OUGD402 Evaluation

I think that PPP has been incredibly helpful for me this year. I found out a lot of new studios that I had never heard of before, such as The Hungry Sandwich Club and Snask. I also went to an awful lot of gallery openings and visits when I wasn't working, which I feel I probably wouldn't of done if it wasn't for PPP. Even so, I enjoyed the openings and I found them really helpful when doing group work to brand an exhibition in OUGD406.

I also found the self branding project really useful, however I really struggled with it as I found it a lot harder to be satisfied with the outcome knowing that it was for me and would be my branding for possibly the next three years. I think I'm still not completely happy with my logo, so I'm hoping to have time to finish branding myself over Summer. I found presenting this to the rest of the class really useful as I got to see everyones presentations and I got a lot more feedback than I would've in a smaller group, even if it was nerve-wrecking.

I think a strength of PPP for me was visiting lots of different gallery openings, as I found that by using Facebook I could find new ones constantly and I plan to go to a lot more before first year is over. I think another strength was the colour swatch that I chose for my self branding, as I really like the colours that I chose and I think they work really successfully together, but also because they had context behind the colour choice.

I think a weakness of PPP was probably managing my time, as I spent a lot of time designing my logo as I wasn't really happy with any of the outcomes, and I tried to change it so it didn't look rude however wasn't very happy with any of those outcomes either, so I went with the original. However, I'm going to work more on this over Summer and hopefully get some business cards printed professionally. I am also going to ask if I can keep a stack of them in the o2 academy where the bands are, as I think this would be really good self-promotion, it's just whether they would allow me to or not. Either way, after working there for around 2 months I have already bumped into two musicians, so I plan to keep some on me to hand to them.

OUGD402 Presentation & Script (Studio Brief Three)

For this brief, we have basically been asked to create a 7 minute long presentation based on our past experiences for the last 9 months. I decided that my presentation would mainly be key words and a few images, and I would have the bulk of my speech in a script instead of on screen, as I find that presentations that have type on are pretty pointless unless they're key words, as the person doesn't really have to read it out if the audience can read it themselves. Below is my presentation. I kept it really simple as I didn't want it to be harsh on the eyes and I wanted a slight modernist style. I decided to use my self-branding logo in the corner, as I have to get used to having this on my presentations in the future.

Who am I as a learner? I’d say as a learner that I am very willing and want to learn a lot of new skill sets, and have through-out the year, such as I had never used InDesign properly and now I am quite accustomed to it. I think I’m quite a computer-based designer, however I really enjoy the methods afterwards, such as screen printing and book binding. I’d say I’m a lot more confident than I was when I first started the course and I’m more comfortable talking about and presenting my work, although I still get nervous. 

Have your experiences changed your ambitions? I think that my ambitions have changed due to my experiences, as when I first came to the course I thought that I would like to go into industry straight after finishing, however after meeting The Hungry Sandwich Club I’d really like to set up a design studio myself, as I think the environment would be more suited to me. However, I’d still like some experience in industry, so I think I will do a year or two and then set up my own business.

What are your personal aims? I think at the moment my personal aims are to do well in university. I think to succeed in this in Level 5 I will have to think about my time management a lot more, as in Level 4 I think I struggled with this (although I never handed in late, it was always a rush at the end before submission). I think another personal aim of mine would be to get some experience with live briefs. I’m hoping to do this over Summer as I’ll (hopefully) have a lot of spare time.

What have you learnt? Over the year, I have learnt a lot of new things, such as screen printing. I think this is a really useful skill to have and I definitely want to explore it more in Level 5. Another skill I have learnt is to use Illustrator properly, as at the start of the year I only really knew how to live trace, however now I can create illustrations without drawing them out first. A skill I have developed is self-reflection and evaluation. It’s a skill I already knew, however I think I have developed in this area and I can now analyse my own work more effectively and give myself constructive criticism. 

What do you want to learn? In Level 5, I would really like to learn more about letter pressing and also embossing, as these are two techniques that I haven’t worked with yet and I’d like to get as much as possible from the course and use as many facilities as possible that are available. I think it would also be really interesting to do some collaborations with students that aren’t doing Graphic Design, such as Illustration or Printed textiles. 

What mistakes did you make & how have you learnt from them? I made a lot of mistakes during the course, such as in OUGD404 I got the pagination of my book really wrong and had to reprint it, however I learnt from it as I now know how to paginate an open spine book properly. I also made mistakes such as time management at the start of the course, however through-out the year I have improved my time management a lot, however I think it still needs work in Level 5. 

What have been your strengths? I think a strength of mine through-out the course has been listening to constructive criticism and developing my work further with the comments, however also making sure that I am happy with the final outcome. Another strength is the fact that I have been pushing myself a lot further at the end of the year and I’d like to think I have been quite ambitious with my design, for example in OUGD404 I learnt to paginate an open spine book, how to do a four colour separation of a photograph ready for screen printing, and also how to bind an open spine book.

What have your weaknesses been? I think a weakness of mine has been time management, as I didn’t think ahead that all of the modules would basically be due in at the same time, and therefore over Easter I didn’t really get much of a break due to the workload. Another weakness of mine has been balancing out the work between 4 different modules, as I have never really had to do this before and it’s something I have really struggled with over the year, however I think I am better at this now, and it’s good as I think it’s what being in the industry will be like.

What have you enjoyed and why? Through-out the past 9 months, I have really enjoyed being in a city where there is a local art scene and visiting multiple exhibition openings. I particularly enjoyed going to see Drew Millward’s exhibition at Colours May Vary. I thought the screen prints were really interesting and they looked incredibly complicated to get right. 

What have you disliked and why? I have disliked the stress that comes with having four modules on the go at one time, however I know that it is beneficial as this is what industry will be like.

What did you want from Level 4? I wanted to be eased into my course, but still challenged, so I think this has been achieved. I also wanted to learn to use DreamWeaver and this hasn’t happened, however I want to learn to code my website that I created for PPP over summer and get it up and running.

What do you want from Level 5? I think from Level 5, I would like to get even more comfortable with presenting my work and build up my confidence further. I think this will also be achieved by working part-time at the o2 as I have already met and will meet a lot of new people. I think I would also like to experiment with screen print further and learn new skills such as embossing and foiling. I would also like to experiment more with stock choice and hopefully build up my own collection of different stocks. I would also like to get some live briefs and to maybe create some posters that could be sold on my website once I have coded it. I think collaborating with people is really interesting and fun and I would really like to do this more in Level 5.