Sacha Childs-ClarkeFda Design for Graphic CommunicationBlog Summary

Started... eager. Cut up a lot of newspapers. Took photos around elephant and castle and made a blog. I now appreciate the gentle

easing in of the course, the colour groups and the time tables. But when it stopped it felt very sudden. I realise organisation and time management are qualities a designer (or any self motivated adult) must learn, but the drop was a bit of a quick one. One minute I was on the ball, ready for everything, the next things were coming thick and fast and I was beginning to struggle.

When we were told we would have to make a blog, I was a little bit unsure. I hadn’t done anything like it before. I was interested in the image and almost sketchbook quality of it. But the writing side did not come, as easily because I didn’t feel that anything I would write would be worth reading. This was how it came across when we first looked at it. However over time it has become easier to use it as a log of my thoughts and inspirations if I use it for myself and not with any audience in mind.

I didn’t want to look back on this year and feel I had wasted it. So I tried quite hard to get organised. When I heard we were going to make one hundred collages, I thought; start now and that way I wouldn’t have a big pile up come deadline day. Obvious really, but a first for me. I could have come up with a quick way to make loads but I wanted to make one hundred compositions I could be proud of. I got into a good routine and sure enough, I was all ready by the end without losing sleep.

At the same time as the collages, the GDF PDF on the Fda DGC at LCC was going on. I must admit I found the collages easier, so when I was stuck on the GDF I would do those and tell myself I was working. I didn’t look hard enough for inspiration early on and lost motivation. I managed to work on an idea throughout the year but didn’t carry it out as soon as I should have. This was a shame because I liked the outcome and would have developed it further, but I hadn’t left enough time.

When the first sign-up projects came I really put thought into what I would work best on. I chose the ISTD brief because

if there was something to aim for at the end then I would stay motivated. I started off well, bought the book in the holidays... tried to read it, bought the audio book. Then we were to come up with themes. I found it hard to choose and started to fall behind. Without a theme I found research hard. But thankfully I got a theme, and found a good resource for ideas. I found loads of inspiration studying magazine layouts from magazines like varoom. Once I had the ideas though I struggled again. I had to simplify my ideas and focus on typography. My final outcome was interesting and though it wasn’t good enough for the ISTD, I was pleased with the experience.

The portfolio was a worthwhile project and is very good to get people into the swing of getting work. My only problem with my portfolio was I didn’t feel much of my work was worth putting in it. I had just about managed to fill it, but some of the work was not the best.

The next sign-up came and I missed it, I had to choose from what was left over. I chose Uscreates out of the few and hoped for the best. It was quite good really. It focused a lot on interaction and teamwork. These were two things I had not yet done much with till then. Most interestingly we looked at how Uscreates functions and their design process. We were to come up with a team process for the project. Annoyingly due to bad research I had a poor outcome and did not succeed, as I should have. However I look back and realise that all these projects are here to teach us something about being a designer and to find out what it is we like. This is something I regularly forget and if I didn’t then maybe there would be more purpose in the way I tackle projects.

By this time I had realised it was a process I needed. That I could apply to everything and that way I wouldn’t get lost or stuck. I also needed a method to keep myself organised. I tried ical but it wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped and I didn’t stick to it. However the course was not going to wait for me so while I was trying to get things together more deadlines approached and briefs appeared.

So the year as a whole turned out to be a confusing struggle between getting lost and finding my way of working. It’s in no way a loss and though I don’t feel I did as well as I should have I can see where I went wrong and use this to better myself for the future.