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

Black & White - Design Boards

Here are my final design boards.

B&W - Revised Brief

I have come back to have a quick look at the brief that I have for the Black & White brief. Considering what I have just done with the Typographic Expression brief where I have pt it into parts, I have realised that I can also do that with this brief. So I have edited the brief as required, and here is the new ones.

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.

B&W - Everything's Finished?

Finished. I am happy to say that I have everything done and printed that I was wanting to achieve for this project. Certainly took longer than I originally anticipated which is something I have definitely learnt from this brief. All I have left to do now is to get everything photographed properly ready for my design boards and what not, and then I'm pretty much done I hope.

I took some photos of all of the finished outcomes for each of the patterns all together. 

B&W - Gift Wrap Labels In Use

I am happy that I have had the chance to use both versions of the labels. I took some photos of them both being used on all of the wrapping papers.

B&W - Gift Wrap & Tags Reversed & Packaged

Looking at everything coming together for this project, it's all sort of blending in. Not in a bad way, just that everything is the same way. Then I got a brain wave.. why not try having the gift wrap available in the way I have already as well as being reversed out, so black background and white pattern. That way, when it is used like inside the bag or alongside a card or what ever, it would stand out a bit more. It would just be another option available to the customer to choose from. 

So using the files that I have for the gift wrap and tags already, I switched the colours around and got them printed out to be packaged up. I am happy with this, and it also gives me the chance to use the labels the opposite way around too. Nice. I guess I could apply this to everything that I have produced, and is something to consider, but I am wanting to be finished with this project now so I will stick to this as I am happy with where I am at.

B&W - Greetings Cards Packaged

For the finished outcomes of my greetings cards, I want to package them up so that they look like they are in a shop, so I decided to call and pick up some cheap 50p cards from ASDA that I believed to be the same size as what I have done. But when I got them back and compared the sizes, the ones that I have designed are 3cm shorter than the bought ones. Not a problem, good guess I would say to what I worked it out to be. So I've made these size changes to the cards.

I really like the foil idea, but I think I may leave it to being a proposed idea rather than me spending time getting them done in the print room as I have a lot to get done and am running out of time. Alternatively, I have decided to print them out on to a 160gsm gloss stock to use in the packaging. The finish on these have turned out to be really nice actually, and makes them look like an actual card bought.

This is the cards now with the new size.

Looking at the card at the new size, and comparing what I have to the ones that I bought, it feels a little bit like something is missing from mine. So I have decided to include a barcode on the back printed on to it. This now looks so much better and makes them look proper finished. Nice. So below is my finished and packaged up greetings cards.

B&W - Greetings Cards Foiled?

Whilst working on the greetings cards, I wondered if it would look good and be a nice extra to have a print finish on them, such as spot varnish or foil blocking over the actual pattern printed areas. So because I don't think it's possible to try spot varnish, I have seen a couple of people experimenting with foil blocking so going to give this a go. I went and bought some black foil from the print room, and was told that you can do it on the heat press in there, or a couple of people have tried using an iron (but said it doesn't work quite so well). I've decided to give the iron a go first to see.

It doesn't work quite so well with an iron as the foil goes on patchy. Even so, I do like this. I think it's a nice effect to use. Definitely something to consider for the actual finished ones.

When I was printing the cards in preparation for the experiment, I printed one on to a black stock to see if this would work. It would mean adding an extra piece of paper in the middle of the card that is white for the writing to go on, but decided to give it a try at least.

I like this too. I like black foil on black card though, looks pretty sexy. Had the same thing with the patchy foil though. Don't think this will be an option for the final ones, but certainly glad I tried it.

B&W - Greetings Cards

I've already started working on the greetings cards, but the sizes that I tried out were wrong, one was a bit too big and another a bit too small. I need a happy medium to these. Using a piece of paper I quickly folded it to what I thought would be the ideal size for one of these cards, and I got 12cm x 17cm. So I made up a new net to this size for the patterns, and moved them across. I also added the logo and website to the back of the cards too - little details.

I started with the logo and website at the bottom of the back, but after a quick google search, it's more common to have the logo in the center, so I changed this. I am happy with the back now, and in terms of the pattern it's really just pasting it on to the net, so I did it for them all the same way.

I am happy with these, I was at uni when I got this done and went and printed them off and trimmed them out. They work really well both individually and as a set. I forgot to take some pictures of these. But when I got home I printed another just to show how they look working.

As explained in a previous post they will be blank message cards, so I will leave the inside blank - obviously.