I proceed positively on this new active learning journey despite underlying concerns about managing my time across my teaching commitments on two UAL courses and another course at London Met (MA Visual Communication). Alongside my teaching practice I am also a practicing Graphic Designer and am currently working on several self generated projects which are important to the development and underpinning of all areas of my creative and teaching practices. This self generated and commissioned work informs and supports my teaching practice. I regularly use this work as points of reference for students to engage with and respond to. Topics such as communication, awareness of appropriate audience, answering a client brief, research related to a brief, iteration, play within a project, project development and time management are areas that connect the various areas of my practices together. I am particularly interested in students learning rudimentary Graphic Design skills. These should be considered as transferable core skills that can be deployed in a variety of areas of practice beyond the more traditional graphic design vocations.
I am interested in exploring how to connect more clearly theory and practice or my professional and academic practices if you like. In the book ‘Graphic Elements: A Realist Account of Graphic Design’ published in 2023 by Onomatopee 223. After attending a Graphic Design seminar at Maryland Institute of Art in 1985, Pentagram NYC partner and designer Paula Scher said ‘the speaker is supposed to be talking about graphic design, not quantum physics’. Scher goes on to say ‘meaningful discussion, clear explanations, and tangible results rather than baffling theories of graphic design.’ She asked, ‘where is the graphic design?’. (page 184}. This is something I have encountered and at times having being frustrated by academic theories and language that can be baffling to me despite having worked for several years at Chelsea. I am interested in developing a space within my practices that connects my academic and professional worlds more clearly. They for sure can sustain and support each other, to see them as the same practice rather than different parts of a practice. This singular practice with roots in the professional and academic worlds will be beneficial to student cohorts and how they communicate and navigate through these worlds.
I must stress that this is not one way traffic. The pace and demands of working and responding to the requirements of a client brief can be limiting to the ambition and development of a concept or campaign. Research processes can be limited and the time required to make any meaningful developments and decisions may not be available.
My PG cert tutor Lindsay Jordan encouraged me to ’embrace the pain’. a great anecdote to use and keep close to me throughout the duration of this year long course as I grapple with the demands of my time across multi projects and spaces. The ability to recognise and prioritise specific requirements, submissions and projects will demand a finely tuned timetable / schedule and where needed, my ability to say ‘NO’ to something or someone when appropriate in order to meet the demands and requirements of this course.
At my micro teaching session, I shared with Lindsay about previous less than encouraging comments made by a teaching colleague about the validity of my presence on a course I was teaching on. Lindsay commented, perhaps that this attributed to my slow response to arranging and organising my moodle, blog and email for this course. I think she was right. Moving forward, I aim to be a teachable and enquiring student. I hope to engage with and learn new methods and modes of teaching that I can apply to my practice in order to enrich and develop a greater depth of meaning and understanding of how and why I teach. Underpinning my teaching practice is a deep seated passion and interest in the wider contexts of Graphic Design Communication. I am looking forward to gaining new insights that will help me develop my teaching practice. Onwards we go!
