Evaluation OUGD 603

What Skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

One of my strongest skills that's developed this year is my ability to undertake more than one brief at a time. This has at times been difficult as I've had to break the creative process and return to a different stage of the creative process. However this has also been beneficial because it's allowed me to test my capabilities and realise that I'm able to juggle various things at once and still produce high quality work at the end of it. It was things like this that provided me with a real boost of confidence as I felt I was ready for the industry.

My skills within 'Indesign', in relation to, exporting my documents straight from Indesign into a PDF avoids the tedious procedure that I usually go through in Illustrator, by this I mean I have to usually compress files through Adobe Acrobat X to then put on Issuu. You can see examples of this through my Cath Kidston mid-boards in which the designs are disjointed, this degrades my work quality and solving this issue and learning this skill has definitely aided me in presenting my work effectively.

Collaborations, as each module has passed I've realised the true value of collaboration. Great things can happen that wouldn't be expected and I suppose that's the most gratifying aspect of a collaboration. As well as the workload that can be achieved in short spaces of time. Proof of this was Sunset cottage and Cath Kidston, Gregs web knowledge and Joshes commitment combined with my skill set created successful pieces. On the topic of collaborations, I found it quite hard at times because I'd have other priorities and when peers are wanting to just consistently do the collaboration I'd have to put things to one side and leave some things which was aggravating. The most important thing of a collaboration I've learnt is to ALWAYS, keep a dialogue. There's nothing worse when you need a file or photograph etc.

Perseverance, the more work I do, the more I have to document, blog and design. To me this was ironic because someone could spend ages on a brief and document it to perfection, ticking all of the boxes and in reality this isn't practical to do. So I always expect to be working up until the last minute heavily. During the near end of my FMP I was overcome with emotion but I soon realised that this was clouding my thought process, I learnt to control the emotions and really think I've learnt to manage my worry and direct it to helping me start and finish the work.

Importance - Because I'll be leaving the course to then go into the working Industry, it was time to prioritise my money and figure out what I needed to buy, order and find. I worked out the costs of what I needed and I had to sacrifice such things as printed evaluations and cover sheets etc. This was because I'd bought an embosser and had a 3D model of myself made for my personal branding & Also had to save money for ordering business cards, I'd already spent a ridiculous amount on printing and the college giving everyone £50 was nowhere near covering the expenses. I was glad I did this because it sets me up after University.

Professionalism. From my boards through to my work, through to the way I communicate with people. I've noticed my grammar and language I use when talking to other professionals makes it clear to communicate my ideas and also gives off a sense of knowledge.

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

- Always have multiple briefs on the go, this avoids the design process becoming tiresome or stagnant and allows fresh ideas, realisations and peer reviews to aid the process.

- I've developed my skills in indesign as a result of seeing the industry use it quite a bit.

- I've developed the way I communicate and collate my research, only highlighting key findings for tutors and showing inspirations.

- I've learnt to recognise that everyone has different ambitions and to appreciate a wide variety of design, this has informed my design process because it allows me to take into account a wider variety of audience in terms of who I'm designing for.

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

- Consistent standard of work - exploit quality and conceptualism through portfolio work

- Clear conceptual thinking, clever approach to design

- Strong use of colour, bold design

- Conversational with professionals - build relationships.

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

- not finished to how i want them for my portfolio and looking back i regret not doing this prior 

- some more experimentation could be introduced through the design process

Skin Cancer - Final Boards

Cath Kidston - Final Boards

Adidas Originals - Final Boards

Purdeys - Final Boards

Harry Ramsden - Final Boards

Dr.Me - Final Boards

Secret 7" - Final Boards

Adidas Originals - GIF's/ advertisement

As you can see from the changing gestures, the hand has managed to stay the same proportion, on hindsight If I'd of had more time i would of created two sets of gestures that would of been applicable to two sets of hands. This way there would of been a stronger consistency between the two gifs. Despite this they still work as a set.

Yoke - Final Boards

DK books - Final Boards

Self Branding

Elmwood - Tree surgeon - Final Boards

Skin Cancer - Evaluation

After the completion of this brief I was relieved that I was able to make it look so professional and targeted so directly at its TMG. I will also pursue the Mcmillan Cancer foundation with all of the contacts from hospital I received and have been in contact with, to try and get the campaign noticed. I feel the concept works well and communicates what it needs, the scar and composition of the type surrounding strengthens the concept tenfold. I could of created the book and also various DP's however due to time constraints I didn't have the time I needed. On the other hand the campaign still has a strong purpose and is very relevant for contemporary times so it has a potential. It was quite a difficult brief to visually be faced with my scar consistently however it was worth exploiting the issue and the photographs actually ended up looking quite professional.

Secret 7" - Evaluation

I would say this is one of the funner and more light hearted briefs I approached, this is because the designs for Secret 7" could promote the artists song through any means necessary along as it fit on the front of a 7" inch vinyl. With this in mind I thought this brief would be a good chance to experiment with working between Photoshop & Illustrator. During the process of this brief I'd noticed I'd become a lot more comfortable with Photoshop, whereas at the beginning of university I made it my aim to become fluent on Illustrator. Now that I've accomplished this, I've seen my return to Photoshop and because I've now became quite fluent on both programmes, I'm able to use them cohesively to create more professional looking artwork, as you can see from the way the artwork has been applied to vinyl cover and vinyl.
When I review this brief I'm happy with the way I've approached it, for my final deliverable to Secret 7" I chose the modern adaptation of the old artwork. This was a result of peer comments, saying that it was more bold and a clever way to approach the brief as it gave the old single a facelift and communicated the core message of the song. Most importantly, it kept the song a secret.

Harry Ramsden - Evaluation

Deliverables -

Business Cards

Letterhead

Drinks Mat

Take-out box

Food wrapping

Web design

Overall I'm fairly happy with what I've achieved given the timescale I'd given myself - 2 weeks. During this design period I was also starting another smaller brief. In hind-sight there are a lot of things that I could've done to improve my overall design. For example; During crit sessions and peer review the chip in the fishes mouth had been mentioned about compositionally, at first I didn't really take the advice on board, but nearing the end of the brief I severely restricted this design and only had it among the packaging as I felt it worked well to signify the contents. Another factor to this brief that caused annoyance was the development of my website, the concept worked fairly well, however I'd changed my idea for the web presence twice and then had to rush to complete, in my opinion this shows.

There were numerous ideas I didn't really get time to exploit, I'm disappointed at this but know that I'll be refining this brief to suit my portfolio standard. The ideas consisted of; 

The components to the logo could of been dissected and used among the brands utensils, for e.g. Chip forks & Drinks mat. 

Mock up versions of the restaurant with the vintage photographs decorating the roof. Moreover I felt the packaging could of been pushed, creating a string of different products wrapped up to create a consistent and appealing range.

Minimising the colour so the logo is the main emphasis and discarding the fish & chip illustration altogether.

The logo I designed, has taken inspiration from the aesthetic of the original Harry Ramsdens logo  it has also incorporated the circular design seen in the image next to this. Doing this has created the modern adaptation that I set out to achieve. The colour scheme is also a modern adaptation of the original colours found in Harry Ramsdens, Overall I’m very happy with the logo, I feel it pays tribute to Great Britain while also celebrating Harry Ramsdens past. 

Sunset Cottage - Evaluation

I suppose the most evident concern throughout this brief was how long it took us to complete, we initially started out thinking it could be completed in 3 weeks, however we were wrong given the issues of keeping in contact with the client. As she was a very busy lady she was always quite difficult to reach in terms of an open line of communication. This meant we had to wait for certain resources and have patience in responding.
Meeting the needs of the client was also quite difficult, this was because it felt like once we'd ammended certain aspects of the design & web, she then wanted more added to the workload and in the end we had to bring this issue up and say we've completed everything design and functionality wise we set out to complete.
This brief acted as a learning curve for both me and Greg, deepening our understanding of pricing and calculating invoices etc. We also learnt how to handle a client and keep a consistent and professional communication.
I felt the collaboration between me and Greg worked successfully because we were friends, we were able to speak openly about anything and everything in relation to the brief.
One thing I regret with this brief is not taking the opportunity to go into vernon street and bind the guestbook, the only reason I didn't do this was because it was being used only for photographic purposes.

Sunset Cottage - Final Boards

Research...

Design…

DK Books - Evaluation

I completed this brief strategically because it was undertaken as a spin off from my Cancer Research brief, the purpose of this was because DK Books were offering internships through a competition which was to design a double page spread. Their visual style was perfect for my approach and also fit in with their requirements and topics of interest. I feel this was a strong double page spread and the composition of the body gives a very advertising aesthetic to the overall photograph. One weakness of this design is that there could of been more experimentation in relation to the layout of type on the right page.

Self Branding - In progress

Due to monetary issues, I was unable to hand in finished business cards and finished documents. However this is also due to 'benefitting me in the long-term'.  For my business cards, I'd designed exactly what I wanted and where I wanted elements composing, But I'm ordering stock from evolution print or moo, from these I will order a batch of business cards for myself to emboss. using the following embosser I ordered from the company 'Speedy Stamps'

Furthermore, I wanted to incorporate an element into my self branding that was unique, that hardly anyone will be able to obtain. Therefore I attended a 3D printing business and ordered a photographic 3D model of myself. This will come in handy during the end of year show and my self branding project which is yet to be published among platforms such as behance.

My website is under construction however, it has not been finished because I want my portfolio to be finished to the highest standard possible, this means I'll be developing the photographs for each brief in one day when we finish. With the new and improved photographs I'll be compiling my website impact shots.