Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

Identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose to study on this programme

1. Strong emphasis on preparing you for industry and graphic design in the real world, beyond the degree. I think it prepares you for professional practice.
2. Lots of contact time with tutors combined with good studios and facilities - a good learning environment.
3. Intensive timetable which will push me to the best of my ability and hopefully generate a great portfolio of work.
4. Talking to students in other years and seeing their work produced on the course inspired me.
5. I think the course caters for individual styles and encourages you to find your own personal strengths within the course and graphic design in general, unlike other courses which try and produce certain types of graduates.

 Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the programme

1. Techniques and skills such as printing and letterpress - working with more traditional media which requires a process as supposed to having an instant outcome.
2. What constitutes successful graphic design from both a professional and personal point of view.
3. More information on specialist areas of graphic design such as layout and typography.
4. How to maximise my time on the course and then take the skills I have learnt beyond LCA into a creative career.
5. Where my strengths lie and what area of graphic design I want to progress to after the degree.

Identify and explain 5 skills that you think are your strengths

1. Composition and layout combining image and text - placing various elements on a page so they work well together.
2. Presentation of my work to a fairly professional standard. I'm quite neat in my work and like everything to be clean and organised well.
3. Working with digital media, for example with Photoshop and drawing vector images in Illustrator. 
4. Time management - I am good at meeting deadlines and balancing different commitments.
5. I am quite confident talking in front of people and presenting//explaining my work. 

Identify and explain 5 things you want to improve

1. Using different media such as traditional printing techniques. I used to work more with collage and hand-drawn illustrations but lately have got almost too comfortable using a computer.
2. Experimenting stylistically within my work and not sticking to generic design.
3. Not settling for the easiest most immediate solution and remaining open to different outcomes, which might work better than something obvious like a poster.
4. Generating multiple ideas within my work to allow for more variation and experimentation.
5. Working collaboratively and as part of a group.

Identify and explain 5 ways that you will evaluate your progress

1. Through blogging and reviewing my work at various points throughout the year.
2. Self-analysis - setting myself goals and things to learn & improve, and timescales in which to achieve these targets.
3. Group crits and feedback from other students, both in my year and Levels 5 & 6. Seeing where other people are at with their work and how far they are progressing in comparison to mine.
4. Tutorials and points of assessment, and in the build up to deadlines.
5. Looking to designers and professionals, and how my practice is developing in a professional context outside of college.

Identify 5 questions that you want to find the answer to

1. Where do my strengths lie and what career will they lead me to after the degree?
2. What sort of work do I want to be producing on the course - what methods and media are the most effective ways of communication and what style do I work in?
3. How do I build links with industry e.g. through work placements and internships to have a destination after graduation?
4. What is graphic design and how far can the definition be challenged and pushed?
5. How do I make the most out of the next three years to maximise my time here?