OUGD402: Future Self Presentation

We had to create a presentation based upon five questions about ideally where we would see ourselves in 10 years time. Those questions being:

1. What's your title?

2. Where do you work?

3. What sort of set up are you in?

4. Where do you live?

5. What's your proudest professional and personal achievements so far?

In an ideal world I would like to be working for a somewhat well known design studio such as Bleed, Heydays or Neue, as not only am I very much interested in their work but also because they're set in Norway which is an ideal location to work. What title I have is not all that important to me, simply because I believe I would be content working at any level for a studio I like.

As previously stated, ideally I'd love to work in Norway, more specifically Oslo. Main reason being that the country as a whole feels well designed. Not only is the architecture visually pleasing, the interior design of the buildings and also the landscape itself are amazing. Set up wise, I would like to be in a nice open space as one thing I hate more than anything is being cramped into a small area whether that be a room or just working space in general. The set up would be a mixture of both being able to work and play to create a balance in the hope of reducing stress over briefs etc.

Proudest professional and personal achievement to date would more than likely be getting into Leeds College of Art, simply because of the long and competitive process that I had to go through to get onto the course. Hopefully in the future I will achieve many other things whether that be awards or just small little personal achievements.

OUGD402: Study Task 2 - Why am I here & what do I want to learn?

5 reasons why I chose to study on this course

• The fact that LCA is purely art based and nothing else creates a sense of home when within the college. Being surrounded by past and present pieces of work from everyone from different areas of design displayed around the college, makes for a creative environment.

• I'd heard a lot about the college and it's reputation as a good university and so that further pushed me to study on the course.

• According to online statistics as well, people who graduate from LCA have an 85% success rate of going straight into the industry and getting a job which is a major reason why I chose here.

• Leeds is city full of life and character and is a lot different than the environment I'm used to and also I wanted to be in a place full of opportunities for lots of things.

• Another reason is the facilities at LCA, especially in comparison to some other universities I had visited prior to this one, they had a lot more facilities available, not only that but they were of a higher quality.

5 things that I want to learn during my time on the course

• One main thing I have wanted to learn is a lot about the framework of graphic design itself, as it's all well and good making something look nice but without meaning it doesn't hold nearly as much value as a piece of art.

• Another thing is printing techniques, these weren't widely available during my college years yet prints are always something I've admired visually and so I'd like to be able to create my own.

• I would love to learn a lot about the graphic design industry and how it works, especially with having tutors that have been within it, it would be good to learn a lot from experienced workers.

• Aside from print, more hands on techniques when creating pieces of work would be good to learn as it differs a lot from a typical digital piece of work.

• Lastly I would like to learn a lot about how graphic design came to be and where it's potentially heading by learning about the beginnings of graphics and how it all started.

5 Strengths

• One thing I would consider strength is using some of the Adobe Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver & Indesign.

• I would consider myself good at giving fair feedback when it comes group critiques and feedback sessions.

• I believe that I have good enough social skills as far as meeting new people goes, which I think will come in useful when needing to have a good set of contacts when within the industry.

• One of my strengths I would say is responding well to feedback, more often than not I will always try out suggestions given to me from feedback sessions or try to implement them into my current work.

• I believe that I am good as far as getting work done as soon as possibly rather than leaving it all to the last minute, this I would say is down to being somewhat organised with my working schedule.

5 things to improve

•  My drawing ability as I would love to be able to create more detailed drawings.

•  I want to improve my range of ideas by visiting more new places and also going to things such as exhibitions.

•  I would like to ideally build up confidence when it comes to presenting work as, although within small groups I'm confident with talking, when presenting in front of large numbers of people, I'm not very confident.

•  Presentational skills as a whole such as being efficient with slideshow presentations etc. making them look appealing and concise.

• I'd like to improve my design process as a whole, going from initial sketches to final resolution with more detailed and experimental work in between.

5 things that inspire me

•  Architecture
•  Hand made print designs
•  UI/UX Design
•  Design magazines
•  Behance

Identify 5 examples of design that demonstrate your fields of creative interest

Flat Vector Illustrations

Logo Design

UI/UX Design

3D Illustrations

Editorial Design

OUGD402: Planning Ahead

Our lecture that we had from Penny Lee was all about how being organised can help you keep on top of the ever lasting workload that is a combination of blogging, studio briefs and study tasks. 

Making something as simple as a timetable for the upcoming week can massively help to ensure that you stay on track with work that needs to be done, but also to figure out what time you have to yourself to do leisurely activities. Not only that but it can help avoid getting stressed out when deadlines are coming up.

So during our time spent in the studio after the lecture, we were asked to create a timetable, in which we first input all of our scheduled lectures and talks and then after that to input what we would normally do during our spare time.

Timetable for upcoming week

In blue I coloured the times in which that time is flexible so that, if needs be, I can alter the timetable accordingly if plans change. I feel that doing this often will help to keep me on track with the work load but also to make sure It's all balanced out with socialising and enjoying free time to myself.