Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire)

As the first half of the semester draws to a close, its time once again to sit back and reflect on the events of the past six weeks.

Our first assignment is now safely handed in for grading and for once I’m not feeling particularly stressed out on a deadline day.

This is mainly down to the idea of working to a deadline the week BEFORE the deadline. This is an approach I’ve never taken before but I am certainly glad we were encouraged to do so.

By having a first draft ready last week a huge amount of pressure was lifted. In the past I have struggled to meet deadlines and ended up handing in an abandoned rather than completed report. Working in this manner however meant I had a full week to tinker and proof read and hand in hopefully a more “polished” assignment well before the 12pm deadline.

Unfortunately now begins 3 weeks of anxiety whilst we wait for the final grades to be given, which will then result in elation or misery! I feel satisfied with the work I submitted, though there are the usual niggling thoughts in the back of my head. Thoughts such as have I forgotten this? Should I have changed that? At the end of the day though should any additional work be required I shall just have take onboard the feedback and amend accordingly (easier said than done, I know).

Running simultaneously have been weekly “self study” tasks which have proved a welcome distraction from assignment A2. Each week’s tasks have been quite varied and included: gathering inspirational pieces to discuss in our seminar groups, online debates and even setting up our own websites (http://www.ian-thompson.org.uk/). I’m looking forward to seeing our websites develop over the next 2 years into our online portfolios and demonstrate how we’ve all grown as designers.

Overall the first six weeks have been immensely enjoyable and I remain convinced that returning to college was the right decision. My main worry about returning to full time education was whether or not I would be able to keep up with the workload. Well so far so good, however with the workload set to double after half term, it will be interesting to see if it really is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire!