End of Module Self evaluation

1. What practical skills have I developed through this module and how effectively do I think I've applied them?
I think the biggest skill I have picked up is that I know I can create an effective piece of work very simply and it can work just as well, were as before sometimes I would put too much into a piece and overcrowd it. I think this has come to light more at the end of the module - especially with my "no news is good news" brief.

2. What approaches have I developed and how have they informed my design development process?
I don't really know if you can call it an approach, but I feel I have become more receptive to feedback and crits, in the way that I can take away what people have said to me and reflect and respond to it

3. What strengths can I identify in my work?
Well I feel that I produce work to the best of my ability - even if at times it's not the best solution. I think that the way I work if fairly logical which helps me progress through the brief.

4. What weaknesses can I identify in my work and how will I address them next time?
I think I need to get the idea clear in my mind before I go on to developing. This was a problem in the envelope task, I wasn't sure what I was making was the best solution so didn't fully like it, but I was stressing to meet the deadline that I went with it, however after readdressing the problem I feel I came up with the best solution for the brief but I wish I had come up with that first to not waste time and resource.

5. Identify five things I would do differently next time and what I expect to gain from doing it.

1. Try to incorporate colour into my work instead of sticking with black and white (although I've felt that in the briefs I have done this module that black and white has been appropriate). It will help me get better at using colour and hopefully I can use it effectively.
   
2. Get an idea clear in my head first. It will help me develop a better solution.
   
3. Be clearer at crits - sometimes I don't express myself very well and what I'm trying to do is muddled by what I say and it's not clear.
   
4. Try and get work done at earlier times, I've been a bit daft this module - trying to produce work which hasn't gone well and ended up not getting enough sleep which in turn has made me very unresponsive the following day.
   
5. I just need to be more confident in what I do - this will help me in crits and in my work - I just need to show that I believe in what I am doing.
   

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas: 5 - excellent - 1 - poor
Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity of work produced. - 3
Quality of work produced. - 3
Contribution to the group. - 2

OUGD101 - Illustrator Brief Evaluation

For this I had to create 26 variations of a letter in one CMYK colour - my first example shown - from a previous project - ten letter forms based on the word hybrid.
I've used illustrator for a few years now - am not an expert by any means - I felt it was easy to use the tools - but a challenge to create 26 variations of one letter - I mainly chose to look at changing the form and structure of the letter rather than adding filters. I feel some are better than others but overall it looks like one continual piece and they all look part of one set.

OUGD101 - No News Is Good News Message and Delivery

Brief- to creat 10 mail shots on a specific topic based on the posters of the last brief.
Concept Building:
What?
To create awareness of a "campaign" (fictional) against hooliganism.
Why?
United front against football violence - make people feel safer.
How?
Poster or Pop up envelope.
Who?
I would send this out to youth teams - to try and help stamp out football violence from a young ages, also football goers - try and help encourage them to return to matches.
Potentially this mailshot is there to promote the "campaign" and direct to a website (splash page - blogspot).
Colour and stock?
Colours to potentially stay the same as the previous posters, but stock - will have to consider the weight so it folds well and doesn't blister. Also the ink didn't dry too well for the posters so that needs to be taken into consideration aswell.

Crit One - peer crit.
This first crit came after a week of working up ideas. The majority of my ideas were just drawings at this point and my ideas were not too clear due to the fact I felt i wasn't coming up with brilliant ideas.

Issues raised:
Make target audience clear in mind.
What stock to use.
Think about composition and text that I will put on it.
Focus message further.

Actions to take.:
Look at using more football associated imagery.
Pick a net.
Information on the inside.
Figure out composition.
Make prototypes.

So I took this all on board and worked up some prototypes ready for crit number two.

Crit Two - with John.
Points raised:
Needs a sender's address.
The space on (prototype 4) the 3D area - is there going to be anything else there? - Could use prison bars.
Need to look at using another colour - as grey could be a tint.

This got me thinking about the whole design - it wasn't my best by any means, so I went back to readdress the points that John had brought up in the crit - he also knew that I had found it a challenge - but I think thats because I was going with an idea I didn't fully believe in.
What I've produced now I'm fairly happy with, it has been simplified down - I've realised it doesn't need lots of extras - or anything outrageous like pop up to make it look good. It works well with what it has got. The second crit definatly opened my eyes to see that I needed a chat about my work before I realised what the problem was. I still feel that it communicates what I wanted to say by using simple techniques - I managed to include the prison bars purely by adding an extra piece of card with cut out rectangles to represent bars.
The simple red strip I added I think works - it draws attention to one of the main points of hooliganism - in the fact it is considered the "English disease".
So, one of the mailshots needed to be sent out to university - hope it gets there in time and in one piece... only time will tell.

OUGD101 - No News Is Good News - Posters

This brief was a week long and unfortunately i missed the crit at the end due to illness.
The thinking behind the posters was to use simple language and visuals to communicate the idea of football hooligans and how in the 80's it was suggested to "fence in the animals" which is what I've loosely based my theme on.
For the text, I've opted for a bold font that I feel represents a manly sport, which I then broken into pieces to reflect a feeling of violence and show the nature of hooliganism.
The image poster I feel may take a little working out when looking at just image, I aimed to include a football - also broken up to reflect violence through pure image. The reason behind the bear is that I wanted to use a vicious animal, and when going through my imagery the bear suited best and is the most beast like looking animal, also unwittingly the head is quite round so it sits nicely in a row next to the football.
Through doing this brief, I feel that I am slowly learning and developing my skills to not put lots of imagery / text in to explain my point and that something can be said in as little as 3 words / portrayed by three images.