Reflective Statement

When deciding which mediums to use for my portfolio I took into account both my interests and previous work from before starting this course as well as the situation with COVID-19. I knew that I wanted to use a mixture of mediums I had used previously and enjoyed and some that I did not necessarily have as much experience with. Though I don’t have a clear idea of what I’d like to do in the industry, I do know that I enjoy things with a creative process and something I can design or be artistic with and so I wanted to use my portfolio as a way to encapsulate that.

For the first workshop skill, I decided to create a website as the main body of my portfolio. This seemed like the most logical approach as I would be able to use one of the workshop skills to contain the others however, I had no previous experience creating websites and due to isolation, I was not able to attend the workshop. To combat this problem, I decided to challenge myself and used both the resources on Moodle and a tutorial on LinkedIn Learning. I found that I enjoyed the process of making my website as I often enjoy the designing aspects of things as a creative person. I especially liked the fact that it was something I could develop as I worked on the contents for the website and could build on dependant on the other things I was creating.

For my second skill I decided to use photography. I chose to do this because photography has been a hobby of mine for around six years and I have completed both a GCSE and A Level in this medium so I thought it would be a good idea to play on my strengths. I struggled at first to find a strategy or concept mostly due to the current situation, but I eventually decided to create a series of images that combined the aesthetic of live music and gig posters with the reality lockdown brings, some featuring myself and some featuring my flatmate. I used photoshop to edit my images as I wanted to develop my skills with the software. When editing I used the levels, channel mixer, the burn tool and I experimented with various filters and opacities on different layers to create the poster effect I wanted to achieve.

This had a big impact on the design and aesthetic of my website as I wanted to tie everything together as much as possible and so I carried the monochrome theme of my images into the design of my website. I would say that this was the content I enjoyed creating the most and I definitely want to continue to develop my photography and editing skills in the future possibly looking at live music when events are able to proceed. I am also interested in creating more conceptual and documentary-like work because one of my favourite aspects of developing this skill was coming up with and building on an idea to produce a series. I also want to look at experimenting with different software such as Lightroom as I am not particularly familiar with it. As well as this I want to try combining photography and editing software with my other skills that aren’t necessarily included in this brief such as my paintings. I think it’d be interesting to intertwine the digital formats with the more traditional mediums so this is something I would like to explore in the future.

I then decided to write a journalism piece about the music industry in the pandemic, more specifically looking at funding and venues as well as a piece reviewing an album and exploring the artist. This was challenging for me as I have always enjoyed writing, but I did not have much experience with journalism, so I wanted to develop these skills. Out of my two pieces I would say that the piece about the pandemic was easier to write however I enjoyed writing the review piece more as I felt I could be more personal in it. I would like to continue to develop my skills in different kinds of writing, one of the main reasons being that it is a medium that allows me to express my opinions on various topics in a number of different ways. I would also like to look at combining photography with writing, for example writing about performances or artists either as reviews or promotional pieces.

Throughout working on this portfolio, I was able to further skills I already had as well as develop new ones which I hope to carry into my future work. I am not entirely sure as to what my ambitions in the industry are, but I know that I enjoy the process of building on an idea and I have a few things I would like to explore to better understand what it is I’d like to do. For example, I want to continue developing my skills in photography and editing software such as photoshop and Lightroom, but I also want to explore integrating this into other work such as writing or creating promotional media.

I also hope to start developing my writing skills not just in the styles I have already tried but in other ways such as press releases. Though I found it very challenging, I enjoyed writing the review piece which has given me the idea of possibly starting a blog so that I can further my writing skills outside of set work. I think that a blog could act as a kind of development platform as I would be able to combine photography with my writing as well as giving me the opportunity to practice outside of briefs. As well as this, I think that I’d like to work with someone such as an artist to create various things for them as I have found that I enjoy developing an aesthetic or theme and turning my work into an artistic project of sorts.