OUGD402 - Self Reflection

Looking back at the last few months on the course, I feel that I have really been encouraged to explore a wide variety of different avenues when approaching a brief and I personally feel as though I have tried to embrace this new way of working. All the way through college my graphic design course was primarily digital learning software and producing on screen resolutions. The approach on this degree however, has really inspired me to take advantage of the facilities at the college and explore lots more free flowing manual sketches and designs.

Even though digital editing and photography have always been my strong points, I am really trying to utilise everything that is offered to me in order to become an asset to a future design company in as many different ways as possible. I have mainly focused on increasing my practical knowledge and understanding of digital print and CMYK colour theory as I feel that this is an important aspect of graphic design however, I have also been intrigued by more manual printing methods and have done some embossing experimentation using letter pressing in the Albion Letter Press.

I aim to continue exploring all that the course has to offer although, I am hopefully looking to learn how to use the laser cutter and screen printing in the near future as these are methods which seem to have lots of new design elements to offer. I am also focused primarily on learning motion graphics software in workshops or using online tutorials over the summer as I feel that this is the eventual career path which I wish to follow. I have done some initial research and after effects seems to be the industry standard for motion graphics software however, I intend to visit some motion graphics studios in the near future to conduct some thorough primary research.