On joining the course in September 2007 I was a young, enthusiastic and naïve design student. Well that’s what I know now anyway, at the time I would have thought I was the next best thing and an asset to any university begging to take me on. As well as being about making friends, the first year provided the foundation from which my expertise in design grew. Ruth and her typography classes exploring minute details of letterforms that none of us even thought possible, bifurcated serifs, ligatures, and of course kerning now firmly cemented in my brain for the foreseeable future. Not at one point did I find a class in the first year useless, I say this complete honesty and thank all the tutors for their efforts, it was a fantastic year. My final project saw my first experimentation with Adobe Flash, although I know now that I went a very long way around creating my vector animation using hands to portray the meaning of symphony. For the final outcome I collaborated with a student for the audio, which was a very rewarding experience, giving me a taste of the kind of teamwork needed to progress in design. It was clear from this project that the best of work of more often than not produced by more than one person.
The skills I learnt in the first year are some of the most valuable of all, having been developed throughout my time in Cardiff.
Keeping in mind that collaboration and working as a team is vital to design, I have always enjoyed group projects. In particular the Splotlands Credit Union web based project in the second year where I worked with Harriet Cooper, not only were we both learning Adobe Dreamweaver for the first time, but the added ‘pressure’ of working with someone else on what previously has always been an independent project was both challenging and exciting.* The outcome was very pleasing, both in design and functionality, we were also very pleased to be one of the short listed designs by the company.
During the year I became focussed on attaining work experience at a design company, sending out numerous emails and examples of work in order to do so. Eventually I was able to spend two weeks at Clarks International (the people who make shoes) at their head office in Street, Somerset. This was a fantastic experience as a web design assistant and I learnt more about web design in a week there than I had in my whole life. With deadlines being a matter of hours, or even minutes, it was a stark change from what I was used to, but soon had me turning over large quantities of quality work. Within two days some of my designs went live onto the website, a clear sign of how fast-paced the world of web and digital design is. The Clarks.co.uk site has a weekly publish every Wednesday at which point it became apparent that at least 50% of the pages of the site would have changes made to them. When I returned to Cardiff I was filled with a new drive and from that point knew that design was definitely the career I wanted to continue. The final project worked closely with a chosen charity and saw another chance for networking and communication skills to be utilised, something I was happily getting used to and am now very happy we had be asked to do so at an early stage in our education. Networking is a vital skill that all designers need in order to progress in the industry and one I value highly within myself.
After thoroughly enjoying my time at Clarks, and keeping in email contact with the brand department, I was asked to return in the summer to carry out a month on a temporary contract as a Junior Web Designer. The knowledge about Adobe Photoshop in particular was a real benefit, as was working with an in house design team over numerous project for this extended time. I would have loved to had stayed but of course had to return to Cardiff for the final year of my degree. In addition to this they may not have wanted me to stay longer so therefore would have been unpaid!
The third and final year of the degree was by far the best, more work, shorter deadlines, lovely. Kicking off the program with a group project was also very entertaining, I took the role as group leader, but in some ways regretted it. My own time-management skills were exposed and my grade suffered due to this. Had I been simply a member of the group this may not have been such a prominent issue. In hindsight I am pleased with my efforts but can see I was not really ready to take charge of a five person team. Am I ready now? Maybe, but I would give myself more experience working in the design envirnment before committing to it. The project on the other hand went well, I had a strong team of individuals (friends in fact) who worked hard in producing an outcome which finished third overall out of the nine groups in the year. For us this was a great acheivement as we had suffered a big criticism from our mentor at Stills Design only two days prior to the dealine. A real test for all of us, we stayed in the studio until gone 10pm that night. (True designers burn the midnight oil).
Throughout the three years I took influence from design all around me, starting a blog at the end of the second year documenting daily interests. One example of this was in the design for the Jamboree talk in which I took strong influence from an online gallery called the ‘Flawless Gallery’ who’s work I was extremely interested in at the time. I mocked the illustration style in my poster design and was pleased with the outcome. Despite not being selected for the final poster it was a good experience in developing on influences and applying a small amount of appropriation where possible.
With the final year now coming to an end I can see that my skills have progressed as a designer and the experience as a whole has contributed to me growing also as a person. I am more confident in myself and my abilities as a designer, as well as being able to assert myself in any role in the workplace, desig or otherwise. One skill I am still to develop is my prowess in Adobe Flash, a program that has interested me for a long time. I am currently working on producing my portfolio website in the program, which is proving more challenging than it first appeared, but I certainly won’t give up. Matt Leighfield has always been of great help and I am very grateful for his presence throughout the years, along with Paul Jewell they are an excellent techical team for the course.
I am confident that as I progress into the working world I will be able to find a place in the design industry and begin my career. Even if at the start of the three years I may have naively thought I were ready, I now know that I am and can confidently step foot in a design studio and be an important and valuable part of the team.
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