End of Module Student Evaluation BA (Hons) Illustration Module Code: OUIL502 PPP Name: Shelly Kaur Student ID: SK254299 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
5A3: Demonstrate an informed understanding of professional context of their practice within the creative industries and cultural environment. (Knowledge & Understanding - Research and Critical Awareness)
I feel as though this has been evidenced on my blog through research and evaluation into the different specialisms of the industries and where I believe my practice sits within this. This is also evident within Study Tasks carried out.
Very good
5B2: Identify and analyse the challenges and opportunities offered by future developments within individually appropriate areas of creative practice. (Cognitive Skills - Problem Analysis, Problem Solving)
I feel as though I have effectively shown good problem solving skills through responding to given briefs and working to a set of requirements/ constraints. I also solved more specific problems encountered such as having to find an alternate after not receiving responses from the individuals I initially contacted.
Very good
5C2: Develop a body of work in response to a defined brief that effectively demonstrates professional working practices in research, planning and communications. (Practical Skills - Visual Quality and Conceptual Development)
I have evidenced the development of my practice Very Good on my blog and have explored ways in which this can be applied in a real-life context. One of the most effectively ways I found to do this was to mock things up. They have enabled me to better visualise what my work could look like. Furthermore, I have evidence within blogging my development in terms of processes and materials.
5D2: Employ a range of appropriate professional communication methods to record and present their own creative practice, concerns and ambitions. (Key Transferable Skills, Organisation,
I tried to effectively organise my time throughout the other modules (as well as this one) and have evidenced on my ppp blog my thoughts and feelings about this. I also talk about the experience of collaborating and Life’s a Pitch which were key in the development of my transferable skills and communication skills.
Very Good
Communication and Evaluation)
Summative Evaluation (See Evaluation Guidance on next page for more information) You are required to write a 750 word Summative Evaluation of this module. Please type up your Summative Evaluation in the box below. Make a PDF of the document and post the PDF as your final post on your OUIL503 blog. Also, please cut and paste the text from this box into the final page(s) of your OUIL502 Project Report. At the end of first year I wasn’t particularly sure where my practice sat within the industry. I had a lot of fun over the course of the year- playing and experimenting and try to focus more specifically at what I wanted my work to look like as well as what sort of tone I wanted it to communicate. This year has been more focused on applying my illustrations in context and has resulted in a development of the professionalism of my practice. I now feel more strongly that this is what I should be doing as a career, and feel more confident about this life choice. This year has been a lot more stressful, but simultaneously very enjoyable as I felt more that I knew what I was doing. We learnt a lot about the fundamentals of image-making in Visual Language last year, and I was able to actually apply what I’d learnt to my practice more this year. Most of the stress was a result of having to juggle so many different modules at the same time. Due to not being particularly good at time management I found myself leaving things to the last minute a lot which could have potentially affected the quality of my work. It was really interesting seeing a comparison between the work I made last year and what I have produced this year whilst constructing my Creative Strategy (presentation). I didn’t think it had changed much but now seeing it side by side has made me realise I’ve come really far in terms of the quality and content. My work last year seemed to just be a bit ‘cute’ and somewhat silly, however this year I’ve pushed myself to create work that has a more serious tone or is simply more informed- resulting in a higher standard of work and also a bit of a boost in my confidence in my ability to communicate through visuals. I can now see how my practice could exist within the industry and I think this is partly due to looking more thoroughly into the application of my work, during our Applied Illustration module and also PPP. I have discovered that my work fits best within the Retail and Packaging specialism. The tone of a lot of it is quite playful and light-hearted which I think lends itself well to being applied to paper products such as greeting cards and gift-wrap and also homeware and packaging. I was able to explore this through my submission for the UK Greetings competition in Responsive (produced a set of greeting cards and wrapping paper) and my self-directed 505 project (produced designs for coffee cups). My interest in packaging design was mostly a result of discovering the work of Caleb Heisey. Researching and analysing the work of practitioners within this module has given me more motivation and has inspired me, thus driving forward my practice. One thing I have discovered that I really enjoy doing is mocking things up. I recently discovered Graphic Burger and find that make mock ups of my work has been extremely useful. They help me to visualize better how my work fits within a real-life context and have opened my eyes to the idea of setting up an Etsy Shop to sell my work. I was worried about doing this due to a bit of a lack of confidence- I wasn’t sure whether my people would actually like my work and buy it, but now seeing it applied to products has changed my view on this. I have also realised through talks given by professionals and my Creative Report interview how important social media is as a platform to showcase work. I need to look into this further as this could gain me more recognition and subsequently, more clients, allowing me to monetise my skills and help me to be able to fulfill illustration as a career.
Collaboration was a really great experience for me. I love meeting and talking to new people and thrive off other people’s energy. I was really fortunate with my group as we all seemed to get on very well and found that our work has similar elements- resulting in easy and effective decision making and ideas generation. We could all offer different skills and knowledge and brought these together to produce what I feel was a really strong outcome to be submitted for the YCN Royal Opera House brief. Responsive was generally quite a useful module for me as it gave me a better insight as to what real-life briefs could be like, and how to respond to them. Lastly, in terms of contacting professionals, I found this experience really quite stressful and was a bit unfortunate with regards to receiving replies as the individuals I emailed were too busy to answer my questions at the moment – though they did say that could answer them at some point (after the deadline) which will still be interesting and useful. To solve this problem, I acted on my initiative and proceeded to make my way down to Colours May Vary in Leeds and carried out a brief interview with Andy Gray (one of the founders)- who were also on my list of possible people to contact. It was really great hearing him talk so passionately about his job and he gave me some really great advice, the most useful being to ‘pursue what you want to do’- which I now know for certain, is Illustration.