Having read back my rationale from three months ago I can tell you that I find it incredibly out of date and if I’m honest, pretty embarrassing. My love of print really was over the top. It was print this and print that but I can safely say that my opinion and professional focus has shifted dramatically since the beginning of the module.
I now find myself extremely engaged with the notion of full service design – providing work across many platforms and media. I think this is in part due to my work on the two large live briefs - the Surface Pattern yearbook and LCA End of Year Show 2011 promotion. The latter has had a huge impact on the way I view my position as a graphic designer. I am now far less focussed on just one discipline (print) and more open to exploring other avenues. In fact I positively enjoy trying new things in order to learn form them and develop my skill set. I have found that the best way for me to learn is to go ahead and do it. This has prompted my change of heart toward print. Don’t get me wrong I will always love it but there is much more to design. I am interested in how the relationship between print and screen will develop. In the future I want to be actively involved in projects that use both disciplines directly, soaking up valuable knowledge along the way.
I guess what has happened to me over the past three months or so is that I have grown up. I have been dealing with real clients in my briefs - dealing with their real needs and dealing with real budgets. This exposure has instilled a sense of realism in me that I cannot shake. Perhaps you could call this realism professionalism? I don’t know. What I can tell you is that I can’t wait to be involved in real design for real people. Of course I am aware of its drawbacks. This has never been more evident to me that during the behemoth of a brief that is the End of Year Show promotion. Dealing with real people has taught me that mistakes can be made by other people and that these mistakes will inevitably waste your time and impact on your other work. Amendments can stack up and changed minds can create new problems. It would seem that when work is signed off this is only loosely true and I imagine that this is the way that industry operates. It sounds like I’m just having a go at the End of Year Show brief now which is not my intention. It has been a brilliant opportunity (still not finished) for Liam & I and a massive privilege to design for the show but I can’t help but feel that if we had not won the pitch we would have still had a killer portfolio piece and not had so much of our time drained from our other projects. We are both extremely proud of what we have produced and have worked extremely well together but would agree that our other FMP briefs have been put at a disadvantage from landing such a large brief. Again it sounds like I’m moaning, I’m not; its probably the most valuable brief I have ever done as it has easily taught me the most and changed my professional outlook during FMP – I just want to make it perfectly clear how much of an undertaking it has been and how time consuming (in conjunction with the yearbook) the brief has turned out to be.
Through live briefs another thing that has become apparent to me is that once I step out into the big wide world I will be joining an industry that is full of meetings and consultations. I have always known this but it has become a reality over the course of my FMP and I have to say at this point that I do like a good meeting but have found that they can really disrupt your workflow. At one point during my FMP I was having 2-3 meetings a day which really made it hard to get into a productive run of time before the next meeting. I’m sure the more I do this over my career the easier it will become. I guess what has dawned on me is the length of time it can take to fulfil a brief when you have real clients and how much of a time sponge it can become. The time is not only isolated to the meeting itself, it is the time it takes for preparation beforehand and the organisation, amendments and reflection afterwards. Then it’s probably time for another meeting.
I have found that I work far better on real briefs over fictitious ones. I like having the consultation and direction from a client and providing them with ideas and professional opinion. This way a brief has structure and achievable goals.
I’ve come to realise that my passion as a designer is not print but providing art direction and a consistent visual approach to a whole project. Over recent months I’ve learnt to consider everything, every direction, every aspect. I now consider how a design will translate into many scenarios or contexts and if approaches are actually applicable or relevant to a projects outcome.
It’s a shame I’ve learnt this at the end of the course but I feel like I’ve come out of the other side prepared, ready and able to work as a fully-fledged graphic designer. I cannot wait to get involved with real projects with multiple deliveries – continuing to learn and develop with our ever-changing industry.
As I’ve said, the past three months have shaped me as a designer, possibly more than the rest of the course. I have been incredibly lucky to have tens of thousands of pounds of budgets to play with but at the same time this has brought the added pressures of making sure everything is spot on all of the time and to keep the clients happy. It’s taught me to be comprehensive with my thinking, design and finishing – there is no room for error when you are spending other people’s money. To this effect I have learnt to build a good relationship with clients – one that means you can be honest with one another to get the best results. With live work there will always be a certain degree of compromise but as a designer it’s your job to advise the client on any decisions. Sometimes though you’re just going to have to roll with the punches.
In short during my FMP I have changed my outlook and perspective on graphic design and my future career. This change is for the better. I now feel like a professional, not just a print fan boy and my revised rationale reflects this.
There will always be plenty more for me to learn in my future career as a graphic designer and I personally cannot wait to finally get the rest of my life underway. The past three years have been extremely challenging, extremely stressful and incredibly rewarding. There is no doubt in my mind that leaving my horrible office job and enrolling on the course is the single best decision I’ve ever made. All I can do is say thank you to everyone that have helped me develop and get to where I’ve always wanted to be – a proper graphic designer. 
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