OUGD505 - Design Practice 2 - Module Evaluation

General Thoughts On The Module 

I’ve really enjoyed this module, and I put this down to the freedom that came with it. Considering how open the bigger of the two briefs was and the amount of time we were given to spend on it, I don’t see an excuse to not have enjoyed it, as it allowed everyone to focus on something they’re interested in and gave them enough time to be ambitious with it. Their is no comparison between this and the briefs in the other 30 credit module, where one of them was branding (which I don’t really have an interest in), and two were tied to our Summer brief, which didn’t really work out for me because the format of the briefs didn’t suit the research I’d undertaken over Summer. So I’m pleased that I’ve had the freedom that this module has allowed me. 

On the assumption and understanding that Extended Practice next year will function in a somewhat similar way to this module, I feel that this module was a good introduction to next year, as it was far more self-directed than any module undertaken up to this point, which I’m pleased about because it shows my time and self management skills in their greatest light.

My Performance In The Module 

As it has been throughout the year, my attendance and punctuality has been very good, I can only remember being late to one timetabled session, although I wouldn’t want to be quoted on this. 

I also feel that I’ve taken on board the feedback from responsive well since I was given it in late April, which was that my work and my experience as a designer would benefit from experimentation with different new processes. Because of the timing of this, it is shown more in my book cover than in Product, Range, Distribution. The time and effort put into the book cover through the extra processes has somewhat awakened me to the potential stress that can come with being a graphic designer, although this was somewhat minimalised by my good time management. That said, I think that the extra momentum I carried with me in terms of willingness and motivation to go the step further when producing my work has shown in my information boards. Combining the processes of digital printing, laser printing, laminating, and duplexing would probably have been something that I wouldn’t have bothered with at the beginning of the year for an outcome as basic as an information board, and I’d probably have just stuck with the digital mock up and been happy with this.

How This Module Has Helped Me

Because of the enjoyment I’ve found in both the briefs, this module has helped point me in the right direction for COP3, as well as helping me to consider what work I want to focus on in the future.

I found creating the booklet for the app very satisfying in terms of organising something nicely on a page, and this is something I tend to feel often when using InDesign. This isn’t just because I was interested in the brief, because the element in which I engaged with on a personal level was the research and the designing of the app itself.

The slight disappointment I felt with my final book cover has highlighted the importance of experimentation to me, as if I needed to do something involving stenciling or debossing in the future where I was being paid, I wouldn’t want to give a client work I wasn’t happy with. I now realise that learning how to properly execute these processes early is important.

Next Year 

Like mentioned above, I know that next year I want InDesign to be pretty central to a fair few of the projects I undertake because I enjoy using it and enjoy working with layout in a wider sense. This is something I identified to some extent in Level 4 as well, through my enjoyment of the layout brief.

I also found that I enjoyed the challenge of making the app consistent with itself, which isn’t really a surprise given how this challenge lends itself to layout. But I noticed that throughout the development stages of the app I felt more comfortable designing an app than I would’ve done a poster. This is very reminiscent of my feelings when working on Beth’s Creative Advertising work in responsive where a print element worked alongside a digital element. I put this down to the intimidation that comes with starting with a big empty space and not wanting to make the first mark. In terms of developing portfolio work next year, I feel like working on app design is something I should pursue next year.

The only field of design that this module hasn’t allowed me to work on is packaging, so I’ve identified this as something I want to experiment with early on next year so I can decide if it’s something I want to persist with going further into Level 6 and even beyond that.

OUGD505 - Product, Range, Distribution - Evaluation

General Comments 

Before this brief I had never designed an app before, and didn’t really have any idea of how hard it would be to incorporate a consistent grid system throughout the various different page layouts. In the strictest of senses, I would suggest I failed to find on, and so it was very time consuming switching between the different screens making minor changes all the time to try and make the layouts as consistent as possible. 

Early on in my research I spoke about potentially producing a campaign aimed at the Chinese Government pressuring them into protecting more of the Panda’s habitat, I’m glad I chose to avoid this, as I’ve really enjoyed this project.

What Went Well

I really embraced the research element of this project, not only was I reading from a large variety of websites, but I also watched about 5 hours of documentaries, as well as taking a visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park to see how information about animals was presented to the public. This sort of first hand research has been something that I haven’t really done in the past, and this project has taught me how primary research can help directly define a problem, whereas secondary research often iterates around it. 

On a lesser note, I’m also very happy with the general aesthetics of the final outcomes. I didn’t necessarily put as much time into the aesthetics as I have done with previous projects, but this is because I took a very heavily influence from WWF’s existing identity. This allowed me to concentrate more on the research, which is an indication that I found a nice balance of research to practice in this brief.

What I'd Change

I notice retrospectively that I’ve gone back to my old ways of having white backgrounds everywhere, whereas recently I’ve been improving my use of colour. Whilst I wouldn’t change this for the outcomes I chose to produce, (due to the fact that I’m pleased with them), I could potentially have thought more about the final outcomes before I went ahead with the design process, as this may have allowed me to have produced outcomes where more colour would’ve been appropriate.

OUGD505 - Covered - Evaluation

General Comments

I discovered Nietzsche doing some research for COP, and was very interested in thoughts initially, despite them not being particularly relevant to my COP this year. I knew I wanted to involve him heavily in COP next year as a learning experience for myself, and I saw this brief as an opportunity to get a head start on my reading for my dissertation research. In this sense I wasn’t sure if I should pick The Antichrist or Thus Spoke Zarathustra, as these were the two books that I was initially attracted to Nietzsche by. From a Graphic Design sense, The Antichrist left me with more options because of the connotations of the title. This was probably the brief I’ve enjoyed most since being at LCA because of how it’s allowed COP to merge in quite heavily.

What Went Well

I feel that from a conceptual point, I got this brief pretty spot on, and no matter how much longer I could spend on the brief, the concept couldn’t become more refined or appropriate to the book or the author.

Given previous projects of mine have “challenged conventions" in more satirical ways (such as WWF Condoms), I was happy to show that I could produce work that was a much more serious undertone to it whilst still being heavily engaged with it, which has been something I’ve struggled with at times, such as in the J2O brief. In this sense I feel like I’ve shown that I’m more than what most people probably see me as, which is something I see as a success on a personal level.

What I'd Change

My lack of experience in producing physical outcomes using different processes has been highlighted in this brief. I didn’t order enough stock to be able to allow for wide enough experimentation in the debossing process and painting or printing with the blood. In hindsight I should definitely not have used stencils for the printing, and instead used the laser cutter to cut out printing blocks to use like a letter press, as this would’ve made for a much neater finish for the lettering on both the poster and the sleeve. I also would’ve liked the debossing to be deeper into the stock to give it more prominence. I would also have painted the areas of the debossing blocks that I wanted blood to run through so that would’ve been printed on with the embossing, making it neater than myself painting it by hand. I feel like I didn’t leave myself enough to time or resources (in terms of stock) to experiment as much as needed to in order to do the concept justice, which I’m slightly upset about in all honesty.

OUGD503 - Module Evaluation

General Thoughts On The Module

I found that when I was in the studio working on responsive briefs, the amount of variation in the work that people were doing made it much easier to engage with other people, which benefitted feedback I was given and gave out myself. When everyone is tackling the same brief I sometimes get a bit fed up with seeing and hearing about it. 

The freedom to choose our own briefs was great as well, as it put me in a position where I was only doing work that I specifically wanted to do, which helped my commitment towards the work and ultimately improved the quality of the outcomes. The only possible exception to this was the J2O brief, but even then, I ended up pretty pleased with the outcome.

With the differences in the assessment criteria between Responsive and OUGD504, I’ve found that my research has been much more concise for responsive than it ever has been before. I also think the blogging workshop helped this. Whilst this is something that has made my life easier, it’s lead me a little confused on a few occasions about what direction I should be going in. This was particularly prominent in the Royal Mint brief where my research was more limited and the WWF mock-ups I did for the advertising student, where I hadn’t felt the need to do research before starting the work.

My Performance In The Module

I’ve got mixed feelings about how I did this module. I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t end up doing the Pantone brief, as I feel that could’ve been a really suitable brief for me to do because of the name of the place where I live (explained further here). That said, the only suitable time for me to have done this would’ve been while I was at home after Christmas, and my poor time management early in the module meant that I didn’t think about this until it was too late, as I spent Christmas working on PPP and OUGD504. This is something I’m disappointed with myself for, as normally time management is something I’m good at.

Looking through my final outcomes for responsive and comparing them to the outcomes from previous briefs I’ve done, I’m happy with the improvement in the quality of my work, in particular the app mock-up, the Nonversation posters, and the WWF Condom branding for the collaborative brief. Like previously mentioned, I was even pretty pleased with the J2O branding when it was physically produced.

The process I went through to make sure all my outcomes were relevant was logical, meaning that the concepts behind the work I produced were solid and the strategy behind them was well thought through, particularly with Nonversation, Secret 7 and the WWF collaboration with Jamie.

Despite all the positives, this module has made me question my ambition slightly, as when I look through my outcomes there’s no fancy print finishes, no foil blocking or embossing, no screen printing or anything that requires any extra effort to produce. I stand by this, as they weren’t appropriate for the briefs I did, but the fact that I chose these briefs without recognising the lack of variation in potential processes is something that makes me question this about myself. 

Working With Other People

As well as the collaborative brief with Jamie, I also worked with/for Beth. I’ve lived with Jamie since last year and have known Beth the same amount of time, so I felt confident that I could enjoy working with them without compromising a personal relationship. This was an important factor in both briefs as it was important that communication was good, epitomised by how smoothly the collaborative brief went as living with Jamie made communication so easy as we spend so much time together.

The concept behind the WWF brief Jamie and I did had existed in my mind for quite a while, and it was something that I felt could work really well with the right set of skills. Jamie and I have very different ways of working, and this comes with having different strengths. Despite the reoccurring argument for a lack of ambition that comes with working with someone that you know well, the way we worked throughout the project capitalised on this, and we really made the most of the opportunity to collaborate.

OUGD503 (Collaborative) - D&AD - WWF - Evaluation

General Comments

The WWF brief was really open ended. It may have seemed quite restrictive in the sense that it had to be aimed at 14-24 year olds and there had to be a digital element, but it's more the arguable that the best way to reach that audience is through a screen rather than print.

I initially came up with the idea we followed for this brief by myself before Christmas, but thought that given the potential for it to become distasteful, it'd need someone else working on it with me so that their were two judges of what was acceptable and what wasn't. Jamie was the perfect person for this as he and I tend to have very different approaches to design, so could see the project from two different points of view. He also is more comfortable with Illustrator and AfterEffects than I am, which will benefit the project greatly.

Successes

I'm really pleased with this project in general, and I've really enjoyed. It has been constantly evolving through conversations between Jamie and I about what we should be doing and how we can make it fit the brief.

We definitely managed to do the project tastefully, there's nothing too obvious about any of the innuendo and none of the imagery was needlessly phallic. When I at the final physical outcomes, they look like they belong to WWF even aside from the obvious use of their custom font and logo. Little details like placing text over images rather than above or below them, and having a fairly minimal layout which places emphasis on the images really help this. This shows a clear influence from our research, as we knew that novelty condoms really imitate the look of their subject, and we knew exactly what WWF's look was.

The strategy behind the promotion was well thought through. We knew a viral video would be appropriate because of the innuendo-based and unorthodox nature of the product, but targeting the younger end of the age range directly was difficult as most of them don't really have a need for condoms. Jamie and I both identified that when we were at secondary school condoms were given out free if you wanted some and were a key focus of sex education. Rather than giving out condoms to schools, the idea to give out vouchers for condoms was really good because it's a lot more commercially viable as vouchers are cheaper to produce than the condoms and packaging (and not many of the vouchers would actually get redeemed), whilst still providing information on the cause on the voucher.

Most importantly, it works. When Jamie and I were in the studio cutting out and folding the physical products, other people on the course, people of our age, the age of the target audience, picked them up to look at them because they take a different approach, which caused them to read the information on the back and interact with WWF.

Changes

Retrospectively, maybe we should have specified on the packaging that it was made from 100% recycled materials to help back up the ethical strength of the project, but given that we only had a small area to work with this would have come at the cost of some of the information about the Living Planet Report, which was clearly more important. This isn't a big issue though, as the recycled packaging is mentioned in the video.

Logistically speaking, I wish we'd booked two print slots rather than one, as this would've allowed me to print my design boards on the recycled stock, which would've been a nice touch to finish this project off with, although at this point this is still a possibility depending on the availability of the digital print resource tomorrow morning.

We found assembling the 6 pack boxes quite tricky because of how thin the tabs were in relation to the weight of the paper. This meant that using super glue proved difficult because it seeped all over the place and dried quickly, and double sided tape wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be. I'd re-think the structure of the box in future for this reason, although I suppose this is more of a prototyping issue, and wouldn't be as big a problem in industry because of the more efficient processes used.

Going Forward

I've found that, by co-incidence, some WWF feature in some part in my work for COP and Design Practice 2, so the confidence of knowing that with really concise research, a professional looking outcome can be realistically reached is great.

Working with Jamie has introduced me to a knew way of working and given me first hand experience of working alongside someone who works less logically and systematically than myself can only prove useful, especially given that most creative people tend to work in this sort of way.

OUGD503 - Secret 7 - Evaluation

General Comments

In my evaluation for my Secret 7 submission last year, I spoke about how I wasn't sure it was particularly relevant to Graphic Design because of how subjective it was. This year I found it more relevant because of the practice it allowed me to get at communicating the correct tone of voice. I also now appreciate the large amount of freedom it allows having struggled with the J2O brief.

Successes

The way I developed the concept I wanted to use was very efficient, and the final outcome achieves the initial connotations I wanted it to in the correct tone of voice. I was also pleased with how well I adapted during the project when my initial approach didn't work.

Changes

The nature of Secret 7 means that the approach you take to producing a submission for it is pretty unique to yourself, so I wouldn't change anything in that respect. What I probably would change is the timing. I submitted with less than a week to go which made me feel slightly pressured, and I wouldn't want to be in that scenario again.

Going Forward

I'm now going to concentrate on my collaborative brief with Jamie, in the hope that the success in communicating a tone of voice that I've found in this brief can be replicated in the WWF brief were doing, as this will be an important element of it.

OUGD503 - Roses Awards - Nonversation - Evaluation

General Comments

I liked how open-ended this brief was, and how it didn't immediately seem like a design-related problem, after a little research however it became clear what this brief was all about, introducing a new word to as many people as possible in a short space of time in a suitable context.

Successes

The chosen type of outcome is really relevant and was definitely the correct approach to take for this brief as well as the strategy behind the approach, and I put this down to the Design Thinking Workshop we hand, even though it was aimed at OUGD505. This is shown by the change in approach I took in the blog posts after that session compared to the two from before it.

I'm also pleased with the fact that the outcomes look quite contemporary, as this is starting to be something that's happening semi-consistently now, especially in this brief, the work for the Creative Advertising Student, my branding for PPP, and the Augmented Design brief in OUGD504.

Changes

Looking back, a lot of time was spent unnecessarily making numerous copies of the speech bubbles in numerous colours because I was too enthusiastic and didn't spend as much time considering it as I should've done, which resulted in a lot of time wasted on blogging.

Going Forward

The continuing improvements in both the quality and consistency of my final outcomes is very reassuring and is giving me more confidence in my abilities as a designer. 

This brief has also demonstrated to me how applying theoretical research to a practical project can really help narrow down the options you need to choose from when making design decisions, so this is something I'll try to do more of in future projects.

Given the time constraints and workload I'm currently facing, I don't see it being practical to do the Pantone brief as was the original plan, because of it being a rather large oneI will instead do Secret 7 as my final individual brief instead.

OUGD503 - Work For Creative Advertising Student - Evaluation

General Comments

Going back to what I said in my first post for this brief, the outcomes for this brief were completely pre-decided by Beth, the Creative Advert student who's project I agreed to do some work on. While this sounds like there wasn't much room for me to work in, I feel like this was a good brief to take on because of how it would test where I am with my Photoshop abilities, and testing how good any on-the-spot ideas I had were, as I'd have to sell them to Beth before I could act on them. I also think that it's good to take on a brief with tight limitations straight from the off after the problems I had with the J2O briefs limitations revealing them slowly.

Successes

There was never a time during the past 2 weeks where Beth had to be pushy with me to see where I was at, my time management and communication was excellent. I was constantly sending her screenshots of the progress I was making with the work, and Beth was quick to reply more often than not, which helped a lot.

The influence I had to make the billboards and posters black and white with colour-dropping rather than them being full colour was important to the overall completion and success of the outcomes. Not only were they more effective than the colour ones individually because of how much clearer the message was, but the continuity between them was greatly improved because of the continuous colour scheme (or lack of one). This made it much easier to design the app because it wasn't necessary to use colour for continuity, which avoided any potential problems I could've had with colour, which tends to be an issue with my work.

Changes

My thoughts on this project initially were that because the outcomes had already been decided, and what they'd look like had already been decided to some extent, that research wasn't going to be overly important in this brief. This was short-sighted of me as I ended up having to do some research into continuity in WWF campaigns after I'd produced the initial designs for the billboards and posters, and change them accordingly, which was much less time-efficient. This was something I rectified for the app, and it made the process noticeably easier.

Given the problems we had initially with the photographs, it would've been better had I been with Beth when she was taking the photos. This would've been logistically difficult though, and making time and arrangements for this would've somewhat defeated the object of this project being one of my smaller responsive briefs. 

Going Forward

Having had to design a website for OUGD504 and re-work it to fit a phone screen was useful experience when designing the app, which goes some way to explain how smoothly that process went. This has taught me the value in re-visiting old work of mine as a way to help me with my current projects. 

Whilst I have stressed that this isn't a collaborative brief as such, it is the first brief I've ever worked on that was important to any grade where someone else's opinion had just as much weight, if not more, than mine did during the development of the outcomes. I wasn't looking forward to this aspect of the brief because of the room for disagreement, but it turned out that Beth and I worked quite well together in terms of communicating and making decisions, which was important given that we are friends outside of university and I wouldn't want work to compromise a personal friendship, especially given the consequences I've seen from people working together in a similar scenario to Beth and I.

Because of this experience I'm now a lot less nervous about the collaborative brief and the PPP Taking Care of Business brief as I feel this positive experience of working with someone else was something I needed as reassurance. 

OUGD504 - Module Evaluation

General Thoughts On The Module

I really enjoyed the way this module was structured. The length of the module combined with the fact that the first two briefs were only week-long briefs meant the amount of time it left us with for the third and fourth brief was great, as it really gave me time to think about the project rather than just jumping into it like I did with the second brief. On top of this, the fact that the brief 3 built on our summer project gave me extra incentive and motivation because I had a reasonably strong starting point. This was the same for the final brief, and I feel like this is the brief where the advantage of having more time really shows as I think that my influences are really clear, which has in turn made it of a higher quality.

I feel the way the briefs were linked together by lots of studio tasks was excellent, because these tasks were always relevant and kept me pointed in the right direction, but without feeling like I was being told what to do. I also found the design for print workshops we did as part of the module were really worthwhile in terms of being able to use the software to its full potential, and understanding how spot colours work in practice, which is something I had no idea about up until now. I feel like if we’d have had these specific workshops right at the very beginning of the year, my work would’ve benefitted even more, in particular the J2O brief for Responsive.

Because of the length of time we’ve had on the module, there have been times where it’s sat back in my list of priorities behind Responsive and PPP, which has really helped the strength of my PPP blog when you compare it to how my PPP blog was looking at this point last year, which I’m really grateful for. Having time to work on Responsive alongside this module was beneficial to me in terms of my time management skills, which I feel were already pretty good, and to the quality of my work, as I spent less time staring at the same brief repeatedly, and the variation helped stop me from getting bored. 

My Performance In The Module

I’m really pleased with my progress in this module, I feel like my abilities as a designer have noticeably improved, especially judging from the outcomes in for the final brief and the current work I’m doing for self-branding in PPP. I put this down to a combination of the design for print workshops and the content of the first brief. The workshops have really helped me develop the use of colour within my work, and the first brief has helped me understand my own creative process, which has helped me from then on in the production of the rest of my work. 

At the beginning of the year I found myself a bit slow to react to the restarting of being back at uni, which highlighted to me a problem in my attitude towards work, as I was expecting the pace to slowly build up from last year into third year. Having two week-long briefs straight away was exactly what I needed to help me with this problem, and subsequently my work ethic was much better for this module that it was at any point last year, and I think this is highlighted by the amount of work I did over Christmas (across all modules) and the thoroughness of my blogging. This change in attitude towards work has slowly been spreading across to my attitude towards the design industry in general, as shown by my use of G.F Smith and MPC in the final project. I definitely wouldn’t have looked at doing that last year, as I’d have seen using an external paper mill as something that was pretentious and unnecessary, and using an external printing company as expensive and lazy. I definitely think the visiting professionals we’ve had in have influenced my opinion on the design industry, as I now feel less like everyone in the industry is pretentious, which was, retrospectively, a stupid thing to think in the first place.

I’m really looking forward to starting the next module because of the renewed work ethic I have, which I’ve not felt since my GCSE’s, an appreciation for how the industry and external factors can improve my work, and a building sense of confidence in my abilities. One thing I will be looking to improve on however is the amount of time I spend in uni. Whilst I do come in for 99% of timetabled sessions and have not intentionally missed one this year, I do tend to go home as soon as I can. This happens to the extent where a few people on the course have commented that they hardly ever see me any more, which I feel is unfair on me, especially given how the group is split for some sessions. In order to improve this I have to make lifestyle changes which will make me less tired during the day, and I need to start bringing more food into uni as well, as often I go home because I’m hungry and refuse to pay £3 for a sandwich.

To summarise, I really enjoyed this module, and I think that it could be quite a big turning point for me in the course, which is important given how far into it I now am.

OUGD504 - Augmented Design - Evaluation

General Comments

This project has been by far and away my favourite project of the course so far because of how it’s brought lots of things together for me, including previous projects, software workshops, talks from visiting professionals. But I think the most important thing I’ve gained from this project is an appreciation of how PPP links in to the rest of the course, something which was somewhat a mystery to me last year. The below two posts explain this further.

http://m-brewer1316-ppp2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/interaction-with-industry-current.html

http://m-brewer1316-ppp2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/bacon-playing-cards.html

In my rationale I spoke about how my recipe card and menu card have different audiences, I wouldn't say I've lost track of that, but I think the way both outcomes look mean that this isn't particularly obvious as they have a consistent style. I don't see this a failure because it doesn't make the outcomes any worse, but at the same time it's not really a success because it's not what I aimed to get when I started out.

Successes

I’ve always struggled somewhat with the use of colour (as documented in the PPP linked posts), and I feel the workshops we did for this have gone a long way to helping me with this problem. Subsequently, I’m very pleased with my use of colour in this project.

On a more personal level, this project gave me more incentive to interact with the design industry, even if it was just requesting paper samples from G.F Smith and uploading a file to be printed on the back of a playing card, but these are both things that I wouldn’t have done before for whatever reason. Because of this the finished project is of a higher quality than it would’ve been otherwise.

Changes

I honestly wouldn’t change anything I did in this project. I’m very happy with it. The only thing that I’d do differently would’ve been to start it earlier than I did which would’ve given me more time on it, allowing me to take it further. That said, I generally take a long time thinking about a project before I start it, as explained in the first brief of the module, so I can’t be too disheartened about this. 

Going Forward

This project has made me feel a lot more confident about my abilities as a designer and my willingness to be more open-minded about and interact with the industry. I personally feel this came from me being pleased with and proud of the work I was doing in this brief, whereas this often isn’t the case, this is particularly prominent when you compare this project to something like my J2O brief in Responsive. This has highlighted to me the importance of being pleased with your work, which, while it sounds stupid, isn’t something I’ve thought to be particularly important in the past.

OUGD503 - YCN - J2O - Evaluation

General Comments

After the Royal Mint brief, I wanted to do a more corporate brief as I feel like this module offers me the chance to have a go and a variety of different briefs. I didn't want to pick a dull company like Santander, and so J2O seemed like the obvious choice because of the bright colours.

Successes

I think the main success in this brief was that my research was pretty in-depth, by which I mean I think I gained quite a good understanding of the sort of thing J2O were looking for.

I also think that I achieved this, albeit by going against one of the briefs key requirements which was including the green. Weather this can be considered a success is debatable for this reason. That said, it is still debatable that the green is still included as I didn't change the bottle top, which is green.

Changes

I very much went into this brief with the attitude that the green was horrible and I was going go change it. This attitude definitely affected my mindset throughout the brief and made me approach it in a pretty negative way.

I took on this brief quite hastily after getting a bit worried about the considerable time period between the completion of the Royal Mint brief and the start of the next brief I was going to do. I quite heavily underestimated the size of this brief at this point and should probably have taken on a different brief instead.

Going Forward

Whilst I'm happy with how my outcome looks without the green, I'm not happy with how it looks with it, but feel I've reached a point where this brief is reaching a dead end for me. For this reason I won't be spending the extra time to prepare this project for entry as I don't feel there's any possibility of winning and the time could be better spent elsewhere. I do intend to create physical mock-ups of my design for my own satisfaction, my Responsive submission, and for my blog, as I feel that I've spent too much time on this brief to justify not having an actual final outcome.

This brief has taught me to not jump in to making rash decisions or making big decisions too quickly. I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this brief more, and it's been quite eye-opening as to how difficult being a designer can be if you're not enjoying the work. This can only be gained through experience, and I'm glad I've found out so soon.

OUGD504 - A Brief History Of... Website - Evaluation

General Comments

This project came on the back of my summer project, which was always going to make it difficult for me, because my summer project wasn’t something I did very seriously. I prioritised having fun with it rather than giving any real thought to what it might lead to, and consequently the content I’d produced wasn’t really the same nature of the sort of content that I needed to produce retrospectively. By this I’m particularly referring to the quality of the photographs and the lack of text based research to accompany them.

Successes

Looking back at the project I’m confident and pleased with the fact that I went down the right route with this project in terms of creating a resource, rather than doing something historical or informative. This was due to the nature of the content I’d got from my summer project, and it meant that I didn’t have to devote masses of time to generating more content, which gave me more time to concentrate on work on the site itself.

I’m also very pleased with the final layout and branding of the site. I did quite a lot of development into the layout and grid, and I think it shows, as it does immediately look like a resource that people can add to, which is what the idea was in the first place.

Changes

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to code the website due to being unable to have any more sessions learning to code beyond the introductory session. After attempting to start coding the site myself with a half-basic understanding of HTML, this is something that I feel would’ve presented more problems to me, and would’ve contributed to the project bring much more time-consuming, especially in terms of getting the banner to float over the website.

Like I mentioned earlier, in hindsight I should’ve taken the summer project more seriously in my documentation of it, which would’ve resulted in a more complete website in terms of text, as well as having much nicer and more appropriate. I feel this is something that I appreciate now after the Numiko talk, and their declaration that “content is king”. But other than this there’s nothing else I’d have considered doing differently apart from giving more thought to the colours I was going to use, as I’m still not sure if I’m happy with the caramel colour I used.

Going Forward

This is the first time I’ve ever had a go at creating a website, and I think the experience of having a go at it, as well as the Numiko talk, has given me a much better understanding of the process, as well as now being a bit more knowledgeable on things like SEO. I’m now much more confident that I could be a more web-based designer in the future, and the idea that “content is king” is definitely something that appeals to me.

OUGD503 - Royal Mint - Evaluation

General Comments

This was a brief which was really attractive to take on from the beginning because of the freedom it gave you to express yourself and do something that you find relevant. The cash prize and exposure was also an incentive given what happened to Matt Dent with the last Royal Mint competition, although this is obviously something that is far beyond my expectations and, in all honesty, my aspirations. I really can't see myself winning any National competitions any time soon.

Successes

On a personal level, the main success was not being deterred from entering in the first place on the basis that it is a National competition. My attitude towards my chances of winning things like this is generally very pessimistic, and this may have deterred me from entering the competition, despite having nothing to lose.

I think this came from the fact that I'm genuinely proud of both the final outcome and the concept behind it, which isn't always the case in my work unfortunately.

Changes

Despite being happy with the outcome in general, when I was coming up with potential concepts and developing the chosen idea, I didn't take into account the scale of which the design would be reproduced in. This was a really daft mistake to make given that we only recently did a project on logos, where consideration of scale is vital. I can't help but wonder how this consideration could've improved the outcome, but by the time I'd realised this I was really happy with my concept and had spent too much time on it to consider changing it.

Going Forward

The king thing I'll take from this brief is that when there's nothing to lose by entering a competition, there's no point in not entering it. I also think that the issues I had with scale are an indicator that I need to consider the restrictions of a brief a bit more before moving onto developing an idea

OUGD504 - Logostarter - Evaluation

General Comments

This was the first branding/logo project I've done since my AS year at college, and although I would never want to compare my work from then to my work from now, I feel that the experience, even from that long ago, has helped me in this project. By this I mean right from the very beginning I considered things like how the logo would look at different sizes, and how the logo could work as either just text or just image. This combined with the considerations that I have become important whilst studying at university such as printing limitations, printing costs, and ease of reproduction have resulted in me completing the task to what I feel was a fairly professional standard. In the evaluation of my last project I mentioned correctly using different software together, and I feel like this project has built on that even further by adding Illustrator to Photoshop and InDesign, which I’m pleased about.

Successes

I feel like my research for this project was pretty spot on in that it all ended up having some sort of influence on my outcome, and I think this is reflected in my outcome when cross referenced with the research I did. By this I mean that I established what sort of typeface to use, use of colour, and general feel of the overall design.

Given the nature of the product I was designing for, I feel I did well to avoid potentially obvious and very much negative connotations of drink driving, which was something I highlighted early on in this project as a potential stumbling block. Instead of this, I think the logo I created has a pretty strong emphasis on motion and movement, and the references to alcohol within there are quite subtle, and very immediately avoidable when placed out of context. This is important as there are numerous examples of logos that provide all sorts of the wrong connotations and suggest the wrong sort of thing whilst taken out of context.

Whilst I was developing the logo I was experimenting with the use of colour, and was contemplating using grey and blue to suggest refreshment like in the Coors Light logo. I spent about 3 hours doing this, and the outcome of that, whilst justifiable, threw into question its ease of reproduction, it’s printing cost, printing limitations, as how it would look at different sizes. Given that I spent so long looking at colour, it’d have been easy for me to stick with the grey and blue, and to be honest, it’s something I probably would’ve done this time last year. So on a personal level I feel like the biggest success of this project was to objectively assess and make logical considerations on my own work, which has been a problem for me in the past.

Changes

I often feel like I follow a pretty rigid process when working, and so I quite often say that I wouldn’t really have done anything differently in retrospect. This project was different though, starting from my choice of project. When I first saw the Kreweser I thought, “this is perfect for me” and took it from there, but what I didn’t consider was how the problems that the company has when presenting itself severely limit the amount of options for a logo and branding.

Building on this, I regret not experimenting with abstract styles of logo’s, as this would’ve avoided the limitations of the products branding, as well as potentially having a very modern and trend based logo that would’ve worked in the sense that it attracted a modern audience.

Going Forward

I think that the main thing I’ve taken from this project is not to write off abstract design immediately, which is something I’ve done in the past as I’ve been under the impressions “anyone could do that, what does it even mean”. Whilst this viewpoint isn’t likely to change any time soon, I think I definitely have a new found appreciation for the occasional use for that sort of design.

OUGD504 - My Design Process - Evaluation

General Feelings

When I first read the brief I was really excited about the project because it gave me the opportunity to design something where I was the target audience, which hasn't really been the case on the course up to now. Looking back on it I shouldn't have thought that at all, because what I actually did was design something that reflects myself rather than something for myself, and I think that's a success in itself as I had to put thought into every decision rather than just doing something because I liked it.

Successes

I think the main successes in this brief have revolved around the problems, which is odd. Firstly I was struggling to find a creative method of folding the paper, which seemed like a bad thing at the time. Retrospectively this was a blessing in disguise as it encouraged me to stick to more traditional folding method, and that is reflective of my "no nonsense" sort of approach to me design. Secondly I was struggling to fold the paper because of it's thickness, and given that this module is about production, this was a big problem. I think that the stock I chose was the perfect choice for something that reflects myself and my process, and although that was what created the problem, the problem wouldn't have existed if I hadn't have chosen the stock so relevantly. Lastly I think that my inability to find suitable stock of either of the colours I wanted to try as a background worked in my favour, because when I did experiment with colour it made me realise how the design was against just the texture as a background, and by not using a coloured background the texture is only emphasised more.

Changes

If I was to do this project again I honestly don't think I'd change much at all, and I think this is testament to how much I took from the studio tasks relating to this brief, and to how solid my design process generally is, even if it's not the most creative system in the world. The only thing I would say about this project is that it took me by surprise how quickly we got back into work, and subsequently I made a very slow start to the project. Obviously this is completely my fault and shouldn't have been the case.

Going Forward

This is the first project that I’ve ever done that, looking back on, I feel I’ve used Photoshop and InDesign properly in conjunction with each other. I think this has made me realise just how far I’ve come as a designer, which has made me feel really positive about design again, as towards the end of last year I felt as if I was stuck in a bit of a rut. Hopefully this can be representative of everything I do this year, as I feel like a did a much more professional job of this brief than any of last years brief, and subsequently am much happier with the outcome. I look forward to carrying this attitude into this year.