What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
One main skill I have learnt throughout this project is how to bind books, I think this was what influenced my work the most. After learning how to bind books I decided to change the direction of my work to think about an alternative outcome, that being making books. This has been very useful and I really enjoyed learning some skills that I can take forward into my other work. Analyzing my work and other peoples work effectively is something I feel I have developed the most in this module. As we had a series of crits and the project extended longer than any other so far, I feel that I had more time to conclude what I thought about my work. Appreciating other peoples opinions and taking in what they have said properly to benefit my work has definitely been something I've improved doing.
What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have chosen lots of different approaches to the different ways I recorded my research. I gained primary quantitive statistics and figures from sending out questions for people to answer online, I also gained a lot of secondary research to influence the direction of my work from the library. I found that they informed my design development process in relation to the imagery I was working with, but in regards to the statistics and figures I had collected I felt that information graphics wasn’t something that I wanted to work towards.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I find it really hard to self-reflect on the my main strengths in my work at this stage of the course but I think that the area that I succeeded in the most was developing the logo's for the front covers of each one of my books. I got really into sketching out the type I was thinking of using, then making subtle alterations ready to be edited in Illustrator. I enjoyed this process, and feel that I recorded the developing stages of my work well on my blog. I feel that this could be a skill to develop, hand rendering type is definitely something that I have developed a liking for and this could be an area to look into for the next brief.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
I think I have one main weakness within my work and thats keeping on top of my time management , I’ve found that this project definitely need to use my time to more effect. Blogging is a key factor of my time management and I find that I end up Blogging my work all together rather than in smaller posts as I go along. After doing some time management sessions with Joe I think it would be a good idea that the next brief I receive to follow a chart or plan for the time I have to complete it in. This would structure the way I work plus stop me from getting off track. Another weakness I feel I have in my work is the neatness of my presentation, When making my final books I found the process very tedious and as a result the outcome of my work I felt looked slightly scruffy. I think on the next brief I am going to create my work by hand rather than digitally this way I can start to improve the way I present things.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1 – Next time I would use different stock to print the inside of my books. Due to having lots of inner pages to print and worrying about cost I used a lower stock that usual. I felt that this didn’t look very professional but if I was to reproduce my work I think that this would be the first aspect I would change. Due to complications this time round I didn’t get to screen print any of my work, which is what I origionally intended. I think that next time I would really enjoying working with screen print and it would of added more to the character of my work.
2 – I would do more research into other vector prints as this is an area I feel I just threw myself in the deep end with. As a result I found it took me an unnecessary amount of time to produce the designs for each of my books. With some more practise or guidance on following a specific style of vector print I think my work could have been much more effective in being visually engaging.
3 – Next time I would explore more than just a couple of outcomes for solving my problem and developing my work. I feel that once I got an idea in my head, I leant more towards going down that route than looking for different ways my work could progress. To achieve this, next time I think that I just need to be more open minded in the sense of direction that my work is heading.
4 – Being spontaneous when it comes to generating ideas. After attending crits I think I've realised that often within design its the most direct idea always seems to be the most effect, and to get a direct idea takes lots of experimentation. I would like to improve on this and try not to think about the outcome of my work before I've even decided on its beginning.
5 – I found that most of the work I produced for this module was made digitally I.e using Photoshop or Illustrator, next time I would like to produce most of my work by hand as this is what I enjoy. I think I could raise the standard of my work if I was to do this, plus this would help to to send my work in an alternative direction to usual.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
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 | |
