DESIGN PRACTICE

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.