ad298: personal statement

This brief taught me a lot, both about my individual creative skills and my skills in teamwork and communication. I have always been someone who takes charge and uses my initiative in group projects to solve problems if things aren’t going to plan. I focused on the layout, design and overall visual identity for our magazine, and was able to use my existing interests and skills in design to create the appearance of Nookie as a brand, as well as putting together elements such as the media pack, typography and imaging themes and the final magazine layout. I looked at areas of art and design which interested and inspired me and kept referring back to them during the project, including other publications such as Ladybeard and Polyester Zine, illustrators such as Laura Callaghan, and other creatives like Bompas & Parr and Ryder Ripps. I think this constant referencing and research allowed my work to have clear themes, and ensure design was cohesive throughout.

I was also able to use my interest in still life photography to contribute to the content of the magazine, and this helped me to discover new areas of work and new skills and interests – myself and Immi both have very similar tastes visually so we worked together on this, and we enjoyed it so much we want to carry it forward and continue creating still life photography work together in our free time.

This brief also allowed me to develop my skills in areas that I am perhaps a little more unconfident in, such as typography and digital illustration/image-making. I tried my hardest to get out of my comfort zone and try these things that I am often scared to for fear of them not turning out how I would like. I feel I have got a lot more confident with creating my own typography and being more creative with it, from hand-drawing to editing type on Photoshop and Illustrator.

In terms of group work, I often find it hard to work with several other people who may not share the same ideas as me, but this project was great at forcing me to compromise and listen to others’ thoughts and ideas. This meant that sometimes other group members suggested alternative outcomes or solutions that I actually preferred, and so this helped me in terms of receiving friendly but critical feedback. Other times I had to compromise in areas of design which meant that I may not have liked the final outcome, but it was necessary to keep the group member(s) happy and the group working together. I did feel like I took a lot of work on in this brief, and was constantly perfecting the work for the magazine to make sure everything flowed with consistency and fit the brand identity we proposed.