Study Task: Why am I here and what are my goals?

5 Reasons why I chose to study on this course:

1. All the tutors were young, fun, enthusiastic, graphic designers with in depth knowledge into the field of design and amazing experience in the design world. 
2. The course had a strong focus on learning and understanding traditional design principles as well as introducing more modern processes and cutting edge ideas, keeping the course dynamic and keeping us up to date while also preparing us for this constantly evolving industry. 
3. The course covered a lot of design principles and the ways of teaching varied from hands on practical work, to writing and researching essays to interesting lectures and seminars from practising designers.
4. The course allows you to work in the style that you prefer allowing you to individually grow and flourish as a designer. 
5. Leeds College of Art is a well known institution in the design world with an impressive list of previous students and a reputation for fresh new talent. 

5 Things I want to learn during my time on this course:

1. Become sufficient on all the adobe design software so I can think of an idea in my head and produce it myself without any limitations or restrictions. 
2. Learn all the different design principles and how to apply them to my work as well as fully understanding their importance in design and ways they can be manipulated to create innovating new creations. 
3. Learn and memorise a vast list of artists, designer, documentaries, events so my practice has a constant stream of inspiration and so I always have something to enrich my evolving practice as well as personal life. 
4. Learn how to work better as part of a group, not being such a control freak and discover how to enjoy collaborating with other designers.  
5. Learn all the skills I need to become a successful graphic designer.

5 Strengths: 

1. Generating ideas and brainstorming (I'm good at thinking of multiple ideas on the spot and developing them into more in-depth concepts)
2. Drawing / Painting / Illustration / Photography (Got A* at Alevels for fine art and textiles, and progressed these skills on my foundation course)
3. Time Management and organisation (I manage my time well to meet deadlines and I'm good at prioritising workloads do I always get everything finished on time)
4. Motivation (I'm good at motivating myself to get briefs started and progressing through projects)
5. Working independently (I like working by myself to get work done so I have full control over all areas.)

5 Areas for Improvement: 

1. Working with others (I'm a bit of a perfectionist/ control freak so I find working with other people frustrating and annoying sometimes. I want to improve on this because as a designer you have to collaborate with other artists and designers as part of a team or to get specific projects finished.)
2. Screen Printing / anything in the print room (I haven't had much experience with printing posters using other methods rather than printing out on a computer so it would be a fun and useful skill to learn)
3. Adobe software skills (My skills in these programmes are very basic and I have never used inDesign)
4. Knowledge of design Principles (I want to become fully competent in understanding design principles such as grids, layout and colour theory so i can utile them effectively in my work so my designs are fully considered and thought out)
5. Identifying what inspires me / Designers I like / Work I aspire to produce. (I'm not very good at remembering / talking about who inspires me / my opinion on artists work so I want to build a good library of artists work that I can relate my developing practice to. 

5 Things that inspire me: 

1. Desert Island Disks (Especially Dame Judy Dench's and Stephen Fry's)
2. Watching Documentaries such as Bill Cunningham New York and Made You Look
3. People Watching in Town and Yik Yak
4. Blogs such as BOOOOOM!
5. Hanging out with my friends

5 Examples of Design that demonstrate my fields of creative interest: 

1. Delphine Chanet Photography // Especially her series for the Discovery Award at the annual Recontres d'Arles photography festival [ here ]

2. Hans Fex's Mini Museum // THEY'RE SO COOL! They take minuscule pieces of real dinosaur bones, meteorites and fossilised insects etc. and incase them in a piece of acrylic for you to have sat on your desk or on a shelf at home I WANT ONE! 

3.  Video: Sum // Studiocanoe I love anything where statistics are presented in a beautifully considered, visually stimulating way. Whether it's this video by studiocanoe where they guide you through the average statistics of a human life or infographics such as Information is Beautiful by David McCandless.

4. Hand Rendered Typography designs such as Corina Nika's Work. 

5. Lucinda Rogers Illustrations.  I love the differation in thickness of line she uses in her drawings to make them dynamic and interesting.