1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? |
I have developed a broad range of skills over the past couple of weeks, which range from advancing Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator skills as well as new skills developed within the InDesign induction with Mike. The use of professional software and using it effectively has developed throughout this module creating icons in Adobe Illustrator, which are then places into Photoshop to be edited. I have developed by process skills effectively throughout this module – using design sheets as inspiration for final ideas rather than initiating the idea first. This works really well and allows to me improve my designs by viewing various different options before producing a final solution. I have also been able to develop research skills finding more relevant information that relates directly to my focus within the brief, and it has allowed me to decide which research is relevant and which parts of a process can be discarded. Researching and categorising has become an increased factor within my working process now, and this has allowed me to improve my focus and design direction effectively. I have learnt that by researching I can find new inspirations, ideas and solutions. My key skill that I have developed throughout this module is categorising relevant information and discarding irrelevant. This is really important within design as the piece must be interesting and capture the audience. The organisation of work also allows me to create better solutions, as having a clear mind where things are/should be is really important. Categorising work has allowed me to create more focused and informed solutions relating to my previous research. Within the group brief I learnt lots of skills including teamwork, team management, time management and decision making. We had difficulty within the group brief as unfortunately different people were off on different days and we never once came together as a whole group until the deadline day and so working over the internet to communicate became a key factor in the way we had to work, however considering this and our limited time frame our project came together in the end and the final solution was very effective. |
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? |
My source material has developed thoroughly throughout this module looking at a wider range of books, internet use, and magazines to help with my ideas development. Research has been a key factor of the module and I have developed understand relating to both why we research, how it relates to our work and how we use this research to create improved solutions. Research allows us to thoroughly understand all details that are relevant when creating a piece; you have to understand the topic that is being referred to. I have learnt how to maintain a clean, crisp appearance to my imagery whilst still translating a vast amount of information through infographics. I have learnt how to produce this in mass and also to a high professional standard, that is appealing to an audience. |
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? |
I think that I have developed composition and layout skills, which will now improve my future designs and briefs. My InDesign and Illustrator inductions have also allowed me to expand my skills and learn to experiment. I have become more confident using these programmes and now feel I can use these skills in future designs. My design development skills have improved thoroughly using design sheets as a guide for my final solutions and I hope to further develop this in future briefs. Another strength has to be my investigation into various different source materials. These range from secondary, primary, quantitative and qualitative. This will allow me to develop my research skills in the future and I am now much more confident with this approach. I have become more confident with design for print, setting up documents to the correct settings etc. and also with colour, I now feel I am confident with different colour palettes and complimentary tones that work well together. Trial and error has played a key part in my learning process for this. |
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? |
I think in the ‘How to…’ Brief, my main weakness was teamwork. Although I felt I was always willing to communicate and we did manage to work efficiently in the end, there were many problems that occurred along the way. In my postcards brief by greatest weakness was the stock. I had hoped to print onto recycled paper however, when I took my design down to print the consistency of the paper was not suitable for the printer and therefore the designs were printed onto white card. With more time I would re-print onto the correct stock, however visually I still feel these work really well. Finally, my most recent brief ‘100 things…’ had a couple of weakness, my greatest being that my topic was so broad it was hard to define a certain area to focus on, making the design and target audience also very difficult criteria’s to decide. I have aimed the final product at design students, however my initial hope was to brand an exhibition. Since completing the project I have now come across an exhibition that would have been suitable, however considering my time restraints this wasn’t plausible at the time and so I decide to change the focus of my idea. |
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1. More focused research; I would like to produce more focused and varied research from different sources. This is the first time I have researched into such depth and I found it both interesting and useful to understand the topic at a greater depth. |
2. Improve my development work, although I feel that my design sheets have come along way in this module I would still like to create more and rely on the much more for future briefs as I really found this useful this time around. 3. I hope to experiment more with different materials and techniques in future briefs as I still feel I am not making full use of the college’s facilities. For example; laser cut etc. 4. I hope to become more confident with my designs and actually produce work that I still find aesthetically pleasing. However, I am becoming more and more confident with this in time. 5. I have become much more confident with blogging my work over this past module; however I would now like to make my blog more professional and more appropriate to my designs. Rather than including irrelevant information that I have researched. I hope that with time, experience and practice this will come. |
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor | |||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
Attendance | x | ||||
Punctuality | x | ||||
Motivation | x | ||||
Commitment | x | ||||
Quantity of work produced | x | ||||
Quality of work produced | x | ||||
Contribution to the group | x | ||||
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible. | |||||
