Who Am I Now : What Kind Of A Professional Can I Be?

Who am I now, what kind of professional can be?


Organisation

Time management / thought processing / investigation methods / recording methodology / decision methods / evaluation.

What kind of person am I?


Evolutionary - Revolutionary
A Manager - An opportunist
Cautious - A risk taker

At the present time I am more on the cautious side of things but I can occasionally take a risk and see how things turn out. I think a bit of either side makes for a healthy relationship with my design self.


Ambition

As far as my practice is concerned I would like to be...

Employed - Working in a Studio/Agency Owner - Designer/manager/Coordinator & Collaborator Manager - Managing staff for another owner
Self Employed - 'One man band'

I wouldn't mind working for someone else to start off with, but what would be stopping me from making my own practice work? Surely just myself.




My chosen areas of practice as of now

Reflecting on my chosen companies or studios, I have a heavy interest in research and sourcing paper goods, or other designers and artists work that would reflect a company ethos or aesthetic. I have a lot to learn in terms of my own practice, and I do not think I have produced enough work to gain a good knowledge and understanding of my areas within graphic design. I enjoy the challenge of logo design, and visualising layout.

My main strengths / weaknesses as of now

Illustrator has always been the application of choice for me, and as far as a strength goes I have confidence when I work with that application. Photoshop and InDesign need some work. I think that I do have good ideas, and visualising them in my head is one thing however when trying to psychically trying to develop a piece of design work this is where I have some trouble and my ideas do not always materialise.

I have gained a lot of knowledge from researching print production and other key areas of professional life as a designer, and this has improved my practice ten fold. Having the knowledge of how print production works has really made a difference to how I even consider a brief or a piece of work. Achieving an entire aesthetic that I can call my own is something that I desire the most but seems so hard to achieve, and quite far away from me at this point.

A set of main goals for this year

Just having the confidence in my own work and myself would be a positive, however the realistic goals for the present are getting my work done, and following through with an idea fully, and thoroughly. The main problem I have is when I get an idea, and then hitting a brick wall when things do not turn out visually how I thought or hoped they would.

• Having confidence in my work and myself.
• Following through with an idea fully.
• Powering through that brick wall, however painful it may be!
• Jumping into something I haven't done before, I might surprise myself.
• Being able to look back at a finished brief and feeling proud along with the knowledge that everything was well considered.
• Having work that is memorable and not just average!

Wishes

• Gaining more of an understanding of the way I work, and seeing my work come together as a small collection.
• Winning one of the competition briefs, or getting a runner up mention.
• Feeling a sense of achievement.