Mini Manifesto

This is my 5 point mini manifesto as discussed in a PPD session.

What I want to be as a designer;

What I used to be as a designer:

Terrible if I’m being brutally honest. I had no sense of direction and everything tended to look one big unfocused mess. I would close off my ears and refuse to listen to good critique because I believed people did not “get where I was coming from.” I thought I had graphic design down but if that were the case then I would not be on the course.
However, when looking back at my work a week or even a month later, all the flaws would start to shine through. I see the mistakes in my work but most of the time, it’s too late to fix.

What I am now:

There is this little box I have called “Leigh’s safe place” where the harsh world of graphic design can’t et me. I need to move out of this comfort zone but so far I seem to be taking never-ending baby steps. When looking at my work, I still feel very insecure about showing it. Sticking it up on a website or a blog is no problem but standing there in the room with it with others makes me see it as the audience. Sometime this can be a great way of critiquing yourself. However, I see it as not yet worthy and it frustrates me when people don’t see it the way I do.

Three things I want to become:

• Better at having more pride in my own work. Not to an egotistical extent but to be able to look at something I have achieved and made and to be able to say I did a good job about it. Not to dwell so much if one person out of fifteen don’t like it because I can’t please every one.

• To realise that I’m not always going to be designing for myself. Of course you can have a little bit of your own personality in your work, but so much that it dominates the piece.

• Taking in good criticism and using it for my own advantage. If it’s being given to me then I should use and not brood on the fact that not everybody “liked it.”