OUGD503- Summative Evaluation / Module Evaluation

Overview Evaluation

Throughout the responsive module I have covered a variety of briefs that have challenged me in different ways. I have partaken in competition briefs and live briefs and have enjoyed both for different reasons. 

The collaborative brief was one of my favourites in regards to competition briefs because I enjoy working with others. I find the responsibilities that come with working with someone else helps me to focus and perform to the best of my ability to get the best out of the brief. I feel my crafting skills have improved vastly from conducting experiments and trying out paper crafting. This was a technique that was new to me and I found really interesting and engaging. This makes me think I would like to further explore this in the future.

The individual brief was a bit of a disappointment overall. I found it really difficult to visualise my concept as it was all proposed and required me to mock-up my designs. I realised my software skills are not at the level that I want them to be so I am going to address this over the summer period to allow me to finish visuals to a professional standard. I messed up my time management on his project and didn't allow myself the time to do the brief justice. I still need to improve my analysis of briefs to break it down to identify a specific target audience to design for to make the designs relevant.

The briefs I completed that were self initiated were a good experience with working for clients and producing work for professional outlets. This has given me more scope as to what will be expected of me when I go into the industry. I have learnt about preparing work for print and specifying pantone colours for consistency, particularly, when it comes to branding and using spot colours. I am getting better at working faster and more productively however, I still find it hard to management my time, especially when working on multiple brief at the same time.


Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have learnt a variety of skills throughout this brief such as preparing artwork for print, Specifying Pantone swatches, producing work for a quick turn around, Pitching ideas and concepts to clients, and presenting work to a processional standard through design boards and final resolutions. I feel I have applied this throughout the briefs I have completed by developing a strong concepts that fulfil the briefs outlines.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

The majority of work I have produced throughout the module has been mainly digital based. I have improved my software skills however, I feel it needs a lot of improvement to reach the level of professionalism I am wanting to achieve. For the collaborative brief, I have improved my crafting skills greatly and feel very confident in my ability to produce work to a high standard. I have really enjoyed working with paper and taking a more hands on approach to design which is something I have shied away from in the past. This has made me think I would like to further explore working with paper and structural design.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I have improved in developing concepts and pushing ideas to get the best out of the brief as well as discussing ideas and taking on board feedback to improve my work. I have had some tight deadlines to work towards which has given me confidence in my ability to work under pressure to meet the clients needs. I will capitalise on this by continuing to develop my critical thinking and awareness of the target audience to keep my designs relevant and communicate a specific purpose.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The main weakness that I need to improve is my general organisation and productivity. On some briefs I have taken far too long on different aspects of briefs which left me with limited time on other sections. I need to balance out tasks and allocate specific days to achieve pre set out tasks for better productivity.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

- I will organise my time much better in the future so I can fully explore ideas and produce a larger body of work such as proposing additions to main deliverables to show I am willing to go the extra mile.

-I want to improve my research skills and explore a wider breadth of material to gain a better understanding of the subject to help with ideas that may not be so literal. This could help to think of solutions that are more considered and individual 

-I think I would like to experiment more with hands on methods of production as the majority of my work has been digital based. I really enjoy working digitally but I am concerned my work could become sterile and predictable.

-The briefs I completed involved a lot of branding. Although I really enjoyed them I wish I had tried a few different fields of design. However, saying this, whatever the clients request I needed to respect this on produce the work even though I might not of enjoyed doing so. In particular, I am bored of designing images for social networks and would like to move away from this.

-I had to mock up a lot of my work as it wasn't always necessary to produce printed versions however, I would try to produce more in future so I can take some photos to build a body of work to use in a portfolio. This is something I need to start thinking about as my portfolio will be what sets me part from other designers when applying for jobs.