WHAT IF...SELF EVALUATION

What Problem did you identify?

After gathering together all of our groups research we found a connection between all of our photos, that there was lots of derelict buildings in Leeds which didn't serve a purpose. These buildings were mainly un-used shops that unfortunately have been abandoned and left due to shops shutting down in the recession.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

We gathered lots of different type of evidence to back up our problem. This included using Google maps to record lots of locations where shops had close down in the city and pin pointing them on a map. We found and online resource were a local woman had calculated that there are over 92 closed down shops in Leeds, leaving these spaces with no potential for the future. It surprises me how many people have tried to address this problem in the past, for example we came across the project "Art in Unusual Places" were artists had filled these empty spaces with pieces of artwork.

What Methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?

The methods we used to gather are evidence took various different forms. The one that influenced our work the most was all the photographs we took of the empty buildings however this didn't necessarily prove that the buildings weren't being used for anything.

What Methods of research did you find useful and why?

During the second week of our project we hit the streets to gain some primary primary qualitative information to help our project move forward. This involved getting members of the public to write on our posters ideas for what we could turn our chosen building into. By speaking to people and finding out what the people of Leeds really wanted we got some good feedback that really wasn't what we expected.  I assumed that people would suggest quite generic things to turn the building into things such as office buildings or a cafe but instead by talking to the people face to face we got to find out what would really be benefit them, for example a swimming pool or art gallery. 

How did these inform your response to your problem?

By collecting statistics and opinions about our empty spaces we realized that we didn't physically have the ability to change these buildings into primary schools or studios without help from the council. Instead of trying to make a major change to our chosen building we decided to venture down a different route of modification. When getting the public's opinions one man suggested that the space should just be preserved until its needed. So that rather than knock down the building leave it empty just try to make it look more presentable. We thought this would be a really good way to push our project along as it was easily achievable.

What Research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?

Other stages of research that we could have undertaken would be finding out more background information on the building that we were working with. If we had a list of what the building used to be used for and who it is belonged to then maybe we could have achieved some of our more daring outcome ideas. Unfortunately this information was really hard to obtain, instead we could have taken a group of people to the building and got them to guess what they thought the building used to be.

List Five things that you have learnt about the design process over the last two weeks;

-Primary Quantitative/Qualitative research is always essential

-Keep your work as open as possible and be encourage to take always take a different route. 

-Never try and solve a brief as soon as you get it, let it develop.

-Don't always focus on your outcome, let your project develop slowly. 

-Other peoples opinions don't always matter.

List Five things you would do differently next time; 

-Go out and wheat paste our posters up.

-Try and gain the councils backing to find out what the people of Leeds Needs.

-Make our posters more interactive with hanging pens etc

-Develop other ways of interacting with the public, for example t-shirts or flyers. 

-Cover a bigger area of Leeds with our posters.

End of Module Evaluation

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


In terms of skills i have acquired alot of new methods of working and techniques within them. The one that sticks out the most is my use of Adobe illustrator, before i came here i didn't have a clue how to use it and now i think I've pretty much mastered the basics. I've developed in other areas such as understanding the principles behind graphic design relating mainly to our studies on type.


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

I used my design context blog as a way to mainly record my research, looking at current designers/illustrators/artists, current typefaces and in general things i thought would inspire my work. I found this a tedious at first uploading all my research to my blog but it worked perfectly when influencing my work as i had a easily accessible online book of my research to use.  Other methods that informed my design development process was recording as much primary research as i could with my camera that way i could find things that influenced me and they didn't have to come from the library or from the internet.





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

Judging my own work is definitely a task i need to develop but I would say my main strength is understanding how layout work. I often find that if i had a rubbish image and a rubbish piece of type you could always make it look visually engaging solely down to its layout. I would like to learn more about layout and the way type and image can be successfully mixed together.



4. What weakness can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?


The main weakness within my work is trying to get the ideas from my head down onto paper. Often i try and go with the first idea i think of, when instead i should be developing ideas further and further so the progression is structured and my outcome will be most likely much more effective.



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

-Keep up to date on my blogging so i don't have to add stuff near the end of the module.
-Manage my time a little better so I'm not rushing work near the deadlines.

-Become more creative with my work, I'm fed up of using computers.

-Gain influence from past designers not just current ones.




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


Attendance: 5

Punctuality: 5

Motivation: 4

Commitment: 5

Quantity of work produced: 3

Quality of work produced: 4
Contribution of the group: 5

No news is Good News Mailshot

No News is Good News Mailshot Final Outcomes

Final Pieces for No News is Good News

 

Feedback

Final Crit - 15/10/10

Feedback from final crit on friday.

Things i need to work on;

- Work with both upper and lower case experimenting with how my idea can work with different sets of letters.

- Explore my idea in a different light, working with different shapes of speech bubble and different characteristics of a comic book.

- Make sure all my letters are legible, especially 'J' and 'S'.

- Try different shapes for each separate letter.

Alphabet Soup Evaluation

Which Personality Traits did you choose to respond to and apply to the typeface?

I chose to look mainly around the adjectives cultural, intelligent and creative. I wanted to create a typeface that showed these characteristics in a subtle but responsive way that my partner would be able to recognise.


What are the reasons behind the design decisions you have made for the typeface?


When i first started the brief the ideas i was coming up with for my typeface were to literal and i found that instead of resolving the brief i was just narrowing my outcomes for a final piece. I started to look down the theme of working with japanese artwork and manga comics working in the style of Liam so my font would truly represent him as a person. When problem solving i thought that to work as a typeface the audience has to be able to relate to it. Unfortunately i didn't think manga would resolve this, however everybody i had spoken to had read a comic book before so i started working with comic book symbols such as speech bubbles. I used Helvetica to communicate that Liam was quite a straight fine cut person and them incorporated my ideas to produce my final piece.
The speech bubble was a good icon to use because it also linked up to show that Liam had strong opinions about things when i spoke to him.


In what ways are the results effective?

My final outcomes were effective because of how subtle they were. When you actually read into the concepts behind my final piece and the stages i went through to get to them it becomes understandable.