You are already halfway through the self-initiated project brief, where hopefully you are already making progress towards realising your aims, objectives and making headway with your final outcome.
This is a creative and experimental period of development and we want to see evidence of how your research has helped to steer the visual direction of your project. We also expect to see evidence of how you’ve tested and explored appropriate media, materials, format and production techniques to engage with your target audience.
Remember that this is an opportunity to create something that’s personal to you, while also engaging with a wider audience. Explore and experiment with your ideas, don’t be timid and bear in mind that the more ideas you test, the greater the likelihood of discovering a new perspective. Perhaps most importantly: don’t be afraid to make mistakes. When taking a risk you step out of your comfort zone and this is often where the most exciting creative discoveries are made.
“Making mistakes, flirting with disaster and outright failure is how to get better. Without it, you’re stuck in a zone of mediocrity and ‘meh’. Sure, you probably won’t be nervous, self-conscious and potentially mortified, but you won’t be admired by others.
You’ll be boring.
If you want to be creative, do original work and surprise the hell out of someone every once in a while, you need to get over your fear of looking stupid.
Seek out failure. Train yourself to recognise it all around you. Get to know it and take it away for a romantic weekend. Failure isn’t fatal, quite the contrary. It’s downright fabulous.”
From: Failed it!: How to turn mistakes into ideas and other advice for successfully screwing up by Erik Kessels, 2016