It's now currently my Easter holidays and seeing as I've been back at University for a month I thought I'd have a little chat and catch you all up on what's been happening in my life. Especially as I've been posting less than I would've liked, apologies again for that. So if you don't follow me on any social media you might not know that I've hit my final year at University, my big stressful honours year of design. After this year I'll officially be out in the big wide world with all them 'proper adults'. I realise I'm very almost twenty two, and have been an adult for a while but those around my age who have gone through this process will know what I mean. That black hole at the end of the year is looming and fingers crossed you manage to work your butt off enough for someone to love you enough to give you a job, fingers more crossed if that can happen without too many tears and breakdowns.
Major Project
Anyway instead of reading the humongous pile of library books sitting on my desk about a glorious range of topics to do with my major project I thought I would write this little post. So for those of you who don't know a lot about my degree, we're not like a lot of 'regular' degrees in that you spend a lot of your final year writing this huge long amazing dissertation, instead we do a major project. First we do a lot of research and form this kind of proposal, which I guess could kind of link to the dissertation, and then we create something to 'solve' the proposal and then present it at the end of the year. This may sound brief but I'm not 100% about it myself.
So since writing about what drives me in design I've developed my idea further and further to the point where I'm currently focusing on the creative process, what makes us creative, what actually is creativity, and how I can become a better designer. We'll see in episode two how much that changes! I've set out to try out as many different strategies and ideas while documenting all my thoughts and feelings in order to see how they work. Also to see whether implementing them to my everyday process will help me become a 'better designer' by creating more thought out and strong design solutions. We'll see how that goes but I'm currently figuring out the direction I want to take in the second part where we use all this research to actually make something. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make some sort of book but hey that can all change by tomorrow even.
Electives
If you haven't been following my Instagrams then you may not know I've been taking Contemporary Letterpress for the last few weeks. I've been looking forward to this class since I finished the Letterpress paper in second year and boy is it great to get back into the print room and get hands on and inky. My nails might not be loving the fact they're constantly coated in green ink, but the rest of me sure is enjoying experimenting with all the different printing presses. I'm currently working on a three piece set around the theme of Chlorophyll and while I'm still trying to go more conceptually instead of continuing experimenting it's really fun. My first project is due the first week back after the break and due to it all mostly being physical printing with ink it can't be done last minute. So be sure to check out my Instagram to keep an eye on how that all turns out!
I'm also working on a branding project for a local design conference, it's great having actual clients to work with again. It's as close as being in the 'real working world' as can be in University. My group and I have been working really well together to ideate all these possible ways the branding system could work throughout all the conference collateral. Currently just got home from our first client presentation and it didn't go as badly as I expected, which is great. Just need to punch it into the unexpected/unsafe zone which may sound simple but it's not at all! Our final is meant to be a video however what else happens is really unknown, it's kind of exciting kind of stressful at the same time but I'm loving embracing these parts I'm not used to.
Apologies if there's any designer jargon in this post you don't understand, feel free to ask any questions about that or anything about my degree. I'd love to know how your studies are going if you happen to be studying, it's really interesting knowing how other degrees work. Also be sure to check out my major project Instagram @sofillydesign where you'll be able to see more about my process as it's happening.
