OUGD504 Evaluation

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

The Design for Print is by far the brief I have learn't the most. During the brief I had to go away and look into different types of printing, cost of printing, colour and different ways of finsishing. Not only did I have to research it and learn it but I had to go away and put everything into my own words, this is a very good way of getting something into your head! In terms of applying what I have learned thats quite hard to get out it words. I guess when it comes to the two books a produced, I have clearly presented different ways of printing techniques etc to the reader. The simple layout and clear diagrams makes the book to be an easy read. 

Design for Web was very interesting as this is the first time on the course that I have had no idea what so ever how to you a program. Learning web design has been very difficult and extremely stressful. I think I still have a while to go with it as there is so much to remember but hopefully this is something I can visit again in the near future. My final wesbite I was very pleased with. I think that it was too small though, thats something I can't quite explain. On the big mac in the studios my website only just covered more than half of the screen. 

During the summer I spent a very long time working on my 'A History Of..' brief as I was very inexperience on illustrator and it took me a while to get hang of the illustrations. It has paid off now though as I have really improved. The time I spent during the summer I have really benefitted from now. It also mean't that I had a lot to play with when I came back to uni. My Design for Web looks good because the illustrations are creative and easy to recognise. 

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

When it came to starting off a brief I would always go get some paper and simple right down what it was I had to do, once that was nicely in my head I would sit down and start mocking up some ideas. A few times I would go to the computer and start looking and some design that would inspire me to take a certain route in what the design would look like.  Last year I was very bad at making design sheets and this year I have discovered how important they can be. Making a design from scratch on the computer makes no sense to me anymore, its a great way to get stressed. 

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

I have made sure that I have done the work properly and blogged every single stage through a design to shoe people my thought process and design process. This is very important when it comes to hand in as the tutors and clearly see what you have been doing and how you have been doing it. All I can say is this is something I am going to be doing much more of in the future. My main strength is I am hard working. I don't see my self as a very 'strong' designer but the time I spend on things mean I get it done to an acceptable level. `

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The main weakness is not producing enough products within the breifs. This is something, I regret to say, will probably lose me marks. I need to get out of my comfort zone of working on a computer and get out there and produce more interesting results. In the future I am going to go to screen print, I am going to get inducted on the letter press machine. I am going to go to the laser cutting rooms, I am going to really experiment more as thats where I am going to discover different ways of producing work and in the end I will learn from my experiences. These 1 and a bit years I have left is the best time to play around and make mistakes. Thats something I won't be able to do in the future. 

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

• Time management has to be the main thing I want to improve during the next module. It is very important not to get too carried away on just one brief meaning you have less time to spend on others.
• Experiment! I am always on the computer and all I do when it comes to print is go down do digital print and print on to standard stock. Next time I really need to get myself in to screen print or even go down the road and letterpress.
• I would like to experiment more with packaging as thats something I have only briefly visited. I wish I had time to print packaging for my print processes books ass that would have really made the final outcome better and more professional. This is something I would like to visit on other briefs in the future. Packaging is a great way of finishing work. 
• Be more ready for crits is a big one. When you are ready for a brief I feel you are much more confident. Theres been a couple of times when I haven't brought all my work in or haven't printed of my presentation boards and this makes presenting fairly difficult. 
• Chill out! I have a tendency of getting way to over stressed from the smallest things and this always puts me off. Its important to stay on top of course and that can be stressful, however letting the small stuff get to you is unnecessary. 

Out of FIVE

Attendance :            5

Punctuality :            4

Motivation :             4

Commitment :         4

Quality of Work Produced :            3

Quantity of Work Produced :         3

Contribution to the Group :             5

Design for Print// Packaging

Above are my original ideas for packaging. I have decided to make the packaging much more simple and have a belly band to keep the books as one. The belly band will be very simple, it will be on simple stock and its only purpose is to keep the books together.

Here is a little mock up that I made above. The sensible thing to do now is print it out in several different sizes to find the perfect fit for my books.

Design for Web//Other Products// Stickers, T-Shirt, Water Bottle, Helmet, High Vis Jacket.

Stickers

I decided I had to experiment more with where I could take this app. I thought of other possible areas I could look into that would relate to an I-phone app. The stickers are again another way of promoting the app and spreading awareness.

T-Shirt 

Water Bottle 

The t-shirts I like the idea of as it seems approriate to that app. Any such fans can purchase this item and wear it. I have been researching into other apps and the first one that came into my head was the famous angry birds app. I was amazed at how many different products they have. Being a very popular game I can fully understand that they can sell such items as t-shirts and even slippers but... I can't imagine  my app selling slippers....

I-Phone, Helmet & High Vis Jacket 

Hight vis jackets and Helmets are very important when on a bike in the dark, so I thought it a suitable product to add to my others. This shows that the app is supporting safety to its users. Almost advertising and reminding the audience that cycling can be vary dangerous in a city and that you must take care when out and about. 

Design for Web// Boards for Presentation

I went about making my boards more readable so that people could understand them more when I am presenting. Especially my posters in context poster as I had way to many examples on one board. i also took away the arrows from my first two boards as they did seem to get in the way only slightly. I also alined the text so it was underneath the right phone, not away from it with the arrow. This makes the boards more organised. My job now is to run over my presentation and make notes of what it is I need to comunicate. Once that is complete I feel I will be confident to pitch the product to my peers 

Design for Web// Presentation Boards

One thin that I must mention first which is really bugging me that I have been trying to change is that space between each I-Phone. This is something that I should have seen but it was seen by someone else when it was to late. Its not that I can't be bothered to have them centred properly, I would pay £10 for them to be properly alined! I have learned to keep your programs organised! I ended up using photoshop for this brief and in total I probably had over 100 layers. It was a matter or copying and pasting over and over untill when it came back to changing stuff at the end it was nearly impossible. This is something I know I will keep track of in the future, I hope it doesn't mark me down however. 

If I had more time, I would have made a proper logo and possibly made stickers out of it, again to spread awareness about the app. Another thing I would have done is I would have made a proper website as that is something the brief did ask for. I decided to make an app so I feel like I have somehow missed out. Overall I can say I am happy with this project and now all I have to do is present my work to the year.

Design for Web// App Website Mock Up

To begin with all I had to do was go onto the apple website and screen shot a random page on the app section. From there is what quite straight forward as all I had to do was optimise the text by filling in any space I didn't want with a white and replacing it with text or image. The next thing I need to do for ISTD is complete my design boards, I have already done two so all I need to do now is make design boards for my Poster in Context and this Website mock up. 

Print and Web// Poster in Context

After finishing a poster I was pleased with I decided that I should put it in to context to make it more realistic and get a much better idea of what it would really look like in the world. I decided to put on bus shelters and inside tube stations as these are public places that are used frequently all day every day. That way the app would get recognized quickly.

Print and Web// PRINT// Posters

Its is now time to make posters advertising the app I have just made and its quite difficult, I thought this would be quite easy as the app is finished and the hard bit is out the way. However I have been working for a while trying to find inspiration and also trying to design and i can't produce and thing I'm I say I am happy with. Below is a poster I started to enjoy but now I have hit a wall. I might consider starting again. 

This poster will be quite big so you will be able to read the text. It is just very bland and if I saw this any where I would think it to be a rubbish design. I will start from stage one and see if I can find anything I am happy with.

 

This could develop in to something nice, it was quite hard to get a good idea of what this would look like from my design sheets. I'm can't decide with what colours I want to go with, I simply went for blue because it looks nice, however if I went with a green that could connote energy saving.
The green example is my final outcome. I was very much influenced by the poster I found online and I feel this poster works well at communicating only the basics of what the app can offer the customer. Now its time to put this poster into context. I am going to find pictures that other people have taken of the london underground and pictures of london bus stops as I can't go and do that myself.