unit reflection
The ‘Professional Orientation (design)’ unit has provided significant and helpful experience and advice regarding the design industry and how to flourish within a university environment. Throughout the Professional Orientation unit we discussed various methods of entering and engaging with the design industry. Along with these general discussions we partook in a variety activities and assignments with the purpose of reinforcing the discussions and pushing students into enacting significant first steps in entering the design industry, allowing Professional Orientation students to progress in the design industry far faster and more smoothly than if the same students had been left to just left to take these significant steps like beginning a design portfolio by themselves. Examples of assignments and events that occurred over the course of this semester are, having to write an essay in which we must use an existing designer as a case study in order to develop SMART goals for use to use over the next three years, an industry panel where the student body could ask questions to members of the design industry, and several tasks that lead us to establishing a professional email, several professional social media accounts and beginning work on our design portfolios. The Professional Orientation unit however despite being a reasonably work heavy unit, Professional Orientation does have a tendency to be easily overlooked which can result in assignments sneaking up on you. Overall, I found the ‘Professional Orientation (design)’ unit very helpful, giving me insight and advice into the design industry as a whole, university life and forcing students to enact significant first steps towards their future career as a designer.
Purpose statment
The purpose of this portfolio is to display who I am, my design work and design ability to possible employers. When engaging with any industry, providing an easily accessible way of learning who you are, what you have done, what you are capable of doing and how to contact you for work is essential as you can not get hired for work if people do not know who you are. This portfolio is designed with the intent of clearly displaying my abilities as a designer, who I am as an individual, providing a means through which to contact me, and a collection of added writings.
Design code of ethics review
There are two relevant design codes of conduct to this review. The Australian graphic design association (AGDA) code of ethics and the Design institute of Australia (DIA) code of ethics. Both AGDA and DIA codes of design ethics share similar principles in regard to the conduct of interactions between designers, designers and clients, and designers and the environment. For example, both codes of design ethics have principals like don’t undermine the reputation of the AGDA or DIA, don’t knowingly perform design work that violates copyright, aim to minimise the environmental damage as a result of your design work, criticism must be given in a respectful manner and not be used to demean other designers, etc. However, the AGDA and DIA codes of design ethic differ in how the AGDA code of design ethics has more comprehensive policies regarding promotion, publicity and conduct during commission work (Australian Graphic design association, 2025). And The DIA code of design ethics requires designers to not accept any form of direct or indirect payment in return for referral or recommendation to a potential client or designer (Design institute of Australia, 2024). In conclusion the AGDA and DIA codes of design ethics share very similar policies with the primary difference between the two organisations being the AGDA having more comprehensive policies and the DIA having policies against referral fees.
Consulting indigenous groups in the design process
Whenever performing design work that incorporates elements of indigenous culture and design. It is our responsibility as designers to reachout to and consult the indigenous groups whose culture is being incorporated into the design project, in order to avoid cultural appropriation and disrespectful uses of culturally significant elements. For example if developing a new line of curtains and an element of the brief was to use indigenous patterns in the curtain design, indigenous communities should be consulted and be allowed to participate in the design process. This would allow the curtain design to avoid the risk of cultural appropriation and provide unique insights on the meanings and uses of indigenous symbols and iconography which can result in the creation of far more interesting designs than if indigenous voices hadn’t been consulted.
Required readings review
Over the course of this semester we were given a large number of ‘required readings’ with the purpose of providing students with important information for tutorials and added context to reinforce the content of said tutorial. The Required reading I will be reviewing First Things First 2020 edition, is this the best time to be productive?, The art of taking and receiving criticism, and 50 design words explained. The 2020 edition of the First Things First manifesto helped provide perspective and useful introduction to ethics in design and how to incorporate personal morals into design. This most recent edition of the manifesto explains the grievances the signatories of the manifesto have with the current way the design industry operates. The 2020 edition of the First Things First manifesto expresses dissatisfaction with single use plastics, cultural appropriation, hostile architecture, addictive web design and more. The First Things First manifesto does a very good job at explaining the various aspects of the design industry that need to change as well as presenting a comprehensive set of principles that should be employed to improve the design industry (O’Brien.M. et al, 2020).
The BBC’s article on the best time for productivity provided quite interesting information on the optimal times of day and month for productivity and creative thinking, the article also provided a good conversation starter on the topic of maintaining productivity and creating appropriate schedules. The BBC discusses the findings of a California based project management platform named Redbooth, according to the firm’s findings the most productive times are between the hours of nine and eleven in the morning on mondays over the month of october. The BBC article overall does a good job at explaining the Redbooth’s findings, however the BBC article doesn’t provide much information on what to do with this information which ultimately leaves the article feeling quite open ended (Lufkin.B, 2018).
FastCompany’s article on “the art of receiving criticism at work” does a fantastic job at conveying the difficulties in providing and receiving criticism and how we can both be better at receiving critique and provide critique in a way that is less likely to offend the receiver of said critique. FastCompany’s article discusses comprehensively how people struggle to provide and receive criticism and why this is the case. Following the article’s discussion of how people struggle with criticism the article provides a very in depth discussion of multiple methods to both provide better criticism and receive criticism. FastCompany’s article covers how criticism is subconsciously viewed as a threat to survival to how criticism is more likely to be accepted if the critique is sandwiched between compliments(Seiter.C, 2014).
Canva’s ‘50 design terms explained’ provides an excellent source of information when being introduced to the field of design. Containing a broad variety of terms from across the design field, ranging from typographical terms like X-height to industrial design terms like Die cut. Canva’s “50 design terms explained” also pairs each of the aforementioned design terms with text providing an explanation of the meaning of the term along with an to provide extra context (Stribley. M, 2025).
Reference list
Lufkin,B. (2018). Is this the best time to be productive?. Bbc. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180102-is-this-the-best-time-for-productivity
O’Brien,M. et al. (2020). First Things First 20202. First Things First 2020. https://www.firstthingsfirst2020.org
Seiter,C. (2014). The art and design of taking and receiving criticism at work. FastCompany. https://www.fastcompany.com/3039412/the-art-science-to-giving-and-receiving-criticism-at-work
Stribley,M. (2025). 50 design words to know. Canva. https://www.canva.com/learn/graphic-design-terms/
n.a. (2024). DIA Code of Ethics. Design institute of Australia. https://www.design.org.au/dia-code-of-conduct
n.a. (2025). AGDA-Code of Ethics. Australian Graphic Design Association. https://agda.com.au/about/code-of-ethics/