29.5.09

Design Practice Evaluation

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

Within this module, being able to choose my own briefs and organize my own time has helped me to plan my time properly, I decided that doing the briefs one by one was a better option for me than to start all three at once and I think this definitely was a good decision, I set strict deadlines for when I had to move on to the next brief and by sticking to this plan, I was able to work very effectively. In The Grazia brief, by designing my own net and crafting the fold of flier/bag I have definitely improved my crafting skills, I finished a mock up of the flier to a very professional standard by properly working out how the net would be laid out and how the folds would work. In the Don't Panic brief I improved by info-graphical skills by creating a set of nine info-graphical postcards in a set, it is one of the first times I have worked in a style like this and I really enjoyed it, I also think that the final outcomes look really effective. Also in all my briefs I have used photography in a much more professional manner than in previous modules to properly document my work. I think this has definitely stepped my work up a level in the documentation and I plan to keep this as a part of my practice.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

In previous modules I have easily fallen into the habit of doing brainstorms and mind maps to try and generate ideas but it has never really worked as effectively as I would of liked. In these briefs instead of working in brainstorms I have taken to working in quick lists, this has helped me massively as it allows my train of thought to work laterally and my ideas to be generate and progress into potential outcomes quickly. I have  also stopped drawing as many drawings of ideas that I know will not work to bulk up my workload, instead I have critically been selecting the ideas that interest me and developing only those further. Also the planning of my time has helping the generation of my work, when I have a strict timetable it puts me under more pressure and I work more effectively.


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

I think that in this module I have improved the professional look of my work, this is highly down to a much more professional documentation and photography of my resolutions, combined with a better knowledge of layout for the presentation of these resolutions of these ideas. I want to keep up to this standard now as it is a new benchmark. I have worked more effectively with stock and materials in this brief by not just producing posters as the main part of my resolutions, this has helped my to create more interesting ideas that are much more interactive and I want to keep this mindset also as a part of my practice.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

In the Don't Panic brief, I was developing the idea of using characters from the Divine Comedy but in the form of babies. It was quite a good idea and I had designed the characters. The problem was that the designs for the characters were not up to the professional standard that I was happy with, I should have ditched them as soon as knew this and re done them but instead I tried to polish them on the computer by adding lots of other elements to the design which in a way was just hiding the bad drawings. Luckily before it was completely too late I decided it was time to ditch them ad developed a new idea, however I think that if I has done this earlier it would have allowed me more time to develop my new idea and could have made it even better.

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

1. Improve the amount of primary research in my work.
2. Push each idea and brief to its limits in terms of possible resolutions.
3. Keep referring to the brief, again and again.
4. Keep computer files rigorously organized.
5. Back up work from college to home to external hard-drive every week.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 4

Punctuality - 4

Motivation - 4

Commitment -5

Quantity of work produced - 4

Quality of work produced - 5

Contribution to the group - 4

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