Feedback for Print

I really enjoyed the print unit, and felt I learned a lot. The feedback session was extremely useful, and will help shift my focus for future projects.

Generally I am quite risk averse, and although I made a successful, varied collection, I could have pushed things further. When researching other designers, I need to focus on a few that really say something to me, and document my analysis to say exactly why I like their work, and relate it back to my own.

I took the instruction ' be selective ' too far; I left out pieces that helped add variety to my collection that would have enhanced the presentation for the sake of ticking a box. This is probably the most important lesson; it also applies to my technical notes as well, as I focussed on making sure that everything possible was there, as I thought that would be more important for marking than making it useful to me. Next time I will focus on working in a way that is useful and interesting, not trying to make my work fit into what I think the university is looking for.

I did start to feel like I was starting to own my work until it was time for presentation - I then went back and added notes and extra pieces to tick boxes. Next time I'll think 'useful' from the beginning so there might be fewer examples or notes but they will be useful to me and succinct.

It was pointed out that the students who get hand-picked for jobs aren't usually the ones who get a first; they are the ones who do placements, have experience, pay attention to trends and and make designs that are suitable for a commercial market. I need to focus on my career rather than my degree; a good job is more important than a good degree, and if I see my time at university as a way to develop skills to take into a job I think I will become more successful than if I slow myself down trying to tick boxes.

The layout of my blog is not entirely consistent; this is because of a glitch with blogger; when trying to put photos side by side and in a particular order or with subtitles, there are sometimes problems. In future I will just lay photos out vertically so this doesn't happen. It 's a shame that such a useful feature doesn't work consistently.

I would like to revisit print in future projects, but would also like to incorporate embroidery in some way. I tend to enjoy doing a mixture of things, and also enjoyed paper cutting and digital work alongside hand drawn images. Unit X should help me to try out different combinations of materials and techniques.