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In the past few months, I worked as an animator in Nice boat animation, which was a busy and fulfilling experience. It allows me to learn a lot of animation related knowledge. At the same time, it makes me more clear about my future goal. But for the sake of good health, I refused the company's invitation to leave me and returned to my hometown for treatment of my cervical spine. Animation production is undoubtedly repetitive long-term desk work. Anyone should be wary of sitting in a seat motionless for 11 hours without rest. I learned my lesson and set a new goal for myself, exercised, and adapted it to future work. My DPS year start with an animation job, with the end of my full-time job and the convergence of the live brief, my autumn term is coming to an end. I sent my cv and portfolio to some print studio and advertising companies, I got positive responses, but I want to start my new placement after Christmas.  The animation studio that I work in Management time has undoubtedly become the most difficult challenge of my DPS year. My time zone is different, a full-time job, school projects, and the assignment of personal learning goals all at the same time. When I was in the Nice boat animation studio, in addition to 9 hours of work 5 days a week, I had to complete my own goals, 2 hours a day of sketching practice, and on weekends I would create illustrations on several themes. This year My main goal is to complete a collection of commercial illustrations to make a portfolio, so it is a difficult challenge to create those illustrations in a very small amount of time. The time zone's difference also makes work more painful. I have two days a week have to stay at the company until around 3 am, and the next day is still a normal working day. I was doing three Live Briefs at the same time. The time zone difference made me won't miss the work and courses of either party, but it also severely compressed my rest time. I still want to learn a lot about illustration and graphic design, animation courses, so I found some tips. When I was doing some repetitive animation work, I will wear headphones to listen to some courses, if I have not heard clearly I will write down and use my free time to solve it. Part of the sketch and illustration practice I did in the free time The advantage of an animation company is that we often meet the animators and directors we admire a lot. Nice Boat Animation has a cooperative relationship with many animation companies, so we were lucky to meet the director of The Legend of LuoXiaohei and the partner company of Cartoon Saloon, who came here to find some new talents and prepare for their new animated film Puffin Rock. The director of The Legend of LuoXiaohei Although the whole time is busy and painful, the desire to learn has become stronger. In a 10-day animation project, I strived to become the animation director of the group, responsible for character design, scene design, storyboard, animation, and color. I did all about 70% of the entire animation work. The process of communicating with the team members exercised my leadership skills. Sometimes the team members complained that there were too many shots or the details of the action were not clear. My drawing foundation is relatively solid, which can help them correct the wrong shots and actions. The group director period is probably the busiest time for me. It’s a luxury to be able to rest for 5 hours a day. I deeply doubt that I may die suddenly after a few weeks in this state. Luckily, the finished product did not disappoint, our group is the winner of this project. Some process of the animation that I made After leaving the animation studio, I am still their animator but became a freelance animator. When there is a new animation series coming out, they would contact me for remote work. I started to work on my movie poster project. During the process of making it, I was full of interest in printmaking, but I left the UK, I am afraid that I cannot use the abundant resources of the school. So I started to send my resume to local printing studios and printmaking studios, and quickly got a positive response. They asked me if I would go to their studios as a part-time resident artist. Considering the uncertainty of the epidemic, I chose the printing studio closest to my home. I plan to work again after the Christmas holidays. I really don’t want to do full-time work anymore. My ambition will bring down my body. Working at a part-time job, alternation with my personal projects may be a more wise choice. Photo and Sketch at Nice Boat I am prone to anxiety, especially when I am filled with all kinds of complicated things, some ridiculous fears will fill me and wake me up in the middle of the night, some emails have not been answered, the blog has not started, and the new contract has not been written yet, etc. The problem that always bothers me at the moment is my language. The environment that I use in the work is my native language. Language and work habits are some differences in the UK. I am afraid that this difference will cause me to become unfamiliar with the English context. If I were to sum up my experience, I was anxious and urgent enough. Last year, when I was emotionally broken I couldn't sleep all night, and get up to make plans and preparations, learn new knowledge, keep drawing. When people's fear of the unknown expands to a certain level, there is no choice except clarify the problem and solve it. I don't want to give up my goals easily, I can only keep learning and trying. At each stage, make a satisfactory product or have a good internship experience is an examination and evaluation of myself. What else can I do? Have I worked hard enough? Am I satisfied? I think I will never be satisfied, so I will continue to learn.  self-portrait Zixuan Zhou
BA Illustration and Visual Media Ins: @janzhou
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Alexandra Virlan @Alexandra.virlann During a pandemic the rawness of the world is brought to life. Human actions and interactions with their surroundings become the focus of attention to people. As an immigrant designer part of my purpose is to use my journey as my motivation to create art and to look into the overlooked. To organise information, create accessibility and highlight the importance of why the arts are so much more than what gives the eye. Hence why working with social brands and communities will help me understand the different ways in which I can use my ongoing knowledge to make their connections with their audience more meaningful.  Extract from 16 Handwritten Letters
Romania, circa 1996. A collection of memories and of history encapsulated within this publication from letters initially found in my grandparents shed. Alexandra Virlan @Alexandra.virlann New Agency is Uncertainty Looking back on August, uncertainty was already part of my plans since I had nothing yet planned for any work experience; the only thing I was certain about was that my spreadsheet was busy filling up with where I’ve sent my applications to, yet no greens in terms of replies. On one side, this uncertainty brought the what if question out more often, which made me worry thinking if I’d ever find something that I would want to do. However on the other side, this uncertainty has also allowed me to pace myself at a slower rate. I think now I’m at a better stage of understanding that at the moment nothing is quite stable or long term so uncertainty is part of the experience, teaching you to become flexible. Hence my surprise in September when I received a reply from an email I had sent back in June! New Agency is Rejection There was one rejection email (amongst others but this one in particular) that made me realise that sometimes rejection doesn’t have to make you feel bad. The story goes…I applied to an open job position at Bumble (yep it’s the dating app) knowing that they most likely were looking for senior designers but I had some hopes. I remember laughing as I was telling my friend the story when I saw the rejection email, it’s my reaction that made me realise that some experiences are just not meant to be but even so still worth the time to apply because of the ‘what if?’ I think the main thing at this point is that its better to get a rejection email than be the one ghosted. And always to try your luck! New Agency is Decisions This email that I wrote back in June was to a staff member I knew that worked within marketing and communications back at my old school, where I used to volunteer while I was a student. In the email she told me how her current assistant just left and that she was looking for someone else to fill in the spot! Making decisions in a short time has never been my forte, especially since I remember having another interview the next day and a promising reply in my inbox from another company. Not knowing exactly what type of experience I was looking for and being opened to explore and to try my skills within different environments, just made me question my decisions and options even more. New Agency is Experimenting Community and social design became my two key words after my tutorial with Sarah, which I think was one of the main reasons I chose to take up the opportunity at my old school. I’m currently working full time as a Visual Marketing assistant at Clapton Girls Academy, talk about doing a 360 in life. Being a staff but essentially still a student I think has allowed me a greater insight into their audience, for me to understand exactly their work and their message. Being employed and not working as an ‘intern’ essentially has given me freedom yet a workload of responsibility as a package. New Agency is Confrontation Although I am stable with my current work experience and my time is preoccupied with learning, experimenting and exploring the working world, there’s always times where I’m confronted with the thoughts of what next. There’s days where I’m questioning my choices and wondering if I should be doing more? More in terms of having chosen a company more set on graphic design rather than something as broad as my current role. A few months in our DPS journey and I seem to already have set an expectation on myself of knowing what I want to do next or double wondering why I feel like I have yet to discover my own style. These thoughts are always passive but always make me evaluate where I’m at. Sometimes I feel these thoughts as an extra pressure and sometimes it’s my rain check to stop and think of where I’m at in the year. I think these thoughts are most of the time the product of comparing yourself and your experiences to others. So to battle this, sometimes I have to stop and jot down the whys of my choices and all the benefits that a smaller company can bring to me and even better, what I can bring to them in terms of pushing their communications further. I think one thing I need to start doing more is seeing the benefits in the now and where these can take me after. New Agency is Adaptability Currently I’m working on site, a second lockdown yet the trains are fully packed by 7 when I get on. The biggest con of this job is the waking up early, probably a insignificant detail but the pain of a working reality which I have just joined. Adapting to this new routine has taken me some time, adapting at work now being on the other side of things, a staff and not a student anymore, has also been another step. Apart from a major shake up to my routine, I think there has also been two important events which have added to my ability to adapt to changes and responsibility. One- managing the communications side of things for two weeks while my manager was off. This has definitely polished my multi tasking skills and given me a raw taste of work experience. And two- being briefed a major project to lead on by myself and having seen this project from start to finish, with it going live last week on the 25th Nov! With majority of communications being digital now, sometimes it feels unreal that your work is out to the public since you physically can’t see anyone looking at it. New Agency is Vision Time is flying with December around the corner, and when looking back at my aims for the year - to explore, refine and challenge, I think my current role has been a major insight into the skills I have and what I can offer to a company (refine my skills set). Now my next steps is to find a role which I can expand and learn new skills (explore design fields/challenge). A DPS resolution list to come.  Martin Creed, Work #203, 1999
White neon / Installation at The Portico, Linscott Road, London (- current work experience location!) Photograph: Hugo Glendinning It is essential to me, my purpose and practice that my work benefits people, and makes a real difference to the quality of at least one person’s life. The PPU project from second year, was a campaign to get Generation Z involved in the work of the charity WaterAid. The impact that WaterAid has had, and continues to have, on the lives of so many is inspiring and life-changing. The opportunity to design for the charity was a pleasure, allowing them to improve the livelihood of many more people around the world; through promotion, recognition and funded support. My group assisted the charity by targeting the audience directly through the designing of an online/mobile game, in order to educate, promote and encourage donations.  Screenshots of the Game me and my group designed for WaterAid
I think generally when I look at all the things I like the most across different creative mediums I can see connections between the various things that excite me. A lot of what I like tends to play with / subvert ideas about identity, takes something and presents it in a new context as art or creates it’s own world. I think when creative work is able to do these it can become really interesting and mind opening, and depending on the project these are things which I try to aim for myself whether I’m doing it consciously or not.  Mood board taken from recent project Dylan Johnstone
I think the type of ‘agency’ a crisis like this produces is based around adaptation, fast innovation and knowing when to take opportunities. The examples we’ve seen of people and companies that have thrived during this time are those that waste no time thinking about what they could or would have done if the crisis had not happened and instantly start looking for ways they can use this new environment to their advantage. Overall it’s about understanding that when the circumstances of the world change, the way you operate in your work and every aspect of your life needs to change with that. I think one thing that this ‘global reset’ caused and allowed to happen, especially following the 1st lockdown, was giving people the chance to reflect on themselves but also the overall state of the world, with this most notably revealing itself in June during the civil unrest in the US surrounding the George Floyd protests. I remember at the time talking to black friends who felt that this was only happening now because over the Covid lockdown people had less to be distracted by, and less things to draw their attention away from the racism that has always existed. I think this is true and is an example of how when we face crisis’, there is room for human consciousness to develop and change how we approach the ethics of our lives and creative practises, which in many ways I think defines what a ‘global reset’ means. What happened in June, which was undeniably a result of the pandemic, helped push the ongoing fight for dismantling oppressive systems in the world and within the creative industries.  Screenshot of tweet I think generally as well, what we can learn from people, during this time, who’s professional practice has been born in the face of adversity is the ability to yes be resilient, but more importantly embracing of change. For a lot of people, myself included, I think it’s quite easy to make a plan for your work and if that plan doesn’t work out how you thought, to want to give up. But to me it seems, the most effective and useful agency to have in a crisis is to be able to try different things, make mistakes and grow by learning from them. So far, the same way it seems most people have felt about 2020 as a whole, my DPS year has not gone exactly as I had wanted before starting. However, blaming this on the pandemic to me feels like an easy cop out and I think the last thing I want to do is use it as an excuse for not growing and achieving the things I had hoped for. I have found that if anything, in this time it has been my own will power and ability to stay motivated/focused (or lack of) that has held me back. The second lockdown has also highlighted to me that I feel in some ways, almost at a crossroads with my creative practises. Around 2 years ago I started producing music and since then I have watched myself slowly progress into creating tracks this year that I really like and am proud enough of to release, as well as working with various vocalists. Since the first lockdown, although I have also spent time working on multiple music videos for different collaborators, I would say producing became my main focus as it has felt the most freeing and the way of working, creatively, I have been most drawn to in this time. After being unsuccessful at getting an internship placement before the start of DPS this October I set myself a SIP to create a zine, but after spending some time trying to come up with a concept for it, and also juggling it with a music video I’ve been editing, I have started to question whether a zine is the most relevant format for me to create work in right now. I chose to do create a zine because ever since releasing my first one, over a year ago, I always had in mind that I would want to make another. Although, when I sat down to try and conceptualise and begin work on this project I started to think that maybe a printed publication is no longer the most effective format to express my ideas. For a while I have had some other ideas for creative projects that maybe feel more relevant or exciting to me right now such as a play that could accompany my music. As much as I’m still intrigued by work within fashion, over my time this summer working a lot on music, I felt myself developing a much stronger love for conceptual art projects I was seeing, giving me inspiration for new visual work I had in mind. I think what I need to do now (the next couple days) is look at the research I’ve done so far for my project and decide if a zine is the best option for my first SIP outcome, and if not, maybe start channeling my ideas into a different project, like the play I previously mention. During this weeks group session I when doing the exercise where we spoke about things being ‘dead’ or ‘alive’ in our lives I mentioned that the idea of ‘thinking about things too much but not getting round to fully doing them’ was something that obviously felt dead. In reflection I think this is my main goal to get over before this term ends. To stop procrastinating or thinking too much about my ideas behind something, and just getting on with and creating work. This was something I felt stronger at with my visual work last year, so for the remainder of this term my goal is to regain that sense of productivity that is useful to help push creative projects through to their finish.  Still from James Massiah film project 'AMY / YMA' - Always Missing You (Directed by Akinola Davies Jr) Dylan Johnstone
Quarantine Diaries.I’ve missed most of the sessions for this task and I genuinely have no idea what I’m supposed to cover with the 1K word-count... but I’ve been making some efforts to reflect on the way I work and learn during this crappy time. One of my first steps into DPS, and as a more proactive 'creative’, was enrolling on a motion course to finally understand some basics animation principles, in the hope of figuring out why my work sucked (it still does most of the times). Going through the painful (but often rewarding) process of brainstorming, animating and sharing my developments, every week, for 3 months, made me realise some stuff. It won’t make a ton of sense to you, but I’m writing this after a long work day, so forgive me. Animation Bootcamp Notes WEEK 01 - For the Brainhole logo animation, you jumped into developing the first idea that you knew you could execute but didn't consider alternatives that'd give the boring-looking logo more personality. While you did ok in your own right, many others used (and duplicated) elements to create more playful and unique animations, giving the whole thing a ton more personality, even if it took them longer - when you have the time, use it to create something with personality. WEEK 02 - For the Space Explorer, you took your time to really get the very BASICS done, following Joey's instructions, then once you felt more confident you tried adding a bit more nuance to it, whilst following the principles. That was smart: copy the exercise to reinforce the principle, then step it up to give it your style. - Unlike with the Brainhole exercise, you solely focused on executing YOUR concept, without stressing about what others had done from the FB group chat. That was smart, because it removed that constant comparison of skills rabbit hole you usually fall into. So always do your own thing at the BEST of your ability, then share and see what everyone else was up to, which might give you ideas for a v2. - With the Step Three exercise, you could've kept it pretty simple, and used more linear position movements, but instead you tried making those motion paths work, and they kinda did after a while. That's the whole point, try things you suck at. Though some others definitely did even more impressive work, recognise you tried YOUR best. WEEK 03 - With the Dogfight exercise, it was smart to plan ahead of time what to do based on how much time you had available, which gave you some time to practice with the Speed graph before tackling the final assignment. - Another important thing to keep in mind was that you could've altered the final design to be cooler, but instead you kept it super simple and focused on NAILING THE BASICS FIRST - keep doing that!  Finding out you can have motion paths along Z space. Like seriously! That’s just Wow. WEEK 05 - Eventually, as you worked every day between Bootcamp and other work responsibilities, you burnt out multiple times (Brainhole pt. 2, Eye trace exercise), mixed with that same feeling of the Dip. - ☝🏾Now when this happens you feel at your lowest, losing creativity and ideas, producing something that feels like a sub-par idea that sucks compared to what you did the last time. The thing is, when you're in this rut and you're running out of time you still gotta BEGIN SOMETHING, ANYTHING, even if you don't like where it's going because 1) it might eventually improve as you develop it on the fly or 2) at least you've tried and done a v1. Don't dwell and complain about having no ideas, it's a waste of time - take a proper break with that time, then get back up my dude. - When planning a complex shot, try to break it down by the primary and secondary actions. You want to spend as much time nailing the primary action (e.g. an anticipation followed by an impact) then once you've nailed the movements and timing, focus on the secondary motion to help emphasize it.  One of my favourite assignments. All about that follow-through My New Agency Prior the many changes caused by the pandemic, my hopes for this year were getting out of my social comfort zones; travel to more places for both work and leisure, but also get out of my professional comfort zones and get a foot in the door in a field that I care about, at my own terms, without the pressure of being the generalist that can do it all. I wanted to prove myself that after being a ‘design student’, I could become an employed ‘designer’. Since we’ve been locked in, left to our own devices and our own thoughts, I’ve often spiralled into thinking that this was it. This is how far I could get, and whether I make it out of this pandemic or not, no one would dare hire some guy with messy hair that can barely come up with creative ideas for simple briefs. This downtime also made me reflect on the importance of personal projects, and most importantly, the way I learn, and my unrealistic pursuit for overly professional or ‘perfect’ outcomes, as a result of my ever-evolving creative taste, that while helps me strive for (what I hope are) good outcomes, have sometimes been detrimental to my approach at learning and failing. The latter of which I’m so terrified of I’ve held myself back from trying new things, experiment and ultimately learn from the inevitable failed attempts that come with doing something new. Two sides of the same coin. Sometimes waiting is not about what's on the other side. It's about what you become, before you get there. - Source I try not to drop overly optimistic/inspirational quotes, but I believe the above words from a recent short film I watched gives a brilliant perspective on how to get through this time and what type of “New Agency” comes from this crisis. A collective of individuals that take a negative situation they’re in and make something worthwhile of it, without necessarily waiting aimlessly for something or someone to save them, but doing the best with what they have, even when it feels pointless, to be better than what they were when they got started.  One of my absolute favourite experiments during the Animation Bootcamp. That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. Abraham E.Stay safe and have a nice day 👋🏾. What do I worry About?Since Covid slowed all of us down, I’ve realised that what gives me greatest anxiety is the idea of leaving this earth without having pursued my passions and interest. Regardless of excelling in them. Just trying them out. What am I good at? Looking back at my favourite projects, I think what I’ve become better at is pushing the quality of a concept through iteration and attention to detail. Keep editing/adjusting the thing until it looks less crappy. Who do I admire? Kind, hardworking and passionate people who give 100% in their work, like Jr. Canest. People willing to save for moths to take on expensive courses to kickstart their careers even in the midst of an economic crisis like Felipe Ramírez and kids who dive head into things without overthinking like I do. 🙃  Tic, toc, tic... A fun section from a motion experiment. Abraham E.Have a nice day 👋🏾 I feel incredibly passionate about gender inequality and women's sexual health. With my skills in researching and strategizing, I could potentially set up my own company to help women or help other similar companies define their brand strategy to reach a broader audience. In other design jobs that don't surround the topic of inequality, I can be responsible for representing data from working-class and minority groups in research. Additionally, when creating brand strategies, I can support gender equality and move away from toxic stereotypes in personas. Atlana Puntigam  My friend Carlotta on 35mm film taken by me |
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