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Richard Robinson OUGD303

Module Evaluation

For the first time on a module I went into it knowing exactly what I wanted out of it, what work I wanted for my portfolio and how I’d be able to do it. All the way through the module I was more or less designing for the end of year shows. The idea that people would be wandering around, lots of people, and they might want to have a look at my work made me realise I wanted to do the best I could with presentation. The amount of time that went into these past few months was something I really stepped up a notch. Knowing and estimating how long things would take to produce was something I finally managed to get to grips with which made time management a hell of a lot easier but it still wasn’t spot on as there was things that naturally ran over.

On the subject of managing time I may as well talk about how I was managing the projects. For this module I pretty much multitasked nothing. The problem I have with multitask different styles of illustration is that cross over point where if I was drawing in one style for Back to the future and then I quickly did some Avengers after and vice versa I’d have a mixed up style because they’d fuse together. Seeing this as a possibility, I chose to carefully plan out large sections of time, usually up to the month and estimate the time it would take me to complete each task. 303 didn’t really start up until mid‐February for me what with dissertation and everything but once everything was planned out I really do feel like I hit the ground running and it doesn’t really feel like I’ve slowed down yet. I was reviewing time on a daily basis, I have and used a little pocket notebook that I’d plan the following days tasks, I printed off the calendars and pinned them up, drew over what I expected to gain each week. Planning was something I was taking very seriously; I knew I needed to complete the briefs.

Right from start I knew I was only aiming for three briefs but in all I’m happy with that. I feel that I gained a good enough selection to support my portfolio and a good amount of deliverables to match. The products that I had proposed to make I didn’t want to mock up. All the work that I was planning for this module was intended for print and I wanted to see it in that format. I guess I was tired of mocking things up, proposing ideas and I didn’t see the point of doing that anymore. I wanted to take my ideas OFF screen and actually make some product for once. In the past I have tried to avoid it where I can, the trouble more often than not is cost but for the final module of my degree I really wanted to just go ahead and do it, if nothing else, just as something I can look back on to say this is what I made for the end of my degree. Expensive souvenirs to be honest but especially for the design boards, I’m glad I had a range to photograph.

What I gained from making everything was a sense of how things work in context. How to made design on screen adapt for print and the stocks it would exist on. How black prints dark grey on Matt paper, how blacks and darker tones pop on satin but get washed out with reflection when printed on gloss. How your artwork will need to adapt and give way for folds on various thickness of stocks. A lot of these were picked up on in previous projects but what I could never have really planned for was the production time. Not because I had to remake things that wasn’t working or I made another because files didn’t print correctly – things just take so long to craft. And your limited as well. Even now, I’m sat up in my room typing this evaluation, it’s where 90% of the time I’m working, I’m surrounded my snacks and energy drinks, it’s a beautiful space. When it comes to crafting you can’t do that on a desk and what with the studios turning into a workshop this last month its been a little tricky getting enough space to work. And then there was some things with crafting that just took time, hours on end making bags, tags, the skateboards and then came the weather… The heat wave that’s rushing through recently has and is causing some big problems for my work. Everything is

spray mounted and when heat gets over that, its tendency to make everything peal isn’t good. Most of this is now resolved but I’m still having issues with the skate decks peeling at the curved edges.

Printing the comic book in brief one was a bit of an eye opener in terms of preparing documents for print. Not taking on a yearbook brief, this was something I felt I’d be missing out on with designer/printer communication but I found a local company in Leeds and the staff were more than helpful with talking me through the setup. You got the sense that they just loved to talk about their craft.

To end my experiences on the course, with this module is something that I’m really proud of for once. In past evaluations I’ve always been critical of myself, saying you should have done this, should have done that. In this module I feel like I’ve picked up on all those flaws and learnt from it. For the first time on this course I’m happy with what I’ve done and to end everything on that note is something I am really happy with. The style of illustration I’m working with it obviously always in development, I do wish I’d have gotten to this stage earlier in life but I think from this point forward I’ll be looking at how to really underpin a style that’s viable commercially and become something that can hopefully become cutting edge and really stand out, well that’s the plan anyway.

As I was saying above I really don’t feel like I’ve stopped this year and to be honest after being in that routine for so long I actually don’t want to stop now. The degree may be over but I don’t think self‐initiated briefs shouldn’t ever end if I want to develop my folio. My time on the degree has been a big of a roller coaster at times, I’ve been given the opportunity to try and test in so many areas of design where I’ve constantly being supported throughout in a way that I don’t think I would have found in any other course. Being around such a busy, stress induced environment for such a long time I never thought I’d say it but I’m going to miss the course a hell of a lot. It’s probably not the right place to write this but I guess since its being read anyway, I’d just like to thank all the members of staff within the department that gave me such brilliant support and guidance throughout all 3 years. I’ve always appreciated it and I just want to thank you for all the time you’ve given, and just for generally managing to put up with me for this long.