Interim Evaluation

Evaluate the problems that you identified and had to resolve within the brief.

Overall I didn't have any problems that effected me massively but there have been a few things that have slowed me down or had me stuck for a while. The biggest error I seem to be making are my typos. Typos seem to be the bain of my design practise. They are so easy to miss too. For example, for the hotdog brief I finished it in good time and went to digital print and printed 10 hotdog books, folded them, cut them, reviewed them, showed fellow peers on the course them and then handed them in. It wasn't till I sent my brother my blog for him to have a look and he was the one who noticed that 'Environment' on the front cover had no 'N'. Its amazing how this kind of massive mistake can be so invisible to so many people including me who happened to design it. That typo was sitting right in front of my and I didn't even notice it. In conclusion to these mistake with typos, I have most defiantly learned from them. Every time I come to the end of a design I check it over and over, taking letter from letter apart to make sure its right.

Evaluate the key considerations that you had to take into account when investigation the brief.

When reading the brief and jotting down ideas I had to think about the idea against what audience I was trying to target. I had to think about colour and type of design. Stock became a big topic of error too. When it came to folding design you would have to think about what card/ paper would fold best. Towards the end of 403 in the project 'Proverbially Yours' we had to make envelops and I bought a card that was too thick. It ripped straight aways and I had to go back down and print. I also had to think realistically and ask myself whether what I wanted to do was possible in the time that the brief was giving me.

Evaluate the research activities that you had to undertake in order to resolve the brief.

After every brief in studio 3 I would always have ideas in my head and these ideas would then be put into paper. After I had an idea I would then get into researching. Some brief required a completely different research pattern, for example '100 Things' from 405. I had to do tonnes of research which towards the end of the brief turned out to be useless. However, as I was doing info graphics I had to really get involved with facts and figures to do with slavery including making my own questionnaire which I sent to the whole college. In all honesty I didn't to a lot of primary research this year. It seem some what pointless and I could always find the answers on the internet. Then again the projects and briefs we were given to me didn't demand secondary research. I always got the impression that it was an optional way to research.   

Evaluate the example of secondary research that informed your design decisions.  

I am still a young designer who is still looking for his 'style' in graphic design. After I have written up some ideas and know what publication I want to make and what look I think I am going to go for, I get straight on the internet and go to blogs like 'Designspiration', 'ffffound' etc because these sites are regally updated with new and interesting design which always gets me inspired to get out and create stuff.  I also look into sites dedicated to type like 'Losttype' which is this lovely  with only 20 odd fonts on it, but each one is stunning. I don't find myself looking through books and magazines that much as it takes longer and your not always guaranteed to get what you are looking for. I do though look through them if I am looking into page layout design. For 'Who are you?' in 406 I began paying attention to how a magazines had been put together and I was also looking for inspiration. Its nice when you begin to look at an everyday objet like a magazine, take it apart and start thinking inside the head of the designer that did for ideas. You begin to identify whats conventional and what looks legible.


Evaluate the examples of practical research that informed you resolution. 

Practical research came along in quite a few briefs. The first example which I still remember as it was terrifying was the very first day at college. Here we had to get into twos and interview each other, we would then get up in front of the whole year and recite what we had learned about each other. The next example with in 403 for 'Alphabet Soup'. I had to interview Jack Fower and from the information I received create a typeface. For 406 'Who Are You?' I had to interview Sam Hoh and again from the information I received make a double paged spread. Its quite a nice way of working and it was quite easy to design from the information gathered. I found that group crits helped massively as well. During the two week projects we would get into groups of about 4/6 and talk to Amber & Joe. This was a good time to have positive and negative feedback from tutors and peers. I found the more negative feedback I got the better. I learned that they are not having a go at you but helping you make your design better and more appropriate to the idea. 403, 'Alphabet Soup'; I spent a long week designing my typeface for jack and at the crit I was told to scrap it and start again. And I thank them for saying that as the next week I started again and created a font much nicer and a font that actually suited Jack more as a person.

Evaluate the breadth of initial ideas that you generated in response to this brief.

I would often get an idea when we would all be getting briefed of an idea or ideas. To me it is always to important and of course every other designer would say the same to put your initial ideas straight onto paper. I would make a spider diagram and this always got what was in my head onto paper. It would make things much clearer and I would then know what I wanted to do. I am not a massive fan or design sheets though. Thats something I have been missing out on this year. I usually know what design I want to make and go with the flow. I'm not sure whether this is a bad thing or not but it seems to be working. I am good at figuring out a look and working with it. You can see on my blog that I am good at documenting what I am doing on a design. I frequently screen shot my work to show my progress and I can then relate to this when I look back at my work. Those are my design sheets. I think its the same thing but just not on paper. I am terrible at thumbnails and I mean terrible. If I can't make something the same on paper as on the computer I don't see the point! In Lorenzo's 'Type & Grid' 404 we had to make at least 2 design sheets on designs that we wanted to maybe go with. This was a way of finding a good design that you could then go with on InDesign. I could stand it, I was rubbish at it and it didn't help me with my final design.

Evaluate the breadth of visual investigation that you explored before deciding on you design direction.  

This was a large part of my investigation before the design direction. However, sometimes when I had a design direction I would change half way though like in 404 'Who Are You?'. I decided to look at a different approach when I though it wasn't working. Decisions like that are hard but they always pay off and you feel better about what you have produced. Back to the point and question. I can relate this question to the question about secondary research as a lot of my secondary research has been design. It was how I found the look I wanted to go for. I'm at a stage where I am still looking for my own look and once I have found that I think that my visual research will become smaller. I would still think that the best designers still look at other work to boost their thinking. I think you can relate visual investigation to design sheets also, which I have also talked about and I haven't been that proactive with them. In conclusion to this its my secondary research related around designers that decides my design direction.
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Systematic, Stimulated & Intuitive Approches

I would always start with a mixture of Stimulated Approaches to a brief and Intuitive Approches. But If I had to put it order from the 2 week brief I have just finished it would be in this order

Stimulated Approach
Intuitive Approach
Systematic Approach.

For 'STAMP IT!' 406 was clueless after the crit to what I was going to do or in fact what I had to do. It was one of those briefs where your mind is woundering. So I read the brief again and as it was a subject I hadn't been in before I got straight on the computer to research designers who had designed stamps that were relating to recycling or reducing global warming. This being a STIMULATED approach. Once I had a good idea of what I wanted to do I took the INTUITIVE approach to get my thoughts onto paper and I finished it off with the SYSTEMATIC approach. Playing around with my designs, looking at possible ways of presenting until I came up with the design(s) I thought were best.

STAMP IT!// Presentation Boards

typo- beginning 

little '5' on the bottom 'neat design, picture

STAMP IT!// Final Designs/Layouts

Poster Brief// Submission for Eric Kessels

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STAMP IT!// Cover Design

I'm quite tempted to keep this cover simple. For a while now I have been considering other layout designs of things I could put on this to jazz it up a little buts its hard to do so. One problem with it is it doesn't say 'Green' on it or 'Recycle' which might be a problem come the crits tomorrow. I can almost defiantly expect that comment to be made about this. 

What is a Line?// First Prints

Here are some photos I took of what I think could be the final designs for the Brief 'What is a Line?'.

I say 'could be' because I want to be crited by someone on them to see what other people think. From that I might be able to make them better. I have already had a comment referring to what this little book means and I must admit myself its hard to understand. At the end of the day does there have to be a reason to why I made this book and what it means? Its inspired from illustrators, mainly the people from NoBrow. I love how you can look at their illustrations and just take in the imagery and care about nothing else. I added the text to enhance people's imagination and give them an idea of what I was thinking when designing. Like I said, earlier in this project its about legends and past cultures. Pirates, the legend of the 'IKE' Mountains and Cowboy's & indians. In terms of the final outcome I am happy and because this year I have made a few hotdog books, I find my cutting has improved massively, the book folds in perfectly and I ensured that when printing everything matched up. The only thing is the colour is very de-saturated and I don't know who to blame for this, myself or the printer. I still have two weeks on this brief which is more than enough time to re-visite this. 

STAMP IT!// Final Designs

Firstly I think that together these work very well. They are very simple designs but I believe them to be legible and more importantly they fit the brief. The next task is to create the booklet cover in which these stamps will fit in to. As well as that I need to think about how I will present these stamps, what paper I will print one, do I want to make them in to stickers, if so I need to play around with them on illustrator.

if you look very carefully there are some layout mistakes with these designs. Things I should have seen before but not everything is centred and on the t-shirt stamp the queens head to to far to the right. As far as how the project is going I am confident to where I am.  

STAMP IT!// Washing

I was able to finish this one quite quickly because as the designs went on it helped me think of other designs I could do. In the one I haven't got any patterns in the background which I guess goes against the other stamps. In the post above I have the stamps in a series next to each other and they look fine and personally I didn't even realise the pattern difference 

STAMP IT!// GO GREEN!

I have finished with 'Go Green!'. As the last stamp this works well and with the series more so. As you can see I have also done the sides of the stamp which I need to now go and do to the others

STAMP IT!// Walking

I have added text into this design saying 'Walk'. I must admit not my strongest stamp but I feel the meaning is still legible. 

STAMP IT!// Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

At the moment this is quite dull and boring but I am happy with the illustration. I'm not sure if the colours agree with what the stamp is set out to do. The orange and yellow are very much in the family of electricity and to me symbolise electricity being used. I find it hard to explain. In the example above I have moved the yellow from inside the bulb slightly to the left. I quite like this effect, to me it looks like it has been mist printed when screen printing. The meaning of having this affect on the stamp I am clueless to! It doesn't say or suggest anything. I am now going to go back to this and play around with some more colours and see if I can find I more reasonable look.

Not sure if I like the colour change with the Queens head and the '1st class'. Then again I don't want ever stamp to have them in black. I don't want any of them to be in black really. Black is a very dominant colour and is the first thing to attract the audience. The background I like much better than the bright orange I had before. I haven't spoken about the font I have used yet but its 'Bebas Neue'. I decided to use it because its a clear and legible font. It also looks quite demanding as if the stamp is giving you an order.

STAMP IT!// Water

STAMP IT!// Light Switch

This idea I feel is simple and easy to understand. of course there is no right or wrong way to which way a switch is facing but having the correction mark and thw cross there help the audience understand the meaning of the stamp. 'SWITCH OFF' is short but thats all that is needed.

STAMP IT!// Queen's Head

I simply went on to google images to find a side portrait of the queens head but instead came across this clock. I've decided to trace this as its different to the other stamp portraits currently being used and this one to me come across as being more modern. Again to me that would suggest that change is happening and things are getting. Thats the message of the stamp, incourage change for a better world. 

This doesn't look right at all and this proves once again I am rubbish with the pen tool. The head looks jagged and out of place. Especially around the face area, the lips aren't right and the back of the head looks slightly out of place. I think I need to go back and correct a few points and make it perfect. Then again the head is going to be tiny and when you zoom out to the size it will be you can hardly realise anything is wrong.

However, when you zoomed out the crown didn't look right so I decided to find a new head and start again. Even if I am making this better I don't mind doing it again as I am in dire need to practise the pen tool. Need to stop using photoshop and start using vector on Illustrator 

Still no happy with this. I still has the lumpy look and I have no spent too much time concentrating on something much to minor in this project. If I really have to I will come back to this later in the project but I need to crack on with the actual designs which I still have no idea what I'm doing. I keep on thinking that this brief will be very hard as from what I've seen from my secondary research that its all vector based and done on illustrator, I fear I will lag and not produce work worthy enough to hand in.