OUGD502: Not Getting Responses

I had emailed various artists and collectives/companies and had no response. This is obviously because around christmas is the busiest period for creatives and doing work that it's hard to schedule extra time to respond to emails especially from a student. I get. Sometimes you feel run down that you don't want to use spare time to reply to your inbox.

As this method didn't work I tried glitter bombing people and sent various letters to studios requesting interviews and still did not get a response.

OUGD502: Things to do in Berlin

Before going to Berlin in February it is important to research things I want to do and that will benefit my personal practice. My aim is to take a lot of scenic photos and hopefully find somewhere quaint where landscape, atmosphere, people and environment can inspire future work.


Generic points of interest:

Reichstag building
Historic, glass-domed home of parliament

Brandenburg Gate
Grand classifcal archway & city divide





Museum Island
Museum, architecture

Berlin Wall
Conserved part of city wall & exhibition

Pergamon Museum
Antiquities & ancient art collections

Checkpoint Charlie
Cold war & east-west border landmark

Memorial to the Murdered Jews
2,711 columns commemorating Holocaust

East Side Gallery
Section of Berlin Wall for street art

Spree
River, bicycle touring, canal, forest, cathedral

Topography of Terror
Center documenting Nazi atrocities








Alexanderplatz
Pedestrianised square with iconic tower

Charlottenburg Palace
Riverside 17th century castle & gardens

Berlin Cathedral
Elaborate 19th-century cathedral

Neues Museum
Museum of ancient art & archaeology







Potsdamer Platz
Square at the heart of city's history

Tiergarten
Public park on an old hunting reserve






Berlin Zoological Garden
Huge, leafy zoo with modern aviary









Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Modern rebuild of 19th-century church

Alte Nationalgalerie
Neoclassical national art collection

Altes Museum
Displays of Greek & Roman artifacts

Checkpoint Charlie Museum
Displays on history of the Berlin Wall








Jewish Museum, Berlin
German-Jewish history & culture






Treptower Park
Large riverside park with observatory

OUGD502: Reflective Learning - Design Production

On this course it is equally as important to identify what you don't enjoy as much as what you do enjoy. This is an imperative part of developing your practise because it helps you to distinguish what you want to specialise in for your career. At this moment in time I have absolutely no idea what I want to specialise in with Graphic Design. I loved the part of Design Production in studio brief 01 of creating a book and finding a supplier and going through the manufacturing process of hand making one and getting one created in industry standard. It was an exciting process to see something digital come to life and become a physical thing. The practical side and ambition is something I will continue to endeavour within my practice.

However, the design for screen is something I had never really done before. I had tried to be as ambitious as possible and did as much research for the project to try get an understanding and insight on interface design. I feel like I had learned so much for studio brief 02 because I knew nothing before. I didn't like this as much because it was all digital. It's not something I'm personally interested in although I think it is a wonderful part of the practise. It's not something I can imagine myself doing although I would like to learn more about designing for screen. I won't completely write it off but it didn't engage my interest as much as studio brief 01.

I learned a lot about myself too within this module about how far I can push myself to do things. I accomplish more the more ambitious I am because I have to work to my own deadlines and schedules. This helps maintain my time management and balance other modules between.