Evaluation

When I first joined site text and practice, I was unsure as to what the whole class entailed, and even now explaining to people that you have to respond to a place is often met with confusion. However, once I realised what the plan was, I was really excited. I've always been quite an enthusiastic writer, I enjoy writing essays and have ventured into writing short stories in my spare time. The class was also an opportunity to explore my own skills as a graphic designer since I had free reign on how my response would look or what it would be.

Exploring has always been something that has interested me, even to this day I often go on urban exploration trips with friends to abandoned or derelict buildings. I find it really interesting, imagining how the place looked once upon a time and how much it would have meant to people back in the day. Abandoned places definitely have a certain mystery to them, you try and envisage how the places used to look before plants took over and kids graffitied. Through this project, my eyes have been opened to the world around me a little more, and has started me looking up, rather than just looking down as so many people in cities do.

I wanted to really explore my love for exploring in the sense of how imagination can play a massive part in it. I originally wanted to use a place that held an event in my life as my place to respond to but as I continued into research with this, I realised that I didn't want to reflect on the past, but on the future. This is where I got the idea to respond to my imaginary place, my future design studio. With my interest in interior design and my love to embrace imagination, this was the perfect place to respond to.

I chose a zine as my platform for my response since I wanted to explore a self publishing side of graphic design that I hadn't been able to really experiment with before. I'm actually so pleased with the result of this project, that I'm thinking of using it as a portfolio piece! This project allowed me to explore with my style of graphic design, but also allowed me to embrace my powerful imagination to create my future desgin studio, in every aspect of its aesthetic. Doing this has also been a massive encouragement for me to start working towards fulfilling this goal in later life, which is something that I hoped would happen.

Overall, the module has been really enjoyable and has been an inspiration for me in a number of ways. It's encouraged me to walk more, and to explore more and to look further than just a passing look. It's also helped me encourage myself to aim higher in my career and future, with the creation of my ideal design studio. It's also pushed me to experiment with writing more and use it more in general life (with journalling, for example) then I do already. I've really enjoyed site text and practice and think I've taken a lot from the module in a variety of ways.