Semester Report Sian Rowley
1
Overview
3
contents
Performance Time Management
4-5
Research
7-8
Development
Progress Get Wired
12
Not Just Fleurons
14-15
M&S Plan A
16-17
Operations Professional practise & context
Summary
2
9-10
18-19 20
Overview One of the main changes in third year which I feel has worked in my favour is having a range of briefs to choose from, this gives me the opportunity to select a brief that I have a high level of interest in and can produce a format/outcome that will develop my skills and working practise in a particular subject area. I feel that I am more confident using InDesign and designing editorial pieces and dealing with body copies by using typographic hierarchies and paragraph styles. I think the main area I need to improve in is my software skills in Photoshop, as I have a basic knowledge and it prevents me from expanding my design outcomes. I would like to work with packaging in the next semester as its an area I haven’t got much experience and practise in. I feel that my strengths lie in research and developing an idea but my finals don’t seem as exciting as my development and this is an area I need to work in and progress.
3
Hello!
Performance
Time Management Time management is vital when working on a design brief, as you need to organise your time within the design process to meet the necessary requirements that your brief demands. I have learnt to split my workload into 4 stages: 1 2 3 4
Research – re sourcing the brief/problem Developing ideas – formulating your ideas Production process- presenting your work Refine, resolve and complete – final resolution
Splitting up my time into 4 stages allows me to work on each stage without spending too long on one area and rushing the final outcome. It also helps move through the brief, as I know what steps to take in order to reach the final outcome. Stage 1 Mapping out the demands of the brief to identity its context, target audience and the problems that need solving as well as relevant design/designers is the first step in researching into the brief highlighting what information you need to develop your ideas to the next stage. Stage 2 Mapping ideas/concepts through notes and visuals, analysing this to take the right idea forward and develop the concept. Stage 3 Production process getting you ideas on screen, allowing you to refine and resolve your idea as you can print and edit your concept. Stage 4 Presenting a final resolution that demonstrates your own direction and understanding of the briefs requirements. Final outcomes produced to a professional standard and demonstrate a creative response and appropriate for its purpose.
4
Following this process has benefited me so far in my third year as I have allowed more time for the presentation of my work and the final outcomes, which in the previous year used to be an after thought therefore rushed. I think this is evident in my work as the final outcomes are presented at a more professional standard especially in my M&S brief as I am allowing more time for this stage. In order to achieve this I have been more decisive in my decision making in stage 2 allowing me to have as much time as possible on the idea, rather than trying out a few ideas and having to rush the final pieces when the ideas aren’t fully resolved. This gives me more opportunity to resolve and refine my idea in stage 3 therefore producing a better piece of design. Being decisive also applies to the selection of a brief, so far this year we have been able to choose which briefs we want to do from a range of possible briefs, I have learnt that you could easily waste time over choosing a brief which would eat into your time scale, therefore being decisive and selecting a brief that I have a high level of interest in, can produce a format/outcome that will develop my skills and will give the enthusiasm to start developing ideas and see me through the brief.
To be desicive when selecting a brief as stalling will eat into your time scale.
key points learnt: Allow sufficient time at the end of a brief for presentation and printing.
Organistation is key to producing a well thought-out piece and designed piece of work to meet a deadline.
stage 1
Successful and unsuccessful demonstrations of time management. For example I selected the not just fleuron’s brief out of a range of ISTD competition briefs. I found it the most interesting and I had a range of ideas that I wanted to explore that I could apply to this particular brief, such as making a booklet and making visuals using type. I felt that my choice for this brief would enhance my portfolio as I hadn’t fully explore the booklet format in previous briefs also it meant I could explore using type in an area I was interested in. The Get Wired brief shows evidence of how my work was less successful due to time management and not being decisive. Within the time period we had I felt that I had under gone sufficient experimentation and explored a range of techniques although I would have liked to take it further. I had developed a range of outcomes, which had potential to be taken through to the later stages of the project, I feel that I selected the wrong idea to take forward, also I had spent too much time on experimentation that I didn’t allow enough time for the 5 execution. final
stage 2
stage 3
stage 4
i feel more
confident
working on a brief due to developing my organisation and time management skills 6
Research Researching is an important factor in the development process and provides you with valuable inspiration and guidance in producing work that is up to date, to a professional standard and it creates an informed starting point. Mapping out the demands of the brief to identity its context, target audience and the problems that need solving is the first step in researching into the brief highlighting what information you need to develop your ideas to the next stage. I have also learned that research plays an important part in selecting a brief as it allows you to make an informed decision about which one to take forward and how it will benefit you and develop your design skills. As well as researching designers I have also found out that depending on the brief research maybe required into the background of companies so that you can learn about their identity and also gain new ideas, for example when I had to create a new identity for Plan A for M&S research into the company was vital to see what their target audience was, the company values and their existing identity. When you have an open brief researching also helps you make design decisions about the direction you want to take, as it makes you put in place boundaries and you can narrow down the brief helping you towards your starting point. Organising and presenting your research is fundamental to create an informed starting point as you need to refer back to it on a regular basis I have also found that making notes on the pieces of design that you have found is also beneficial as it allows you to take in why you selected it, what it is you like about it, how it is relevant to your brief and what you can take away from it for example apply the style or techniques used in your own brief.
7
I feel that without research my briefs would lack direction and I would struggle for creative inspiration to start the brief. I have learnt that research consists of looking at other designers and graphic design that is relevant to your briefs subject and the format you want to produce through a variety of sources such as the internet, blogs, my own books and books from the library. I have also created a folder within my Internet browser to store all the useful websites/design groups/ graphic designers that I find so that I have an instant starting point and reference guide.
Key Points learnt:
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• Researching is an important factor in the development process • Research has to be relevant to your briefs subject to benefit you. • Organising and presenting your research is fundamental to create an informed starting point. • Making notes on research is an important part of the process to outline what you have learnt and how you are going to apply it. • Selecting a brief that allows you to develop new skills to be interested and enthusiastic enough to see it through.
Performance
Development Developing an idea allows you to get all your initial ideas down whether they would prove to be successful or unsuccessful as you may be able to adapted these ideas or take one feature of it forward. Mind mapping ideas and visual concepts is an important factor of the design process as it allows you to go through and make decisions on what should be taken forward and developed. One of the main aspects that I have learnt so far this year is to be more decisive and take forward one of my ideas as soon as possible as it gives me a longer time to spend on developing it rather than taking too much time coming up with a lot of ideas that the idea I select wouldn’t have under gone sufficient development. Obviously having a range of ideas is an important factor to designing, and I feel that I have learnt the correct balance from my time management skills. I have found out also that the sooner I get my ideas into practise on screen for example, the easier I find it to develop and produce a range of possible outcomes, this is because my level of drawing development is poor and I do a lot of rough sketches therefore having it on screen allows me to see my work at a higher visual standard which I can develop easier. Also recording/ printing all on screen ideas and development is necessary to show your development process and see ideas when printed where issues such as colour could be raised.
9
I’ve also learned that at this stage to experiment with materials and techniques, a new material that I’ve experimented with is wire to create a typeface in the Get Wired Brief, my typeface (wasting time the ultimate office pursuit) has successful and unsuccessful aspects. I think its successful as it’s unique, explores the form of a paperclip, proved to be legible and I was able to produce the whole alphabet from it. I felt it could have been more successful if each letter had used the original shape and area of the paperclip this made some letters such as the ‘k’ not as successful, it meant that the letters were different sizes which made it less legible. From developing ideas I have learnt that your final idea can end up being quite far away from your initial ideas for example in the Not Just Fleurons brief, the initial idea behind my work was to create media to support a garden party this then developed onto looking at drinks and how you can utilize your garden to dress and make beverages. After researching this area I felt the idea was too specific and I wanted to open it up but stay along the same lines, my idea developed into foraging and what can be collected and the uses you can put it to. I feel that my final execution clearly defines my idea as I created two booklets in one, one side providing information on the plants that can be foraged and the other side including recipes for the plants mentioned in the previous book.
Problem Solving Problem solving is one of the main factors in developing an idea, I have found writing down and clearly highlighting the briefs demands is key to producing design that is appropriate to intention and context. In the Not Just Fleurons brief these are the problems that I faced the typographic issues that needed to be resolved within my concept were presenting information such as recipes and facts. I resolved this by creating a typographic hierarchy, which could be applied to both sets of information through paragraph styles in InDesign. This consisted of headings, sub-headings and pull quotes, which helped break up and clearly present the information. As most pages included an introduction paragraph I decided to increase the weight of the copy as it was getting lost with the existing body copy, this gave a clear definition. I wanted to use typography to visually illustrate my work, to create patterns, foraging goods and illustrate words. I made these relate and work together by using the same font and textured background to create the visuals; I applied a different colour scheme to each book to show a clear definition of the two information types.
Key Points learnt: • To be more decisive and take forward one of my ideas as soon as possible as it gives me a longer time to spend on developing it. • I have found writing down and clearly highlighting the briefs demands is key to producing design that is appropriate to intention and context.
10
“
Mind mapping ideas and visual concepts is an
important factor
of the design process as it allows you to go through and make decisions on what should be taken forward and developed
”
11
Progress
Get Wired Successful elements My visual imagery was structured to navigate the placement of my type to create the poster that I wanted of a desk/office environment. The final execution of the poster directly communicates with the intended audience, as the visual imagery used of a desk links with the typography and the quote of procrastination and this illustrates how my font could be used in the real world within an office or stationary environment.
Unsuccessful elements The text on my final poster had a spelling error, from this I learned to print off a low quality version in b&w to proof read and get someone else to proof before the final execution in future briefs. The poster could have been more visually exciting and interesting if I had created more of a realistic scene than a staged one, which could have been more hectic and untidy.
What I’ve learnt in this brief The three important things I have learnt from this brief is to experiment with materials and photography for as long as possible within a brief as it opens up various possible outcomes and ideas. I have developed my Photoshop skills, as I’ve learnt new techniques and skills in this area. Time management has also been an area in which I have improved in as I went with one idea and it wasn’t successful therefore i had to develop and produce a new outcome close to the deadline which wasn’t refined or resolved. From this brief I feel my confidence in experimenting with materials has increased although i need to improve on how I uswe these within final pieces of design.
key points learnt: 12
• Experiment with materials and photography for as long as possible • Photoshop skills • Time Management skills • Proof/spell check work before printing
13
Progress
Not Just Fleurons Successful elements
The typographic issues that needed to be resolved within my concept were presenting information such as recipes and facts. I resolved this by creating a typographic hierarchy, which could be applied to both sets of information through paragraph styles in InDesign. This consisted of headings, sub-headings and pull quotes, which helped break up and clearly present the information. As most pages included an introduction paragraph I decided to increase the weight of the copy as it was getting lost with the existing body copy, this gave a clear definition. I wanted to use typography to visually illustrate my work, to create patterns, foraging goods and illustrate words. I made these relate and work together by using the same font and textured background to create the visuals; I applied a different colour scheme to each book to show a clear definition of the two information types. I think that my booklet is visually interesting and engaging due to how I have applied typography visually to illustrate the pages, and the colour and texture that has been applied to these to make them really stand out and engage the viewer.
Unsuccessful elements Front cover wasn’t visually engaging and wasn’t in keeping with the illustrations throughout the booklet, which let the overall aesthetics down. I think the language used to illustrate the recipe book could have been more thought out and relate to the particular pages in a more interesting way. Also if I had more time I would consider the use of photography of nature and related imagery to foraging to create textured backgrounds such as grass and close ups of hedgerows etc.
14
Booklet design Typographic hierarchies
Grids/Layout
key points learnt:
What ive learned in this brief Typographic hierarchies is an important aspect that I learnt from this brief as I had to deal with various types of information, which needed to be broken down into headings, sub-headings, introductions, pull quotes, lists and main text. I achieved this through selecting a font that had a range of font styles and combined this with the use of colour and creating paragraph styles in InDesign. Creating and working with a grid is vital to accomplish a good piece of editorial design as it allows you to design with a structure as you can easily line up text boxes, headings and imagery. Importing imagery from illustrator and placing it in InDesign was another factor that I have learnt in this brief, as you need to save it as a .eps file which will show in low resolution on your document allowing your program to work faster but will show the high quality of your image in print preview. Printing and presenting a Z spined booklet was a new format that I explored working with to produce my final execution.
15
Indesign skills – paragraph styles, page numbering
Progress
M&S Plan A Successful Elements I needed to create a clear simple visual identity for the campaign for a wide target audience that could be applied to various media throughout the company. Therefore I needed to communicate to the customers in an exciting and positive way to encourage them to work along side M&S to be more efficient and recycle. I feel that I achieved this through use of language, by giving examples of interesting facts of what recycled goods can be turned into and also how they could save money. The outcomes of the brief I feel have enough visual interest for its intended purpose and clearly shows that it would fit in with the company’s already existing identity and could be developed and adapted across all departments of the store. I feel that it does meet the demands of the brief and I am happy with the outcomes I selected, in store signage, tags, shelf borders, bags for life and carrier bags, it could be improved by showing how my concept could be applied even further, for example a spread for the M&S magazine, web page and window displays.
Unsuccessful Elements An area that could be improved is to show the signs, shelf boarders and tags working in-store, to achieve this I would need to photograph M&S stores and Photoshop me work into place. This would give you a sense of how they would work within a store and its surroundings.
16
What I have learnt from the brief I needed to create a clear simple visual identity for the campaign for a wide target audience that could be applied to various media throughout the company that fitted in with their existing identity. Therefore I needed to communicate to the customers in an exciting and positive way to encourage them to work along side M&S to be more efficient and recycle. I feel that I achieved this through use of language, by giving examples of interesting facts of what recycled goods can be turned into and also how they could save money. I also developed my presentation skills for this brief as I presented it showing in most cases three different colour schemes and also used footers and the bottom of each communication board with the M&S logo and a heading for the work, this made the work more professional and presentable, similar to how it would be
presented in the real world. From this brief I feel more confident using hand rendered imagery, this is a aspect that I would usually stay away from as my drawing skills are poor. But by scanning it in and editing it on screen, this meant I could combine it with digital elements to fit in with my design, it added a better aesthetic quality than using flat vector images. To develop this I kept going back and forth developing on paper then screen to get the right hand drawn imagery.
key points learnt: • Incorporating hand rendered imagery. • Working with an existing identity but not letting it overpower your work. • Presenting work professionally.
17
Operations
Professional Practise & Context CV
A CV is there to promote yourself to your potential employer and show how you would be suitable for the job. It needs to be interesting, no more than 2 pages long and engage with the viewer to hold their attention so that they read the whole document and don’t get bored, as they most likely would have a lot to go through so it needs to stand out. A cover letter should also be attached and would highlight your unique selling point and be tailored to the job you are applying for. It should be targeted for the specific job or career that you are applying for and bring out the relevant skills you have to offer. It should be professionally presented, clearly laid out, not hand written and thoroughly checked for grammar and spelling mistakes.
Portfolio Websites Portfolio websites are used to show your work and should be aesthetically pleasing as well functional allowing the viewer to navigate with ease through the site. Your website should be there to showcase your work and you as a designer, therefore should include an about me and contact information. The prospective viewer potentially a future employee may not spend that long viewing your site therefore it needs to create a good impression and be visually engaging and simple to use, you also need to consider the URL address as it needs to be simple and practical.
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My Site
Work Placement
Academic Writing
Work placement is a vital asset to your CV, portfolio, experience and career as it shows your keen in the subject area and willing to learn and develop your skills and also you’ve got experience. Going on work placement has many advantages the main one being that you gain and broaden your experience working within a company, with clients and in a design team all factors that you don’t get from being a student which could result in you getting a full time job . It will also give you an insight into being a graphic designer giving you an informed decision, if it’s the right job and career choice for you and it could provide you with the inspiration you need to stick with it and develop as a designer. Work placement could build your confidence as a designer showing that you can do it at a good level but it could also knock your confidence if you have a bad experience, and it wasn’t the right placement for you, in this case you should try and get a range of placements with different companies to see what environment works best for you. Therefore you will know what kind of company and environment you will want to work in and apply for in the future.
How to thoroughly research a subject area, through various sources such as the Internet and books and how it leads onto new areas to broaden your subject and to critically analyze it. Organization is another area that I have developed through professional context highlighting and organizing a research folder to make it relevant and assessable. Academic writing is another aspect that’s improve through practise.
Key Points learnt:
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• The content of a CV needs to contain appropriate qualifications, achievements and job history. • CV’s should be positive and concise, to emphasize your skills and what you have to offer. • Work placement is a vital asset to your CV, portfolio, experience and career. • Your website should be there to showcase your work and you as a designer. • Portfolio websites are used to show your work and should be aesthetically pleasing as well functional allowing the viewer to navigate with ease through the site.
Summary One of the main changes in third year which I feel has worked in my favour is having a range of briefs to choose from, this gives me the opportunity to select a brief that I have a high level of interest in and can produce a format/outcome that will develop my skills and working practise in a particular subject area.
The increase of what ive learnt in the past 3 months
presentation of work
time management research
Typo hiera graphic rchie s
n esig
e pr
working with grids
dev elo
InD
s se
n
tio
a nt
developing ideas
pin
g
photoshop skills not making finals as exciting as development
Moving forward 20
Goodbye! 21