2015 competencies

In class we discuss in groups the designer of 2015 competencies. It talked about the expectations place upon designers in the future. Up until this class, I was oblivious to how much work besides the actual design work took place in a designers life. Obviously, it wasn't like I expected to get work right off the back just by the designs. It's that I never got the chance to really understand competencies and realized that any person with a career has to have certain abilities outside of their work.
I'm glad that i've been exposed to these such important aspects. If I entered an professional setting prior of this knowledge, I would of been crying in the corner already.

The fact that there is so much to consider within a career, and at that, not necessarily graphic design has a pretty overwhelming feeling at times. For example, something fairly easy like a simple drawing due for my class; concept development. What is your context ? what are you conveying ? why? what am I trying to get out of this? clarity? color? aesthetic? originality? and so much can be add to this list.
It's different when drawing, painting, photographing, designing use to be for fun. Or when I was on another creative level. It came natural and the work flowed out of me. Now, I suppose I put a lot more pressure on myself to be the best I can be. And I looked back at this all and realized what a difference it was and has been in my design career this far. Not to mention, this is barely the beginning of it all. I have so much to learn still and even that keeps me up at night.

Back to the competencies, a vital aspect to design is generally solving communication problems. Sadly, it is something I barely understood up until a couple weeks ago. But hey, better late than never right ?
This quarter, on top of my art classes, I am taking sociology 330: urban settings in cities. Basically we're are learning about the formations and reasons for cities. Which lead me to my daily commutes to work and school. I start to wonder during traffic about the designing aspect of cities. Why there's a freeway here? Why is there so much traffic right now? why isn't there an exit here? or why isn't dam freeway finished (yes i'm talking about you, 710) It got me thinking about the history and that these solutions now fitted the people living in different era. Now, there's many problems within the cities due the increase in population and the advancement in technology.
So the main question is how can I make a solution to these problems with in a city. I then started to daydream about building my own city from the ground up. Even down to the graphics of each department in the city. Then I thought of how much work that would be and said "hmp, maybe later on."
All in all, it's a lot of work being a creative being whether your a fine artist, designer, photographer, or even a musician.
Understanding fundamentals is overall the most important aspect.