Courtney

Mar 23, 202110 min read

SKILLS AND MAKING

Updated: May 14, 2021

Finding the Gaps Lecture

I found the insights of the different designers quite interesting because in some respects they really differ from my own. I have always believed that a major part of design is curiosity, Walt Disney, one of the most successful creators of all time said "we keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." However I did get the sense of a lack of curiosity during the interviews. Intro, Regular Practice, Sam Winston and Simon Manchipp all said they were doing exactly what they wanted to be doing and that they're not missing anything. This made me wonder whether this bred a lack of curiosity for other things, if being completely happy and content in your work life, like they say they are, actually means you lose a bit of motivation to explore other things?

This leads on nicely to the answers given to the second question - how important are side projects? The general consensus seemed to be that you know you're doing what you want to be when you don't need side projects anymore - the side projects become your career. This does make me think that if you are 100% creatively fulfilled you do not feel as much need for continuous side projects, I have never thought about it this way but usually at the same time as being an in house designer I have side projects such as book illustrations and graphics projects going on at the same time. Since starting this Masters I have realised that I don't think being an in house designer will be what I do forever as there is not enough variety and everything is end result driven, these interviews did make me think about this more and evaluate what I am looking for in my career.

Brian Eno

I feel like Brian Eno's oblique strategy cards seem like a fun, useful way to break creative block and look at the problem differently. So often I get bogged down because I am too close to the problem I am trying to solve, sometimes a little distance would be useful and the cards seem like a great way to break away. I think by encouraging lateral thinking it can only be a positive thing for the creative process.

I also really enjoyed Eno's talk about how ideas actually come from the community rather than the individual. When I was studying History of Art I was surprised by how many people worked in the workshops associated with artists. For example, 50 people worked in Raphael's studio (1) and were responsible for a lot of the artwork we associate with Raphael, it took a community of artists to come together yet we only attribute them to one man. There are countless examples throughout history of community work being attributed to one person, Plato had a school, Da Vinci had a studio and Zaha Hadid has a team of 635 architects (2). I thought this was really interesting and something I have never thought about, we need teams to produce the best work creatively. This also made me consider whether solo in house designer is right for me, I don't have another designer to bounce ideas off so maybe I'm not producing the best work I'm capable of.

The School of Life

I found the School of Life's video on vulnerability a light hearted change of pace. I loved how they described it as people struggle to hide their inner idiot and appear more normal. I wish people wouldn't hide this so much as the things that make people wonderful are the odd quirks and silly remarks so in that way I was totally on board with everyone being more vulnerable. I think this is something to keep in mind when designing because it is this vulnerability that humanises us and connects us - something really important in relation to graphic design.

I think the school of life keep going video was a nice reminder to be kinder to yourself while also offering some sage advice like stick to a timetable and do a little every day. I also really liked the idea that we should work without despair and one day your talents will catch up with your taste. It was nice to hear this, especially at this point in the module - to just keep going!

Further Research

TED Talk - Vulnerability: The Key to Unlocking Your Creative Genius,

Chrissy Levett

I found the concept of vulnerability improving design really interesting after watching the school of life video so I decided to research more into this. I found this brilliant TED Talk by Illustrator Chrissy Levett and was quite inspired by it. Chrissy goes into detail about how she saw her dyslexia as a negative thing before she noticed that it was actually her fear of vulnerability that was holding her back. She then realised the true power of vulnerability and how if we are more honest about it we can make the world a better place.

She set up Creative Conscience after this realisation which is a community of people working towards a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world. This echoed Brian Eno's theory that everything that is achieved is a community effort, it is never just the individual. Part of why I found Chrissy's speech so empowering is because she is so confident that creativity brings positive social change and that has always been my aim in my career, hence working for charities up until this point.

Chrissy also told the inspirational story of Elena Ciolaco who overcame horrendous bullying and channeled her pain and vulnerability into making a graphic novel about bullying and suicide to help other people feeling the same way. This was incredibly successful and shows that when someone uses vulnerability as a way of helping other people it really connects with them and leaves a lasting positive impact. This has made me think about coming at the workshop challenge this week in a completely honest and vulnerable way - admitting what parts of my design process are not up to scratch and need work.

Workshop Challenge

What skills do you have? What skills do you need?

Write a list of your skills and a list of skills / ways of working / thinking / or area of knowledge you wish to develop
Create a design which summarises a process model that works for you at the moment, highlighting the skills you have and the gaps you have.
This piece of work needs to communicate your process model. It could be a diagram, a 3D statement that clearly communicates a thought process relevant to you at this moment (how you deal with weaker skill gaps and how you maximise your talents), a statement, a model, a tool.

This was a really interesting exercise that made me really think about my skills and gaps. I'm definitely going to use the gaps column as a list to explore during this masters, to improve upon so I am a more well rounded designer when I graduate.

Initial Ideas

This week I wanted to to illustrate my design process in a clear, fun and interesting way. First I thought about story telling techniques - I'm looking at the idea of design process as a way of telling a story about how I work. My top three ideas were;

Animation
Storyboard/Cartoon strip
Flip book

I initially started to develop the idea of an animation, focussing on my lack of confidence in my process and outcomes.

This was the initial storyboard for the animation, the idea was to flick quickly between the stages and the "are you sure?" question, highlighting my self doubt in the process. However, before finishing this I realised that it doesn't represent my process very well, there's more too it that I don't feel I can get across in a GIF. I wanted to covey not only my process through this but also what I like, what I'm interested in and an aesthetic that appeals to me, I felt the animation didn't hit these things.

I went back to my initial list and looked into the idea of a storyboard. I've always been interested in film and cartoon strips so did some further research and renewed my interest in pop art.

I love that pop art started out as a revolt against the dominant approaches to art and culture and traditional views on what art should be. It was a rebellion against traditional styles and the result of this was a completely new way of presenting things and is described as an early example of postmodernism. (3) I then decided to create a pop art style comic strip, not only because I find the aesthetic interesting but also because I feel like the idea of rebellion draws parallels to how I got into Design. Almost my whole family were nurses in the army or NHS and instead of following this path I decided to become a designer - luckily with their full support - but either way it was going against the grain and my own very small revolt.

One thing I did notice when researching cartoons in a pop art style is the use of words and exclamations rather than characters. To really challenge myself I am going to do a comic strip about my design process, in a pop art style, using no human figures. I think this will be a great graphic challenge, so let's go!

To start with I decided to look at classic pop culture layouts and sketch them out and develop the idea. I decided to go with the bottom right idea as that had the most authentic feel. I then decided to list the stages to include in my final piece, these are;

Title - My flawed design process
Stage 1 - Get the project brief - unable to say no (from my gaps list) so accept it regardless of the amount of other things I have on
Stage 2 - Procrastinate (Netflix)
Stage 3 - Procrastinate more (Netflix and a bit of doubt)
Stage 4 - Procrastinate even more (Netflix and panic)
Stage 5 - All of the work, very fast
Stage 6 - Deadline
Stage 7 - Disappointment, promise not to do it again and then repeat the same process

After sketching out some initial ideas based on my process and traditional pop art drawing style I moved on to develop the idea graphically.

Idea development

This is my initial design for my comic strip process. I am reasonably happy with this as I think it gets across the style and feel I want to the piece however I think it could go further. After looking at even more pop art designs and works of art I have realised one thing I am missing is texture on the backgrounds. SO I decided to ass this and see what I think...

I much prefer the look of this as I think it looks much more authentically pop art. I also thinks it adds a fun element to the design. Although this is an honest look at my (flawed) design process I want it to have a jovial and witty tone rather than a super serious one. I really like the look of this, however I think it might be a bit overwhelming to the eye, there's little place to rest so I am going to experiment with it further with a mixture of textured backgrounds and plain ones.

I really like this, I think it is a good mix of both plain and textured backgrounds and is a far more balanced design. I think I have relied quite heavily on the use of colour in this which is not only a total change from last weeks black and white design but also very in keeping with the pop art cartoon style.

Im intrigued to know whether this design would work in black and white or greyscale. I think this is an effective way of testing how robust your design is, how successful the style is and if the design is balanced.

I actually think in the black and white version either the outline (top left) or the fully textured (bottom left) are the most successful. I think maybe this is because there isn't an overwhelming colour pallet so the texture looks more subtle. I think the black and white versions make it look more like a comic noir with a more modern drawing style, I actually really like this juxtaposition and think it has quite a polished look. However, I set out looking to do something in the classical style of pop art, with colours and bold choices to reflects a more fun and witty vibe so I think I will stick with the colour version.

Final Version

Summary

I really enjoyed the content and the workshop task this week. I think the content made me think about my habits as a designer and the way I try and overcome creative blocks and how I connect with people. I thought the lecture which was interviews with Simon Manchipp, Intro, Regular Practice, Sarah Boris and Sam Winston, really opened my eyes to the way I thought about work and side projects. I had always thought that there will never be a time in my career where I am completely content with the projects I have and not looking for side projects to fulfil me creatively. However, after listening to the interviews I actually think that might be the sign of success, not a constant unreachable goal.

I also enjoyed the Brian Eno and School of Life videos as a little bit of light research. They were interesting and the Brian Eno video really made me think about the idea of community in the design process and how this is what I am missing in my work life. Im also intrigued to try some of the oblique strategies popularised but Eno next time I have a bit of creative block.

I am really pleased with my final workshop piece for this week and I think it fulfils the brief for week 8. It highlights my skills such as enthusiasm for projects, ability to work well under pressure and ability to stick to deadlines. It also highlights my gaps of never saying no, procrastination and doubting myself, all of which I wish to develop. I think this really successfully communicates the current process model that works for me, as it says, it is flawed and definitely has room for improvement but it is an honest representation of the way I work. I wanted to be completely honest and use the school of life's idea that vulnerability helps you connect. I think this week I have used research and reflection to produce something I am pleased with and is an honest, vulnerable representation of my design process.