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 believe since the start of this module the main skill iv developed is definitely development work and trying a different range of colours/type/layouts etc. before this module i would try just a couple of different colour schemes for a piece of work or a few typefaces but with each brief for me comes more experimenting with colour layout and typefaces and hopefully i will keep developing this, also keeping a range of good research on my blog, still these are both things i need  to carry on working with and developing throughout this year.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I mostly use the internet to get a good body of research but still its something i need to improve on and do more of, i keep a record of all my research on my Design Context blog as it is an easy way of accessing it at any time, at first blogging seemed like a really boring and repetitive task but the more i do the more i want to do.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I believe my main strength is probably use of colour, i'm definitely not an expert, not even close but i believe the colours i use sit well on pieces of work i produce and compliment my work, in the past couple of briefs i have experimented with colour with my work to find the best solutions and believe the colour works with the outcome.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
My weakness is definitely development work the biggest problem i have is developing more than one idea and following them both and coming up with more than one fully developed piece of work, i always find one idea and stick with it i find it very hard to come up with more once i'm focused on the initial idea.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Develop a range of possible ideas rather than one, doing this i could decide on a better idea than my initial one i usually stick to. Come up with a greater body of research for each brief and research in general of things that inspire me to give me better ideas and push me in the right direction. Be more hands on - use pens pencils more and develop more design sheet rather than jumping on a computer, i feel this way my work will be a lot more thought through. When set a task start that day, i often leave things a day or two, this will help me keep on track with time management. Develop my self evaluation skills and evaluation skills in general, i also need to develop my vocabulary i often find myself using the same words throughout a paragraph.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:  (please indicate using an ‘x’)   5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation			X
Commitment			X
Quantity of work produced		X
Quality of work produced		X
Contribution to the group			X
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

No News Poster feedback

evaluation of 'No News is Good News' Brief

Namer of Designer: Oliver Cassell


What is being communicated and how?:


what the consequences are of serving underage children in a Pub of Off-licence


How well does this answer the brief?:


I believe i answered the brief very well, the net itself acts as something a landlord of a pub would come across every so he/she would be interested and intrigued if it came through the post and it is straight to the point.


Who is the audience and how well does the resolution communicate the message to them?:


Landlords, Off-licences etc. it lets them know what would happen if they were to serve underage children alcohol.


What are the strengths of the resolution?


i believe the strengths are how the whole thing would relate to its audience including the colour scheme.


how could it be improved?


like every thing i have come up with new ideas and also the feedback from friends helps i.e. the way the audience may be confused because it seems as though im saying you could loose your driving licence.

Evaluation of 'No News is Good News' Brief

Namer of Designer: Oliver Cassell


What is being communicated and how?:


what the consequences are of serving underage children in a Pub of Off-licence


How well does this answer the brief?:


I believe i answered the brief very well, the net itself acts as something a landlord of a pub would come across every so he/she would be interested and intrigued if it came through the post and it is straight to the point.


Who is the audience and how well does the resolution communicate the message to them?:


Landlords, Off-licences etc. it lets them know what would happen if they were to serve underage children alcohol.


What are the strengths of the resolution?


i believe the strengths are how the whole thing would relate to its audience including the colour scheme.


how could it be improved?


like every thing i have come up with new ideas and also the feedback from friends helps i.e. the way the audience may be confused because it seems as though im saying you could loose your driving licence.

Illustrator brief

No News is Good News pt.2

No News is Good News pt.1

Alphabet Soup Pt. 2 Final piece No.2

I changed a few things with my alphabet as i did not think as i were unhappy with a few things i added a black back drop behind each letter, it seemed to give each letter more character and made them a little less boring.

Alphabet soup pt. 2 Final piece (hand rendered)

My Final hand rendered design for my typeface, i would like to design this in illustrator to make sure all letter forms are sized properly to scale and match.

i would also like to play around with the design a bit in illustrator to make some changes.

Alphabet soup pt. 2 Evaluation

Which personality traits did you choose to respond to and apply the typeface?

The adjectives i chose to use were:

• Groovy
• Free spirit
• Small

What are the Reasons behind the design decisions you made for the typeface?

The ideas behind my type face were using the idea of 'free spirit' how the definition of free spirit is 'someone or thing that breaks the rules' so i went down the line of rule breaking with actual type and certain rules typefaces have to follow and began to change these, i.e. lengths of stems, lengths of ascenders/descenders, bowls etc. and made a typeface such as times new roman, a sturdy and masculine type more feminine.

In what ways were the results effective?

the final outcome was a lot more feminine and looked like a fairy tail like type which i think worked for this brief as my main adjective was free spirit.

Alphabet soup pt. 2 crit (15-10-10)

Issues Raised

• Maybe try in lower case
• the type face filled in looks blotchy and masculine

Action to Taken

• do examples of my typeface in lower case
•  do something about it being filled in, change colour or just have an outline

How to... Rationale

How to... final piece

Alphabet Soup pt. 1 final

Problem analysis - rationale alphabet soup

Brief:

i must create an alphabet to reflect and represent my partners (Sarah's) personality.

Who needs to know?

My audience consists my partner, my peers and my tutors

What do they need to know?

they must be able to work out what kind of a person my partner (Sarah) is by looking at the alphabet

Why do they need to know?

What will the respond  to?

i will have all of my ideas and research in front of the work

What research is required?

Primary: My primary research consists of me interviewing Sarah and having a questionnaire she filled out

Secondary: This research will consists of things i find on the internet in books as part of developing my ideas.

alphabet soup pt. 2 crit (08-10-10)

Issues Raised

• ideas need to be shown properly on paper
• look into free spirit and the meaning
• look into breaking rules of type

Action to be taken

• make note of any ideas generated and experiment with the outcome
• Research imagery on free spirit and its meaning
• Research breaking rules of type, especially the rules of times new roman

Alphabet soup pt. 1 evaluation

Evaluation

What is being communicated and how?

My final outcome shows the on going damaged of a letter form due to lack of attention i chose to use the least used letter in the alphabet and an unused typeface and began to make it erode as if it had been left alone to decay.

How well does this answer the brief?

I think visually you can tell i was supposed to be showing a letter being damaged, but my initial idea to do with the resolution of a letter being the way a letter form gets damaged would have been my final piece choice but i struggled to find a way to make it aesthetically pleasing.

How well has the idea been visually explored?

I think i did alot of research to generate a good range of ideas with this brief and explored it as much as i could.

What are the strengths of the resolution?

I thinks the strengths of the outcome lie alot in the research, i put alot of effort into researching the brief which help me come out with a wide range of ideas.

How could it be improved?

I could have improved this project more if i looked into my intial idea of damaging the type with resolution and came up with a good final piece for the brief.

Evaluation of 'How to' brief

How to...- self evaluation

What role(s) did you take on in the group?

We all had similar roles, we all together developed the ideas together then individually designed certain parts of our idea, i feel i gave a lot of input and helped develop the idea a lot. my main role was to design posters, flyers and a logo for the project, throughout the project we all communicated very well and discussed typefaces and colour patterns to use.

How well do you think you performed the role(s)?

I think i did quite well within my role i created the posters and logo then went to my peers for input and advice on what i had designed, i then took the advice and changed the design were needed.

How well do you think you worked as a group?

I thought we all got on very well together and we each listened to the others ideas and took them into consideration, and also most of us gave good critical analysis of the others work.

What were the positives of working in a group?

i feel by working in a group it helped me develop my own ideas a lot better and i found some advice that was given helped me improve on my own work, i was happy to listen to criticism about my own work because i knew i would benefit from it.

What were the negatives of working in a group?

Sometimes certain members of the group wont change there design in ways to benefit the project as a whole which changes the course of the project and in some cases slows it down.

What would you do differently next time?

improve my presentation skills at the end of the brief.

Were could you have improved your resolution?

maybe if we all focused on the design point rather than the recipes for the project.

Where were the strengths of your presentation?

because we had been discussing the project all the way through the worked seemed as thought it was designed by just one person even thought each person designed a different part of the outcome.

Ten things I would like to achieve by the end of my course

• To master Illustrator
• Develop my presentation skills
• Further my Illustration skills, i.e sketching + drawing
• Be able to annotate my work in more depth
• To understand the colour theory
• Further my knowledge in typography
• Experiment with moving image
• Learn to screen print
• Become better at evaluating both my own work and peers
• Develop my time management