At the beginning of first year we wrote a list of 10 things that we wanted to learn/achieve throughout the year. Looking back on this list I am going to determine which have been successful and which may need to carry on to a new list this year.
10 things I want to learn during my time on the programme:
- Improve knowledge and skills of digital media
- Develop and vary my research methods
- Learn how to effectively collaborate
- Use Illustrator and Indesign more in my work
- Improve on my presentation skills
- Gain a more in depth understanding of the design industry as a whole
- Use and apply design blogs to my research
- Gain an understanding of principles of graphic design, in particular effective use of colour
- Work on applying effective time management and stick to it.
- Gain a sense of enthusiasm and confidence in my own work
Improve knowledge and skills of digital media
To some extent I have achieved this goal, my knowledge has improved a lot, but I would still like to be able to apply these skills more effectively, as sometimes it has just been experimental. This is a goal that I could take further into second year and perhaps adapt to suit my improvements.
Develop and vary my research skills
This is an area in which I feel I have greatly improved, learning the importance of primary research being a big factor in my improvement. It has allowed me to vary my outcome much more because I know what is needed from it.
Learn how to effectively collaborate
While this area could do with some improvement, I feel that I have come a long way from the first group project, particularly in how to evenly divide the work load and allocate different jobs to different members of the group.
Use Illustrator and Indesign more in my work
This is one of the goals that I feel I have reached in the short run. I have spent a lot of time over the year practising my software skills and attempting to apply them effectively. This has improved as I've been learning as a designer and understanding basic principles to apply to this field.
Improve on my presentation skills
While I have never been a nervous presenter, there is sometimes a rushed and disorganised element to my presentations, in terms of my speaking over what I'm presenting. I think I have improved marginally on this as I've stayed relaxed about presenting throughout the year, but it could still be improved with more practice.
Gain a more in depth understanding of the design industry
This has been somewhat achieved, I feel that my awareness of the industry and different areas within it have improved greatly, but I also think that I can never know enough about it to be a successful designer and should spend more time this year involving myself in it.
Use and apply design blogs to my research
This area is one in which I have improved a lot, and I have enjoyed browsing through design blogs a lot more since I learnt more about principles of design and have been able to identify good and bad design.
Gain an understanding of design principles
This is by far the area in which I have improved the most, coincidentally particularly in colour theory! Gaining an understanding of tints and shades has improved the standard of my work by a mile, as has the knowledge I gained in layout and editorial design, and since learning about it, I know consider it an area that I would be very interested in pursuing as a career.
Work on applying effective time management
This was always an area where I've struggled, and things are often left to the last minute. The perfect example is our first module submission in first year where I had allowed myself to get very behind and had to work double as hard as I otherwise would have. Since then, blogging and work progression in general has become second nature, and while I do occasionally slip up, the improvement in this area is so vast.
Gain a sense of enthusiasm and confidence in my own work
While I think I have achieved this in part, it may not be down to my overall enthusiasm or confidence but I have gained it because my work has improved so greatly. There are still many areas in which I need to improve but those I have been working on have enough to make me more proud of what I'm producing.
10 things I want to improve on in second year:
- I would still like to work on and improve my digital media skills
- Spend more time trying different print processes
- Spend more time producing hand rendered design
- Develop a knowledge and understanding of Dreamweaver and Aftereffects
- Improve knowledge of the design industry further, and try to become more involved in it
- Try to apply what skills I do have to more freelance work
- To collaborate effectively with other designers
- Improve on contextual knowledge of graphic design as this will aid my current work
- Finish work more professionally and spend more time perfecting it
- Experiment with determining a personal approach to graphic design
