WE WON YCN!

Me & Chloe won YCN!!!

What an amazing start to the Summer! This is the first thing I have ever won (apart from brownie of the year when I was about 7) so I am so proud and can't wait for the awards ceremony in September. I will definitely be entering more competitions now as this is a great confidence boost, and will look really good on my CV, and I can mention it when contacting studios for placements.

YCN website

FEEDBACK from tutors:

My YCN letter:

The best bit... personalised feedback from Peacocks on why we won! Made me very happy about how thoroughly they have looked through everything, and I'm glad its the idea they like as well as the design.

OUGD203 . PRODUCT.RANGE.DISTRIBUTION. Evaluation

PRODUCT.RANGE.DISTRIBUTION.

For this evaluation, I have looked back at the list I made at the start about what I wanted to achieve, to consider if I have done the things I wanted to.

http://c-griffin1013-dp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/product-range-distribution-what-i-want.html

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

Through this brief I have developed the skills mentioned in the title of the brief, especially considering the range of products. After a workshop early on in this brief, I learnt that covering a range of products was important for many matters, such as making more money in the real world. Covering a range of outcomes is something that I said I wanted to do at the beginning, and I have applied this, by creating a set of packaging for about ten products. 

As I had to write the brief myself, this is a skill I have developed, as normally, the brief has already been written for me. I had to make sure my brief was defined so I didn’t get stuck at a dead end because I had too many options, so I gave myself restrictions, such as limited colour palette. I think I have applied this skill well, as it is the first long brief that I haven’t felt I have got stuck with. 

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

I have developed my packaging skills, as its something I’ve barely touched on while I’ve been on this course. This has informed my design development process as I have focused on an area which I haven’t spend much time on before, which is something that I said I wanted to do initially. As a result, my presentation skills have improved, as this is so important with packaging, to get things perfect. I’ve also had to be more organised, as I had to consider in advance what I needed printing, to book print slots, and make sure there was enough time in case something went wrong. So by doing what I wanted to, I have ended up improving over skills as well.

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

I think with every evaluation that goes by I feel more confident with myself as a designer, and so find more strengths in my work as I am actually working hard on the things that I say I will do differently next time. I think feeling confident in my work is the greatest strength, as it was something I was really lacking. I am happy with my work and have enjoyed creating it. I can capitalise on this by promoting my work to help my PPD.

I have planned everything so that I have covered every aspect that I needed to, to really create the ‘Perfect Picnic’ as stated in the title of the YCN competition brief that my brief was adapted from. This has meant that I have covered a wide range of materials, and that the perfect picnic could actually be a realistic product. 

I have set myself restrictions which I have stuck to, such as a limited colour palette and following the Marks and Spencer Plan A policy, and this has made  an open brief in to a brief I could control. In the past, I have got stuck with open briefs, but I now know that having a defined direction is a good thing.

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

A weakness is not taking risks with my work, which is something I am very aware of. I stick to what I know a lot of the time, and while my outcome for this brief isn’t similar to what I have done before, I don’t want to get stuck with a ‘style’ yet, so I need to continue to take risks and experiment more, to learn new things. Finding inspiration on blogs, asking others for their advice and trying tutorials will help me to create work that stands out from the rest of my work.

I have spent a lot of time on making sure my concept was how I wanted it to be, and this has meant that the design side was a bit rushed. I might have wanted to create more products, or just spend more time experimenting before deciding everything was ready to print. I think in future I need to decided what I am doing earlier on, so as not to waste any time. I can do this by continuously asking for feedback on my ideas, and not just waiting for crits.

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

-1- I will make sure I consider book binding. My leaflet ended up turning out just fine, and I am happy with it, but I didn’t consider how it would be bound when designing, which could have meant that the leaflet wouldn’t fit together. This is something I have struggled with throughout the modules this year so definitely need to revisit book binding as I will probably be creating more publications next year.

-2- I need to experiment with creating type only pieces. I am happy with my final piece, but the focus isn’t as much on the type as I wanted it to be. As an image person, I wanted to experiment with type to help improve my skills, but I ended up turning the focus back to illustration. I need to be brave in the future and try a different direction, even if its not what I end up going with, as this will improve my overall design skills.

-3- I would arrange more print slots to print mock ups and print a few extras when making nets. Printing is always a stressful experience, and I was worried the colours wouldn’t work how I wanted to when I came to print, so having done a test run beforehand would have ensured I was happy with my prints. 

-4- Continue to work on my photography skills so I can have the confidence to photograph my final pieces in context rather than just by themselves, as I think this will look better on my design boards.

-5- Print things more than 2 days before the hand in, so I have time to reprint if something goes wrong, and so I don’t have to rush creating my boards and doing my photo shoots.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas

(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 4
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 3
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4

OUGD203. YCN. Evaluation

YCN...

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

With this being a collaborative brief, my teamwork skills have improved. I was nervous about how I would find working with one person for such a long time before starting this brief, but I ended up realising that there are many benefits to collaborative work. The main one for me was that having someone to continually look at what you have designed is like constantly having a crit, so I kept getting feedback, which definitely helped improve my designs and made any mistakes were spotted. Next year I would like to do collaborative work again as I think it can really benefit my progress.

I have improved my presentation skills, as the final boards were such an important part of this brief, that we had to focus on them, and make sure they were perfect and there were no mistakes. Also with Chloe being a type person, while I am more of an image person, I learnt from her, and this can be seen in the boards, which are far more professional and look so much better than the boards I created for the print module. This will really help as in future I will have to create presentation boards for each brief.

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

This brief has been focusing on promotion, which is a different approach to design production than what I am used to. It will help in future, as when I create a product, I can also consider how I will promote this product, rather than it existing out of context. 

Most of the designs I have done have been digital, but we also did some laser cutting, which is something new to me. I was really pleased with the results from this and think my work can improve from making the most of this in the future.

This is the first time I ever used photos that weren’t mine and I thought I would have preferred to use my own, however, I understand this is more realistic, as designers work with photographers and other designs in a real design job.

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

After having my tutorial during this brief, I now understand what I need to do to improve my grades and therefore my design work. This is to link what I put on my design context blog to the work I am creating, this helping me to try new things and create better designs. I have tried to do this throughout my designs in this brief, and I have definitely noticed the improvement, so I will continue to do this in future. For example, with the websites I have created designs for, I would have previously designed one that I thought was okay and just gone with it. However, here, I have created many spin offs, before asking others and working with Chloe to decide which one works best, in the end, creating a far better design than I would have done initially.

I think the work I have created appeals to the target audience, which is something we have considered as it was an important part of the brief. We did a lot of research in to Peacocks and its target audience to ensure our designs were relevant. Through this brief I have kept re-reading the brief and considering what needs to be done, so that I don’t go off track. I will continue to do this, so that I create work that answers the brief as it should.

I think that overall my designs look better, this is partly because of the constant feedback helping me to improve my work. Also mocking my designs up in context helps everything to become more realistic so this is something I will make sure I keep up to keep improving.

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

A weakness is that I didn’t produce as much work as I normally would do. This is because I wanted to work at the same pace as Chloe so that I wasn’t taking over and so that our work loads could be similar, however, I have learnt that in group work this never really happens. I don't think our work loads ended up being the same, I think I worked very hard on this brief and made a lot of decisions and did a lot of design work, which I hope is clear through my contribution boards, but at the same time, I couldn't have done this without Chloe's feedback and the research that she did. I think I have ended up creating better quality work by creating less, but in future I need to find the right balance of quality and quantity of work, to improve my overall outcomes.

I am happy with what I did produce, and think I have learnt a lot, but I think next time I really need to push myself to do more, and do things differently, to create a more exciting outcome.

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

-1- Cover a wider range of materials to create a greater quantity of work and make the project more believable. 

-2- I would have liked to create an actual working website to show the website design is suitable, creating design for screen which is different from my usual printed outcomes.

-3- I will think bigger, think beyond the obvious to create an outcome that really stands out - as this is what is needed for a competition entry.

-4- I would like to take my own photos, and improve my photography skills, to enhance my outcomes.

-5- I would have liked to have print more things rather than just mocking them up in context, as I think things look better when they are printed, if they are designed to be, as stock choices can really effect the final outcome.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas

(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 3
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 2
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4

Product / Range / Distribution... [Final Submission Boards]

My Final Boards

YCN... Module Submission Boards

My own 5 presentation boards to say what I did and my input in to the ideas for the YCN brief.

OUGD203... Ongoing Evaluation... Part 2

Week Eleven [Monday 23/04/12]

This week I have decided on a brief, and started on my initial primary and secondary research. Im working a lot quicker than I did in the previous brief, as I think I do actually work quicker on my own, however, I also work better when I'm bouncing ideas off others and have others to give me feedback, so I need to keep asking people to look at my work and see if my concept makes sense throughout this brief. I've realised how short it is, and how much I want to do in such a short space of time, so its really important to stay organised, so I've booked ahead my print slots and tried to be realistic in the products I want to create. Working more realistically to deadlines is something I've been considering since the image module, and I want this to be reflected in part two of OUGD203. I want to make good progress, so after my concept crit next week, I want to get started on some design ideas.

Week Twelve [Monday 30/04/12]

My idea seemed to go down well in the concept crit, and the feedback I received helped me to make some decisions I was a bit unsure about, and really direct my brief in a certain direction. I've decided that my packaging will be type focused, to ensure that it attracts the right target audience. This will be a good challenge, as I usually work image based, so I really need to try using type only to communicate. I've got a lot of organising and planning to do, before showing my progress to the same group of people in next weeks crit. Hopefully they can give me some more useful advice and let me know if my initial designs are working in the way that I want them too. Next week, we lose a day with the bank holiday, and also we have many PPD tasks to get through, so I hope I still manage to keep up this good level of work I have been doing so far.

Week Thirteen [Monday 07/05/12]

After the crit I got lots of feedback to do with my font, so it made sense to create this font as soon as possible so I could get more feedback. I'm really happy with this and it works better than any attempt at making a font I've had before. I've done a lot  of preparing and am getting a long well, however, I don't know if research has influenced me a lot as I haven't really done a lot so I need to do some to save me from getting stuck. I need to work really hard next week so that I can get everything ready for my print slots.

Week Fourteen [Monday 14/05/12]

I'm realising how close it is now to the hand in date, so have made a day to day plan of what needs to get done to stop me from getting behind. If I stick to it I think I will produce a good range of deliverables. I am starting to worry that my designs are a bit simple, so I do really need to do more research as I feel like something is missing from my designs. I need everything to be finished by next tuesday night, as my print slot is on the wednesday morning. I will then have the rest of wednesday, thursday and friday morning to take my photoshoot, prepare my boards, and make sure all my blogging is up to date and my evaluation is done. There is a lot of work to get through but hopefully I will get it all done!

Week Fifteen [Monday 21/05/12]

I've done so much work this week and am really pleased with my printed final products. As always, I panicked at the end, and didn't have time to do everything I said I wanted to do to the extent I wanted to. I have written more about this in my module evaluation.

Module Deadline... Friday 25/05/12

OUGD203... Ongoing Evaluation

Week One [Monday 13/02/12] Reading Week

This week has been mainly for recovering from all the hard work from the last module, but I have had a look over the YCN briefs. While none stand out as me really wanting to do them, there are some interesting ones that I think I could be good at, however, they aren't set out as well as the briefs we are given from college so defining what they want exactly may be a bit harder. I don't know how next term will work out yet and haven't really been able to pick out a specific person I want to work with, I just know I want to work with someone I haven't worked with before.

Week Two [Monday 20/02/12]

Since choosing our brief as a partner, I haven't had much time to do anything for the brief, as I have been so stressed with the five books I need to make for image, and all the enterprise and group business tasks that need to be done for wednesday. After that though, I am happy that my focus can be this module, so hopefully I can create some of the best work I have done. Choosing our partner was a very very stressful task, as I was worried about who I would end up with. I am glad I am working with someone with a totally different style from me, as hopefully we can learn things from each other. I am also glad I am working with someone outside my friendship group, as the tutors recommended we do, and working with someone different was already something I said I wanted to do. We need to keep ourselves organised, make targets and stick to them, and continue to evaluate our progress each week to ensure we don't get behind. I think we have chosen a brief that suits us, and I am excited to see what we end up making of it.

Week Three [Monday 27/02/12]

Again with enterprise tasks to finish and image work to do, I feel I haven't spent anywhere near as much time this week on my YCN brief work as I would have liked to. However, with other things nearly out of the way, I am ready to put all of my time in to this brief. We have a lot of ideas and have asked different tutors and others for their opinions to help our development, as initially, we were quite worried as we have chosen the Peacocks brief, and they have gone in to administration. We need to just spend plenty of time finalising our idea next week so we can get on with it and not get behind, as I want to develop my ideas and not have to rush into the final piece.

Week Four [Monday 05/03/12]

After making our design direction boards for the crit I felt much more confident about where we are going with this. I've spent a lot of the time this week researching and now I think we just need to get on with designing now we have our idea finalised. I don't think for the time we have had we have produced a lot of work, but neither have the other groups really, and this is probably down to the amount of other deadlines we have had going on. I have relaxed a bit this week as I have finally had the time to, and I think this has been quite good for me as I have been getting stressed, but I know that next week I will have to work really hard to make up for this. I think the part now of designing and playing around is the fun part, and although we don't have much time left, hopefully we can create some really well made designs that I will pleased with. I already think that Chloe's type driven style is rubbing off on me a bit, which is good as I felt a bit stuck in my ways with my design style, so I will enjoy designing some posters using type as well as image.

Week Five [Monday 12/03/12]

After having my progress tutorial with Fred, I feel a lot better about this module now. I know what I need to do to create better design work and therefore to get better marks. This is to link my design context blog into my design practice blog, and then to continue to research. This is better than just doing research at the start, and then going on with the designs. I've started doing this already with the website designs, and found myself being influenced by lots of the things I have put on my design context blog. Another thing I need to do is create lots of experiments for something, before deciding which design to go with. Normally, I'd think of all the ideas in my head, and then just get started on what I thought was the best idea, but now I need to draw or make these ideas, and then ask for feedback from others, and then get started on the best design, maybe taking elements from the other designs I have made along the way. Again, I've started doing this with the website design. I feel like I have been working quite slowly as I have done this, but at the same time, it is better to create less outcomes that are better designed that rushing to complete many things.

Week Six [Monday 19/03/12]

This week I have been continuing to concentrate on what Fred talked to me about in my progress tutorial last week. I have spent ages developing the web design, rather than just going with my first idea and tweaking this, which is what I probably would have done without Fred's advice. The amount of relevant research that I have done also has helped me to improve. I've created a website design and an overall feel for the campaign that I am very pleased with. I was happy to receive compliments and positive feedback about this design in our crit on wednesday. Our feedback said that my design is getting across the theme that we are going for, and is an improvement on the original designs. I feel like I have worked hard on this module, and for once, I'm not panicking now we're coming towards the end of it, but instead I am happy with what I have produced. I think this is a much better way of working.

Week Seven [Monday 26/03/12]

This week we have finished everything for the YCN brief. I feel like I have worked very hard on this brief, but I don't know if there is five weeks worth of work there. But at the same time, I have had lots of other deadlines such as image, YCN and CTS. See YCN evaluation.

Week Eight [Monday 02/04/12] Easter
Week Nine [Monday 09/04/12] Easter
Week Ten [Monday 16/04/12] Easter

I have used these three weeks to catch up with image work and work for other modules, so that when I am back at college, I can concentrate on this module. I have done the task of choosing the briefs I would answer, and at the moment, I feel a bit nervous about what we have to do, as I'm a bit unsure of whats going on, but after the workshop next tuesday I am sure I will feel excited to get started. After doing the YCN brief, I have realised how poorly some briefs are written, and you do have to spend a while picking them apart to make you sure what you are creating is needed. However, there were a few briefs that really stood out to me that I would like to have a go at.