Emma Butler

The work that I chose to put into my portfolio is all from my second year this is because I feel that the level of my work is to a higher standard from than in my first year. In some respect my portfolio contains quite a board range of work and shows that I have a lot of skills to offer. But I will need to narrow down my design practice next year and focus on creating a strong portfolio.

Within my portfolio I have also tried to keep the layout quite simple so that the images stand out on the page and aren't over crowd but other images or text. So that it shows a clean image of the final resolutions and design work. Hopefully this shows a clear understanding on what I have produced and in some respects speaks for itself so to speak.

Through out this year I have been influence by designers such as Kate Moross and Mike Perry. Looking into hand rendered type and the use of colour to create impact within design. I feel that I mainly like to work with image but I'm looking in to combining the two and improving my illustrator skills. Screen print is also of a great interest to me and I wish to further my skills next year. During this year it has become more relevent to my design practice and I'v mainly been influenced by Keep Calm Gallery . This design studio creates some lovely prints using both type and image to convey the message. Alot of their work is surrounded by sayings/proverbs and then illustrate around those themes experimenting with colour and different print techniques.

During this year I have found that one of my strengths is using illustrator more effciently, I'v found that my skills have really developed over this year and I want to continue with this next year. I'v also found that I have more confidence when it comes to screen printing and creating image for that. But I still have more to learn with colour seperation and different techniques. So for next year I plan to create a more screen print based portfolio and experiment more with this method of printing.

However one of my main weaknesses is that I lack confidence when selecting an idea to work with as I'm never sure whether it will work out or not. Also working at a quicker pace in the initial stages of design would benefit me, enabling me to really push my ideas until I can go no further.

Things I want to improve on next year include creating more screen printed resolutions to briefs and spending time to develop these skills. I also want to become more confident when using other design software as this is an area that I need to improve on.

For my dissertation I have chosen to focus on the influence of graphic design on mass media and consummerism. Looking into the different methods of advertising and how they communicate the message. I chose to look in to this as I'm planning on having a more image based portfolio and looking in to the ways in which a message is communicated within advertising could prove to be quite helpful. I also want to pick up on when advertisment becomes too controvercial and the methods in which this is portrayed.