ppp Blog: Studio Task 1

Five Reasons I chose this programme:

One on one time with tutors, meaning that questions can be asked and answered with a hight standard of understanding.
Good facilities, great print rooms and opportunities to mingle with other courses and students, giving the opportunity to learn other skills relating to other areas of practice
Good links with industry, great opportunities for work experience,
Heard good things from ex students and current students, about the course and tutors and job opportunities after the degree.
Lots of space in the studio to work, whenever you want, unlike other courses where they had limited space and little tutor time.

Five things I want to learn:

Improve essay writing skills, as my essay really let me down in first year,
Improve my skills on software, especially in Indesign and photoshop, enabling me to work in different styles and produce new products
How to screen print to a higher standard, broadening my ways of working and audiences to produce work for.
Be more confident when presenting, so that I can pitch an idea to anyone, no matter how high up they are.
Gain more knowledge about the professional environment, so i can become more aware of the way it works and hopefully push myself harder to become a part of it.

Five Skills I think are my strengths:

Design sheets
Deadlines.
Working under pressure.
Punctuality.
Drawing

Five things I want to improve:

Time management.
Idea generation/design sheets.
Layout skills.
Essay writing.
More experimental work.

Five ways to evaluate my progress:

Blog
Tutorials
Feedback.
Crits.
Evaluations.

Five questions I want to find the answer to:

How do you write a good essay?
How do you organise placements or studio visits?
How do I promote myself?
Where will I be in the next five years?
How do I get my work 'out there'?

Ten questions from the whole group:

How did the course gain a good reputation?
How can I improve my time management/punctuality?
How do I improve essay writing skills?
How do we learn web and general software skills?
What rates do we charge?
Will I make it?
How can I evaluate/reflect on my progress?
How can I gain more confidence with presenting?
What do I want to specialise in?
How do I become better informed in what's going on in the industry?

Ten problems from the whole group:

Getting overloaded with work and getting behind.
Worrying about placements.
Being scared about not succeeding.
Money for printing.
Balancing workload with social life.
Being to shy to show our work.
Having an idea but not having the software skills to put it in motion.
Low/lack of confidence in own skills.
Going so stressed you don't enjoy the course as much.
Standard of other peoples work being a lot higher, intimidating.

Five things that inspire you:

Experiencing a piece of design which doesn't stick to the usual and can interact with its audience, in the sense that it isn't a poster, flyer or piece of work that would be considered as traditional graphic design.
Traveling the world, experiencing new cultures, food and ways of life
My Mum, for being able to do a million things a once.
Succeeding in producing a piece of design, using a method which I have never used before.
Seeing people who graduate, and move somewhere abroad to work, ( Gives me Hope, as i would like to do the same)

Ten Examples of design that illustrate your fields of interest:

1.Hand rendered Pattern by www.schatzibrown.com.

I really enjoy creating patterns, wether they are hand rendered or Digital, with lots of colour, i hope that i will be able to use this within my work more in the future.

2. Digital Pattern by http://www.osborneandlittle.com/

3. Collage Design work by http://martensjelle.zxq.net/index.php?/press/in-the-quivering-forest/2/
Something which I have never really done, Its something which has always intimidated me, however I would love to give it a go in a future project, as it always looks so effective.

4. Hand rendered type by http://www.behance.net/sophiehenson
I really like the way that this hand renderd type looks, I think its quirky and more interesting that digital type, I would like to produce some throughout my work, in the next year.

5.Interesting Packaging design by Yunyeen Yong, Australia.

I havnt produce much packaging in the past, but it is something which really interests me, this young designer has produce these juice cartons with a sense of humour, however they are still very appealing, and even thought they may not be the most economic cartons they are highly desirable.

6. Layout By Nicole Adams

Layout is something which i can always get better at, it can be used in many different contexts, and I would like to improve so that I am able to produce my own zones and articles.

7.Typefaces by http://www.hellowman.nl/portfolio/

I want to be able to produce my own typefaces like we did in first year but to a much higher standard.

8. Illustrations by Judy Kaufman

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Judykaufmann

Throughout the year I will try to improve my illustration skills by experimenting on illustrator more, i would also like to visit some illustration studios throughout the year.