Friday, 23 November 2012

End of module self evaluation - OUGD403


End of module self evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Throughout this module I think I have developed many new skills, including how to quickly and effectively come up with ideas and turn these ideas into a piece of work within a small time frame. I have applied this skill in all of the studio briefs and although towards the beginning I found it quite difficult to get into the flow of things, I feel that I have managed to do this more effectively in the latest studio briefs, mainly the message and delivery brief. I feel that I have also developed skills in assessing my work, both individually and as a group in group crits and have been able to use this assessment to develop my work more effectively. I have also developed an interest in type and typography that I wish to pursue further and develop a better understanding of it.

What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have developed my method if idea production and significantly reduced the amount of time it takes me to put down my ideas onto paper, meaning that I have much more time to develop the solution to the brief and make it as good as it can be.  I have also developed my researching methods, finding a lot more visual research making it easier for me to find inspiration and generate visual ideas much more quickly.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
Some strengths that I can identify in the work I have done since starting the module are the way in which I lay out my piece and I also think that the print workshops also show that I have a strength in those processes. I will capitalise on these by experimenting with layout and different print processes in my work in the future and see how I can use these strengths to make my work more interesting. I also want to learn more about these parts of graphic design and see what new things I can capitalise on.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I can see that my computer skills could improve, especially my use of programmes such as illustrator, but I think that this is purely because I haven’t really used these before and so I think that all I need to do is practice using these programmes more and learn new skills and this will improve. I also think that I need to be more experimental in my work as what I have done so far is playing it quite safe and I would like to create much more dynamic and exciting work. For this is will spend more time experimenting with my ideas and thinking outside the box for new ideas that could become a part of my work.

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

1.     Practice using illustrator more and for different things to see what I can do with it and so from this I expect to develop my skills and create more professional looking work.
2.     Develop my skills in the print room by learning different processes to create more exciting work
3.     Put my ideas down onto paper much quicker at the beginning of a brief so that my ideas can develop more and have more time to create the final piece, meaning it will look much more professional.
4.     Continue developing my research methods to give my work a more contextual knowledge and a depth that I haven’t had in my work so far.
5.    
Continue learning about type and typography so that I can use this more in my work to create more interesting pieces of work using type as a main part of my work.





























Sunday, 21 October 2012

Have they done enough work?

Is the quality of design good enough?

Are they evaluating enough?

Are they managing their time well?

Is the blog being used correctly?

Feedback. 15.10.12

What I would like feedback on: 


  • Time management
  • Is the quality of my research good enough?
  • How am i blogging? Is it good enough? - quality, quantity, images and text, context etc.
  • Quality of my work
  • Am i doing enough work?
  • Project management
  • Writing skills
  • Critical evaluation of myself and others
  • Design decisions
  • Understanding of design principles
  • Individual progress and improvement
  • Appropriateness of responses


How to critique whether we are using our blogs to their full potential:

Is the blog being used correctly?
- Is the content in the right place? Is it all there?

Has it been written clearly and concisely
- When read through does it flow and is it structured well? Is it understandable?

Are they managing their time well?
- Is it posted all in one go, or has it been done over many smaller posts?

How are their academic and writing skills?
- How well has it been written as a piece of academic writing?

Are they evaluating enough?
- PPP blogs. Are there enough evaluations of work?

Have they reached the mandatory requirements for a particular brief?
- Check against the requirements set on the brief.

Is the quality of design acceptable?
- Check the design practice blogs against the brief. Is the work of a high enough standard?

Has is answered the brief?
- Compare the brief to the final outcomes.

Have they done enough work?
- Is there enough work on the blogs to show that they have done enough?

Is the content appropriate?
- Check against the brief to see whether it is appropriate.

I have chosen the 5 most important of these questions so that others in my blog group can comment and say how i can improve upon my blog and give me advice on how to do so.

Monday, 15 October 2012

Group Crit - Alphabet soup - Typeface.

Theses are some things that came up in the group crit on Friday as things i need to look at to improve and further my work.

1. Play around with scale and form, and how the letter forms fit onto the A1 sheet.
2. Look more into the white and black fill of the letter forms and think about the negative space.
3. Do more than one A1 piece - One with the letter forms neatly in a row in the grid, and the other with the letter forms big and going off the page and overlaying. This will give me two options for a final outcome to the brief.
4. Play around with how the letter forms overlap with each other and how this will look on the page.

Friday, 5 October 2012

What is Graphic Design? - Study Task 2

As a class we decided on 13 things that are important to us when looking at graphic design. 

  • Creative use of Type
  • Visual Quality
  • Tone of Voice
  • Attention to detail
  • Simplicity of Design
  • Meaning or Message
  • Audience engagement / interaction
  • Style or aesthetic quality
  • Use of Media & Method of Production
  • Relationship betwen Form & Format
  • Interest in the content.
  • Use / Choice of language
  • Structure & Layout

1.Creative use of Type


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I really like the use of type as pattern in this piece. It feels like it is a part of the design and the whole thing flows really nicely. 


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I love how this looks like the page has been folded and how the letters are in and out of focus. It creates a really interesting piece to read that is more than just black and white type.


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I really like how this uses the type as part of an image, that also has a deeper meaning behind it. 
I find it really interesting how the type is used as part of the image in this piece and i think it works really well as a business card. It is obvious what the piece is about and it is very effective.


I love how this designer has used audience interaction for the type to become visible, and the message behind the piece is shown in a very obvious way.


Quite literally 'playful type', i really love how the type is incorporated into the frame, and how it still looks as if it could be played upon.

2. Structure and Layout



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 I really like how this piece is split into four sections to create the layout, and the use of both image and text works really well.


I think its really interesting how this newspaper has been presented and laid out, so that it no longer looks like what you would expect a normal newspaper to look. 


I think that this works well because of the use of type, image and colour, and how they interact with  each other. The layout is simple but is really effective.



I like how the type is wrapped around the side  of this piece which makes it more interesting than just type alone. I also think that the subtle colours work really well.


This book is really interesting in the way it uses info graphics and image to show the information it needs. I really like the colour scheme and how it is carried through the whole book.


3. Simplicity of Design



This piece is so simple, but beautifully laid out and has such clean lines. I love how it looks so effortless.



I really like how, from the front of the book, this looks so simple and clean, but then when the book is turned you can see the beautiful colours and it becomes something much more exciting.



I love how this logo is simply a yellow shape with black type, but it works so well. The slant of the type gives it more interesting shapes and the colours are very bold which makes the logo stand out against others.


This piece is so simply designed it is almost bare, but the small bits of text and image work really well together to create a really interesting and unusual piece of simplistic design.


I love how this piece mixes handwritten and computerised type within the book. The whole thing is designed so simply with very little colour which is why i think it works so well and looks so good.


4. Style or aesthetic quality


This piece is one of my favourites, mostly because of the colours and patterns used. The type is very decorative and the patterns around that tie in with the style of the piece.


I really like the simplicity of this book cover and the tones, colours, type and image all work really well for the overall style and theme of the book. 

This piece of design works so well because the logo is already known so widely and is instantly recognisable. The colours and type are very simple and clean, so it works very well as an object. 


This polaroid branding works really well because the colours are instantly recognisable as polaroid. The aesthetic of the brand is very bright and clean which I really like.


The style of this branding is quite vintage and uses washed out colours which i think works really well. I find it interesting how is mixes the old look with new ideas of info graphics.

5. Attention to detail


This isn't technically 'Graphic Design' but i really love now subtle this piece is, but it is obvious that a lot of time and attention to detail was spent over this piece.



In this piece i really love the simplicity, however the detail in the cutting away of the paper is amazing. 


I really like how detailed the background is in this piece. It looks delicate and really intricate and is incredibly beautiful.


This piece is all hand drawn which i really like, and it looks very intricately done. I also like how the colour is very simple and clean. 


I really like how this piece uses gilding to create a really beautiful front of the book. The gold itself is very delicate and it would have taken a lot of attention to detail to create it so perfectly.


This piece of typography is very hard to read and so the attention to detail in the drawing of it is amazing. I love the thin lines that are used to create the type within them. 

Sunday, 30 September 2012

10 Things that inspire me - Study task 1

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Posters. Anything from music to a car advert. Everything is better when i can touch it.



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Tom Hanks movies. I grew up watching these films and i still love them to this day.

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Maps and travelling. I love to travel and i want to see the whole world. And maps just look beautiful.

http://horsesthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/william_eggleston_untitled_field.jpg
William Eggelston's photography. He takes such beautiful and simple photographs and always using gorgeous colours.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02342/Grand_Designs_Live_2342915b.jpg
Grand designs, and architecture in general. I find buildings really interesting and one day i would love to be able to design and build my own home.


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Colour. Because the world becomes too boring if it's all in black and white. 

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Pattern makes everything more interesting and can change the look of something in a second.

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Books. Especially artist books, they're just beautiful.



http://hankblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/vinyl-records.jpeg
Listening to music on vinyl. For some reason it just sounds much much better.

My own image
Live music. Nothing is more exciting and fun than going to see one of your favourite bands. Fact.






5 Things - Study task 1


The 5 most important things :
I chose to study on this programme because everyone seemed really excited to be here and excited about graphic design.
On this programme i want to learn the business of graphic design and how to make the most of my success, and how to research well and use my contextual knowledge to influence my work.
I want to improve my printing processes and learn which is best suited to a particular brief or task.
I want the know what type of graphic design i want to spend my career doing.