12 things you learn in the first 12 months out of university...

A designer came to do a visiting lecture to tell us about his years as a designer and the things he has learnt that he thought would be useful for us to know before we enter the real world of design. Craig Oldham had been working in the design industry for the past 3 years ad has previously worked for the Chase and currently worked for Music. Instead of coming in and trying to fob us off with a bit of information here and there Craig was actually useful! the most inspiring and informative lecture i've heard so far into my university degree! his most useful information was to be honest with yourself, if your doing work you don't like you'll never get to where you want to be. Don't mess around stressing about creating websites and animations if you don't want to be a web designer or an animator. Which of course is true and is something that i haven't fully thought abut before in terms of the work i am creating, i have been picking briefs depending on wether or not they sound a bit interesting or if they are written by a company i like or simply because it is a compulsory brief. However when i have picked my personal brief i have tailored my choice towards my career goals, after Craig's advice.

Another important piece of information is that placements go along way, i have only done one placement so far and am eager to do more, i have been constantly applying but have either not received a reply or been told my portfolio isn't right for their placement. [which is probably why it is a good time to start tailoring my portfolio properly!] Another good point he made was that "life and work exist outside of London" i have been so focused on the fact that to get any work or placements i would have to go to london, when in fact i don't many closer towns and cities have great design agencies that i have been overlooking because my focus was on london. a definite objective of this year it to start branching out in the design agencies i look at and am applying to in relation to placements.

I think Craig's outlook on design is refreshing and extremely helpful, especially in the way he delivered his presentation, with most visiting lecturers i feel they have been talking at me or just informing me of what they do, whereas Craig delivered his presentation towards us, it was aimed at us to help and guide us, which i loved.

One of the most inspiring things he said was don't just completely focus yourself on your work, and don't ignore the things around you. "the more things your interested in the better your work will be." It is the things around us that inspire us most, i feel like i go so fast all the time when i'm walking around that i miss out on the great pieces of design and inspiration that are around me. i should take time to look around at what is going on and it should help me to create better more cutting edge work.

http://www.craigoldham.co.uk/

it's been a while...

Since i wrote anything on my blog. i have been thinking to myself "its ok i'll start everything tommorow" but obviously tomorrow never comes. i am about to go into complete hyperventilation mode about the amount of work i have to do and the extreme feeling i will never pass this degree!!

And so it is time to get started properly and to put some real effort in, because let's be honest i DO NOT WANT TO FAIL!! so my first step is to catch up with my blog...

YCN.

Alex from YCN visited last week, not meaning to sound negative, this lecture didn't really teach em anything I didn't already know, he came in and told us about how YCN as a company works, the majority of which I knew from researching the company online myself and subscribing to the creative opportunities they have available online. The lecture did help refresh my memory on the opportunities that YCN create and have available to students, particularly the live brief's which as I wrote before I am currently taking part in (Fedrigoni), which is particularly helpful since I am currently considering my options post graduate.

New brief...live arghhhhhhh

We were given new briefs to choose from recently. My work load is currently piling up to a point of craziness and I am starting to stress. NOT GOOD stressing only waste's time. But i've got to keep going, the more I work at it, fingers crossed, the more I will get done. The new briefs look really interesting, particularly the Ted Baker window display brief! However I have decided to pick the Fedrigoni brief. It is is based around the company wanting to encourage more creative's to use their paper services, we are allowed to use any method we want to create our ideas, so it is a completely open brief, fun but alot of work because i feel like there are a million possibilities. However this is one of the aspects that has pursuaded me to do this brief, i'm hoping it will give me the chance to have a play instead of stressing about an outcome, although in the back of my mind I am still worrying about it but i really can't help it! I have been looking at work by Rob Ryan and Beatrice Cohen who's work I saw when I visited New York at the Slash paper exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design. I loved the work shown there, the intricacy of the design's on the paper is beautiful, a piece of Rob Ryans work is shown above. I think working in this style will work well for the brief because I will be able to create a message within the image and promote and show the abilities of the paper through my designs. However I haven't forgotten about the Ted Baker brief, with my main passion currently in visual merchandising I am waiting to tackle this brief for my personal project where I will have more time to focus on it and hopefully enter it for the YCN competition, I have never entered my work into one of these competitions but with a huge interest in the subject area i'm hoping that my enthusiasm and interest will show though my designs and enable me to enter. keep your fingers crossed!

Karen's family photography...

Photography has always been something i am extremely passionate about, and when my mum's friend said she knew a photographer (Karen) who might want some help on a photo-shoot i jumped at the chance. I am mainly interested in fashion photography, Nick Knight being a particular favorite of mine, and even though Karen focused on family and portrait photography any experience is good experience right? Definately, i found that despite the photographic subject not being one that i was truly interested in there are clearly many aspects which link together with all types of photography. The main thing i learnt was setting up the lights and checking for the right light settings, this is something i have always been eager to learn but unsure of where to find out how. aligning the lights with the backdrop and using a light sensor to check that the exposure would be right was complicated but interesting, alot of numbers were involved easy to say not my strongest point. we were based at a nursery not far from where Karen lived and her job for the day was to photograph children for their parents, alot of the children were quite upset about having their photo's taken but we managed to get some pleasing shots.

i really enjoyed doing this placement as it taught me new skills and helped me recognise the associations between all types of photography despite the subject.

N.Y.C

I have many things to post from my trip to NewYork but unfortunately they will all have to wait for a few weeks now i have neglected my blog in the hopes that i will spend more time on my creative projects. unfortunately u havn't =( it is now time to...

panic and freak out...

NewYork...

TOMMOROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!