I aimed for my blog to be purely inspirational to me, although a bit self indulgent, it made it more personal and relevant to myself and exploring my own style and influences. Looking back over it now it is possible to see clear trends, styles ideas and concepts which run through my work. This has given me a more informed and higher understanding of how the work I create and aspire to. I can see clear areas which I have focus on, such as layout and grid structures, rigid and refined type and typography, the dark and macabre side of film and cinematography, portrait photography, and strong creative idea lead design. I found that I tend to prefer and sway towards a darker and more sinister approach from the collection of blog posts, whether this is with comedy, styling, art direction or ideas; and for some reason skulls seem to be a re-appearing influence (see posts: 1, 2, 3, 4).
Making the blog as personal to me as possible meant that some of the seven areas that were set got neglected - this wasn’t an intentional “I don’t like that subject I’m not going to look at it’ view, It was more a factor that I didn’t find it interesting, or influential to the work I want to create in my final year, so I didn’t see it relevant to my research. I want my third year to focus on the work I want to be a part of when I leave university, this unfortunately means that architecture was left out. Areas that I found more beneficial were: artists, film and design, all of which I draw from for inspiration regularly in my own work.
Looking at my blog as a whole there is a clear narrative and synthesis of ideas and styles. The blog posts start of wider and more sporadic, with influence and inspiration points taken from sources such as: live music, product design, tattoos, quotes and street art. As time progressed through the three month blogging period, I tried to reign these in, and make my research and findings making them more relevant to the work and current projects I had on at the time - as well as future ones that are looming at the end of the year, such as my dissertation and final project. This meant focusing on books that were relevant to my dissertation, looking at style and structure which would benefit my current projects, as well exploring other ideas and forms which could benefit my work and widen my knowledge and understanding design. For example the use of 3D, shown and utilised incredibly by Mark Barcinski and Adrien JeanJean with their 3D portfolio site. would be an incredible area to explore for a final project.
Although there are clear themes, and a general style and structure to my blog, I found that through taking part in the whole blogging process - reading and commenting on other peoples blogs that their work had a neater and cleaner focus. They knew what they wanted to focus on, whether it was branding, advertising, or animation. My influences and work came from seemed more varied, and there wasn’t as clear a direction and end point as everyone else's. I have found that I am still unsure at what I want to focus on, I enjoy and like too many parts of the creative world that is Graphic Design. I enjoy photography, and film based work, but I also find the nuances and refined style of typography, as well as fashion music, and branding incredibly interesting. I found that on my year in industry I worked on a huge number of projects, varying from stop frame animation to worldwide advertising, to typography and print, to web design. I want to be part of an agency or design group that has this variety in their work. I don’t want to be pinned down to a certain style or area. I enjoy being involved in the whole process of design, and that is what has really stood out to me from this blogging process.
I understand the value of specialising in a subject, it gives you a higher understanding and knowledge of that area, making you essentially more employable and different to other designers. But at the moment i don’t want to make the decision. I like the flexibility that there is in graphic design, and the way it is different from one week to the next, and that is what excites me. So in reflection this blog is of more benefit to me, because of that varied and wide range of sources and influence. Each project is unique and you never know which piece of design you blog about may be of benefit in the future.
Knowing these factors and influences now puts me in a great place for my final year. From working in my year in industry and documenting my style influences over the summer in this blog, I have found and realised the areas - or lack of that I like. It puts me in a great place for my dissertation and final major projects (as well as graduation and job hunting). Not only do I have a back catalogue of useful ideas, styles and designs, I know have a better understanding of what I like in design and what I should pursue in future. This means that come final project time; I have a spring board of work that I can jump off and get thoroughly involved in creating an out standing piece of work which I will enjoy.
Aims and objectives for further development:
- Keep a varied range of sources for influence - you never know where the next piece of inspiration will come from
- Synthesize my own ideas down and complete more posts relevant to my dissertation topic and the relevance of creativity and originality
- Start to think about topics and areas for my final project from posts and ideas in the blog
- Always search for more information and sources of research
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