End of Year Evaluation

To say the least, the past year has been very significant for me. This hasn’t just been in terms of the development of my skills as a designer, but also a number of other personal, transferable employability skills. Looking back at where I was 8 months ago, I really do feel a sense of pride at how far I’ve come and how much I’ve developed.

After this year on the course, I now feel that I have a better sense of direction in my life. In some ways, I joined the course as a way out of a dead-end job, and web design was something that interested me. It was almost a ‘why not?’ approach to the course. I now feel that joining this course, and taking up design in general, is the best decision I’ve ever made. It’s a great feeling to know that you’re heading towards a career in something that you not only enjoy, but you have a passion for. I want design to become less about something I do, and more an integral part of who I am.

Looking back through my old Journal entries and work today has really shown me how far I’ve come. Looking back on my first ever screen design for the ‘Great Briton’ website, it strikes me how poor the design really is. Comparing that to the work I’m putting out now is possibly the best way to illustrate my development. So what skills have I developed to get me where I am now?

Principles of Design

Throughout the year, a number of basic design principles have been talked about. These include the P.A.R.C. (Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, Contrast) principles, Colour Theory, and Newspaper devices, amongst others. By developing knowledge of these aspects and consciously using them in my work, I have developed my design skills and have been able to become more consistent in creating aesthetically pleasing and effective designs.

Ideas Generation and Development

One of the key areas that has aided in my improved work now is the process of ideas generation and the consequent development of these concepts. Through a number of ideas generation techniques, including sketching, mind maps and mood boards, I have been able to explore a number of solutions for each of the design briefs assigned to us. This, I feel, has been an area which I have improved most towards the end of the year, particularly in the final A7 assignment. Despite this improvement, however, I feel I still have a long way to go in terms of forming a truly effective ideas generation process. Therefore, I have set this as a key target for development over the summer and into next year.

In terms of the development of these ideas, I feel I have become more efficient at self-criticising my work and analysing whether the design is competent or not. Therefore, I am more able to produce a well considered, effective design which fits the brief successfully.

Time Management

During the first assignment of the year, ‘A2 – That’s The Plan’, one of the significant issues was my difficulty with time planning. Some of my earlier Journal entries reflect the issues I had with this. Prior to starting on the course, I had done little, if any, time planning in any aspect of my life. As a result, I found it difficult to both plan, and stick to, my time sheets. For the subsequent assignments, ‘A3 – Back To Basic’ and ‘A4 – Image Rights’, which ran alongside each other, I set out to improve my time management skills. I found this to be a success, and since then I have found my time management skills have massively improved with each assignment.

To further develop my time management skills into the second year, I plan to produce a new way to plan and record my time, rather than using the standard production schedule and time sheets provided.

Feedback Processes

Important to the production of work this year has been the feedback processes I have used. These include the Journal entries and comments, the Seminar Groups and Das Forum. My feeling is that although feedback has been scarce at times, the results of these processes have improved throughout the year, and have definitely helped me to improve my own standard of work. This is a crucial aspect to continue developing into next year, and is something which needs to be a priority for development for the whole group, in my opinion. I also intend to take my own feedback processes further by extending away from College and gaining feedback from other sources.

Over the year, I have also developed a tendency to critique random pieces of design. This has ended up with me having a more rounded approach to design work, in that I have a stock up in my mind of what I’ve seen work and what I’ve seen not work. By being immersed in the design world, I find I naturally begin to evolve as a designer. I think that when I do this, I need to stick these in my sketchbook and annotate. I have done this with a lot of pieces this year, but need to work out a way to get those things I see out and about into my sketchbooks.

Other Knowledge and Skills

This year has brought about the development of my knowledge into a number of aspects of both print and web design. I have found that the more I know about these, the more I want to know. For example, the little bit of CSS used to format text for the ‘A5 – Builder’ assignment spurred me on to look further into what CSS can do, and I am now more proficient with it, although there is still a long way to go. This applies too for the print process, a subject which confuses me in many ways, but this inspires me to want to look deeper into it.

What’s Next?

Looking back over the past year, I can see the skills I have begun to develop. However, I can’t afford to oversell myself and believe I have become the final product. I still have a long way to go, in terms of developing the aforementioned skills, as well as skills to come in the future. I still haven’t got a distinction grade. I still need to develop the ability to consistently create professional designs. I still need to develop my coding and web developing skills. There’s a lot of work still to be done.

In the short term, my focus needs to be on improving my ideas generation, specifically allowing myself to become more creative. This is something I have been scared of in the past, although it has got better recently. I need to continue developing this, without the fear of attracting criticism or controversy. Another priority for working on over the summer is to improve my coding skills; becoming more efficient and gaining a deeper knowledge of CSS, XHTML, etc. I also need to continue developing my time management and feedback processes.

In the medium term I need to begin planning for employment. The fact of the matter is that employment is only 12 months away. To do this, I need to begin to gain some experience working in a commercial environment. Experience is crucial in the design industry, with many employers asking for a minimum of 2 years experience. Thankfully, I have the opportunity before me to work in the design department for a golfing magazine, which will provide me with some worthwhile experience. I also intend on trying to get some additional web design work over the summer, as this will also be important when it comes to job hunting next year.

In terms of long term aims, this year has altered my perceptions somewhat. Looking back on the first ever Journal post, I spoke about it being my long term goal to work for myself. This was also the case around Christmas time, when the review of the first semester was posted online. Since then, however, it has become clear to me that this might not be as easy as first thought. It still would be a dream of mine to do freelance stuff, but I think that it’s going to be important to work in the business for another company/person for a good few years before seriously considering moving on to freelance work.

In shot, these are my goals:

• Improve ideas generation and creative work;
• Produce my own method of time management;
• Continue to develop feedback processes;
• Develop coding skills.
  

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