This year has been completely pivotal for me and my personal design practice. I have changed the way I view my work as my work has improved massively. I realised I spent the first 2 years trying to conform to what I felt graphic design should be and should look like. This meant my work was bland, didn't stand out and wasn't true to my creativity and imagination. This year was a year for discovery and finding a new process of working and coming up with original ideas for answering briefs. I look at my portfolio as a whole now and its so colourful, illustrative, expressive and bold. I think in comparison to the bog standard and regular designers portfolio it does stand out and thats what I was trying so hard to achieve before but I didn't realise I needed to stop trying to be something and just let it flow naturally to achieve this.
Another thing that i've gained masses of confidence in is my presentation and general professional interaction skills. At the beginning of the course I felt really anxious in presentation and interview situations. My increase confidence in my own work has helped in the ease I now feel speaking about my work and practice. These skills are key for thriving as a designer as meeting with/pitching to clients will be a huge part of selling my ideas.
My biggest negative/worst trait during the year has been my overall time management. Many of my briefs this year have challenged my time management skills; demanding certain submission dates. These have pushed me to organise myself well and plan ahead particularly within production. But unfortunately this meant the more self directed briefs that didn't have set deadlines often got pushed aside and left to last minute. In the future I hope to find better ways of organising my time across multiple projects without any having to get lost.
One of the most valuable experiences this year has been during my internship. I interned as an in-house designer at a tech based recruitment company. The internship was very cooperate based; producing mainly web based designs following a strict existing brand identity. The lack of creative freedom and focus on digital design really wasn't for me. This experiance has helped show me that going forward I need a job in a more creative studio environment in which I can express my multi-media, illustrative and creative style.
The past year I have engaged outwardly with studios. Talking and engaging with studios I find inspiring within Manchester, Leeds and Hull specifically. It's really gotten my name out their in terms of future employment opportunities and they have given me so much valuable advice in going forward. I aim to use these valuable contacts in the future when looking to collaborate, work, freelance or just network.
I have also improved my online & print presence massively - as advised by Craft (creative) recruitment. I adapted my portfolio into PDF, print and website form which gives me masses of options in terms of approach dependent on the context. I have printed a miniature portfolio also for interviews - I will be printing a full size one after the planned portfolio surgeries we have in the calendar. My brand identity is now looking secure and demonstrates my working style and positive, bright personality well.
Over the past 3 years i've had the best and worst experiences of my life. But I really feel like this is the first step on my path of success and look forward to an exciting future in the creative industries.
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