On Monday, Fred briefed the group for the OUGD402 'Speaking from experience' brief. We were then asked to produce 3 messages that we would want to deliver in response to the brief. For each of these three we then had to give five reasons why that message needs delivering and 5 ways in which is could be delivered. Our second task was to then identify three problems that could be addressed in response to the brief, for each of these three we must give five reasons that they need to be addressed and five ways in which it could be delivered.

My three main problems are:

- Coping with time management

- Moving away from home and being independent

- Budgeting Money

Coping with Time Management

5 reasons why it needs addressing:

- The course has a lot of work from all different modules and it's easy to lose track when you are used to working on one brief at a time on previous courses

- More time to socialise at the weekends if your priorities are set right

- Grades will improve if you focus your time better and prioritise key tasks

- Plan your time better in the studios to make better use of the facilities there

- You wont have to suffer from late nights before deadlines, helping you get lots of sleep and be healthy

5 ways in which it could be addressed:

- A time management diary which breaks down the day specifically aimed at GD Students  at LCA

- A Humorous calendar that breaks down module deadlines and key dates throughout the year (365 pages in a small square pad)

- A booklet of advice that includes a pack of sticky notes with key facts and funny quotes for you to help decorate your room in halls in first year

- A link on the moodle site that helps plan time and tells your exactly how many days it is to each deadline and what work to prioritise first (could also come in the form of an app)

- A calendar that comes in booklet form - one one side you can plan your own time, on the other side is a list of key tasks that need completing that month in order to manage your time effectively

Moving away from home and being independent

5 reasons why it needs addressing:

- Moving away for the first time can be daunting and terrifying

- Some daily tasks you may never have had to complete before (laundry, food shopping)

- It will help to avoid home sickness

- You'll be able to enjoy your time away from home better with new friends and feel independent

- It will help you to plan your time wisely and effectively

5 ways in which it could be addressed:

- A leaflet guide that runs through how to manage key facts like the laundry, washing up and cooking etc.

- A booklet that shows what deals you can get on food and helps to budget the food shop and be money effective

- A series of posters that have a visual guide of these tasks whilst not looking too patronising and having a nice visual finish at the end.

- A course diary that includes advice pages at the back on how to cope with key tasks that link to independence.

- A start pack that includes all of the above plus a series of stickers with visual qualities that remind us to do essential task like washing and cleaning

Budgeting Money

5 reasons why it needs addressing:

- Living in such a big city and so close to the city can mean that it is easy to spend money and not budget

- Student loans can make you feel like you have lots of money to spend when actually you don't even get enough to live off

- It's so easy to overspend on food shopping and essentials that you have no money left for socialising

- GD is an expensive course and so you need to allow for things like printing and essentials like pens and paper

- Having a part-time job might provide more money but you need to make sure it doesn't affect your course work

5 ways in which is could be addressed:

- Infographic posters that show money visuals and where it all goes

- A money box that shows hows much your should put away each month so you can treat yourself at the end of the month

- A booklet which runs through different ways we spend our money and how to save

- A hotdog book which has tips of each pages and opens up in to a visual poster for freshers

- A welcome pack which includes guides and flyers as well as posters and create-yourself money boxes that you cut out and stick together.

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

Throughout this module I have developed a range of skills. We began by looking at the anatomy of type. Although I previously had a basic understanding of this I have been able to expand and develop my skills through timetabled session with Fred looking at key elements including ascenders, descenders, line spacing etc. 

I have found this really useful and enjoyable as I now appreciate type more because of my greater understanding of how it works and functions. As well as this, my understanding of colour theory has developed and pantone colours are now easily recognisable and I have developed my skills working with complimentary colours and other variations etc. 

Another aspect which I have developed is time management, as this was a long thin module I feel I coped reasonably well and managed to blog as I went along. However, despite this, If I was to rework I would spend a lot more time focusing on 'What it a line'. I think the difficulty that I had with this brief was that I couldn't decide on an idea that inspired me until very late on and so as a result my designs and development of this brief has suffered.

My most enjoyable aspect of this brief was type and grid and as a result I decided to incorporate this into my 'What is a line' brief. I enjoyed measuring type in detail and looking specifically at line measurements and grid layouts. I learnt a lot in these sessions with Lorenzo and hadn't realised previously how exact and precise these things have to be.

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

I have learnt a lot about InDesign through the sessions held in the mac suite with mike. This has allowed me to understand and develop my skills in this module. So far I had very little understanding of this programme having only used it a couple of time over my A-level courses. This understanding allowed us to incorporate other skills learnt over this module including Grid and layout with Lorenzo as well as the photography skills that we picked up in our inductions down there and the photography sessions ran by Amber. 

I was already previously fairly confident with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. This module allowed me to develop skills in these areas. I developed skills editing photographs in Adobe Photoshop as well as key design skills in Adobe Illustrator when I used this for my designs for 'What is a line'. 

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

I have found using Indesign within my work has been one of my strengths that I have developed throughout OUGD404. I now have a stronger understanding of the programme and will feel comfortable using it again in the future. This was a new skill to me as i've never experienced this in detail before. 

Another strength this time was round time management, although there is definitely room for improvement here and I hope to continue working on this, my time management is slowly getting better over time and despite feeling as though 'What is a line' was slightly rushed and more time would have allowed me to further develop each of the tasks.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? 

One of my weaknesses has to be photography as I feel I have gotten out of using a camera and the functions, and so to get back into this I hope to experiment with a mini project over the summer when I will have more time. By then I will also have my new camera as my current one is broken so this will allow me to learn new skills for second year.

Another area that I would like to develop is Type and Grid, because I enjoyed this aspect of the module so much I would like to further develop this as I don't feel I spent enough time developing my skills throughout the duration of OUGD404. I hope that I have the opportunity to further these skills over the coming months.

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

1. Experiment further with photography. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it back at A-level. 

2. Plan my time better over the Easter break and further develop idea's with more creativity (screen print etc)

3. Research further into each of the topics studied, gaining a greater understanding.

4. Produce more development work and design sheets, this could improve the quality of my final designs.

5. Be more confident with my own work. I don't feel I have really had chance to experiment with having such a high demand course. However over the coming weeks we have much more free time and some very open briefs for other module. I hope to use this to my advantage and experiment further with aspects like book binding etc.

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

Here are some images of some designs sheets that I first produced as inspiration for my double page spread document based on Emily James. I have decided to change my idea making it simpler and allow a greater focus on the interview with Emily James and her working style.