Study Task 1 - Why Am I Here - What do I want to Learn?

5 reason why I chose this programme: 

• the resources
• centred around the arts
• loved it when I went for my interview
• enjoyed the interview brief
• was a challenge

Explain: 

I really got into the interview brief they gave me and had never had anything like it before and was over joyed when they recognised my work and i was able to get an interview from it especially as i was from Alevel. When i came and looked round my jaw dropped at all the facilities they had at the college as my Alevel degree had almost none and was excited to learn new processes. This entwined with the fact that the whole institution was centred around the arts really interested me as other universities concentrate on sciences etc. During the interview day Fred stated how difficult it was to get on the course as well as how hard it is and my tutors had already told me i couldn't go straight from Alevel to degree without a foundation and once i had been i knew i wanted to go there so i took the challenge.

5 things you want to learn:

• business element of design
• film and animation
• software knowledge - transforming files from different software/format to work in/techniques and methods
• processes/facility use - screen printing/embossing
• branding/identity/packaging/web
• to spell

Explain:

I really want to develop into a working designer rather than a creative person who likes design so learning how to do this is important to me this year. Other skills i want to gain are creating film and animation as i've always been interested and visual in this media and accompanying my skills with deeper software knowledge and ability. I didn't take advantage of or try much other than print and i've not gained the confidence in other practices so learning those would be idle. All these factors will help me to find what area of design i would like to go into as i particularly at the moment want learn about packaging and branding.

5 skills you think are your strengths:

• formulating ideas
• research (secondary)
• using colour effectively
• meeting deadlines
• attending sessions

Explain:

I think i can brainstorm a lot of different ideas when given a brief and give myself a good starting point as well as source wide secondary research in relation to the topic. I also think I'm colour conscious when designing and think about appropriate media to work with. I've not missed a deadline and have attended majority of sessions in the past.

5 things you want to improve:

• digital and hand - rendered skills
• using different medias and methods
• writing skills
• the presentation of product
• designs sheets

Explain:
There are aspects of my design that defiantly need to be improved including both digital and hand rendered as there not good quality and i've lost my had drawn skills. Again using facilities of college need to be improved as well as different materials as i will learn more if i chose to use them. I've had difficulties expressing myself in a professional academic way in the past as well communicating what i wish to say. The quality of my products need to be improved on as i usually have print problems, mistakes and cheap materials. Not only do the quality of my products but the design sheets i produce need to be improved as there messy and unable to be understood by other people which wouldn't work well in a professional environment.

5 ways to evaluate your progress: 

• mark on modules improving on last year
• bloggin effectively
• tutorials
• crits - feedback on work
• quantity and quality of work produced 

Explain:
I think its important to evaluate your process in a number of ways including comparing your work to last year and your modules marks how far you've moved on. Taking on board criticisms and acting upon them is another way of progressing and evaluating.

We brought together the 10 top important ones as a group and swapped with another to convert them into 10 questions:

1. How do i utilise the resources and working environment to get the best out of them?
2. How did graduates get to the stage they are now?
3. How do/when will I learn web and what opportunities does this course offer and what programmes can you use?
4. At what point do I get the opportunities to intern and who will help me to achieve this?
5. How can I use my organisation skills to my best ability?
6. Am I working hard enough maintain a high level of design?
7. What facilities in uni will help me to achieve my essay skills/what people?
8. In what ways can I gain more confidence in presentation skills?
9. How good are employment opportunities on this course?
10. What professional skills can O acquire to be as good as my tutors/peers/professionals that teach me?

Lorraine and Simon then went through the top 10 questions from the whole course which I felt really helpful and created a positive start to the year.

As a group we then discussed and wrote top 10 problems we might encounter this year:

1. Getting overloaded and getting behind
2. Worrying about placements
3. Being scared of not winning/entering competitions
4. Money for print
5. Balancing work load with life
6. Being to shy in work and designs
7. Having an idea but not being able to use the software/equipment to put it in to practice 
8. Getting to stressed that you won't enjoy the process/course
9. Low confidence/lack of
10. Standard of other peoples work being a lot higher standard - intimidated by work of others/scared of this

5 things that inspire you:

• talking to people
• shopping - seeing and collecting things i like visually
• films/documentrys
• my parents
• areas away from where i live - locations/travelling

10 examples of design that illustrate your fields of creative interest

The 10 examples i have provided above i feel represent the different areas of creative interest i have at the moment. Branding and identity is defiantly something i want to look more into as well interesting packaging. Interior and wrapping is another aspect that i would like to see how graphic design fits into as i have always loved antique furniture and vintage decor/labels. Last year made me realise i was actually quite keen on publications and layout, i have always loved well made books but this was expanded at the range a publication can be and can look so i defiantly want to experiment more within this field.

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