Where am I going.

I’m not one to plan for my distant future, and to be honest I don’t have any idea of where I will be 5 years. Although, I think it is always good to have some idea of what you want to do, but things change all the time. It does seem evident at the moment that I need to commit more time to my work to ensure I develop in the design industry and do well on the FdA Web Design course.

I do have quite high expectations for myself and this is because I can be a perfectionist with my work and if it’s not right then I’ll work on it until it is to the standard I want. This has always been the case and I expect it will continue.

I am going to do the top up year after the two years at Wakefield. I recently learnt that for the top up year I could be more specific on which part of the Web Design industry I want to do. As you will have seen in my earlier posts I am definitely more interested in the design side of the industry and although it is important to know the coding side of the industry I believe I will always be a designer.

Right now CSS and HTML is alien to me as I haven’t had to use them at any point in my life, or if I have I haven’t known what it was. I am hoping it will become second nature to me. I imagine it will take a lot of time and effort but I am willing to learn it.

I’m hoping that when I finish the 2 years at Wakefield and the top up year that I will find a job. I’m not expecting to get an amazing job at the end of my education but even starting at the bottom of the pile and working my way up would be a good start. If I can’t get a job then I will go back to University and do a degree in Graphic design. This should make me more employable.

I think it will do me some good if I find some work experience in the design industry also. I am quite lucky to have an uncle with his own business but I can’t guarantee some work. During my first assignment when I interviewed some companies, I asked about work experience and they said I would be welcome. Never hurts to be cheeky and ask the question.

I would like to improve my presentation skills while I am at college as it will be a big part of my life as a designer. I have always had a problem with public speaking but I think I have already developed that skill somewhat. Working in a group and discussing thing at college will help improve my confidence.

Here are a few things I need to do while I’m at Wakefield College.

• Learn to utilise my self-study time more efficiently as this is one of my major downfalls at the moment and was during my time at Kirklees college.
• Learn to use CSS and HTML.
• Get better at specifically sticking to the brief that I am given.

These are only a fraction of what I need to learn but they are what I see at the moment as quite important. Mastering the basics of design and work in general will put me into the right mind-set.

This is what I hope to do after I leave the FdA in Web Design course at Wakefield.

• Do the top up year and get a full degree.
• After that, get a job that I enjoy doing.
• Work my way up in the business.
• If I can’t find work then I’ll go back to university and do another degree course.
• Keep gathering new information by reading books and online articles.

These points are all relative to me doing well on the course at Wakefield and may change over time. For now I’ll work on developing my skills and overcoming my weaknesses.

I feel I do know my own weaknesses and I know what I need to improve on. These points above are just a few of the things I need to develop. I imagine new obstacles with get in my way during my life as a Designer but overcoming them will make me stronger.

Work Count: 746

 

Where I am now

Not yet having my results for my first assignment, I believe that in this journal entry I can only say how I feel I am doing and where I feel I am at this moment in time. Although seeing how I did in the first assignment may sway how I feel I am doing. Since doing the first assignment I do think that I would of done a lot of things differently so no matter what result I get, I can say I have learnt something.

I do believe that I have made progress and have learnt new things, but I have also learnt that I have only come a short way on the long road to becoming a designer. For the first few weeks I felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work I was presented with. I now feel that the work is more manageable because I have learnt to work quicker and more efficiently.

I have always struggled with self-study, as there are too many distractions at home, too many times I have said ‘I’ll do it later’. I still struggle now and I believe it will take some serious self-discipline to change this but I feel it will come in time as I have already learnt so much. I think that now would be a good time to try and change my ways, while I am still developing.

I am the youngest of the FdA Web Design group and at first I was shocked that the others were all older than me because I have always been in education and have always thought that it was the only way to do well. As I have now learnt, experience means just as much as education, if not more. I have no background experience working with the web and using code and at the moment I am struggling to grasp even the basics.

I can sometimes jump into projects too soon without researching enough or putting enough thought into it. I just design something as I am creating it. So it wasn’t a shock when I did ‘The Learning Styles Questionnaire’ by Honey and Mumford, that I had a strong preference as an activist and only had a low/moderate preference for the other 3 learning styles. Although I think that I use bits from all of the learning styles when doing any project but mainly do things my preferred way, as an activist.

I think the results on ‘The Learning Styles Questionnaire’ will change as I develop as a designer, maybe not my preferred way of working but been able to work in the other learning styles more would definitely improve my work.

Reading the Rutledge articles have somewhat opened my eyes to some of the mistakes I have made. When I started reading his first article, ‘The Employable Web Designer’, it just seemed as if he was criticising education and saying you would be better learning by yourself. I agreed with some of the things he was saying but mostly I felt he was having a go at the educational system. After reading his second article, ‘Criticism: Myths and Childishness’, I understood the first article more and started to see that what he was saying was actually constructive criticism.

When I have had my work criticised I felt as if it was a criticism toward me and took it personally. I now realise that I have to learn to accept criticism as something that will help improve my work.

Skillset didn’t really work for me. Yes it told me everything I needed to be able to do but the way it is presented is a bit overwhelming because of the volume of the text and it is difficult to read and understand.

I am hoping that at the end of my first year or at the start of the second year, I will be able to go through them again and will be able to tick of a lot of things I can now do. After being on the course for only 7 weeks I feel like I could already say I can do more than I could when I started in September.

When I get feedback on my first assignment I think it will give me a clear idea on what I have to improve on. At this moment in time I am still in the trial and error period of a lot of things. Overtime this will hopefully change.

Word Count: 749

Where I have come from

I have been interested in art & design since I was little as it has been in the family. My uncle is a designer and owns his own business and I always thought he had a great job and loved the work he did, therefore I have always enjoyed art and the idea of creating things.

In high school there was only one art class and one photography class, nothing specific like graphic design. Although it wasn’t the class I did the best in, it was the one I enjoyed the most and I wanted to continue with.

I then went to Huddersfield Technical College to study a BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design. It was a two-year course, which involved a range of different subject areas such as Graphics, Photography, Print etc. Throughout the course I seemed to spend less time on the subject areas that I didn’t like and spend the majority of my time on the ones I did. I now feel that it would have been a good idea to spend the same amount of time on the other subject areas to see if I could produce some high quality work in them. Towards the end of the first year we chose an area in which to specify. I chose to do Graphics, as it was the one I had preferred since the start of the course. We still did the other subject area, but only for different techniques of doing our Graphics work.

Towards the end of the 2 years, everything was focused on getting a place at university but I was always in two minds about going. This was mainly because of the expenses and people that I know have complained that sometimes the tutors don’t show up and you don’t get much, if any one on one time with them. So I saw it as a waste of money and didn’t apply at first. Getting closer to the end I still didn’t know what I was going to do afterwards. My tutor showed me a poster for a Foundation Degree in Web Design course in Wakefield, and said I should have a look.

I contacted Steve Smith through his email and set up a time to have a talk about what the course involves. After the talk with Steve I walked away thinking that it would be a great course to do and sounds like just the thing for me. I then arranged a more formal interview with him where I brought in my portfolio and my grades and was offered a place on the course.

I had a holiday booked which was 2 weeks and the second week was during the induction week so I missed it. I would of liked to have been there because it would of give me more of an incite into what we were doing on the course. I came to MF18 the following Monday at 8:50am and seemed to fit in fine.

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