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
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.
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.
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