The past year has been a very important experience for myself as it has made me realise crucial elements that are key for my own design process. The most important thing I have learnt is that it is absolutely integral to create a concept to develop my work. I realised this as I found I was a lot more passionate about the work I was producing when it had been informed by a body of research. I also learnt the importance of blogging my ideas, as it made final resolutions a lot easier to understand as I had a step by step guide of my idea generation; I found this really useful for group critiques and talking through my work at studio visits, and I therefore believe that it will be incredibly useful in industry when explaining my work, both at interviews and when I have a job to work colleagues.
I feel a lot more confident when talking through the ideas behind my work this year, I believe this is down to my engagement with the industry through studio visits. The studios that I sent my work were very complimentary and said I have a wide set of design skills which they look for in their employees.
My presentation skills have improved vastly this year and I believe that this is also due to my engagement with industry, in particular my internship with Foxduo Design. I discovered that there isn’t anything to be nervous about when sharing ideas with clients; the worst that can happen is they don’t like the design - this isn’t the end of the world.
I think my biggest weakness this year was time management. I left contacting studios till late due to the fact I wanted to get my personal branding and online presence perfect before contacting them, and I feel as though this could’ve jeopardised my opportunity of getting internships due to the studios being fully booked for the year.
This year I have learnt that I really enjoy collaborating, whether that be with other designers or other specialisms. I think it has a really beneficial impact on my portfolio as it shows I can work as part of a team, but I also believe the outcomes are a lot stronger when more than one person has worked on the brief - two heads are better than one.
Overall, I have really engaged with university this year and I definitely feel in a better position and feel more industry ready than I was at the beginning of the year.
