OUGD406 – Evaluation.
With this module being
the last of the year, I anticipated it being fast paced and hard work, but I
was pleasantly surprised to realise that it was equally enjoyable as the last
few before it.
Secret 7 was a breath of
fresh air for me, I thought it would be a great opportunity to experiment with
what techniques I use to produce my work. The song choices were all great but
Underworld stood out to me more than the rest, as it is the music that I have
been influenced with all my life. This seemed like a good idea at first, but I
later realised that it was quite the opposite as I already had a good bit of
knowledge of the song through its history and its use in Trainspotting.
Using an abstract form of
photography, I was able to create something I was not so happy with. I now
realise this is because I didn’t quiet spend enough time in the idea generation
stages to really give myself enough diversity throughout my designs.
Moving onto the book
cover brief was somewhat of a relief for me as I enjoyed it much more than the
S7 unit. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is because I used a technique I
was not entirely confident with. So I stuck to my guns for this one and focused
on what I know best, typography, modernism and layout.
Picking Just My Type by
Simon Garfield, I was slightly hesitant on whether to swap for a book I might
not have heard of before, but I later reconsidered this, as I cannot stand the
current cover. I think it is overly childlike and hard to take seriously, as a
book relating to design, I would have thought it would be better off more
vanilla and less post-modern.
I set myself a target to
make it appeal to an audience such as myself (students) rather than what it
currently is, a humour/reference book for people who may have heard of
Helvetica. My choice to keep it simple and modernist was an easy decision,
colour choice was poor as I had originally opted for a neon green which is too
difficult to replicate with a standard printer, so I changed to 100% cyan to
keep it as bright and interesting as I possibly could.
I will admit although
this module was enjoyable, I was slightly disorganised due to my time
management, with personal and professional practice and design principles fast
approaching I do realise that I should have considered this in my time plan,
then maybe I wouldn’t have had to rush toward the end to get things finished,
and I would have a screen print to show for studio brief 02 - (My screen failed
to expose which then made me unable to print onto it. As well as not having any
time planned to fix this, I will now ensure I consider all running modules to
make sure I am more organised in the future).
Collaborative practice
was an interesting one. I feel the team I was in had great ideas but lacked
motivation, including myself. The concept was strong as stated in the critique,
but we failed to see it though and the end result was slightly distorted as I
think we all had different visions of what the brand would look like.
We produced a high
quantity of work and I’d like to think of a high standard as I found it
beneficial to always have people to refer ideas to and bounce off of.
I was shocked to hear the
final brief was Speaking Form Experience, as it only feels like last week the
second year students were showing us their resolutions. I enjoyed this brief
the most, although I spent the least time on it due to my organisation, I feel
the final outcomes are strong and reflect my brief to a tee.
To expand on the subject
of brief writing, I feel this benefited me greatly due to not being restricted
to any boundaries. The only things to consider were it has to be aimed at the
next level 4 group, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be related to graphic
design. I decided to go along the lines of using humour to give advise I wish
I’d knew before starting the course. This was to be in the form of a series of
posters. These posters then could be adapted into anything; I chose to do a
memo book inspired by Field Notes.
With the memo book being
slightly rushed, I would have loved to have gone back and fixed everything that
was wrong with it. In the future, I will be sure to do mock-ups and ensure that
I know things can’t go wrong before doing any final designs.
Overall, this module has
been a good experience for me as I’ve truly realised how important time
management really is. Collaborating has made me more open to receiving feedback
and providing appropriate responses, something of which I have struggled with
in the past that has now been addressed. I look forward to what the second year
brings and I’m sure to learn from my mistakes I’ve made this year.
