design practise

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

end of module self evaluation

I am generally pleased with the outcomes that I have produced throughout this module, most of them anyways, however I feel that I have been let down massively by time management with a lot of my briefs not reaching the potential that they could of reached. However I have made mass improvements design-wise during this module, my main intention for this module was to fully develop my type and layout skills by choosing type heavy briefs based on areas that I would of liked to improve. I have began to care a lot more about type and layout within my design work which I feel has helped improve my outcomes massively.

Working collaboratively has been one of things that have helped improve my design skills massively, taking on board ways of approaching design work by others, sharing skills and helping each other in the areas that we are not completely comfortable in, mine being type and layout which I have a learnt a lot of from working with Michael.

Another area which let me down massively however was my choice of briefs, I originally intended on choosing briefs which would allow a lot of creative freedom for outcomes allowing my to be completely experimental with my design work. However in the end I decided to settle for live briefs over the fun creative briefs, meaning most of my outcomes for this module have been very corporate lead, designing things that are fit for purpose over designing for aesthetics. Which is where in the future I need to improve, I need to find the balance between design for purpose and design for aesthetics in order to fully develop my graphic design work and come out of the course with a strong aesthetically pleasing portfolio.

I also need to improve my time management skills dramatically, this module has been a huge wake up call for me in terms of my organisation, not knowing when to end briefs as well as not allocating enough time to start and finish others has left me really stressed over the past few weeks trying to pull together all the work I have done into outcomes. Next module I really need to keep on top of this if I want to improve my grades, I say it at the end of every module, but things like blogging as I go along so it doesn’t all pile up at the end causing a lot of unnecessary stress, starting projects at the word go instead of messing around doing little bits for a few weeks and then stressing to produce the final outcomes in time.

My strengths within this module have been concept development, coming up with ideas for projects and developing them to produce really strong outcomes. Also I feel I have developed my type and layout skills over the past few months to say that this has been a huge strength for me, type being the main focal point for this module and by the end I feel for some of my briefs I have produced some of my best work up to date.

Next module I really need to choose my briefs more wisely, choosing subject areas that I am interested as well as a range of different briefs so I don’t get bored doing similar corporate work 4 times over. I feel this module has helped set a grounding as to where I would like to take my practice, designing more for designers rather than corporate design, meaning I can have fun and be inventive with my outcomes, I feel the area that I would like to take my practice would be design for the cultural circuit, allowing me to be creative with my outcomes and have fun with each brief.