April is drawing to an end and nothing has changed in regards to this website. I promised (myself) to relaunch this month but let´s keep realistic: It´s not going to happen. It is however, along with one or two other commitments, now my first priority to get it done. Of course there are reasons for the delay, and contrary to what some might think when they know that I'm currently on a "year out", it´s not laziness, party and holiday. Since the start of the academic year I have worked full-time in two creative companies with international reputation and part-time in another. I have pursued freelance work for big and small clients and took part in design competitions with success. Since the start of 2010 I have wrapped up seven projects and successfully taught myself many of the things I always wanted to learn but university failed to address. I realised my plan to run my own "course" with my own "modules" and I can say it paid off. And I'm not finished yet.When in the second year of my degree course at UWE my disappointment with the quality of teaching reached a peak, I decided to take up the opportunity to study a semester in Switzerland. This reinforced my impression that Graphic Design at UWE just isn't for me and I pulled the emergency break which led to the experience I'm having now. It was the right decision. At the point when I walked into the admin office and told them that I was taking time-out, everything was open. I didn't know whether I could sustain myself, what I would do with my time, whether I would change my mind and if I would return next year or not. The reaction from UWE was mainly shrugging shoulders and the deletion of my e-mail account. Formally for the university I became invisible since I wasn't a paying customer anymore.Through the experience I've had since that day, the work I've done and the goals I've accomplished, I've come to realise that my career plans don't align with the teaching at the Graphic Design course at UWE. I'm pursuing a career in the creative industry, as a designer, consultant or whatever it may be. A career primarily concerned with solving problems creatively and visually for clients, users and audiences. I'm not an artist and I'm not the centre of my own work. However, most projects I was asked to undertake at UWE asked me to either express my personal opinion, to graphically expose intimate details of my personality/life, or to create work better described as conceptual art. A critical message seemed more important than the professional execution or aesthetic quality of the work. Judging it by using the weight of the file containing the development work as an indication for the mark instead of actually looking through it wasn't the only assessment flaw. Work seemed to be judged neither by form nor function but by the level of personal engagement and sacrifice. A usability-driven analytical approach to design was belittled in favour of a preferably physically painful and uncomfortable information gathering process like sitting in a space for 5 hours or performances subject to public ridicule. The result were clichés. The role of the designer as author, artist and social commentator was stressed particularly after some key positions in the staff hierarchy had changed. The line "Emphasis is placed on content gathering and authorship" was added to the official course description. This isn't what I signed up for.Admittedly I've been moaning and complaining a lot. I've had many a rant about the course and it wasn't always fair or appropriate. My concern wasn't the 107 typos in 12 poorly photocopied briefs, it was everything that this entailed: the assumption that personal expression is more important than usability. After I have gained some distance now, I can reflect on it differently. I suppose my conclusion is: Each to their own. Some graphic designers are artists. For some the most important aspect of graphic design is political agitation and commentating on society. Few make a living through that, others are happy with a day job and "do graphic design" on the side. And then there´s another side of graphic design which is industry, client and consumer focussed and usability driven. A side where form follows function and aesthetics are an element of usability engineering. I suppose most good designers find a healthy balance of the two. But in order to find this balance, one needs to learn and experience both of them. After going to Switzerland and studying modules in Digital Media, Scientific Visualisation and Information Design, subsequently working in Editorial Design with a prestigious magazine at one of the largest publishing houses in Germany, experiencing User Centred Design practice at an award-winning multi-disciplinary Information Design studio, pursuing freelance work for clients ranging from startups to multi-national corporations and now working in a Social Media ad agency, I'm much more aware of where I'm positioning myself in the creative industry. I regard this experience as part of the learning that contributes to my degree. This means—you guessed it—I didn't quit. Of course I'm continuing to study. I have one more year to go and I aim to follow the path I'm on now. I focus on the aspect of graphic design that makes sense to me. I don't know what kind of projects I'm going to do in the third year. Maybe they'll have an element of authorship and conceptual art. Maybe to some extent they'll reflect a personal aspect. One thing is for sure: My learning approach is going to be industry-focussed, collaborative, multi-disciplinary and usability-driven.I will not graduate from UWE Bristol, but from the University College Falmouth in 2011.
It´s gone a bit quiet on here but that doesn't mean that I'm being lazy. Like so often, when there´s lots going on, there´s no time to blog about it. My self-negotiated 'practice year' is coming along well and I'm as busy as ever developing new skills and experiencing the 'real world'. After a few commissioned projects like the BiWa website, the interactive e-cards for Allianz Group and the logo for c² Consulting Group, I took a step out of the door of my little studio and went on a work experience with City ID in Bristol. City ID is a design studio that develops award-winning design, information and wayfinding solutions for cities across the world. They are a multi-disciplinary team from a variety of specialist fields including information designers, urban designers, illustrators, cartographers, interface designers and product designers to name but a few. I took the opportunity to shadow them for four weeks and dip in and out of some of their exciting projects. I was also actively involved with information planning and research and developed a personal project with a result that I'm very proud of. What it is will be revealed soon, so watch this space.Now I'm back at my little studio and work on a couple of websites, one of which is the complete redesign of paznow.com. My new site will go live in early April and so far it´s looking very good and I'm rather excited about it. Until then there probably won't be much blogging, so if you wanna know what´s going on in my life (and the little aches and pains I'm running into) then head over to twitter or facebook and subscribe to the RSS feed or e-mail updates so you won't miss the relaunch.
A lot of people in the UK seem to be superstitious, particularly in winter. Many people think for example, that leaving christmas decoration up after the 6th of January causes bad luck. Others think that gritting your own drive or the pavement outside your house or clearing it of snow will cause people to sue you if they slip and fall despite your efforts. Well, both of these popular beliefs are actually myths, I'm afraid.Fair enough, this country isn't used to a bit of snow in the winter and that´s why people react scared and paralyzed - I give you that. But come on, stop acting like children and take some responsibility. Stop complaining that the council doesn't grit your pavement and that elderly people are piling up on the street corners as they slip on the ice and fall on their face. People don't need to be "trapped in their homes", this is not the Antarctic. Take a goddamn shovel and grit your own pavement!But ... but ... haven't you watched TV? There´s a national shortage of grit. Don't give me this bullshit! If you don't have salt for gritting (which is bad for the environment anyway) use something else. Gravel, sand, sawdust, or even wood chips are better than no grit. Use your imagination. This is an island, there´s plenty of sand all around. And no, nobody will hold you liable when they slip on your drive unless you act grossly negligent ie. when your gritting efforts make things worse than they were before. If for example you had the brilliant idea to pour hot water over the ice, you'd clearly be an idiot and deserved to be sued. In most countries you're legally obliged to free the pavement outside your house from ice and snow and you're liable for any accident that happens if you DON'T. In this country however, you enjoy the freedom of looking after your neighbours voluntarily. So stop complaining about the council and do it yourself. It shouldn't be the law, it should be common sense.Oh and having some fairy lights up on the 7th doesn't kill anyone either.Myth busted. Now enjoy your snow.
My design adventure in mainland Europe has now finished. I've had some great experiences in the last nine months tasting both design education and the publishing industry in Switzerland and Germany. I've met some amazing people and learnt a lot about the industry and myself. I've learnt that I should use the three years of my degree to get the absolute most of my time as a design student. This has led me to the decision to take a year out after my exchange semester in Zurich, to gain some invaluable work experience and be better prepared for my final year at university as well as the 'real life'. After serving a three-months editorial design internship at one of Germany´s most respected newspapers, I have now returned to Bristol and will use the next few months for personal development. This basically means that I am interning at myself, trying out the life of a freelancer and making use of all the learning resources out there that I've never had time for until now. I can learn whatever I want, whenever I want and as much as I want. Something tells me that this is gonna rock!The only thing that upsets me a little bit is that the view has changed from lovely mountains and exciting trains to victorian terraced houses and a brick wall. Ah well, can't have everything.
There´s still a month left with my internship at SZ-Magazin but two of my fellow interns finished their´s last week. As a 'thank you' to the team we produced a special edition of the "Sagen Sie Jetzt Nichts" interview without words, a very popular award-winning column in our magazine. Obviously it won't make a lot of sense for you if you don't speak German or are familiar with our inside jokes. I thought I'd post it anyway because we found it funny.
Today is the last day of Oktoberfest, the most famous beer festival in the world. Before I came to Munich, I was looking forward to experiencing this curious event that is somewhat like a carnival where everybody wears the same costumes. Unfortunately it turned out that nobody wanted to go with me because a few weeks ago Al-Qaeda had the funny idea to spoil everybody´s fun by claiming that Afghanistan is no Octoberfest – which is true – but it caused both, Bavarians as well as bearded foreigners to have a hard time enjoying the beer fest. 700 policemen turned the place into a fortress and everybody who had a "funny feeling" changed their plans and let me alone with my determined plans to enjoy a Maß or two in one of the beer tents. Ironically more people died of alcohol-related incidents than suicide bombers. Funny isn't it?
