Image from Joe King: https://joewking.wordpress.com/
This semester is going to be really interesting, because it is a joint studio with Communication Design students. I actually didn’t know that there was a comm design class until I signed up for the studio, so this class was great for me because I got to learn about what comm design students do.
So the exercise that we did in class was to get into groups with equal numbers of media and design students, and discussed what we have done so far in our degree, what kind of things we have learnt, what kind of platforms/mediums/software we use, and what we would like to learn from working with each other.
Over my degree, it has mainly been focused on film work, creating films and videos, and learning about the practices and conventions that are involved. In the university that I transferred from, I learnt about sound design (using pro tools), using digital film cameras, and I also learnt about philosophy, linguistics, and how these are essential to communication degrees. Here at RMIT, I have learnt how to use a variety of cameras and get a better understanding of how they work, I have learnt the conventions of shooting a fiction film, I have learnt about lighting, and I have learnt about television through RMITV. I have also learnt how to manage productions, basics of photography, and film theory.
From the design students, I have learnt that they have learnt to use InDesign and photoshop. This is something that I am interested in learning, because I am taking an introduction to graphic design course this semester (which teams up well with this studio). They seem to focus a lot on physical and emotional touch points in humans, and how they can use this in their design work. They have done a lot of print, publication layout design, typography, advertising, web design, plus a whole array of other things. It seems that a lot of their assignments include an open brief, either working with some information or a client, and that they create all sorts of different things using that same information.
Their process also is very interesting. They focus a lot on creating many different variations, or building on an idea many times to make it great. This is something that would be a really great skill for me to learn, because my reflection and editing process is not very strong (in all creative aspects).
I am super excited, and from this studio I want to be able to pick up some design habits (including process, and working to a brief) so that I can take that into my own creative work.
