Evaluation: OUGD103 Design Practice

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

I think for once I can say that I’ve improved on my time management skills, they are still not perfect but I feel that they have come a long way since previous modules. I feel this has affected my overall mood in a positive way, not having the feeling of being swamped by work because I’ve not managed my time well has left me with a clearer head and I think the quality of my work had improved because of that.
In terms of design skills I’ve become more comfortable using illustrator both in terms of layout and creating illustrations. I feel as if I capatalised on this during the ‘speaking from experience’ brief, I’ve always had an admiration for vector illustrators and I felt that this brief was the perfect time to try my hand at it.
I started out looking at other illustrators and trying a few sketches in my sketchbook to try and come up with a style that was unique and had my own personal style to it. I felt as if my hand-drawn illustration attempts were weak which was frustrating me, so I hopped on the PC- learned some new skills from tutorials and I was away. Overall I’m quite happy with the illustrations that I produced but I think it’s the start of something that’s going to improve over time.
During ‘How To’ brief I learnt a lot about flash based web design – I had used Flash before to create a game in 6th form and animations during my foundation but this was my first attempt doing a website. It was also my first time using Flash CS3 which uses a completely different Action Script than any previous versions which is overall a lot more complicated and less user-friendly so I had to learn most things from scratch.

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

I think I approached each brief in a different way, for instance the ‘How To’ brief required a very linear approach in terms of content. All the information I needed had already been researched thus my research was heavily secondary; all I needed to do was go out and find where the information was.
In comparison the ‘Speaking from Experience required a lot more primary research, for instance I didn’t know my target audience thus I created questionnaires (both online and paper based) to collect qualitative and quantitative data. This is something that I had only done for one previous brief and I actually wonder why I use this method so rarely as it’s such a valuable source of information.

Doing collaborative work with Ed for the ‘Communication is a Virus’ brief has really been beneficial as we have managed to collect loads of primary research through means that I normally wouldn’t have the confidence to do on my own, for instance going into clothing/CD shops and asking staff if we could walk around taking photos. This was a great way to inform the directions we were taking in terms of context and really helped when trying to communicate our concept to the ‘panel’ we were presenting to.

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

I think overall I’ve been a lot more focused. Instead of waiting around for a great idea to come, I’ve been more active – doing research during the ‘transition periods’ between coming up with initial ideas and developing the final resolution. I think before I suffered from the mindset where I would think, ‘well I don’t have a good idea, so why should I do research and development if it’s not going to lead anywhere?’ – since abandoning that mindset, sure, some of my research has been irrelevant but in most cases I’ve stumbled across something that has informed my resolution, even if it was in a very small way.
I think I’ve also taken more of the key aspects of what needs to be included during the design practice into consideration. Instead of diving into producing visuals first, I determined audience, tone of voice and context and let that inform my resolution.

I think that I explored a fair amount of options to begin with before I settled on something specific, this definately informed my final outcome.
I think I explored quite a few unique interpretations of the 'what is a line' brief and I think my concepts were quite strong.
I think also from the technical aspect I think I proved to be quite capabale, I still have a lot to learn but that takes time.
I think I'm more of an idea generating designer and I think I need to capatlise on that and explore that more, and in terms of actual production just keep exploring new areas - I really want to do motion graphics and I've decided to teach myself how to use Adobe Aftereffects over Easter.

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

Something that cropped up quite a few times when people were assessing my work during crits was that there was too much of my development work was written and that there weren’t enough visuals. This is something that I’ve struggled with for a while as I naturally I tend prefer words over thumbnail sketches - I personally am ok with this as I understand what I’ve written perfectly but when it comes to crits, assessments, or even future clients, if there aren’t enough visuals it will be difficult for them to visualise what has gone in within my mind.
My Type and Grid work was very weak, I was away for my dad’s wedding during the week that Lorenzo led the inDesign workshop. When I got back I was more focused on getting work done for the ‘Speaking from Experience’ brief than anything else and because I normally adapt to software pretty quickly I thought I’d leave it till after everything else was out the way – this was a very bad idea, as it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be and the resolutions look very amateur.

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

1. Be more visual in my development work, sketching out ideas, thumbnails etc. I think taking some time during the summer holidays to improve my sketching and drawing skills will be very beneficial and will make me more confident to draw instead of write.

2. I think although I’ve been more organised overall, both in terms of time management and how I organise my work I think I need to pay more attention to brief and module outcomes. I’ve stuck them up on my bedroom wall but still only look at them from time-to-time and this is something I really need to address.

3. Broaden my research, try to include as many sources of primary and secondary research as possible rather than sticking with what I’m currently comfortable with.

4. Look at more work from past and current designers; I think I touched on that for the ‘Speaking from Experience’ brief but not so much on the others. I found what I did do to be very beneficial and something I should capatalise on in briefs to come.

5. Form a better balance between working in the studio and working at home. I feel that I don’t spend as much time in the studios as I should outside the timetabled sessions. When I work in the studios I do find that I get a lot more done, especially If I’m generating ideas, however when it comes to developing visuals, especially digital work – I prefer to use my own computer with everything set up the way I want it and also having my own space where I can put my music on in the background and just get on with it. Getting a laptop/iPod would solve that… if only I had the money =/
5.b. Get a job and save up for a laptop/iPod

How I'd rate myself on the following aspects:

Attendance: 3
Punctuality: 4
Motivation: 4
Commitment: 4
Quantity of worm produced: 4
Quality of work produced: 3.5
Commitment to group: 4