First year has been over for almost two months now - it's crazy how quick time goes when your busy, and so I thought it was about time I did another blog post, looking back on my first year as an FCP student and how I can learn from the experience. After the first module, I looked at what I needed to STOP. START. and CONTINUE. doing during this second module, and looking back at these has really showed me how I have developed as a person and student this year.
During the first module, I used to spend too much of my time look at other students work, looking at ways in which I could match theirs, rather than focusing on my own work. This tended to restrict my imaginative thinking and did not allow me to get really creative and try new and exciting ideas that others had not yet experimented with. However, during the second half of the year, I think I was much more self focused, trying to find my own personal writing and creative style, and have been particularly successful in this during the product design section of the fragrance brief, where after an unsuccessful collaboration with 2nd year graphic design students, I took it upon myself to create the packaging for our fragrance, which involved lots of experimentation and thinking outside the box. I also used to get really stressed about the briefs, not being completely sure about what they were asking me to do, but this is all in the past now! Making a group of friends on the course, I now have a bunch of people I can ask if I get stuck, and find that making lists and looking deeper into what the brief is asking to do, has really helped gain some clarity!
I also found that I needed to start making contacts in the industry, and although the work load has been really hard, this summer I have tried to do that more. Speaking to up and coming businesses has allowed me opportunities to hopefully get some work experience before I return after the summer, and fingers crossed this all goes to plan and I can add some exciting work opportunities to my portfolio. However, I have found it particularly difficult to visit new cities or exhibitions due to busy work and cheerleading schedules and lack of money. This something I am definitely re-adding to my list of thing to START doing, as this will really open up my eyes to new forms of art, working as inspiration for future projects.
During my first module I found that I was able to keep up with my blog quite well whilst still completing the work and being social, but after this second module I have realised although I am quite good at writing blogs regularly during term time, they are all quite bland, and therefore I would like to make them more interesting, this would be easier to do with visiting new cities and exhibitions as previously mentioned, and this is something that could really help me in the course as a whole, as enjoying what your writing about is much easier.
Addressing these issues should really help me reach my future goals and help me enjoy my work even more than I do already. I am still finding the creative visual aspects of the course quite difficult, and therefore I would love to use Pinterest more to my advantage, in order to gain this creative inspiration I need to make my work feel more representative of the brand or project I am working on at that time. I would also like to use my work book more as an inspiration tool to help this, not just using it as a final showcase book, but more on how I got to that stage. However, I am much more confident with Harvard referencing now (finally!), and this is such a relief, something which will make me feel much more comfortable as I enter second year.
