S.M.A.R.T targets – 23/04/18

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

This past week was spent completing admin work and reflecting on peer reflected feedback making adjustments to my illustration. At the beginning of the week I collected information and opinions from my peers regarding their opinions on my current resulting illustration based upon the SMART targets I had set the previous Monday. From there I created a list of solutions which I spent the week working through and adjusting. Some of these tasks included making some areas lighter than others, adjusting colour balance, and adding texture to certain aspects of the illustration. In-between each of these tasks I also took the time to perform admin tasks such as further research, blog posts, process write-ups.

What I need to reflect on

Currently I’m at a stage where I feel it is appropriate to reflect on my intentions that were created in my initial proposal and treatment to identify weather I realised and achieve goals I set out to do mid production. I am confident that by doing this kind of self-reflective study regarding my production intentions whilst mid-way through my schedule I will ensure that I keep on track and achieve a level of quality and impact that I had initially outlined. It has come to my attention that I also need to ensure I keep on track with updating my blog as things move forward as well as post about my previous projects.

Target 1 – Perform a project review outlining and reflecting against my proposal and treatment to ensure I am on track and consistently improving towards my goals.

Often during the creative process, it can be easy to deviate in different directions from the initial intentions created and outlined in the brief. Often this can be good as it can provide better and more engaging content that wasn’t originally devised during the planning process. But sometimes it can lead a designer to go off the rails and forget the original intention of the project causing the design to support the narrative or design in a direction that hinders the design outcome rather than enhances it. Therefore, to make sure that this production is moving forward and going in a strong direction rather than a weak one I will perform a project review analysing my current works and results against the brief I provided for myself as the self-directed client.

Based on the afore mentioned my small, measurable, and realistic target is to sit down and script a written review of each stage in my design process based off the treatment plan and time plan that I outlined at the beginning of the project. This will be a minimum of at least 5 brief paragraphs discussing: Time scaling, style, narrative, aesthetics, and technique. Each paragraph will discuss what I’ve done right and wrong as well as an action plan to continue or correct against the conclusions I make.

Target 2 – Create a soft deadline to catch up with any behind blog posts as well as potentially create a time plan to ensure the continuation in consistency with updating such posts.

Discussed above is the issue of consistency and time scaling with my blogging process. I have come to the belief that this is due to a lack of structure and planning involving soft deadlines and so forth similar to how I have it set up in my ‘Work based module 1’. I believe If I were to apply such soft deadlines to my blogging process then I will find more consistency and impact in my week by week development improving my results and increasing my overall result as a consequence of such prior planning.

Therefore the small, measurable, and realistic target I am setting in reflection to this idea is to device and create a quick time plan that takes note of and merges with my current work based module in order to balance workload effectively whilst still taking into consideration what is plausible and possible within the allotted time based upon my current skill set and ability’s. Within the next week I intend to have a plan with soft deadlines to secure the effectiveness of this target.

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!