End of Module Evaulation

Overall, I am pleased with the progress that I have made throughout this module. I have learnt a lot about myself as a designer and how I work when I need to take things into my own hands.

In terms of everything that I have done overall, I am very happy with my outcomes as I have managed to achieve a professional standard to them that I have been striving to achieve. I have definitely found that the attention to the smaller details within a brief is what can really make a difference when it comes to making a brief look alright or look amazing.

My time management has been fairly good during this module, as opposed to ones during the last two years. I have found this to be highly beneficial for my design practice and has allowed me to excel my expectations of what I initially believed that I could achieve. This is certainly something that I am to continue during the Final Major Project module, and to push more with too to get them tighter.

The thing that I have most enjoyed about this module has to be the competition brief that I entered for the Tigerprint Black & White Print brief. It has really opened my eyes to the possibility of what can be achieved with something so simple to begin with, and has certainly got me thinking more about the range of outcomes that are possible within a brief.

My biggest downfall has to be when I come to completing a brief, I would get so close to finishing and then instead of wrapping it up and drawing a line under it I would just leave it until later, which I do believe if I hadn’t had done that and just got it finished when it was actually finished with the design boards done then I would have had more time towards the end of the module to continue designing. This is something important that I have learnt, and will definitely be keeping this in mind when I approach the end of briefs throughout the FMP module.

I didn’t work on a collaboration during this module, but I do have some planned for the next which is going to be interesting. I do feel like I have come a long way when it comes to them, and I think if I take forward what I have learnt from this module about myself into a collaboration, then this will allow me to feel a lot more confident with myself and my abilities that I can bring to the table.

I am definitely completing this module with a smile on my face, and hope that this continues for the rest of my time on the course.

Attendance: 3

Punctuality: 5

Quality of work: 4

Quantity of work: 4

Typographic Expression - Design Boards

Here are my final design boards.

Final Crit 05/12/2012 & Initial Response

Argh final crit. I mocked together my design boards for my 4 projects (which I have forgotten to take screen shots of - damn). All except the cocktails one is pretty much finished so the boards will just need altering slightly ready for my print slot on Monday. The cocktail one, I have mocked together the best that I could the boards ready for the crit, and used the bottom to explain more about everything. I am gutted that I didn't get it finished for this but I have worked none stop on it so there's not really anything else that I could have done. Plus the stock that I have ordered still hasn't turned up so couldn't have made the final thing anyway.

I took a photo of everything laid out though ready for the crit.

The response that I got was pretty straight forward really. I got told to 'get on with it' for the cocktail brief. Here's the sheets I got from this:

SCAN THESE

Some of the research that I got was pretty general about everything, so decided to respond to it on this blog post rather than individually.

• 'Wish I could design boards like you' - definitely made my day to ready this! Especially seen as these are rough boards and not my finished ones.
• 'I would like to take part in cocktail testing k thanx' - definitely going to have to have one once the book is finished with the geek table!
• 'On context blog I'd write why you like work & How it is relevant' - I have been doing this, just the last few haven't got anything wrote on yet. The next page would have shown this...
• 'Same layout - looks professional' - thanks!
• 'Would Issuu help in terms of organising brief development and blog size' - probably, but I just don't get on with it, at all. And find that it takes more time than what needs to, and I find that the way I blog makes it easier to annotate and what not. Just my preferred way that I do I guess.
• 'All your briefs have quite strong concepts that shows once the work is presented' - that is a great comment to read, I am glad that it shows.

Type Exp - Brief Extension 3

I need to add the photos that I have taken rather than a screen shot to the bigcartel account website. First I added the ones in the frame.

But I prefer the ones on the floor, so using these instead. The free account only allows you to have up to 5 products, so I will stick to this as it is just proposing it anyway. So I chose the best 5 to add to it, and included the description.

Type Exp - Brief Extension 2

As well as the website, I have decided to look at designing the postal tubes that will be used to send them out in. Little details that make all the difference. Using a sheet of paper I wrapped it around one of the ones that I have for measurements and got to designing it.

Following what I sketched, I digitised it.

In order to get the circle to look circle on the tubes, I need to stretch it on the flat version so that it is longer so that when it is wrapped around the tube it is seen circle rather than oval.

Could have the address lines separate?

Nah I need the address lines. Made the design area longer and made it so the circle is on one side and then the lines on the other side.

This is the one. Works well and effectively. Decision made. I printed out a few to take photos of together. I will get some proper ones taken of them for boards and what not.

Type Exp - Brief Extention

Thinking about all of what I have done for this brief so far I am pretty pleased with, although after having a quick brainwave I have decided to extend it further, like adding another part to it.

I have said that they are posters that could potentially go back into a coffee shop, so I was thinking about like the method of distribution for the posters. Where would people buy them from? So I started thinking about a website, and remembered about BigCartel - a free online website service that is like a shop basically. This could work for what I am wanting, so decided to set up an account.

In order for it to tie in with the rest of the brief, I altered the design of it to be black and white and have the logo for the poster series on there too. Below is how it now looks before I add any products to it. Simple and to the point, just how I wanted it to be.

For a quick example to see how it will look with a product on there, I took a screen shot of one of the posters and added it as a product. Below is now how it looks with this on there on the left, and then on the right is how it looks once the product is clicked on to view. I need to add some information about it to go in the side. I like the side of the images on them, almost like it is letting them speak for themselves. Below that is a screen shot of how it looks when you click to view the image of the product larger.

Type Exp - Presenting Work 3

Another way that I think will be a nice way to present the posters is against the floor that I have in my flat. It's a really nice darkish brown colour, similar to the colour of the frame so the same aspects of making the decision for that could be applied to this. Standing over in the right position to avoid too much shadow was a challenge, but I managed it. I positioned each one different on the wood so avoid looking like they have just been photoshopped. A few minor edits in Photoshop later and I am definitely happy with these.

Didn't realise until I had finished taking the photos that I missed one out. Oops. But yeah, definitely really like these, and I will use them where ever necessary to represent this project and the posters.

Type Exp - Presenting Work 2

I've always fancied giving the hanging from bulldog clips a go, so I have. I hung the poster with them and against a white wall. I needed to have better lighting for this definitely, but after much editing it didn't turn out too bad. I quite like this.

Decided to try having a slate colour stuck up on the wall behind it to photo, see if this made the idea any better/worse. This has also turned out well. It didn't take as much editing as the previous, but again the same comment with the lighting. I like this though. The sate definitely makes the poster stand out more against it.