OUGD 203 Evaluation

This brief for me, was the most challenging brief I feel that I have done yet on the course. Which is funny because when writing the brief for myself I did feel like it would be clear and easy. I did initially struggle with what my brief actually was and it took a good few days to clarify what I had written and seperate out the different aspects of the brief in order to clarify the pretty muddled brief I initially wrote. I do feel that the brief I ended up running with still wasnt clear enough and did set me up for plenty of falls along the way, but it was good to be able to do a more layout focused product lead brief in which image was the secondary focus.

At the start of the brief I got very interested in researching records, design for records and logos and identity. It was helping to inform aspects about the design which I do often overlook such as secondary information like copyright, RPM, A side, B side etc. I think by considering this - despite the simplicity of this it helped me synthesise and replicate a legimate and professional looking set of end products. Altough, these products could have been a hell of alot better. I noticed alot of schoolboy errors with the layout of the back of the record sleeves and they could have been more innovative - which is the main reason im not really happy with the end result of this project; I definately need to spend more time on layout. I researched most aspects of what I was designing for to a point, But I think to inform me better in future I need to extensively look into a wider range of sources which relate to what Im doing in other ways - not just because it is the same thing, for example I coule have looked into motion graphics for visual research despite the fact I wasnt doing motion graphics. I also feel that The extended range of products was somewhat of an after thought and could have had alot more thought put into it. This is why ultimately I do feel that I've done a standard project and failed to push it into them more special stages.

I think that I havent evidenced my work correctly throughout this project. I should have been documenting every decision I made instead of just taking the design decisions as red - as fred said its good to get the bad ideas out  and then the good ideas grow out of that, and I Just didnt evidence enough of my bad ideas, which is stupid, because it only detriments me. However I think a key aspect of the success of the final products was down to the large amount of mock ups I made throughout the project covering a few different design directions to let me see the design working in context. Im also happy with the way I dealt with I fell like i've learnt so much from doing this project, coming out of the collaborative brief with Ollie - who is very attentive to the small details and gave me some really good habits.

I decided early on in the project - mostly due to the time of year and organising myself, that I wanted to use digital print methods over bespoke printing, for a few reasons;

1.  Seeing the products in context effectively required me to produce and manufacture my products in the same way they do in industry - often being artworks digitally printed onto glossy / satin card for records.
2. I have done alot of screen printing in the past and for me, it is less of a challenge as it is very easy to quickly generate alot of development work and I also havent really done much design for digital print througout this course - I wanted to see if i could get to a strong point with the digital work as I would with hand printed methods.

The answer to this was that I couldnt keep up with it and also producing a logo took alot more time than I initially thought it would. I suppose from there I instantly felt like I was behind the development of the rest of the work - despite pursuing a few design developments. I think also that because I set out in my brief for there to be Digitally available design development journals done instead of worksheets I felt like I had not got to a substantial stage with the finals. The finals themselves are produced to a high standard and fit well in their context but they are nothing special, and that is down to the way i tackled research and design practise.

I have learnt a valuable lesseon : If you feel like youv'e messed up, you probably have. I am pretty sure I did. But knowing that gets me excited about the third year and I think I am at the point now where The design can happen.

5 things I could do more effectively next time:

1. ATTEND all timetabled sessions
2. Evidence all my development work
3. Experiment with different design directions more
4. Bring more developmental work to crits
5. Spend more time on layout.

Time management and organisation.

In terms of the project itsself I worked really well and was very organised in terms of meeting personal deadlines. I set the first two weeks aside for logo development and research after writing the brief.  I finished this earlyer than I expected so This gave me a week and a half to develop physical products which then left me a week to develop and produce further developments such as a mailshot and also deal with the boards. In terms of what I got done and what I set myself to do, I managed this project efectively - the only things that let me down was the evidencing of development work.

YCN collaborative Boards - My roles and responsability.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ycn

Collaborative brief evaluation

Well, despite the warnings and horror stories about collaborative briefs we were being warned about, this collaboration with Ollie was definately a flying success. We got the work done to a high standard and vibed off eachothers ideas the whole way.

The collaboration was laid back but hard working with us both having a clear idea of what we were trying to achieve together. As Ollie said in his evaluation, we had set roles, but often these just meshed together because we did actually do most of this project together, with me occasionally giving Ollie hand drawn imagery to put into the software. I took a larger part of the illustration on and storyboarding in the early stages, but hopefully Ollie benefitted from that because I do feel like I can use the digicad software better than I could before, for example After effects - I feel alot more confident in using this, expecially for image sequencing (this is down to Ollie producing the main part of our project digitally, which was extremely helpful for me).

Ollie was very on top of the schedule sheets which was great because im going to be honest, its not a strong point of mine - but really should be! Me and Ollie avoided almost any stress by knowing exaclty what we should be doing, when and then putting the graft in! Im really happy with what we produced and I know Ollie is as well, and we were confident about the project. Me and Ollie also decided that we wanted to hit the brief from a fun angle because of the target audience being kids and if we werent having fun it would show and be reflected in the work.

Ollie has mentioned this but I want to have a word about it, the only negative thing about the project was that we could have done with more time - a week or so just to really make that project into something special. Overall I am really proud of the end result though. It was a total collaborative success.

OUGD201 Evaluation

So the end of what I would say was my most successful brief yet. I think that the key to me enjoying this so much and also coming out with results that seem a league apart from my final on the last brief is the fact that I really immersed myself into the what is good brief and did my research. I feel that my publication could have been better but within the timescale I left myself and also taking into account layout is not my strong point, I am happy with the end result. This could have been made close to about 80% successful if I had considered (and spent more time over) my content and information in my publication.



My research for the first part of the brief whent really well, I was putting in the hours and reaping the rewards, I found out some really useful stuff. I think i took the research very far and this is half down to my own personal interest in the subject I picked. By the time it was time to do the presentation I had a hefty file of relevant primary and secondary research based on "Meditation" and managed to perform the presentation with ease, which naturally lead to my design development stage.



The Concept idea came about halfway through developing visuals and information, and from there on out with the what is good brief I was flying along - I was actually shocked at how well I had organised myself. I was so well organised I basically left myself a week and a half towards the tail end of the project to actually produce a protype of my design. I am confident that my nets were considered, the design itself was justified, relevant, and considered. The only thing I would have liked to have done is given myself more oppertunity to use more print processes like flocking. I think flocking will definitely have to be done sometime in the near future while I still have these amazing resources at my fingertips!



My investigation into print was limited to what I knew was relevant to my idea and I know this is something I need to stop doing, but I feel the aspects of print I did research about were substantial and I also used them in order to create a physical end result. I think that sort of knowledge is totally priceless. What I have learnt from the writing in this paragraph though, is that there are alot of amazing stocks, and processes which are more than possible to use at the moment - and this project was a huge awareness booster of print. I also wish that I had ordered some stock samples and got in touch with a printer somewhere down the line of this project



The final prototype and the boards flowed out of the development and my only setback was not being able to hand my sketchbook in because a paranoia that I missed something out of the PDF is in the back of my mind. I think I should have spent alot more time making sure everything was accounted for in my PDF, but then again I wanted it to follow the same path as the rest of the project and for it to be succinct, minimal - but informative. I think also more stocks could have been considered in the earlyer stages of production development because I started printing my boards and publication spreads on sugar paper and it just boosted the quality of the overall perception of the work.



The publication could have definately been more considered. I definately spent too much time with my head in a sketchbook for the good brief and not enough time thinking about the publication. I know for a fact the content is weak - and like I said before this is because time simply ran out.



Non the less! I have done the best in my ability to up my game and produce something "nice" in both cases because I am rapidly attaining a sense of pride with my design work. But the best thing is... I'm starting to know what I want, and how to get it! I have felt something in my design practise improve and it feels permanent which is definately a promising prospect for future personal development. Bring on the next modules!