Skills Audit and Pilot Project Proposal - Week 1
- os3677
- Sep 23, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 13, 2025
Grades calculation
180 credits over the span of first and second year. 105 come from Level 6 (third year).
Employability Services
Where do you want to be professionally?
"Imagine its June and youre telling someone about an exciting opportunity you landed: what is it?"
What kind of creative work do I want to be doing?
I want to be doing photography work, like photographing models on runways or general marketing advertisement,
Open a crochet business.
Who do I want to work with or for?
Would like to build my own business, being the one hired to come and photograph, like weddings or general photoshoots.
What does professional success look or feel like to me
I would enjoy myself doing the work, feeling like my efforts are worth it and appreciated.
What will help you get there?
What do I need to show in a portfolio, CV or application?
Time management,
Adobe apps experience.
Whats missing right now (skills, experience, confidence, clarity)?
Confidence in inidividual work. I rely on others a lot, and being on my own leaves my mind blank and unsure of where to start,
I don't have any experience in the field that I want to go to.
What projects, roles, or events could help build that?
Third year Final Project will test my individual abilities, it will test how well I do on my own and gauge how much help I can reach out for,
Put myself out there for volunteer work.
Skills Audit
We had to fill out this Skills Audit before we could start on our pilot projects. For me this felt like highlighting what skills I have learned and reminding myself what I still use to this day.
Pilot Projects
Pilot Project Proposal 1:
I was inspired mostly by Noel Miller's Youtube series "$5 Therapy" which I have been watching for a while because I find it really funny how this random guy gets hundreds of strangers online to confess their darkest secrets, fully knowing that this is not a professional setting and only for entertainment purposes. I believe it first began as email submissions, so Noel would read them out and give pretty bad advice, as he's a comedian, then he got a phone number people could dial and speak into the voicemail which added a more real feeling as you actually hear the person talking about their situation. His approach was quite dark but non-serious, so he does always preface that his advice is not real advice. I really liked this series as you get to hear about a potentially really challenging situation, but Noel makes light out of darkness and that resonates with me as someone who always makes fun of their situation to cope.
Pilot Project Proposal 2:
Initially I had thought of doing an interactive photography book showcasing outfits worn by models. In the book I would include only one picture which would be of the back of the model, and next to it a QR code which would lead to a 360º video of the outfit. I wanted to do it this way because I want the viewer to interact with the book more rather than just flipping through the pages, and also usually the back of outfits is the most boring part, so of course you would want to see the front of it. However, due to time limitation I decided to not go with this idea as curating the outfits, hiring the models, and printing the book would take too much time for the two weeks we have.
My new idea:
BTS of Pilot Project 1
Our lecturer Tina had set up a Miro Board for us to get started on planning our pilot projects. I think it is a good idea as you have all your tasks in one place, and I generally like how Miro operates; it's easy to use and gives you already made templates to work from. Plus, it's all on a cloud, so you'll never lose it!
I decided to name my project "Dork Board" as it rhymes with corkboard and that is what I am going to use for the aesthetic/theme for the project. I want it to relate to students, and what a better way than to use a piece of decor that most student accomodations have. I happen to also have a traditional corkboard, so I will clear up some space on it to put the submission slips on there and take a picture that way! I want the theme to be consistent, so I will be doing this to all submissions.
So, for my idea to become a physical reality I need cardboard boxes to put around multiple locations in order to reach more people. Unfortunately, I had recently done a deep clean of my room and got rid of all the cardboard as I did not have any plans to use them (womp womp). I also wanted to use tissue paper as I am very familiar with it, but it would take too much product to actually cover the boxes and make them pretty. My partner pointed out that it would also get ruined more than if I were to just use wrapping paper, so I have stuck with using wrapping paper instead. Luckily, I still have a good relationship with one of my previous managers, who gets deliveries into the shop twice a week (probably, I was never in charge of deliveries there). I messaged her to ask if she had any leftover boxes I could take, and fortunately she did! I immediately set up a date to pick them up from the store.
While I was in the store, I noticed that they have a really cute but simple selection of wrapping paper, including an irridescent chrome wrap! It immediately caught my eye, and having that in mind I instantly bought it in hopes for it to work the same way; ooh shiny thing, I must engage! All I was missing now were cheap pens and paper slips, and after looking in shops around town I decided to just buy them from Amazon as it would be cheaper. I also bought revision flashcards from The Works to use as submission slips.
When I brought them home, I immediately got to work. I took the smallest box and the really long-wide one as my ex-manager recommended I cut that one in half and make two smaller ones! Great thinking. In total I was going to have three boxes for three different locations: our baseroom, hopefully the Student Union (as a lot of people pass through there), and potentially outside the university library.
As I have never made a submission box before, I took the first one as a practice run. I needed a slit wide enough to fit the slips, but not wide enough so people would steal them. I first had to make sure all the sides of the box were sealed and wouldn't move out of place, so I used a mix of superglue and tape to make sure that did not happen. Once I had done that to all the boxes, I traced the width of the flashcards onto the top of the boxes and cut it out with a paper knife. I had done that to all three boxes, and was pretty happy with two of them, however one of them I cut the slips too wide and the top of it was constantly moving, dipping into the inside of the box.
After that, all I really had to do was wrap them! This is why I sort of hate Christmas, as I am a horrible wrapper. I got the assistance of my partner to hold the boxes steady while I taped the wrapping around the box, and I tried to be as careful as I could as to atleast make the front pretty and nothing would crease. My idea then was to design a front cover for the boxes to let people know what these would be for. I used Canva to curate a small design to fit onto the boxes, mainly including a short description of the project, legible typography, and a QR code to the instagram account.
Speaking of instagram account, I made one using an old email I set up which was not linked to any already existing accounts as I still want to be able to access it in case I need it in 10 years, for some reason. I made the username "d0rkboard" as 'dorkboard' was already taken, and I did not want to include random numbers at the end of it. I needed a short and punchy username so people could remember it easier. I had made my first story post as a sneak peek into how the boxes were doing, and I also designed a profile picture in Canva.
This is a screenshot I took the moment I made the Instagram account, before making the profile picture. I have decided that I am mostly going to be posting stories, as it is more likely to be seen by people following me, and the posts will be dedicated to the submissions once I have collected them.
This is the Instagram account link:
Overall, I really enjoyed the physical aspect of this project so far! I am a very hands-on person (hence why I love crocheting), and having a physical result makes me appreciate my own work more. This got me thinking that in the future I would like to be involved in more things like this, whether it's exhibition work or funny projects on a bigger scale.
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