S.M.A.R.T targets – 26/03/18

In the industry and during education it can often be hard to find the time to self-reflect and aim my projects in a direction that is accurate regarding self-improvement and artistic growth. This is often due to been immersed in the creative process and creating engaging content for personal interest and that of a client. There is a time though where a line must be drawn, and an artist must be self-critical and decisive, this is where ‘S.M.A.R.T’ targets come in! ‘S.M.A.R.T’ Is an acronym that stands for ‘Small’, ‘Measurable’, ‘And’, ‘Realistic’, ‘Targets’. This translates into a weekly review of my current projects and goals for the purposes of artistic growth through accurate and appropriate target setting regarding my current goals and skillset into a concise action plan.

Context of last week

Last week saw the beginning of 2 new projects: ‘Academic study skills’ and ‘Work based learning 1’ with briefing and idea generation at the beginning of the week. I received written feedback from my tutor regarding my ‘Animation production’ project, spent time writing the proposal and treatment for the ‘work-based learning’ project, designed and illustrated initial concepts, style tests, visual research ready for a power point presentation that was pitched today, this morning. My plans for the coming week consist of experimenting with composition and style based of the concepts I have developed so far. I will also commit time to contribute to my blog for my ‘Academic study skills’ project with artist research, project development, and a S.M.A.R.T targets (This one).

What I need to reflect on

Receiving feedback for my ‘Animation production’ project has given me a lot to consider and think about regarding my strengths and weaknesses as an artist and content creator. In the weeks to come I will be applying this feedback to my new projects through targets which I will be setting in this blog post that I intend to maintain effect vigilantly. In these targets I will discuss the details of my target and create a concise action plan to maintain the effectiveness of my new project ‘Work based learning’ growing as an artist and creating content that is of a high technical standard pushing my previously established highest potential further.

Target 1 – Focus on the production realisation, not the idea generation.

A core topic covered in the feedback I received in my animation production project was that my idea generation and visual development was made to a remarkable standard, but I didn’t realise these ideas, I didn’t finish my animation. After discussing my feedback with my tutor, we concluded that the error I had ended up making was I didn’t set a cut off point for my ideas and therefore got carried away continuing this process never settling on an end goal. This resulted in my production process backing up, my project timescale to run out and never finishing the final product in its full.

The small, measurable, and realistic target I am setting in my next production to correct the previously stated flaw is too limit my idea generation process by narrowing my concepts to 3 ideas and picking one final to go with. To reinforce this idea, I am keen to implement a strict time plan showing in a concise manor at which stage I should be at and when I clearly should have a passed onto the next stage. I believe that by setting these 2 forms of action plan that in the following weeks I will see improvement regarding my previous flaws and design outcomes.

Target 2 – Form a decisive style and stick to it.

The other side of my projects flaw was that during my development and creation process It appeared that I wasn’t sure what style I wanted to use when creating my final design outcome. This made my development appear confused or contrasted an already outlined notion which resulting in a time-consuming compromise to correct such mishaps. This again resulted in my production backing up and ending up not been completed because Instead of spending time realising and producing my concept I instead bounced around how I wanted it to look resulting in not a lot to show for it. I will be making another target to ensure that I do not make the same mistake in my next project and that I continue to grow as an artist.

The small, measurable, and realistic target that I have concluded on setting to resolve my previous mishap is to identify a style through my research stage that I will draw inspiration from and stick to it creating a unique response to that instead of exploring a combination of styles. This will streamline my process, enable me to get more out of my analytical and studying skills, as well as be able to produce a style that is visually engaging and does not confuse the viewer. I will ensure that this action takes effect by demonstrating in my production work one definitive mood board which I will closely work to maintain consistency whilst moving onto later stages in development.

Conclusion

I am satisfied that these 2 goals are enough for me to focus on during the production of this week’s projects. In the following week I will update you all on the success of these targets as well as create new ones in reflection to the previous weeks workflow, successes, and failures. Thank you all for taking the time to read! Till next time.