In Preparation for our PPP Presentations as our final assessment of the year in 2 weeks time I am going to answer some questions which will help me. I get really quite nervous for verbal presentations and so I'm hoping the more I practice and prepare myself the easier it will be on the day.
What have you learned and what do you want to learn?
I've learn a range of new skills over the past few months since coming to Leeds College of Art and enrolling on this course in September. I am much more confident now and I think this comes with moving away from home for the first time and having to be more independent, people aren't there to do things for me now, and so I have to do them myself.
I have also learnt skills key to design itself, the software workshops over the course of the year have enabled me to learn new skills in programmes that I was already comfortable with. I have also learnt to use InDesign a programme which I was not as experienced with, and I am now much more comfortable in producing publications and books.
I have also been able to learn new skills in the print rooms. I have never before screen printed and I recently fell in love with the process, after using it for the final designs of my OUGD406 module 'your choice'. I hope to be able to come much more experienced with this and be able to experiment further .
I would love to learn book binding, this is something I have always wanted to develop however I don't feel like we've had the time or opportunity to throughout first year. I an hoping that over the summer or during the first term of second year I will be able to develop this skill. I was hoping to have developed this throughout the Context of Practice 'Theory into Practice' brief, however time constraints and changing my idea last minute has refrained me from being able to do this.
What mistakes have you made and how have you learned from them?
One big mistake I have made is not prioritising work effectively, I think this comes with commitment and maturity. As I have progressed on the programme I have become more organised and I hope this continues over the summer and into second and third year.
A second mistake I have made in the past, over the course of first year, primarily noticeable with the Rain Brief from OUGD406 is not reading the brief. Since then I have learnt to read and re-read briefs again and again to make sure I take in all of the criteria.
How will this affect your future development?
I hope that I can work on these mistakes throughout second year and be more pro active with planning my time and prioritising work effectively instead of leaving the tasks that I don't like until the end and doing the easier tasks first. I am also currently working on reading and re-reading briefs, this is going really well and I think it is helping me to creative better more accurate designs that meet the requirements of the brief.
What are your strengths and how have you/will you develop them further?
I pride myself in being a really well organised person, I have to work in a neat and tidy environment both in the studio and at home. I hate clutter and although many people may consider this to be a negative factor, I would say it is a positive.
What are your weaknesses and how do you intend to address these?
My weaknesses are moving image, we have done a small workshop in the mac suite where we learnt how to place a series of images together in a short movie clip to create the image of a film clip. I think moving image is something that I will work on more in second year as I know we study this in one of our modules, it's not necessarily something that I think I will enjoy, nor I have I explored it yet.
I will work on giving this a try and being open minded toward it however in the past I have always worked with print as this is something that I feel comfortable with. In many way begin so comfortable with print is a negative in itself, and so this is why I need to be open minded to new processes and techniques that I am given the opportunity to learn and explore.
What have you enjoyed and why?
The thing I most enjoyed, without realising it, is screen print. I have never explored this techniques before and enjoyed it much more than I ever expected. I would have liked to explore this over the summer, however with screen print it will be closed over summer and so in the first term of second year I would like to get the opportunity to have more free time and explore this.
I have really enjoyed having the free time to be independent, I am quite an independent person and although many people struggle with time keeping and organisation if there is no structure to their lives I cope really feel with planning my time and making sure I get the work done in time for a deadline.
I have also really enjoyed the lectures and taking lecture notes, coming straight from A-level and studying Maths and English i've always had a very structured academic timetable, I love design however going from having essays and other academic aspects to purely putting 100% of your time into design was quite a shock and so I really enjoy having lectures in a formal setting and typing up lectures notes as well as having the free time to get on with our design aspect at our own pace allowing us to prioritise time.
In the past few weeks I have really enjoyed the freedom of being able to plan our own time whilst having more crit sessions timetabled in, this allows me to prioritise tasks and work to my own set deadlines, I work well this way and this has been the most organised i've been all year on the course being allowed to plan my own time.
What have you disliked and why?
I have disliked having to have so many structured sessions, this has worked really well for most people thats clear to see, and I definitely benefit from these sessions, however I feel that having these pushes me to fall back out of my time schedule and I get behind with work. In many way this is my own fault for not planning time effectively and working around the sessions, this is something I need to work on in the future.
Another thing I have disliked is the print process and how it's so difficult to get print slots, as I am quite organised I went and booked print slots with James until the end of the year however not knowing what my final product would look like until nearer the time it has turned out that it isn't possible to print the designs in the print slots I have. However, these are all minor dislikes.
I disliked working with moving image in a small workshop a few weeks ago in the mac suite. However I understand this is a skill that I need to work on and develop, and will be open to the modules that cover this throughout second year of the course.
Another factor that I haven't necessarily enjoyed is group work, although I always get it done in the end sometimes I find it difficult to work with others as members of the group are hard to work with, and can be unmotivated. However, we get past this and more recent group projects have been easier to work with and get on with people and communicate our ideas.
How does this affect your ambitions?
I think working in a group with others is something I need to develop and work on for me to be able to progress and be a successful designer in the future. I also need to manage my time better around set crit times and timetabled sessions, in order to meet deadlines and complete work to the best of my ability.
I am now more eager to get out there into the design world and hope to do some junior designer work over the summer and possibly gain work experience in an agency.
What did you want to get from the year?
I wanted to gain more independence from first year which I feel I have successfully gained. I have more confidence when meet people and talking about my work and my self in front of different groups, however there is still room for this to develop further and become more confident and more advanced.
I also wanted to gain more skills in things I had never learnt before, whilst I do feel like I have achieved this, I still feel like I could have done more with my time and now I feel like I have matured slightly over the course of the year, If I was to go back and do it all again I think I would make a greater opportunity of sign up sessions and workshops.
Another thing that I wanted to gain from this year was more my designs and work to become more professional and whilst I didn't really think I had achieved this whilst filling out an interim course evaluation recently I realised that my idea's are developing and I think my greater maturity is clear to see and that my work is now higher quality from the work I produced at the beginning of the year back in September.
Have you achieved this?
I feel that yes I have achieved these over the course of the year, I also feel like I could have achieved more and this is something that I guess I can work on over the course of second year to continually improve my design and my working process at the same time.
What have you discovered that you weren’t expecting?
I hadn't realised that there would be so many briefs on the go at once, as I struggle to prioritise which needs completing first. This is something that I am getting used to and I think it was just such a change from my previous course that it took a while for me to get used to this new way of working.
Another factor that I wasn't expecting was having such a variety of modules, some short and fat modules and some others are long and thin modules. Getting used to this was definitely a challenge and I struggled most with completing work for OUGD404 Design principles as I found this module easy to forget about with it being a long thin module. Another long thin module was the context of practice module and lecture notes, however I was very well organised and typed up all lecture notes straight after the lecture, this is something which I am now grateful for as my deadline is soon approaching in 5 days and I am feeling well prepared whilst other people have much more to catch up on.
