After completing part two, I took 8 weeks off to recover from burnout. This was really needed, and my poor mental and physical state was impacting my design work hugely. I felt very negatively towards my work, and the quality of my work was slipping too. Thankfully, after this time off, I am feeling much happier and able to work in a way I enjoy again.
My tutor’s feedback for part two was mostly positive, and the guidance on where to go next was extremely constructive and useful. Two areas need more work – my research, and my sketchbook usage. Both of these critiques make a lot of sense to me. In previous units, my research has been described as my strongest area and hearing that it’s weaker now was initially disheartening. There are a few reasons I think this has happened.
Firstly, I have been too exhausted to write up any ‘extra’ work, and this meant that despite engaging in each research point in part two, I didn’t add any of it to my learning log. Secondly, after nearly three years of writing up every single thought and explaining each step for every exercise, I think I’ve become a bit lazy and apathetic towards it. It’s become tedious and ‘showing my work’ has become less of a priority – just doing it has been my focus.
Finally, my previous units have been a bit more hands-on with research suggestions and direct pointers for what to cover for each exercise. You can see the difference in my research for Exercise 3 and Exercise 5 – in one, I was directly asked to research, and in the other, I included it as a natural step in my design process. As discussing research wasn’t specifically required for Exercise 5, my apathetic brain declared it ‘extra’ work and dismissed the need for it.
Knowing this is really helpful for tackling the issue, and I think the much-needed break will help energise me to feel able to write my research up again. My tutor has also given really clear pointers to what is missing, which I needed! She has recommended I include more contemporary designers in my research, and that I provide commentary on specific pieces rather than just a general overview. Having looked ahead over part three, I feel I have plenty of opportunity to do this.
As for my sketchbook – I was very conscious of my usage slipping, and in some ways this was intentional. With graphic design work, there can be countless iterations of a single piece tested before I reach a conclusion, and it feels silly to do this on paper when I could be testing it out digitally. I also feel like my current sketchbook doesn’t give me adequate space to test out lots of different ideas and explore compositions, as on one hand, it’s literally too small, and on the other hand, I have a mental block where my sketchbook is for ‘fun’ work. In response, I have bought an A4 sketchbook that is purely for uni work, which hopefully, I will use more carelessly!
It was also recommended that I explore alternative materials in my sketchbook. I have a basic understanding of how to do graphic design without digital tools – as that was my first introduction to the discipline. However, I’m not sure how this would look, or what other materials to look into. I’d like to do some research on this, which hopefully I can tie into other research projects throughout part three.
My tutor gave brilliant feedback on Exercise 5, where I was struggling to create a third poster. I will revisit this over the next few weeks to finalise my design following her advice. She also asked whether the size of the typeface was equal on both my final designs for Exercise 6. Rather frustratingly, I have rasterised the text layers and can no longer check this. I recall checking this before rasterising, but clearly, they don’t look equal! I will remember this for the future (and keep a spare text layer so I can check!)
I feel I have a good grasp of what I need to improve on throughout part three, and I’m very much looking forward to the work ahead. There are some exercises I feel I will thoroughly enjoy exploring! I am also trying to do more art/design work ‘just for me’, which is helping me feel a bit less stressed about only ever doing uni work, and hopefully, this will also positively influence my uni work.
Stock image sourced from Pexels
Learning Log 