OUIL503 End of Module Evaluation

End of Module Student Evaluation BA (Hons) Illustration Module Code: OUIL503 Responsive Name: Megan Swan Student ID: ms259646 Please identify where the evidence for each of the learning outcomes is within your submission and how well you feel you have met the learning outcomes. Please also grade yourself in relation to the learning outcomes using terms: poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent (Note - This is so that the team have an understanding of how well you feel you have done. It is not an indication of the actual grade you may receive.)

Learning Outcome

Evidenced where?

Blog, Visual Journal, Roughs, Final Illustrations, Storyboards, Development Sheets etc. (No more than 75 words)

Your grade Using words: > poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent

5A4: Make appropriate use of a range of research methods to investigate a topic and produce work relating to the critical, cultural or social context of art and design. (Knowledge & Understanding Research and Critical Awareness)

I’d say that I’ve made use of a range of research methods across all of the live briefs, these are documented on my blog and on the ‘Research’ sections of my design boards and project report.

Consistently researching has informed my concepts & designs, particularly for collaborative and the Penguin book covers.

Very Good

5B3: Generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions and/or arguments using the language, materials, processes and techniques of a designated discipline. (Cognitive Skills - Problem Analysis, Problem Solving)

Problem solving for me is something I tend to do Very Good without thinking, which has sort of come from years of working under various pressures and independent thinking. I like to challenge myself because it’s rewarding when I do solve a problem.

Demonstrated by my choice to tackle YCN UK Greetings and Rural Ranges - I hadn’t worked on briefs like these before. Evidence in the sketchbook (on the blog) and frequent blogposts about problems I’ve encountered along the way.

5C3: Respond to set briefs or proposals in a professional context.

(Practical Skills - Visual Quality and Conceptual Development)

After tackling 6 very different project, I’ve got a broader understanding of how to tackle professional briefs. Demonstrated by my roughs on the blog - deciding the appropriate process for each brief, dependent on timeframe, guidelines and intended application of the work. E.g. for the collaboration brief I worked with my team to develop a strong concept across different media to be applied to a variety of platforms. The concept had to be strong and the visual quality had to reflect this with professionalism.

Good

5D3: Exercise selfmanagement skills in managing their workloads and meeting deadlines/ apply interpersonal and social skills to interact with others. (Key Transferable Skills, Organisation, Communication and Evaluation)

I’ve been able to grasp the general process of Very Good answering a brief and how to determine how much time is appropriate for each stage, dependent on the brief guidelines. I’ve learnt a lot about managing my own projects, whether that’s to share with a team or for individual submissions.

The resolutions for the Collaborative brief demonstrates good levels of team work as we were able to tie the project together nicely, despite their being 4 different people.

Summative Evaluation (See Evaluation Guidance on next page for more information) At the start of this module I was ignorant of the benefits of professional skills such as project management, interpersonal abilities, presentation and decisiveness. Now, 6 live briefs later, I feel as though my entire way of thinking about projects has changed and become more organised.

Creating design boards, for example, stresses the importance of the equal balance of each element of the design process: research, roughs, development, outcomes and application. Now that I have a stronger understanding of how I should balance my time I can get to work quicker and I know how to organise my time.

Over the course of this module I’ve had the chance to further develop some of my practical skills, such as traditional printing processes and digital work (e.g. photoshop competence and using a wacom). This will no doubt strengthen my practice as a whole for future creative endeavours. On top of this, I’ve learnt key project management skills that I will need to succeed in the creative industry; such as taking ‘minutes’ of meetings to later refer to and to track progress (Studio Brief 2), the benefits of time planners and sticking to them’, I discovered that (particularly with my Penguin covers and Collaborative Practice) I planned allotted days to specific tasks to reduce stress levels and increase likelihood of successfully submitting a good entry, and by not sticking to the planner means things snowball quickly and I end up frantically tying loose ends before submitting, such as for the YCN UK Greetings submission, or things become unbalanced, such as the three different covers I designed for Penguin.

I had the chance to work on my interpersonal skills: negotiation, listening skills, decision-making and assertiveness - whether this was with myself, with my collaborators or with a client (Rural Ranges). I regularly used my blog to reflect on problems that arose here.

Problem-solving was a big part of this module, as each brief is a problem in itself, and each one proffered unique issues to overcome. I found this process thoroughly rewarding and beneficial to my practice and designs, as even though spanners in the works were irritating it gave me the chance to learn from them.

An example of this would be in Studio Brief 2, I suggested to my group that we screen print some of the A2 posters of the UK, mainly for the textures, being able to then photograph them and I suppose for my own selfish desires because I enjoy screen-printing. However, mid-screen-print we realised we were creating a lot of work for ourselves, when logically the Royal Opera House (ROH) would much prefer digital files that they can scale up and down, so vector files made more sense for this specific brief.

However, I span it on it’s head and suggested to the group that by screen-printing a selection of the posters we were demonstrating to YCN and the ROH that we were dedicating our time and energy to this project. In turn, showing them the benefits of traditional print and cheaper possibilities for them to print these posters. Not only could they then work as digital adverts in new bus shelters but also pasted to walls as physical posters. Although I was initially worried about problems revealing themselves, in the long-run they are more rewarding because it offers opportunities to adapt to the situation and learn new skills.

One of the significant parts of this module, for me at least, was developing a professionalism within our practice. Such as the presentation boards we had to create for submission to competitions, for this module and for pitches in peer reviews. The design boards gave me a chance to observe my work from a more distant and objective point, I was particularly taken aback by seeing my resolutions. Seeing them in a professional context, I felt proud of the finals for each brief because they looked slick and competent. It also made me view it from an outsiders perspective, such as a client. I’ve now got the skills to concisely display my work to potential clients. Learning what is appropriate for different circumstances has been a big step, one which I’m sure will inform all future presentation of work. For example, deeming what is pertinent for the context, like the text/image ratio and how much explanation is necessary.

Another professional skill I’ve managed to evolve would be my time management, such as working out a good project balance. I did not begin the YCN UK Greetings project until it was nearing the deadline, I knew that I wanted to complete for the benefits to my individual creative journey (applying illustrations to products is the route I’m taking at the moment), however, because of poor organisational skills I left it to the last moment to identify and then begin it. Alternatively, I could say that this pressure prompted an assertiveness and drive that otherwise may not have come about, and it really informed my UK Greetings submission. It’s also more realistic to industry standards and brief turnaround.

My overall general impression of this module is that it’s been thoroughly profitable for my professional growth, because I feel as though my way of thinking has been re-written so that I now view every new brief as a problem to be solved and completed, and that I can do this efficiently if I follow the key steps highlighted by the design boards. It’s also prompted a self-esteem boost, mainly because I now understand that I can offer designs that are original and worthy. This is basically a result of having to be different to make my illustration have a prominence.