BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN Module Code
OUGD403
Module Title
DESIGN SKILLS
LEVEL
04
END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION NAME
Adam Garbutt
1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? Throughout this module I’ve developed better group communication skills, especially when it came to idea generation and helping to organise the group, I felt a lot more confident in been vocal about what my ideas were. This been the same for group organisation. (Communication is a Virus) I did however in (Design is about Doing) get to develop my illustration skills and again in (Speaking from Experience) when I was drawing my icons for the Smart Student guide for: Food shopping and because of this, they were put to good use and developed to create a look for each one completely independent of each other. With the InDesign brief I was able to stretch my editorial skills, which I’m starting to feel really comfortable with using.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? I attempted to create my (Speaking from Experience) design solution by being as resourceful as I could be, I used a notebook from the library which I then printed onto for the pages which I could then just slot back in which saved me an incredible amount of time. Although this wouldn’t work for all briefs I did find it very useful. I also discovered foiling using the laminator, which in the end gave my final product a lot higher finish rather than just laser printed and I don’t think I would have designed it the way I did without it because the pattern I designed on the front was design to make most use of the foiling which was applied on after it. 3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? A strength I think I discovered would possibly be collecting data and organising it, this is what totally informed my Speaking from experience product, collecting all the data from each shop took a lot of time but in the end I realised just how useful so much information can be and how it really does impact your design. It’s something I now want to capitalise on and make the most use of. I would also say my InDesign and Illustrator skills really helped me on this module It came in really handy to be able to vectorise over 90 illustrations quickly and import them hastily into InDesign, I feel like I’m really getting a good hand with InDesign the more and more I use it. I’ve also found I feel a lot more comfortable with it on a small screen.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? One that did identify was trying to figure out what point size to use for my InDesign spread, I found it hard to know just how big it would print out on paper when It did do it was slightly too big meaning I had to add more body copy in. Also another weakness I found was when working in the group I found it hard to be able to produce as much work as we were limited by what we were doing, It felt more I was doing work for the sake of it. 5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? -
1: Next time I’ll try and produce a lot more when It comes to group work, or find away for us to be able to produce more. I want to be able to have a range of material instead of a very limited plate of options. What I expect to gain from this is experience in working with multiple different aspects with a project in a group, I hope I’d be able collaborate more because of this and work better with people.
-
2: When printing text, always use the laser printer, I found using my ink jet made all my text bleed in my final product which was really disappointing so It’s something I’ll now always make sure.
-
3: I’ll make sure I blog my production as I go, I been feeling a lot more comfortable blogging now, by doing this I hope I don’t get as behind on work with a backlog of blogs. I find it hard to manage doing design sheets and doing blog posts, if I do one I lack in the other I find.
-
4: Seek other methods of production, I feel like I’m relying on the same methods, laser and inkjet and I’d really like to explore different methods such as print screening. What I expect to gain from this is experience in different fields and knowledge on how to actually do it.
-
5: I also want to outsource new and different stocks of paper, the Ultramarine paper I used in my final product on the notebook I found to be slightly too thin, although I had to make do I’d really like to print onto better stock that’s slightly thicker to give it a more sturdier feel as It was a bit too flimsy I found. But I’d want to this be brought across the board, hopefully achieving a higher print quality.
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 X X
5
Attendance Punctuality X Motivation X Commitment X Quantity of work produced X Quality of work produced X Contribution to the group The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions
relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.