2020 — Not that bad I guess
Well, 2020 has been different (to say the least), but overall, it has been a brilliant year in so many ways. I have learnt so much over the year and worked on such awesome projects with inspiring creatives from various disciplines, creating work that I am truly proud of. I have learnt so many valuable lessons that have been caused by change.
Highlights of 2020
Over 2020 there were lots of highlights with so much happening. For me, a major highlight of the year was the completion of my dissertation, as this marked a massive achievement for me and the development of my writing skills. Another high point in the year is the collaborations I have been part of working with so many awesome people and learning so much along the journey. A big challenge coming into 2020 was developing a personal brand that displayed me better to the world. Overall, I have achieved this with my portfolio site's overhaul and my brand's development. My largest highlight of the year was developing my skills in the creative areas of both advertising and brand and developing the link that connects them and finding a passion for the link between business and design and their relationship for the future of innovation.
Lessons learnt
With a year of change in almost every aspect of my life, I learned from so many situations. A major lesson over the year was that as we approach more problems in design and life, we must become critical, not cynical to enable us to develop solutions to the problems over just highlighting issues, this came from reading Bruce Mau’s ‘24 Principles of Massive Change’ which has become a major part of how I approach design problems in my work. An advantage of 2020 is that had time to think and reflect. This led me to change my mindset and stop saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” to begin to do things ‘in the moment’ and take advantage of the situation in front of me.
Summary of my 2020.
At the start of the year, the focus was on wrapping up year two of my degree, which involved; executing the TEDxBCU event from the creative concepts we created, developing an explainer video for the Guardian campaign and creating a visual identity for a venture called Casa Blanca. The end of the second year was a learning curve at times with the TEDx event; the event enabled me to develop lots of production skills. The Guardian project developed my storytelling and taught me how to create narratives. The Casa Blanca project enabled me to develop my brand strategy skills and understand the relationship between business and branding.
With the end of my second year, I set my focus to the summer and relaxing. But with the pandemic, most summer plans were put on hold as I decided to use the time to develop my portfolio. This involved speaking to as many of my creative connections as possible about my portfolio to use the feedback I receive to create a better portfolio that tells my projects' story. Overall the pandemic caused a reevaluation in how I work and what I focus on in life and design. Over the pandemic, I have become more focussed on my mental awareness and understanding how taking care of my self can make me a better creative.
In September with the start of my third year of university my focus turned to how I can get the most out of the year, The first weeks of the first module involved multiple design sprints with a range of briefs that allowed me to understand and develop many more skills such as copywriting, strategy and art direction. This then led the main focus was on completing creative work for two D&AD briefs to link all my skills to create two of my best workpieces.
Overall the year involved lots of reflection and progress with briefs and skills testing me and making me a better creative going into 2021.
What’s next for 2021
In 2021 I have two aims simple aims. The first is to keep speaking to as many people as I can and begin to post more on Linkedin and Instagram, all with a focus on building my network and getting my work out there. Another aim for 2021 is to keep collaborating with different creatives and developing my skills.
