OUGD201 - Self Evaluation.

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	05
Module Code	OUGD201
Module Title	DESIGN PRODUCTION - PRINT

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME

CHARLIE CROSBY

BLOG. ADDRESS

http://c-crosby1013.blogspot.com/

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have discovered and developed a lot of new skills through this module. The most useful I found was the software workshops as they taught me lots of new ways to create simple yet visually satisfying imagery with Photoshop and Also how to apply colour in a multitude of ways over Adobe creative suite. I found the short development briefs during the first half of the module really useful to kick start the second year as the challenged me and also brought back some of the creativity and work ethics which subsided over the summer break. Although some of the tasks were a bit daunting and in places tedious it did force out much more solid designs and it was especially good practice with drawing and thinking about how to utilise my drawing tools. Moving on to the second half of the module I found myself designing more than I ever had on the course so far which I really enjoyed and got carried away with which caused me to take on too much work, sometime I’ve learnt from this is how to step back and rationalise my work and be more selective and generally sensible with my choice of response.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
Practical skills that I have developed include screen printing, which I had only done a little of before, foil blocking, duplex/double sided printing and photography. After using the screen print facility and getting such good quick results first time I feel encouraged to go back and print more for future projects and for any personal or side projects that I plan to carry out. Double sided printing I found difficult to get my head around especially when manually feeding it in the mac suites however I did learn how to send documents properly to the printers for duplex printing and different weights of stock and applications of ink. I particularly enjoyed experimenting with foil blocking because it was different to any other print I’ve ever done and produced really effect results.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
The strengths of my work lies in the amount of ideas and possibilities that I have come up with. This did make it a task in itself to actually make  choices of what to carry out for my range however I felt that my ideas and my concept development skills had massively improved in this module. I’ve been keeping up with my targets that I set at the start of the year the main one being more organised with my time. I managed to get a lot more work done because I kept making ‘to do’ lists and design plans. To improve on this I would say to myself looking back that I should blog them and tick them off as I go.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Losing focus occasionally, I often get too stuck into designing or blog or researching and forget to spread my time across the many tasks that we have set out for us and by ourselves. For example, I’ve been so concentrated on this module that I have about 2 CTS seminars and a lecture to blog about and research as well as blogging the PPD and enterprise tutorials and the latest type session. Being indecisive has always been a weak point for me, I tried to over come this as much as possible by getting someone to give me their opinion or crit my work. Most of the time this worked nicely and helped but others left me exactly where I was.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Think big as usual but condense my targets and goals so as not to undertake more than I can manage. After these targets are met I will be able to expand creating a more efficient and focussed way of working. Blog my to do lists and tick them off on my blog to show progress and development and the things that I’m thinking about and prioritising. Make use of the college facilities more. After using a lot of the facilities that I avoided last year I can see how easy and effective they are. I want to use them more for upcoming briefs and also side projects that I have plans for. Blog more vigilantly. After workshops and seminars is easy and second nature now, however, I need to document my work more thoroughly using screenshots of the things I’m doing using software. Pay more attention to Design Context. I sometimes get carried away with designing so much that I forget to go back into my Context blog and update it or add to it. Also I’m starting to look at work whilst designing using multiple tabs when browsing the internet so I can quickly draw inspiration or blog something interesting and/or relevant.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation					x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

'GOOD IS' - Final Crit.

This crit ran much like the others have done for this module only the work we were presenting was the mock ups of our 5 presentation boards.

I had little content to use my boards after the last crit so It was a little rushed to put together, and in so printing them off they came out black and white instead of the colour printer which I had sent it to. This wasn't too much of a set back as I still had some older print outs that should my use of colour in my designs.

We went round in groups of six again and each person presented their work in roughly 2 minutes, then after we split into 3 pairs and critiqued the others work.

Here are the boards I presented for the crit.

There are still a lot of blank spaces on the boards however, now I've seen some of the other boards I think I might simplify the and not try to include some much as its over complicating it and making it visually noisy. Some of the blank spaces I filling in by hand and made drawings of ideas or items simply because I'd ran out of time to format them and place them on the boards.

Range - Flea-Shirt, Poster, Flea Cup, Chapinabox, CD, Publication

Packaging - CD case, Chapinabox with cut outs, Flea-Shirt box, Flea cup Box

Promotion - Poster designs and variations, Flyers and variations, Give aways

Publications - Variations of cover art, DPS, layout development, extra content highlighting certain details.

Proposals - Billboards, Laser cut/printed ukulele's, Printed canvas tent or gazeebo for a pop up promotional gig, printed tweed jackets, elbow patches, tea bag hooks that latch onto the edge of your cup.

This is the feedback which I got from the pairs critting my work.

Comment on the extent to which the work presented a clear approach to the research development and resolution of a personal response to the brief.

Comments

Very personal response to the brief!

research could have been a little more in depth,

or more obvious visually in the finals.

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

Comment on the extent to which the work presented/proposed demonstrates a critical approach to the investigation of content, audience context. Has this been informed by appropriate levels of contextual research?

Comments

Different take with the band, not sure exactly on the audience?

Colours need to be taken more into consideration, or made clearer.

Need to imply FUN!

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

Comment on the appropriateness of the range of products/proposals with regards to their effective and innovative use of print processes, techniques and formats.

Think about promotion of the group - merchandise is good for after they are famous.

Think about the other forms of print.

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

 Unfortunately I only got feed back from one of the 2 other pairs but we got a chance to sit down as a full group and go over the feedback and extend it and talk through a few ideas and suggestions to improve and refine the boards and the concept.

Comments

- need to tie it together, simplify it

- use photography on the CD

- focus on the article

- emphasise the fun

- special print processes - foil blocking, embossing

- type foil blocked

- decorative designs foil blocked

- tie products together as a package deal when buying the CD

- gift/tour poster

- either push to emphasise the Ukulele more or change your 'good' to Chaps or Chap Hop

- the P on the the tag line 'Come On Chaps' looks like a D - make the sentence bigger or manipulate the type in some way, maybe change it.

Overall a very average result from the crit which I'm not best pleased about because there is so much to address now on top of my original design plans.

Now I need to re plan again and condense what I'm doing so I'm not biting off more than I can chew, focus it down to the basics of getting the print side of it done properly then the extra design work can come after.

My boards need a lot of work but I think first I will go back to my research and concept and go over what I need to do in order for it to work thoroughly and solidly and as concept and a response.

'GOOD IS' - Progress Crit

This was a follow up progress crit just to stay on top of our work and see how far we had progresses from the last one. I'd spent most of my time making design plans and refining them and I'd done a few designs for T-shirts and a logo which will be printed across my entire range. I also looked briefly at colour and stock but not in any great depth.

The Crit ran in groups of 6 with each person presenting for 2 minutes where they are with their work, what they are liking and disliking, coping with and struggling with etc and plans for the next few weeks.

In brief, here is the feed back that I got from my group:-

- redesign the type on the flea logo

- look at old fashioned packaging for brit pop and vintage styles

- use one face for per t-shirt print

- get one image repeated for patterned t-shirt design (also applicable to packaging) e.g. moustache, glasses, pipe etc...

- play around with colour tones for pattern

- experiment with colour on t-shirts, try one colour plus stock colour of the shirt

- use old vintage magazines for that vintage feel for the publication

- look at textures in photoshop

Extra points made by Lorenzo:-

- Story- how does it make you want to go to the event/ buy the product/ be interested in it?

- what are you saying? - is it humorous, serious, entertaining, educational?

- who are you saying it to? - who's your audience?

'GOOD IS' - Concept re-rationalised.

GOOD is .... The UKULELE

WHY?

1. because without it we wouldn't have Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer and the creation of 'Chap Hop'.

2. because playing and listening to music disciplines the mind and overall increases brain activity. When a musician plays they are using 90% of their brain.

3. its a relaxing hobby that benefits you socially, mentally, personally and creatively.

4. because its been widely used to perform comedic songs and shows to entertain many people.

5. its popularity is at its highest and is still continuing to rise. People spend on average £80 on a ukulele and sales have increased by 30% in the past year.

I intend to (inform/ instruct/ persuade/ direct/ educate/ promote to)

promote a false band called 'The Jumping Fleas' that all play ukuleles to...

...a group of (identify your specific audience or context)

18 - 30 year olds that will mostly likely be in education or working that deal with the stress of constant workloads and need a way the get away from it all and enjoy humour and music...

...that (state your message, idea or concept)

The Jumping Fleas are the next best Chap Hop ukulele band and they should get involved and come see them.

In order to achieve this I will produce...(specify at this point what you aim to produce, the method of delivery/ distribution/ the context in which it will be viewed.)

PRODUCT - what is your product?

A false band that will perform at a gig that will combine the visuals of my work with an experience of comedy entertainment.

RANGE - what range of deliverables will you produce/propose?

A range of promotional materials for the band and the gig.

A set of merchandise that will brand the band itself e.g. cd's, T-shirts, tweed jackets, elbow patches, tea cups, glasses, pipes.

A set of packaging that the merchandise will come in.

A goodie bag that will be handed out at the gig containing novelty items to turn the audience into Chaps.

A publication/DPS in a popular music magazine such as Esquire or NME to review the bands background and music (which will still all be fake)

Some parts of my range will contain gimmicks and extras like a short handbook of Chap dos and don'ts or a guide to chap fashion. Maybe even the meaning of a ukulele to a Chap

For the publication I plan to carry out a brief photo shoot with some help from volunteers to get some extra visuals to use. So in theory I will be forming the band.

CONTEXT - define the context in which your products will exist/be viewed.

The range will be viewed in Music shops throughout Leeds and in the Student Unions to appeal to a wide range of people and advertise the event. The publication will be limited edition so its more desirable and it will add a bit of cool to the idea of the band and the gig. The merchandise will be available at the gig itself and online on the bands webpage as well as in high street music shops such as HMV.

'GOOD IS' - Progress Surgery

I got some good feedback from my crit which has left me with a positive attitude towards my ideas and I found the crit focussed a lot on how to go about working on the ideas and develop them and was just a way to reinforce the fundamental criteria of this module.

I have developed my concept further so I need to go back and re-rationalise it to focus it down again.

Points made about my idea were...

- the band name

- extending the range and linking it to a situation or context

- being playful and exhaustive with the gimmicky side of it and have fun with it

possible outcomes mentioned were...

- chap goodie bag

- stickers

- badges

- cut out ukulele

- turning people into chaps through the merchandise and branding

- making up the story behind it all - the bands back ground - the characters - their instruments (flying V uke, Les Paul uke, banjolele, standard)

- visually link the range to an experience

I had selected a range of nets from the books in the studio which I think would work well for the products I want to package and brand however Lorenzo made a point that I need to be more emotive with things like that and to not just draw the nets and say 'these are my nets' but to actually put designs on them straight away and see what they look like before even making one for real.

From here I going to make a plan and set myself tasks to complete in order to produce my work quickly and effectively.

I still need to consider a few more things such as stock, colour and which printing methods and finishes I will be using.

Group PPD Tutorial session

The group PPD session was really good we got the chance to catch up with John and meet Jane properly and essentially go over the two PPD tasks that were set.

Working in groups we went over what we had done for the tasks and came up with lists of 10 key things for each.

The first task was 'Why Am I Here' which was a personal task which is based on PPD and get us to ask ourselves what we want from our time here on the course and what we want for the future. Ultimately we're begin to define who we are as people and as creatives in the field of design.

Here is the list that my group came up with.

A lot of the lists that were created made points about the course being good and the surroundings being convenient or a great place to live which are all valid points however what we were looking for were points that specified what we want to do with the skills we learn on the course and from being at university. For instance, circled above is industrial links and challenging yourself. We wouldn't be here just to produce things that we already know how do and be contented with that because we wouldn't be learning anything or developing valuable skills for when we graduate. Furthermore, and tying in with the second PPD task, the industrial links from being here are great as we can network across the different disciplines that are thought here and the college has an extensive catalogue of alumni that we can used to help us learn more about the design world beyond the studio.

Here are the other groups lists.

After a short break we did the same process for the second PPD task which is aimed more towards the Enterprise and Innovation side of these sessions.

Here is the list my group came up with.

There was quite a lot to discuss with this task as the majority have very little, if not no, experience with industry or professional experience as John put it.

The key point discussed was about networking and getting your self out there and stay out there. Working with clients and then staying in touch, keeping their business. Being persistent and creative in the way you contact agencies and studios for advice or work. Doing favours for people or little extras.

Alongside this being generous and charitable and generally willing to bend over backwards you have to be sensible and reason with yourself, learning to say no or make a compromise is crucial to keeping yourself interested in design and ultimately keeping your sanity.

Here are the other groups lists.

 

John and Jane had also made a list of the things that they thought we ought to consider and/or know about for Industry and where we're heading as designers.