Speaking from Experience Evaluation Tiiime...

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

During this project, I feel the main skill I have developed is the use of my sketchbook. Throughout the year I have had a continuous debate with myself whether to use mainly worksheets or mainly sketchbooks and I think I have finally found a balance between the two; I don’t know if this would specifically be called a skill but I personally feel it is.
In terms of practical skills, I have enjoyed hand drawing things a lot more. Although I have then taken my drawings into photoshop and illustrator, I did a lot more hand drawn experiments than I have done before. I feel the main reason for this has been because I always felt the other illustrators etc. in our year were better than me, but then I realised, we all work in different ways and can use our own skills to our advantage. I really think this has benefit my work as I felt more involved with it.
Another skill I feel I have developed is my use of photoshop and illustrator; specifically layers in photoshop and I definately feel more confident with using them now to create a more visually engaging image. I have always been somewhat confident in illustrator, just in terms of creating a vector outline so I simply furthered this in this project.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Although Graphics is obviously a visual subject, I do like to have written research as well as visuals because it gives me a better understanding of the subject I am working with and therefore making me more confident with the decisions I make. However, within this brief I have done a lot more visual research than I have done before, mainly because of the PPD sessions and I didn’t realise how much it would help. Looking at such a variety of contemporary examples of graphic design helped with my decision making; looking back, although I did more than I have done before I wish I had done even more and used it all in a much more effective way as I seemed to forget about it at some points. In the second you I hope to continue the successful research aspect of my work.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Within this brief I feel my main strength is my hand-drawn type, I know that if I work with this more it will become better but because this is my first real use of hand-drawn things, I feel it is strong. Another strength is my use of textures and patterns to create a better visual quality for illustrations and type, this was inspired by visual research and I think I used it to my advantage.
Although the following strength is not a practical one, it is still important to me, and it is, as already mentioned, the use of a sketchbook. I had two at the same time, one which I would just sketch and draw things in and the other to write down decisions etc. I definately felt more involved with them by using 2 different ones, as I didn’t keep consciously thinking “should this go in my sketchbook...or just throw it away?” This also benefit me in terms of evidencing the work that I did and showed that it didn’t come from nowhere. In the Second year, I hope to capitilise on these strengths in my work.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

For this brief in particular, this question is the most important to me as in my opinion some of the decisions I have made have let my work down and by addressing them here I hope not to make these mistakes again. I am not going to say ‘time management’ was my weakness, I think prioritising and speed has been the main issue. Although this brief was the same length of time as the book brief, I seemed to subconciously think there was a lot more time for this one. I felt like I was always doing the work, but working so slowly that I got a lot less done than I know that I could have done in that time and therefore when it came to near the end, I had to work a lot faster than I have done before and produce all the work that I wanted to, but not to standard that I would have liked. In future, I want to have a more organised way of structuring my time and set realistic deadlines for myself throughout a brief.
Another area I feel is a weakness is my ongoing evaluation; I do the work, think about it and evaluate it in my head but by not writing them all down I don’t have evidence of all the decisions I made.
In the second year, I hope to work hard on overcoming these weaknesess as soon as possible.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1 - Write more lists with deadlines of them and hopefully stick to them - I won’t be as stressed at the end of a brief.
2 - Keep more up-to-date with my blog - I don’t have to do it all at the end.
3 - Evaluate work more effectively - evidence my decisions.
4 - Experiment more - will have a more successful outcome.
5 - Organise work better - I seemed to have so many files on my laptop referring to this brief and related work was all in different files, being more organised with this would have saved some time.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance - 5...
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 3
Commitment - 3
Quantity of work produced - 3
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 3

Bring on the Second Year.
x