End of Module Evaluation

This is my last ever evaluation on the BA Graphic Design course.

OUGD303 has been the longest module that has run over the three years on the course, and probably the most intense for requirements, both in terms of physical work and management.  As with every module, the workload was stepped up considerably from the last with a fairly steep learning curve, although my downfalls in the previous module set me up with a running start in this one. This module has without a doubt been the hardest that I have worked during the three years on the course and I honestly think that it shows.

My rationale for the year: “An image driven investigation of promotion and print with a focus on identity and branding.” This is saying that I enjoy working foremost through imagery over type, often with the intent to promote and generally for print based resolutions. Visual identity is often created for solutions to my briefs, although branding as a whole is not my most comfortable design skill.

I think that the briefs chosen for the module are reminiscent of this rationale and all fairly appropriate to me as a designer. I wanted to pick briefs that gave me free reign but also deal with more live briefs as I worked on none in the previous module. As a result, I worked on 5 different briefs for the module covering a range of themes but all solved within the same area of Graphic Design. Three of the briefs were also live briefs, pushing my design practice out of the imagined world and into a professional graphic design environment. Above all else, the live briefs created much more personal interaction and communication, dealing with designer to client relationships and forcing completely immovable deadlines. I think I have learned and developed my practice, and built confidence as a designer more as a result of these situations than most other things. This has shown to me fairly conclusively how much more rewarding live client briefs can be toward professional development when compared to self-directed projects. To continue developing at this pace, I need to continue to work on live briefs.

As has been said in almost every module to date, I feel that my biggest pitfall has been management of time. Although, it is clear to me that my time management has improved dramatically since the previous module and those before. I think the main reason for failing to follow the time plan has been in failing to account time for mistakes in things like production process. A fair few things went wrong when it came to printing and crafting, and this tended to throw the whole management out of sync. This was helped slightly by starting to plan time from hour to hour later in the module rather than the conventional to-do-list. If the last module taught me one thing, it was that things take a lot longer to do than I think they will. The most important lesson from time management during the module is that time needs to be set aside for mistakes, as they are increasingly inevitable as the number of simultaneously running briefs gets higher.

Another big learning point for the module was realising when to take a step back and see that I am overcomplicating things. This happened in two of the briefs, and after clearing my head and trying to view them with fresh eyes, the simple solution was that I was the one complicating the situation. I think it is easy to get absorbed in briefs, and sometimes too many ideas within the concept will start to confuse what the concept actually is and start devaluing the communication that is intended from resolutions. This wasted a lot of time both in trying to clarify the situation in my head and clarifying the message in the brief, when really it just needed to be taken back a few steps and simplified. “All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one”.

I think my greatest strength in the module has been the development of ideas and the evaluation and selection of which ideas are most appropriate to take forward. In previous modules I have often come up with a few ideas and then found one that I thought might work and gone straight into developing resolutions. This usually left me stuck at some point with no development to fall back on and no other ideas explored, stuck in a dead end. During this module I spent a lot more time considering ideas and trying out different things. When I did come up with a suitable idea, I tried to exhaust development opportunities wherever possible, giving me loads to work from and potentially a lot in future if I needed to fall back on it (which did happen a few times). As well as this, I think my work has become a lot more informed by research, which naturally helps it fit appropriately into context within specific areas of design. My ability to come up with quick and appropriate design ideas has increased too, and I think I have started working much more specifically to my rationale, which has shaped my design practice and me as a designer.

Without contradicting my less than great time management, I have definitely managed the workload on each brief much more successfully during this module. At times I have been working on 4 of the 5 briefs at once, when compared to concentrating on only 2 in the previous module and still falling behind quite easily. As well as realising when I am complicating a brief, I have started to see when I need to leave a brief for a while and work on something else to spark some creativity.

Finally I think that one of the most obvious strengths for the module is quality and presentation of work, which has increased considerably since the last module. I think this shows in my design decisions, physical resolutions and final boards. When compared to any previous module, I think my work has a significantly more professional look and feel.

When comparing the work completed to my statement of intent, I think it is fair to say that I did a pretty good job of achieving most of what I set out to. I have continued to develop image and illustration design and my context publication work has pushed my understanding of the context of illustration in graphic design. I’ve continued working on promotion and using different print processes, working with identity and across two collaborative briefs, as well as taking on more live briefs.

It is clear to me that this module has been really important in clarifying where I am now and where I want to be in a future career within graphic design. I think this is the first module that I have finished feeling like I can really work in a professional design environment.

Leeds Zombie Film Festival - A short story

This brief has been one of the biggest that I have undertaken on the course, and has some of the most and best quality deliverables of any I have made in terms of design. This brief originally appealed to me because I saw the potential to use illustration again as a form of event promotion by creating an illustrative identity for the brief. I chose to approach this in a character design format. 

The brief got off to a good start and I had some interesting ideas fairly quickly. It finally took shape when I settled on the idea of creating s false reality based in the cold war era, communicated similarly to classic cold war propaganda of the tim but with the nuclear bomb replaced by the zombie virus. I quickly saw my way to making this into a large scale illustrative brief. 

The biggest weakness I had during this brief was overcomplicating things. There was a point where my creativity was hugely stifled because I couldn't figure out how to rename the zombie film festival to a more 'realistic' name for the scenario and still have people know what it was. The solution was actually simple; don't rename it. It didn't actually need renaming, zombie film festival is fine. I think that this was an important lesson, as spending too much time on a brief for a long stint can be counterproductive. 

My main strength within the brief is probably the quantity of work produced. There is a lot of content across the range, including illustrations and layout, and this is the first time I have ever really made a publication. I think the majority of the resolutions came out really well and I'm generally really happy with the brief. I think that the printed resolutions could be slightly better quality, but it is the designs themselves that I am most happy with. This is definitely the kind of thing that I want to carry on working with in my future outside the course. 

FlyWindies - A short story

This brief was to create the branding for the company Fly Windies in the Caribbean. The company is flight-based and uses the 6 seater Piper Aztec for all it's business ventures, dealing with transport, travel, trade and cargo. If it fits in the plane, Fly Windies will take it. This brief appealed to me because I wanted to try and create the brand identity with an emphasis on image and try to incorporate illustration wherever possible.

My biggest weakness within this brief is that it took me so long to decide on a logo for the company, which was how I intended to start the identity. This was another case of overcomplicating, as I had quite a few designs that I could pick and choose from, but instead I ended up wasting some time by being indecisive. This is something that I have touched on before, and something that I need to recognise I am doing as it happeneing to give me the opportunity to make quick decisions and move on from the issue.

Once I had the logo design, I think the rest of the brief flowed quite smoothly and i am generally really happy with the outcomes. These are probably the cleanest and most professional looking products that i have created on the course, and I am happy that I managed to make the identity work through illustration too. I found this brief really fun once I got over the first hurdle, and this is something that I will consider approaching again in the near future if the opportunity arises.

SixteenHT - A short story

The SixteenHT brief was probably the most fun of all the briefs in the module and the quick turn-around projects have been great for portfolio pieces. The brief originally started as just working for a table at the Leeds Artists' Book fair, but it turned out that the book fair itself actually opened up more opportunities for the collective. Two more projects were done under the SixteenHT collaboration after the book fair was complete. The collective itself worked really well, and everyone pulled their part.

I think that weakest aspect of the brief has been the promotion of the collective, as we have concentrated a lot on producing the work for each event rather than promoting ourselves before and at the event. We have had some personal promotion in the form of online networking such as twitter, but I think it could have been extorted more.

The strengths during this brief were definitely the speed and quality at which work was produced in the collective, and the idea generation tht came about in group discussions. I feel that this brief has encouraged a lot of quick decision making and fast, high quality designs.

Another strength in the brief was the use of screen printing as a process, something that I have not explored thoroughly before but now feel fairly confident in using. It is a useful technique to get the hang of, and can produce some really impressive designs that are not possible any other way. The decision to work exclusively with screen prints was definitely a good move for the collective at the moment.

This brief has been the mst enjoyable of the year because it encourages physical print process; not something that I get to deal with very often when designing from behind a screen. After the course, I do not want to lose touch with screen printing. I have already started researching nearby print resources and home-print techniques to be able to explore the process even more.

Yearbook - a short story

The Printed Textiles Yearbook brief was a collaborative brief between 5 of us on the graphics team. Each of us would meet fairly regularly and decide roles and design directions to go in, leaving and reconvening to show results. This system worked out ok in the end, but I think that a better communication and development system is really need for such a large collaboration.

The brief started off fairly casually, though everyone seemed enthusiastic with working on the yearbook together. As time went on and the yearbook staff on the other end became and less cooperative, it seemed that everybody on our end began to gradually lose interest and start to focus a lot more on other briefs.

I think that this is partly because of the attitude of the course team, though a fair amount of the blame needs to be left on the graphic design team too. If we had been more enthusiastic about the brief a whole then we could have been a lot more persuasive as designers. In the end, the main issue was that none of us found the brief particularly exciting.

I think that this is a fair comment when looking at the brief as a whole, and perhaps a different perspective or concept may have changed things, but as it stands the brief was generally not interesting and very long to deal with for minimal satisfaction in results.

Little White Lies - The short story

Little white lies was a really small illustration based brief that I turned into a slightly more extensive illustrative outcome range. I wanted to work on this brief because it stuck out as a completely illustrative resolution and incorporated independent cinema.

The brief got off to a fairly slow start as one of the last briefs started in the set for the module, but soon picked up speed and I really got into illustrating the main charcters of the films in a few illustrative styles. I enjoyed this brief a lot because it was simple and created some fairly striking outcomes, definitely something I would consider using for a page in my portfolio in future. The quick turn around of the brief means that more work could be produced in the same way fairly easily and increse the work even more.

The weakest aspect of the brief is that it is not as conceptually strong as others in the module, but I think the time it took and the striking visuals make up for this overall.

Zombie Film Festival Boards

Submission Boards for the Leeds Zombie Film Festival brief:

Open publication - Free publishing