Week 8

My idea:

I am designing my own set of playing cards that represent my journey as a graphic designer. To begin with, I have categorised all of my skills into four ‘suits’ – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. These are otherwise known as hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds.

There are skills that I feel I need to improve; these will fall into the beginner/hearts or intermediate/spades categories. The skills I feel confident about; these will fall into the advanced/clubs or expert/diamond categories.

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Diamond – Expert:
Focused – When undistracted, I can concentrate for long periods of time
Determined – I want to achieve good things
Adaptable – I love to learn new skills
Eager – This ties in with impatience, but this is a good thing as I push things forward, and keep things moving
Quick learner – I can pick up skills/learn software fast
Multi-tasking – I am nearly always juggling multiple things and that’s down to impatience too, wanting to get ahead
Organised – I love to be organised (so much so that I find organising calming)
Independent – Not afraid to be the “odd one out” and think differently, alongside being very content with my own company
Process improvement – Always looking for more efficient processes and how to make things easier/smoother
Honest – Reliable and trustworthy in all senses
Perfectionist – Visually attentive to details
Microsoft/Mac systems – Able to navigate and work freely
Photography – Enjoy visually exploring for research and enhancing ideas

Clubs – Advanced:
Teamwork – I can do it, effectively, but I prefer to have complete ownership and responsibility over tasks
Patience – I am impatient by things that take time/complications that occur and as a professional, have learnt to be accepting of these but still find unpredictability hard
Coding – Expand my expertise in HTML/CSS
Time-management – I could improve, maybe create timetables?
Screen-printing – Had a lot of practice in uni but never perfected foiling
Letterpress – Had a lot of experience in uni but never worked large scale

Spades – intermediate:
Hierarchy – To have knowledge of what works where in a layout
Typography – Use and combine typography effectively, and quickly
Etching – Lithography used during uni but would love to experiment further with different print techniques
Illustration – I’m still learning digital and want to explore that area
Packaging – I want to create branded packaging not just mock-ups

Hearts – Beginner:
Introverted – I’m quiet, keep myself to myself and dislike attention – not a strength for social events, however this means I am observant
Over-thinker – Things can feel complicated the more I think about it and I’m not a hasty decision maker. However this makes me a good analyst and thoughtful
Associality – I prefer to be by myself however this could be a strength as I’m focused and dedicated to things I am passionate about
Networking – Very little to no experience in design world, but working experience has encouraged networking
CAD – Would love to learn about 2d and 3d design principles and software to consider in projects
Marketing – Skills would be extremely useful in 21st century design and data could influence ideas/logic
UI/UX – User interface design for machines and software

Further development:

Feedback from the webinar has made me realise that there needs to be something which connects all the cards somehow, and I feel the best way to do that would be to have additional cards added that could be combined with the skillset cards. These could be cards that:

• Challenge me to do something new
• Ask me questions

These two options would enable me to improve my skills, and even generate new ideas. They will push me to achieve what I need to achieve to get to where I want to be.