OUPD301 Sept - Dec & OUGD301 Weekly Evaluation

Week Beginning: 24/09/12

This first week back at college has had a focus on getting ready for the upcoming year, with briefings and PPD presentations. I am pleased about how my presentation went and found it interesting to hear what others have done. Now I know my timetable I have organised a placement (at Holden&Sons again) during reading week. I want to organise visits to other studios and printers throughout the year and over Christmas to get an even better insight in to the industry. I also feel like I need to make a plan for the dissertation, like how long I will spend on it per week as I am aware how busy I am going to be for the rest of the year, especially if I have placements too.

Week Beginning: 1/10/12

This week has been a good and busy first week back, and I have been working as I mean to go on, meaning long days at college but then giving myself a bit of a break in the evenings so that I don't get too stressed. I think this is a much better way of working than I did last year. My four briefs have changed a bit during this week but now I know what I definitely want to do I can finally get started properly. The progress tutorials next week will be useful to help me see if I am going in the right direction. I know that I have set myself a lot of work to do in not a lot of time, so its important I get the most out of everyday. I've been doing a bit of a time plan to ensure I don't waste my time.

Week Beginning: 8/10/12

I've been changing my briefs around again this week after the feedback I got from the group tutorial got me thinking about why I was actually choosing to do things. I found this so useful and now have re-written my brief, meaning that I've set myself a task I actually feel like I'm looking forward to doing and can get started with. I thought I would have done more by now as its the third week in, but I think not being totally sure about what my briefs were was what was stopping me. Now I know what I'm doing, I'm ready to get going and have set myself a week by week plan, so lets see if I stick to this.

Week Beginning: 15/10/12

So at the start of this week, I was beginning to lose motivation a bit and not really know which design direction to go in. I've been focusing on just two of the briefs, and got to the point where I didn't really know what to do next. I've been continually asking for feedback from others in the group and I have found this really useful, as they sometimes point out things I wouldn't have thought about myself. Also, my individual progress tutorial was really useful and motivational, especially for thinking about the structure of this module. I now know which briefs I should spend longer on, and where to start, so now I've got a bit of order I think it will be easier to stay motivated and hopefully not get too stressed.

Week Beginning: 22/10/12

This week I feel like I have done lots for this module and I think having the crit to think about has been massively motivational in helping me get everything up to date. I've been getting through the things I talked about in my individual tutorial, as well. Some of the feedback I received was a bit confusing, so I need to have a talk about this as soon as possible, but most of it was useful, pointing out things I hadn't noticed.

I've set up a facebook group for me and a few other students, so that we can upload our work to it and get feedback, which is especially useful if I create something late at night and can't wait til the next day to get others advice. Because graphic design at LCA never ends.

My concern this week is that while I've spent a lot of time on this module, I haven't done much at all PPD wise or for my dissertation. So next week, while I do have my placement, I'm going to work on both of these areas so that after the reading week I will be able to concentrate back on this module.

Week Beginning: 29/10/12 (Reading Week)

This week I have been on placement which has been a really fun and useful experience and I would love to go back over christmas. Its got me excited for life after uni rather than scared about leaving the course. However, due to the time I've spent at this placement and the commute, I've done very little work, and am a bit worried I will be really behind everyone else. I don't regret my decision to do my placement in reading week, but know that I'm going to have work twice as hard and be even more organised to get everything done on time. The deadline is getting closer and closer and while I've done a lot of the initial work, I need to make sure I'm sticking to my time plan and start designing the actual final pieces, so I can produce some good quality work which can be used in my portfolio.

Week Beginning: 5/11/12

At the start of the week, I discussed where I was up to with Andy, which was really useful as I thought more about things having more meaning and a context to them, rather than just designing for the sake of it. With the deadline fast approaching though, I don't have time to keep changing ideas, so need to make important decisions soon, as I already need to prepare for print.

Then I had the crit, where after this I felt like I was at a dead end, and felt disheartened, as people are continually giving me totally mixed feedback on my work, so I keep changing directions to suit what people have said, for people to tell me to go back to what I have done in the first place! It was making me feel very stressed, so I've taken a break from the briefs that were causing me problems and started to focus on the new competition brief I want to enter. I think I need to continue doing what I did this week and discuss where I am up to with a tutor as well, as crits have been really confusing me and making me feel unmotivated with the mixed feedback.

Week Beginning: 12/11/12

This week I have got all my stationery brief finished and ready for print, as well as starting on ideas for the hand drawn typography brief. I found my individual progress tutorial with Andy very useful, and this week there hasn't been a crit to confuse me about my progress, but at the same time, I think I do actually need crits mainly just to motivate me to get more work done. This week I've felt less motivated than ever and unbelievably stressed. I hope when I get a brief out of the way this will be a bit easier.

Week Beginning: 19/11/12

This week I have got my motivation back by having a break from the two briefs that were stressing me out a bit and focusing on the ycn hand drawn typography brief, which I have found and a good change from the type of work I have been producing. It has allowed me to play around a bit with type and print finishes, and I'm now almost finished with this brief. I am still more worried than ever though as the deadline gets closer and I also realise I have so much dissertation work to catch up on. As always, there will be things I look back on and decide I will have to work differently next time.

Submission Deadline: 12/12/12