i am officially in need of a portfolio crackdown. i have so much stuff im in the midst of working on i am finding it hard to pick what i should be focusing on. but im thinking i should pick the thing that would be most useful to my portfolio, the missing link if you will.

i love working on identity/brands and i have a couple of those in the pipeline along with something a little bit different which im planning on finishing before the end of next week, so keep checking my portfolio for updates, though i will probably post it on here too just incase all that button clicking is too much work!

i think that its probably the best idea to get this all done, a) before i get anymore interviews and b) because i dont want to think of anything else i want to do that will just add to my never ending list of ideas!!

graduation was today! wonderful…
i got up at 7.00 and managed to sneak in a mcdonalds breakfast (yum yum, double sausage and egg mcmuffin + hashbrown and tropicana, you can tell im hungry…) junk food makes it all worth it.
it rained alot, and the only thing worse than a super early morning is a super early wet morning. it was really hectic and in the car on the way there i would have much rather just got breakfast and gone home but im glad i went.

i was sat right at the front and out of 257 graduands only 35 of them got a first class honors, i was one of them ^_^ i was actually SO happy, i hadnt made a big deal out of it because there were so many people on my course i just presumed there would be loads that got 1sts, when in actual fact on my communication design course out of 40 people only 4 people got firsts.
so for one day and one day only i am allowing myself to feel exceptional… actually my one day ran out 7 minutes ago, nevermind!

edit: check out the robe and wizard hat ^_^ (below) mmm purple!

hooray!
tomorrow is graduation day! and i have to get up at 7.00 am to make it down there on time. ew, early morning? i wasnt planning on having any of them until i start work/uni. and now i have a two hour car journey down to portsmouth, what a nightmare, especially at that ungodly hour of the day!!

i dont even know where im going! all i know is i have to collect my robe and cap 30 mins before the ceremony… and do not get me started on the ceremony! i found out today it lasts 1 hour 45 mins! and i think i only have to do anything for about 1 minute of that… maybe less.

well, it only happens once in your life (though hopefully twice for me, *fingers crossed* MA in graphic design here i come!?) so i should make the most of it, or grin and bare it, however you want to look at it that is.

i had also planned on wearing that robe and cap everywhere but i have to hand it back right after the ceremony. dissapointment all round. hehe!

application take two!
i think i may have found that *perfect course* i thought how amazing it would be to study in london i didnt really know where to start, there are so many different universities to choose from… i was really trying to remember any recommendations i have had or just anything that might help refine my search more. thats when i found the london college of communication!

what was great was that they actually had an MA in graphic design! this is quite the novelty, as usually, they are called other things (like communication design ^_^) then looking at their course page and their website, then comparing it to the prospectus everything seemed to match up… unlike bath*!

*i dont think its a good sign when even the people who teach the course cant decide what to write about it, and i have a feeling that comparing the different information about the courses is going to become a regular occurrence when applying places now.

i have filled in my application form and will be sending it off first thing tomorrow, im already really looking forward to looking around and hearing more about the course. now i just have to wait on an invitation!

look at the course info here

(even the website looks awesome! i wish you could see the prospectus, im going to keep it it looks so good!)

after having been to my interview at bath spa university i decided it wasnt for me. the course entitles brand development was a little confusing for several reasons really… one being that in the prospectus it had suggested that it was much more design orientated and in a small course brochure it sounded much more like business studies. which, lets just say, doesnt interest me.
im looking for a course that will not render what i have been learning for the past three years completely irrelevant. i really enjoy graphic design! and i would ideally pick an MA that will let me focus - in some way - on one aspect of it.

the course focused on the research behind how a brand is made and *how it can be applied* to develop a brand, not the actual visual development of a brand. infact a visual outcome wasnt even required, instead a 16k report was.
i found it a good thing really as this just showed me that i really do know what i want to do next, and this wasnt it. i want to join a design course, and i really think that the design course should require a design element to it! not a report!

the whole point of me picking an MA course instead of another degree is so that i can refine my interest down, to something more specific. to be completely honest im not entirely sure how an MA actually works. i know that you have to pretty much have your brief set before you start the course, wherever that may be… and that it sounds alot like my self elected unit, by which i mean i set the brief and aside from tutorials to guide me, im pretty much investigating by myself.

im really excited about actually finding my perfect course, its out there somewhere! i just have to find it!!

i drove all the way down to portsmouth yesterday to collect all the work i had handed in over the last year and it was sad. i had to drive past my old house and even though i hated it there sometimes, it was so sunny down in southsea it was really sad to leave knowing i wasnt coming back there again.

i am also sad as i didnt go to see the summer show up and running and loads of my work was up and i had no idea *really* how much until i was peeling it off the walls yesterday.
i kind of wish i had photographs of it all. it made me feel special ^_^ i think i will take some pictures of it all mounted up sometime soon anyway… as soon as i can borrow a camera…

something that i have been a little frightened about was the scaryness of job hunting… what if i end up lumbered in a boring office job? or i get so broke i have to settle for a job that has nothing to do with what i actually studied in at all? all that money and all those years wasted!!

can you see where my panic is routed from now?

the otherday when i was stuck in a seemingly neverending loop of panic about this kind of thing i remembered something i was told from quite young…. “stay in education as long as you can” i think it might have been my dad, well thankyou dad because now i am thinking about applying for further education and i have my eye on bathspa.

why? lots of reasons why really, mainly because they do a course in brand development, which is *exactly* what i wanted to do and what i really enjoyed doing when i was at uni. another plus is definitely that they ranked alot higher than portsmouth in the uks university list (yes, i read that)

see the link here to the course info

so, on to bath!!

my first post and the start of my new non-student life.

as of yesterday i have officially finished university, i no longer have an (almost) excuse for sleeping in late and i am now expected to be a withstanding member of the community… i have never been so scared in my whole life!

i feel strange that 3 whole years of working super hard can be summed up in just one grade, the grade that was officially finalised yesterday (independence day!) which means i can now proudly say, that “i graduated my BA in communication design at portsmouth university with a first class honors!” *the crowd goes wild*

actually, my official graduation is on the 20th of july, and yes i will be wearing the crazy gown and cap. though i may fight it… im sure there will be pictures.