The first thing I heard about Leeds College
of Art, and in particular the Graphic Design course is that it’s the best
course in the country. This triggered my curiosity as where I came from had a
strong design course as well. The reason I did end up coming up to Leeds is
because I wanted to move away from home. When I came to look at the college I
found it’s where I felt most comfortable. I love the studio space and it felt
more comfortable than the other universities I looked at. The staff and the
interview process were much friendlier, which made me feel a lot more welcome. I
had also heard of how successful people from Leeds can become which is what
attracted me to the course as I, like many other designers I’m sure want to be
successful. Yorkshire is also a more attractive part of the country. Where I
come from has beautiful scenery but is flat compared to the Yorkshire hills,
which is an appealing change.
On this course I would like to learn more
digital skills and improve my digital work. I am used to producing manual work
in my graphics however I feel I am not as strong when producing work that is purely
digital. I would also like to learn how to be successful at screen-printing. I
really like the end results of screen prints if they have been designed well
and I would like to achieve this success. I want to found my own studio and
through the personal and professional practice I want to learn how to do this
and how to organize a studio. There are two areas of design that I want to
learn how to complete successfully. I enjoy editorial design and would like to
learn how to produce professional work that looks sophisticated. Another area I
want to learn more about is the process of branding. I have already touched on
this area of design but I want to increase my knowledge.
I think my strengths are in cut paper, a
process that I have used heavily in my two years of college. This is my most
preferred process and I feel my best work comes from using this manual process.
I think my use of composition and my use of colour are two more strengths of
mine. In the past I have been complimented on my work and how well my
combination of colours in my work have complimented each other. There is
something I enjoy about making sure the aesthetics of a piece of work are correct
which is why I enjoy editorial design so much and is something I wish to
peruse. I also think I have strength in finding visual elements that represent
meanings. I love watching films and thinking about visual elements of these
films that I could use if I wanted to make a film poster for it.
I want to improve on my time planning as I
often find myself short of time towards the end of a project and I haven’t used
my time efficiently. This is something I really want to push and I want to be
well organized and complete tasks with punctuality. I also would like to
improve my teamwork. I often struggle to work in a team because I usually want
to take control and often find that I push my ideas forward more than listening
to others. I want to improve my digitally produced work as I love how
professional work looks when produced digitally but often I find that when I
try to produce something digital it wont look as professional so I would like
to improve my execution when producing digital work. I would like to improve my
presentation. I often find that I don’t present my work professionally if it’s
on my blog or in my portfolio. I would like to improve on my presentation
skills and treat it like a piece of design work. I would also like to improve
my graphic community awareness. Until I moved up to Leeds I didn’t indulge in
reading reviews about work or going to print fairs or reading design books but
I have forced myself to pay more attention to this culture and I am finding it
fascinating as well as useful. I would like to make myself more involved with
this culture as I think it could be very beneficial for me.
One of the main tools I use as inspiration
is Pinterest. It’s very easy to find work on there and group similar pieces or
pieces by one artist. It also will give recommendations based on pins you’ve
liked.
I also spend a lot of time on Instagram. Recently I have followed lots
of studios and artists that post their work, which always intrigues and
interests me.
I also have a portfolio on Behance, this is a tool that allows me
to follow artist’s work and I have a feed, which is always full of new work
that is also inspirational. This allows me to share my work with these artists.
I am fanatical about film and I often enjoy artistic films such as; Life of Walter Mitty, Her, Chef, Inception, Life Aquatic and The Social Network. These films are stylistic and have been thought about artistically and they keep my creative mind running.
Another area of inspiration I use is Twitter. Much like Instagram this is where lots of designers and artists can share what they're up to.
Five areas of design that interest me are:
Editorial design; this is a field I hope to
go into one day.
Branding; this is one of my favourite
fields of design that I definitely want to pursue.
Illustration; I have always been interested
in illustration as a method or process of design and often use it in my own
work.
Stamp design; stamps really interest me and
I like this field of design because it is structured like editorial design.
Film poster design; I have designed film
posters before and I enjoy this design because it is structured.
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