OUGD203 - DESIGN PRACTICE 2 EVALUATION
For me, this module has been an extremely successful one. With our PPD presentations coming up, a lot of what I've learned about myself and my practice has come in this last module. First of all, the collaborative project I think worked out very well. Our partnership was based on mutual respect for each other and each others individual skill set, and we worked very well and very hard together. In both this and the product/range/distribution briefs I feel I produced very high-quality end products and design, and this is where this module has differed to modules past (especially in the first year). I had a habit of making lots of ambitious plans and never leaving myself enough time/planning time effectively/putting in the effort to get a final product finished, and then some. In both projects in this module I have planned to have a final product done and finished with a week left till deadline (both being 5 week briefs) leaving me enough time to make any adjustments or still be able to get everything done should anything go wrong. This has meant not only have I been able to finish, but to a standard I'm happy with.
I gave myself the opportunity to try out different print processes this module, with varying degrees of success but overall its come out exactly how i wanted. Screen printing is a process I've used before and enjoyed immensely, so i was more than happy to use it again, and the results were very satisfying. Using a similar process I got the chance to also spot varnish, print on t-shirts and flock, all of which I'm convinced I'll be using again. The spot varnish i had a little trouble with, probably because i used the wrong type of screen (fabric instead of paper) and the flocking was really only tested - I'm going to try and do some larger more experimental testing with it soon, the same going for t-shirt printing. I also was able to make use of the digital print room and test stock and colour for the collaborative brief.
The majority of the module has played out like most of my longer-term projects have - a week of research and ideas, 2 weeks of faffing about not getting anywhere (that's not to say I didn't work - just not a lot of it was useful), then 2 weeks hardcore crazy work to get done in time. My general planning of tasks has been much better though, and I've set myself goals and dates to achieve them, and generally stuck to them. The usual stubborn one-idea-mode featured prominently in the second project, but once I knocked that out of the park and started to just do work rather than over thinking in then the results started to show. I have tended to get too bogged down on one idea and with one direction too early, run out of steam and lose my way in the middle. The biggest boost was when I had my tutorial with Fred and he told me to look at work I'd already done, stuff I wanted to emulate and go from there rather than a blank piece of paper. This needs to be my approach to work from now on, and not get stuck on blank-white-paper syndrome. In the collaborative project it wasn't so much of a problem because as soon as one of the partnership had an idea or started working on something the other would then come in and work out how to take it forward further.
Something I learned from my image module that I definately applied to the work I produced was to take an idea or concept, work it out a little, and then go for it. With my book cover designs, I could've spent an age drawing sketches and moving this around and adding this etc but when I stopped and just started producing stuff is when the best results came about. They could then be worked on further, but the premise of just getting stuff made was the same. I've not made any secret about the fact that I don't like long briefs, and I much prefer the short sharp get-it-done projects, and I've had to break myself out of treating the longer briefs as long briefs and start treating them like lots of mini-briefs to make the workload more manageable and to motivate myself.
There were quite a few product ranges I would've liked to have done but didn't have time to finish such as packaging and point of sale for t-shirts, bookmarks, a single purpose website and other t-shirt designs (both design and make). Some of these I think I may continue over the next couple of weeks anyways, particularily the t-shirts, just for the sake of it really. Which is another thing this module has taught me, which is to enjoy the work I do to a point where I want to continue it even in my spare time, which isn't where i was at before. Alot of the work I'd do was more because I had to do it as opposed to a desire to do it, but I think that's started to change now.
How would you grade yourself on the following areas(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)
Attendance: 5
Punctuality: 5
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 3
Quantity of work produced: 4
Quality of work produced: 4
Contribution to the group: 4
I gave myself the opportunity to try out different print processes this module, with varying degrees of success but overall its come out exactly how i wanted. Screen printing is a process I've used before and enjoyed immensely, so i was more than happy to use it again, and the results were very satisfying. Using a similar process I got the chance to also spot varnish, print on t-shirts and flock, all of which I'm convinced I'll be using again. The spot varnish i had a little trouble with, probably because i used the wrong type of screen (fabric instead of paper) and the flocking was really only tested - I'm going to try and do some larger more experimental testing with it soon, the same going for t-shirt printing. I also was able to make use of the digital print room and test stock and colour for the collaborative brief.
The majority of the module has played out like most of my longer-term projects have - a week of research and ideas, 2 weeks of faffing about not getting anywhere (that's not to say I didn't work - just not a lot of it was useful), then 2 weeks hardcore crazy work to get done in time. My general planning of tasks has been much better though, and I've set myself goals and dates to achieve them, and generally stuck to them. The usual stubborn one-idea-mode featured prominently in the second project, but once I knocked that out of the park and started to just do work rather than over thinking in then the results started to show. I have tended to get too bogged down on one idea and with one direction too early, run out of steam and lose my way in the middle. The biggest boost was when I had my tutorial with Fred and he told me to look at work I'd already done, stuff I wanted to emulate and go from there rather than a blank piece of paper. This needs to be my approach to work from now on, and not get stuck on blank-white-paper syndrome. In the collaborative project it wasn't so much of a problem because as soon as one of the partnership had an idea or started working on something the other would then come in and work out how to take it forward further.
Something I learned from my image module that I definately applied to the work I produced was to take an idea or concept, work it out a little, and then go for it. With my book cover designs, I could've spent an age drawing sketches and moving this around and adding this etc but when I stopped and just started producing stuff is when the best results came about. They could then be worked on further, but the premise of just getting stuff made was the same. I've not made any secret about the fact that I don't like long briefs, and I much prefer the short sharp get-it-done projects, and I've had to break myself out of treating the longer briefs as long briefs and start treating them like lots of mini-briefs to make the workload more manageable and to motivate myself.
There were quite a few product ranges I would've liked to have done but didn't have time to finish such as packaging and point of sale for t-shirts, bookmarks, a single purpose website and other t-shirt designs (both design and make). Some of these I think I may continue over the next couple of weeks anyways, particularily the t-shirts, just for the sake of it really. Which is another thing this module has taught me, which is to enjoy the work I do to a point where I want to continue it even in my spare time, which isn't where i was at before. Alot of the work I'd do was more because I had to do it as opposed to a desire to do it, but I think that's started to change now.
How would you grade yourself on the following areas(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)
Attendance: 5
Punctuality: 5
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 3
Quantity of work produced: 4
Quality of work produced: 4
Contribution to the group: 4