Speaking from Experience

The current brief is to design a graphic solution to a problem/issue or subject that we ourselves had in our first few weeks as level 1 students, that we can give, send, show and advise the next years intake what to expect.

My initial 5 subjects/issues/problems that I found or what I thought new students might have were as follows.

1.'You will need sleep'

- Sleep patterns

- Managing time

2. 'Coping away from home'

- What to expect at halls

- Looking after yourself

- The fact everyone is in the same boat

3. 'The loan won't last forever'

- Budgeting for food/uni

- Finding more money

- Saving money

- Offers available

4. 'Theres more to life than Graphic Design'

- Enjoying the uni experience

- Make time to relax

- Explore your surroundings

5. 'Is my work I'm doing right/good enough?'

- The first year doesn't technically count, so theres no need to worry.

- Its ok to make mistakes

- The work load

After discussing the possibilities and ideas here I have combined different aspects of the issues to create a new subject/question to answer. 'Taking advantage of being a student' The idea is explain the benefits of being a student, all the advantages available such as discounts, grants, freebies, social events, tips, tricks and useful advice. Available from many food outlets, shops and entertainment attractions there are special student discounts available at certain times, after collecting the information in different categories I would like to attempt to create a week/fortnight (which ever appropriate) displaying when these discounts are available, to save you money.

For previous briefs, my most successful was the mail-shot campaign to help with recycling/reusing plastic bags and the format I think would be suitable for this particular subject. Hopefully not only will it be a pack of information but will include a feature to be used again aswell as the information. Currently a small money box for spare change but this could be changed from feedback at crits.. possibly another bag with stronger materials?

Issue/Question: 'Taking advantage of being a student'

What I'm going to do: Produce money saving information about discounts, grants and freebies combined with a useful reusable feature, such as a money box or bag

How I'm going to do this: Mail-shot format for ease of distribution.