Reflective Practice (Independent Research Project)
The subject I chose to review is my essay projects mainly the Independent research project that I completed in my final year. I chose to look back and review this because I feel like essay writing is my weakest point. I feel afraid and panic every year I got the essay projects. I usually have a lot of thoughts and good ideas but expressing my ideas into words in a essay format is where I struggle.
This module allowed us to four various options of how we can conduct this project and I went
with the option 3 because it required visual work (50%) & 3000-4000 word reflective essay (50%). I was very pleased to know I had a chance to work visually.
My concept for this project was to explore the 'Effects of deforestation and how can we tackle the issue as a designer'. I really wanted to understand the issues and ways to tackle this problem in great depth to develop my knowledge on this subject area.
I started by reading and gathering notes about the current issues and a way to represent my understanding.
I had a vision not just to grow my knowledge but also bring awareness to others about the problems and the booklet will also educate other designers to various sustainable methods they could consider in their design projects. I decided to create the visual booklet in a graphical format to grab the attention of the reader. I was able to do this my showing my skills and passion for design.
Deforestation being a popular topic, I found many useful resources and however it was difficult to structure as I wanted it to flow well as a story. I used the skills and techniques I have learned in my past years essay writing feedbacks and have been taking extra workshop sessions on improving my skills.
For my visuals I was able to use the skills and techniques I have been taught in class to design professionally without limiting my creativeness. I learnt to create various graphics using tools such as InDesign and Photoshop which allowed me to have maximum control over my design and content without having concerns about the quality of text and images, which meant I can play around with different layouts and the overall look.
Looking back and evaluating, I found the project inspiring and educating. I learnt about current environmental issues and how I can make a difference while also educating other designers. Even though it was a great experience there are areas, which I can improve. As I had issues while I tried to upload my booklet to print on a website called Blurb, I got errors where I had to re-edit the pages and layout of texts to fit printing size. I could have researched and been aware of printing before hand. Also to improve my writing skills I should have attended more workshops however for next time I understood how to find ways to improve myself on writing and to expand my knowledge by using the available opportunities out there.
Overall, it was a succesful project and Im really pleased with the outcome as I feel more confident in expressing my knowledge not just by creativity but also my words.
