“During our excursion to Top Designs, we listened to a presentation led by a woman called Sonia. Sonia explained to us how she works through a design process when designing illustrations. Revising and refining design options is a key part of the process. Designers are often given a lot of freedom by their clients and it is important to be able to illustrate the intended meaning. It was incredibly helpful for us to see how professional illustrators work, as this helped us to understand the importance of following a brief and not defining yourself to one design too early. Being open to criticism from the client and being able to get your intended meaning across by being specific in your brief helps to make an effective visual communication. Sonia’s use of methods we are studying now will give us confidence in our own ability and the determination to push ourselves. Our favourite aspect of the excursion was seeing the TopDesign folios. The effort the students made in their folios was incredible and seeing the design process, beginning with a brief and ending in the final presentation, was inspiring.”
Aidan Cahill and Luca Airo-Farulla
Year 11
“At the Top Designs excursion we listened to both presentations, but I am only going to write about Kathy’s presentation. She is the head of Visual Communication and Design subject, and she outlined the key events in the course and what is needed for the upcoming portfolios. The presentation helped us understand the layout of the portfolio, what is required and how to keep on track of due dates for our brief, research and generation. I most enjoyed watching the video that we saw at the beginning of the presentation as well as looking at all the Top Design portfolios.”
Alexander Fell
Year 12
“During the presentations we were shown the criteria of everything that we need to do. The Head of Visual Communication and Design gave a basic understanding of the requirements outline for VCD. This information will help identify the key things that we need to think about throughout the design process, such as the fact that themes are important, and getting feedback from the client can help you reach your goals. The presentation also demonstrated to us the level of the work we have to do with all the components that we have to implement into the final folios, such as Urls and looking at copyright. The most enjoyable part of the day for me was when we got to explore and look at all the Top Design folios to see the level of work they put in, and how they structured their work. The excursion provided me with great ideas for my own folios.”
Athanasios Romios
Year 12
