Summer Brief

I was asked to list things which I thought were successful from last year. Here is the list which I thought of;

1. Blogging which i found to be difficult at first but now I feel I can successfully blog and it be easy to read and managed well to find each blog post.

2. Money management which again I found very difficult at first but I now know how to budget and manage my money successfully.

3. Time management, I now think I can use my time more effectively although I feel when I do work I personally need quite a lot of time to reflect. 

4. Print process. Now knowing what the printing process' are I can use them to my advantage and what kind of time i need for each specific print process.

5. Presenting work. That it must look as professional and finished as possible. When presenting the work i need to be loud, clear and keep eye contact with the audience. 

6. Confidence in my own ability, I can achieve a very high standard of work if I put in the ground work and this can be transferred by my presenting skills.

7. Reacting to feedback when it is given to me. Not to dismiss it or think about it but to act on it as this is the best way to improve my work with the group of designers around me.

8. That my thought process and development work has improved ten fold. That without my development work I will only use on idea and not expand on it and have a poor idea generation.

9. Knowledge and understand of the Adobe creative suite. Before last year I had generally good understanding of photoshop but no idea of illustrator and InDesign. Now i know much more and am confident of using the programmes to create new work.

10. Independence of print process. What I mean by this is looking outside uni for printing as it has limited mac's so printing can be an issue, to look elsewhere gives me more time to develop work and less stress.

I think that this is a solid list of things which i have been successful with. So by this list then I have no excuse that i can't do the work, I should be self aware.

A list from the class which everyone has deemed to be successful;

1. Presentation.

2. Feedback

3. Practical workshops.

4. Independence.

5. Research and development.

6. Time management.

7. Group work/specialisms.

8. Confidence/motivations.

9. Theory/context.

10. Style

10 successful traits and practices I must do in order to be successful this year;

1. To have more professional looking work, to have all my work developed and documented.

2. To improve my time managment in order to give myself time to complete briefs to my full potential.

3. Blog all work which I do so show development and knowledge on the subject.

4. To look into packaging design and brand strategy and language. I have found over first year i enjoyed packaging for a product and reintroducing something back. Although my work was below par, i know i can improve and build on my skills i have learned.

5. To try and learn new techniques such as paper manipulation and fold techniques. To make a start I have bought 3 books by Paul Jackson and have started to experiment with some of the tasks within it.

6. Really push my work on illustrator as i know how important it is in the industry and to make my work more professional.

7. My photoshop skills, so that my work when it looks more professional I can happily put them in my portfolio knowing that my work looks its best.

8. InDesign to help with any rebranding/packaging work. experimenting grids and hierarchy to create a more visually interesting work.

9. My resubmission work to be handed in on time and to the highest of standards to stay on the course.

10. Develop my own style as I don't feel I have one at the moment in time, which I think would give my work an edge and stand out from others.

Afternoon task and Presentation

WE had a maximum of 5 minutes for the presentation of which i was the time keeper. We also had 1 minute to give back any feedback we could. I tried to be critical but i found this a struggle as I only had a minute and giving any real insight feedback was difficult.

This is my feedback of which i have categorised my work into specific feedback, positive and negative.  It could also be put into useful feedback, which is specific and actually is relevant and can help me in my progress. Could be useful, its almost helps me but doesn't quite have any critical message. finally Ego which is 'nice' feedback which doesn't really mean a lot but its 'nice' feedback which helps with confidence and will help me in the future when presenting my work.

3 objectives from summer brief;

1. To look into the history of packaging. 

This will further my knowledge and understanding.

Why some products are made they way they are..

2. Research form follows function.

To ensure my knowledge is furthered on the subject of packaging.

3. To be more specific with the positive facts and impacts using facts and figures. 

To know exactly why using the product is beneficial. 

To always ask why is important to get to the root of the problem you have been given or to get to the bottom of the subject in question. To never stop researching and to explore every avenue. 

The task was also to show how important feedback from your peers actually is and that feedback is only beneficial if it is specific and concise not vague as it makes it irrelevant. So feedback is vital but it is only useful when it means something and not just inflating someone's confidence.