Evaluation

This module has really tested me in the way I organise myself, my motivation, the way I work and the sort of work I like to do.  For the majority of the time I have really loved it and found myself doing work that I am really proud of but similarly I have become frustrated at the fact that other areas have suffered because I have focused to much in just doing.

Although I have gone through a process in every brief to come to the final product I have found that blogging this process did not come with it until the last minute which, as ever, is too late.  This is truely frustrating in that I feel that work is there but no one can see it.  From this I can learn so much. Of course it comes down to time management and underestimating how long recording my work takes and also seems to have happened because as soon as it was not routine to blog I pretty much forgot it existed. I need to make sure from now that blogger is my note book and so every thought and process through the module is recorded so that I can see all my work in some kind of order and so can everyone else!

An area which I feel I improved on this term and year was specifically in hand drawn type and taking time to come up with the best solution.  In brief 3 - christian posters, I really feel the resolutions have worked because I took the time to make sure they would.  Although there could be some issues with colour it is nice to see something come out as I expected and for people to take notice of it.

I have found doing a number of briefs at the same time quite a challenge and one I will remember.  It is very difficult to focus on more than one thing so therefore at all times something has got to go to the back of your mind so that another can be focussed on.  This works in a cycle as each brief is gradually completed, but of course it comes with its problems as one is left behind for too long so not enough it done on it.  I feel my collaboration with Arthur suffered from this.  Although we were both really keen and excited to get started with the brief and we had sat down and talked thoroughly about concepts it was as though we struggling to set any great time apart for it as we were focus so much on finishing off the other briefs. It could be that we left it too late and no brief should be started just a couple of weeks before the deadline but similarly it is important to break up your time so that each brief has a specific length and deadline. The outcome has similar suffered as we decided due to the struggle that it was more important to show the concept thoroughly rather than focus so much on making it perfectly designed.  With the deadline of the competition being in March we felt this was the best and only solution for it.

I was lucky to be asked to do a couple of live jobs along side my module work, some of which I enjoyed and put in as official briefs but also some which I felt took over my time rather than enhancing my practice.  I have learnt from my live briefs that clients tend to be very picky when it comes to what they want and we are here simply to cover that rather than do what we want. I think it is hard after writing a number of self initiated briefs to then fall back into doing a publication which someone has specific ideas about but doesn't know loads about design.  I do want to be able to do work like this and the christian Aid publication seemed like the perfect oppurtunity but I think it could of been the communication between me and the client which faultered or that I am not very good at layout OR that the content of the publication had not been thoroughly thought through so it was hard to picture exactly what they wanted.  I think it is definitely a mixture of these and I am going to really work out what to say no to as I continue through the next module.

Although there are a number of problems which have occurred through this module I feel it has only helped me pin point how I can improve and I genuinely feel happy with a number of resolutions I did.  I do see and improvement already but I also know I have a long way to go before I can really work in the industry effectively.  I am very much looking forward to the next Module and seeing that happen.

Web tests

Open publication - Free publishing - More posters

Peace day Badge

animation process

Post it note concept

change in concept - post it notes

wrapping paper patterns

Pattern process for greetings cards range. I really wanted to explore more into pattern for this brief as I felt I was a little stuck on the same imagery.  I really like the last few as I feel they are a little different and stand out. I like the arrangement and how it is a little random yet organised.

Dewsbury Elim church web banner.

Christian Aid Publication finally printed

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Initial thoughts

Initial thoughts on Peace day and how we can come up with the perfect campaign. We saw it as really important that we focus on the idea of people taking action and understanding that it is not just something for one day of the year alone but can be spread from day to day.

We also really had to sit down and work out whether it was worth just from now re-writing the brief for the next two weeks so that we could make the most of the time by simply just presenting what we would do in England rather than around the world and then from that step for feb/march time we would be able to extend the concept to be something multi-cultural and understandable.
Changing the brief like this also means we have a little more freedom in what we can do as we already know our culture and what grabs there attention, more so than iraq!!

More logo progress

I tested more ideas and names for the logo in the hope that I would find something perfect but really struggling to get it write.  I may just have to chose the best one and go with it and just see what I can do from there. 

Poster considerations

We had a Crit with Fred to kick start us on a brief we hadn't quite arrived with yet even though it is just a couple of weeks to the deadline. It was an interesting crit and not exactly what I expected but I did find it really useful as I realised it took me going back to basics to get me back on track again. It was interesting to see the importance of really analysing why you are doing a brief and what you plan to get out of it.  I think with this brief inparticular I am really excited about getting started so it was easy enough for me to work out why.
It was also good to focus on 'the problem' Which each brief proposes for us to solve as designers.  Again something we learnt right at the start of the course but something which is easily over looked when it comes to just getting work done so you are busy.

I really want to make the most of this brief and I feel this is a good starting point for me to get there.

Fred mentioned about really over exaggerating with how many visual explorations you need.  It is important to start big and then windle it down so that you end up with somehting perfect. Rather than thinking of 2 things and expanding on them.

It also got me thinking about my other briefs and where I should be going with them.  Specifically with the brief I am collaborating on with Arthur.  We really need to sit down and ask why we are doing it and what all the problems are we need to solve and then just go crazy with concepts and visual exploration.

Peace day magnets

adding colour to hand drawn type

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hand drawn type

After finding the perfect layout for the text I then printed that off and hand drew the type adding a little personality as I went along.  I really enjoyed finding a balance between digital and hand drawn and I feel this was a good way to do that.

I think the fonts I chose work really well as hand drawn type the added little details help make it the one off I wanted. I am now going to scan this back in sot hat I can add some colour and play around with the composition.

Digital process rejoice

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rejoice in our sufferings visual process

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don't worry visual process

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Thank you cards

I really wanted to get straight into designing some thank you cards for the guests at the wedding and so here you can see some of my tests - keeping consistent with the already existing range.

It is funny how you seem to get bored of using the same font over and over but when it comes to being consistent within a brief I guess this is really important. I would of loved to design some different more hand drawn type based designs but I feel this would be too far away from the others.  Also, as I am hoping to delve into more hand drawn type in my other briefs it is probably very important for me to try and test what works digitally.  

wrapping paper

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Logo spread the word

I think my first initial thoughts for the name of the company who sell the posters is quite cheesy but its as though my mind took a blank moment when I was trying to think outside the box.  Rather than thinking anymore about it I just cracked on to find out how it could look best as a logo by doodling my heart out. 

Still not quite there yet but I will keep going and hopefully it will be perfect! I find it hard to settle with something unless I have to. And also I keep just writing it over and over again in a very similar way so I think if I break from it then it may improve. 

Initial visualisation for posters

Initial visualisation of poster concepts based around 3 specific passages.  'let the water be filled with living things and let birds fly in the air above the earth'.  'Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life' and 'Love is patient and kind'.  I have also started looking into idea for the passage 'We also rejoice in a sufferings because these sufferings produce patience, character and hope.' and then as you saw previously to this post I posted designs for the passage 'be joyful always'  

It would be interesting to look into image with these passages but I don;t know if infact I would be over complicating the brief by adding an extra element.  I may see how designs go and work out whether or not it is suitable. 

I really like the idea of spending a lot of time over each poster. I think this helps in  creating something people want to purchase as the designer has actually put in the effort to create something completely original.  In the image to the left above I have started to go into more detail about how the 'love is patient' poster could look.  Focussing on the concept being patience - I want to have to test my patience to design the poster.

I think the image on the right is interesting as I think the range of hand drawn type faces work well together. Although I just did this quickly during a briefing and it is not based on a passage (although it easily could be) I think it is perfectly suited to the style of poster I want to create.  Especially with it being type based.

Posters - initial.

Poster design - initial ideas.  

I have started by hand drawing the words 'be joyful always'  Which is just a simple passage I found in Romans in the bible.  This is just the start of the kind of posters I want to be creating to bring design which is based on christian ethics for everyone back into the design market.  Although this is not perfect I do like the idea of hand drawn simple work which is fun and which is really based on just type and colour.  

Publication progress

The above screen shot shows another variable of the same colours and type as previously but I spoke to Joe gilmore about what he thought worked best, seeing as he is a bit of a genius when it comes to layout, and he explained that it didn't quite look symmetrical so wouldn't makesense to keep it.  I think the eye doesn't flow around the type properly.

This final screen shot is pretty much the final layout for the ads of the publication.  Although I am not completely happy as it was really hard to really put these specific images in with so much type.  I think with the images being so variable also it was hard to really keep the design completely consistent.  Still, the colours are clean and simple and the amount of negative space makes it much simpler.