OUGD103 End of Module Evaluation

OUGD103 End of Module Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN - LEVEL 4 

Module Code - OUGD103

Module Title – Design Practice 1

End of Module Self Evaluation

Name - Mitch Weaver

Blog - http://m-weaver1013.blogspot.com/

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

Throughout this module I have felt I've be able to deal with more open briefs in the sense I was able to creatively come up with ideas and approach them with design. My software skills and knowledge (InDeisgn, Illustrator) have improved greatly as I was able to finally put them into practice without worrying about what I was actually doing. 

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

Generally, collecting research can always be developed. But actually putting the time in to achieve this and effectively gather information is something I can always work on. Without having research now, I don't think it would be possible to create design work relating to a brief. 

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

This module has allowed to be focus more on the typography side of design. Thinking about layout, picas, scale, width, and implementing them onto design work has seemed to work more effectively than any module before.

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

The fact everything can be better. I've noticed this a lot more this module. A 'final outcome' isn't necessarily the end all of the brief, it's just what I was able to achieve in a certain amount of time. This is something I will continue to work on, getting the most out of my time and effectively applying it to design.

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

- Research everything I can.
- Produce a set of outcomes, which I can then select from.
- Keep on top of my work. Always get behind and have to rush most things.
- Work out a plan for each project. Make it easier for myself.
- Focus on effectively putting Illustration in my design work. I will achieve this.

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

InDesign: Final

Finally created a final piece that I am entirely happy with. Obviously there is always room for improvement. But considering I haven't really used InDesign before, I think the outcome successfully meets the brief and the intended user.

InDesign: Layout

Starting to work on InDesign now after coming up with a few ideas that I would like to incorporate into the layout. I'm going to keep at this and make sure I pay attention to the detail. After all that's what initially makes a successful spread

Examples as followed; 

I'm working towards a layout like this. I need to add the content of the layout now to make the design look more professional and complete.

Pretty happy with how the overall design is looking now. Just need to place another picture and finish off the content of the text. 

In Design: Initial Ideas

Obviously I couldn't start this project without any initial research. Me and sarah decided to ask each other questions, with a variety of themes. Some more serious and some more light hearted. The ideas was to gain as much information on each other to help us throughout the project. Keeping our personalities strong throughout. Here are her answers she gave

Here were our questions:

How would you describe yourself in three words?
How would you design a spice rack for a blind person?
If you had a snail that could magically grant wishes, what would you name it?
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Favourite Illustrator ? Why ?
Favourite Designer ? Why ?
Favourite Photographer ? Why ?
What keeps you ticking in Graphic Design ?
What would you eventually like to achieve out of your degree at Leeds College of Art ?

Anything else you can think of:

What is the last book you read?

What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

Whats the hardest thing about being at uni?

What is your favorite color?

Whats your favourite font?If you were a animal what kind of animal would you be?

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be? What was the last movie you went to see?

What is your favorite song at the moment? and why?

If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any position on their planet, what would you want? 

If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you? 

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be? If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time? 

If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say? What kind of people do you dislike?

What makes you angry?

Sarah's Answers:

Really bad design here. I'm really sketchy with InDesign at the moment. So decided to quickly play around with some layout ideas and typefaces. It's nothing visually exciting, but I just wanted to get a feel for the programme.

Speaking From Experience: Final Crit Feedback

I'm pretty happy with the feedback I received last friday. Positive and construction criticism throughout. Something which I always find easier to take in as there is then a balance between each message. From the feedback I'm going to take on board what they said and redesign my work to fit their opinions.

John's Funshop

Over two Thursdays we had John, who gave us a brief on creating an event/festival that bares all of the aspects to the infamous 1960's festival Woodstock. Something that still remains strong in the minds of the people who lived it.

Our ideas were limitless. It wasn't a case of having boundaries to work with and all the pressures that can be faced in design. We were put into a team where we had to put together ideas and formulate a plan of action.

Group smashing out some ideas. Talking through where were are going with this project.

Mindmap. Keeping our ideas fluent and able to flow across one another. Definitely a good start.

Our main idea was a ' sick day ' where the people of Leeds/Yorkshire would pull a sicky at work and have the chance to be part of something they may not necessarily have the chance to do. We created a perimeter for our event, which allowed us to focus on areas, which we could put our ideas into. We looked at music, social, art, food and all the essential aspects to creating a successful event. Everything would be incorporated into our idea.

We came up with these ideas:

-A free event, open for everybody to attend
-Held inside the ringroad boundary of the city
-Un-announced artists playing in different venues all over the city, from small unheard bands to big international figures. (NCP carparks, hyde park pub, mullenium square.)
-An indoor beach located in one of leed's football stadiums.
-Street performers
-Brigett street covered in canvass for people to draw on.
-Huge camping areas in Hyde park.
-All the acts and events going on would be talked about by word of mouth rather than flyers posters etc.

Ideas for the name of our event; The big weekend, Leeds Big day, The day off, City wide, street party leeds, The big day off, etc

We wanted to make this a free event. Something that appeals to people more during the economic stage of our country and this moment in time. This would allow people to have a breath of fresh air, communicate and socialise with people they may not have had the chance to before. Participate in activities that they may not have realised they could be part of. It's designed for the people. Allowing them to feel good about themselves. 

The fact the whole event is based around the city. Means we could use buildings, areas and public space to broadcast musicians and bands. Putting a different approach on the whole 'staged festival' where people had to find out where, when and what time the bands were playing. This would make it more exciting for people to approach. Our 'Where's Wally ?' idea, involves around 100 volunteers dressed as wally, walking around the city. People had to find them and in return would be given the bands time and place.

Overall I'm pretty happy and involved with the group I worked with. The project gave everyone a breather and allowed us to free our minds without restrictions. Anything can be done. That was the aim of the brief and I think we completed it a standard.

Printed Designs

Printed outcomes for todays crit. I'm pretty happy with how they have come out. There are a lot of of tweaks I need to make to the overall design, like change the cover so It's the right way round. Bad mistake. Atleast I now how a clearer picture as to how the final designs should look.

( Paper Size A3 ) I printed these out on a larger scale as it was what I intended to do. I think they work much more effectively this size, but It's clear a lot of my design work needs to be redefined. 

Hot Dog Designs: Layout

Just starting to put things into place for the layout in my book. I'm finally starting to see the design that I wanted to push forward into the project. Hopefully this is going to go somewhere closer to a more finalised result.

Hot Dog Designs

I guess you can say this is a bit last minute, pressured designing but I've finally got a direction in which to take the project in. These screen shots are examples of how I want the Front page of my book to look like and an example of how It could be used a poster also. '' This will be helpful '' is a quote that I think will directly engage the First Years coming up as It's straight to the point and doesn't require any mental thinking about the message. Simple but effective. 

Visual Designs.

Finally been playing around with some visual designs for the books I want to make. I'm still not too sure what direction I want to take them in at the moment. Keeping the designs clean and simple is probably the best bet. Although I'm definitely going to put a more Illustrative approach to my work this time round. I just need to focus my work to a specific content.

Questionnaireeeee.

As I'm still a bit clueless about what the content of my project will actually be based on. I have created a questionnaire that I felt had important questions for first years to respond to. Hopefully with the information I have gathered, I will be able to push my ideas forward.

How do you keep motivated in design ? 

I've put together a questionnaire based on key elements to Graphic Design. From your own experience and difficulties getting motivated through these aspects, could you answer the following questions.

• How do you generate ideas ? ( e.g Writing things down, drawing, browsing the internet)

• Do you use Adobe software to dictate your design work ?

• Do you Illustrate your ideas from either a reference or drawing straight onto paper ?

• What other fields of creative based media do you use ? ( e.g Photography, Painting, Illustration )

• Do you collect magazines, posters and any other visually appealing print based work ?

• Is it important to create a comfortable environment to work ? If so, why ?

• What websites do you visit regularly for inspiration ?

• When you see appealing typography, do you record it for future reference ?

• What other means of keeping motivated do you use ?

• Do you focus straight onto a final outcome OR keep pushing ideas forward ?

• Finally, What does Graphic Design mean to you ?

(Can't really make out peoples writing, bad scanning)