A Journal for a Graphic Design Student

    Week 3 Mon 19  Had our last Stage 2 meeting of the second year which was very weird. It's been really nice having these weekly meetings just to see coursemates who I haven't seen in a while and ask any general questions for the week. I spend the majority of the day just editing all my images for my publication as I had finished all my photoshoots. I used Lightroom to do this and it was very fun playing around with all the different settings it provides. Tues 20 to Thurs 22 I spent the last couple of days working on my publication: editing the images, looking at different layouts and exploring some well know publications for inspiration. I found that I difficult to decide a clear layout that I wanted throughout so I ended up choosing the idea of collaging Also, I ordered ICBQ's latest magazine issues because I was really interested to see how they laid out their work. The publication showed off so many different designers and their work and it really helped me build up...

  Week 3 Mon 12  In the Stage 2 Meeting together, we were told about the reflective report which we were required to write about our experience of second-year Graphic Design - a way to reflect on all of your successes and challenges of the second year.  When then had our 'Now Here' meeting where we were joined by Mark Jesset, a creative paper consultant. Hearing him talk about paper and all their different qualities was very interesting and insightful especially since I'm planning on printing my publication at the end, so experimenting and having paper options later is quite important. Tues 13 We had an all-day workshop with ICBQ today, where we were put into groups and had to bring to life our discarded photos in an exciting way for your audience. I had produce lots of extra, interesting photos over the past few weeks so it took a while to choose the ones I wanted to submit. We spent the rest of today going over all our images to see if we could find any natural links fo...

Easter Break Over the course of the two-week break, I mostly focused on taking photos for my main project and working on the mini zine task. Also, it was a time to relax and have a break since the previous weeks had been full of workshops and discussions. I had chosen four places that I wanted to photograph 'from the ground up': Reading, Twyford, Liverpool and Falmouth. They were places that I would be at/visiting over Easter so I took the opportunity (and all the nice weather) to build up a variety of photos for my publication.   Mon 29 March Today I headed up to Liverpool to pick up my brother from the Easter holidays. Because Liverpool is somewhere very different to Reading and Falmouth, I took the opportunity to photograph some of the residential streets there. It was interesting to see the small similarities and differences Liverpool had in comparison Falmouth and Reading and I tried to explore this is my photos. Thurs 1 April The weather was very warm and brigh...

Week 2 Mon 22  The Stage 2 meeting was quick and brief because we are being split into different groups for this module, each focusing on different projects. I have chosen to do 'Now Here' which is a photography and editorial based project. Afterwards, we have a quick meeting with our project tutors to learn about our work this week.  I had a covid test later on today, so I planned to start shooting some photos during my travel there. There were lots of interesting scenes to capture so it helped me start exploring photography and think about what I wanted to do for my other tasks.  Tues 23 Today I focused on researching some photographers that I was interested in as well as planned a little trip to the Helford passage where I want to explore for my 'Expose Yourself' task. We spent the afternoon exploring it together and I mostly photographed things that I found interesting within the inlet of water we walked by, anything from boats to the simple building that dotted the...

Week 1 Mon 15  The Stage 2 meeting was quick and brief because we are being split into different groups for this module, each focusing on different projects. I have chosen to do 'Now Here' which is a photography and editorial based project. Afterwards, we have a quick meeting with our project tutors to learn about our work this week.  I had a covid test later on today, so I planned to start shooting some photos during my travel there. There were lots of interesting scenes to capture so it helped me start exploring photography and think about what I wanted to do for my other tasks.  Tues 16 Today I focused on researching some photographers that I was interested in as well as planned a little trip to the Helford passage where I want to explore for my 'Expose Yourself' task. We spent the afternoon exploring it together and I mostly photographed things that I found interesting within the inlet of water we walked by, anything from boats to the simple building that dotted the...

Week 7 Mon 8  This week is the last week of Design Directions, which has gone incredibly quickly. The aim is to present a final outcome and associated elements to your learning teams. I have my app pretty much planned out as well as having a few other touchpoints prepped - just need help with which ones to continue on with.  Tues 9 Had my learning team presentation today, where I showed everyone where I have got to with my self-initiated brief. Overall, I had a positive response, everyone understood the premise of the app, how it functions and all the additional options available on the homepage. However, there were a few debates over which recycling typography I should use: I think generally the one with the larger arrows looked a bit too complex when paired with the light green background so I should experiment more with the lighter arrows on the type.  Thurs 11 The lecture this week was all about the literature review we were required to write. I have never written one...

Week 6 Mon 1  The Meeting this week spoke about how we should have consolidated our brand identity and should be moving to refining our visual language and choosing touchpoints. I knew that my brand would be presented in the form of an app but what additional elements did I want to add to support it? Tues 2 This week in my learning team, I presented some of my starting brand identity ideas to see if my visuals and written ideas linked up properly. Some agreed that I had built a good foundation but that I should start on some touchpoints to get the visual design rolling - it's something I always struggle to start even if it's something that I'm confident with.   Thurs 4 The lecture today discussed 'Feminism and the Visual Art'. This topic was particularly interesting for me because I'm thinking of researching feminism and design for my dissertation. The representation of women was very heavily discussed during this discussion and I really made me wonder why we on...

Week 5 Mon 22  The Stage 2 Meeting this week was about us getting on and developing our chosen brief - I have chosen to go forward with my idea for a recycling app so I need to start collecting some visualisations to build its identity. Tues 23 The learning team feedback this week helped me to realise gaps in my 'brand identity especially for things that weren't getting across clearly. It was useful though, to present current 'sustainability' apps available on smartphones to see what their style, colour scheme and layouts are like. Additionally, someone else in my team is also covering recycling so it was interesting to see her work and the more detailed approach she has taken to the topic. Thurs 25 The textworks lecture today looked at "Truth and the Media'. It's a very deep topic and really makes you think about what you take in without questioning, whenever you're alone, on your phone, in a park etc. What is always being forced upon us, what do we wa...

Week 4 Mon 15 The Stage 2 Meeting today introduced that we would be progressing with our brief ideas this week, in hopes that we would start forming a proposal for them by the end of the week. I had formed a couple of brief ideas from the workshop last week but I'm still not set on one idea. Tues 16 I had the first feedback session today with the rest of my learning team. We all presented some ideas for our self-initiated brief and got some thoughts back about what we presented. Out of my two ideas, lots of people liked the sound of the recycling app so I think I will be pressing forward with that one.  Thurs 18 The lecture today discussed the idea 'Design and Humour', two things that I generally never look for together. It was interesting to see that humour can fit pretty much anywhere into a design, whether it's trying to be direct or not - like how in the movie Shrek, it actually includes many adult jokes that we didn't truly appreciate until we were older.  Fri ...

Week 3 Mon 8  After the usual Stage 2 Meeting this morning, we learned that the designer Jack Hardiker would be giving us a mini live brief. The premise of this brief is to take this opportunity to break away from the screen and devise something more experimental involving sounds, household items, created objects, mobile phones, light, paint etc.  In the afternoon, I had a quick meeting with my groups to start brainstorming ideas for this brief and what routes could be potentially good. We really liked the idea of involving the senses. Tues 9 Continued on with the development of the live brief which was due at 1:30pm. We had sorted the foundation of the idea yesterday with wanting to focus on task/experiences that involve the senses so we made a variety of mood boards which presents those experiences.  During the review in the afternoon, Jack really liked our idea but found there were a few things for us to work on to make it more presentable.  Wed 10 Had quite a wor...

Week 2 Mon 1  I had our usual Stage 2 Meeting this morning with Matt. We found out that we would be presenting the initial ideas for our self-initiated brief next week, so I decided to focus on consolidating what ideas I wanted to focus on so I could clearly choose the best course of direction next week. Later on today, I had Tim's lettering workshop: it was very interesting to do over Teams and play around with the parallel pen again. Tues 2 I had the workshop 'Creative Catalyst' today, and we got to work in pairs which made the workshop really engaging. Having someone to talk to really helped with the fast development for each activity as well as pin-out certain problems or queries we had with our current brief ideas. Wed 3 I continued to review the work that I had done in the workshop on Tuesdays because I had generated lots of ideas but wanted to work more on the actual foundations of these mini briefs by either rewriting them or explaining them further. Thurs 4 This we...

Week 1 Mon 25  We had our first meeting back today for the new module, Design Direction. Matt and Kate went over all the work we're going to do, from the portfolio requirements to writing our own briefs. I spent more of today going through bits of my portfolio and started to brainstorm ideas for my brief. Tues 26 We had a long workshop today, lasting from 9:30am till around 4pm. All four of the workshops were interesting but used a lot of brainpower. I came up with many different outcomes for the individual workshops: I liked the workshop 'Finding Your Voice' because it made me look at the things I hate and try to find a way to solve a problem within it - almost like finding a way out of hating that one particular issue. Wed 27 I booked a portfolio review with Kate today because creating and progressing with a portfolio was something I was unsure about. I found it useful to go through the pieces of work I had chosen and see the best order to place them in. We decide that I ...

  Week 12 Mon 7 The final Stage 2 Meeting of 2020 just to give some tips for handin and to go over what was expected for it. After needed to find the assessment sheet so that I can start putting together all my work from the Kickstarter and the workshop tasks. Tues 8 I booked a 1-1 with Steven today so that I could go over my work. It was helpful to hear about my progress and what other directions I could focus on them. I still had a few things to finish odd before I could start with my boards but I was happy with the number of touchpoints I had at that point. Wed 9 I had a 1-1 with Matt just go over all the work I had to submit because they were a few pieces that had gonna missing or that I would have to redo. But it was good for me to explain my project to someone else other than my coursemates and learning teams tutor. Thurs 10 Handin Day!! Overall, I was happy with all my outcomes from this project. It was challenging out the start because the client information was small and l...

  Week 11 Mon 30  Had our stage 2 meeting at 10am and received some information about the upcoming week especially since our handin is very soon. Mostly that 1-2-1s are available again so that we could talk about our work with tutors. Tues 1 We had our second group learning teams today where we got to show off our current progress with our coursemates. We were all at a similar place, had a name and strapline sorted and had started on creating our visual elements for our brands. Most of us wanted some insight into what we could focus on and start our next part of development. Wed 2 So today I focused on getting my first brand finished so that I could start researching into my second idea - a bright brand that celebrates people drinking non-alcoholic substitutes. Exploring what bright colour schemes I wanted to use as well as what dynamic style I wanted for the labels. Thurs 3 The lecture this week was about the Branding of Christmas. It was interesting to learn that Christmas t...

Week 10 Mon 23 Started off with the Stage 2 Meeting this week. This week we are to keep on developing our visual positioning for our brands and build upon all the work we have done in the past three weeks of workshops. I'm hoping to have some bottle mockups by the end of the week. Tues 24 Because we didn't have a workshop today, there were learning teams instead. Mine started at 1:30pm so I had lots of time to prepare what I wanted to show and share. The overall discussion went really well: it was nice to hear and see all the work my coursemates had down and also give my own thoughts on it. (mindmap 'learning teams' shows what we discussed about my project). Wed 25 I started off today creating a mindmap of all the stuff that had been discussed in my learning teams yesterday. It would help me pinpoint what direction I should go next for my brand e.g. start designing the logo and visual elements of the brand. So afterwards I began exploring layouts for my brand logo and p...

Week 9 Mon 16 This week is focusing on brand language, the why that brand portrays themselves to their costumer. We had a Kickstarter due in today at 5pm so I spent the morning completing that task. Tues 17 The workshop today was by Ian and it was a very enjoyable one. There were many workshops and they were all fast-paced with a time limit. I really liked the one for brand name development:  by creating a large mindmap and having a section for different types of brand names e.g. Latin versions, two words joined, colours, rocks, I was able to quickly generate a large number of potential brand names. Wed 18 I had a learning teams meeting today to talk about which client we had chosen and how far we have progressed with it. It was also interesting to hear from my coursemates and how they're developing with their brands. Thurs 19 Today's lecture was on brand identity which fits quite well with what I've been working on for my main brief this week. I got to explore how brand id...

  Week 8 Mon 9 This week we are focusing on the audience for our brand and how we are going to connect our products to them. We were given the first activity for the week to do 'you talk to me'. Tues 10 Today, there was a workshop in the studio where we were going to look at how to develop an audience for the main brief. In the first workshop, we were paired with others who are doing the same brief and we started talking about what directs we wanted to take our audience in the end. It turns out that we had each already started to create an audience for our own mains brief and it was interesting to see what completely different directions we had gone in. Wed 11 Spent most of my day in the studio so that I could get ahead of work. I continued working on the activity due on Friday: I spoke to my coursemates about my audience persona and it was helpful to hear what they thought suited it and also gave additional thoughts about what I could add or change.  Thurs 12 The lecture toda...

  Week 7 Mon 2 This week we start our brand experience module. We had our stage 2 meeting at the usual time of 10am where we were briefed on the next module and the week ahead. We had one task for today, we needed to choose a client that we wanted to create are a brand for: I chose the non-alcoholic spirits client. Additionally, we had a Kickstarter to submit by the end of the day where we had to discuss our values as a graphic designer and find an object that you associate with it. Tues 3 Today, I was on campus in the studio to partake in a variety of different workshop for Brand Values that we will need to consider when building a brand. The first workshop was to choose are a brand that we love and create a brand values board for it: I chose the brand Nikon. The second workshop was to create a brand values board for the client we had chosen and get that upload to padlet by the end of the week. Wed 4 I continued on with the research for the brand positioning boards. Spent more of ...

  Week 6 Monday 26 to Friday 30 This week was more of a relaxed working week. But it started off the same with a Stage 2 Meeting about what was on offer this week. Because this was meet to be the week we were meet to be travelling around and visiting multiple design houses, instead the design houses had very kindly film videos of their offices and had done interviews with some of their employees, talking about their designs house and what they love to do. It was an amazing opportunity to hear from all these talents design houses and gain even more insight in the world of design.  I also spent the week photographing my publication and putting together all the work I have done for this module. It was a fun but stressful experience! But I was very happy to have a physical outcome from this module, and it also helped me build my confidence in creating a physical book.

  Week 5 Mon 19 On the final week for this module and the publication is due for exhibition on Friday. We had a brief Stage 2 Meeting just to go over what we should be focusing on this week and what to expect for next week. I went into the studio for the rest of the day so I could start doing test prints on potential paper for the publication. Tues 20 Went into studio for another full day of work. I managed to get a black and white test print done and had perfect bound it last night. I was really happy with the print quality and how the size of the publication felt in my hands. Wed 21 Because I was very happy with the practice publication print yesterday, today I went straight into getting proper one printed and cut. I was very thankful that I had bought a book binding kit prior to this project because it made binding my publication so much easier. Thurs 22 Another early morning sunrise sea swim before textworks. This weeks lecture was on persuasion and focused mostly on Aristotle'...