That damn comfort zone...

This is something I'm going to try and avoid like the plague come September. If it weren't for Foundation I'd have a very different idea of what it means to be a student of Graphic Design. Making the leap from A-Level to Diploma in Art & Design was a surprisingly big one. And it wasn't until then I realised how prescriptive A-Level actually was, and how little freedom we had in terms of creative development.

It's funny in a way, even though your essentially told to do whatever you want with A-Level Graphics, there's still a very specific curriculum you have to stick to. And you never really taught anything new; what you do is up to you; so despite a pretty enjoyable two years at A-Level, I didn't bother to learn anything new; simply because I didn't have to. I pigeon holed myself into a very clinical method of working, and by the time the years had finished; I hadn't really felt like I'd learned anything. I certainly improved on the areas of work I focused on (digital software, image manipulation, some light photography and a little graphic drawing) but I totally restricted myself to do anything else. I had found my niche and was sticking to it. By the second year, I'd improved vastly, and my first A-Level project gave me the best results I'd ever had - this gave me a false sense of security, and I practically copy and pasted the work over from that project to my final exam piece and my grades slipped. It's not because the work was any worse; it was because I was too afraid to try anything different.

By the time I'd started my Foundation course, I came to the realisation that relying on the same formula for A-Level just wasn't going to cut; so i tried new things. I tried stitch making, print screening, painting, drawing, film photography, collage etc... Trying to get my hands as dirty as possible, until I found techniques that stuck. My attitude to carrying out projects has changed vastly within the last year.  And I hope to investigate further techniques whilst I study at Kingston. 

Shoving yourself into a neat little box as a designer is about the worst thing you can do. I'm just glad I discovered this before any of the real work begins.