OUGD406- End of Module Self-Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I developed a range of skills throughout this module. I have learnt to work within a time restraint for the ‘design is about doing brief.’ I had to organise my time by day to complete the work on time. For the ‘communication is a virus’ brief I enjoyed the discussions we had as a group and overcoming the challenges together. We delegated each other jobs to complete which I found a much more productive way of working. For the ‘speaking from experience’ brief I developed my skills in reacting to feedback to improve my work to achieve a better outcome.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
For the ‘speaking from…’ brief I thought more about the stock I wanted to use, which I hadn’t done, in previous briefs. This is can add to your work and look better than using the standard stock in the print room. I’m much more competent using a scalpel as I had to cut it out by hand. However I used the guillotine to trim my sketchbook and didn’t measure it properly which effected the quality.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I try to keep my design simple but with a strong visual impact. I like using limited colours and utilising negative space, which is something I want to continue and make my signature in the future.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
My finishing skills are still not up to the standard I would like. The find the digital process ok but when it comes to cutting and sticking I need to be more efficient and concentrate more to achieve a professional finish.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Allow time for technical difficulties I had to discard my shape shifter design for the speaking from.. brief because of difficulties when constructing it. If I had given myself more time I could of resolved the problem with some experimentation. Print more copies of designs to allow for mistakes As above, I printed two copies of the shape shifter which both went wrong. If I had printed more I could of resolved the problem. Ask for more feedback from peers throughout the design process From the crits I had, I received some really useful feedback to better my work. Some of the ideas that were suggested I would never of though of and they helped me to further develop my work.  Sketch more initial ideas to fully explore an idea I need to sketch more ideas before going onto the computer. I get annoyed at the quality of my drawings and end up spending too much time on them which is unnecessary as its about getting the idea down so I can further develop it. Experiment with more colours
I’ve got into a bad habit of using cyan and magenta in a lot of my work. If I continue, I feel it will become boring and predictable. Different colour combinations will enhance my work give it some character.
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				*
Punctuality					*
Motivation			*
Commitment				*
Quantity of work produced			*
Quality of work produced				*
Contribution to the group				*
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.

OUGD406- Speaking From Experience

Crit 1

Concept, Method of Delivery, Method of Production Boards

I had to present my design boards to the group. The feedback I received was really positive and has given me some good things to consider going forward with the project. 

Feedback 

Points Raised 

• Find design blogs that students can mindlessly scroll through. If their procrastinating make it relevant to the course
• Look at 'Self Control' for the mac OS. It blocks specific websites on a timed basis to deter procrastination
• Be sure sure to keep it friendly 
• Keep the content relevant 
• Make sure irony comes across, don't be subtle 
• A poster with creases may not look aesthetically pleasing when stuck on the wall
• Try making a broad range of media, not just posters 
• Experiment with different nets for the poster 
• Try to incorporate the content digitally, utilising social media

I like the idea of providing blogs and useful sites to encourage productive procrastination. Also, I think creating a range of media will be more successful than just making a poster. In particular, trying to utilise social medias in some way as they tend to be the most common ways of procrastination.

Crit 2

I had to present what I had done so far to the group and Amber and Simon. The crit went really well and was overall positive. Somebody suggested to schedule procrastination into your everyday task which I thought was a good idea. Ill will use this on the booklet in the centre parts.


Crit 3

We were put into groups of five and briefly explained what we were doing and ask some questions that we wanted answering. We then had to go round the group and write some feedback for each person. The feedback I received was:

• Change the colour of the text on the left/right panels of the sticker packaging to black and use the four panel design.

• Use the black and white checkered design for the booklet because it has the most impact.

• For the sketch book, have a few duplicates of each page so they can do the exercise more than once.

• Don't think the poster is needed because of the blog.

The feedback I received I was really useful and has confirmed the things I wanted to know to allow me to put my designs into production.



Evaluation 

Sketch book

Stickers and Packaging

Booklet

I set out to create a poster that stated the most popular things people do when procrastinating, using irony. As the project developed, it became more of a guide to procrastination, to make it productive.

Through research and crits, I identified that procrastination can be unavoidable so I decided to create a range of material to help make procrastination productive relating to design and the course.

I though about the problems I had faced throughout the year and designed a collection of material based around these issues. I created a sketch book that has different exercises designed to improve your drawing skills and pen control. I also created a sticker pack that relates to colour theory to help you gan a better understanding of colour and the combinations that can be used in your designs. Finally, I created a booklet that states the top ten things people do when procrastinating and gives some advice how to mange it. It also asks as a devise to direct you to the blog site I created which has a range of design resources such as, links to design blogs, design themed games, inspirational talks and software tutorials.

I achieved what I set out to do however, I had to scrap my shapeshifter design due to technical difficulties. This was really disappointing but I have learnt from the mistake and will in future, allocate more time for production incase of any problems. The only other problem I had was the finishing of the sketch book. I used a guillotine to trim the edges and took off too much which off centred the designs within. Next time I will be more careful and take more time to achieve a more professional finish. Finally, I wish I had though about designing some form of packaging to put the products in, I didn't leave myself enough time to do this which is something to consider in the future.

Apart from a few difficulties I have enjoyed this brief and the challenge of solving the problem of passing on my experiences of the year to help out the new students. Hopefully they will find what I have designed useful.

OUGD406- Communication is a Virus

Crit Friday 22.02.13

We had our first crit with Simon and Amber and pitched our concept to them. The feedback we received was that we had a good concept but had gone a bit of course as we will need to fulfil our brief for the next stage. We had to rethink the concept to be feasible to do.

We were given a blank brief to write and present to Amber.

Before we could write the brief we discussed in the group what we needed to adjust and the new direction we wanted to go in. We wanted to use some of the work we had already done but slightly alter it to fulfil the brief.

Concept:

To create a blog supported by social media that will promote the benefits of tea and create a discussion forum amongst tea drinkers

What do you want to say?

We want to make people aware of the benefits of tea and create a social forum where people can share and discuss their tea experiences.

How do you intend to say it?

By offering advice, hints, share experiences, recommendations

What language would be appropriate?

We want to communicate a vibrant and welcoming atmosphere through the use of informal and friendly language.

Will the content be communicated primarily through type or image?

We will use both type and image. Due to the limited colour palette the type will have to compliment the images to communicate our message.

What are you aiming to achieve?

We want people to share experiences and advice, create a forum where like minded tea drinkers can chat and enjoy being part of an online community.

Self written brief:

We presented our brief to Amber and explained what we wanted to achieve. The feedback was better and more realistic.

Progress Crit 01.03.13

We had our progress crit with Simon and two other groups. We presented our design sheets and explained what we were working on.

Feedback to our group

The feedback we received was positive, the concept and media we were proposing to design was focussed. Simon liked the idea of displaying the posters outside of college to reach a wider audience and the interactive elements to appeal to people who dont have access to the internet. The main advice we received was to organise our time and set deadlines for each persons area of work.

Final Presentation Friday 08.03.13

We had to present our work to the year group. We presented our concept and showed the work we had designed; type face, posters, leaflets, sticker, banners for tea cups, our blog, twitter page, youtube page and showed our video. We each discussed the areas we had been working on individually and answered questions as a group at the end.

Evaluation

 We were given the topic 'drink tea' to communicate. 

There was six of us in our group so we decided it would be best to delegate jobs to allow us to cover a wider range of research to inform the design decisions. We broke it down into different areas of research and I was given existing means of distribution. From the research I collected I found that twitter was the most effective way of getting people to interact. The internet was the main source I used to collect my research as twitter is an internet based platform. I think as a group, we could of collected some primary research by visiting cafes in town and talking to people to better inform our ideas. However, there were a lot of tea lovers on twitter and blogs that already had some of the data we needed.

The existing means of distribution we decided to utilise were Twitter, blog site and youtube. The twitter page was the most successful platform for interacting with people. However, the blog had a good response with the polls we conducted. 

Individual Work

I was in charge of designing posters thats purpose was to direct people to the blog and twitter pages. I created a series of four posters, two with type and image and two with type. I wanted them to be high impact and grab the viewers attention but in a friendly, inviting manor. I think the colours we chose worked really well in communicating this because they are calming to look at. We displayed them around college and in a few cafes.

I also designed an interactive poster that intended to get people to record their favourite type of tea. This was displayed in the cafe at college and was really successful. I think it worked so well because it was really simple and quick to do. 

Overal I am really pleased with my designs and particularly the success of the interactive poster. If I was to do it again I would display the posters in a lot more cafes in town to target tea drinkers.

Group Work

Logo

 

Tea Font

Leaflets

Sticker

Twitter Competition

I was really pleased with the group I was in and think we worked really well together. I particularly enjoyed the discussion we had at the start of the project, bouncing ideas off each other. I think this will be a beneficial skill to have when I come to work in the industry. It has made me realise I enjoy working with other people and being part of a team. This time working as a group, I feel we worked in a much more professional manor by delegating each other jobs to complete. I much prefer working like this as it relieves some of the stress and allowed us to cover a wider range of work. Everyone in the group was really committed and we all worked really hard to complete everything we set out to achieve.