To Do List

Brief:
In addition to this presentation, you need to write a “To Do” list for the forthcoming year. 
What skills and processes do you want to try? What would you like to improve upon? What interests you as a graphic designer that you want to learn? This is an opportunity to take control of your future and put strategies in place that will help you to establish and achieve your goals – whatever they are.


There are a few things that I want to improve on in the forthcoming year, which have been influenced by this Summer.

Web Design
I've had a web design placement throughout Summer, for about two and a half months. I knew nothing about html5 or css prior to this, but I have learnt a lot about them, as well as a bit of jQuery. I have mainly focused on coding, as that is what I wanted to become competent in.
It has been mainly self taught though as they are really busy, and there is still so much I want to learn.  I want to design more websites, and learn how to develop them properly as I would like to do it as a career. 
I didn't think I would be very interested in coding, but it is satisfying seeing your design come to life with just lines of code.

Drawing
I'm not a very good drawer, and it is something I wanted to focus on during Summer but due to my placement and work every day I haven't had the time. But this is something that I need to focus on as I feel it limits what I can do in my designs, as I don't want to spend lots of time on something which won't look good when it's finished.
I did used to paint a lot and was improving a lot, but I haven't done that in a while either which is something I've regretted not doing this Summer as I have all the tools needed for it here (easel, paints, paper etc).

Branding
Last year I became very interested in editorial design,  I've become interested in web design over Summer, and I've also had the opportunity to create some logos for my friends new business which I'm really excited about. All of this has led to me thinking that branding and identity is something that I want to focus on within my 2nd year, as it encompasses all of these things. I was initially interested in this part of graphic design at the beginning of 1st year, but didn't really apply it to anything. But now I think I can focus on it now I have more of an understanding of a range of principles.

Placement - UK/Abroad
I've been looking at lots of different studios that I want to get a placement at next year during Summer, including UK based Glad, Irving and Co, and Mind Design. But I also love looking at studios from other countries, and I would love to go abroad to do a placement. My favourite international studios are Anagrama and Forefathers Group. I'm really looking forward to getting ready to look for placements and getting experience to see what kind of designer I want to be.

Screenprinting
On the last project of 1st year I screenprinted a whole book, and it was good practice to learn how to screenprint, but it was very stressful getting every aligned and printing double sided. So now I want to screenprint things like posters and illustrations as I think that will be more enjoyable and image based.

Group
I want to do more collaboration work during 2nd year, as I feel more confident within my work now and I think it would be good to work on a big project, or even a live one.