Interim Self-Evaluation

List five practical skills that you have developed. When have they proved useful?

• Using a mac - As a PC user, I had never used one before this course, so it took some getting used to, but now I feel confident and have even been able to help friends out.
• Using illustrator - This new skill, which I am still learning more and more about, has improved the quality of my work as well as making certain processes quicker and opening up many more possibilities.
• Screen printing - I now feel much more confident than I did before this course about screen printing, having properly learnt the processes, which has proved useful in creating prints which I feel have much more of a special quality than digital prints.
• Colour theory - This is something I didn't really think about before, but after the visual language sessions with Fred, I have realised how important it is and I now feel that I am choosing colours that work well together and have relevance to my design instead of just random colours.
• Grids - Learning about grids in Lorenzo's visual language sessions has made my work neater, easier to read and has made it look more professional. This was especially useful when creating my own book, and when designing a magazine article.

List five transferable skills that you have developed. What have you used them for?

• Time management skills - I have had to develop these skills to make sure that I am not behind with the amount of work for different briefs set. These skills are transferable as they help me to keep on top of other things and stop me from wasting time on pointless things such as watching lots of TV as I would have previously done.
• Organisation - The main thing I picked up on after Jo's time management workshops was the importance of organisation. I have always made to-do lists, but sometimes ignored these, so learning more sensible ways to organise my lists means that I am now more capable of keeping myself organised in more ways that just to do with course work, for example, remembering to take library books back on the right day and keep appointments.
• Sticking up for myself - In group work I had to explain and defend my ideas, and I have also had to do this in crits. This skill is a confidence skill which can be transferred to many different aspects of life, such as making me feel more confident with dealing with messy/noisy flatmates.
• Team work - Having to work in three group work briefs already this year, I think my team work skills have greatly improved. I now feel that instead of agreeing with others ideas, I am confident to put my own across. This is a transferable skill which will be greatly beneficial in other areas, such as in my job.
• Trying different things- Instead of sticking with my first idea, and keeping work the same dimensions and media as I would usually do, I have done a lot of experimentation this year. This confidence to not just stick with what I know works has been transferred to other things, such as trying out new recipes in cooking.

List five things that you have achieved. How have they helped you progress?

• I have achieved a first in my critical studies essay which has made me feel more confident about my writing skills. Everything I have learnt in this subject has helped me to understand more about the origins of Graphic Design which has helped my design context progression.
• I have achieved 98% attendance, which is the best attendance I have ever had. This has stopped me from missing out on any work.
• I consider being able to look after myself now an achievement. I can now cook, clean, do my laundry.. etc. Looking after myself properly has helped me to progress into a more responsible adult.
• Being able to take criticism of my own work now is also an achievement to me. Previously, I felt insulted/put off after hearing negative responses to my work, but after the crits we have faced this year, I know now that constructive criticism is the best thing to help my development, by letting me know what I need to do to improve.
• I count positive responses I receive from my peers and my tutors towards my work to my an achievement, as they show me that I am improving and learning. They help me to progress by making me feel more confident about my own work, as I believe we are all our own harshest judges!

List five problems that you have had to face. How have you overcome them?

• In my third group work brief, we changed our idea half way through, however, I preferred the previous idea, so didn't feel as enthusiastic about the brief at that point. I overcame this problem by discussing our new idea with Jo in a crit, and ended up feeling more motivated about this new idea.
• In each group work, there have been people in the groups that have not contributed as much as others in the group. To over come this problem, I have kept my blogs up to date, and annotated which work I have done, so I feel that I will be fairly marked.
• At the start of the year, I felt that my limited software knowledge was slowing me down, especially as so many others seemed to be so confident with the software. However, after the inductions and speaking to technicians, I now know a lot more about software, such as illustrator, and am enjoying learning more all the time.
• I have had to face disappointment with my module grade, which was really off-putting as I felt I worked especially hard in the module. After my tutorial with Amber, I realised what it was that I hadn't done, so will overcome this with more experimentation in the next module.
• I haven't been able to afford things that other students have, such as Macs/course books/software, so to overcome this problem, I've made good use of the mac suites and library, and spent longer days at college. I think I have got more work done this way than if I owned the items myself anyway now.

List five facts that you have learned. When have they been useful?

• I have learnt that there is no such thing as free time for Graphic Designers! This was told to us many times at the beginning of the course by Fred and Amber, but I didn't realise how true this was until we first starting receiving the briefs. This fact has stopped me from wasting time doing pointless activities, as I feel guilty when I do, knowing that there is always graphic design work or research I could be getting on with.
• I have learnt to book a slot for digital print or to get here for 8.30am, as otherwise I will be wasting precious times in queues with other stressed out students!
• I have learnt that three hours worth of work done at home can be done in an hour at college. This has made me stay behind to finish my work at college, which has been useful, as it has saved me time in reality.
• I have learnt that 12 hour days at college are actually really rewarding and make you feel like you have achieved something. This has been useful, as it has allowed me to get a lot of work done.
• I have learnt that mistakes are often more useful than having the right idea initially. Through changing my mind, having bad ideas and making other mistakes, I have probably saved myself time in the long run, as I now have a better idea of what I need to know before continuing on with an idea to know if it will work.

List five things that you will never do again. Why?

• I will NEVER choose a subject that it is impossible to get primary research for, this really effected by observation for my dinosaur project, which also happened to be the longest brief of the module!
• I will never forget to put the eggs in my typogateux cake again, as it looked good, but tasted disgusting.
• I will never leave blogging until the end of a brief again, as it is so hard to catch up on, and it means that bits inevitably get missed out.
• I will never choose a subject that I am not interested in out of choice, as it meant that I didn't really enjoy the brief. I believe the no news is good news brief could have been so much better if I had chosen something really gripping, rather than choosing an article about Katy Perry and Russell Brand's wedding, however, we did not know what the brief would be when we had to choose our article.
• I will never leave an important part of a brief until the last minute, as I did with the packaging side of the product and packaging collection 100 brief, as it meant that I rushed this aspect of the brief, whereas I spent a lot of time on the other aspects of the brief, leaving me quite unhappy with result, and I think this poor response also effected my grade.

Which of these words describe the way you work as part of a group?

- Confident - Passive - Ethical - Open - Vocal - Decisive -Informed - Critical - Determined - Considerate - Tolerant - Withdrawn

Which of these qualities do you most appreciate about yourself?

- Honesty - Originality - Commitment - Responsible - Flexibility - Creative - Ambitious - Focused - Punctuality - Humorous - Organised - Criticism

Which of these attitudes best describes the way you worked at the start of the group brief?

- Organised  - Impulsive - Entertaining - Focused - Laid back - Direct - Informed - Critical - Objective - Committed - Flexible - Entertaining - Passive - Unrealistic - Indecisive - Ethical

Which of these attitudes best describes the way you work now?

-  Organised  - Impulsive - Entertaining - Focused - Laid back - Direct - Informed - Critical - Objective - Committed - Flexible - Entertaining - Passive - Unrealistic - Indecisive - Ethical

 

After completing this self-evaluation after a briefing with Fred on 31/03/11, I looked back at my targets for the year, which I wrote on 25/9/10 (link), and I am pleased to say I have achieved, or am on my way to achieving nearly all of my targets. This really makes me feel pleased about my progress and everything I have learnt, through mistakes and successes. Soon it will be time to think of some targets that I will be aiming to achieve next year!