Design Ambition Statement First Draft

 WEEK 18

Design Ambition First Attempt

SW 

It wasn’t the vast beaches of Bournemouth that I grew up on nor was it the country holidays I experienced when I was younger that influenced my landscape career. The truest form of inspiration for me was the people who inspired me, the people who I was to design for and showcase what they taught me. I wanted to curate places that they would find aesthetic and enjoyable; using the tools they gave me to nurture my future path. I believe that I am a designer and creative thinker. I have these characteristics due to the significance of my family members in my life and the surroundings I grew up in. I was fortunate enough to have gifted grandparents; my grandmother on my mother’s side was a seamstress and taught me the fundamentals of using sewing patterns to curate a piece of art for a function and aesthetic purpose, while my grandmother on my father's side was keen to have me paint, make pottery and craft from an early age. Without these key life experiences, I would not have found a love for recreating the world through a new perspective, through the medium of pain, pencil, thread, and clay. As a result, I find my design process to be more confident and takes on a more artistic approach and this is something I intend to keep and develop further.

After completing my GCSE’s I decided to change school for a new chapter in my life. I moved to a school that both of my brothers had attended and I have to accredit my twin brother in particular for pushing me to make this decision to move. I accredit my twin brother in particular as throughout our lives we have spent every day going through the same life experiences together and as a result, I have found this has challenged us both to do things that were out of each other’s comfort zones, and moving school was no exception. Furthermore, the decision to move, assisted by my twin brother, only further suggests that I am heavily motivated to perform well from an academic and artistic standpoint because of my family and the places they get me to. Because of my family, I find that I have a more positive mentality that has helped me massively through the most crucial points in my childhood and early adulthood. Overall, one of my greatest motivators is the people I surround myself with.

My childhood experiences have taught me to be curious, intuitive, and passionate about the work I complete now and heavily influenced the investigations I took in my A–level studies. For my A-level art course, I focused my research on finding the distinction between naturalistic and abstract art, primarily through the use of the landscape. Also, for my geography NEA I collected data for the evapotranspiration rates of plants in the understory of a woodland area, and so this later influenced my approach to resolving water-related issues on the landscape and instilled into me the severity of the water conditions in some areas of the world. This in due course helped me to become more sympathetic with the landscape and the problems that may occur due to climate change and extreme weather conditions.

In addition, throughout my A-level studies, I advanced my skills in some software such as Photoshop and Procreate, however, did not realise the extent to which my computer skills could be useful in a university course, especially in conjunction with my previous studies of the sciences and the arts. Initially, when applying to university I wanted to seek a career down the traditional architecture route, however once completing more research on the subject, I found landscape architecture and urban planning. Landscape architecture in particular felt as if it complimented my psyche due to my love for painting and illustrating landscapes and how encompassed all of my previous interests. I feel like this was the correct choice as I find every aspect of landscape architecture to be thoroughly interesting as each case and site has its opportunities and constraints.

Now writing this statement in the final month of my third year of University studies I find that I have discovered a lot about my work habits and how I approach solutions to problems found in the landscape. I understand that first and foremost I am a designer and try my best to include all other aspects of landscape architecture, such as sustainability, survey and analysis. I would like my work to be perceived as both aesthetic but also personal to the client as I am heavily influenced by people’s stories and the narratives they want to create. I feel that simulating someone's story is essential to maintaining emotional ownership of the land and promotes an emotive response to looking after the condition of the landscape, for the future.

From here I wish to expand my knowledge and discover new paths in the landscape industry, in particular the planning sector. This is because I have spent most of my years learning about the creative aspects of designing however, I would also like to broaden my expertise. In particular, the planning sector allows me to further my capability in analytic-based practices in landscape architecture firms and will in due course increase my confidence skills in practice. Moreover, my ambition is to keep and further establish my creative hobbies to encourage myself to always think critically and to include personality when recreating the world from a newfound perspective.