- identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose to study on this programme.
1; Graphic Design seemed like an appealing subject to get involved with, it's the kind of thing that satisfies my interests in making visual work, along with the more theoretical side of things to do with communication and psychology and that sort of thing. I took art and communication studies in 6th form and both of those things tie in together quite well when applied to graphics.
2; Leeds College of Art seemed like quite a good idea, the whole 'proper' university environment of having to only show up for a few hours a week seemed like a waste, that and I didn't actually get into any other places. But a proper college sounded a bit more full-on and worthwhile. And it is.
3; I like being in the north, so of course Leeds College of Art is pretty convenient. It's cold but I like it.
4; I felt very comfortable in my interview, perhaps that was because I went in on a nothing-left-to-lose basis, having been turned down by everyone else. It changed my mindset for that interview and felt happy to be spoken to by Amber and Lorenzo who looked past the fact that my portfolio was full of life drawing and bits of charcoal and paint, and instead understood that Graphic Design was something I really wanted to learn and do.
5; If it wasn't for this I'd be stuck working in a Sainsbury's, bored of my life.
- Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the programme.
1; I want to learn what makes people tick, I feel like I've got a fairly good idea already, but through further experimentation and making more work I'll hopefully become more aware of what works and what does not.
2; How to get my work out there in the most effective way possible, how to create a name for myself, and things like that. I often feel like I don't know where to start with things like this, I mean it's easy enough to create a blog or tumblr or whatever, but to actually start getting recognised is another step in itself.
3; I want to learn all the ins and outs and carrying a project from the initial concept right through to finishing and presenting, which is obviously why I'm on this course, but I want to learn it well and how to achieve this well within a time limit, which is something I've never been good at.
4; A second language, something like Spanish or Italian, which might well be useful when I finish this programme and begin looking for jobs.
5; How to establish good relationships within the industry, to hopefully create opportunities for the future.
- Identify and explain 5 skills that you think are your strengths.
1; Crits; at the moment it feels like I'm far better at observing someone elses and offering advice than I am at actually making good work myself. It's helping though, I feel that my first year has definitely helped me understand what kind of thing I want to, simply through seeing everyone else work, along with flicking through blogs and websites, and seeing design out in the environment. That and I like a good argument; without trying to sound arrogant or anything like that I feel like I can often pick out weaknesses that people might not have picked up on.
2; Thinking; I guess this kind of comes out of doing Communication Studies for A-level, being completely and utterly honest I quite enjoyed smoking cannabis before going into those lessons, and then going in and getting bang involved and getting well interested in trying to figure out how people's minds work (and society, and communication structures and models, media models, etc - possibly one of the most useful things I ever learnt, especially now in this environment). Obviously the problem was that under that sort of influence I did too much thinking and not enough working, so I had to cut that habit. So now I still think a lot about that sort of thing, why certain adverts/pieces of design/whatever influences people in certain ways, but now I do a lot more work because I don't smoke much cannabis at all.
3; Staying awake and alert; I found this hard at the beginning of the first year; to listen in lectures and seminars and stuff, I used to find it pretty hard to just sit there and not do anything except try and concentrate. Maybe that was perhaps a result of the same problem as above (which was definitely a problem, there's no denying that), I mean it's fairly obviously true, as I've cut that one out I've found it easier and easier to stay awake and alert.
4; Idea generation; well I hope so anyway, whether the ideas are genuinely good or not, I'm not sure, but sometimes I can come up with quite a few useable rationales, I quite like looking around at the work of others and wondering how I could do it differently, sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. But hopefully one day they will work.
5; Writing stuff, I can write for ages sometimes, like right now
2; Thinking; I guess this kind of comes out of doing Communication Studies for A-level, being completely and utterly honest I quite enjoyed smoking cannabis before going into those lessons, and then going in and getting bang involved and getting well interested in trying to figure out how people's minds work (and society, and communication structures and models, media models, etc - possibly one of the most useful things I ever learnt, especially now in this environment). Obviously the problem was that under that sort of influence I did too much thinking and not enough working, so I had to cut that habit. So now I still think a lot about that sort of thing, why certain adverts/pieces of design/whatever influences people in certain ways, but now I do a lot more work because I don't smoke much cannabis at all.
3; Staying awake and alert; I found this hard at the beginning of the first year; to listen in lectures and seminars and stuff, I used to find it pretty hard to just sit there and not do anything except try and concentrate. Maybe that was perhaps a result of the same problem as above (which was definitely a problem, there's no denying that), I mean it's fairly obviously true, as I've cut that one out I've found it easier and easier to stay awake and alert.
4; Idea generation; well I hope so anyway, whether the ideas are genuinely good or not, I'm not sure, but sometimes I can come up with quite a few useable rationales, I quite like looking around at the work of others and wondering how I could do it differently, sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. But hopefully one day they will work.
5; Writing stuff, I can write for ages sometimes, like right now
- Identify and explain 5 things that you want to improve.
1; Software skills; this will be a constant one, along with many other things I want to improve. Before starting this course I'd basically never used any software really, I started to learn music production programmes before so I was kind of used to learning where to begin to learn, if you see what I mean. I never got that good at them because my old laptop couldn't handle that kind of thing, but I've got a mac now so I can jam around of illustrator and photoshop all day and probably start trying to learn music programmes again aswell which will be a right laugh.
2; TIME MANAGEMENT always a difficulty. And not getting distracted, creating problems for myself which get right in the way isn't really the best way of doing things I've noticed recently
3; General drawing; at times I can draw but I'm not in the habit of carrying a sketch book around really, which would have been pretty useful in many situations, like when I went to Europe in Summer, I realised too late, but that should've been some kind of priority really. Sometimes I get well involved with sketches but often I end up dropping them under my bed or something and never seeing them again
4; Getting involved; I need to make more of an effort to get out there and get to know people and what's going on, just at the moment I find it difficult to know what I really want to do and where I might fit in, I suppose that'll come with time.
5; Theoretical stuff, it's useful and I'm interested in it, I enjoy learning about how things came to be how they are and why things work in the way they do, but I don't really spend enough time on it, which explains a slightly low CTS grade last year, but it's something I want to do a lot better on this year.
- Identify and explain 5 ways that you will evaluate your progress.
1; Getting my work out there; I want to actually do some work that will work for someone somewhere, I need to make some kind of personal base for my work, like a proper website or a separate blog or something. Another one of those things I should have done quite a while ago, but didn't do. Anyway, if I did make more of an effort to show my work to the public, I'd be able to make a judgement based on how people reacted to it, which is surely the best way.
2; Look back; It's kind of necessary to look back at the work I did this time last year, I find it pretty inspiring for me to get on with things and improve more. Also it helps me in other ways, like I'll spot a potential good idea that never got used but might work for as current project maybe.
3; Taking a note of stuff; writing down what is happening and when, working out how long it is taking me to do things and then try and improve certain aspects, I honestly can't see myself doing this though, but it would be a nice idea...I'm quite laid back a lot of the time which doesn't help
4; Keep updated with new work, seeing what other people around me as well as in other places are doing, I feel this is quite a good measure of how well I might be doing, and is also a great source of inspiration.
5; Make more effort to interact with tutors; this is one of the things that in some ways let me down a bit last year, I can't always assume the answers will just come to me to be honest, and I find that talking about ideas with tutors is insanely helpful, yet I don't make enough effort to do it.
- Identify 5 things you want to find the answer to
1; everything
2; how to motivate myself to do more
3; why the golden ratio is what it is, I mean its really the only thing I've ever come across that suggests that there's more to life than life, it's nuts
4; How not to waste money
5; everything else
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