1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel the main skill I have acquired during this brief is the ability to organise myself effectively in order see a project through to completion. This was particularly the case with the product/range/distribution brief which required us to both write a complete a brief; I felt there was a noticeable improvement in my time management as well as enthusiasm for the project, and I was able to produce a final product that I am moderately happy with.
The module also taught me the basics of working collaboratively on a full brief; obviously working with just one other person was quite different to previous group projects, it required us to learn each others' strengths and weaknesses, and also required a lot of patience in terms of working with one other person for an extended amount of time. It was a new experience which I hope I can do again sometime.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
A lot of this module has been very software-based. particularly the product/range/distribution brief. This has allowed me to develop whole range of new software skills which when combined with sketching and note-making allowed me to rapidly produce ranges of different design ideas.
The downside to this is that at times I lost focus of where I was heading with a particular idea, in a couple of instances I found myself producing work which was not moving in a logical direction; I would produce one idea, then move to something completely different which would leave me unsure of what I was trying to do. Of course the solution to this is to constantly ask myself why I am doing what I am doing.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I feel I have improved on a number of skills that I already possess; as in these skills showed through a little more within this module. My type and layout skills particularly appear to have improved slightly, particularly during the collaborative brief where we spent a long time taking great care over attention to detail with our presentation boards.
Although it did not appear in my final product, I developed some skills with hand-drawn type and the vectoring of these, which I definitely hope to continue with in future projects.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I have noticed that my colour selection is not always on point; mainly during the product/range/distribution brief - the colours I used for my final product in some ways missed the mark as such, I was not overly happy with them. In all fairness I did not dedicate enough time to researching and experimenting with colour schemes, I neglected the importance of this and as a result of this it is something that is high on my list of priorities to improve.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Spend more time investigating colour schemes and how to use them; I feel that this was the main let down in my final product.
Choose a collaborative partner who possesses a different skill set to my own; working with Yaf who is also very type-driven was a good experience where I learnt a lot and enjoyed myself, but it would also be interesting to work with someone who is very much the opposite.
Learn to question myself more in terms of what I am doing, otherwise I run the risk of designing in aimless directions.
Spend more time researching carefully and thoroughly, in order to get a better of idea of what I myself am trying to achieve.
Spread my efforts more consistently; throughout the last brief I would do two days solid and then do less the next couple of days, which perhaps contributed to me losing sight of what I was doing.
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 : 3
Quantity of work produced : 5
Quality of work produced : 4
Contribution to the group : 4
