EVALUATION

Looking back at this module I feel as though I have come a long way since last year, ending up with a body of work that I am proud to have done and happy with in terms of making a portfolio out of. Throughout OUGD301 I feel as though I have continuously learnt things the hard way, which although frustrating and aggravating means that I am still growing and getting better as a designer. Considering this I’ve come away feeling very positive as I believe I can improve in certain areas and aspects of design, which will only strengthen and help develop my skills set.
Although obvious and cliché I’ve learnt what is possible in terms of producing work in a short space of time, making the transition from second to third year quite well. Although stressful at times I feel I handled the work load well, organising and effectively managing my time in a manner that suited my style of work. Referring back to my statement of intent where I talked of working for briefs for two days at a time. This being a fairly successful process I followed and maintained throughout the module, and something that I feel really helped with getting all of my briefs up and running. Other than that my organisation and management mostly took the form of lists and A3 sized weekly planners, although a bit messy and causing a fair stack of off cut paper it really helped me to stay on top of each brief, allowing me to know at any given point where I was with each brief and what my next step was. Nevertheless saying this there is room for improvement on these skills, possibly making it a bit more formal, or having an icalendar aswell as these lists, this way I wont risk losing any important lists as the icalendar would act as a back up. As well as this I intend to use icalendar to help plan out the module in full, as for OUGD301 I was pretty much taking it week by week and at times day by day, although this didn’t create too many problems I feel things would have run a lot smoother if I had at least a loose monthly plan of action to stick to.
Something that I unfortunately learnt the hard way was how to work across different computers, organising files and keeping on top of all the work that was being produced at the same time. Essentially, don’t rely on pen-drives, I foolishly did and it did blow in my face a little, thankfully nothing huge or significant was lost, only a few hours of my day, but the little things all add up. So what I’ve taken from this is to always have hard copies of things, my intention is to make full use of my hard-drive, using that more often than just a couple of USB sticks.
Referring back to my module proposal and rationale, I feel as though I stayed true to what I proposed, that being I produced a body of type based work for subjects that I hold a strong interest in, designing across a range of formats and media and at times having fun doing so. I feel as though I could have exploited and maybe experimented a little more within certain briefs but as a whole I feel content with what I produced and proposed throughout all 6 projects. One thing I have noticed however that I intend to address next term is that I mostly designed for print throughout all the briefs, adding digital / for web designs as a small part of the range, I didn’t consciously avoid this as it is something I want to include within my work being that it is an area of design I hold an interest in. In regards to this I intend to try and split my later work down the middle having an even mix of digital and print, whether that means having projects that are purely one or the other or to produce both for a substantial large brief. A positive to take from this however is that from producing a body of mostly print based work my skills within that field have developed ten fold. In previous modules and briefs I have always been hesitant to print as I had little confidence within it and until now I didn’t have any print work I was fully happy with. Furthermore I now have a better understanding on stock choices, process of designing for print and the costs associated with it.
Overall Im very happy with the work I produced and more than satisfied with the effort I put in. Although it caused a fair amount of both stress and problems I now know what it takes to produce the kind of work I want and work I am proud to call my own. Furthermore I acknowledge that I am still learning and that there are some faults within my design process, which leads to me believing that I will only improve throughout the rest of my time here.