Crit Happens

Having kept a blog in North Carolina as a requirement to our course I had a fair idea of what I would be expecting to do. That, however, was purely type based and we had very specific rules about what we were suppossed to write each week, so this more self-learning based structure was at first daunting, but turned out to be a lot more interesting and useful.

I started off blogging anything I found interesting or what I thought might be classed as 'good design' but moved on to sticking to the groups, defining the types of things I would write about which helped me to gain focus in the way I looked at posts and what information I would write in them. Once I began narrowing my search I also began to find that I could sift through my findings and post only things that interested me thoroughly and that I will be able to use in the future, my finest moment was when I caught myself needing to use a website I had viewed earlier in the week and realising there was no need to panic, I had the address on my blog ready to be called upon! It also turned out to be a great resource for remembering lost findings. I am a very forgetful person and often forget to jot down if I see something I think is up my street or will help me in the future, it is only when I get to that point that I realise I need a picture or some information that I realise I have no idea where I found it or how I will even go about finding it again. So the blog often steered me in the right direction, not only helping to job my memory of posts forgotten but also encouraging me to take note of something that may help me in a future project.

Being able to look at other blogs and discuss with fellow students what they were searching for was also a great tool. Seeing what kind of things others were posting about showed a whole other world of things that were out there to be discovered as well as giving an insight into what kind of things other people were interested in. I remember meeting up with a course mate early on in summer and spending the day discussing what other people had posted on their blogs, this kind of discussion not only gets the design-talk ball rolling, but leaves you feeling encouraged to show your own interest in the subject, even if it's just for personal enjoyment. I liked the sharing aspect of this sight because sometimes people are not too forthcoming with their interests but this gave us all the opportunity to share and discover new things.

During the one week brief we were assigned, I found myself looking back through posts and wondering where I could go from there to help inspire myself. It was at this point that I also realised, a lot of the things I mentioned were similar in style or focal point, I clearly have a style I hadn't noticed before and it started to define itself as I looked through posts from the beginning of this summer. One example of how this steered my design was in the one week brief. I have only used video software twice before, very briefly, but I am so interested in videos that I was inspired to have a go myself...I soon found out it was harder than I thought but it just made me more determined to look back at the blogs, particularly the Sin City Commentary by Robert Rodriguez, and go on to find more help on the internet and in books.
Keeping the blog has gradually steered me to define my searches in design, I have always known there were certain aspects I liked more than others but when it came to putting them all into a box I just couldn't do it. If I was handed a graphic Design magazine, I would spend hours pouring over the content, but if you asked me to pick out the top three designs I would have an instant panic attack...it's all good! Although this seems like a positive attitude to have, at the same time, some sort of distinction in taste leads to refinement in personal work. I have often been critacised for being 'all over the place', one minute I want to do photography, next type design all whilst trying to make some sort of animation out of it, I had no idea where to begin and ended up with three different designs that just wouldn't gel. From this blog I can see how I can begin to make my designs interact with each other. I am greatly inspired by illustration, and from blogging about artists such as 'Ben and Julia', 'Kid Acne', 'Silas Munro' and 'Nate Williams' I have been given a clear picture of how, by attaining a certain style, all of these things can be shaken up together to produce a clean and very personal piece of work. This aspect, the personal side of design, seems to be what has struck m the most. Looking back throught the posts, I have a lot of design which is very personal to the creators (the monsters designed by Ben and Julia are a personal favourite of mine as the describe them as 'like children') and this has worked very strongly with my video interest to inspire the idea for my personal project. The '50 People, 1 Question' is a video I LOVED when I first came across it, but, again, an example of something I thought I'd jot down and never did, so when it came to the blog and it cropped up in my memory I had to find it all over again. But it was upon finding it and watching it that my personal project idea was inspired. Without having to keep the blog I would never have remembered the video and most likely not come up with an idea that I am so excited about.

My initial aim from the blog was, honestly, to get it finished, with anything that fit the requirements. As time went on, however, I realsied that this is an invaluable tool, an online log book to steer my work in a more focused direction with the appropriate research and inspiration and I truly appreciate it.