Tadpoles to Frogs

CLauter

Consider the tadpole halfway through his transformational journey into a frog. Poor little fellow has 2 legs and a big tail. We can see the potential in him to be able to hop around in the future, but he's not there yet. He wouldn't survive on land. He's not fully developed.

Reviewing your design work yesterday, I came up with this analogy to help you understand how I see some of your work. It's so sad when your work is underdeveloped, I can see the potential within what you've done, but alas you don't develop and refine it into the stunning piece it could be.

Why is that? I think there are a number of causes.

Firstly time management, in a three week brief, only working on your designs the day before class means that you have 3 increments in your design before the next assignment. Work on it for 45 minutes a day, and you'll have 18 increments in your design before the next assignment. You know that sleeping on the design gives you perspective on it - the next morning you can clearly see what's working and what's not. 18 sleeps means you're more likely to hand in a frog for submission, not a poor two legged tadpole.

Secondly, I think some of you are struggling to apply yourself. You need to discipline yourself. Create an environment where you can focus - switch off your mobile, don't answer the phone or door, put music on to drown out other noises if required, close Facebook, log-out of any IM services, close your email - focus. If you get a job in a graphic design company, you're going to be expected to sit at your desk from 9-5 (usually longer) and churn out the goods. If you can't apply yourself, you need to do some serious soul searching as to why.

Thirdly you are all still developing your ability to construct and deconstruct messages. The more you immerse yourself in brilliant design, illustration, typography, advertising, packaging, editorial design etc, the more you are going to learn what works and why. You'll learn to interpret messages accurately and fully understand if they work for a specific audience. These analytical skills need to be worked on and refined over time. Your analytical research and your honest reflective writing on your work is critical to helping you realise your potential.

When the hand-in day arrives, I really want to see frogs. Lots of frogs. Please don't let yourselves down.