End of module self evaluation

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

I have developed my visual thinking and illustrator skills and I feel I have effectively applied these skills to my projects. Mainly the alphabet soup illustrator and alphabet soup part 1-were we picked a  word from the randomizer. In regards to illustrator I have picked up valuable skills that  help me to experiment with creating 26 different variations of the letter B. 

   With the alphabet soup 1 I felt I had answered the brief in a simple but effective way this was due to me coming up with a solid idea.

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

By going through the motions of brainstorming and researching, designing initial ideas and developed ideas sheets and then final outcomes I have found that I will more often than not come up with a final idea that I am happy with and that is relevant to the task. The best example of this is No news is good news. For this project I  started researching Paul Gascoigne and ended up doing a poster for drink driving, the reason I mention this is because without the body of research I had gathered I would never been able to produce the envelope I did.

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

I think my strengths lie in coming up with good initial ideas and then  building on them.I found that the ideas for brain storming and experimenting  were really interesting and original and I will capitalise on this by spending even more time producing and experimenting with different ideas and outcomes. After all its these begining stages that shape the final outcomes.

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

My main weakness organisation and time management skills, I didn't leave myself enough time for some of the briefs and felt that if I had  have put more time and effort in then things would/could have turned out differently in certain projects. I know this  is one of my weaknesses and I need to make sure I work harder and make better use of time in the studio.  Other areas I can improve on is producing more experiments design sheets before I come to my final outcomes, this again depends on me managing my time efficiently.

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

a) Improving time management in particular making sure that all necessary work is completed in time for crits. This will help me get the best feed back possible.

b) To use studio time effectively and get as much use from the facilities the collage has to offer. This will help me produce better work. 

c) Take more advantage of saturdays. There is no one in on saturdays and I would have the college to myself (pretty much) leaving me with peace and quite with access to all the facilities the collage has to offer 

d) Listen and concentrate to specifics of briefs. Help me answer briefs better and produce better ideas and final outcomes. 

e) Produce more design sheets for initial and developed ideas. This will help me with producing my final designs making sure I have explored as many different routes as possible.

 

Alphabet Soup illustrator.

At first I was not looking forward to this brief but after experimenting and getting used to illustrator I found that vectoring wasn't  as hard as I thought it would be and I started to enjoy it.  I surprised myself with how many different ideas I was coming up with. I feel that this brief was very helpful in helping me progress using illustrator.

No news is good news envelope.Inital Ideas and poster designs.

The addresses on the mail shot  are all pubs with the exception of two which are off licences. The reason I have used these addresses is because these are the places people get their alcohol from. I'm hoping that the persons receiving the envelopes will display the posters included within the envelope. I feel that the posters would get the most attention and have the biggest impact  in these locations.

 I really like the posters and Im really happy with the ideas behind them and the way in which I've merged the separate images together. I feel they are really effective and subtle. Peoples feedback has been really positive and they have said that they have not noticed the person driving in the pint glass until they looked at the 'think!' logo and had a second look. The audience seems to like the fact that there's more to the poster than first meets the eye. This  is what I was trying to achieve.

                                                      

no news is good news 3 posters

I'm not to happy about my final posters. I feel that they are very simple, I like the idea behind them and I think they are effective as a series. However I feel  as though I could have put more effort into portraying the message. 

   I liked the initial ideas but found whenever I looked at them the felt like three separate images rather than one. I think I took the easy route, I should have and would like to develope the sketches. However i think the idea behind the series is eye catching and straight to the point  and therefore answers the brief.

Alphabet Soup Part 2.Final outcome

I really like the alphabet I've produced for Chris and from his reaction and feed back he seems to really like it as well. If I was to change or develop anything I would pick the style I have chosen  for the letter 'E' and apply that drippy, messiness to all 26 letters of the alphabet. But on the whole I am pleased with the final outcome and I feel it represents Chris well

No news is good news final outcomes

I found this project quite hard. This is because I wanted to think of a solid idea that would subtlety  make people think about drink driving. I want the audience to have a  think about driving home while their drinking their pint down at the pub. I feel I have achieved this however there are a few areas I would like to improve on. For starters  I need to follow the brief more closely color wise and by the end my envelope seemed to have become a tad smaller than the original net.

   Overall I am really chuffed with the final products ad I feel the addresses I have included in my mail list are relevant  to the envelopes main goal-to raise awareness of drink driving.