Due to a change in organisational policy we were unable to do a Work Placement with Mr B & Friends which I was quite disappointed about, however, Nathan and Kieran have been really generous with their own time and set us a brief, for which we have regular meetings with them to present progress and discuss possible routes forward, similar to a client meeting when producing a real world outcome. With those meetings I have been proactive in organising times to meet, quick to respond to emails from them, on time/early in attendance of those events. I was prepared, with research, work and questions for them, I listened to what they had to say, eager to learn from them and made notes. I was polite and grateful for their time. These meetings were useful as they helped draw my focus back to the crux of the brief, I found I lost sight of the obvious; the brand needs to look cool and exciting, the brand is aiming to make decaf coffee desirable.

There is more detailed specifics on the Industry Live Briefs within Unit 58 and 47, but in terms of reflection for my own personal performances within those situation whereby we have had contact with professional organisations and also from my prior experience working with clients on freelance work, it is absolutely key to listen to what your client wants and make notes, ask them questions and encourage them to give you examples of what they want, so you have a really clear idea of how to progress. Regular feedback sessions are also important to check you are heading in the right direction. From experience the client might not always want to do what you feel is best so while you can offer them your experience and a clear rationale for why you are recommending an idea or design, sometimes you might have to take a project a less satisfying route. It is important not to have an ego about your design, you are being paid to do what the client wants, but this is why it is important to have really clear reasoning behind your design decisions and being able to articulate that decision making process in the hope the client will be able to get behind your ideas more readily.

Areas I really need to improve are being able to limit and focus my research in order not to overwhelm my decision making process with too many ideas, I need to streamline this as I often spend far too long in this phase of a project. I also need to keep working on learning programs such as After Effects in order to animate static work. I also need to be doing a lot more drawing to assist my idea articulation, I am addressing this by attending life drawing classes at the moment.

Because of my age and experience I feel like my soft skills are in pretty good shape: critical thinking, problem solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic and intercultural fluency.