At this point in the year I would say that my biggest strengths are working with image and image treatment. This is exemplified in the Oripeau project as well as the zines for PPP. In my opinion, these examples of work show the strongest abilities and understanding of design out of the work I have made so far. This comes from a lot of previous practice with collage and Photoshop editing, so the work that I make is constantly improving in these areas as I create more and more.
However, I would say that I still really struggle with type - especially making my own typefaces. I really struggled with that project and to this day dread making my own type for a new project. I think that the overall way that I think about type has improved, but I still struggle with experimentation in that area as I am scared of failing or creating a ‘bad’ typeface.
I also feel that my amount of experimentation could improve. I tend to limit myself to very few ideas and could really reach out more and try things that I haven’t before, like animation, which I really want to do. I have generally stuck to what I am good at, like digital design and photography, but I should definitely be trying more new things.
At the start of the year, I approached briefs with a lot of nervousness, and it would usually take me a while to actually get going with an idea that I liked. Now, I understand that what works best for me is speed. By working quickly at the start of a brief I don’t give myself time to worry about failing or ‘wasting time’ on ideas that don’t follow through. I definitely work best by mind-mapping my ideas and getting to work quickly rather than just taking too long at the start of a brief to get going.
I have learnt that the most important thing to consider when designing is the justification. Before, when designing something my main consideration was the aesthetics and I simply thought about how a design looked rather than what it was communicating. Now, when designing I am always thinking about the reason behind what I am doing and the importance of justification within design.
My new favourite creative strategy is definitely using the scanner to manipulate images. This is something that I only used to do for my fine art and never considered using this approach for graphic design, However, I have begun to realise that I can blur the lines as much as I want and actually utilize the ways of working that I used for my fine art in my design too. DR. ME coming in to talk to us and saying that they use the scanner to add noise and texture to images also gave me the confidence that I am doing the right thing with this process.
The most difficult part of the design process is after the experimentation, having to settle on an idea to choose as the final outcome. I have a lot of difficulty at this stage because I begin to put a lot of pressure on myself to choose the ‘best’ idea to develop as a final, and it results in me making a lack of work and lacking development at this stage. To improve on this I really need to inject the same level of motivation that I have at the start of a project to this particular part, so that I can continue to produce the best work throughout the entire brief.
In contrast, my favourite part of the design process is the experimentation with new ideas at the start. I really enjoy being able to work through things quickly and not focusing on perfection too much at this early stage. It gives me a chance to really think about which ideas are the strongest and deserve to be taken forward and perfected.
One of the skills that I would really like to improve upon is animation. It is one of my goals to learn how to use Adobe After Effects as I think that it would be a really effective and useful tool as a designer to know. I would love to create beautiful motion graphics that could be used by businesses or brands. I currently know how to animate in Photoshop, however, as this programme is not built for animation like After Effects, it is really difficult to produce effective work. This skill is definitely attainable at University for me and I am really eager to incorporate this into a future project so that I can expand my skills. I think that it would be really interesting to see my personal style, which I can already see developing, in motion.
No comments:
Post a Comment