It's Been a While

since I last posted. Quite a lot has happened since I last did! Where to start...

I started my placement at the end of January. I'm now on week 8 and I don't want it to end! I've had such a good time so far and learned so much, I just want to keep going. I've done a few designs, some good, some bad. I've learned how to take criticism well, you can't be a baby in this industry! But I feel my skills are, and will continue, improving.

My auntie had a baby boy! He's now a week old (after being 5 weeks early) but it getting stronger and healthier everyday. I went to visit him for the first time yesterday and I started crying when I saw him, which I did not expect! He's just so bloomin' perfect.

I'm not looking forward to going back to Aberdeen, for fear of confrontation and awkwardness. And not feeling great about being in Oban over the summer while everyone else is in Glasgow. Fortunately, I don't need to go back to Aberdeen until May and that's only to hand in my work. Don't appreciate being expected to tidy up things that aren't my fault!

I've had my first paid job and it went well! I helped out a friend of my mum's promoting a Fairtrade Fashion show, designing two posters, tickets and postcards. I got paid for the postcards, which weren't part of the show. Very happy with the way it all went. Was also featured and credited in the paper!

I've turned 21! Feels slightly different but not much. Had a low key birthday with friends and family having a buffet at the house then a few of us going to a pub for drinks. Not as many people came as I would have liked but it was still a good night.

I'm working through a CSS book just now, so I'd better carry on with that.

Rewind

The past few days haven't been particularly spectacular but they've made me happy :]

I had a big presentation on Thursday to 3 people from Grampian Police, including a Sargent and a graphic designer. We had to design a graphic style for their recruitment campaign and I went for a Roy Lichtenstein inspired comic book angle. I think they liked it, the woman in particular liked the bat-signal style searchlight I used. They said it was very different and recognised that a lot of work went into the illustration. That was particularly nice to hear considering I was up late most nights last week trying to get work done and as a result have been suffering lightheadedness during the day! Not too bad though, and starting to go away now that I'm catching up with my sleep. We got our last brief of term on Thursday too, another corporate identity competition which my tutor said "could be done in a day". She shouldn't have said that :D

So Thursday was OK, then I woke up on Friday and started getting ready to go to St Andrews to visit Joe. I checked my university emails whilst munching on a bowl of crunchy nut and find an email from a guest tutor informing me that my logo design for a previous project was very close to being chosen by the client to be used to brand his physiotherapy practice! I was over the moon! The fact that my design was so closely considered for the actual brand made my day! I was so chuffed when I read that, and was touched that my tutor took the time out to tell me. I was telling her a while back how insecure I am about my work and I think that's why she emailed me. So that was super duper!

Went to St Andrews on Friday and had a really nice weekend with Joe, doing nothing in particular! We napped, ate chinese food, watched a french film, shopped, drank hot chocolate, napped some more, ate soup, watched Buzzcocks, at pizza, watched top gear, then decided that it was still early enough to shove a couple of pints down our throats in the pub before going to bed. Oh and he gave me part of my Christmas present early! It's a super-cool, super-warm hat from Fat Face, it's so cool! I might put a picture of it up if I'm feeling Myspacey enough :D

So now I'm back in Aberdeen facing a 2500 word essay and realising that the questions aren't quite as easy as I thought/hoped they were. Whoops. Think I may have to speak to my lecturer tomorrow.

I'm sleepy. I think I might eat some cranberry cheese I got from the international market last weekend.

Everybody wants to be a copycat

Actually no, who in their right mind would want to be a copycat? I'm working on an old film poster project at the moment and I chose to do the Aristocats, hence the title.

I can't stand people that copy others. It's probably the most pathetic thing you can do to somebody, another designer, a friend. Especially when they won't own up to it but instead pitch it as their own idea and make you look like a fool. This is probably a very immature rant but it's one thing that I cannot stand, and I wish I could say something to this person but unfortunately I have a distinct lack of balls (both a good and bad thing depending which way you take that statement) and cannot bring myself to say anything. Well, I pointed out how daft I looked when I presented the same concept right after them and all I get was a vague "yeah i know" which screams a guilty conscience in my opinion. I thought it wouldn't be so bad because I was certain that another person in the class would have come up with the same concept (due to my self deprecation I thought it was a fairly obvious idea) and it would just look like a few people thought similarly but when it's two people who are very close and live together it gets a bit suspicious when they have pretty much the same idea. I just feel so betrayed! In a way...

Maybe I'm being melodramatic.

First Blog on the Moon

"I wasn't listening, I zoned out."

It's interesting what sentences can be funny at completely unexpected times! That's one advantage of having such an open flat, you can carry conversations without leaving the comfort of one's bed.

I've got a set up in the corner of my room next to the window that seems to have become a little makeshift workstation for myself. I can't wait to have a proper studio. I want a desk that is surrounded by shelves full of books and notepads and supplies and various other stationary products so that I can zoom around on my wheelie chair and grab whatever I need. One can dream.

Being a design student is rather hard this year. Lately I feel like I've been flailing in my projects. I'm almost never happy with what I come up with. I feel like my work is just so....amateur. I still can't define or pin down a style, or exactly what it is I want to do with my life. I'm really interested in web design, most of the digital based media really. I want to get better at using dreamweaver and flash and teach myself how to use fireworks. But first I better get cracking on that HTML book for my placement...