I’ve now handed everything, process books and outcomes for all projects as documented here. During the second set of process books to be done I was moving forward with the criticism to be less wordy, I tired to implement that as much as possible, often creating body text and condensing it multiple times.
I also wrote a reflective log;
“I think it’s no secret that I am a hard worker. I have so much passion for this course and what it enables me to do. I feel I get out exactly what I put in, due in part to the tutor engagement. I’ve had so many influential chats in particular with Marcus and Max who have given me tailored, thoughtful thinking points and research links which have completely altered my perception. This was pushed even further during my position brief when Marcus gave me Joel Gethin Lewis’ contact, a Lecturer at the UAL Creative Computing Institute who informally offered me a place on his masters course. Through tutorials I realise that I came to this course having an already quite developed position. I love exploring areas within the post-digital both using the tools of the digital but more-so engaging with the conceptual side to this. In my process book I use the humanist monospaced font “Inconsolata” designed for source code listing, terminal emulators, and similar uses. The theme of the postdigital has been present in my work starting with the Sapere aude brief and it’s part of a position that I will continue to develop. I can’t speak highly enough of Ajay’s lecture series and how I’ve found engaging with CHS so much incredibly beneficial to my practice.
At first I struggled to get to grips with the Concept and challenge group model initially thinking myself as more of a solo worker and slightly perturbed by the way it was contextualised under commercial advertising. However, throughout the course of the year I developed my qualities as a leader, ones which I am grateful to have both been noticed by Marcus and Zelda who’ve helped me push these skills further. I realised I wasn’t leading out of necessity like I thought I originally was and found my mutiny brief so rewarding when it all came together and the strength of group work really shone through. I’ve also found the studio culture really stimulating. People seemed to know about my passions and interests within graphic design through the way I speak in my presentations and my work in the work in progress show. This has led to many external conversations and the beginnings of creating a team to work with now and later on. I have also tried to make use of all the facilities available to me and I realised just how much working in the print room for a few solid days can make you think in a whole new way. I work a lot digitally so it’s always good to craft things with my hands, the bookbinding workshops were such an experience and opened my eyes to these more specialised forms of graphic design which require a real mastery of craft.
I am also grateful for the more pastoral care I’ve received. My tutor has been incredibly understanding and reassuring about my circumstance at home. This was also reflected more recently with the advice and contact given in the early stages of corona. Whilst it’s a shame the last brief didn’t occur and I was looking forward to curating the final year show, I can’t wait for next year, using the summer to develop both my technical and conceptual skills. I want to thank all the staff for their dedication and hardwork teaching this course. I am constantly impressed by the standard of teaching at Kingston.
I’ve linked it where relevant in my process books, but I keep a digital log here: http://aitken.design.blog. It’s very wordy and as such can’t be used so much as a portfolio, this is something I’ll be working on over summer but I’ve found the process of reflecting through writing really beneficial, it’s also a good place to store research links and other digital materials.”
Cameron Aitken Graphic Design 