End of Module Student Evaluation BA (Hons) Illustration Module Code: OUIL503 Responsive Name: Siobhan Spencer Student ID: 254696 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 have researched practitioners, product and packaging trends, and brands to inform my work. Evidenced on my blog.
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)
Using roughs, sketches, media experimentation in my visual journals I have explored visual communication and image making techniques using a range of mediums. Evidenced on blog.
Very good
5C3: Respond to set briefs or proposals in a professional context. (Practical Skills - Visual Quality and Conceptual Development)
I have fulfilled the requirements of competition briefs and presented the development of my projects on design boards and my blog.
Very 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 have met the deadlines of set briefs by setting myself goals to make my projects progress. The collaborative project relied upon communication and organising roles for each team member, which enabled us to complete the brief before the deadline and to a high standard. Evidenced on blog.
Good
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 OUIL503 Project Report. Upon starting out on this module, I’d never properly considered the commerciality or professionalism of my work before. However, the competition briefs have required me to focus on this, considering the brand identities of the various clients and how my work could fit in with their aesthetics and values. It has been interesting trying to find this balance between my own practice and the client’s requirements; it has brought up lots of questions for me about if I want my work to be commercial, and the sorts of clients I would want to represent. During the UK Greetings and Grown Up Chocolate Company briefs, I have conducted research into existing products, picking up on trends and utilising this knowledge to produce contemporary designs of my own that are in-keeping with the market. I have also been influenced by practitioners and used them as inspiration in producing my own illustrations. I have found self-direction difficult throughout this module. I find that my practice is quite reliant on getting feedback so I have had to seek this out in order for my work to progress. The openness of some of the briefs stumped me a little and I didn’t finalise my concepts or designs early enough, relying on Photoshop to bring it together in some cases – particularly for the Batsford Prize and UK Greetings briefs. This doesn’t mean that my outcomes weren’t successful, just that I maybe wasted time using Photoshop when I could have had a clearer picture in mind beforehand. Despite this reliance on digital media, I have noticed that I have generally stayed true to a handmade aesthetic, choosing to produce the majority of my work with analogue media and using Photoshop to refine and compose the images. I have also found it difficult to maintain my own deadlines for certain briefs; I realised that I kept extending when tasks had to be completed by, struggling to be strict on myself. However, when things have gone badly, I have managed to alter my original plans to complete the work on time, while still fulfilling the brief. This perhaps meant that I didn’t produce the work that I had set out to, but I think it demonstrates an adaptability that I feel would be necessary in the context of industry. I do need to think about how realistic my goals are in relation to time constraints however, and plan out the stages of the project more precisely. OUIL503 has required me to consider the professionalism of my work, especially when submitting to YCN. I have learnt on my own how to produce digital mock ups of my designs (using templates found online), applying them to products, allowing me to see how my illustrations work in real world contexts. This has been a particularly rewarding part of the module – seeing the projects through from start to finish and being able to envisage my designs in the contexts in which they were intended. Working within a group for the collaborative brief was a rewarding experience as we utilised each of our skillsets to produce a cohesive body of work and I was able to see my design come to life in the form of packaging and a website, alongside my partners’ work. I think that I could have been more assertive at the start of the collaboration as I felt that I was being relied upon to get the project up and running but once we decided on specific roles, it started coming together. I’m also pleased that I came up with the concept of ‘hidden gems’, to allude to the mystery of the product as I think that this is what made the design unique, as opposed to representational cocoa bean illustrations.
I have used this module, particularly the Batsford Prize and Illustration 12” briefs, to explore creating abstracted images. I feel I have been quite experimental in producing outcomes for each of these projects, the openness of the briefs allowing me to do this. Creating visual responses to music was my favourite brief as I could be quite instinctual and spontaneous in my image making as it simply relied upon my interpretation of the tracks. Although I was considering how the designs would work in the context of the 12” format, it felt like a personal project, which loosened up my practice and allowed me to produce abstract visual motifs. I do wish that I had extended this into a larger brief as I feel that it could become an integral part of my practice and I really enjoyed testing out my visual communication skills.
Evaluation Guidance This should be a reflective summary of your experience across the module. -
How did it go? Where did your journey start, where did it end? I knew very little at the start of this module. At the end of the module I feel that…
-
What learning took place? What was useful to you? Be specific. New skills? New methods? New processes or approaches? Did you use the blog to reflect on your project development?
-
What went well and why? What did you enjoy? What were you happy with as an outcome? Be critical and analytical. Why did you enjoy it? Perhaps identify particular sessions? This could be ideas, solutions to problems, studentship or research. How well did you use the studio? Did you invest enough time in the development and testing of your outcomes?
-
What could you have done better? What were the problems you faced? What did you do to try to overcome them? This could be in reference to studentship, organization or blogging as much as studio practice.
-
How can you apply what you have learned here for future modules and projects? Application and future thinking. Things you would do differently next time? What useful methods, processes and ideas will you take forward into the next module?
You may also want to consider:
Self-questioning: How did your thoughts and opinions change as you progressed through the module? Feedback: What other people (tutors and peers) thought of work and how you responded to that feedback? Research: Did you use contextual research to inform your ideas, ways of thinking or understanding of the challenges set. This may include further research of your subject matter, slides from the presentations or use of the library.