#146dva

We had to come up with SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) goals for the end of next week, the end of the year, the coming year and for the long-term future. This are the goals I came up with:

For the end of the next week: successfully hand in my essay and my book cover for the 147DVA module. For the end of the year: gain more knowledge about design, develop my skills and produce better work. Improve my foreign language skills (not just English but I also want to work more on the other languages I already took up such as French, Japanese and Chinese). Get shortlisted for the Penguin cover contest. For the coming year: To try out more things. Meet new people. Read more books on various subject (design, science, astronomy, literature etc). Find a job placement that would help me to develop my skills. 10 years time: Have a job in a field of design I enjoy (maybe web design, magazine design or book cover design).

Where am I?  - this is an important question, and one you should keep asking. A useful way of identifying the groundwork upon which goals and plans can be based in a SWOT analysis. Identify one of your goals and in relation to this goal, consider your:

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS Strengths: I've already done some research on the layout so I have a vague idea about how it should look like, what it should and what it should not contain. Weaknesses: not enough research is not quite enough because I only used two magazines so I need a wider range of examples. I am also not sure about the quality of the essay as I haven't received any feedback yet, so I don't know if I am going in the right direction or how much I'll have to change it. Opportunities: access to proper magazine layouts (Elephant, Eye magazines) at the library as well as on the internet. Threats: Lack of time and motivation. We only have one week and 5 days left until the deadline and as time goes by I only get more eager to go back home and relax a bit.

Further on, we were asked to think on the specific actions we could take to enable our goals and whens should we do them. As I said before, I think I have to do more research on the magazine layout by looking at magazines in the library and on the internet. Also try to figure out a way to break down the text in only two pages, which is difficult due to the large amount of text and find the five relevant pictures we have to use for our essay in order to depict our ideas and properly place them in the magazine spread. I feel like I shold also work more on the essay; read and re-read it, look for spelling errors and make it more creative and inciting. 

We then had to think about how we got here. Specifically, about one thing we did well and one thing that we haven't done so well. For me, both of these relate to the 147DVA Module. The thing that I did well was submitting the book cover for the Penguin competition, while the thing that I did not do so well was being unable to submit the second cover. We only had to submit one, but I thought I could create two of them. In the end, I couldn't come up with a good idea for the second book cover, so I only uploaded one. While I am aware that it will not affect my grading or anything, I am a bit disappointed with myself for not being able to achieve my own goal. In the future, I want to start working on such projects earlier and spend more time thinking about various ideas.

I always thought that it is impossible for people to get to truly know themselves. We are always changing, growing. Our opinions change, the way we see the world changes. And it happens every day, but you just don't notice.

There are lots of tests and questionnaires on the internet that are supposed to reveal information about your personality, and I've always had an interest in such things. It's just that they usually seemed rather superficial and I never liked the results I got. But last year I randomly found about the MBTI (Myres-Briggs Type Indicator) test, which is supposed to give you more information about the way you perceive the world and make decisions, the way you interact with people, the way you think. These psychological preferences were deduced my Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myres from C.G. Jung's typological theories (according to the Swiss psychiatrist, there are four principal psychological functions by which we experience the world: sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking, and one of these functions is dominant most of the time).

So when we were told to start keeping a journal I felt it seemed like an extra thing to juggle while working on all the other modules and almost believed it was a waste of time, I was wrong. PDP has helped me extract thoughts out of my brain and put them onto here with sketches and attempts and have a place that can reflect on my journey as a practising designer.

The events throughout this year have been nothing like I have been involved in educational wise. It has pushed me to work harder yet I haven't been stressed or over work playing to a consistent amount of work successfully getting over 70% comfortably this year. I would like to see where second year will push me to stay motivated and work consistently like this year.

Throughout the year in and out of University my experiences have been immense, meeting people in my corse that i know will help me define my practice in later years when choosing where I'd like to go with this idea of graphic design. Also out of the studio I have created a circle of friends that have allowed me to be comfy in my surroundings and I owe them all a lot!

As you can probably tell -simply by looking through my work start to finish- I have certainly come on as a designer creating more mature throughout designs not rushing to finish yet getting the job done at the right speed creating pieces of work that I am proud to say are associated to me. This is key as a designer, yes we are making work for a client but I believe if i'm not happy with design -especially at this stage of my journey- then why am I creating it, this has been at the forefront of my mind all the way through the year.

I feel most people in my class would thank me for the input within their own projects, especially in the last few weeks i have been asked more and more to help them reflect them on their own work as it was something we were hammered into doing last year. Even my lecturer simon picked up on my skills and i simply told him that explaining someone else's work helps us explain our own work and our way of critiquing work.

When completing the essay project I saw how theory is as important as design itself and without one the other couldn't strive and this is key to note on. I certainly work hard on sketch books and research was on of my stronger points when coming into university and it has helped me constantly keep a high mark with my work and I couldn't be happier with the way theory is used within design.

For all of the projects that we have done so far this year one of my weak points has been research. I have never been very good at it.  Or, I've never been good at documenting my research.  It is easy to look up some inspiration on the internet and to flick through a book, however finding the images and writing about them isn't one of my favourite aspects of research.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Albert Einstein

It's funny research in the past has been something that was hammered into me at A-level working hard to fill sketchbooks full of relevant pieces of ideas that we could create an idea out of. But now at university i seem to be able to come up with an idea without as much research, which isn't a bad thing. However I feel I need to take it back to what I was taught (drilled) into. The research section has not not been a problem in 150DVA and 149DVA getting highest marks possible.

It is incredible that we have been here a full term, already I have been heavily influenced in my design work. Working hard to achieve the grades I am currently getting, this needs to stay at the forefront of my mind going into this christmas holiday. That there is work to be done and not to loose focus of this, i do not see this as a problem as I will be working during the week at a job while at home which gives me great focus on other aspects of my life. 

I cant see myself not working over the holiday as I am so wrapped up by this 149DVA project creating the typeface that it makes me want to work. The 148DVA project is a lot more long winded allowing it to have more time to focus on the sketch book and final pieces leaving that project at the back of my mind over this holiday.

At university in my first year I expected it to make me more uncertain about where I want to go in the future with my career paths. The thoughts i have at the minute are working free lance for myself with other people i have met throughout my university journey. I don't have any major concerns at this point in time and i feel that if i did have any concerns i know that my lecturer is there to help me with any queries or problems.