OUGD504 Module Evaluation

I have throughly enjoyed this module it’s been perhaps the best module of the course so far and this is because not only have I leant a great deal, I also feel like I’ve grown immensely as a designer, in particular throughout my the design for print and web brief. When I first started back in second year I felt like I had nothing to do and spent most of my time procrastinating, we’d been given the design for print brief but it felt like I had a long time to do this so I sort of let time drift by which was a big mistake! I should have started work on the brief straight away and I defiantly regret this now. Although I did manage to complete the brief, it was not to a standard I felt pushed me a designer, because I wasted time and didn’t allow myself to explore any new options the final products I created was fit for purpose and met the brief criteria it did nothing to push me in a new direction. However throughout researching the information for the print manual I let tremendous about commercial print, which is a valuable skill I take in industry right way and is something I don’t think many of my peers will have. If I were to re do this brief again I would one hundred percentage use all of the time given to me to explore idea and experiment with how this sort of information can be presented interesting and creative ways. Additionally I did feel I also learnt a lot from looking at what other people did with the brief, people approached the brief in completely different and was nice to see in the studio as the range and breadth of ideas shown inspired me to more creative and try to push the boundaries of graphic design.

The design for web brief within the module was heaven for me. I’ve been designing and building websites for a long time and I feel it’s a real skill I possess as a designer and this brief really allowed to explore how I can use my skills to do new and innovative things as traditionally I have been creating websites for clients which often stifles creativity over practically and ease of use of the website, but this module meant I really experiment and explore with the medium of the internet. Furthermore I felt like I had a strong summer brief and a defined identity that I developed as part of that and this transitioned over well into web design. I used many of the aspects and aesthetics of my summer brief within my web design but I felt like it worked well because it allowed me to explore the synergy between the printed publication I produced as part of the summer brief and how web can work symbiotically with this. Although I quite a good knowledge of web design I did learn a lot from Simon’s web design workshops and it also helped me to solidify the knowledge I already had.

Within the design for print and web brief I think I’ve faced some of the greatest challenges I’ver ever faced within graphic design but I couldn’t be more happy about the experiences I’ve had and what I’ve learnt from them. Through the many problems I’ve encountered within the brief I’ve been able to overcome them and grow as a designer. Initially I struggled with the name and ended up changing my name of the TV channel the day before a crit but I’m glad I did this as it was a better idea and concept than I previously and I understand now that sometimes the times needs to be spent figuring out the concept and having a solid concept rather than jumping straight into designing with a weak concept that ultimately results in mediocre result. Furthermore my struggles with colour that I faced where also a big issue for me and spent a lot of time figuring this out but again my knowledge of colour theory and working with colour as part of colour branding has been beneficial to my practice and I can take these skills forward with me. Additionally I felt like this brief allowed me to combine the skills I’d learnt in the previous two brief and experiment will applying to an actual brief and I have benefited greatly from this learning process.

Overall I am happy with my how I have worked throughout this module, however I needed to sort myself out a bit more at the start the module but I believe I’ve conquered that issue now. During the time on these briefs I’ve also finally understood how valuable it is to my design practice to stay later a college, when I started to this I began to be much more productive and had a happier home and social life and I didn’t have to spend all of this time doing graphic design. All in the module has a great learning experience and I’ve learnt a lot and they contribute to skills I need to be a graphic working within industry.