I studied my foundation in Newcastle where i developed my love for graphics. This brought me here, where the knowledge I had accumulated over the year has been pushed in so many different directions that I now have a broad media base to create my designs around.
Before I arrived here my confidence and knowledge was seriously lacking. Now I can quite comfortably use a range of different medias to create my products to the professional standard. The areas in particular that I have really developed have been illustrator, print, digital print and photography. I also really enjoyed the colour workshops we did as I never truly understood the importance of colour and how easily you can get it wrong.
The areas I just mentioned were in my list of 10 things to improve this year. Another 2 key points were: developing my own style and learn from my mistakes.
Both of these have been happening continuously throughout this year, and its only now when i stop and look back that I realise how far I've actually come.
This year has been a huge learning curve for me. There have been certain projects that have gone better than others. Such as " No News is Good news". I really enjoyed this project as we had quite a lot of freedom and I was really happy with the idea I chose. This was to make people understand how lethal MRSA actually is. This project gave me the opportunity o try my own style of branding and identity. Making the design easily transferable. This came in handy when creating the Mail Shot. I really liked the simplistic design I created and I think the outcomes looked professional.
Another project I was proud of was my "What Is a Line" brief. This brief had so much scope to do whatever I wanted. As i had just learnt how to use the screen printing technique i decided this would be a good opportunity to push my skills in it. Using the Leeds City Skyline I created a range of postcards that depicted it in a completely different way. I am really happy with the style I used to create these pieces, and it was something that I felt completely comfortable doing. I am proud of my final products as I feel they look professional and work well. This is defiantly a style I will be working on in the future.
Looking through my work over the last few years has made me realise I am never going to be someone that has one style of working. But instead has a variety of styles to pick from. I dont think I can limit myself as there are so many things I love doing. My aim is to develop my favorite medias and choose the most appropriate one for any given project. Another brief I really enjoyed was the last collaborative brief " Communication is a virus". For this Chris Starkie and I decided to work together and we came up with the idea of "getting people to tell the truth more" - This entailed us creating a character within a book that had a variety of stories that showed the cause and consequences of telling a lie. The book was geared at children to help condition them that telling the truth better then lying. Starkie and I realised that this project was all about the power of delegation and organisation. We both had different skills, his more computer based, mine more craft based. So we worked the project out accordingly. I am really happy with what we produced because we both worked hard in our separate areas and when we put it all together we had a professional looking book and website for people to interact with. With this project I really managed to develop my illustration skills as that was something I hadn't tried yet.
Over the course of this year I have pushed myself in finding current styles that I enjoy and would possibly want to work like in the future. Last year I went to the D and AD talks in London where a man lectured from a company called 'greys world'. The work they do is not something i am interested in but the talk he gave really inspired me, and i think its something that will stay with me. He said " No matter what you do, or how you do it as long as your enjoy it and have people around you who think like you, nothing is impossible". As much as this sounds pretentious and philosophical I have actually found it to be true to a certain extent. Being surrounded by people that share the same passion and drive as me has really helped me keep inspired and motivated to produce the best work i can.
Another designer I have been looking at is 'Vigrafik". I love the intricate style of illustrations and using walls to put the designs on instead of just posters. This work has really made me want to incorporate my illustrations into the work i do.
A few years ago there was a project that was put together consisting of 22 different designers that would draw in 66 different rooms in the Hotel Fox and between them they would cover 1000 varying styles. What i love most about this project is the idea of being part of something that big. I aspire to be like those designers that were good enough for a hotel to model itself around their work.
As i said before this year has been a huge learning curve and there is a lot that I will be take on next year and for the future. I have enjoyed this year and tried to get as much out of it as possible. Generally all the projects I have done I have enjoyed them for one reason or another, whether it be trying something new or pushing myself in an area I already enjoy. I am really beginning to feel more comfortable with my skills in different areas and the trick is now to start producing my work to a better professional standard.
I am looking forward to what will happen over the next few years and see where I go.