Overall, I believe my performance this year has been sub-par, I’m aware that I have the potential to become a great designer, however my own lack of motivation holds me back. I think this really boils down to some of the briefs that have been set (I know that in the industry you can’t often select what brief you are given, with the exception of freelance) but what the self-authored brief has taught me about myself is that I’m really passionate about illustrating. It was possibly the most enjoyable brief for me, both because it wasn’t a long-drawn brief and because it was something I enjoyed, as opposed to say the competition brief and personal promotion brief.
I in no way want to solely stick to illustration in my work, but it will definitely be a focal point in my work next year and over the summer if I can find work experience in the field.
Currently, I believe that my strengths revolve around my ability to conceptualize ideas through the process of making. This is counteracted by my weakness of being, as stated in the past, “strategic” in the way I work, book work definitely falls behind and development in this manor is rarely applied. However, I feel that the best way for me to find the best outcome, is to work my around things, try them out by making, if they don’t work then delete it and try a different approach. Obviously this cannot be applied when a client is involved as they may like one of the earlier designs. Through my ability to conceptualize, it allows me to be more original in my work, I can often find different approaches to a otherwise straight forward brief.
I also learned from the live brief projects, that I can work well either on my own or with a team, I believe this is a good skill to have as it allows me to branch out into different areas of the industry, as oppose to if I could only work in a team.
My areas to work on definitely include time management. This has always been a big issue for me and gets me behind on work often, however, this is largely due to me spending extra time on briefs to ensure that they look aesthetically perfect. Tied in with this is my organizational skills, I tend not to plan ahead, nor do I file papers and notes, etc. so they are often lost.
Other weaknesses include my drawing capabilities, which is generally why book work becomes an issue as drawing has always been a weak point and I would much prefer to spend my time creating something that I feel would look better. Branching out program wise is also a small weakness, I tend to keep clear of programs such as InDesign as I’m not familiar and would prefer to stick to what I know, even if it takes longer, time needs to be taken to learn the program so this knowledge can be applied to future briefs.
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