Week 6 (to be done much later...)

Reflective Article.

Sex & Design: article review.

 I chose to review an article reflecting on the use of sex throughout design; I chose this because the article itself is clear, concise and is supported through with relevant theory’s and artist opinions. The article begins by stating its purpose, being to review the use of sex in design in the media from recent years, it then goes on to support this premise by discussing possible causes, such as the British Board of Film Classification reviewing R18 film certificates in 2000 or even the scheduling of such shows as Sexcetera and Porn: A Family Business (Aymer: 2010 A). I found this to be a very clear and easy to read introduction as it already entices you and feeds you information whilst leaving you the question ‘What was the cause?’.

One Designer used to discuss the topic is American motion graphics artist Matt Lambert who has a view that the use of sexual themes becoming more acceptable has lead to a pollution of peoples minds causing them to replicate these experiences in their own lives and goes on to state

“I think it’s gotten to the point where that’s not really good enough anymore, because there’s so much sex going on in advertising and pop promos – everyone’s taking their clothes off and everyone has just got used to it. For me it’s a completely pointless thing to draw someone [just] looking sexually appealing.”

I believe this viewpoint is one that is very relevant from a graphic design standpoint and leads me to question my own experiences and how they may have affected my own design nature. The article then continues to discuss the topic with other designers from a variety of countries and different specialism’s and receives response that agree with the opinion of Matt Lambert and views that contrast this opinion. I think the inclusion of contrasting opinions a great feature of the article and helps make it much stronger reflective article.

My ambition.

I hope to gain employment after finishing my Foundation Degree with the top-up year being a back-up option. I specifically hope to gain employment with a magazine publisher or a graphic design company that deals mostly in layout design and typographic based design.

Layout based design and typography are my two main graphic design ambitions and are things I hope to explore further and doing this in a industry format is something I believe will give me the most benefit. I hope that after I leave this cause I will be able to experience work in this format as part of team to not only allow me to see how my influences affect those around me but to also see how the influence I gain from somebody else can improve my work.

I believe that this ambition is a viable idea due to my designs featuring an enhanced use of layout, or typography as a focus of the image, being the most effective and interesting pieces I have created. I also believe this career path is the right choice for me due to the overwhelming impact a good knowledge of layout and typography can have on a piece of design and by working with both of these throughout my career I hope to be able to continually improve both skills consistently.

However, coming straight out of my Foundation Degree into full time employment may be very difficult to achieve and with so many other competing designers who may have higher degrees or a range of work experience I may fail to achieve any opportunity to pursue this at all. That is why I also plan to apply for my top-up year but take a year out to explore career options and work experience opportunities, this way if I am unable to gain any form of employment in the field I want I will be able to finish my full degree and re-enter the design field with a much higher education.

I believe this is something I am ready for due to my experiences with past projects on this course. I have previously been faced with, at the time, design processes that were unknown to me and I was able to explore my own design process and shape it to fulfil these projects that at first seemed daunting and inconceivable. It is because of that that I believe I will be ready to face design projects for clients and as part of a company and hopefully as a much stronger designer along the way.

I believe this is the best option to take as it will allow me to explore the design field in a way I haven't seen before and allow me to attempt to advance myself outside of an academic standing whilst still having the opportunity to finish my degree if work options don't succeed and other industry experiences don't allow me to gain full time employment.

Skills needed for Graphic Design.

• Listen - listening to clients and targeted audience is just as important as listening to a boss and co-workers.
• Manage time - Keeping organised and on top of deadlines is esential.
• Attend to details - being able to recognise and fix flaws present before sent to print or online can save a project.
• Problem solving - being able to solve a multitude of problems and obsticle.
• Flexability - always be able to work with other people outside your own specialist area.
• Programs - Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign are esential.
• Teamwork - be able to work both as a team and indepentandly.

(www.suite101.com/content/qualities-of-a-good-graphic-design-a57664)

I want, I don't want.

I want to develop a design process that's geared towards the print process and print design. I plan to experiment with various forms of print based design to become familiar with a range of processes.

I want to significantly engage with typography and layout based design. I hope to develop my style around this area and become comfortable with this process.

Week 5 First impressions and skills audit (11th Nov)

This week we began by discussing first impressions and the effect they have on our personal and professional development, we learnt that during a first meeting we give away more of our personality than we think, ranging from things such as interests to our backgrounds and home life.

We discussed this by reflecting on our own first experiences meeting Phil, this allowed us to see just how much we discover unconsciously during first meetings and by working with Phil over the past few weeks we can see that you can often make misconceptions too, such as myself originally assuming Phil was single when he is actually engaged.

We then moved on to complete a skills audit, similar to one we completed a year earlier, to see if our learning styles had changed and compare amongst ourselves. I discovered that I am still a visual learner but by comparing with other people on the course I was able to see how I can often have more or less auditory and kinaesthetic skills than other people, this allowed me to see that the final outcome is not the only important information gained from a skills audit.

I also presented the information I found about The Arts Council and the grants they can give that may be relevant to my exhibition, I found that the process of applying was very effective for group cases such as our exhibition and even allowed multiple people to provide information relevant to the same submission.

Week 4 E-book (4th Nov)

This week we discussed the E-book we need to produce to not only help but also show our own personal and professional development. The E-book itself allows us to not only present our development but it also allows us to produce interesting layout and presentational ideas.

The information contained in the E-book ranges from past successes to things such as our own influences. One of the most interesting features I found was the Strengths and weaknesses section, I found it interesting to be able to present not only what I believe to be my strongest features but to also be able to discuss my weaknesses too. This is something I find particularly helpful from PPD and to be able to present it within a design project is really noticeable.

Week 3 Body language revisited (21st Oct)

This week began by doing a review on everything we learnt previously about body language, this led to a much more in depth discussion on how it may affect us by looking at our own experiences with college/uni interviews.

This allowed us to look at how we had presented ourselves in the past and exactly how we should hope to present ourselves in the future. I found this particularly effective as it allowed me to look at experiences I understand personally which allowed me to see the effects of body language much more clearly.

We then began to discuss the exhibition we planned to present and started to look in much more detail at what we would need and what we hoped to achieve, such as venues, themes and the work itself. It was a lot easier to see how our exhibition may form by discussing it in a group and having the other people involved there to review and expand your ideas.

Finally, we looked at producing a grid system to grade ourselves on a weekly basis and how this could help with our personal and professional development.

Week 2 Body Language (14th Oct)

This week we covered the use of body language and how it relates to us in term of professional and personal progression. We began by going through a group exercise in which we attempted to identify what emotions are displayed by certain forms of nonverbal communication.

We then discussed the other categories of body language. these consist of Physical (facial expressions, tone of voice, body motions and other senses) and Aesthetic (creative expressions, instrumental music, dancing, painting, etc).

We then looked at the opinions we formed by looking at various examples of facial expressions and discussed what caused us to form these opinions and how we can prevent ourselves from doing the same during interviews and other important meetings.


We then had a discussion about how our eyes can give away insecurities or present an air of confidence. This led to us looking at other gestures and postures that may have the same effect and exactly why we should take notice of these to help our own personal and professional development.

Finally, we then took part in a group exercise in which we attempted to find 3 examples of verbal behaviours and discussed how these can be interpreted by others and exactly why we should use/prevent this from happening.