What I have learnt about myself .

Personally

1. Taking into consideration that I have had a few years off, graphic design in education, this past couple of months have been extremely interesting, it has contained all sorts of aspects, some that I have enjoyed, some that I haven’t but all have taught me about the world of graphic design, there are certain areas, that I am struggling with but I know slowly I will improve, as my knowledge on all areas covered so far, has improved incredibly , however I know there is still room for improvement.

2. as this is not the first time living away from home, I can’t say my life has changed that much when it comes to living individually, but as always, enjoying the freedom.

3. I still lack confidence when it comes to designing, i dn’t ever want to compare, my progress or work to other students in the class, but I know many students have taken to blogging easier than I have, it has been quite tricky to try and develop my work through the blog, I realise this is a personal area I need ot improve and I don’t feel I am taking advantage of the blog enough, there have been situations where the blog has really helped my development but there has also been other times, the amunt of work on my blog does not reflect the time and effort I have put into a brief.

4. I have learnt my time management is an area that needs improvement, again an area that I feel is improving but slower than I would like, I do work Wednesdays and weekends which definitely effects the amount of work I can get done, but this is necessary.

5. I need to try to explore more design ideas and maybe do more of my own personal work, I have recently been doing a lot more personal work, mostly involving logos/ branding for musicians / bands,  as well as some posters and venue promotions and I have found these are developing a broader range of techniques and visuals.

6. I have found that I really like living in Leeds, I have tried London and Australia, these are places that I will definitely return too at some point in the future, but I really do like Leeds as a city, and I’m enjoying the city life.

7. I have also met some fantastic new friends, since starting this course, it has never really been a problem before however there are some great people on our course both student and tutors and I lookforward to the next couple of years, improving relationships with everyone I can.

8. Even though i haven’t as of yet, I have realised i want to enter more competitions, some student on our course have created some fantastic designs for competitions, and this will always look good in the portfolio.

9. This isn’t a new thing I have learnt about myself, however I don’t like spending money, I am quite ‘tight’ in that sense, and I have found it difficult to find products to design with, as a professional designer would, this is an area I feel probably needs more research. but It would be interesting to find out how professional practices deal with this area.

10. My organisation is improving slowly, when it comes, to organising my work, and keeping track of all modules, deadlines etc. Again a lot of room for improvement but It is getting there.

 

Professionally

1. When it come to designing and what I have learnt about myself. i have found many areas of interest. I have found I thoroughly enjoy typography, whether that bee with my own original fonts, or existing typefaces, but I think it is a fantastic area of design, that has endless potential. I find laying out type can give so many different options for any product.
 
2. My overall software knowledge is improving daily, I have learnt a lot about Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and indesign, after the workshops, I was still struggling a little with the adobe suite but after doing personal development on these pieces of software, I am broadening my skills and techniques as well as my confidence.

3. I enjoy designing logos quite alot, I find it an interesting area, to take a company/ brand/ band/ artist and defining them in a simple visual. It is difficult but it is an area I have always enjoyed and have fun developing.

4. I am learning more about how to work collaboratively, at the beginning I just agreed with the rest of the group and the group brief,s really didn't have any direction, however as I grow in confidence with my abilities I find it much easier putting my ides and opinions across, this has really paid off in some situations.

5. Crit’s have been a new experience for me since coming on the course, and I am really enjoying them as well, I had no idea how valuable peer feed back is to the development of designs, I dont just enjoy asking questions, I find it brilliant to be able to see everyone's work and try to help them improve.

6. This has been constantly improving over the past 4/5 years, but public speaking is an area I feel I am strong in, if I compare myself to many closs members I grow in confidence when speaking to groups, where as a few years ago this was a problem for me, whereas it definitely no longer bothers me.

7.I have learnt more about the importance of research to a graphic designer, and as the briefs continue, so does the standard  of my research

8. My knowledge of other designers ins also improving, I learn new designers most days and obviously this helps broaden my knowledge of what is possible in the industry, as well as help inspire my designs.

9.learning more about self analysis as well, I am quite strict when analysing myself I have found, I often focus more on area’s that I feel need improvement, rather than areas I am happy with.

10. I am trying to improve my illustrative skills, I find illustrators work very inspiring, but have up until now, very rarely drawn myself, but I draw most days now. this will also help my design sheet, and initial design idea sheets.

Design Process - 100 things, Self Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

My research strategy has also been affected by this module, I am starting to realise the importance of researching your topic thoroughly and if done correctly it can benefit design and help you develop more interesting ideas. 

In the 100 things brief I learned a lot about the topic of exercise and fitness, specifically sports nutrition and diets, after the research and my personal experience with gym's allowed me to to produce 10 products that would be useful for most gym goers.

I have definitely improved on my software skills, it has forced me to use Photoshop and Illustrator more and I have really benefited from that, the Photoshop brief allowed me to end up with some postcards that I'm quite proud of, while designing the post cards I learnt many things about Photoshop editing, I learn more every time I use it. I have also learnt how to use all of Adobe creative suite as a whole. 

 2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? 

Crits have been majorly important in this module, I have began to understand the importance of peer feedback and the benefits it can bring to design development, There have been several occasions where asking for peer feedback has given me more Idea's on how to improve the product Ideas.

For the Logo development on the 100 things brief I found design sheets were very useful, even though I only used this approach for the logo and leaflet design, because the remaining products were all based on similar designs I felt confident of what was needed which I mostly developed through illustrator. I think design sheets are an area I need to improve on in future briefs, I need to neaten them up and great organised sketches, this will also force me to produce more options for designs.

Time management is a major issue, I may have not dealt with my time management as well as I could have in this module, but It has made me learn that I should organise my time better to allow more space for errors, In this case, because I left my print slot so late, when I wasn't happy with the printed leaflets, I didn't have time to re print the leaflets on a better stock, next brief I will schedule set deadlines and stick to them , which will free up time if mistakes are made.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? 

I am enjoying the process of creating logo's , in both the How to breif and the 100 things brief i created the logo, it seems that it's an area I enjoy to see develop, maybe this is because i used more design sheets to develop ideas. This may be an area that I can build on for the future, it has made me realise i am interested and excited by branding and identity.

In the 100 things brief I experimented with a broader range of different medias that a graphic designer use to design with, I experimented with bottles, bags, t-shirts, leaflets, posters and stickers this meant i had to look into ways I could portrait the design and not just rely on paper prints. this has also helped me make mistakes on these medias which has allowed me to learn and make note for next time. 

My original Idea was just to make 10 informational leaflets, but because of the information I wanted to provide as well as the target audience I was aiming for, It's improved my design concept and allowed me to create products that would be aimed only at the target audience.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? 

I would definitely say Time management and organisation,has still a lot of room for improvement, as I said before If i would have set personal deadlines throughout the brief this would have allowed room for mistakes so they could be addressed properly and corrected in time for the deadline, in this case i left too little time between my print slot and the deadline which left little room for error and unfortunately error did occur in some cases and I wasn't left with enough time to correct it, This is difficult as the print slots are very difficult to get without booking a few weeks in advance and in this case i didn't exactly know my final concept 2 weeks before, so thought i would need the extra time to finish the designs, therefore I booked a later print slot. 

To improve this problem I will set deadlines and timetable in certain tasks everyday to make sure I stay on top of the development, so I don't end up rushing at the end. I will also experiment with different types of print so I do not just limit myself to digital print.

Design sheets are another area where I need to improve, I think producing more design sheets will improve my development, this is also linked with bad time management, but I need to neaten up my design sheets and work through entire designs before taking them onto the computer, however in some cases I feel more comfortable experimenting with different designs on the computer than on paper, I find it easier and quicker to experiment with more ideas.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 

                  1. Set deadlines and timetable in tasks everyday -  By doing this my time management will improve  and give me more time for design development, research, printing and mistakes.

                  2. Develop designs through neater laid out , structured design sheets - I used design sheets to create the logo, which is probably one of the aspects that developed most throughout the brief and this was because I went through ideas on paper first, I need to apply this to the more areas, in this case I would have probably benefited from more development sheets for the leaflets , posters, bags, t shirts and bottles, i am happy with most of the results but I know there is a lot of room for improvement in all 10 of the products.

                  3. Experiment with different ways of print - I don't just want to rely on digital print anymore, considering the past coupe of briefs I have had trouble with double sided prints, I really want to learn more about screen print, I know many students have used screen print but I have never used it before and could use a lesson first, next time I will try and take advantage of the screen print facilities and just go and ask for help, I think this would help improve my confidence when it comes to print.

                 4. Do more contextual research -  In this case it is again linked to bad time management, and I spent most of my time doing research on the topic I left the design stage to late to do enough contextual research, next time i will ensure I thoroughly research every aspect I am designing, I feel this would also help design development.

                 5. Improve blogging consistency - In many cases in this brief I have been inconsistent with my blogging, I am starting to understand the importance of blogging and working out how I can use it to my benefit, I need to keep improving that to allow me to keep on top of blogging  design development and research, in a few cases I have waited a long time before blogging my method and reasoning which does not help keep my work load even. I also need to remember to record the my progress as and when I am doing it, so I don't have to go back and do it afterwards.

6.