Second year - 10 successes

As a group and then as a class we went through 10 things we as graphic design students felt were successful last year. We were split into smaller groups and this is what we came up with - 

- Passed year
- Living alone
- Cooking
- Printing workshops as a whole 
- Developed digital skill 
- Learn how to answer a brief
- Confidence 
- Improved our personal professional practice as a whole
- Improved literacy skills
- Balancing work with uni
- Developed workshop skills 
- Whole process of making a book
- Prioritising briefs and work

After we finished this task we were asked as a group to give the most relevant and concise answers we had down, the next 10 things looked like this. 

- Presentation skills
- Giving feedback 
- Workshops
- Independent studies 
- Research and development
- Understanding time management 
- Working with groups 
- Confidence/motivation
- Theory/context
- Development of your own style

As A task then we were set to write 10 things that you would with to improve on this year. I think some of them with remain the same as I feel I do still need to improve some aspects of that list while i'm on my course. 

- Although last year was mainly for experimentation I would like to still keep an element of experimentation in my work, although developing your own style is an important part of being a graphic designer, I would like to start to experiment with different materials, wether this be in my own time or on set briefs.

- I would like to continue my development of illustrator, I feel this is one of the most important applications for a graphic designer. I have used the programme for years now but I still feel I can improve a lot on what I already know.

- Time management for me personally last year was quite a big issue, I need to be able to prioritise different briefs for when they need to be handed in. I felt at some points last year this got away from me and I would find myself doing my own work rather than work connected to the briefs that had been set.

- Research and development of my ideas was always something I was told I need more of. On some briefs last year I developed my ideas really well I thought but on others I didn't  I find it very easy to come up with one or two ideas and just go with them, but in reality I would get a much better end result if I were to explore the different possibilities before I go ahead and start creating final pieces. 

- Presentation is something I feel I need to improve on but more in terms of preparation, I don't particularly feel too nervous when Im presenting some work but I feel I could improve on the preparation I do prior to the presentation. 

- In terms of group work I feel I would benefit in many cases from collaborating with different people, last year if the option was their I would generally choose to work alone. I would like to try work in more groups this year. 

- I would like to work on the finish of my final out comes this year, I feel last year a lot of my work lacked the finish I desired, this Is something I want to continually improve on all year.