Response to: How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul.

There were many points in this reading that I found interesting and very relevant to where I am now in my current academic and professional career. There are a few points that I found of particular relevance to me.
The first was when they were talking about “cultural awareness”. Cultural awareness of what the trends are in our society and also in other societies is something that I find very hard to keep up on, in-fact I have only recently discovered how valuable this is to my education and my ability to create good work. I have always looked through design books to find inspiration but now I also look for inspiration in other places such as magazines, store fronts and my everyday surroundings.
There was another point that was brought up that I have recently discovered about myself. The point of how technology makes things so much easier for the designer, but how not every idea can be executed on the computer. This is something that I have been realizing over the last year. It is always easier to go straight to the computer when I begin a project but I am learning that it is rarely the best way to go about things. I have been finding that although it may take me longer in the beginning of a project that it may in fact save me time in the long run and will almost always make the end result better if I do not start on the computer. Another point along the same lines is the point about “less you means more you”. I think this relates to cultural awareness, the more aware you are, the more influences your work will have, thus having in a way, less of you.

As for the second reading Critical Thinking it seemed very confusing and kind of contradictory to How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul. In Critical Thinking Mr. Ennis seems to think that critical thinking is something that can be learned by a set of rules. Where as in the other reading critical thinking was thought of as something you have to have within yourself but also has to be learned through research and keeping up with the current styles.