Brief 4 - Speaking from Experience: Starter Task

Today we were put into groups and had to list the problems we had when we first joined uni/moved to leeds. These words were then formed into a problematic statement to which we could write a brief around. One problem we found was distinguishing a statement from a problem as everything we wrote sounded like a statement. 

We picked one problem which happened to be about eating healthy and being able to cook at uni and then wrote a brief around the problem. We asked other groups to write down on the back how they would solve this and the answers we got back really fitted with what we initially hoped for. 

Our five problems and below trying to word them into problematic statements.

The final question we worked with.

Written brief.

Doing this task was useful as it gave us an idea of what we will be doing in the second year for our briefs but also what process we need to do to start this brief. After the lesson I mind mapped some initial ideas of things that I and others were scared or nervous about before University.

At the moment the ideas I think have most possibility are:

Crits
When I first started I found crits really hard because I didn't feel confident in my work or really know how to present it. I also had no idea on what kind of feedback to give without sounding mean or critical. However I've now learnt its fine to sound mean and critical.
I quite liked the idea of making something to help with Crits and presenting your work as most people feel it is quite daunting. I love the idea of a title "Crit Happens" taken from "Sh*t Happens" because crits are always there it is just about seeing the benefit to you. Below is a list of things it could include.

- what is a crit
- types of crit
- why crits are useful
- what to get out of crits
- what to include
- what to consider

Budgeting 
One thing I started doing when I came to uni was budgeting and accounting for my financial expenses, especially without a job I needed to know what I was spending on what and how much. For the majority of students its their first time away from home where they are in-charge of their finances and making sure their loan lasts!

One Idea I had for this was a downloadable spreadsheet where they could write in the amount of money they have and then it subdivides it into average categories. However I don't know whether this would be classed as graphic design or not. Perhaps I could link it in with where to shop and what is cheap but good etc...