A Year of Creativity

[Skip Class]

2017: A Year of Creativity

Hopefully I can be more organised and motivated with achieving goals this year? So hi there - I'm zappy/ Nina. I've recently just finished university and am currently working as a UX/Digital Designer. I've made myself a bunch of creative/ designish based goals for 2017 to hopefully improve my skills and confidence (?).

Over the last few months, I've recently been inspired by a bunch of creative YouTube channels such as New Age Creators, Soul Pancake, Mackenzie Child etc. to start making creative videos to go along with my year long journey - and mostly to keep myself accountable. Especially since it's the first year out of university for me, I'd like to look back and see how much I've improved by 2018.

Creative Goals

• Make things. Be as creative. Put out content every week.
  Obviously to get better at designing I need to practise more. Putting new designs out weekly is something I'm aiming for atm.
• Becoming more proficient with the design tools I use for work and spare time.
  Specifically doing vector work in Adobe Illustrator (use it more at work and am not the best at it) and motion graphics in After Effects.
• Get back to doing more Graphic-ish things and working with Photoshop more again.
  Didn't get to do much graphic design at uni. I'm really motivated to start making social media, YouTube, Twitch layouts/ banners etc. again.
• Spend more time on my photography, going out and taking photos every day more - both events and just everywhere I adventure off too. Also just to keep up my instagram game more xD
  I'll be getting a new camera next year to upgrade from my current Nikon 3100/ Canon Rebel T3i that I've had the past 4/5 years.

Other Goals

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These Other Goals are secondary 2017 Goals. They aren't strict and I won't focus on as much as my creative goals - just try to do them alongside the first goals when I can.
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Spoiler:

• To be more assertive, confident and less shy around new people/ people I don't talk much too.
  Didn't realise how much a shy cupcake I was (both irl and online chatting vc sometimes) until I started my current job.
• Pick up healthy habits and be healthier in general.
  Going to bed before 10pm, drinking more water, going to the gym to help improve my asthma and eating more fruit/vege in general.
• Watch a variety more TV Shows/ Movies.
  I want to watch more 'western' shows since I kinda want an anime break atm. Starting with Stranger Things and The Walking Dead soon. Will probably get to watching a bunch of Marvel/DC things since I haven't gotten into it as much as I want to. Want to watch Scream, The Killing, Arrow and Voltron since a friend of mine acts/voice acts in them. Suggestions welcome though c:

Got lots on my plate with these goals now, but hopefully I can make the most of it.

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[gimmepie]

If you want to put out more creative content, why don't you make a list of prompts and then randomly generate one to use as your inspiration each week? It's more of a writer's trick than one for visual artists but I'm pretty sure it'd be helpful for you too.

doing more photography is probably a good way to help with your other goals too! It gives you a reason to be out and about and active which will improve your health and is also a potential way to meet people and get more confident in a social setting since having something to talk about helps.

 

[Aquacorde]

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HEY ZAPPERS whatcha working on this week?

 

[Nina]

AH I missed this! Zapppyyyyy

Can I ask what kind of creative videos you're trying to make?

 

[Skip Class]

HEY ZAPPERS whatcha working on this week?

Week 1​

New Goals Added​

• Organisation - especially file wise
  Wasn't an intentional goal to begin with, but I wanted to "computer-wise" to be a bit more clean before starting anything. Ended up reorganising all my files on both my mac and windows laptops including a couple hundred GBs worth of Photos/ Videos and general school/ university files. I used to be a school/sports photographer in high school/ college and I had the worst sense of file organisation ever - on top of 5 year old photoshop/ SAI files, everything was everywhere and not named properly... oops?
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• Travel somewhere
  New very vague goal, but I would like to travel at least somewhere out of my city (and out of country if possible) per year. Now that I don't have university to worry about, I'd like to go somewhere else this year - however this year isn't set in stone. Not sure how plans roll, but may have to push back my Japan trip till 2018 due to having my first career focused job (I don't want to just run away for a few weeks when I've just gotten that) haha.
  
  Aussie is still an options since it's close enough for me to fly over for a weekend and go to PAX or Vidcon or something? However, if the only thing I can do this year is go to another city in NZ for a bit, I'd still be pretty happy about that.

Progress: Creative Goals​

Making most progress on my third goal to work with graphics and photoshop more. Doing mostly set-up/ preparation (since file organisation this week was priority) so going through good old tutorials to get a feel of things again.
But I did make a thing! Might be posting more often on my A&D gallery throughout this, but will make weekly summaries here - because this isn't A&D xD

Will probably spit out a few more things before the week ends but we'll see :p Weather has been pretty gross the last few days so hoping it'll clear up so I can take photos again.

Progress: Other Goals​

Healthier habits is kinda meh with Christmas/ New Years parties all over the place, but hopefully will get to it next week. Bout to start Stranger Things tomorrow as my Friday evening watch so super excited c:

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If you want to put out more creative content, why don't you make a list of prompts and then randomly generate one to use as your inspiration each week? It's more of a writer's trick than one for visual artists but I'm pretty sure it'd be helpful for you too.

Doing more photography is probably a good way to help with your other goals too! It gives you a reason to be out and about and active which will improve your health and is also a potential way to meet people and get more confident in a social setting since having something to talk about helps.

This is actually a really neat idea since I always get stuck on ideas on what to make! I've started pulling a bunch of "30 day/ 100 day challenge" lists/prompts together and stealing the ideas for my own list so we'll see how that turns out!

And definitely! Photography has always got me running around and has been a bit of a confidence booster which sucks since I haven't been doing it the last couple of years - but hoping it'll help me out this year!

AH I missed this! Zapppyyyyy

Can I ask what kind of creative videos you're trying to make?

Kind of a mix between these two creative peoples:


with a bit of this guy since I want to do some speed UI/UX designs:



And a bit of my own flair I guess xD Short videos that are artistic filmish and design mix? haha still on the planning stages so we'll see how it goes :p

 

[Nina]

You sure have a lot of editing work ahead of you with those examples! Do you have previous experience doing editing?

 

[Skip Class]

You sure have a lot of editing work ahead of you with those examples! Do you have previous experience doing editing?

Yup definitely c: I focused on film long before I became a designer! Motion graphics and after effects things will be the thing I need to work on the most though (since I've only been using AE for a few months at uni) :s but hey, I mean I did say I wanted to get better at it xD

End of Week Review​

This week overall was kinda meh? Ended up working on a resume instead of a new banner for the end of the week, but oh well lol. Want to get the most out of next week before I get back to work, so will be pumping out more pieces this week! Till the next update ~

I'd rate Week 1 an average 5/10.

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[Nina]

-snip-

Resume? I wonder, do you plan to stay in your current job for a long time, or just until you have something else you want to do? My friend who found a job out of college is still at it, close to 3 years now, so I just wonder how you feel in that environment at the moment, and what your larger professional aspirations are.

 

[Aquacorde]

zappy how've the last few weeks been going? what were you working on, and what are some of the things that you accomplished?