Cheers To The Future!

First Year Summary As A Graphic Design Student

At the beginning, I would like to point out that my very first post on Tumblr concerns Elephant and Castle where my university (London College of Communication) is located.

Although a bit intimidating at first, engaging in this blogging experience was very exciting for me since I had no experience in anything relating to the blogging sphere. In spire of occasional confusions I encountered in my first blogging experience, I’ve successfully managed to go through this assignment by creating a basic university blog, which serves as a reflection of my first year of studies in Design for Graphic Communication.

As previously mentioned, my first post on Tumblr is about Elephant and Castle area. Students started the course by going around this border looking, listening, and thinking about the atmosphere, feelings, history, and its various components. During the first few weeks of my course, I was not completely convinced about the reason behind such exploration around the Elephant and Castle. After a while, I have better understood the underlying reasons, and now I believe that Elephant and Castle is an appropriated area for researching through the design industry. What makes this area suitable for art students is the fact that it encompasses a diverse set of cultures, ethnicities, and fashion outlooks that expose students to the existing varieties in London. Moreover, I tend to think that the market area and the shopping center are two perfect examples for art students to identify the shortcomings and weakness of the design industry in order to find appropriate solutions for future projects.

The next point I would like to mention in this summary is the method that I have been taught during the first year of studying at LCC.  If I were asked to describe my course in three terms I would define it as: Brainstorming, visualizing ideas, and personal development. Here is an example of one of my brainstorming in January 2012. Whereas I am an international student and coming from a completely different background, it is understandable that the method I had been taught before moving to England was absolutely diverse in comparison. Therefore, this experiment was such an achievement for me, and I would like to distinguish that as one of the highlights of my first year experimentation as a design student in a foreign country.  

As it can be seen from one of my essays, during this course I have also learnt how to think beyond just designing a format. One of the vital lessons has been to think about “how” to plan executing that design in a professional manner. I have achieved this knowledge by attending the Visual, Cultural Theory lessons. Visiting different exhibitions, records and documentations have enabled me to talk and analyse other artists’ works, exhibitions and curations.

Being a student at LCC has also given me this opportunity to get to know other students’ works, unique styles, and diverse mentalities. That is because of existing a variety of exhibitions and shows at the college community area, which is free to visit for students of this University. I believe that such exhibitions are very inspirational and instructive for every student at LCC.  As an example I would like to mention two of my previous posts such as Bright Sparks and Illustration, in whichstudents’ exhibitions grabbed my attention, mostly due to the standard of their work.

I would like to state another achievement through this course, which is my research and analysis improvement. As previously mentioned, my background instructed me in a different manner of studying that I no longer find useful. During my first year of studies I attempted to reorient myself in a new paradigm for graphic design and use this new approach in turning my abstract ideas into concrete designs. This I achieved in the Foundation degree course.

Another opportunity this course has given me concerns working with the real client, which constitutes another crucial highlight of this year for me. The challenge I was dealing with was one of the most difficult challenges that I have ever done in my educational life. I am confidently happy to say that I am really proud of being a part of this community of designers. One of the most challenging aspects of this task consisted in working with a large group of people. And the reason for that is because I have never done such essential group working before and I have learnt how to deal with different views, ideas and generations through this task.

Additionally, I believe that, one-to-one tutorials were one of the most influential aspects that helped me a lot to develop and institute my ideas during this course. Although often there was a need for me to change or rearrange my viewpoints, I still found the result beneficial to my final design as well as personal vision.  Since such tutorials guided me into a right direction by giving me better clues of further developments.

Finally, I would like to indicate my influences, inspirations and motivations during the first year of being a design student.  I tend to think that living in London is the most inspirational aspects by itself. In addition to the variety of galleries, museums, exhibitions and cultural events, the existence of various types of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities has given me the opportunity to acquaint myself with the similarities and differences between all these varieties, and express them in my own work. I can easily feel this in my Final Major Project outcomes with the theme of “The City”.

Over all, I believe that through this course my greatest achievement regards the gradual improvement in my work from the beginning of the course to this point. I do not personally consider my grades as the outcome of studying this course but rather what I consider valuable is the progression that I have made by reviewing and comparing my early works to the current ones. 

I <3 Abstract

After failing in printing technique at the library I decided to try it again at home, and I think that I finally made it!

I’m quite happy with the result, also I always loved abstract art so it was a great opportunity for me to explore one of my favourite areas in graphic design.

Taking advantage of everything around!

I really really like this technique, basically you need to locate your acetate on a window and draw interesting lines and shapes that you’ve found from buildings and objects outside the window!  I’ve learnt this technique from Darren’s workshop (Layers), after drawing unexpected shapes we’ve been asked to turn these lines into an abstract concept. From then I decided to record shapes from every single window I find. I think it’s a very interesting technique because it makes you see stuff that you’ve never thought or realised before. If you have no access to any window (which would be weird) don’t worry you can even take photos from buildings, put the acetate on your computer monitor and draw your favourite areas of that building. 

Textures

I always been interested in textures, patterns, rhythms and anything that repeats, again and again and again!

So I’m using this opportunity to explore the streets around me and record/document any sort of textures that have been used in London architecture. I also planed to turn these textures into simple formats that would represent patterns.

Darren’s workshop

During this workshop we’ve looked through at everything we’ve done so far within ‘the city’ project, such as materials, processes, themes and formats. This work shop made us think about possibilities that have been forgotten, new ideas and further developments. Generally, I have found this specific workshop very helpful, because a part from the thinking process that we went through, we’ve learnt how to connect our thoughts and ideas and link them together to create and develop new designs.