OUGD402: Module Evaluation

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

I have learnt in this module that it is vitally important to consider time management as one of the most important key factors within designing. Learning how to plan time has meant that I am not rushing work nor am I spending too long on one particular part and forgetting to blog. I have found that time management has definitely been one of the most beneficial skills learnt as I now create lists each day of things I want to do, even things which aren’t Graphic Design it’s important to balance life and design otherwise it can take over and my brain needs time to breathe and my eyes time away from the computer screen. I have also tried to set aside time to look at designers and studios, which will influence my current, design work and broaden my research. 

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

I have gained a twitter account, which has been really useful for browsing through design work but also for informally contacting professionals. I have also been to see a couple of different exhibitions within Leeds, which is something I struggled to do previously, as I was quite shy. Through viewing work from other sources such as creative review and visiting book/comic stores it has really influenced my design work which showed particularly within brief 4 of ougd406 (design practice) I used my love for comics and informal tone of voice to influence my “speaking from experience” where I commented on confidence. Visiting the tattoo exhibition quite recently was also inspirational as I quite enjoy alternative music and it is somewhat linked to alternative artwork. Looking at design work outside of the university has definitely given me more ideas on what I can create and want to do in the future.

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

I think my online research has really improved as well as how I blog work, I think I am quite up to date with my blogging and it really helps to go back through the posts and see how I have improved. I also think my time management skills and organisation has improved and become somewhat a strong point as I came from A Levels I was quite used to balancing quite a few projects at once I was somewhat prepared.

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

I feel as though even though my confidence has improved that I haven’t contacted as many designers as I wish I had of done which is somewhat a regret. Especially designers such as Kate Moross who I think is fantastic, in the summer I will possibly send her studio something in the post as I know they do a postal swap service with people who send work in. I also think I haven’t had the chance to visit as many exhibitions as I would of liked to have done due to illness for the majority of this year- next year I will definitely be able to search further afield and widen my knowledge of graphic design.

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

Network: I need to try and network more with others on the course including other year groups/ courses (collaboration) as well as professionals and design blogs.

Exhibitions: I need to visit more exhibitions and try to research in different areas rather than just Leeds.

Contact: I need to make more contact with professionals and figure out why I want to contact them and create a purpose and reasoning for contacting them.

Reflection: I should have been blogging PPP at the beginning of the year with projects and not just the end modules as I have learnt PPP is actually incredibly vital to improving and evaluating yourself in a consistent manner.

Research: I need to research more into designers and studios that I personally would be interested in visiting or that I like their work.

OUGD402: PPP Presentation

I started to list a variety of different things which are important in terms of my development over my first year at university. 

Planning the slides: 

I used the same font here as the one that is in my information pack however I used black and white instead of brown because I know how much the projector can affect the way the colours are shown and I feared that the type would be illegible if I used a pale colour. 

Notes for the presentation:

1-   Hello, I’m from the outskirts of a small town in Lancashire.

2-   I moved from the quiet countryside to …

3-   Leeds. It was quite a large change and actually my first experience of city life.

4-   Before coming to LCA I went to sixth form to do A levels and found that it was really different to do graphic design full time as a course. I found it somewhat different at the beginning of term because at sixth form I was used to being surrounded by academic students.

5-   Before starting the course I knew nothing about type or the general fundamentals of graphic design including colour and grids. Here are a few examples of my initial briefs from the start of the year. Through doing more work I think my knowledge of type and reasoning for design decisions has improved.

6-   Before starting the course I only knew how to use Photoshop through teaching myself through online tutorials. Most of my work was hand rendered and overall looked somewhat unfinished and unprofessional. I’ve learnt the basics of illustrator and indesign and think the aesthetics of my work has improved and I think it could further develop through pushing myself to learn more.

7-   I learned how to screen print for the first time this year within the movie poster brief and thoroughly enjoyed it. This led to me screen printing my context of practice book. It was quite challenging because of changing screens and trying to align a large amount of work, which I haven’t done before.

8-   I screen printed my book due to the inspiration of the arts and crafts movement which includes traditional craft.

9-   Completing this brief made me realise how much I like print and looking at inspiration from the past based on my love for history.

10-  From making myself more aware of blogs and current artwork it has helped me improve the design I create. I take a lot of inspiration from illustrators one of which is Andy Smith who illustrated in Karl Pilkington’s book moaning of life. I also love comics and the informal tone of voice they create which is shown in the example here of Luke Pearson’s HildaFolk series.

11-This links into my speaking from experience brief. Confidence is something I have struggled with a lot on this course and it has taken me quite a while to settle into the course.

12-I really hope that my improvement in confidence and the creation of this book will help the first years in the new term.

13-You may be wondering what this cute purple plush toy is. It is infact a gallbladder- I had mine removed this year, as awful as it sounds it has taught me to improve one of the most important skills.

14-Time management. I had no idea how much work can get done in a week or even a day and pushing myself into a routine has definitely had an impact on the effectiveness of the time I spend working.

15-From making myself more aware of blogs and current design I subscribed to creative review and came across Annie Atkins work. It helped me understand that graphic design shouldn’t be and isn’t put within a set box, it is simply used to create work for briefs which are not just simply graphic design.

16-In the next few years I want to be able to collaborate with illustrators and photographers.

17-Kate moross is an incredibly inspiration of mine as she started out like the rest of us in art school. Her book serves as a guide for help and advice for students and really motivates me to want to do more.

18-She has worked for a whole range of different clients and I love the young looking aesthetic of her work, which is very much an illustrative style. One of the concepts from her its nice that talk was particularly inspiring. She states:

19-There is no wall. Like myself some students think there is a wall between what we have, what we are taught and what we want to do- one of her missions is to stress that there is no wall. In the next year I am going to research into studios that I could see myself wanting to speak with or ask about work experience.

20-Next year I also want to improve my knowledge of techniques including letterpress and laser cutting which I haven’t tried yet.

21-In the summer I’m going to travel around France for a few weeks and I am also going to learn how to drive.

Overall: My presentation lasted just around 7 minutes (approx) as I had timed myself practicing beforehand. 

Reflection: 

I wrote myself some notes which I took with my to present as I do get extremely nervous beforehand. Although I have learnt that the best way to overcome this somewhat is to rehearse the presentation which is what I did a few days before but especially the night before and I think that really helped me try and remember as much as I possibly could. 

Even though I was really nervous before the presentation and had some problems the day before with the ppt file corrupting I managed to sort it and overall I think the presentation went quite well. A few people from the group had said to me afterwards that they enjoyed it which is always good. Although I know I missed a couple of things out from my notes but this can't really be helped with nerves and adrenaline kicking in. 

It was actually really interesting to see how other people within the group have changed and they also spoke about the same problems that I have also had which is good because I think it can feel as though you're the only one. I also noticed that quite a few people are doing freelance work and communicating with professionals quite often which did make me feel quite inadequate but I haven't felt really confident enough to approach for work experience as of yet. Next year and during the summer I definitely need to research into studios and designers.