Design Practice: OUGD205

Showing posts with label OUGD205. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Type As Image... Developed Final Pieces

Developed final pieces

Following my feedback from the crit, I have re-worked my final pieces. I have kept the "there are probably millions more examples" one as it was, as it received good feedback in the crit.

For this poster, I have changed it from As We Grow to just We Grow as something that was pointed out was that the text was hard to read as I was trying to fit so much on. I have also continued to alter the pt sizes, kerning and width of letters to make the progression of the letters smoother. I took off the layer effect that I had initially used as I don't think it looked right, and instead copied the text, and placed it in a grey colour behind the text, to give a shadow, again, to make the text easier to read.

I think this poster would have looked good screen printed or if I had got chance to laser cut it, as I like the design and the idea behind it, but I think there is something missing from it.

[Font Used: Lutin Paniquangoisse]

I decided to re-create the Facebook poster as when I printed it off at A1 it was very pixelated and just didn't look professional at all. This is a shame, as I spent a long time on this poster, and did like it, however, it is important to create work that fills the expectation of the brief.

I decided to go back to one of my original ideas, of creating the text from the Facebook emoticons that are available on Facebook chat. I didn't know whether to use these in a sarcastic tone, and to use the quote "Actually have real friends", or whether to refer to them being just Facebook friends with the quote, "You have hundreds and hundreds of online friends."

I started out by finding these emoticons. In the end I decided just to use "online friends" as I thought the page would look overcrowded with too much letters.

Tried importing the images in to my document, but I had to zoom in to 1218% to be able to see it! So I tried to re-create the smiley but they didn't look right, and I realised it would take so long to re create them all!

Eventually I found these version of the Facebook emoticons and started to create my letters. This is based on the font Myraid. Here are the letters beginning to come together....

Here is the final poster. I've added a very pale yellow background as it didn't look quite finished on a plain white background. I'm really happy with this poster and think it looks a lot more professional than my original poster.

[Font Used: Myriad]

Friday, 13 April 2012

OUGD205... End of Module Evaluation

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

Through this module I have developed my image skills, by learning that there is more to image that just creating an appealing picture, as it must be communicative and work in context. Applying this skill has allowed my work to have meaning behind it.

I have had the chance to experiment with new processes, such as laser cutting, printing on to unusual stocks and to larger sizes. To do this, I have had to plan ahead, to book slots and gather materials, so this has improved my time management skills. I have learnt to go outside of my comfort zone with my designs, and this new skill means that I have been able to create more unique, interesting pieces.

The short deadlines have pushed me to not waste time, therefore improving my decision making skills to ensure I don't get behind.

I have also starting to think about dealing with a budget, from planning the books for the book fair. All of these skills have made me work more realistically as an image creator, and I think this will help me if this is my job in the industry.

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

I have tried to be as varied as possible with my methods of design production to produce a really mixed portfolio of work, to show of my different skills. I have hand drawn, digitally created, painted and 2d and 3d hand crafted my pieces. My research of designers, has been influential in the methods I have used, inspiring me to try new things I wouldn't have thought of before.

I have enjoyed all of these areas, but think I need to work more on improving my digital design production, as this is one of my greatest areas of interest.

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

My main strength in this module has been to really think through the concept before starting to design. With some of the briefs, it would have been really easy to create an obvious response, so I have thought of different ideas to try to think of something which will be different to what everyone else has done, making my work unique.

I have used different materials to what I usually would, and I have took the chance to create things by hand, meaning that I have challenged myself and created things different to what I have made before. I will capitalise on this strength by continuing to try using different materials, and not just sticking with what I know works, but taking chances to improve my skills.

I have put more consideration in to presentation choices like colour schemes, stock choices, printing finishes, and this means that my final pieces are of a higher quality than other work I have produced, so I will continue to put this thought into presentation in future modules.

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

I think while it is good to set myself a challenge, some of my ideas were more time consuming that I had allowed myself time to create them. While I do think my decision making and time management skills have improved, I think I need to make sure my ideas are possible in the time given, especially when trying out something I have never done before, such as with the 3d paper craft. This will save lots of panic in future!

I have realised that while I have covered many areas of image, photography is an area that I haven't touched on. This is something I really need to work on, and would also enjoy to do, so in future, I would like to experiment and learn more about photography to give me another skill to use.

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

-1- I will put more effort in to presentation from the start of the module. I spent a lot of time on the presentation of my book works book, and as a result, I was really happy with the outcome, but I should have used different processes, such as screen printing, and I should have tried these things out from the first brief.

-2- I was working to short deadlines with these briefs, as well as having other things to do as well, so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked on some of the briefs, but even still, I think on some of the ideas I should have spent longer experimenting with them before jumping straight in to designing.

-3- I had said that I would continue to ask for feedback with my final project over the Easter break, but I got very little feedback as I just had to get on with it, and felt like it was too late to change my ideas. I continued to evaluate my work myself, but next time, by continuing to ask others for their feedback, I can make well needed improvements to my work.

-4- After I have received feedback on a piece of work, I have gone back to that piece of work and made the changes to improve my work and make sure it is communicating what it is supposed to, however, I think I should have gone back and asked for feedback again, to see if what I am trying to do has worked. This would ensure a final piece that I am happy with, and that is understandable.

-5- Next time, I will make sure that what I am proposing to do is actually achievable in the time given, this will ensure that my work does not look rushed, and I don't have to panic to try and finish it.

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

Image... Self-initiated Brief... Final Book

After spending so long making the scenes for the book, I decided that these would be the focus of the book, rather than the actual book itself. As this brief is based on the 2d to 3d to 2d brief, I thought it was important that the actual imagery was the most important part, so as I was beginning to run out of time, I thought that spending as long as possible creating the scenes, and then printing them off as photographs, and arranging them neatly in a book, along the seed packaging would be the best option. I have bought a plain brown sketchbook with brown pages, which is quite simple to make the imagery stand out. I have spent a while making a book and focusing on things like stock and shape on the book works brief, so I feel as if I have still achieved this in the module.

Making the cover

I've chosen this font for the front cover, and I have cut it out of green paper to match the paper craft style of the content of the book.

Text inside

This is the text inside, explaining what each scene is about.

Photographs of final book

I'm really happy with the final outcome as I'm proud of how similar I managed to make the 3d scenes look like the 2d scenes. Paper craft takes a long time and I have enjoyed doing it, but don't think I'll be doing again soon as I want to spend the time learning new skills. I have gone from doing five scenes to the four I thought were the most important, due to time restraints, I thought it would be better to do this than rush the scenes.