OUGD303 Evaluation

One thing I have gained from throughout this module is how confident I now feel with who I am as a designer and how I have realised my aspirations. My rationale at the beginning of this module was;

'Simple and effective delivery focussing on type and layout within identity, text and publication.'

Once getting into the briefs, I found that I was constantly looking for ways to include exhibition design into my work. I realised that this was something that was very important to me and therefore thought it was relevant to include in my rationale. My rationale was then changed to;

'Simple and effective delivery focussing on type and layout within identity, publication and exhibition.'

I would definitely say that identity design is my specialism, as well as further applying the visuals to a range of promotional material, something that I definitely want to continue to do.

Working collaboratively for the Photography Yearbook with Emma, Chloe and Carl was extremely beneficial to me in many respects. I've gained general design skills such as layout and grids and paying great attention to detail with little things I used to overlook. Then more personal skills such as how to approach a project and even small things like keyboard shortcuts.

Being able to experience first hand that dialogue you have with the printers was great, it definitely no longer feels daunting anymore. Just gaining an idea about print costs and how to locate stock has been great. I now feel confident that I know the 'language' and how to talk to them which is what I used to worry about.

What is frustrating in the photography yearbook, however, is that the presentation boards and product don't reflect the amount of time we put into the brief. It's the project with the least boards, but the one I spent the most time on.

The End of Year Show proposal ended up turning in to a substantial brief. I initially set out to have this as a short brief and use it to play with audience interaction as stated in my rationale. I really began to enjoy experimenting, and ended up with what I felt was a very strong concept, though it could of had a stronger design direction. I've now got something in my portfolio that isn't so 'safe', which is something that has been suggested in portfolio surgeries.

As the End of Year Show proposal became such a substantial brief, I feel that this is the reason that I didn't get to fully exploit the Type Design brief. I initially proposed to produce 3 typefaces, each with a range of promotional material, however I was only able to complete 1. I must admit, I really didn't enjoy designing the typeface as much as I thought I would and was almost making excuses to not complete the brief. This brief was also meant to be a research lead brief, and although I did the research, it really just became about what I wanted to produce. This is definitely a brief that didn't go too well.

On a more positive note, the Art ward brief is something that was really successful. It came together a little bit better after it was submitted to D&AD, but I'm generally really happy with how this brief went. The same goes to the Pica Cafe brief. I found that I generally just didn't know when to stop as I was enjoying expanding the range that much, and probably ended up spending a little more time on them than I should of.

My general time management wasn't great, especially at the beginning of the module. The late Easter definitely hit me hard, and it did take me a while to get back into that routine. I can't help but feel that I've let myself down in this module in terms of quantity of work, I'm not sure whether this is because there are a few briefs I didin't get to fully explore as much as I would of liked to due to lack of time.

Blogging has been good, once again pretty much kept on top of with my design practice, however I let my design context blogging slip a little. It's not that I wasn't looking, I was just saving the images and thinking that I'll blog about it later, which really was a mistake as I never got round to blogging the majority of it. This is the first time I've done this, I really shouldn't of let it slip.

Overall, a really great module and a good end to the year. I've got a few briefs that I'm really proud of, and gained a much better portfolio which completely reflects me as a designer. I actually feel professional and more than prepared to face the industry.