Wednesday 21 May 2014

End of Module Evaluation OUGD505

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


Through this module I have developed my conceptual and practical design skills, I have applied them by following one subject from initial research into a publication into a final range of products, I think that when making my final range of printed materials I thought more about what I could produce and I developed a scope of work. I also think that through the use of design boards I have improved the way I have presented work and I have even gone to photograph my final work properly so that the images look good for presentation. I also think that my technical awareness and awareness of limitations has improved hugely. I think that this is evident within what I have produced and the way I tried to get over certain limitations such as print and time. I have learnt a lot more about exhibitions and promotional materials in general through study tasks workshops and my final response to studio brief 2. I think that this has helped me develop my practice.

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

Another thing that has improved in this module is my crafting skills, I have tried this module to use the right tools and I have produced a lot more mock ups which have helped me to visualise, and notice mistakes and design choices, such as the type being too big. I have also tried more foil blocking, and I have learnt that the designs can’t be too small or else it doesn’t work, it is also a time consuming process. I have also learnt about out sourcing for print and I have developed my knowledge of stocks and print, and this informed my final piece and the type of finish and stock has a big impact. Having something printed properly on considered stock should always be factored into the design production.

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

I think that I have a strong foundation of research for this module, I think that am keen to learn about new topics and this is strength of mine, it helps me to think of new and different ideas. I also think that I have quite a good knowledge of print and how to print publications and more complex formats and I think that this gives me an interesting range of work, and I will continue to experiment with these formats, and produce them to a more professional standard. I think that an upcoming strength of mine is my ability to layout and present work on a board; I think through this module it is quite strong, but it can still be even better.  Another thing that I think I have developed my strength in is the ability to select and focus on a more specific audience and I think that this informed my design well and appropriately, yet still to my own style and preferences.

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

I think that a weakness of mine is that I avoid digital design and do not really factor it into my work, I am unsure whether this is an actual bad point, but I feel that in this module I didn’t explore digital potential. I think that this meant that my final product range is good but limited and maybe this is a weakness. I also think that another one of my weaknesses is my ability to craft more complex formats, this is evident in some of my deliverables for studio brief 2, I still have a lot to learn about crafting and I need to try give myself more time to do it, and not panic when I am, which often leads me to mistakes. I also think another thing that would help this is booking into workshops more in advance. One more thing I feel could be a weakness is my limited use of special print processes such as foiling, and embossing, I do not feel that I am interested in screen printing as such and so I don’t see this as an issue but my finishing process are, and I think in the future I need to try factor them into work- where appropriate more, for a more specialist piece of work.

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

1. I know that I definitely need to improve my project management; I need to start other projects earlier allowing me more time to pursue modules like this earlier. Also project management in the sense that I need to book workshops and printing earlier, so that I have options and I am not left with more limitations.
2. I will try to use more and different print finish process, in order to give my work extra touches so that they look more specialised.
3. Improve upon my crafting my spending more time, and concentrating more on what I am doing so that my printed materials are to a higher professional standard.
4. I think that I need to improve my scope into digital design and next time I will factor this into my project and I think that this will give me a bigger range and more believable brand.
5. I think that I have the foundation knowledge of brand and identity but to again produce a more believable brand I need to work upon my guidelines and the finer details that goes into an identity. This way my brand and identity that I create will be stronger and I will have more focus on a business aspect of identity such as letterheads and stationary, and all in all have a strong believable brand.

Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 3
Quality of work produced 3
Contribution to the group 4

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Rationale of Studio Brief 2

My response to studio brief 2, I think has clearly come through my very first brief for this module, and studio brief 1. I initially looked into dreams and dreaming having a strong interest in the topic I thought that exploring it in this module would be a good way for me to find out more. From research into dreaming I found how dreams are shown in popular culture in books such as the classic Alice in Wonderland, in videogames, and in films such as Inception, 2010.
This is what took me into studio brief 1; I looked into the film Inception, which I also really like. I explored the dream theme within the film and I think that I adapted all of the relevant information into an interesting set of research publications.

The film touches upon lucid dreaming and the director is supposed to be a lucid dreamer himself. I began to research into this concept and this led me into studio brief 2. I wasn’t sure about how I was going to convert the ideas of lucid dreaming into a interesting and different response, I looked firstly into film festivals thinking more along the lines of showing Inception, the idea of festivals took me into events and a peer mentioned the idea of a conference, the more I looked into the topic and looked at what others had done it inspired me to make an event/ exhibition based upon lucid dreaming and this would allow me to create a range of printed deliverables that suit my interests within graphic design, also after a critique it was suggested I should host the event within the Science Museum in London, and this really drove the brief, I had also from this found a main target audience which was adults, academics and aspiring academics, male and female. I aimed for the piece to be scientific and based more upon fact rather than fantasy; I think that I showed this through the content and the design.