Skills evaluation

As part of my creative development, I have used the time this year to become a part of projects that will stretch my creative capabilities past what they currently are, forcing me to learn new skills and software’s. The agreement to be the solo Graphic Designer for a full festival branding, visual identity and online presence was one of my biggest challenges this year as it is something that would have been much easier to complete as part of a team. Upon reflection, I was able to develop a number of skills as everything design related was coming only from me. The demand of the project required video outputs which I had some experience in but nowhere near enough to produce a professional outcome. To overcome this problem, I watched a very extensive list of YouTube videos on how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and then also utilise the ability to dynamic link Adobe After Effects files into the video. I will admit that I was unable to do everything I had envisioned, but as a whole I was happy with the outcome and will use the skills that I have developed in a number of future projects. 

To continue developing my skills with Adobe Premiere Pro in the collaborative project to create a TV ident for Channel O - run by Anyways studio I volunteered to edit together the two videos that were needed for the deliverables. This took a lot of patience and self-motivation to learn more and more about the software in order to produce the outcome that we were aiming for. The feedback from the final presentation confirmed that the outcomes were of a professional standard which really helped with my confidence to try and use these software’s for more of my projects.

Another skill that I have been actively developing over the year is the ability to think past the brief and think about the ways in which the design concept can be applied across a number of different medias and in different formats so that a much larger body of work is produced. This is something that would be expected from a design project when in industry, so the completion of briefs in Extended Practice has allowed for me to take my own control on the outcomes and ability to adapt the designs and push them further I have become more confident with taking a print campaign for example and then designing social media content, small animations and looking at the ways in which it would exist in the real world outside of the mandatory requirements of the brief.

Reflecting upon the past three years on this course I have realised that the biggest skill is that of self-motivation as a lot of the outcomes and progressions that I have produced have been self-taught. I have used the past three years to invest my time in learning the skills needed to produce work to a professional level and present in a way that would be expected when in industry. This has taken time and perseverance, watching many tutorials, learning from peers and just generally gaining confidence within the different Adobe software’s.