Self-Reflection for Developing Practice

Self-Reflection for Developing Practice|

Some of the key things that I am taking further to my practice from the past module ‘developing practice’ are new skills and knowledge of graphic design. New techniques to design visuals, for example, laser cut and silk screen print. Further, I used different softwares to bring at life my visual designs like Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. I got better by using them and now, at this point I feel more comfortable.

I designed my first infographics, toolkit, system and scenarios; as in the past I never had the opportunity to expose myself to those design developments. I have to admit that I would like to design a series of icons but as an illustration and not digitally at first. It is a rough new idea that lays there at the surface for now. It is one of my strongest elements to illustrate my designs. I really love it as I feel more connect with a project when I illustrate the designs.

Brain was a challenging subject to design but at the same time really excited. I was so fascinated about this central point of the human body. I have explored all different sides and I had different design ideas to develop. Sometime, ideas were coming even to my dreams, which felt that even my brain was helping the brain project. Of course, the journey for brain is not over yet. New designs will be developed soon.

Visual explorer was another new challenge for me; as in the past I was focusing more to museums and exhibitions but this time the focus was an area of London. Different visuals, different moments, new people had been added to this journey of visual explorer. It was a surprising experience to pick up moments around me by observing and researching Shoreditch.    

I learnt new technics and with combination of already existing ones I designed visuals for brain project and mini projects. I had tough times due to the short deadlines. I was researching constantly and spent lots of hours in the library until the ideas started developing in mind. It was a journey of discovery and explore even further as a person and as a designer.

So far it was stressful and sometimes I felt my creativity was blocked but there were times that I had many good ideas in short time. The reason is that in order for me to process a design I have to sketch, draw and illustrate and then design it digitally.

Something that I will avoid is the decorative element, the overthinking and try to develop complicate designs. It was an issue that I came across when I was designing my books. Next time, I will consider more the simplicity and consistency of the design for a book. It will show the clear image of my designs and the viewer will be able to focus to these amazing designs. Also, one more strong thing about my books is that I really love to bind them myself, as I am good at binding books.  

It is already a new semester and the journey continues, so I want to explore more typography, letterpress and calligraphy, because I think I will be good at these. It will eventually help with my project. Also, another interesting element is the animations. It is so fascinating to make the design move and look livelier. It is going to be more tough and stressful journey. But it is going to be an exciting one too.