Want, Need, Need, Want...

We were asked to produce these 6 lists, considering exactly what we want to get out of our third and final year...

10 NEEDS from my Third year...

1. A strong and varied portfolio
2. Better screen printing skills
3. Knowledge of sustainable packaging materials
4. An internship/placement for summer 2010
5. The ability to make quick and correct decisions
6. Better software skills
7. Skills in photography of work and presentations
8. Better presentation and verbal communication skills
9. Not to be told what I want to hear
10. Confidence in my work and abilities

10 WANTS from my Third year...

1. Work I am proud of
2. A job
3. Good advice from tutors
4. To enjoy designing, not dread it
5. Have fun
6. Make the most of college resources
7. To be able to communicate my idedas well
8. A sense of achievement/fulfilment
9. Make the most of being a student
10. A first class degree

Skills I NEED...

1. Vector and pixel based image making
2. Knowledge of how packaging works
3. Improved screen print skills - being efficient, choosing appropriate designs for production
4. Quark Express (or InDesign) layout skills
5. Confidence in speak in front of people
6. Good analysis of existing work/research

Skills I WANT...

1. Expression through hand-drawn type, and typography
2. Knowledge of how packaging works
3. Professional screen printing skills - efficient, clean
4. Layout skills for magazine, report, and copy based design
5. Confidence when speaking in front of people
6. Production of nets/design for commercially viable packaging

Work I NEED to produce...

1. Dissertation
2. Strong hand-drawn type
3. Sustainable packaging design
4. Screen printed outcomes
5. PPD - Self Pro-mo
6. Experimentation and development for Blog

Work I WANT to produce...

1. Packaging design
2. Hand-drawn and digital type
3. Strong type and layout
4. Screen printed design
5. PPD - Self Pro-mo
6. Hand crafted work (sewing, print, mixed media, fabric, embellishment)

To sum up I NEED to produce work that I WANT and NEED to produce, using skills I NEED to develop and WANT to use. (I've learnt that NEED and WANT are very different!)

Festival Poster...

I found a short brief online that was for an International Arts Festival. I wasn't really up for the International theme, so I changed it...because no one can stop me... and made it christmas themed, here it is...

Crowd Spring...

One of my course mates introduced me to a website called CrowdSpring. This is an archive-ish website that has briefs posted from all sorts of clients, requiring all sorts of design. Anyone can enter, and if you're design is chosen you usually get paid.

I produced two very quick logo design for an events and conference venue that has recently been set up, but is based in an old masonic lodge. They wanted a logo that was classic and captured the heritage of the building/venue...I submitted the second design.

There's a first for everything...

Hello! This is my first post to my new Design Practice blog, which I am quite pleased is now up and running. This week has also brought my first ever piece of information graphics....hooray (sort of)!

This is a piece that I produce over 2 evenings, and it explains the main types of espresso coffee that you get in most coffee outlets. I had a rather confusing experience in Australia recently, where it took 2 guys 10 minutes and 3 different cups of coffee to understand exactly what I wanted (which was a regular coffee with cold milk). I realised that the names for different types of coffee are known to consumers, but the actual contents is not always obvious, and therefore we usually go for the safest option when choosing so that we don't get something we don't want. So this explains exactly what you're getting...