Identifying weaknesses within Design and how to overcome them

Last year's personal and professional moduel was a great introduction to personal exploration and creativity, not restricted to traditional Graphic Design. After coming to Leeds College of Art from a Foundation degree, I had no conceptual or practical understanding of Graphic Design- or 'Communication Design' as I have started to call it. When investigating my own areas of interests in the first year, it became obvious I do not seeing myself working in a traditional graphic design role.
The title of 'communication design' is much more inclusive to other creative practices, even suggesting that communication does not have to be verbal- yet through a concept, feeling or constructed photograph to best translate the message.

The formulaic rules set forth by The Bauhaus and the modernist design movement was overtly constricting, making me think 'graphic design' to be purely two-dimensional. With this in mind, I aim to broaden the scope of my communication design by incorporating personal interests and personality. Through collaboration and proactivity, I aim to target the following sections:

     - Art Direction
     - Visual Merchandising / Fashion promotion
     - Set & Window design construction (inspiration: Bergdorf Goodman)
     - Fashion Styling
     - Fashion Label Branding
     - Fashion Photography (Whether studio or documentary based, exploring subcultures of fashion       alongside Haute Couture or student work)
   
The module also forced us to think about where we want to be in 10 years time, a scary thought when working it back to see the actions I need to be taking now. The fear of not achieving these goals is itself is a hinderance, with my brain disengaging and putting tasks off because I have little confidence in actually achieving them. This mindset is my biggest weakness, and not as easily solved as "spending more time in traditional print" or "blogging more"- so this will naturally take time, but is something I am working on improving.

When creating personal branding, I had little direction and didn't really take it seriously as I knew it would never meet the eyes of clients. Looking back, the quality of my work could have been so much stronger, and again this is something I wish to work on in the future. When comparing myself to stronger peers in the group, an instant unengagement strikes me because I think 'I will never be as good as them', but with practice comes improvement.. so to improve current weaknesses I will:

  - Spending more time on Illustrator to improve technical competency
  - Research and engage with more design studio's
  - Broarden the scope of initial research, exploring lateral area's to generate the most innovative outcome
  - Engage with networking events
  - Practice public speaking & learn nerve managing techniques.
  - Tell people about my work and who I am as a designer. Don't be afraid of my style direction differing from someone else's.

OUGD502: Light Night & City College Exhibition

OUGD502: 'Record Exhibition by Alec Aarons'

A collection of photographs documenting record stores across the country, where he purchased a record at each one and later formed a publication.

The exhibition was hosted at The Brunswick. As Alec and I are friends and collaborative partners, I helped him co-ordinate the space and got him in touch with The I AM Collective for promotion and advice. The opening night was a success with lots of people turning up and posting it on social media.
I also helped with the design identity of the event in a collaborative process with Alec which was an invaluable learning experience as it gave me an inside into how proper curation works, as well as organising and project managing the opening night and production. In the future I would like to put on my own exhibition, so may use the year as an opportunity to expand my own practice, indulging in self directed brief's to expand my portfolio and what I could exhibit.