Graphic Designer Flashcards
Describe a situation in which you led a team?
S: For my final year degree show, I took the responsibility of being the chief manager of the practical requirements team.
T: We were responsible for making sure that the work of the 40 participating students was taken into account by implementing their ideas and requirements into a simple database.
A: Thorough planning and communication, I delegated tasks to each of the team members while I also collected data from the remaining students. I also helped my team members to make sure the tutors understood what everyone was planning to make and the requirements needed to successfully exhibit their work
R: This allowed the appropriate materials to be ordered in by faculty staff and an organised assembling of the exhibition was able to commence.
What does STAR mean?
S: Situation
T: Task
A: Action
R: Result
Give an example of a time you handled conflict in the workplace.
S: During my first year of being appointed as the Deputy Student Voice Leader, I had a rift with the Student Voice leader during the lead up to the second year student voice leader election. Student’s wanted to me to apply for being the voice leader and vouched for me but that left the current student leader feeling isolated. The boiling point was when her BPD (Bipolar disorder) got bad to the point where she had an episode and ran off.
T: No one knew where she went so we were all worried about her and it was clear that something had to be done to neutralise the situation before she hurt herself.
A: As soon as I found that she went missing, It was quickly established with myself and other concerned peers that now would not be the time for me personally to find and confront her, so they went to search for her while I told a staff member about the situation. I cautioned the teacher that bringing a security guard to someone going through an episode may make things worse.
R: The teacher was understanding of the situation and notified all the other staff members to keep an eye out for her. The girl was later found that day by one of the concerned peers who knew about her condition and managed to calm her down. I developed an understanding of her condition which helped me in being able to work with her when I then became the student voice leader and she; the deputy.
How do you maintain good working relationships with your colleagues?
S: When I was studying at Middlesex University
T: I set out to make a habit of turning up to the studios at 10 in the morning and leave at 5pm regardless of if there were any seminars or lectures on that day. One of the reasons for this was because a vital part of the creative process is to get familiar with your creative peers who also turned up to university every day.
A: The consistency of being available to discuss projects and consideration of the peers around me is essentially what maintained a friendly but relevant relationship with my peers.
R: From having these meaningful relationships, I was able to be a productive member of the team when it came to doing group projects, whether it was being comfortable with peers painting on my body for a performance or assembling a sculpture with them.
. Tell me about a big decision you’ve made recently. How did you go about it?
. What’s the most difficult decision you’ve made, and how did you come to that decision?
S: A big decision I made was when I decided that moving out of my parents house for studies would benefit my work ethic and grades.
T: I was able to live in student accommodation but after that I had to set out and find my own means of living.
A: Sometimes the living situations were very crammed both in space and the number of people who were living in the house and sometimes I did not get along well with some of the tenants. I quickly adapted to the conditions and learned how to be considerate towards people with varying temperaments.
R: Regardless of the living conditions, I persisted with my studies and got an amazing grade.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
S: My Interactive Dissertation probably takes the cake for being my biggest achievement.
T: This was an assignment I had to complete by the first half of my third year. Ever since I discovered that my thesis did not have to be written in a conventional format, I knew that if it was going to be about videogames, It had to be made interactive. And since I wanted to delve into mythology, I decided to add some storytelling into the mix.
A: I started delving into the contextual research before the third year even began. And after saturating my brain in all of the books where I had read about art theory, videogame art and mythological art, I collated my research in my sketchbooks and on a word document for accessibility. I started building a web of the compiled research; compartmentalising them into categorise and linking them with theoretical pathways. I then began to build the dissertation with WIX and used some java script to make images and texts, invisible and then visible, depending on the pathway the reader chose.
R: The dissertation was then burned onto a disk and submitted in a dvd cover. I got a 2:1 for that dissertation and I’m pleased with the result as it offered a very unique way of expressing my creative process without making a single image but instead with text. I’m very enthusiastic about returning to it and improving on it and I am certain that this job will help me develop in a meaningful way to do so.
Describe a project where you had to use different leadership styles to reach your goal.
S: When I was chief of the practical requirements team for my final year degree show, the aim was to determine what materials, equipment, space, location and lighting was required for each students final piece.
T: I was given a basic google spreadsheet with these conditions and each of them had to be filled next to everyone’s names before it was time for faculty staff to determine whether they could provide the conditions, if the student had to provide it themselves or the condition could not be met because of health and safety reasons.
A: In order to cover all 40 students, I initially lead by facilitating communication with my team mates by discussing and making sure that everyone pulls their weight (including myself) by enquiring an even portion of the students about their final piece plans. Once they had done so, They come back to me with the information for me to put in the spreadsheet. When it was getting closer to the degree show, some students who were delegated to some of my team mates were still very indecisive about their plans and others had very specific requirements so I decided to take a more ‘lead by example’ approach and began to help my team mates more by getting more involved with those more challenging individuals.
R: Eventually everyone’s conditions were compiled in the spreadsheet which resulted in an efficient amount of equipment to be delivered in time for the degree show.
Tell me about a time when your communication skills improved a situation.
. S: When I worked at a soup kitchen at the Noah welfare centre, food service was about to end so I began getting ready for clearing up the tables. When I went to the dining area I noticed that there was one man who could not move well and seemed very distressed and wet. That is when I realised he urinated himself.
T: I told the man that I am going to get someone right now to help you.
A: I Immediately went to look for a staff member to help the man
R: Once other staff members were there to help me calm him down and clean the mess up with his dignity in mind, the staff thanked me for staying calm and having the urgency to get them straight away.
How do you cope in adversity?
S: At around the same time when coronavirus was just about to build up in infection rates, in April 2020, I had no work. My flat mates had argument so bad that 2 of them decided to start looking to move out. I began looking for new tenants to move in but there seemed to be very little traction. We managed to find someone but one of the current tenants who was moving out had a nervous breakdown and refused to let anyone see the room for that day. We lost the potential tenants. Not long after that my other flat mate had a leek in the ceiling and so we were anxious about the structural integrity of the flat. We were left with no choice but to move out. The timing of everything left me to be the last person to move out
T: meaning the task of fully cancelling the council tax, internet, heating, water, giving all of the keys in back to the landlord and making sure that the flat was left in reasonable condition despite the leek in the ceiling rested on me to complete.
A: I managed to call each utility and cancelled most of them with the exception of British gas who were hell bent on overcharging us, but by keeping phone contact with prior flat mates we established a good negotiation to relay back to British gas. I kept the keys safe and delivered them the exact way the landlord wanted them delivered with covid restrictions in mind and I left the flat as clean as I could make it.
R: The landlord was satisfied with how everything else in the flat looked, all of the bills and utilities were paid off and settled and while I didn’t manage to find a place for me to move out to, I swallowed my pride, moved back to luton to my parents place when it was safe to do so and took and counted my victories. And later look back at it all and find some humour in it.
Give me an example of a challenge you faced in the workplace and tell me how you overcame it.
S: I volunteered for a workshop that my friend set up and it involved setting the workshop in a garden. My friend asked her partner if she sealed the bag of potting mix and unfortunately she did not. When she fetched the bag of soil, sure enough it was infested with fly eggs. We had a very tight budget
T: So we thought instead of discarding the bag, all three of us got stuck in and hand picked out the individual fly eggs
A: We used our hands to rake through the soil and picked out any unearthed eggs
R: Our get-it done attitude is what ultimately made our soil clear of any fly eggs. And we were able to plant some herbs and flowers and keep it in an indoors environment during the winter which would have otherwise have been a disaster had the eggs been left in the soil.
Tell me about a time when you showed integrity and professionalism.
S: When I worked at Tescos as a Temporary Festive Colleague,
T: My first task was to be a greeter.
A: This would involve me standing near the entrance and saying hello, being friendly and giving baskets to people who wanted them. There was one person who got angry at me saying hello to him and told me to shut up. After being a bit taken-aback and realising that the man seemed to be calming down after walking away, I realised the situation was neutralising. I regained composure and continued being friendly to oncoming customers. When I talked to staff about it, I was re-assured by staff that I did the right thing in leaving him alone after the altercation.
R: The result was that I had gained real-life insight in how to react in a professional manner should a customer act out simply in the heat of the moment.
How do you influence people in a situation with conflicting agendas?
S: Our third year degree show had to be given a name. so the process in making one was that everyone in the class can submit their suggestions and then people will vote. Baring in mind that the Tutors welcome humorous titles as the previous show was titled ‘Lick’. So I decided to submit my idea which was ‘We got out of bed for this.’ It got the most votes and the tutors liked it more so when they realised it was suggested by me as they knew how passionate I was about the course so they knew there was nothing intrinsically malicious about my suggestion. However a very loud minority of students disliked the tile as it make them think about their depressive episodes. I didn’t want to back-down and the tutors didn’t want to either as they didn’t even bother coming up with ideas of their own.
T: A meeting was about to be held regarding the conflict so I decided to approach it in a way that art students would better understand.
A: When it was my turn to speak at the meeting, I put on my bathrobe over my dishevelled hoodie and began my speech about the importance of the democratic process. A vote was held again one last time to settle the disagreement.
R: My title won again. However to peoples dismay, the students still pressed on the tutors for the show to have a different name, so we chose the second popular title. The show ended up being called ‘Buy the ticket, Take the Ride.’
Give an example of a situation where you solved a problem in a creative way.
S: When I was home-schooling my brother during lockdown
T: He was given a science assignment where he had to make the planets in our solar system and place them behind a space designed background. More points were given to submissions that were not just drawn.
A: We decided to make the planets out of clay, cocktail sticks and paper, the background stumped us for a while but then I realised that my brothers duvet cover had a massive image of space on it. I didn’t want to mess up the sheets with the clay so I got cling film and laid it over the duvet, got my brother to place the planets in the right order on the film.
R: The teacher loved his submission and gave him full marks
Tell me about a time that you made a decision and then changed your mind.
S: In the beginning of my third year,
T: I had planned to make paper out of plant fibres.
A: After making a make-shift mesh for the mashed plant fibres and getting friendly with the local green grocer who gave me onion skins and other dried plant waste, I noted that the process in breaking down the fibres was very time consuming and laborious, high maintenance and a lot of fibre materials were needed to make a small amount of paper, every time I would make the paper, it would be too thick. I decided to alter my initial idea and use lokta paper. Because of the delicate, thin and transparent nature of the paper, it was perfectly suited for silkscreen printing and etching. I also made use of the faulty paper by putting it through a scanner (cleaning up the plant residue afterwards) with a laminated sheet containing my drawing of a plant humanoid head, overlaid on top of the scanned plant paper as an experimental way to add natural texture to the drawing.
R: The Lokta paper prints suspended slightly away from the wall made my final piece look elegant and easy on the eye. Now that I reflect on my prior plan, I think fibre paper would have interfered with the prints and thus would have been a very different collection of prints and would have been presented differently to suit the more textured pieces.
Describe a situation where you were asked to do something that you’d never attempted previously.
S: one of my first year mandatory projects was having to partner up and make a performance piece with your partner.
T: Me and my partner decided to make a video performance of me being dressed as a plant humanoid; pretending to walk awkwardly around campus and having never seen object before
A: My partner and other willing volunteers painted me green (so I had to learn to be very still), used plastic vines and flowers to dress me up into a plant humanoid. I’d look at how babies walk and would practice imitating it.
R: The submitted video was a success. So much so that I was encouraged by staff to do the performance again but this time during an open to the public event and I be doing it live with some elements of live streaming.
