OUGD503 - Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

The main skill that I have developed through this module is my ability to take a brief and deconstruct it to find out exactly what needs to be done, whether the client is asking for it or not. I have found that this has been an essential part to my practice during the course of the module and has aided me in creating some outcomes which I can be proud of as I know they are good solutions to the brief.

Another skill I have developed through this module is my ability to take briefs from different areas of design and apply my skills to them. Initially when starting this module I was quite unsure about how far my skills could be applied and in which fields of design, however I have found that I have adapted myself quite well to a lot of different briefs.

I have also used this module as a basis of improving my Illustrator drawing skills. While I am confident in my use of software, drawing images in Illustrator is something I tended to avoid in the first year. In the second year I felt this is the time where I must address this and get over the fear I had of the skill.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have particularly found the studio sessions helpful in opening my eyes to the way in which to respond to a brief. While it all seems pretty standard things being discussed, saying them really put it in my mind and has helped me when I have received a brief and started designing a solution for it.

This has definitely helped me in my approach to the larger competition briefs as initially these seemed quite daunting and had a lot of elements to work out and around. However after deconstructing the briefs it made them much easier to follow and come up with a concept.

This module has also shown me that I don't need to spend a huge amount of my time on a brief which has only a small outcome. Time management has been key throughout this module as there are deadlines for each brief, so working around how much time was left and deciding how much time to spend on each brief has massively improved my designing for each brief as I am working to the time restraints and not taking as long or little as I want to.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The main strength I have is in my ability to quickly turn drawn initial ideas into digital versions. This has always been the case, but this module has really helped me develop this skill because of the time scales of each brief. I intend to take this forward and continually develop the quality of this initial design work so that by the end of a brief I have a piece of design which I am very happy with.

Another strength I have in my work is my ability to come up with an idea and then quickly think about how this could be spread across a large range of media. This has helped me immensely because I know the minute I can't think of how it would span over a variety of media, it is not the idea to take forward. This skill also helps me as I am constantly developing these distribution methods along with the development of the brief.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I still think my weakness is in my Illustrator drawn work. While I do feel I have improved, I know I still have a long way to go to feel truly confident in this area of design, and I do think that my inexperience shows in some of my design work. To try counter this I have kept some designs simple where I would have liked to be a bit more complex, and I do think that this is a shame and has deterred my progress in this area. However as I know this, I will start to try respond to briefs in a way in which I can include this skill and try develop it to a good standard.

Another weakness is in a couple of the smaller briefs. I do feel that there was a point half way through the module where I got a bit lazy, and the design work shows that. This is obviously not good for my practice or for my portfolio as it shows some work which clearly hasn't had a lot of time spent on it. To address this I will be stopping myself from jumping from initial ideas straight to the computer, to try and develop them first and get a good concept built up.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Find another large brief - I thoroughly enjoyed doing the Domino's brief and do regret not choosing another larger campaign brief to do. While I enjoy small briefs, I do get much more enjoyment out of developing an idea over a number of weeks and strengthening it as I go along.
2. Design for a wider range of briefs - Something I do regret through this module is not looking around a bit more for some other kinds of briefs. I did have an editorial brief which I never got round to, and very much regret now. By doing a wider range of briefs it develops my skills in a variety of areas and makes me a much more confident designer.
3. Work more conceptually - While a few of the briefs are built up on concepts, the others are missing the concept element to the designs. Building up a concept is beneficial to creating good design and I will continue to develop my skill in this area.
4. Work with photography - While I did do a couple of briefs where I experimented with photographic images, I didn't do many. I regret this now as the whole module seems to be based on vector designs and not a large variety of work.
5. Design for another media aside from digital - something which I haven't done through this module at all is design for another media apart from digital. While I understand this is obviously a fundamental part to design, I do feel I have missed out by not designing something by hand or for a manual process.

OUGD503 - Summative Evaluation

When I initially started on this module I was quite apprehensive and nervous about the outcomes that were required in the fact that this module is built up on competition/live briefs and not university driven briefs. I have never been one to show my work off in a very public way like these competitions so I knew it was going to be a challenge for me to adapt to this kind of working environment.

I quickly found that the quicker I threw myself into the briefs the easier it was for me to adapt to the idea of displaying the work on a public level. To overcome this fear I had, I threw myself into a small live brief almost immediately as I knew I would otherwise keep procrastinating to avoid the situation. I found that doing this benefited me greatly for the rest of the module as I was able to focus more on my design ideas for the brief instead of what other people would think of my work.

Through this module I wanted to push myself to do a variety of briefs as I had the feedom to do whatever I chose. I also wanted to design to various levels of outcomes, from very quick logo briefs to longer developmental briefs. I felt that this was the perfect module to get out as much as I put in for the briefs chosen. I do think I have achieved this and created outcomes to large variety of briefs.

Something I wanted to do was take on a large brief that was based around the idea of creating a campaign as this is something that I had an interest in. I decided that my main individual brief was the ideal brief to use to fulfil this as a campaign has a lot of elements to consider and a lot of developmental work needed to be successful.

I chose the Domino’s brief as my main  individual brief as this was the brief I felt would best suit my ability as a designer. It is a brand I am familiar with and the brief was something that excited me as the brand is known for its witty tone of voice. I thought that this brief was one where I could enjoy myself and have fun with the designs as there was not really much limit to what I could do within the restrictions set by Domino’s. I found that this brief was challenging and made me push my design skills to come up with solutions that fitted the Domino’s brand as well as were visually interesting.

This module has definitely been the one which has helped me develop as a designer as the situations in which I am designing have been real life situations with clients and reasons behind the designs. Doing these briefs has given me a good insight into the kind of work that is out there and the kind of variety of outcomes that are possible. 

I have also found that this module has been the one which has helped me with time management and organisation. With the briefs having deadlines that must be stuck to, I have been able to adapt myself and my designing into a routine which means I have maximum time at the end to develop the initial ideas and come up with an outcome that is pushing myself as a designer but also answers the brief.

While I have enjoyed the briefs I have fulfilled, I do feel that there are a couple of the smaller ones which are lacking in professionalism and time spent on them. I do think that halfway through the module I did get a bit lazy in terms of how much effort I put into a couple of these smaller briefs because I was concentrating on my main brief, however I have learnt from these and realise my mistakes in taking on these briefs and trying to design for them when I did not really have much intention of spending a lot of time on them.

Working in a collaboration has been the biggest surprise for me on this module. Previously I have not liked working in a collaboration and have not particularly found that the outcomes of those outcomes have been successful, however I found that working in a one on one collaboration has been successful and is something I now feel confident in doing. I was nervous about this brief initially as I am someone who likes to do quite a lot of work, and I did not want to be with someone who would take advantage of that and not do much themselves. Luckily I found that the partnership worked well and the balancing of the workload made it easier for me to focus on the elements that I find the most interesting and skills I wanted to achieve during this brief.

Overall I have enjoyed this module immensely and do feel it has been my most successful module in the amount that it has taught me, from conceptual design through to non-design related skills such as time keeping and organisation of work. I have found that this module has helped shape me as a designer and has given me the confidence to move forward with live briefs or competition briefs where my work will be public. I also feel the structure of the module has aided me in my development as a designer as it has been quite free in what briefs I fulfil, meaning I have been making my own decisions on the kind of work I have been creating.

OUGD503 - After Crit Progress Review

After the final crit for this module, and everything that was discussed in that, I decided that it would be best to review all the work I had done for the module at this point to see if there were any gaps or issues in the work I had done in each brief and for the module as a whole.

At this point, my two large briefs, Domino's & Oasis, are at the point where they need to be submitted in a few days so huge changes can not be made on them. On review of these, I decided that the Domino's brief was completely at the point for submission and didn't need anymore work on. However when it came to the Oasis brief, both Daisy and I had read the feedback given and agreed that there were a few issues that needed addressing, mainly in the way our response has been executed and put together. While we have done what the brief asked and answered each outcome, there is not really an overlying concept behind the work, which is definitely something we need to address to tie it all together and make it much stronger.

The main focus of my review is on my individual briefs. In reviewing these, I looked back at what I initially set out to achieve in this module, and what I wrote in my interim evaluation in January.

Overall there is a sense that I have fulfilled everything I wanted to get out of this module and everything I wanted to do in this module.

Things I have achieved in this module so far:

• Improved presentation skills
• Improved quality of work
• Improved conceptual ideas & carrying them through
• Submitting to live briefs confidently
• Good time management
• Creative compromise
• Experience working on a real brief for a real cause (not just a university driven brief)
• Win a cash prize
• Improved portfolio
• Improved quantity of work
• Worked on briefs which I wouldn't have necessarily done before/areas of design I had not have much experience in before
• Experience working with a client and their vision

I do feel that I have done a lot of work for this module and have thrown myself into as many live briefs as I could find and had an interest in. However, what comes with that is that I do have a sense that some of the work I have created for this module, for the smaller briefs, has not necessarily been to the best of my ability, and that is a bit disappointing to me as a designer. I wanted to create work which pushed me as a designer throughout the whole module, and while I do think some of the work has achieved this, there is some work that hasn't.

Some of this that can be put down to the clients brief or vision. I have found it hard with some of the briefs to create visually good work when their idea of a good design is not my idea of a good design. However I don't think that this is an excuse for some of the work I have created as some of it has been lazy and not had a lot of time spent on it. At this point I would say that at least three of the briefs are not up to par and don't have enough developmental work or good work in general.

These three are:

• Tigerprint Christmas Cards
• Charlie & Reed, Charlie's Foodshop
• Harry's Bar & Grill

I also feel that while I enjoyed the 'Object Marketing' brief I skipped a lot of developmental work because I got one idea and went straight into it without taking a step back and planning it all out. I think that this has been the underlying issue with the other three briefs above. I got one idea and then stuck with it, making the brief very quick and easy without thinking what else I could do and how else I could approach my response.

At this point I think that there is not much point trying to reinvent my response to the Tigerprint brief as I never saw this as a brief to focus my development on. It was more of a fun brief to do and play around with. The response I am particularly disappointed in is the Charlie's Foodshop brief, as I feel I did not create a very good response at all and did it very quickly without much thought. There doesn't seem to be much design in it. I feel like I just put some words in a hiarachy and put it in a box. This is a brief that I would like to revisit and create a response that is a bit more visually interesting and has a running concept through it.

Something I have also noticed is that there is quite a lack in image work throughout my responses to briefs too, which is disappointing to me as this is something that I wanted to experiment with and improve my skills with during this module. While I have worked with images in Glacier Coffee, Tigerprint & Secret 7", I feel that this is because the briefs required image work and not because I decided to include it myself. I would like to use this and incorporate this into the reinvention of the Charlie & Reed brief.

It was also mentioned in peer feedback that I hadn't done any work with photographic images. While I did experiment with this in Secret 7", the final design was vector based. With this in mind I would like to find a brief which does incorporate the use of photographic images in some way.

It was also said that I had a lot of small briefs which were quick, and didn't have many which were a bit larger. I would like to address this and find a brief where I can be a bit more developmental and create a larger amount of work. I have found that the majority of the large briefs are now finished or very close to the deadlines so it would be unrealistic to attempt to do one of these. In hindsight I do think I should have created a response to one of the Starpack packaging awards briefs. These were briefs which needed a lot of work and had good prizes for winning, and I do think I should have taken advantage of this while I had the chance. I will try find a couple of briefs that I can use as larger briefs and create a larger response to.

While I have a fair few logo design briefs, I do feel that I could definitely find another one which I can develop and create a very strong response to, and create a whole brand identity behind it. This is definitely something I want to explore, and to create an outcome which I am proud of. Another type of brief that I haven't had much experience with is creating an App or Website. I am not so confident in my ability to create something commercially viable for a client in this area, but the only way to get confident in this is to find a brief and respond to it. 

With all of this in mind, the next step I will take is to find a couple of potential briefs addressing these issues I have, and to reinvent the Charlie & Reed brief.

OUGD503 - Responsive Interim Evaluation

At the end of the final crit for our main competition brief we were told that we should review where we were up to in the module at this point and evaluate ourselves against what we set out to do at the beginning, writing an interim evaluation of our progress.

The main aim I had when starting this module was to experience and take part in live/competition briefs. Typically I have shied away from this completely during the first year as it seems like such a huge step to take, to show my work and have other people judge it. Within this aim I had a number of different points I wanted to accomplish through these briefs. The first was that I wanted to work on a variety of different design challenges to expand my skills and improve my confidence in all areas of design. I also wanted to take part in briefs which were different in size, doing some quick ones and other longer ones.
Looking through all the competition briefs I have completed/completing at this point, I would say I have designed for different areas of the industry as I have been consciously looking for these. For example, I have designed a brand label for 'Glacier Coffee', but also designed a pizza box design for '131Pizza'. I have also done design in Christmas Cards for 'Tiger Print' & created a label for 'Pickled Pelican' jams. On top of these four briefs I am currently designing my submission for a CD cover for this years Secret 7" competition, and have another recently found a brief for an editorial design competition. The main competition brief I am taking part in is a large campaign proposal. This all shows that I am consciously taking on briefs which are fulfilling the aims that I set out for when it came to which briefs to choose.
Throughout these briefs I have undertaken I have tried to variate the designs, colour schemes and design elements. I am a designer who likes to work with primarily text, using image to back it up, so what I wanted to accomplish in this module was to be more competent and confidence in my design skills for vector images and creating images using Illustrator. I took this aim head-on when choosing my second competition briefs in the 'Glacier Coffee' branding. For this they wanted it to be very image driven, using an image of a mountain goat to be recognisable for their brand. This gave me the challenge in creating an Illustrator image which needed to be easily recognisable. During this brief I experimented with different styles of drawing in Illustrator, first going for a more realistic look, and then afterwards designing to a much more contemporary square look. Working on this brief gave me a lot more confidence in my ability to create images in Illustrator, and even though my design didn't win I do feel I did a pretty good job on it.
In regards to doing a substantial brief along with these small ones, I chose the YCN Domino's Pizza Campaign as it is a very open brief with a lot of possibilities. Throughout the course I haven't really had the opportunity to create a campaign of any kind either, so this would give me that chance to design over a range of media. Working on such a well known brand was something I wanted to experience as well as in reality I could potentially be asked to design collateral for a company with branding already. This brief gave me an idea of how to get into the mindset of designing for a branded company and how to use their guidelines for the designs and come out with a design which best represented them as a company. With this being such a large brief time management is key, and I have been actively making sure I kept on time for the deadlines given for studio sessions to do with this brief as it will give me a better chance to improve my response. I have found that keeping on time has benefitted me greatly in this module and in others as it leaves me in a much better position and gives me more time to spend on developing designs and concepts.
One thing that I wanted to experience in live briefs is creative compromise and meeting the clients needs even if it isn't what I feel is best as the designer. I found that this was definitely met while creating the 'Pickled Pelican' label. At the beginning the brief was completely at a minimal with no direction so that was a challenge to overcome, and then on top of that, when I thought I had created a good response to the brief, the client wanted large changes made, so in the end it looked nothing like the original idea, and was not anything that I was proud of at all. However I did win that brief and was paid for it so can't complain too much.
At this point in time it would seem that generally I had fulfilled the aims I had set for myself at the beginning of the module, but I do feel that these can still definitely be worked on. I would like to continue to work to find a variety of live briefs in different industries and with different needs. Something I haven't designed for yet is something that would be viewed digitally. This is definitely something that I would like to at least consider doing as it would give me more experience and confidence in this area of design.
Overall I am quite pleased with my progress in the aims I set myself. I'm not usually one to just go out and do live briefs or anything, but by throwing myself into the first one I got the confidence to take part in more, and I do think I am much more confident in this aspect of design. I think my design skills have improved throughout this module, and I am learning how to adapt them better to the design task given. I would like to do a few more briefs which are a bit more substantial and have a bit more to them than just creating a single brand image or something quick. I think working on the editorial brief will give me a decent start in working to complete this aim. Another thing I would like to work on is doing a piece of design which is much more conceptually driven, which is what I think the editorial design can start to help me work on. From this point forward I am going to continually develop my skills in the aims that I set myself and will continue to work to try better myself as a designer.

OUGD504 - Module Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
The main skill I have developed through this modules is my ability to create a concept and sustain it throughout the brief. I have always thought more about the design than the concept so doing this module where everything is concept driven has made me work hard to create solid concepts that make sense and fulfil the briefs set.

The other main skill I have developed in this module is coding with HTML. Coding in general isn’t that new to me, but coding for web is. I found it was something easy to get a hang of because of my past experience, and found it very easy to build up a website quickly. This particularly aided me when I changed my whole visual aesthetic of my website at last minute and had to recode it all.
On top of this my practical design skills have improved with me doing workshops and inductions into some of these.

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

For this module I have experimented a lot more with hand rendered and other forms of design production, trying to look away from the digital design production. I engaged in screen printing, foiling, flocking, spot varnishing, laser cutting and book binding. On top of this I did an induction in embossing & photo-etching. I found that these were all valuable skills and benefitted me in the development of my briefs.

I have experimented with the format of the briefs given and have tried to design to specifications that I haven’t done in the past, and wouldn’t instinctively go with. This has benefitted me as I feel it has developed my skills as a designer and helped me see that I can apply my skills to different areas of Graphic Design.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The main strength in my work is the final outcomes. My practical skills when it comes to the final designs have always been strong and I have continued to develop my skills in this area to continue to get the best outcome I possibly can.

Another strength I think I have is in layout and grid designs. I feel I am able to utilise the space given and design to it appropriately. I have used this skill throughout the three briefs and I think this skill has benefitted me in the visual qualities of the final outcomes.

I also do a lot of development of my work by hand and digitally, and have found that this has benefitted me in making more resolute solutions to my briefs.

Another strength of mine is my ability to learn skills fast. I found this particularly useful when it cam to web design and doing the inductions/workshops. I was able to quickly grasp the instructions and skills necessary to fulfil these tasks and get a successful outcome from these.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The main weakness in my work is in my conceptual work behind my responses to briefs. I focus more on the design than the concept and even though I have definitely improved in this throughout this module, I do still feel it is the weakest area of my work. I will continue to spend more time on conceptualising my ideas before getting to the design part of my briefs.

Researching is another part of my work which I think is a weakness of mine. I need to spend more time on this in the future to fully get a contextual background behind my concept and design ideas. I need to particularly focus in on getting better at audience research as this is definitely where I lack the most.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
I would like to spend more time on building up a stronger concept through better research and development instead of jumping straight into the designing stages. Doing this will help me develop as a designer and help me create outcomes which are consistent and useful.
I would like to engage in more inductions and workshops in the future as I have seen the benefit of these throughout this module. These have given me more options to consider for my designs and more way to push these to their full potential.
I would like to experiment further with the formats and scales of my designs as I have found that working to these has challenged my skills as a designer and stops me doing the same thing over and over again.
I would like to work more with photography and experiment with this and combining it with other digital and hand rendered processes to create more exciting outcomes.

I would like to start using more colour in my designs as well. For this modules the outcomes have all been using only one or two colours plus stock, so I would like to work in full colour or more colour.

OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience Self Evaluation

This was definitely favourite brief from  module, and I think it definitely showed in the work I produced compared to the other three briefs. I found that, as it was a brief with no restrictions apart from a final outcome, I was able to be creative in the areas I work best in, and in this case, it was definitely editorial work where I am more confident in working at the minute.
I chose a subject based on my experiences from the first year. When looking back over my PPP tasks and research for other modules, it is very clear that it was all lacking good designer research. This was due to the fact that I didn't know where to go, had a limited knowledge into some designers and usually stuck to the same ones because of it. Coming into the first year, I was very accustomed to the amount of work and how the course was structured, but not so much into the research side, and it definitely showed in my work. When asking others, they all seemed to have the same problem of sticking to what they knew because they didn't know where to go to find new design.
Before starting this brief, I had taken time to compile a list of designers & blogs, categorising them and adding some images. I found that this post came in very useful throughout this brief, and as I discovered new designers and blogs, I was able to add them to that post so I have a large collection that I can now look over. I think this is the strongest area of my final outcome, the fact I researched into so many different designers and blogs and categorised them into their major fields. I looked into well over eighty or so designers and many more blogs to get the final ones I used.
In relation to my design work, I think the most successful part was the icon designs. It was something I had never done before, so I was quite cautious about doing them, however I found it was an enjoyable task and am quite happy with the final six icons I came up with.
I also think the production of the book was successful. Something can always look good on screen but the moment you print it, it could look terrible. I think due to careful consideration into stock and book binding it worked out very well and looks clean and finished.
My weakness in this project I think has been the layout designs of the pages. Although I stand by the reason for having them so consistent and repeated in each section, I now think that maybe I could have been more experimental and tried creating individual layouts for each section. The whole point was to make it easy to find designers, so I kept the format the same throughout but I do wonder if that was really necessary. I think when doing something like this again, I will definitely be working to make every single double page spread individual and give it its reason to be in the publication.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this brief, and I think the work and my final outcome reflect this. I kept it simple, didn't over complicate the concept or how the book was going to be laid out, and just set it out as an aid to understand the five areas of design, find some new designers & blogs.

OUGD406 - Communication is A Virus: Evaluation

As a group what problem did you identify and why (In response to 5-A-Day / 10,000 Steps / Drink Tea)?

Our group was give 5-A-Day. We decided that we didn't want to go with the typical meaning of 5-A-Day with healthy eating & lifestyle, we wanted to focus on something that was more exciting & contemporary.
We looked into activities that we did 5 times a day, and concluded that a good route to go down would be looking into social media and networking, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. These have been integrated into our every day lives and is something that we do without even realising how many times we are doing it/have done it.
We felt this was a good problem to try and find a solution to, doing something which would make people aware of this and consciously make an effort to use it less.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence to prove this was a problem and what forms did it take? (Categorise, your research using the terms primary, secondary, quantitative and qualitative)

Primary research - As a group we decided that we should all carry out the same quantitative primary research in the form of a tally of how many times we went on social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Online gossip/news, texting, WhatsApp etc. We then pooled this research together and found that we were all at very similar levels of using these sites, confirming that it is a problem in our age group.

Secondary research - Original secondary research was relating to the app idea, so in pairs we each researched into a different area relating to this. I looked into App & Website Layout. Although after the first crit most of the research wasn't really that relevant, I still found it useful and important. When we had a solid idea and concept secondary research became individual work. I looked into Branding & Identity, and then Twitter do's & Don'ts.

What methods of research did you find useful and why?

In terms of our concept, the primary quantitive research was the most useful. It enabled us to get an accurate representation of social media and the addiction to it. Creating a tally made us all very self aware of how much we actually use these sites, and has given me that conscious effort to stop.

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?

I think the primary research definitely could have been expanded and we could have asked an audience to carry out the tally themselves so we would have a more accurate and reliable response than just the six of us.

How did you manage the workload as part of a group?

As a group, I feel we managed the workload well and effectively. I do feel that perhaps a couple of the designs produced should have been done faster than they were, but overall we did a good job as a group. When it came to designing the logo, posters & stickers, we found it was effective if the majority of us came up with design ideas/mock ups, and then we pooled them all together as one and decided on the best course of action.
Group communication was good throughout this brief as we had a Facebook group and were constantly updating each other with ideas & mock ups of work, gaining feedback and criticism before actually finishing something off. This had a very positive effect on the group as a whole as it felt like we were moving as a unit to get everything done. 
This was shown while working on the logo design. Originally Adam had a couple of designs, which Joe edited and made a few variations, from there we added my wording designs, and created the logo like that. The same with the stickers, where Grace, Adam and Anna had original designs and they were pooled together to create the stickers.
On the individual side of things, I think we all managed the work well, all having an individual task as well as contributing to the group tasks we did. Adam and Grace created the posters together from feedback given in crits and from the group. Grace also created a flier. Anna created masks to add a comical and more informal element to the concept. Ant created desktops & a video. Joe did work into how we would further the concept, coming up with an app design. I created the book on twitter do's & don'ts, along with this, I used work from Grace's flier and turned it into a leaflet.
I think I personally managed the workload well, contributed to the group and got everything done with a decent amount of time remaining. I took time to create designs which were effective, but didn't take too long as to put the whole group behind.

OUGD406 - Design is About Doing Evaluation

Overall I wasn't so keen on this brief, due to the fact that the songs were limited and I didn't really like any of them, which I found to be an issue when it came to designing appropriate artwork.
I chose to do the song by Jessie Ware, and because of its repetitive nature I decided upon using geometric shapes and patterns.
I think my ideas generation and concept was better than how I produced it. I don't feel my final outcome was very strong or visually what I wanted to create. I think in the future I will not sacrifice elements of design because I like one certain element and want to include it. In this case it was the spirograph pattern. When using it, I thought it was a good idea, but now looking back at it I do feel it did deter my final outcome and I should have perhaps worked on some of the other variations of the cover I came up with.

OUGD405 - Self Evaluation: Postcards

As Photoshop is a program I have been using for a long time, I found this brief to be very easy and quick to do. The restraints of only using this program made it a lot more limited than I liked though. I had gotten so used to using Illustrator and having clean cut vectors that coming back on Photoshop and using it in this sort of fashion was a little irritating to say the least - which was strange to me because before starting with Illustrator on Summer, Photoshop is all I used.
The shape I was given was circle, so after taking photographs, I decided to base the postcards on fire extinguishers as they are circles when looking down at them, but not so obvious when looking directly at them. I thought it was a good idea because even though you might look at it and it isn't obviously a circle, you know it is.
I found that cleaning up and sharpening up the photographs was easy enough, however, when it comes to editing the images to create the postcards, certain filters/effects can make the image look very tacky, so it took some time to get through them to find the ones that looked good and suited the image.
I initially settled with a red filter on them, but found them as a set to be quite boring as they were all the same essentially. So I then started to experiment with other filters and textures I could put over the top to make them all interesting, in the same style, but not repetitive.
In the end, after using a crinkled paper effect and a colour layer, I created the five. I printed them on a off white/almost orange colour piece of paper to see if it would have any affect on the colours printed. I am happy with them, but do think that I could do them better. I don't fully feel happy with them as I don't feel they are really that creative. However, I do think they have fulfilled the brief and at least shown a range of my skills on the program.

OUGD405 - Self Evaluation: Research, Collect, Communicate

At the end of this project,  I can definitely say I worked hard, and the final product shows that. Setting myself a magazine is a big task and I think I managed my time well and got it finished to a high standard.
I think it flowed well and stayed consistent throughout. The movie posters I recreated also fit in well and looked part of the magazine instead of completely different, which was one of my main aims of the project.
The posters worked out well and each was individual - with their own colour scheme & images/typefaces. However the poster I would think about redoing is the 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' one, as I feel that I did not do that one to the best of my ability. This is down to the fact I have not seen the film and there weren't really a lot of images with distinctive items or anything in, in which I could use on the poster. I would also consider redoing the 'Silver Linings Playbook' posters as I don't think I fully explored the potential ideas and layout designs I could have. Other than those two, I do think they all worked well and integrated into the magazine well.
For some of the information I got, I did find it quite hard to come up with images to represent them, which is because a lot of the information was statistics or films I had not seen so could not make adequate images for them. I did it where I could (Avengers & James Bond) but if I had more time, I would consider breaking down some of the pages and include some more images.
The simple book binding worked well and fit in with the style well, I think. If I had considered the size of the magazine/margin size a bit more, I would have liked to do something a little more decorative, but the simple binding works well on this occasion.
The calendar was a last minute decision but I think overall it worked well, and stayed consistent with the style of the magazine. I would have liked to create new images for this, however given the time constraint, this was not possible. I would have liked to have created images for one of the films that was coming out in the month - the issue arising that a lot of the films I had not heard of/had not been advertised yet.
Overall I think the project was a success and is definitely the best I have done so far. I enjoyed creating the magazine, however next time I will perhaps not put the constraints of Saul Bass style on it, as I would have preferred to do something a little more post-modern & Carson like as this is what I prefer. For this though, the style worked well and looked clean and professional in the end.

In the final crit, the feedback was mainly positive, the only negative being the amount of information on a few pages - which I do agree with - and that I should consider the use of white space and how effective that can be instead of overloading the page.

OUGD405 - Self Evaluation: Printed Text & Reading

What role(s) did you take on in the group?

• I created the typeface which was used throughout the project.
• I also put this together with the illustrations to create the designs to go on the wall as the murals.

How well do you think you performed in the role(s)?

• I think I performed well in this role & got everything done to a good standard.

How well do you think you worked as a group?

• I think we worked well as a group & produced a large amount of work which benefited from everyones skills.

What were the positives of working in a group?

• Can get more done in a shorter amount of time
• More ideas
• Greater range of skills/styles of work

What were the negatives of working in a group?

• Communication
• Keeping a consistency
• Having a key role for everyone without complicating the project

What will you do differently next time?

• More research into wether it works/will work
• Actually applied the designs to the walls

Where could you have improved your resolution?

• Used different/more practical printing material
• Expanded the typeface to numbers & uppercase
• Prepared/research a bit more

What were the strengths of your presentation?

• Everyone created their own slides for their work
• Everyone had their own part to say - we were all equal
• Large body of work
• Showed everyones contribution
• Powerpoint was very visual

Overall I feel I contributed quite a lot to this project. By creating the typeface, it was used on everything that was produced and essentially made the rest of the group dependent on me when it came to the text and keeping it consistent and fit with the style we were going for.

The target audience was kids, so with the typeface I created I had to make it easy to read and not too clinical. By taking a sort of Bauhaus and perfect curves direction for it, I believe I did this. I managed to get it created and imported as a typeface within a few days so it gave everyone the opportunity to work with it . If I wasn't on such a time constraint, I would have liked to have thought about creating numbers and uppercase as it would help with the overall look of the text, however I do think the lowercase text did work on its own and was still easy to read.

OUGD403 - Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
The main skill I have developed throughout this module is my practical work on the computer, using Illustrator. At the beginning of the course I had used it for a minimal amount, only knowing the basic controls, but now after the workshops we were given I feel confident in my use of this program to create visual variations and my final outcomes. I think this has definitely aided in making my work look a lot more professional and finished. The use of Illustrator has allowed me be more creative and a lot less worried about taking risks in pieces as I can now change it at the click of a button. This in turn has helped my idea generation and development.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
My approach to design productions has definitely been more experimental throughout this module. I have taken time to get my ideas down on a piece of paper and then take it from there, whereas I used to just go for it and make the changes later. This has helped manage time during this project as I have a clear idea what I am doing before I start doing it digitally. The tasks in which we come up with ten or twenty variations has become a lot easier for me because of this. I have found I am a lot more open to what I can do creatively in development because I now have the skills to fulfil these on the computer/by hand. The main thing I have started doing is looking at the briefs as if I was a viewer and what I would understand, instead of as the designer who knows everything about it. This is important as these outcomes have had to be things that have to recognised and understood immediately, and I am learning to get a balance and capitalise on this.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
In my personal opinion, my final outcomes are my strong point. The professionalism and cleanness of them makes them aesthetically pleasing in my eyes. I need to bring this same approach to the development stage and remember to keep it all at the same level of professionalism. Another strength of my work is the ideas generation. Although I may not come up with a huge amount of ideas, I do feel that the ones I come up with are strong ideas and get the message across well. From the few strong ideas I have, I am able to combine them to create the final outcomes.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
My main weakness is that in the end, when we are doing group critiques, not everyone understands exactly the message that I am putting across. This is something I need to work on and to make the message as clearly as possible so anyone who looks at it will know exactly what they are looking at. Although I feel they are aesthetically pleasing, others may not and this could lead to them not understanding what I am saying through the piece. Another weakness is that I am more focussed on the final outcome than the development and ideas generation. I need to give myself a balance and be able to spend more time on this and hand drawn development than doing everything digitally to try get a final outcome quickly.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1.     The first thing I want to change is the amount of digital to hand drawing ratio. I would like to increase the hand drawn element in my work, as this is an important feature of being a designer. I feel I have not done enough, however this could be down to the time frames of the brief and trying to get a final outcome out before the deadline. 2.     I would like to do more ideas and design development in the briefs so I can come up with a more resolved and thought about final outcome. This will help me learn what gets the message across and will benefit me in the future. 3.     Improving and sourcing my research is something I would like to work on. I want to be able to get a balance between research, development and the final outcome. Research is definitely the thing that is lacking and I have always had an issue with. 4.     The quality of my hand drawn works. A lot of my hand drawn pieces are development or quick sketches. I would like to incorporate this element into the final outcome some how so I can get some good quality drawing/hand rendered work in there. 5.     I would like to start making more sophisticated work. I don’t feel like I have been doing this yet. I think it   has all been quite simple so far and I would like to make more intelligent and sophisticated work. I would also like to make work that is more true to my style than the work I have been creating. I am more of a post-modernist designer than a modernist and I don’t feel that has been shown.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.