FIRST SEMESTER REVIEW

Jacob Ham

DATE

13th December 2016

Introduction

In this first semester, I have learnt a lot both about myself and design as a career. Working in a space with others who share the same interests as you and future goals is only a good thing, especially in terms of getting feedback. At the start of the term, I would just create a design and leave it at that, and now I am surrounded by people who always question “What if you try this?” or “Why did you try this?”. I will admit that because of this I am now a better designer in the terms that, my work is not finished until I have tried everything or anything to create the perfect design.

Set targets

At the start of the semester I set myself a couple of targets, that where based on things that I felt I could improve on, both in design and as a student or future employee. The following below is the targets I

set myself;

Sketching and drawing out thumbnail designs
Confidence and speaking my mind.

Review of set targets

After semester one I feel that I have improved on the topics above, however there is one that I still struggle with on a day to day basis, that being confidence.

Sketching and drawing out thumbnail designs

I have never been good at drawing things other than shapes and the odd piece of typographic. So, to improve both my planning of my designs and the ability of having more accurate designs, I decided to invest in a Dot Grid notepad. I find these pads to be helpful especially for abstract designs or just keeping things measured, which makes vectoring logo’s or even developing websites much easier as things can be pinpoint to scale. Dot Grid notebooks are essentially squared paper, but with dots instead of full boxes. This means I can use each set of 4 dots to represent as 100x100 pixels. Overall I feel that my drawings have been more planned out and consistent, and will buy more of these notepads within the future.

Confidence and speaking my mind.

The area that I need to improve on is being confident, standing up and presenting my ideas or speaking my mind about other people’s work. This is something I have had a massive issue with, however its slowly getting better and I think that’s due to being in the environment and getting to know people more each day but in situations where I am presenting my work to the rest of the class, I just panic and everything I had planned just flies out the window.

Redeveloped targets for semester two

After reviewing my first semester it would be a great idea to revisit the set targets either continuing the ones set or developing them to focus on a new area that could be improved, the list below is the targets set for my second semester;

Confidence
Expand further on briefs
Learn more about website design
Become familiar with the new Adobeprogram “XD”

Point of action to improve on these targets

To improve on these set targets, it would be best if I planned a point of action for each target, to create a guide on how I can improve.

Confidence

In the second semester, the next unit I will be taking on will be known as Professional Studio Practice or PSP. This brief will require a lot of independent learning, planning, and getting feedback for my own work. With that in mind it would be best to host focus groups to both help my confidence and get feedback on my work.

Expand further on briefs

Expanding on briefs not only requires you to manage your time more effectively but you need to also can know how to expand on it. When you expand on briefs, it can be a tricky situation as most the time, the client did not ask or insist you produce the extra work. Whether it is redeveloping the logo of the brand or simply producing assets for the brand such as business cards, merchandise or even a website.

Although producing these may not benefit the client that often, they will help expand my portfolio and help me manage my projects more beneficially.

Learn more about both website design and Adobe XD

Website design has always been something I have never really put much time or effort into, however since I designed my first site for the “Hoam Grown” project. I have wanted to expand my knowledge of designing sites, and even in the future learn to code them. In PSP I, will be planning to create a website for each project I take on that requires branding, each site will be in different format from one pagers to multiple pages. Another thing I will also be considering is designing the site based around use for Phones and Tablets, which in today’s lifestyle is necessary for any company starting up or already established.

Originally, I design all my sites within Adobe Photoshop, but for a long time I have waited for the arrival of Adobe XD to windows platforms. As of December 2016, Adobe Experience Design or Adobe XD is now in Beta on Windows platform, meaning I can learn how to use the software and make my sites become a reality instead of being a flat design. Adobe XD allows people create wire framing, visual design, previewing or sharing or a website or app, by combining all the features known from some of Adobe’s best software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. However, I will be limited to some of the features, as the program is currently in a testing period for my current OS system, but I will still be able to produce a outcome with the software.