Final Reflection

This module has offered some great opportunities to work with other students and get some really useful insight into other working creatives.

Most design projects I undertake for either clients or personal work is almost always a solo endeavour so I really appreciated the chance to work as a group for the majority of this module, throwing ideas back and forth and the general creative energy of working as a team. I really enjoyed working with Rhys and Cleo, they were both very open, good communicators and were committed to completing the work to a high standard. Cleo’s health issues are really unfortunate and I am gutted that it meant we were not able to work face to face at all during the majority of the projects however with the current climate the way that it is, it made team work more difficult anyway and we managed really well using Zoom and Whatsapp to communicate throughout, often having zoom meetings for well over an hour. I really look forward to working in groups again if the opportunity arises.

I also really appreciated talking and listening to all the creatives, not just as part of the Out There Project but also as part of the Small Talks series. As someone who has been self taught until starting this course in September, it has been really difficult to gauge what the expectations are for designers, what skills are needed to push a career and how I should feel about my achievements so far. These talks were inspiring but also reassuring. Many of the creatives struggled in their early careers, not just in terms of employment but mentally as well, being productive and having a good sense of self worth has been flagged as just as, if not more important than knowing all the Illustrator shortcuts or being an After Effects genius. Having confidence in your work and building a solid ‘why’ and having passion seem to be at the foundation, and graphic design is their way of actualising this, rather than generating it. This for me has been particularly inspiring as I know that I can get carried away with the detail and not the big picture, however I do try my best to be aware of this as much as possible.

From all these talks and research it has really opened up the breadth of work available to a designer and what Graphic Design really encompasses, some of this work is more creative than others and I hope I am able to pursue the more creative side.

In terms of the projects themselves, I have put a lot of energy into each one and taken as many opportunities to improve as I can, given time and pandemic restraints. I feel my research skills have gotten better, as have my layout and illustration skills and through the brackets workshop, my understanding of (very) basic HTML and CSS coding.

Finally I have enjoyed seeing the work done by other students, as we aren’t able to have that studio hive experience because of COVID I have made a point of looking at everyone’s work, it has been a great source of inspiration.