Monday, 22 November 2010

Illustrator brief final variations



The final 26 for printing. 
Click to see a larger image.

Seeing as this is my first ever illustrator project I was quite happy with it. 

END OF MODULE SELF EVALUATION

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

every graphic skill I possess I developed in this module. In all fairness, I have absolutely no idea how effectively I have applied them. It's early days.
Then again, I think I did quite well with the alphabet soup - typeface for a partner - project. That's what I've been most happy with so far, and I imagine this is what I applied the best of my skills to; basically using simple ideas to create something new to represent certain characteristics. I enjoyed this brief the most as well, which probably would be the reason as to why I was so happy with the outcome. Ecstatic even. Didn't know I could do that before.

I've also learnt a few printing methods and really enjoyed screen printing, as most people would do. Went to a couple of drop in sessions to smash out some extra prints, I reproduced one of my 'no news is good news' posters through screen printing. The quality was absolutely ace. I'm probably going to try and use screen printing where possible instead of digital printing. I'm not used to looking at screens all the time, it makes me pretty agitated.

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

Opinions, images, ideas, previous work. All the standard research techniques. I've not really gone too far with researching though, I can get confused about generating ideas first OR researching first.
I've also put a fair bit of work on my Design Context blog.

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

I really need someone to tell me this for me. I seem to be able to think about ideas quite well, I need to work on getting them on paper/sharing them with others.

I think the 'doing' stage of things is where my strengths lie at the moment, as opposed to the 'thinking' and 'finishing' stages. And i'll capitalise on these by working on everything else.

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

generating visible ideas, and retaining enough interest in the brief to the point that I actually want to see the finished product. I've always had a horrible horrible problem with losing concentration with absolutely anything/not having enough of an attention span. I had to go to the student support place after the dyslexia test, and we came to the conclusion that I have a problem with my attention span (as opposed to being dyslexic). She then booked me in for some other session, but I'd actually lost concentration by this point so I don't really know what it was for or when it was supposed to be.

So I'll address this problem more fully by going back and finding out what this other session was. And generally get help with concentrating and stuff.

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

1) Start sooner - to give myself more time
2) Chew gum - to help me concentrate better, and to stop me wanting to smoke
3) Do more research - to get me more interested in what I am doing
4) Get to sleep earlier - so I am more focussed
5) Go on long walks every now and again - so I get more inspired, most of my ideas appear when I'm walking somewhere.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(5=excellent 1=poor)

Attendance:       4
Punctuality:       4
Motivation:       3
Commitment:    4
Quantity of work produced:    2
Quality of work produced:      3
Contribution to the group:       5

No News is Good News Mail shot.

Final piece for the mail shot brief.



Successfully made it through the post in time, remaining in one piece. Result.
I'm sort of happy with it but I wish I had spent more time researching interesting nets and folding styles, and made some sort of way of holding it all together. an elastic band would have sufficed but oh well.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

No News is Good News evaluation sheets/final piece

Final posters for the first week of 'no news is good news'. I'm fairly happy with how I resolved them, however I'm not at all used to completing a brief from start to finish within a week yet. With a longer time limit, I might have been able to come up with more captivating and dynamic designs, but I don't feel this really matters now - I'll be more competent at completing future briefs within a shorter amount of time.






Anonymous assessment sheets for the first week of 'no news is good news'. The first assessment was good to read, rewarding maybe, but  felt the second (blue ink) was for more helpful in identifying issues that could be improved on. 






This one was more useful. Helvetica is indeed the easy way out, but that doesn't really matter cause i didn't use it anyway.