BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN
LEVEL
05
Module Code
OUGD203
Module Title
DESIGN PRACTICE II//YCN COLLABORATION
END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION NAME
SOPHIE WILSON
BLOG. www.s-wilson1013.blogspot.com ADDRESS
1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? Aside from my design skills throughout the collaborative brief, I have learnt far more practical skillsabout how to work to a tight deadline, and, often, under difficult circumstances. Whilst working in a partnership, or within larger group projects in general, there are undoubted numerous positives, but also a great deal of compromise which can often be difficult, when you are managing the time of yourself as well as others, as I found myself doing a great deal of the time. I feel that I often got frustrated through the duration of the project as the collaboration itself, at times, didn’t always feel collaborative, and the rapport and work balance that I was hoping for at the start of the project wasn’t really sustained, with many late nights of trying to produce more work than I initially expected to have been doing. However, despite several stern or stressed occasions throughout the project, I hope that I dealt with these situations in as mature and responsible fashion as I could, and tried my best to always get on with work, and produce the best quality work I could given time constraints and various other factors. Working to a live competition brief was also a new, and exciting experience, and made me really reconsider my design process and how I work, and have found my design process to be far more logical, considered, and, hopefully, professional. 2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? Throughout the design process of the YCN brief, due to time constraints, a lot of our design outcomes were based upon the design “style” that I feel most comfortable with- vector-based illustration and iconography, which I feel was well suited to the style of the brief, and the promotion that we proposed. However, it was a good opportunity to also experiment with photo-manipulation and return to using Photoshop (something I used to do a lot in college, but not a great deal since starting University last year) and also experimenting with editorial/layout design through creating the three sets of design proposal boards throughout the projects duration. Again, editorial design isn’t something I have a great deal of experience with, and was appreciative of this chance to explore the discipline slightly more, and hopefully creating some considered and well- designed responses. 3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? Although it was often quite challenging, I think that I worked well under the pressure of the time constraints and difficulties within the working partnership, creating a moderately well-designed response to the brief, with a great quantity of design outcomes and considerations. Although perhaps
what I am most proud of within this YCN collaborative brief project was my concept development, which I haven’t been too confident with in the past. The concept of the ‘Working Lunch’ promotion seemed to be received well by my collaborative partner as well as other members of the BAGD group, and friends and family outside of the course that I discussed it with, to the point upon which it became the main focus of our project. Though there was certainly room for improvement, I feel that it was a definite improvement upon concepts in my University project portfolio to date, and I hope to continue to work on this and show a continued level of consideration and analysis.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I definitely let stress get the better of me at times throughout the project. Although I feel that a lot of my frustration was justified, I shouldn’t of let these issues get to me, and let them really “go over my head”. Negativity isn’t conducive for a good working environment, or to personal health and wellbeing, and I feel that this frustration may have had an affect on my work and outcomes both within, and outside of the project. In the next collaborative brief I set out on, I hope to be a lot more calm and just get on with my work, and take my responsibilities as seriously and professionally as possible. 5. Identify things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1. Try not to let the mood/emotions/motivation (or lack of…) of others affect my own. No matter what is happening in a collaborative brief, be it the relationships outside of the partnership, or the effect on the working relationship, work still needs to be done, and to the highest level possible. Other factors should not affect this. 2. Constantly seek and generate feedback to help create a more substantial and researched design response, where decisions can be made far more readily and without the need for several “drafts” or an unnecessarily long design development process. 3. Experiment with more design outcomes in terms of visual “styles” and consider how audiences would respond to these most effectively. 4. Start the design process a lot sooner. Although research and contextual development is a necessity, it is not the most important factor- the two should be kept in balance with one another to ensure that the best outcome(s) can be achieved.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (Please indicate using an ‘X’) 5= Excellent, 4 = Very good, 3 = Good, 2 = Average, 1 = Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Attendance X Punctuality X Motivation X Commitment X Quantity of work produced X Quality of work produced X Contribution to the group X The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.