I’ve learnt a lot in the last three semesters which I spent abroad in Switzerland and Germany as well as in the UK, studying, interning and working in different fields of the creative industries.
Commencing Phase 1
Just a quick update about how I’m getting on here. As you can see, things already beginning to look a little bit different. Note that this isn’t the new design yet but rather a realigned design. Most things happened behind the scenes. I upgraded the backend and also removed the multi-language plugin. On the front end I fixed some CSS quirks (though there are still plenty of them) and changed the typography which is now using the CSS3 font-face and box-shadow properties for progressive enhancement. The logo has been replaced with the one that I’ve been using on my CV and printed portfolio recently. On the content side a massive search & replace mission in mySQL eventually removed all evidence that a German language blog ever existed. This was necessary so the layout doesn’t break in the monolingual design. Although the parsing and display was done through a plugin, every post contained both language versions in the database and therefor would be displayed together when the plugin is disabled. I also went through the projects again and removed some embarrassing work that was left over from a certain university module. And finally I’ve rewritten the intro copy to keep it up to date.
In the next phase I am going to merge some areas and work on a new layout for the portfolio pages. I can’t say when this is going to be finished as I’m rather busy with other work at the moment - which is still a good thing. I’ll probably update the portfolio with new work before the new layout becomes apparent though, because I feel that I’ve held back some projects for too long now and I’m dying to share them with you.
Feel free to report any quirks or leave feedback in the comments.
Hello and Auf Wiedersehen
With the plans for my immediate future pretty much sorted out, I’ve now got two projects left to do until the summer break when I’m moving down to Cornwall. I can’t say too much about the bigger one of the two except that it involves a new aspect of digital design (iPhone web apps) for me and another steep learning curve. I managed to stick to my self-devised curriculum which has pretty much been about digital design. It´s very exciting and lots of fun too.
I can tell you about the other project though, the relaunch of my personal website. I’ve been working on it sporadically between projects and other work and have finished all the planning work that is necessary before getting my hands dirty with design. I’ve decided to do a gradual relaunch, which means that I’m going to implement (and test) changes in smaller stages rather than revealing it all at once with a big ta-daa. The reason for this is that although it will probably be more work and take longer to fully implement all the changes, it will still save me time as I can start posting things sooner that I’ve been holding back until the relaunch.
So what are the changes? Here´s the plan so far: The website will be divided into portfolio and blog, I’ll drop the separate introduction, about and contact pages and include them into the other two. There´s going to be a new content strategy for the blog. I’ll also weed out all the trash from the portfolio. An important change for those who are reading this in German: I’m sorry to say that I’ll drop the German-language blogging. The main reason for this is that translating each and every post into German takes up too much time and stops me from posting more. Although the language switching plugin has been awesome and made multilingual blogging really fun, it´s just not worth the effort anymore, at least in this context.
This website started as a personal website in German when I went to Northern Ireland. It helped me to keep in touch with friends and family and to write about my experiences in the foreign country. It changed to a bilingual blog and portfolio when I went to university and it still made sense to be bilingual throughout my time in Zurich and Munich. However the amount of people reading this in German who wouldn’t be able to read it in English too is very small. The purpose of the new blog is not merely to keep friends and family updated anymore as it was years ago. For this I’ll prefer the personal contact. The new blog will therefor have a new content strategy and will be in English only.
That´s pretty much the most important change. There will obviously be a lot of visual changes, a new logo and branding, new typography, a new structure, an updated backend and modern web technologies. All this will be implemented gradually over the next weeks. Things might break now and then and it could be a big mess at times, especially when the old database clashes with the new design. But let´s hope it all goes smoothly. Stay tuned.
A personal update
April is drawing to an end and nothing has changed in regards to this website. I promised (myself) to relaunch this month but let´s keep realistic: It´s not going to happen. It is however, along with one or two other commitments, now my first priority to get it done. Of course there are reasons for the delay, and contrary to what some might think when they know that I’m currently on a “year out”, it´s not laziness, party and holiday. Since the start of the academic year I have worked full-time in two creative companies with international reputation and part-time in another. I have pursued freelance work for big and small clients and took part in design competitions with success. Since the start of 2010 I have wrapped up seven projects and successfully taught myself many of the things I always wanted to learn but university failed to address. I realised my plan to run my own “course” with my own “modules” and I can say it paid off. And I’m not finished yet.
When in the second year of my degree course at UWE my disappointment with the quality of teaching reached a peak, I decided to take up the opportunity to study a semester in Switzerland. This reinforced my impression that Graphic Design at UWE just isn’t for me and I pulled the emergency break which led to the experience I’m having now. It was the right decision. At the point when I walked into the admin office and told them that I was taking time-out, everything was open. I didn’t know whether I could sustain myself, what I would do with my time, whether I would change my mind and if I would return next year or not. The reaction from UWE was mainly shrugging shoulders and the deletion of my e-mail account. Formally for the university I became invisible since I wasn’t a paying customer anymore.
Through the experience I’ve had since that day, the work I’ve done and the goals I’ve accomplished, I’ve come to realise that my career plans don’t align with the teaching at the Graphic Design course at UWE. I’m pursuing a career in the creative industry, as a designer, consultant or whatever it may be. A career primarily concerned with solving problems creatively and visually for clients, users and audiences. I’m not an artist and I’m not the centre of my own work. However, most projects I was asked to undertake at UWE asked me to either express my personal opinion, to graphically expose intimate details of my personality/life, or to create work better described as conceptual art. A critical message seemed more important than the professional execution or aesthetic quality of the work. Judging it by using the weight of the file containing the development work as an indication for the mark instead of actually looking through it wasn’t the only assessment flaw. Work seemed to be judged neither by form nor function but by the level of personal engagement and sacrifice. A usability-driven analytical approach to design was belittled in favour of a preferably physically painful and uncomfortable information gathering process like sitting in a space for 5 hours or performances subject to public ridicule. The result were clichés. The role of the designer as author, artist and social commentator was stressed particularly after some key positions in the staff hierarchy had changed. The line “Emphasis is placed on content gathering and authorship” was added to the official course description. This isn’t what I signed up for.
Admittedly I’ve been moaning and complaining a lot. I’ve had many a rant about the course and it wasn’t always fair or appropriate. My concern wasn’t the 107 typos in 12 poorly photocopied briefs, it was everything that this entailed: the assumption that personal expression is more important than usability. After I have gained some distance now, I can reflect on it differently. I suppose my conclusion is: Each to their own. Some graphic designers are artists. For some the most important aspect of graphic design is political agitation and commentating on society. Few make a living through that, others are happy with a day job and “do graphic design” on the side. And then there´s another side of graphic design which is industry, client and consumer focussed and usability driven. A side where form follows function and aesthetics are an element of usability engineering. I suppose most good designers find a healthy balance of the two. But in order to find this balance, one needs to learn and experience both of them.
After going to Switzerland and studying modules in Digital Media, Scientific Visualisation and Information Design, subsequently working in Editorial Design with a prestigious magazine at one of the largest publishing houses in Germany, experiencing User Centred Design practice at an award-winning multi-disciplinary Information Design studio, pursuing freelance work for clients ranging from startups to multi-national corporations and now working in a Social Media ad agency, I’m much more aware of where I’m positioning myself in the creative industry. I regard this experience as part of the learning that contributes to my degree. This means—you guessed it—I didn’t quit. Of course I’m continuing to study. I have one more year to go and I aim to follow the path I’m on now. I focus on the aspect of graphic design that makes sense to me. I don’t know what kind of projects I’m going to do in the third year. Maybe they’ll have an element of authorship and conceptual art. Maybe to some extent they’ll reflect a personal aspect. One thing is for sure: My learning approach is going to be industry-focussed, collaborative, multi-disciplinary and usability-driven.
I will not graduate from UWE Bristol, but from the University College Falmouth in 2011.
