Evaluation

My Blog Overall:

Usually when researching someone I would briefly scan through some pages on the Internet and feel that it would be sufficient, not really realising the true potential that effective research can offer.

The assignment took me through a journey of researching a name I had never heard of to knowing their entire background history and into the work they produced. Some names on the assignment were more interesting also easier to research, however everyone showed me something new, it displayed a field of people with all similar talents creating something so much different from one and other. I felt that when researching these names I either took an instant like or dislike to their work, I think this is clear in my blog when comparing the difference in depth of research compared to other names.

I did find that some names on the assignment were harder to research for example some names had little or next to non-Internet sources about them, I believe that these names were put in place to sway us to more non internet based sources such as books and magazines, unfortunately whilst looking I could not find many other sources of information for the people I felt I really liked.

1.1

My research that I have used and blogged about has definitely contributed massively to my designs and ideas, the ability to blog your research and then to add comments thoughts and theories is definitely a bonus to anyone trying to develop a design. It enables you to research and then come back to it at a later day and have notes to work from. It enhances the way you take information in and remember it, from personal experience I know that I will attempt to research something, read the web page and as soon as I have left the webpage forget vital parts of the information, blogging enables you   capture that vital information picked out from masses of pages and allows you to come back to it without having to read the entire page again. It’s a bit like printing lots of pages off highlighting the key areas which have relevance to you and holding them in a massive file, but this Is so much more easier and allows you to go straight to the information you want to read as it is categorised and formatted fit for you.

I feel that research is a vital part of design however; I feel that research is only relevant to you, therefore too much, or to little research is all dependants on you as a person. If you feel that the research you have gathered, has successfully provided you with an idea and you have enough research to back that idea up and develop it into a final design, then that is all you need, I feel that in these assignments, there is a lot of pressure to display mass amounts of research, where realistically people are only using a small percentage of that research to effectively create a great design. Overall I think that the research I have gathered has definitely aided me in my design.

1.2

I feel that visual language and the ability to express my ideas on paper definitely has room for improvement, this is an area I am not confident with and really need some guidance to show me the ways I can effectively express my ideas down for others to see. I find myself thinking of an idea and just going about creating it, rather than putting it down on paper, this creating a nock on effect, hindering the ability to develop and manipulate my idea to improve it.

1.3

The biggest learning experience has been the ability to research a person that I have never heard of before and the ability to blog about that person offering not only information about them, but personal comments about the person as well. When first enrolling on the course I could never have imagined that research could play such a vital role in any type of design, but this assignment has proved me wrong.

It has been made clear to me that although you may set off to research someone for a particular task, it is always good practise to research more than you should about that person, because you don’t know when you might come across another assignment or experience which will require you to use the knowledge of that person in a different situation, for example, during the Hero’s and Heroine’s assignment there was one person I was drawn to, which was Shirley Hughes and how influential to was many other illustrators at the time as well as present day. 


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Overall using a blog to create in-depth research is a good idea, it is a versatile way especially due to smart-phones enabling to do it on the go makes it a much quicker way to update your portfolio and refresh your audiences news feed. I will definitely use blogging again in the future however rather than using it for purely research I want to incorporate my work and some influences as that way it will be totally relevant to me, rather than searching artists that I do not find inspiration from. 

Creative Futures Student Conference 2013

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Glyndwr University held a Creative Futures Week where many artists from a variety of areas and careers where invited in to talk to us and give us  an insight into the realities of working in the creative industries. They provided ideas and various opportunities to develop professionally. And told us that if you network within the industry and contact professionals, they can help develop your future career.

Monday 4th March 2012

On the first day the morning conferences started off as a general insight into the design industry and how you conduct yourselves, as well as a quick run-down of what the plan is for the week.

Some quotes for the morning were:

• “work harder and be smarter than the creative director”
• “be original, find your own influences”
• “passion will drive you to work harder”
• “its not how much your degree costs, its what you do with it”

Sarah Mair Gate (Creative and Cultural Skills).

She gave to us a brief chat about their work and website and how they interacts and helps students and graduates in the Creative Industry to find a job.Basically the speeches during this session were brief heavy and largely statistic focusing on advertising their works.But after Stuart Cunningham make me reflect better when he suggested that if more people stayed to work over Wales Industry obviously the wages shall rise.

Tuesday 5th March

Phil Hirst (Getting a job in the Media)

He spoke about graduation importance and how to climb the industry ladder. When you finish your graduation then different lines start to be clear, doors start to open and to many ways become more understandable, what’s going on and what’s this for, what is that for, all this become just natural, all things around get involved. We really need to study Media Studies for understand small and big things that happens around.

The companies in Media looks for people that shows clearly strong skills evidences through the way that increase effort and passion for the Media.

Journalism got a different view and Methods specifics for them views and that don’t work for me and my personal perspective, point of view and my own way to think.

Through the Organisations and Jobs researches, Enthusiasm and Passion for the area, Broad General Knowledge and Curiosity to Learn more, Practical Work Experience, Determination and Persistence. We must to get some Work Experience, moving around and make some Apprentice Improvement, Volunteer on Student Newspaper, get involved in Studio Radio, work by Charity in Hospitals, Community Centres, Radio.

Wednesday 6th March 

Yasia Williams Leedham (Book publications) 

Yasia graduated with a degree in Design and Art Direction from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998 and moved to London where she began working fin magazine design.

Overall I found it interesting and very informative; she first told us how she worked her way up from graduate to the position she currently holds. She also emphasised how important work experience was, and that even work experience staff have helped put publications together and gained full time jobs from it. Furthermore she said about the market and the changes and the factors that effect her job such as eBooks. This made me realise you need to be flexible within your work to adapt to society changes.

Thursday 7th March

Kirsteen Harris-Jones ("How to be a children's book illustrator")

Kirsteen was an ex student of Glyndwr University (whilst it was NEWI) and spoke so highly of all the staff. This talk was one of my favourite as it the most relevant for myself. She showed us work, and spoke of her experiences as a freelance illustrator. 

Again she was emphasising the importance of work experience and how it helps to reach jobs in the future. 

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Furthermore she mentioned how she had previously had trouble with an Design Agency she was with straight from University - from this I will definitely take a lot of consideration when chosing my agency. This has also helped me realise I would like to get jobs via an agency; although they take a cut of the money the legwork of finding jobs and advertising will not be done by myself as well as fitting in actual illustration work, with an agency you can have jobs lined up one-after-another.

She also talked us through what happens from the moment you get a commission to completing the final piece, this taught me there are lot of middle steps as well as lots of communication between myself and the client before going ahead. I found it all very useful and inspiring, even when reiterating the fact that you have to take the uninspiring jobs until you could get a good deal.