Looking back at my original statement of intent; I feel that I have somewhat achieved what I set out to do. I definitely feel that I had more focus for this module in terms of what I wanted to get out of it in the end. One of my main downfalls in the last module was that I just touched upon areas that I wanted to work in and I didn’t feel that I had really exploited any of the briefs, so none of them were particularly substantial. Therefore, the quantity of briefs for this module may not be as many as I had originally hoped for but I feel the work that I do have is more substantial and of better quality than in previous modules.
Originally I stated that I had a keen interest in packaging; this is something that I have since removed from my position statement. Although I do still enjoy working with packaging and the crafting element of it, it isn’t something that I have really emphasized throughout the module. The one brief where I planned to focus on it was the Identity London brief which I decided to terminate in order to focus on the other briefs. It has become clear to me that I am more driven by the content; I prefer to work to a context which has been set for me, for example the Puffin book covers were produced using the dimensions given in the Puffin Children’s prize competition, so I could really focus on the content rather than spend time working out my own dimensions. As previously mentioned, I do still really enjoy working with packaging but I don’t feel it is something that I should specify in my position statement when I haven’t really exploited the uses of packaging.
One of the most important moments in the module in terms of my development was the Puffin brief. I originally only set out to do the James and the Giant Peach cover for the Puffin Children’s prize competition. As I enjoyed doing the one cover, I decided to expand the brief to make it more substantial and give me the oppurtunity to explore the subject matter more. This brief highlighted to me that I want my work to look fun and it made me realise that I really enjoy working for a young target audience and designing book covers and the possibility to expand this into childrens publication illustration. All of briefs that I worked to had different target audience and I enjoyed all of them but producing work for such a young audience wasn’t something I had explored before.
I feel my biggest weakness throughout this module has most certainly been procrastination, a ‘i’ll do it soon’ mentality. It really highlighted to me how much I prefer working with quicker turnaround brief and to deadlines. For example, the End of Year Show proposal had a deadline in March that I had to meet, so I turned around the brief in a fair amount of time and once it was done I could move on. Due to the fact that most of the other briefs were self initiated with the deadline was the end of the module, it felt like I had all the time in the world and I feel that this effected my workload as I spent too much time on some briefs. With the other briefs I didn’t ‘finish and move on’, I was working on all of them at the same time which has never been my strong point because I get very distracted; this is something I should have learnt from the last module.
Another area which I feel may have let me down is the printing side; it was mentioned a few times that I should try different printing techniques, for example on the book covers, but as printing processes aren’t something I particularly enjoy, I ended up avoiding them and resorting to digital printing. I don’t feel this is a big problem although sometimes digital printing didn’t have the desired effect; a lot of time colours came out wrong, especially red on matte stock; this is evident in the NYC pride brief. It made it clear to me that I am much more driven by the content and I would rather have somebody else do the printing process; a knowledge of the area is hugely important in order to get the work looking how you want it to in the end, but the printing process isn’t something I enjoy.
One of the areas I feel I have improved on from the last module is idea generation and experimentation. An example of this being the NYC Pride brief. As I wanted to work with handcrafted pieces and experiment with pop up elements, I spent a lot of time experimenting which is something I have lacked in previous modules, I tend to get one idea and stick with it.
Another area that I feel I have improved on is confidence in my own work and the way I work; one of the comments that sticks out to me from the final crit was that someone said ‘you can tell its all done by the same person, but it all looks different’ which I really appreciated because one of things I didn’t want to do was find a strict style and limit myself to just produce lots of work that looked the same. I feel I have a found a way of working that I like which gives my portfolio a clearer direction but it doesn’t just say ‘I will only draw these things in this style’.
Overall, I am happy with the work that I have produced but I feel that if I hadn’t procrastinated quite so much and managed my time better, I could have produced more work to an equal standard. The final major project has definitely given me more motivation for the future and reinforced what I want to do.
Design Context evaluation
It was my intention from the beginning of the module that I didn’t really want to produce a straight forward book and this is something that I’m glad about in the end judging by everyone’s issues with printing via lulu etc.
I feel my strengths in this brief are that I chose a slightly different format to the basic book and the content; there isn’t much focus on print processes etc. because this isn’t something that I focus on in my design practice, I have focused in on freelance artists or artists that I look up and the things they have to say - as well as their website and agents (for future reference).
One weakness for this brief was the inability to show is exactly right in a PDF format - as it was a handcrafted box with a set of postcards inside, the PDF only shows the postcards.
Another weakness is once again, my type skills. In my opinion I don’t think they look too particularly bad, but there is not doubt in my mind that there will be many issue.
I feel my strengths in this brief are that I chose a slightly different format to the basic book and the content; there isn’t much focus on print processes etc. because this isn’t something that I focus on in my design practice, I have focused in on freelance artists or artists that I look up and the things they have to say - as well as their website and agents (for future reference).
One weakness for this brief was the inability to show is exactly right in a PDF format - as it was a handcrafted box with a set of postcards inside, the PDF only shows the postcards.
Another weakness is once again, my type skills. In my opinion I don’t think they look too particularly bad, but there is not doubt in my mind that there will be many issue.
Design Context - cover
I wanted the cover of my DC publication to be relatively simple, but I needed the handcrafted typeface to be big enough on the front to showcase the content of each letterform - hence the first design wasn't big enough;
In order to overcome the size issue I played around with a few compositions, I was concerned that doing a 'block' type wouldn't work because its an 11 letter word so I couldn't do 3x3 or 4x3 - to overcome this, I added a piece of stationary to the end and it worked out better than I thought.
In order to overcome the size issue I played around with a few compositions, I was concerned that doing a 'block' type wouldn't work because its an 11 letter word so I couldn't do 3x3 or 4x3 - to overcome this, I added a piece of stationary to the end and it worked out better than I thought.
To finalise the cover, I added my information to it and then on the back I put a definition of 'handcrafted' - it stays simple but pulls it all together.
Design context publication - Content
Due to the format of my book (being a set of postcards in a handcrafted box), its hard to make a PDF showing it exactly how it will look when its printed, but below are PDF's of each section with the front and back of each poster - the only thing missing is the cover for the whole publication.
Handcrafted type evaluation
This was somewhat of a late brief that I hadn’t thought of doing; the honest reason for why I chose to do it was to have my own typeface to use in my Design Context publication. As the title of my Design Context publication is ‘Handcrafted’, it was an obvious response to produce a typeface that was based around this, so I chose to incorporate my strange love for drawing stationary.
My main strength I feel, was that the letterforms are still readable but they are all made up from items of stationary.
The weakness of the brief is that I should have produced more of the letterforms i.e. numbers, lowercase, punctuation etc. but for what I was using it for, it worked.
My main strength I feel, was that the letterforms are still readable but they are all made up from items of stationary.
The weakness of the brief is that I should have produced more of the letterforms i.e. numbers, lowercase, punctuation etc. but for what I was using it for, it worked.
NYC Pride evaluation
I originally wrote this brief because it was an event that I went to last year but i felt there wasn’t really any promotion for it; the only reason I knew about it was from doing research before hand and coming across by chance. It also gave me the oppurtunity to work with some of my own photographs, which I haven’t really done before.
One of my main strengths in this piece I feel was the experimentation element and trying a few different things rather than just finding one think, sticking with it and thats the end. Although maybe not everything I tried made it into a final resolution, all the steps that I took led me to a result that I was happy with.
The weakness for this brief, I feel is the amount of end pieces; although I am happy with what I got, I believe there was the oppurtunity to expand the work across more contexts but I didn’t leave myself enough time.
One of my main strengths in this piece I feel was the experimentation element and trying a few different things rather than just finding one think, sticking with it and thats the end. Although maybe not everything I tried made it into a final resolution, all the steps that I took led me to a result that I was happy with.
The weakness for this brief, I feel is the amount of end pieces; although I am happy with what I got, I believe there was the oppurtunity to expand the work across more contexts but I didn’t leave myself enough time.
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