Speaking from experience

Links to other posts:

Actual BAGD 2011 Blog
Final Blog
Illustration
The website
Primary Research
The brief
Secondary Research: Illustration
Secondary Research: Blogs
Secondary Research: LCA Resources

Rationale:

Idea One

The Brief (what is the problem you intend to solve?)

How to find out what to expect about your first year of Graphic Design at LCA.

What do you need to communicate? (be clear and specific)

I am communicating what the students can expect from the first year, to excite, inform, reassure, and prepare them for what is to come. I will do this through images of work, text, and links.

Why do they need to know? (the concept for your problem)

This is a problem that worried me as I had only really seen examples of 3rd year final work before I started. I hadn't seen the development of 1st years pieces. With the summer task, I had no one to ask for advice and feedback and so I panicked with this.

What will they respond to? (will they see/watch/buy/wear it etc?)

They will look at a website. They will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers/ There will be links to other websites and things they can do to find out more. For example, they can find information like the times and dates of exhibitions at the college, and details of visiting artists etc.

Where do they go? (how will they access/receive/discover etc the resolution?)

They access the information on an online blog. This will save print costs as there are 46 students coming in September, and it also allows for the blog to be interactive and updated. They will receive the link to this website through the post before they start the course. This link will be given to them on a well designed postcard, so that they feel they want to keep it and find out more rather than throwing it away.

Idea Two

The Brief (what is the problem you intend to solve?)

How to find out more about your accommodation and what is around the area.

What do you need to communicate? (be clear and specific)

I need to communicate the cheapest places to shop, the best places to eat, the location of cash points and rail ways etc. I need to show how to reach college from different accommodations. I also would like to communicate what to expect from different accommodations.

Why do they need to know? (the concept for your problem)

Before moving to Leeds I was worried as I didn't know what my accommodation would be like and I didn't know where to shop etc. Even when I moved here, it took a lot of wasted money and time before I discovered the best places to go.

What will they respond to? (will they see/watch/buy/wear it etc?)

They will read the information in a booklet and read this and look at images and maps.

Where do they go? (how will they access/receive/discover etc the resolution?)

They will receive a welcome pack with information in it on the first day of college. The information will vary depending on which accommodation the student is staying at.

We then swapped our rationales with another member of the group who gave us their opinion. I swapped mine with Michael Mooney, this is what he thought about my ideas:

Idea One

The blog is a nice idea, maybe us lot can all chip in examples of work we've done throughout the year? Maybe also link them to various other websites of interest, and maybe some graphical challenges to get them in the right frame of mind would be cool... something I personally would have appreciated.

Idea Two

This is spot on, but it might be cool to draw up some budget plans maybe? Like, how to live off £50 or something, like where to buy the cheapest best bananas for example. And how many to buy for the week...

Week One Crit

This is the feedback I received from tutors and other students after presenting my three direction boards.

- Good concept, new idea, relates just to this course

- Could make this project time based, so that it starts now and lasts up til the students start, rather than them getting all the information at once. This would get the students in to the routine of to keep checking the blog, and makes more sense for this to be a blog rather than a website.

- There is a big gap from the work you do on art foundation/college compared to the third years work you are shown, so their work is quite scary. The gap from  art foundation/college to the first year is not as a big, so to see their work would be reassuring, and let you know that you can do it.

- Blogger designs can be ugly, and this project is about what you want to be as a graphic designer so concentrate on the design identity

Week Two Crit

Unfortunately because of the blogger meltdown, all my work from the week was deleted so I had nothing to show other than my logo designs for the crit. My work was never recovered, which has affected my progress for this brief, as I had to spend time re-doing the tasks that were deleted rather than progressing with my blog for the new students. It also stopped my progress over the weekend as I was waiting for the blog posts to return that never did. I now know to back up all of my work and not rely on blogger in case a similar thing happens again.

For my crit, I talked about my blog and my ideas and still received useful feedback. These are some points from Amber and the other students in the crit.

- Everyone has progressed so much over the year so it will be useful for the new students to see this development. Look at the first year blogs of the second and third years to see how much they have developed.

- It is good how there is not just 'excellent' work, but work from all different students - this makes it more realistic.

- Focus the blog on reassuring the new students that they can create good work, and that they will improve, as everyone agreed this was a problem for them before starting.

- Would be useful to know how a piece was made, what software was used and where it was printed.

- Need to send out an email, asking everyones permission to use their work and asking if there is a piece of their work they'd particularly like on the blog.

- Could use the masks of the tutors off the course blog.

- Would be good to have illustrations of tutors and form reps (Lewis, Luke and Charlie).

- Don't just include final pieces.

- It would be good to see the development of a piece, including earlier design ideas and the final piece.

- It may be useful for the new starters to see photographs of the group to know who we are.

- Include links to each person's blog under their work.

- Need to decide a date for when it will become live.

- Think about how you can make this real and how can you extent this.

Final Crit Feedback

Other Comments

As well as getting feedback from the crit, I asked other students on the course and also other friends for tips on how I could improve.

- Have the links in the same place at the top of each page as its confusing otherwise

- Make sure all the banners at the top are the same height and width

- On tabs it should be 'First Year's Work' not 'First Years Work'

I've made changes to my blog based on this feedback; this is really useful as they are all points I might not have noticed myself.

Final Design Direction Boards

 

Screenshots of Final Blog

Final Link Card

Link to Blog

Evaluation

I've had countless numbers of problem with blogger, which has really made this project difficult. After the blogger meltdown, in which I lost two days worth of work which never came back, I started up backing up my work just to be sure. I've had problems such as being signed out when publishing a post so losing that post, 'blogger could not complete your request' messages with what I have done also being lost, problems with images not loading, the new template being lost with the blogger meltdown. For example, I have typed up the equipment and reading lists three times before the post actually worked!


Apart from these problems with blogger I feel this has been a really successful brief. I think I had a really good concept and so put a lot of effort in to ensuring that my final product was the best that it could be. I have spent so much longer on this project that I have for previous briefs, as I have really got into it, and was motivated by the fact that this blog could actually really be used by the upcoming new starters if it was successful. I feel really positive about this project after comments received in the three crits.


I think the way I have worked has been better than on other briefs, because this brief has been all about what I want to be as a graphic designer, so I've been a lot more motivated. I have experimented a lot with different styles of illustration, which is something which I am really interested in. I hope my work on this blog shows my improvement throughout the year just as the examples of first year work prove how much we have improved as a group during the year. I think my blog does answer the problem I initially set myself, of showing the new starters what they can expect from their first year. If I had more time to spend on this blog, I would like to add more content to the 'before you start' page, and maybe add some more pages.


I think the blog doesn't look as good as it could do, but this is mainly because of the restrictions of blogger. I have learnt how to edit the blogger template, and how to code some simple html to help improve the look of this blog, but I think to make it look really attractive I would need to use a different website to host the blog/website, and learn more about website creating. 

End of Module Self Evaluation

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

As this module has been going on throughout the year, I have learnt a lot which has all been valuable. We have covered a wide range of topics, such as things that may seem very simple, but are actually very important and often ignored, such as revisiting English language and covering verbs, nouns, adjectives etc - something that I haven't really had to consider in many years.


The things that stand out to me the most are what I have learnt about colour theory and also what I have learnt about grids. Before this course, I didn't know anything about either of these areas, so since developing these new skills, I have applied them to all of my Graphic Design in general, and therefore have noticed an improvement in my work as a whole, so I think I have applied these skills effectively. Learning about colour theory has made me think more about the choices behind using a colour, what this colour means, and how the use of it effects how the piece looks/is read. Learning about grids has ensured that my pieces have a visual consistency, making them neater and more professional.

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

For this module I haven't researched as much as I have done for other modules, as most of the time has been spent on the visual language sessions. I have completed secondary research for the briefs set on photography, books for the book fair and the what is a line brief. I have used books and the Internet to find examples of inspiring artwork - this including graphic design, illustration, photography, and paper folding - as well as to find out more about the subjects I have chosen to create work for.


All my forms of primary research have been either photography or drawing for this module. I have done a lot more observational drawing as research than before, as usually I only use photography as a method of primary research, and then draw from these photographs, where with this module, especially with the 'What is a line?' brief, I have captured my researched through drawings.

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

As the visual language sessions were only half day sessions, I worked quickly and wasn't too precious about the work I produced. This is actually a good thing, as this way of working allowed me to think of many different responses to a problem, and to be experimental with my work, trying things I wouldn't usually as I would be too scared that it would not work. By trying things outside my 'comfort zone' style of working, I feel I have benefited greatly, and hopefully will capitalise this strength by working this way in my next module. In previous modules, I haven't achieved what I had wanted to as I hadn't experimented much; I had just stuck to my initial ideas.

Relating to the 'being experimental' strength, this module has encouraged me to try new things. After being introduced to photography through the induction, and having an idea for how I could use photography in the 'What is a line?' brief, I bought a fish eye camera and enjoyed taking film photographs with a totally different type of camera to what I am used to. Although I didn't end up using the results for my 'What is a line?' brief, I took some photographs that I quite pleased with, and will be capitalising on this new skill by taking more photographs with this camera.

Another strength is that I think I am improving on aspects I have noted that I wanted to improve on in previous evaluations. For example, at the beginning of the year, I don't feel as if I put enough effort in to my presentation of work, and I didn't experiment much with stocks. In this module, I have taken better care with my presentation of the work I have produced for the brief, printing in digital print where possible. For the books I created for the book fair, I tried out many different stocks before deciding which one to use. I hadn't done this to this extent before, so I hadn't realised how useful this experimentation is, as the use of different stocks can completely effect a piece, from making it stand out more, to making the text easier to read and other aspects.


Overall, I have found this module enjoyable and hope my passion for this subject can be identified in the work I have produced.

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

I think a weakness for the work I have produced for visual language is the lack of quantity of work, compared to the amount of work I have created for other modules. The only way to address this weakness more fully would be to spend more time creating work outside of the sessions.


I found it harder to manage my time for the briefs set for this module than with the other modules, as we only had one half day session a week. Therefore, for the rest of the week, my time was spent concentrating on the other work I had for my other modules. Also, knowing that the module hand in date was quite far away from things were initially being set, I didn't feel the same pressure which motivates me, that I felt for other modules. To address this more fully, I could set myself mini deadlines to ensure I am completing the work as I go, rather than rushing to complete it at the end.



Another weakness is not asking for help and feedback with my briefs for this module. Again, this relates to how the visual language sessions are different to the other modules, so with less time there have been less crits, and less time for detailed feedback on my work. I could address this problem by asking for feedback from other students or emailing tutors about my questions, instead of just waiting for the next week's visual language session for the advice I need.

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

I haven't done much research for this module, so next time, I would like to research the topic we have covered after a session, to expand my knowledge and to find relevant images which could inspire future work. I did this for only a few topics, such as the paper folding session, and was really fascinated about what I found out, so next time feel it would be useful to research a topic without having to be told to do so.

Following on from the previous point, after researching relevant work for a topic, I would like to revisit what I have learnt in my own time, and spend a bit longer on the quality and presentation of my work. Everything I have learnt in this module I have enjoyed, and it has been a nice change from the other modules as it is so different, but I don't think I have fully capitalised on what I have learnt as I haven't managed to use the skills in other projects.

Next time, if I was set a brief where the majority of work was to be completed over a holiday away from college, I would be sure to plan ahead better. When I went home for Easter, I needed to work, which meant that I had a lot less time to concentrate on this brief, as well as facing difficulties due to not having very good equipment. At home there were many distractions so I found it quite hard to do any work. Next time, I would set aside some time to return to college during the break as it is a much better environment to work in, and at college I would have access to facilities such as the Mac suite and digital print.
I changed my idea for the book for the book fair over half way through the brief which left me with very little time to actually produce my book. While I am still pleased with the book I eventually produced for the fair, I think next time I could gain more time to spend improving the quality of my work by thinking through my idea more thoroughly before starting to design. I don't think I considered aspects such as the purpose of my book or my target audience until much later on, and when I did, thinking about these considerations made me change my idea.
As relating to the weakness I have stated in the question above, next time, when I feel I am at a dead end with my ideas and stuck what to do next, I will ask others for their advice. This will allow me to get on with my work, rather than waiting around or putting off this work. From doing this, the quality and quantity of my work should improve.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas
(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
Attendance = 5
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 3
Commitment = 3
Quantity of work produced = 3
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4

Identity

After seeing examples of second years business cards in a seminar with Fred, as well as looking at other first students blogs, I have decided it is time to create an 'identity' for myself. This isn't a marked project, it is just something I wanted to do to improve my blog. 

To create my business cards, I have used the same process that I used to create posters in the 'communication is a virus' brief. This is to draw letters (CRG - my initials) by hand with fine writer, from typography books and from downloaded fonts, and then to scan them in. I then live traced the letters in Illustrator, and then took these images back over to Photo shop to create my business cards.

Letterforms

Experiments

Adding Colour

To start with, I have used the same colour scheme that we used in the 'communication is a virus' brief.

I think these colours are more personal to me, but at the same time could still appeal to a male audience.

More Experimentation

I decided to take a step back from colour and try some more designs in black and white.

Final Business Card

This is my final business card (for now). I am also using this logo for my blog re-design. I changed the colours of the logo based on the colour scheme of my blog. I don't really need a business card at the moment, so there is no doubt I'll be creating many more experiments before I actually need one.