PORTFOLIO REVIEWS AND EXPERIENCE
I really enjoyed the Alumnight event, which consisted of a few talks by Alumni of Stockport College and a small speed-dating styled portfolio reviews. I gained feedback that I took home by three design teams.
I’m not sure whether you might’ve experienced this, but there are times where I’m in the car with my parents and you hear them complain or sigh about the tiny learner driver infront of them. The new driver’s slow moving, random stalling, using the indicators too early seems to irratate my parents quite a bit. I then go to say “They’re learning. Remember that you were in their shoes years ago”. If you’ve had one of those experiences then I can safely say that feeling is exact to the Alumnight event. A learner driver in a room full of fully-experienced and settled drivers.
When taking in the portfolio reviews I realised some of the alumni I spoke to did not see me as a true creative. They saw me as a student and nothing more. I felt as though their egos were boosted by me just listening to their critiques. It wasn’t positive improvements either. Let me explain:
There’s a difference between positive and negative advice. Positive advice would sound like “This part is great, this part is good, let me give you some advice for this part”. Negative advice is “This is bad, here’s what you should do to it”. The negative advice sounds abrasive, rude, almost like the person giving it to you thinks they are the best at their job. The first thing I had said to me was “Here’s what you need to do”, and gave me a list which they prepared it way before the event, as though they didn’t listen to me.
Put it this way: Just because you’ve been on the road a lot longer than I have, does not mean you know the road better than me. I heard one person say to a student: “Who are your top 3 designers?”. If you can’t name any, that would be worrying. But to me, top 3 is not important. You can have your own style and ways without looking up to someone else heavily, top 3 anything does not always describe you. That’s similar to me asking “What are your top 3 shapes?”, “Your top 3 artists?”. I love Francis Bacon but you don’t see me painting pieces of meat hanging from a butchers.
Although the feedback was blunt, I got to learn some things about the design industry. I took home quite a lot of advice and perhaps it was a learning curve of what I want to do for the future. Regardless, there are some things that will stay the same. I like Futura and I will still use it, I doubt I’ll change that.