ppp blog

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

This year I have really developed a skill in organising and time managing my workload and social life. There has been a difference over the years and with the hindsight each year this has improved more and more. I've created a better equilibrium between all aspects of my life. This has allowed me to book print slots in advance which I had built up my ability to work to self initiated deadlines. As well as managing my other module I have maintained a on going interest in my PPP which has benefited my FMP as its progressed myself personally and as a designer. I have developed a skill in recognising what design I like and dislike which last year I found hard to really pinpoint. This allowed me to effectively realise my ambitions as well as what kind of designer I am. This new skill I effectively applied to reanalysing my self branding by using the areas of design I want to go into as a basis of searching where I am aiming my branding at. I really concentrated on my personal taste drawing inspiration from things I collected and used the qualities I picked to display me as a person and designer in my branding demonstrating my creativity and friendliness as well as using a concept to show how I work and am idea driven. I feel the finished production and overall quality of my work is something that has gone really well developing me portfolio. I think this has come from realising the kind of design I am aiming to be producing in the future by using my research in PPP to discover where my ambitions lie.

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

One strength I can identify in this module is discovering my confidence as a designer. This has been by researching and analysing what I like, what I do and where I want to be. These decisions have built up a picture of the direction I want to go in, in my career and in return has made me have confidence in myself. As I can understand myself I can present myself to others in an appropriate and honest way. I will capitalise on this in the future as my portfolio will be presented in an honest and relevant way displaying myself in a true representation. This will allow myself to attract and engage with the right studios and professionals meaning I will work within a place that fits my design aspirations. Another strength has been searching for studios for me and knowing what I do and don't like. I have researched lots of studios in several locations, learning to understand the kind of work i'm attracted to and the place I want to put myself. By searching so many I have been able to rule out a lot of places and also contact many. By contacting studios I have realised what works and doesn't work in terms of tone of voice and ways of contact. These has advanced my professionalism and skills in networking with others.

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

The main weakness in my work is pushing the application of the brand. I could of pushed the avenues a lot further to more creative ways rather than just general ones such as billboards or bus stops. I think this could of really advanced my projects making them so much stronger if i'd considered this whilst doing the briefs. When I realised it was at the end of the year and I didn't have time to do this before the submission. However I am going to address this for my portfolio by selecting briefs to push further and show interesting and exciting ideas of application through mock ups . Another weakness I think is communicating the idea quickly in a short few sentences. I sometimes am bad at cutting down the information and selecting what needs to be shown for it make sense. This is a skill I need to learn to improve on as its important to be selective and not show everything all at once in your portfolio. I will address this by creating limits and boundaries to work towards when presenting my work. By evaluating the brief before hand I can establish what needs to go in and in what order in order to make sense. I will then check this against others who haven't seen the project and see how they respond and understand it.

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

Plan Website
Develop my site and organise my briefs, limiting down a few to key aspects and create a narrative, this will make it clearer and more direct
Source of Contact
Try contacting people in alternative ways to just emails to make more of an impact and statement, this will make me stand out from the crowd and spark up more interest
Speak on LinkedIn
Gain contacts and make friends with industry people
Keep in contact
Maintain conversation in order to gain work
Blog more
I want to blog more about the experiences that have made me think about design and ideas and have made me realise my ambitions

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity or work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 5

The final ppp presentation was really important to me so I really wanted to come up with a concept that showed me as a designer and a person as well as represent the last three years.

I started off by writing out a few things that I wanted to include in the powerpoint.

I decided that this whole experience has taught me so many different things that aren't only design related and that i've really grown as a person. This led me to the idea of using photos of when I was younger and growing up into an adult as a basis to demonstrate the different things i'd learnt.

Therefore I went through 100's of old photographs whilst at home picking out key ones which had narratives I felt I could link to the things I wanted to present.

I then wrote out an extensive list of each photograph and a brief note of what it represented.

From this I then lay out all the images in powerpoint and wrote notes using this extensive list. I then systematically went through rearranging the images to create a flow from one point to the next so it made a narrative of my experience. I did several practices to see how the flow worked and rearranged as I trailed it to get a better order.