BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN Module Code
OUGD601
Module Title
Context Of Practice
LEVEL
06
END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION NAME Melissa Hardcastle
1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? Throughout this module I think that my skills have developed, and in particular my research skills. Carrying out the amount of research necessary to inform my writing and practical elements, has encouraged me to take on a deepened sense of exploration within my research. I found myself going from source to source and researching topics and themes as much as possible. Developing my research skills has certainly helped me in terms of the requirements of this module. Heavily informed written work helped to influence my practical and made it clear how much the research helps to create and achieve the synthesis.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? One method of design production that has developed in this module is my craft skills and in particular, my packaging. Improving my craft skills enabled me to produce a hand cut and bound publication that documents the design decisions and synthesis between theory and practice. It was a good opportunity to explore different methods which include Japanese binding. Creating a box for the publication to go in was also a good chance to display craft skills as it proved to be a successful packaging experiment. The above have informed by development process as they helped me to conclude the work for the module and will be likely to inform my design development process in the future as they have taught me better ways of working.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? Within my work I think that the main strength that can be identified is that the work is all well rounded in terms of the synthesis. I feel that the practical works well with the written element and the two go hand in hand with one another. The publication accompanying the adverts that I produced is also something that I am proud of as it provides a detailed documentation of the design decisions and justifies why they were all necessary in achieving the synthesis required for this module. I am also really pleased because the practical element required a lot of thinking and therefore allowed me to explore my way of conceptual thinking. It also showed that I am capable of thinking in a certain way and forming a practical response based on a research project.