BEN HARWOOD OUGD 301 SELF EVALUATION One of the main skills that I feel I have learnt through this module is the skill to create stronger concepts on which to base my designing. I feel that through the Tungsten brief and the Chimie brief i spent a lot of time coming up with a concept that was well thought out and interesting. I think that i have applied these skills effectively through designing identities that directly communicated the concepts behind them. Another skill that i feel i have developed through this module is professionalism. Through working with a live client on a live brief I feel i have learnt a lot more about designing for the real world rather than simply for proposal. I think i have applied this skill effectively through aptly designing the identity, packaging and website for a client and successfully amending any changes that the client asked for. A further skill that i feel i have developed through this module is collaboration. Through working with another designer on a live project i feel like I have learnt to compromise over differences in opinion as well as working as a team to punctually meet tight deadlines with fast turn arounds. I feel that i have applied this skill effectively through the successfully completion
of a collaborative live brief on time and by remaining civil with my partner by the end of it. One of the main methods to design production that have developed over this module is web design. Through taught software sessions and personal practice i feel that my knowledge of design for web has increased drastically. This skill has informed my design development process highly; causing me to design every page of a website to go live for a client as well proposing websites for all of my final briefs. Another method of design production that i feel i have developed during this module is with regards to product photography. The combination of a taught session and personal practice has taught me that product photography is of paramount important and can completely change how a product looks. This has informed my design development process by not only considering how my products will photograph when designing them but also by teaching me to spend more time and take more care over product photography. A final approach to design production that i feel i have developed over this module is with regard to stock choice. I found that over this module i
tried and tested a lot more stocks than i would have ever done before and i think that his has positively improved my practice. A broader understanding of textures, weights and colours of stocks with a focus on how inks respond to them has heavily informed my design development process. A strength that i can identify within my work is that i have successfully developed a broad range of deliverables for each brief. I will capitalise on this strength by always striving to push a brief as far as it can go and creating as many relevant deliverables for an identity as possible. Another strength that I can identify within my work is my ability to come up with the names for products/brands. With Ryfe, Chimie, and Tungsten i feel that the name of the identity strongly informed the visual identity and concept of the brand and how it progressed. I will capitalise on this by taking on briefs in my final major project that allow for scope into name development. A further strength that I can I identify within my work is positively taking criticism. Previously i had designed a logo from the beginning and stuck with it for fear of changing it taking too long or ending up worse, but in this module i took on board the crit. feedback for my logo development in every instance and i feel that in turn this allowed me to end up with a better final resolution. I will capitalise on this strength by always continuing to develop my logo throughout a project and more importantly by taking crit. feedback on board rapidly and effectively. One weakness that i can identify within my work is the product photography. I feel that some of the products were not shown at their best light and that this may have hindered the full visual impact of some briefs. I will improve on this skill by spending more time on my product photography and by learning further about specific lighting techniques for the photography
of printed collateral. Another weakness that i can identify within my work is time management. By leaving the final product photography to the last minute i found that when i was unhappy with some of my product photos i was unable to re-take them before having to implement them onto my boards. I will improve on this by trying to print my final deliverables earlier so that they can, in turn, be photographed earlier. One thing i will do differently next time will be to print out material and explore with the different print processes earlier in the process, i expect to gain a better understanding of the print process through doing this and hopefully get some more informed resolutions. A second thing i will do differently next is that i will be more consistent with regards to my design context blog. I feel that in relation to design practice it was a bit malnourished and could be improved upon, by blogging more on my design context blog i feel that i will learn more as a designer and will be able to take more inspiration from other designers which will in turn improve my practice. A final thing that I will do differently next time will be not to juggle multiple briefs at once. Instead i aim to set my self shorter deadlines for each brief but only focus on that one brief. This will allow me to time manage very effectively but more importantly it will allow me to focus all of my attention on one topic allowing it to become more informed. Attendance - 5 Punctuality - 4 Motivaiton -4 Commitment - 4 Quantity of work produced -3 Quality of work produced - 4 Contribution to Group - 5