PPP: 2012

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Research Methods

Visiting, Exhibitions to identify trends, competition and influence
Setting Up Focus groups to gain feedback on products/ concepts
Questioning Questionnaires to gain facts/figures and opinions
Speaking to Specialists / Professionals / People who remember it or where there.
Experimenting with media or production methods
Reading books, journals, blogs, articles
Photographing peoples behaviour, architecture, documentation
Watching a film/ documentary
Observation life/ everything around
Collecting current or historical examples
Researching such as market research e.g. retail, products

All verbs all doing.

Quotes
Statements
Facts
Statistics
Feedback
Analysis
Visual imagery ( photographs/ images)
Information
Data
Knowledge
Examples
Samples
Opinions
Documents

Monday, 10 December 2012

How To... Self Evaluation

How To...
(Make someone tell the truth)
Self Evaluation

What Role did you take on in the group ?
As a group we decide roles, we split the magazine spread up into pages, I had to create an inside page and an insert. My page showed how the magazines where lying and how they where making people feel and the consequences of that.

How well do you think you performed in the role ?
I think I created my page well, it was informative and it fit in with a magazine style. Originally I had created an A4 page which I had then developed into an A3 ( dps ) but it had to be turned back into an A4 pay for the magazine. I feel that my page had to be changed to match everyone else's work in the group and due to the fact the day we had put everything together, we all had diferent workshops, my page was changed without me being there. However it wasn't changed too much but if I had of been there I may of done it differently.

How well do you think you worked as a group ?
I think that some of the group was more engaged in the work than others, and I feel that even though I had other things to do during the week I made time and effort in my piece and I found relevant and interesting research. It was quite hard to meet up but we managed to stay in contact with each other and this helped us to discuss ideas. We never really had chance to work together as it was a busy week and people had other commitments. I also think that some of us where more vocal than others and some people should of communicated their ideas and thoughts more.

What where the positives of working in a group ?
The research was already done by other people and so we only had to do a little bit more to inform our piece.
The pages where divided down and so there was less work for people to do individually.
You can discuss your ideas and people will tell you if you are going in the right direction or not where as if you work on your own sometimes you don't get this as your not talking to anyone about what you are doing.

What where the negatives of working in a group ?
You can't control everything that is going on , e.g. other peoples designs, directions, motivation, commitment.

What will you do differently next time ?
I would say the one of the only things I could of done would be plan our time together more efficiently and I would like to try work alongside the group not as a separate project.

Where could you have improved your resolution ?
I think that the print could of been improved i.e. double-sided and on a thinner, glossier stock similar to a magazine.
We could of been more experimental and tried not to make it replicate a magazine.
We could of created more outcomes.

What where the strengths of your presentation ?
I think that our presentation went well, we got our message across and answered the questions within the brief. We where clear and concise and I think everyone understood us. We didn't go too fast , our presentation was about 9 minutes. (out of 5/10 mins).

Thursday, 22 November 2012

End of Module Self-Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD403
Module Title	DESIGN SKILLS

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME

Amy Hill

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have learnt a lot more about designing my own font. I have gained more skills in illustrator, and this is evident in my illustrator typeface brief. I have also learnt about the use of type on its own, image on its own and type and image together. As well as this I have learnt more about the print process. For my illustrator brief I have used a digital printing process and printed onto A1. In my message and delivery brief I have learnt about double- sided printing and printing a net- (for an envelope). Learning about the print process has also made me think more about the stock I use for my pieces.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have tried to develop my use of a design sheet, A2 rather than using a sketchbook I am previously comfortable with. The use of a design sheet has meant I can lay down more ideas on a page and you can see a clear development. I have also tried to create a variety of ideas for each piece. I would say I have used illustrator a lot in this module and I would say I have gained more skills on it and learnt new things.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think that I have created at least two new fonts from the beginning which I haven’t really done before, I can use this to keep creating my own fonts which I could use in my own work. I also think I have tried to use different stocks and I will continue to experiment with this to try obtain the best finishes for my work. I would also say all my pieces have a good concept and I think they all communicate this well. I will continue to make sure my pieces communicate what is intended.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I think that I need to improve the way I write copy and make sure it is effective as it could be, as well as communicating what I want to say clearly. I also think I need to push my comfort zones a little more as the piece I created in my mailshot was a simple A4 foldout, and I need to experiment with more innovative medias. I also think I need to keep working on making a set of solutions that work together but are as effective as each other, as I believe in my message and delivery research solutions I did not fulfil these requirements.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. I will experiment with a range of solutions from my initial ideas so that I will have a choice of finals, or ideas I can make into a final piece. 2. I should continue to experiment with different stocks, to increase my knowledge and awareness of the variety out there to produce the best pieces. 3. I need to continue to learn about digital print process, as this is the way a lot of work is produced, I should also try experiment with this. 4. I should try to use more experimental resolutions, and I should research into this so that I can create more innovative designs. 5. I will try to generate more ideas quicker and of a good quality to enable me to have more time on developing the final solution.
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
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Message and Delivery: Distribution Feedback

In this critique, we got into pairs and went around a table of work, four pieces. I feel from looking at my feedback forms some people had put more effort and thought in than others. Again because I regard one of my feedback forms as unhelpful, I would of liked an extra one or two forms from a separate couples.

Actions Required

I would of liked the pieces to of been on thicker stock, I did try to put it onto cartridge paper, but the colours ran. I didn't want to put it on antique white as I had done previously as the creme look of the paper made it look warm and happy, which wasn't appropriate for my message.
I could try put the copy into first person and make it seem more conversational.
Consider the use of the word murder, perhaps erase it or change the word itself.

Message and Delivery: Research Feedback

I feel that this feedback has been helpful. I liked the way we had to critique worked, people where alot more honest as they could write down thier thoughts and it was anonymous.
I liked the questions of the forms they really informed me of what people thought and which parts of the criteria I had met.
If I had to say one thing it would be I would of liked more people to of filled out the form on my work to get a really good idea of how successful my work was and what more people thought of it in general.

Actions Required:

On the image poster I think I should make the speech bubble water droplets more obvious and perhaps bigger, to really convey the idea of the waterworld speaking.
On the type poster I could try refine the amount of copy and make it really instantaneous and again obvious.

Friday, 19 October 2012

Alphabet Soup, Typeface Final Evaluation

19/10/2012

Today was our final crit. We had to put our work up next to our partners and get up in our partners, explaining what we had produced and what we where trying to convey about the person.

Our work had to be put up next to each others and we had to explain in turn what our pieces portrayed. I think putting them up next to each other showed how differently a brief can be portrayed and what the person had made.

It was also interesting to see everybody else's work and to think of ways of improving or editing the typefaces.

Sarah said the liked my typeface, she liked that it looked organic and natural, she also likes the stripes and different strokes.

I think my typeface was successful and I felt it portrayed the personality traits I had picked up on well. I liked the strokes and the naturalness of the type , I also liked that it was still legible even though it had open spaces.