Influence and inspiration

For this brief, the focus of self-reflection and becoming to know ourselves in the design world has tied in well with what the outcome will be. By using our own personal inspirations, we are to implement them into our work, as to show our own professional, personal development.

I wanted to have some sort of craft-based design to my work, as I feel I have not yet had the chance to fully exploit these skills. I noticed that 2 of the second years I talk to on a head-nodding, "hows it going" level - were into image by means of the "tactile" approach to design, so utilizing that big organ in between my nose and eyes, I asked them if they knew any designers that use craft as a basis for their work.

One of my ideas I had was that by creating some sort of dispenser, or clocking device, students could use it as a place to collect "clocking cards" or something along those lines, to document their day. Obviously more research is needed before I start this, however it may come to fruition, and I thought that by looking at designers such as Chrissie

Re-proposing my first year experience

It became apparent that my previous idea of trying to help first year students to be more critical in their approach to work would be very hard, or in my opinion, very boring to do well visually. It also limited my ideas and confused myself into a scattered and unfocused concept.

So I decided to tackle a huge problem that still plagues the rest of the course and not just us, and the soon to be first years - TIME MANAGEMENT.

I chose this as I think it would be more beneficial to learn about time management from day one, rather than a third of the way through the course, as not only is it a professional practice, but if facilitated correctly, it can bring a balance to the new lifestyle that awaits them.

THE PROBLEM IS:

First year students may not be organised enough to appreciate the balance of work and play.

I AM GOING TO DO THIS ABOUT IT:

I will be informing the first years that by organizing/planning their time more effectively, they will not get swamped with work and reap the rewards from their efforts.

I AM GOING TO DO THIS ABOUT IT:

I aim to create an interactive, engaging and fun approach to managing time that can be transported from place to place by the student, is easy to access, and is easy to fill in, but does not feel like a chore. 

I will be using a combination of type and image to communicate this, as without the combination of the two, I dont think it will be done to a standard of visual impact.

Starting to speak from experience

After much discussion, debate, serious reflection and deliberation about the experience of being a first year and what I had learnt during my rocky baby steps to being a pro designer, it came to light that these were some of the main issues I found that had some significace to my ever growing curve of education.

1. Be prepared to make mistakes
2. Manage finances effectively
3."Dont polish a turd" - if its a bad idea, drop it!
4. READ THE BRIEF, READ THE BRIEF AND READ THE BRIEF
5. All nighter? All righty!

These were narrowed down from what was a list of non-specific, or loosely based componenets of a phrase, or rather bits and pieces of a bigger problem. I chose to be more towards real reflection of myself, and to make it more informed to the first years, as I spent alot of it confused, disorganised and uninformed in my ability to make decisions.

So to put some focus into how I am actually going to address/approach this brief, here is my proposal, or rather my first proposal of ideas.

What is the problem?

People are not objective/critical enough about their work.

What am I going to do about this?

Warn them about the potential dangers of not achieving the standard for a resolution or their work in general, inform them of the positives of evaluating and making informed decisions when working, and to advise them about choosing a suitable method to achieve this.

How am I going to do it?

To produce some form of introduction pack to help the first years to document, evaluate and learn tips on how to be more critical, so some form of calender with designers on each month that encourages them to be more independent with their studies, with a do it yourself style booklet that is pocket sized and easy to write in, along with a top tips book that has reference to aid the first year in making decisions.
Or possibly some form of blog/website that has all the information archived in it for eas of access that may be useful, especially when they have to keep a blog.
But obviously there is alot more research and idea generation to go before I start to do anything.