OUGD203: Self Evaluation

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

As with the optional module, this brief for me was all about getting to grips with the technical aspects of type design and learning how to apply experimental letterforms across a range of both print and screen based media. Through working in a creative and more experimental manner my specific aims were to explore what could be achieved with everyday, three dimensional objects; subsequently converting the results back into a two dimensional format. As a result of this, some of the main skills that I have acquired from this module have naturally manifested through the software package Adobe Illustrator as a means to develop vector based graphics. This is something I am particularly proud of as I now feel considerably fluent with the process and is a capability that I have been wanting to achieve since joining the course two years ago.

What's more, I also feel a sense of achievement in writing my own brief despite the fact that it was quite time consuming and a task that I originally considered to be fairly daunting. I hope this will continue through and prove to be as successful in next years endeavors.

Lastly, as a new experience all together I found that designing for digital distribution outlets such as Apple's iPhone applications was in actual fact an enjoyable and interesting experience. I particularly liked engaging with the design for the home screen logo/button as it tied into my interests with branding and corporate identity.

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

Secondary research into existing typographic design was essential throughout this module and proved to be a significant source of inspiration that also informed my own decisions throughout the developmental stages of my brief. In doing this, I was quite intrigued to find a new process whereby looking in design publications and journals often led to designers own websites where they had further links to even more designers. This as suspected was extremely useful and assisted me in looking outward into the creative industry more; a weakness that I first outlined within the Design for Print module at the beginning of the year.

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

From the few strengths that I feel I can take away from this brief, I believe that my three resolved typefaces work effectively and are both readable and legible whilst being experimental and creative. I do however believe that I need to exploit their contextual reference a lot more both in terms of how they relate to idioms of the British Isles and how they can be distributed within the environment.

In direct relation to this though, I feel that through working and designing for screen based distribution outlets such as Apple's iPhone applications I have in actual fact developed professional looking mock-ups for a realistic, working product.

Lastly, I believe that I have significantly improved upon producing professional looking boards that utilise a working grid/layout structure. I am especially proud of the boards produced for the collaborative YCN brief although a large part of me believes this is down to the high quality product photography I was able to carry out prior to their design.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

Over the duration of this final brief it has really hit home how much I have let myself down, especially in contrast to the significant progress that I felt I had made over the collaborative part of the module.

First and foremost, I didn't manage my time half as well as I did in the YCN brief completed with Chloe. In fact it was shocking and I have no reasonable excuse to defend it. Consequently, I was not even able to screen print my deliverables as originally intended and as a skill I was very keen to develop I am really disappointed in myself for letting this happen.

Furthermore, I believe one of my main downfalls manifested through the way in which I worked from home a lot more than I have in any other module. Even though this was due to the transportation of household objects, I am certain there would have been a logical way around this and that it could have been overcome had I not let myself get so lazy. Overall, I have to say that this aspect in particular is something that I regret a lot as it hindered my progression massively, lowered my motivation and allowed me to become distracted. I also feel that it contributed to my lack of time management and subsequent non-production of deliverables, not mention that it meant my interaction with the dialogue going on in and around the studio floor was non-existent. Ideally I would have also liked to photographed my final typefaces with professional studio lighting... that was never going to happen at home and I should have done something about it.

Continuing this, I additionally spent FAR too long vectoring letterforms on Illustrator as opposed to actually producing more developmental work. In addition, I should have also invested a lot more time trying and testing through methods of quick experiments instead of dancing around the idea of doing so and then not actually doing anything.

Lastly, for no justifiable reason I cannot believe that I didn't engage with Graham at all throughout this module, especially as both parts were heavily orientated around type and layout development. If I am brutally honest with myself, this is not acceptable and is an element I definitely need to sort out in terms of my progression within the third year.

5. Identify 5 things that you will do differently and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Never again am I going to allow myself to work from home and become so detached from the dialogue going on within the studio.

2. Engage with tutors more, especially Graham should I be working with type and/or layout design.

3. Balance all aspects of the brief. Again I have invested far too much time on one element (in this case the vectoring of final resolutions) and not allowed myself enough time for production.

4. Dedicate portions of time directly towards writing action plans and timetables. At the moment I see time spent doing this as a waste when I can actually be designing... this is not the case and definitely proves more successful in the long run (as proved within the collaborative part of this module).

5. Exploit how my resolutions work in context more as I feel I have let myself down on this front throughout the brief.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance 2
Punctuality 4
Motivation 1
Commitment 2
Quantity of work produced 1
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 1