Reflective Practice

Be curious & have wonder.

  We have been asked to explore all platforms, sources and blogs from which we can gather our information, inspiration and experimentation ideas. There are a lot more sources of info than just blogs, websites and books. Its hugely important to explore a wide range of investigative research and will help me in developing my ideas further and giving my work more depth in terms of context, purpose, influences, etc.

1. Ted talks

2. Do lectures

3. The chicken shed 

4. Instagram

5. Medium

6. DesignTAXI

7. Another

8. Good type

9. Pinterest

10. Dazed & confused

  Above is a list of 10 useful sources of investigation and creative references. Sources like these are a great place to start when looking for ideas and influences. Ted talks have a huge range of lectures available to watch online, covering every aspect of every topic of art & design. 

  TED Talks 

  I was introduced to TED Talks during my foundation year last year. We were advised to watch many of the talks during our projects as they are hugely helpful in understanding things that I have only recently been introduced to. The site contains a huge variety of talks by people in every aspect of art & design.
 
  Instagram is a quick and easy way of investigation. I use this app on a daily basis already and can make it a lot more relevant and beneficial to my work as well as my social life by following artists and designers I like and seeing the work of fellow design students.

Mike Perry's Instagram blog is "an explosion of colour" and includes amazing examples of hand crafted type. I found out about this designer through watching comedy central. Mike Perry is responsible for graphics on the T'V channel for various programmes such as Broad City.

Timothy Goodman's page is a huge hub of inspiration. I particularly admire his playful use of colour. His work is extremely attention grabbing and makes for an exciting blog.

  

  Goodtype is an amazing website that displays a range of images to do with type. There is a huge amount of visual research and stimulants that make for a great creative reference.

  The chicken shed is another website full of interesting blogs by artists and designers. Topics range from typical to obscure and make for a good influence for both my work and my blog writing.

  

 Do lectures is similar to Ted talks and is also a great place to find info on topics and answers to questions I need answering. 

  Pinterest, similar to Instagram, is a site where people upload all sorts of examples of art and design. Its an excellent place to look for inspiration as you can find images relevant to anything and everything. With a search bar, it's extremely easy to use and also allows you to make your own Pinterest blog page where you can upload examples of your own work as well as other peoples work that you have come across elsewhere. This creates a hub for all of your research and relating work where other people can view and make comments on.

  Dazed & Confused 

DesignTAXI

  I often refer to DesignTAXI for reading articles and news blogs. The site is less about imagery and aesthetics and more about text and content. It's good for improving my blog writing and also for keeping up to date with the industry. The text ranges from Architecture, Social Media and even Humour. I even refer to this site when I'm trying to escape doing work as it makes for a perfect procrastination website that will keep me interested for hours.

 In my opinion, the best place to start my research for a project brief starts with primary research. For example, for my rebranding project, I visited the shop of which i was rebranding the logo (Lush). This gave me first hand experience of the shop and gave me a number of ideas on where to start and what to focus on. After this primary research, I refer to the 10 resources listed above, as well as other sources online. The internet is a great place to find designer influences and other inspiration. Other sources include books and magazines. However I find that it is easier to find relevant info on the web.