All About Eve

For our new PPP task, we have to create a double page spread about our interviewee, and I am paired with Eve.

I must take content from her blogs and also from the answers she gave in response to a series of questions created for the workshop yesterday.

Q + A

Where are you from? Tell us about it?

Peterborough - it's a bit of a s**thole, but I don't live there anymore.

What is your earliest memory? 

Hiding behind a settee because I didn't want my hair washed.

Which living person do you most admire and why?

My mum, because she's been through a lot.

Cat, dog or other?

Dog, because I'm allergic to cats

Where would you like to live?

Near the seaside, because I like the sea air.

What would your super power be?

Multi tasking so I can get a lot of stuff done.

If you could bring something extinct back to life what you choose?

Amy Winehouse because she died too young.

What is your most unappealing habit?

Nail biting

What is your favourite word?

Bugger

What is your favourite book?

To Kill a Mockingbird

Which four people would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Obama, JK Rowling, Hayley Williams and Derren Brown.

If you could edit your past what would you change?

Falling out with people, so I wouldn't be disappointed.

If you could go back in time, where would you go? What would you do whilst there?

Go to a Nirvana gig, and jump around.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Getting onto this course.

Tell us a joke

(her joke is too rude to repeat on blogspot)

Tell us a secret?

I could really eat some chocolate right now.

Review

10 Things I have learnt about myself personally on the course

I need to develop the way I write about my work on Blogger. Even though I enjoy writing useless things, such as Facebook statuses (lame) when it comes to writing on this blog everything sounds so samey and boring. I need to find a way to write that is engaging and more similar to how I interact in person.

I need to pay more attention to the PPP and Design Context blogs. I tend to focus too hard on one blog at a time and let the other ones slip. Despite this, I do feel like I have developed my Design Practice blog well, and have gotten the hang of communicating my ideas better, and producing more posts so that it is clearer how my initial ideas have been processed into the final stages.

I am very lucky to be on this course. This realisation can sometimes leave me feeling very out of my depth, because the work that others are producing seems to be in another league to mine.

I have a lot of ideas, but I never seem to be able to produce them to the standard I would like. I need to work on my technical skills so that I can begin to improve and begin working on things I feel more proud of.

It is important to be more sociable with everyone on the course, as opposed to remaining in my comfort zone, because I could be missing out on important opportunities such as collaborations or learning new skills.

I need to spend more time in University and take advantage of the studio spaces more. I think this would motivate me to blog more and manage my time better.

I should also take more advantage of the library and the photography studio, as they are valuable resources that I haven't been using as much as I should.

I am very good at budgeting. Unless I walk into Topshop. Then, not so much.

If graphic design fails me, (or more likely, I fail graphic design) I would be very happy to forge myself a career as a baker or a chef, which is my favourite way to pass the time when I get back from the studio - a relaxing and tasty hobby. I really loved being able to combine the two for Typogateaux, which really challenged me to come up with something a little more adventurous. Baking is also a confidence booster because I end up getting lovely compliments whenever I bake.

I am more capable than I give myself credit for. Considering the multiple stresses I've faced since I started - Commuting between Leeds and Chorley every weekend, maintaining a relationship, juggling 3 different modules, living in a student house with all it's flaws and problems, and working at Gamestation - not to mention all of the stresses I face on the course such as my mortal enemy, presenting, I feel like whilst I might not have mastered my anxieties, I have at least found a way to cope with them so that they don't completely rule my life.

10 Things I have learnt about myself professionally

I need to work on my sense of logic and maths. Before I arrived on this course, I had very little idea of how important a logical brain would be. Turns out very. I learnt this the hard way during the OUGD403 mail shot task, when my designs had to be rushed through and changed because I failed to get the measurements correct for my folding business card, which then didn't fold or create the shape I had hoped for. It's also vital for just my practice in general, in particular after learning about grid and layout, where a methodical approach is vital if you want your work to look professional.

My failed attempts for the Proverb task

The printing studio is where I belong. On my foundation course I experimented a lot with the printing resources, so this is probably not a big realisation, more just a confirmation of how much I love traditional printing processes. I've found the drop in sessions down at Rossington immensely useful, and I'm really keen to do some personal work down there once we're back into the swing of things. I love the feeling of not only saying I've designed something, but I have actually physically made it too. My main goal on this course now is to become amazing at printing and letterpress so that after graduation I can work on opening my own studio.

Creating interesting formats and finishing work to a professional standard are still areas that I struggle with when creating my designs. I tend to think either just about the design, or I am worrying about whether I will actually finish it, as opposed to thinking of all the design elements with equal importance so that I produce something that I think looks decent. I definitely need to research and think more about these factors if I want to improve, and start to create more mock ups, researching stock and folding techniques.

I need to push myself to make my work more innovative and daring so I can see what happens when I don't limit myself so much. This was the feedback after the first module hand in, but I've failed to really carry it out, I think because I'm too scared that it will end up looking rubbish. At the moment my work looks very generic, and I hope in this next module I can really force myself to take a different approach.

I need to be sourcing and researching graphic design via books and online everyday to achieve a better understanding of the practice, and hope that looking at the wonderful works of the world will rub off on my own designs. My favourite source for designers at the moment is Designworklife.com, which is a great resource and has great links to other sites as well.

I prefer to work with type more than image. This became particularly obvious to me looking back over all the work I've done so far, and it's also become obvious that I love a good pun/pop culture reference/play on words. But I still don't know whether I prefer type only because I have insecurities about my own capabilities with illustration and ideas for imagery.

When I really concentrate and focus on something, I am able to produce work speedily and to a good quality. Recently a friend of mine needed some designs doing within one night for a production of Guys and Dolls she is directing. When she first asked I really did not believe I would be able to create anything decent within such a small amount of time, but by the end of the night I had designed something she was pleased with and I found it really amazing how quickly the time went, and how motivated I managed to stay.

Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to find illustrator a really useful tool, instead of something to be afraid of. When I'm in the studio looking at the way others manage to use the software, I'm fascinated at how much they seem to be able to do with it. Instead of backing away from it and assuming that I'll never be able to create things to their standard, I need to just experiment and practice and practice and practice until I get it. 

In the last project, despite using very little illustration, I was still happy that I had managed to make some that didn't look totally terrible.

I really enjoy being able to use photography within graphic design. The DSLR induction we had in design principles was one of the most valuable to me, and I really enjoyed other photography tasks to do with photographing circles. I definitely want to explore more methods of photography, both analogue and digital. 

Although this is a competitive course, and there are a lot of very talented people in one space, I need to begin focussing on myself and my own design practice instead of simply focussing on what others can do that I can't. I am very aware that whilst I may never be the best graphic designer in the world, so long as I make use of all the workshops and resources available to me during my time here, I can still become a skilled designer, and become proud of my work. I definitely have a ways to go.

Personal Work

These are just some designs I created to help out a friend who is directing a production of Guys and Dolls for Durham University. She needed a logo, poster and a ticket design.
I wanted to keep the designs pretty similar to their ideas, and similar to the styles of work I'd researched online.

This was my inspiration for the poster, which I found on a movie poster archive. 

I really liked the nostalgic feel of this poster, as opposed to the other ones that felt slightly tacky. Beth is classy gal, so it was only fair to try and represent her production in a classy way too. 

 She was really pleased with the designs, and I'm actually quite happy with the way they've turned out.

OUGD405 Evaluation

This module, for me, has definitely been one where I have developed the most new skills. The most valuable ones for me, and the ones that have been most relevant to this module have been researching skills, which have given me a greater knowledge of sourcing information and how to process it, and beginning to understand qualitative and quantitative research is something I hope to continue learning about, as I know now how important research is to the design process. It has also helped me to understand audience and context better, which was really important in this module in terms of using the research we found to create useful products. I definitely think I have applied the researching skills effectively to these modules, but in future products I wish to explore my research further and possibly try and broaden my methods of research.

The workshops on photoshop and layout/grids has also been really useful to me, as I feel like the design work I have been doing has been more informed and technically competent than in the last module where I really had no knowledge of the things that make graphic products look professional and more finished. 

Another skill I have developed during this module is screen printing, which I then used to produce one of my ten products. Screen printing is something I had limited knowledge of before this module, but going to drop ins and having the chance to experiment has been really useful and has allowed to think more broadly in terms of the range of graphic products I can produce. 

In this module, I have continued to work on both photoshop and illustrator, and I have been able to produce more complex and technically skilled designs, although I know I still have a long way to go. In term of preparing ideas before exploring them on design software, I feel like I am getting better at exploring more ideas through design sheets, but with some of my designs I do feel better just beginning my work on photoshop and developing it on there as opposed to drawing things out. 

My strengths in this module I feel have been the development of my technical competence on the design software. I have felt more informed in this module which I think has affected my work in a good way, and I feel like there are fewer noticeable flaws in my work. I think in both the How To project and the 100 Things project, my design work looks quite considered, and appeals to the target audience through the colours, text and typefaces used. 

All the products work well as a series ,and retain a cohesive style throughout. I have been most pleased with the food packaging elements of my work, which I think have more thought out formats, and they also contain the most information which has displayed the research I had been collecting prior to beginning my designs. 

 I think my time management in the 100 Things brief has been quite strong as well, and I have managed to create my products in good time, which I think was helped by booking a print slot early and giving myself a deadline and a set amount of time on each product. 

My weaknesses in this project have been not thoroughly thinking about and finishing the products, which is something I have still not managed to master. Despite feeling I have handled my time well, I do feel like I gave too much time to designing of the product, and not enough time to thinking about stock and format to the best of my ability, which has affected the finish of the products in a negative way. Given more time, I would have tried to source better stock for my products. 

I also think that perhaps my research subject could have been developed further in some areas so that I had more options to consider at the beginning of this brief. Given the brief to do again, I would possibly try and find more information on other aspects of food, and I would have tried searching for information in other ways than the internet and primary research. 

In the future I am going to write a plan of what I intend to do, which includes points such as finishing of product, stock, format and design, and then try and work on all of those things more equally to create something of a better quality. 

5 Things I would do differently next time are 

Research into formats and printing finishes - so that I can develop my work and create something that looks more professional.

Explore more methods of research - I would like to work on finding more primary research, and secondary research from other sources than the internet, that way I can be better informed and develop a better knowledge of audience and context. 

Write up a plan of my intentions for the design process before the next brief so that I can manage my time effectively and produce work of a higher quality.

I would like to explore more styles of design in my next brief, such as illustration and pattern, as these are not things I have yet used in any of my work, and I don't want to stay so much in my comfort zone of using mainly type.

I also want to develop my use of colour in my next designs, again for the same reason that I want my work to be varied, whereas at the moment it all seems quite similar. 

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance

4

Punctuality

4

Motivation

4

Commitment

4

Quantity of work produced

3

Quality of work produced

3