A look back at the year...

*click on the links to be taken to the relevant blog posts*

So, it's nearly the end of the year and I have been sitting in front of my computer thinking of how the year has gone, how the course has influenced my work, how it differs from my previous study, how my influences have changed and how this has reflected in my blog.

I came to the FDA from an NC diploma in Graphic Communication at a further education college in Edinburgh, previous to that I had been working as a photographic producer which i came to from studying a BA in Photography at this very same college 12 years ago, when the credit crunch hit and I was made redundant, I had a good long think about exactly what it was I wanted to do with my life as I had always felt unfulfilled by the work I was doing. I have always had a keen interest in Graphic Design and because I used to work very closely with Art Directors & Illustrators and was always very envious of their jobs so, I packed my bags and went home for a year, the course was pretty intense and I had a steep learning curve to overcome but I enjoyed going back to study immensely and felt that I had finally found what I should have studied all those years ago. When the course finished I re-packed my bags and and came back to London to start on the FDA at LCC.
The beginning of the course came as a bit of a shock to me, on my previous course I was used to a very rigid schedule with lots of class time with tutors and back to back assignments that meant I produced a lot of varied work which was enough to produce a decent portfolio. In contrast, at the start of the course I found it all a bit disorientating, we had workshops about research, development and ideas generation but there seemed to be no real aim, then the GDF project that we were given baffled me and I couldn't get my head round or see the point in the fact that we didn't actually have to produce a final piece of work and it was all about showing research. I was quite used to generating ideas and had a way of working that I was used to and comfortable with, so being told you had to do your research another way took me out of my pattern of working and my comfort zone, in retrospect it isn't a bad thing to try new ways of working but at the time I stubbornly was pretty annoyed with the whole thing.

A page from the dreaded GDF PDF.

  The way the course is taught is a far cry from the constant tutor involvement that I had enjoyed on my previous course, this I know, is the difference between further and higher education and  I studied a different subject at this level before so it shouldn't have come as such a surprise. Anyway, what you get from any course is what you put in, and it is a much better preparation for working life and independence than being guided and watched over constantly.
   My apprehension about the course completely disappeared when I started the first work based learning project. I chose to do the Okido illustration project with Rachel Ortas, I'd never done any illustration before and was keen to get some drawing practice in. Rachel is a great teacher and I found her extremely inspiring, that coupled with Darrens workshops was a great way of running the project and I really felt that I learnt a massive amount. I produced a childrens book which took a lot of work to illustrate and write, I had naively thought that it would be easy both to write and produce, how wrong could I have been, editing a story down so it is simplified and concise and thinking about all the different angles and positions you have to draw one character was challenging to say the least. Now that the book is finished (well, it could do with a little more work) I would like to try to self publish it, it's the piece of work that I am most proud of this year and I think represents how much I have experimented and learned over this year.

A spread from my childrens book

  Next I chose to do the Brand You project with the guys from Company London, I took on the project because I wanted a challenge and it definitely was that. Although we didn't have as much class time as I would've liked with Alex and Chrys, when we did have tutorials they were really helpful and Alex & Chris were really good at giving advice and guiding me through my frustration with the work. When I finally got to grips with my idea, I felt that my end result was good and really want to expand on the work that I have done and am trying to teach myself how to build a website so that I can use my ideas to produce a site for the work that I have done.

One of my outcomes for the Brand You project.

  Finally, I'm working through our final project, the book, 'London through the yes of a designer', I've enjoyed the workshops that we have done (some more than others) and they have provided a solid starting point for the work in the chapters, as usual, my time spent working verses my time spent staring blankly at my computer wondering what the hell I'm going to do for each chapter has been a bit of an issue, but I have slowly been working through it and starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. At first I really didn't like the brief and was really finding it hard to make it something that would inspire me to do the work but when I decided to make it about all of the places I have lived in London and going back and visiting all of these areas, I've found it interesting and surprising in different ways and am really glad to have done it. Again, it is a project that I would like to expand on more in the future.
Alongside all of this has been our VCT sessions and assignments, I did see these as a necessary evil and begrudgingly went to the classes but it has grown into something I've really enjoyed, I'd forgotten how necessary theoretical analysis is to the design process is and feel that everything I have learned and researched has given me a better critical eye on the work that I produce.
  As far as how my work and influences have changed, I don't think I have necessarily learned anymore technical skills apart maybe from Letterpress and screenprinting, but I do think the course has reinforced the need to be searching out new work and influences, I have a big photography background and this is hugely influential in my work, but I have so many other influences and things that inspire me and the course has helped me to realise this. I suppose the way that my work has changed the most is that I am becoming more and more design literate and can see more what makes good and what makes bad design. I recently looked over my past work both from this course and my previous course and can now see what needs more work or isn't working at all, a skill that I'm sure will develop more over the next year.
  As far as this blog goes, I've not been very good at updating it, it's a habit that I need to get into, I want to continue posting and changing the blog. When I do sit down to update it, I always enjoy it hugely. I'm always looking at things and thinking, "I should post that on my blog" unfortunately that thought does not always translate into action, but at least my intentions are good! I think writing about why you like something or just trying to purvey your personality through things that you like or do is very important, especially in the future when looking for work. I'm still trying to get my head round all of the different ways that you can communicate this with the world, with Twitter, Facebook etc and it's something that I am really trying to get more used too, I'm no luddite but it's a concept that I'm not too great at getting to grips with. The posts that i enjoy the most are ones where I've found something that I really like and want to share, I don't think my work is at a level where it's good enough to be showcased so in the meantime it's good to share what influences you.
  Overall, I don't think that this year has been very good for producing a body of work for a portfolio, but I do think that it has been good to take a step back and really think about the processes, theories and influences. I'm hoping to progress onto the top-up after the FDA so I've got plenty of time to produce the work that I hope I'm capable of eventually.