Alice wants to get back to being creative

My name is Alice and I’ve just completed my level 2 Graphic Design Diploma with the CDS. I have an academic background in contemporary art but for the last 10 years have been working variously in production, freelance editing and project management. I really wanted to get back to doing something creative but knew I needed a bit of direction.

ALICE LEWIS, UK

GRAPHIC DESIGN – LEVEL 2

I’ve always struggled to know what I wanted to do professionally but thought that doing something practical like this course would be a good way to start thinking about how to direct my career in a more creative way.

Graphic design has always interested me and after I did my visual communications master’s in photography I wanted to branch out.

My main interest is presentation and layout design but I wanted to get a full understanding of all the elements of graphic design initially.

I found this course after researching online – there are a lot of courses out there! I was drawn to this one as it is self-paced, and I am working full time and seemed to cover a wide variety of topics. I also liked the fact that you were offered a weekly face-to-face (online) tutorial. This is quite rare in courses such as this and was really valuable to the progress I made.

I would tell anyone thinking about making a career move to do the same as I have. I am in the early stages of this now but just getting started on a project outside of your professional work can really get you motivated. The graphic design course was really helpful because it encourages you to explore all aspects of graphic design. So while you think you might be interested in one specific thing, the course might show you that actually, you enjoy another area more. This is why I think courses such as this are so useful.

There was a lot to enjoy about this course but I found myself particularly engaged in the ‘working with clients’ module. I enjoyed the layout and poster design elements and thinking about how to draw consumers in through design. I am now going to focus my work more specifically on this area by doing the visual communications course.

I think that continued project work and deadlines keep me focused on the changes I want to make professionally and I believe that the support I get from my tutor will enable me to make those changes over the next few months.