our ideas thoroughly. Ultimately, this
meant that plans we had had for the brief did not come to fruition, which is
frustrating as I had been excited about completing it. In some of my self
initiated briefs I also feel that my visual execution has been weak because I
have rushed designs and not spent time working to improve them. I also feel
that some briefs could have been expanded to have a larger product range, such
as the YCN Oasis brief and Blister Sound Sessions.
If I were to complete the year again, I would aim to ensure
that the time I devoted to my briefs was more equal, and I would set stricter
deadlines for myself to make sure that I had complete briefs instead of half
finished ones that I would need to revisit. I would also probably do fewer
briefs, and spend more time perfecting and producing higher quality outcomes
that I could present in my portfolio. Perhaps I might also undertake less
collaborations to allow myself more time to focus on self initiated briefs.
Finally, I would begin the year by completing research for each brief before
deciding to go ahead with it, this is due to the fact that I have had to drop
several briefs because there wasn’t the content there to produce the idea
properly. Although I do feel that for the sake of time management I should have
completed fewer collaborative briefs, I am very happy that I have been able to
develop my skills as a collaborator. In my collaborative briefs I have probably
learnt the most, as there is obviously more of a focus on effective
communication between collaborators, as well as clients. This is evidenced best
by Suzanne, Mike and my self’s work with Art and Design Interdisciplinary. We
have had to adapt and develop our ideas several times throughout the course of
the brief, due to budgetary restrictions and some critique from the course
themselves. However, I feel that we have successfully made compromises and
adapted to the needs of both the printers and the course, whilst retaining a
positive and open dialogue. From this, we have learnt how to deal with
difficulties and maintain communication, at the same time as asserting our
design knowledge and executing a successful design outcome for them to the best
of our abilities. Working so closely with Suzanne and Mike has also helped me
to develop my ambitions for my career, as I intend to continue working with
them. I came onto this course searching for a direction and a focus within
design, and I finally think that I have found it.
