What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel that I have developed my confidence skills, whilst I've never been one to refuse to stand up and talk in front of large groups, I've also never really been the person who volunteers or enjoys it either, and I feel that the past 8 weeks or so have allowed me to expand my confidence with talking to new people and standing up in front of different groups and talking about my work, my concept and why I went about it the way I did.
I also feel that thanks to the short briefs I have developed a greater ability to develop idea's within a short period of time. Coming from A-level meant I had two projects over the full academic year and therefore to have so many in such a short period of time came as a new learning curve.
I have managed to broaden my knowledge of Adobe Illustrator during the workshops with Simon. Despite using illustrator over the past two years on my previous course, I learnt many new skills and developed area's where I already had a basic understanding of how to work the programme. I then applied these skills to my Proverbally yours set of briefs which allowed me to expand and develop my work with the pen tool.
I think I am still in the process of developing my ability to work effectively to a brief. Whilst this has come a long way since beginning the course here back in September I still feel that I am on a long learning path and that over the coming months and years this skills set will be refined and developed further.
I can now confidently critique, analyse and evaluate both my own work as well as other people's giving my honest opinion and offering constructive criticism where necessary. As well as critiquing both my own work and work of peers the sessions with Jo have allowed me to develop my vocabulary when discussing work of other designers, this has also allowed me to develop specific skills key to Graphic Design.
I have also been a very neat and organised person and so I knew I wouldn't have much need to develop my skills there, however I feel that I have strongly developed my understanding of a more 'professional' Graphic Design atmosphere, working on many different projects at the same time by managing both OUGD403 along with other module like OUGD401 and OUGD404 etc. This has been vital to my time management and organisation skills.
I think that I have more recently managed to grasp blogging, whilst I'e had a personal blog for the past 6-7 months or so I feel that the intense nature blogging has on this course has finally sunk in, and in the later two briefs I have managed to blog various stages of the processes I have been on allowing my blog to tell more of a story. I hope to continue to expand these skills over the coming briefs and modules and develop a very organised and focused approach to blogging.
What approaches to/methods of idea generation have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
Being a perfectionist I have always found it difficult to include rough design sheets in my working process. However being involved in the workshops with Amber has allowed me to develop my understanding of design sheets and also allowed me to realise the importance of jotting down quick idea's in a short period of time. I have found this difficult at times however I feel that my process with design sheets is constantly developing and I am becoming more and more confident as I complete more briefs throughout the programme.
Blogging is a key part of my design development. It allows me to think out loud (or on screen) and gives me the opportunity to think through idea's slowly which I have found often develops my working process sparking new inspirations and development ideas. I feel that blogging research also allows me to expand my design idea's, over the OUGD403 module I didn't really fully get into research blogging until the final brief, however throughout this brief it led me to many different new idea's and I now hope to blog more and more research as my briefs develop over the rest of this academic year.
I have also developed my understand of the importance of the library. I now find many of my inspirations in books and journals and find it easier to gain enthusiasm for a design when I can visual see a piece in front of me. I have taken full advantage of the photocopying system and now use this to regenerate idea's from inspirations in books and journals.
The progress crits have been a strong part of my idea's generation. When I am stuck on where to go next it is really positive to gain feedback from other on their opinion and also to understand whether my work is going in to right direction to meet the criteria of the brief, as well as whether is it understood from the view of someone else.
As well as the progress crits, me and my peers often guide one another of different paths to take etc when working in studio. I have never really liked the studio environment in college, however, since being here I have begun to realise it's importance in gaining inspiration and advice from others, and have often ended up staying late without realising as I get carried away working on a brief.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I feel one of my greatest strengths since coming here is my ability to stand in front of a group of people and talk confidently about my work. This is something I have never before had the confidence to do, however I now realise that is a vital part of developing my design processes.
Another key strength is time management and organisation. I have always been prompt with briefs and deadlines and never needed extensions. I think this is a really important habit to get into as this will be expected in industry and often the time scales will be much more restricted than ones I've had to deal with so far.
Punctuality and attendance has to be one of my strongest assets since becoming a student at Leeds College of Art. To date I have never missed a session leaving me with 100% attendance and 100% punctuality as I have also never been late. I think this is really important as it gives a more professional view for employers. I also have a fear of taking time off as I hate the feeling of knowing you have to catch up on all the work you have missed whilst being away. As this is a high demanding course there are things happening everyday and so I feel it is vital to attend every session in order to make the most of my time here.
I feel that one of my strongest briefs so far has to be the partner typeface. Despite really struggling for inspiration and ending up using an idea that I didn't feel related to Sam's personality I am really pleased with the aesthetics and visual appearance of the final outcome. If I had even more time I would possible alter one or two of the letterforms however I feel visually they are strong and also work as a typeface which I developed at a later stage using the phrase 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' to demonstrates that my typeface works when used to create words as well as being both readable and legible. I also feel that as the briefs have gone on they have got stronger and stronger, my understand of the working process and need for design sheets and research have strengthened and this has strengthened by designs as an overall piece too.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
One of my greatest weaknesses is my perfectionism. I understand that whilst this trait also often falls under the category 'strengths' it often can get in the way of my designing process. I struggle to come up with rough idea's and design sheets, as I find them harsh to look at, however over the past few weeks this has come a long way and I hope that in coming briefs I will be able to create lots of design sheets showing my full working process in how I came about a final solution.
A great weakness is my ability to produce idea's quickly in a short period of time. I have been working on this in the sessions with Amber and over coming briefs hope to further this even more allowing myself to show every thought process without worrying about the way it looks or comes across on a design sheet. I tend to start worrying about producing idea's fast which stops be from jotting them down and then I lose the initial idea's that I wanted to go with.
I feel that my Illustrator brief is one of my weakest designs as I don't feel is shows many skill sets. However I chose to go with this idea as it was the one which was most aesthetically pleasing and visually attractive. It stood out which was also what I wanted to brief to carry across and as is demonstrated on my blog I found it difficult to take my idea's from Brief one, as inspiration for this design. I came up with many visual solutions before deciding that this simple example would be the one that had most impact and carried most effect.
Another area I would like to improve is putting my own personal style into all my designs. I feel they are very jumbled and don't tell a lot about my Personality, I hope to improve this over the coming Modules and Briefs. I hope to challenge myself more and create more interesting pieces.
Finally I would like to expand my understanding of design processes. I am very looking forward to different inductions and things coming up as I will be learning new skills that I can hopefully use and portray within my working style on set briefs.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Produce a greater number of design sheets at a high standard. This is my main focus over the coming weeks and months. It's an area i've always though of as weak within my working process and hope that I can develop and expand this for future designs and briefs.
- I hope to further my research skills, and remember to blog every stage of my process. I often take research for granted not always realising everything I do that is counted as research towards a brief.
- Take on board more advice from the crit sessions, especially progress crits. I feel I have successfully tried to take on board advice in crits changing aspects of my 'proverbally yours' poster set, as well as altering the mailing list from my final brief as a result of crit feedback, however I hope to take more advice on board in future even if I don't always initially agree with their opinion, I might find the visual outcome stronger.
- I hope to be more experimental with new processes including print methods etc. After all of my inductions are over I hope to use the skills learnt in these sessions throughout my briefs to expand the style of work being produced.
- Finally, I would like to create more structure to the briefs, and tell a story through my design sheets and blog posts which allows people to understand the journey I have been on to create that piece as my final outcome.
How would you grade yourself on the following areas?
Attendance = 5
Punctuality = 5
Motivation = 4
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 3
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4
(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
