OUGD402 Evaluation

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

Throughout this module, I feel that my researching and analytical skills have developed strongly - when I am looking at professional and peers work now, I feel confident that I can critique and analyse their work in a useful and informed manner. By developing my research skills I have also been able to broaden my design knowledge, which has allowed my work in all modules to improve. 

A big part of the speaking from experience is learning to understand audiences and solve problems in an effective way, which I feel I have managed to do well, through primary research and considered design, although it of course helped in this module that the audience was really our former selves. 

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

In speaking from experience, my idea has gone through numerous changes, which has meant that I have explored several processes before producing my final resolution. I worked harder to put my ideas onto paper in the beginning stages of the brief, but again during the last few weeks of the project I became more interested in working straight onto the macs for the sake of getting things done. I have explored photoshop and its effects more in this module, and also developed my skills on indesign for creating the double page spread for Eve. I also explored photography more for the double page spread. 

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

In the whole module, I feel that my strengths have lied within the editorial task, where I interviewed Eve Warren and created a double page spread about her. I enjoy creating editorial layouts, and I feel that the piece I created for it was to a good standard considering my lack of experience in this area. I also feel that my ideas for speaking from experience were strong, and despite the fact that I created a very last minute resolution, I still believe it solved the problem I identified, and was suitable and effective product for the first year audience. 

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I am always more positive about my work during the design ideas phase, and often create designs that are far too ambitious for the time scale/my budget, which is what happened in the speaking from experience brief - I had several ideas that I felt would be fun and interesting to create, but because of a mixture of my lack of organisation, and the fact that I underestimated what the creation of these would involve, I failed to resolve these ideas and instead had to produce a back up idea at the  last minute. In future I need to be more realistic about my ideas. 

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

1.Create and stick to a to do list to enable me to manage my time better when I have several briefs on the go at once. 

2.Research more innovative and experimental resolutions so that I have a broader range of references to inspire my work.

3.Learn to think more realistically about the ideas I am putting across so that I am able to produce something of greater quality.

4.Develop a greater understanding of audiences so that I can begin to produce work that communicates more effectively. 

5.Create more design sheets in the beginning stages to hash out my ideas on paper before transferring them to digital software. 

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