3 things I’ll take away from my UWE Graphic Design course
3 THINGS I’LL TAKE AWAY FROM MY UWE GRAPHIC DESIGN COURSE
Having just finished my B/A Hons degree at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Graphic Design, I thought I’d share 3 things I’ll take away from my course after 3 years of study there. I feel these are simple but important lessons and not to be forgotten. UWE drilled them well and showed us their value.
1.You must think about your design, really think about the meaning, purpose and reason. What effect it will have on your audience and consider their varying backgrounds. How might their class, ethnicity, ability, gender or sexuality affect the message they take from it. Design is powerful and you have to try to keep reasoning all your design decisions to be as effective as possible.
2.There are many different ways of generating ideas, there should never be a point in a project where you ‘can’t think of anything’ or are ‘waiting for the right idea to come along’. If stuck, there’s a wide variety of methods to come up with inspiration. Start by writing down 100 statements starting with “I believe I…”, sit in one location for 5 hours straight with a sketchbook and pencil case to observe and record what you see. Or even write down 20 words and get a friend to write a new word next to each of yours that they associate with to original one you wrote.
3.Remember what you can get done when you put your mind to it. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can get done in an hour, a day, a week or a month if you really try. There’s no point worrying or feeling annoyed at yourself about what you could or should have done with your time up until now. It’s too late, that time’s gone, it’ll never come back. What you can do is start NOW! Begin and plan into the future and you will get things done.