OUGD501 - End of Module Evaluation

What skills have you developed through

this module and how effectively do you think

you have applied them?

___

My skills in writing have increased dramatically over this year and I feel that the final essay I created was a big step up from last year. I feel that after engaging fully with the lecture program, I have gained tons of useful contextual information which is very important for my personal practice. Whilst engaging with the program, I found certain topics and areas of personal interest which led to further research and eventually creating and essay and publication in response to. I particularly enjoyed the Panopticism Lecture and this is where the main starting point came from looking into modern day Panopticism working across Social Media. 

I have gained other important skills across writing such as how to properly plan and structure larger pieces of writing as well as essay techniques such as triangulation. I feel that this helped me successfully structure and generate my final essay this year. I got to create my own essay title which was also useful, and will be extremely important when considering my COP3 dissertation topic. 

After tutor contact, I was able to see what I was successfully achieving in my essay and where I needed to go away and become stronger at. I needed to work on my introduction and conclusion elements of my essay, although I had more than sufficient amount of research, I then went away to work on how I can introduce and come to a personal conclusion, which was really useful. I am also now confident when harvard referencing within any piece of writing with carious different forms of sources. 

What approaches to methods of design production

have you developed and how have they informed

your design development process?

___

I really pushed myself when working editorially with the publication this year. Due to my very interesting topic of Social Media Addiction, which was derived from my Essay and mainly the Panopticism Lecture, it allowed me to be much more experimental with the layout and format. 

I had a strong vision that I wanted the publication to be fairly confusing, much like pop up windows on a computer. This was achieved by using a certain metal binding technique along with different sized pages and leaves which gives the publication a very unique look and feel. I was happy I achieved this in the end because I feel it is much more successful for the topic than a standard saddle stitched book would be. 

The topic also allowed me to be quite experimental visually throughout the publciation. I wanted the look of the publication to reflect that of things you find on screen, be that social media, or general computer interfaces. I used lots of visual research of computer interface designs, both vintage and modern day, and my design reflects this. I also used the design of Facebook as a strong visual reference, as I feel this is the best way to grab attention and connect with my target audience. 

What strengths can you identify in your work

and how have/will you capitalise

on these?

___

I have really enjoyed a lot of the lectures this year, much more than last. I feel that I am fully engaging with the theories raised and actually wanting to learn more about them as I now realise the importance of this when informing my personal practice, when I used to think it was a waste of time. I feel like, I have a much more well rounded concept and theory behind the work created, and this is from gaining a

good knowledge of my chosen topics, through engaging with lectures, seminars and researching more thoroughly. 

Conceptually I have grown this year in other modules as well as this one. I find myself bot just going with my first concept, but using various points of research and participation to gain a greater knowledge of the topic before coming up with a concept I feel will be strong enough, unique enough and most importantly work in a real life environment. Engaging more with theory and being more confident about my topics have also helped me gain a much better concept and this will continue to grow into COP3.

I am much stronger when writing longer pieces with planning and structuring. I feel I have a much greater knowledge of writing techniques and researching methods to help get the best possible results.

What weaknesses can you identify in your

work and how will you address

these in the future?

___

Identify five things that you will do differently

next time and what do you expect to

gain from doing these?

___

I plan to create a much better plan when it comes to my dissertation next year. Much more than any of the essays I have previously written. I feel that uses my knowledge in research techniques I don't have to waste my time researching things I don't need. I can make a plan that involves both secondary and primary sources of research and can achieve this over summer to a high level putting me in good stead for when it comes to writing it.


I will organise my time in general much better, especially across modules. I feel that I am pretty good at Time Management on the whole, but I felt at times this year that I put certain modules on the back burner, this one being one at a time and I shouldn't need to do this. Luckily, it didn't have any serious effects but I still feel that by structuring a better time management plan, this can be avoided.

 

I will make sure I will fully engage with all the lectures and not just the ones that are interesting to me. I will make the effort to go away and find out my own research in relation to each topic so I get a clearer idea of something that could be useful to help informing my personal practice.


I will also be more organised on my blog next year. I often find myself at times going back through blog posts and drafts inserting tags and losing important information along the way. I can't afford to do this next year and I don't really have the time. I will just be on point more when it comes to correct tagging and generating posts rather than hundreds of unfinished drafts. 

I still need to work on my presentation skills even though they have really come along this year. I need to be confident in my work in order to make other people confident in it too. I feel that I am constantly getting better at this, but again it's something that needs to be fully sorted when it comes to the third year.

OUGD401 // Evaluation

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

I think my theoretical and essay writing skills have really developed throughout this module. From the lectures, seminars and tasks, I have gained a clear understanding within many parts of art history and key elements to graphic design, such as Modernism, Post-modernism, Advertising and the History of Type to name a few. Although, essay writing has never been my strong point, I feel that by researching appropriately and knowing what your writing about makes it a lot easier than I first expected. Also, the knowledge I received from lectures and seminars and the help I received from Richard really helped to push my writing skills and although it may not be the greatest essay, I feel that I have really improved in this area and hope to carry on doing so. 

I feel I have learned how to critique work appropriately and constructively with the sessions we had with Jo. They really helped me to pin point myself as a designer as well as learning to give and receive vital feedback from peers and fellow designers. By researching into manifesto’s and creating my own personal manifesto, I feel that this has given me some confidence an ambition to achieve key goals throughout my time here at uni and further into my career as a designer. 

As for the Theory into Practise, I feel that I have really improved my skills using Indesign. As i had to create a full sized 44 page publication, Indesign really helped me for layout design and also sticking to a  strict type and grid layout, basing the style on modernism. 

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

I feel that by creating a publication, this has given me more knowledge and experience in this area. I have made smaller publication before, but none at this level. I would never have believed I could have created a 44 page newspaper before this module but this particular brief has give me the time and planning to plan out a full publication in order to achieve the full 44 pages.

 I feel that by focussing so much on the content of the publication, this makes it so much easier to plan out your publication. It has to make sense, be interesting and keep the readers engaged. I have realised that the content is the most important part; Form Follows Function. Also by keeping a consistent theme throughout the publication helps to keep it simple and less confusing and Indesign is a great tool that my skills are developing, the more i use it.  

Lastly, design sheets are essential. This is something that I have only really picked up on this year but realised that theres no point designing onto a screen and wasting time in Indesign when i can plan all my ideas out through design sheets before I start. 

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I think that i could improve on my time management. I spent quite a long time getting my content right for the publication before actually designing it, which resulted in a stressful couple of weeks towards the end of the deadline, In which i had to design and send off my newspaper. I don’t really want to be doing this regularly so next time, i will plan dates and certain times when certain parts need to be finished, such as the content for the publication and the actual layout designs.

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

One

Planning my time efficiently will help me be organised and not cause stress towards deadlines. 

Two

Re-visit my essay as soon as i get feedback while it is still fresh in my mind. This way it will give me the best opportunity to add to and make better.

Three

Write more detailed lecture notes. Instead of using a notepad, I’ll take my mac into the lecture in future so it will be quicker for me to type up words as the lecturer is speaking which will result in better information. 

Four

Carry on experimenting with different techniques. whether this is digital or manual. Printing processes and the software I use for different tasks. This will just give me more variety in my work and a better understanding and technical skill. 

Five

Make sure that I keep and equal amount of time spend on collecting and perfecting content and the visual quality of whatever brief i am working on. It’s no use looking good if it makes no sense. Form Follows Function. 

How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 4 

Punctuality - 5

Motivation - 4

Commitment - 5

Quantity of Work produced - 4

Quality of work produced - 4

OUGD401 //Evaluation & Breakdown of Theory into Practise

                             Evaluation & Breakdown of Publication


Content

The publication will showcase 10pioneering Architectural structures That have been used in cult film over the last centruy. It will focus heavily on the ideas, concepts and visions of the architects and how modernist homes relate to different genres of film. It will raise the question of using modern homes are perceived and used to represent certain characters or situations. I will be foccusing on three genres of films to help get deliver my information ~ Villains, Heroes and Sci-Fi.

Survey

I took an online survey out across the college and also outside, posting it onto both social  and proffesional networking sites. In the survey, I included a large amount of Cult Classic films that contained Modernist Architecture in. The idea was to get an idea of which was the most popular films to the general publica and in particular, creatives. This way, It will allow me to keep my publication interesting and relevant to it’s target audeince as well as including the important information of Architecture in film.

Buildings

I took part in extensive research tasks into the architects and buildings themselves. I gathered quotes and bits of information that were both interesting and relevant to the 

publication. 

Genres

It was important to catergorise my films into generes using groups of around four films. The films that i chose to use in the end, fit nicelely into my three catergories of Heroes, Villains and Sci-Fi.

Films

I watched the majority of films that I was using in my publication. Most, I had previously seen, but I felt in order to get a clear sense of the part the building play in the films, it’s important for me to see it myself to help forge my own opinion.

Publications

I researched into a variety of 

different publications before finally settling on the idea of a newspaper. I took direct influence from Vintage  Architecture magazines, Block, with large type (Helvetica) and black and white photographic images all layered together.   

Design Sheets

I worked mainly on design sheets to finalise my idea before moving into InDesign. I wanted to keep the

publication fresh and ‘modren’ whilst still keeping to the rules of modernist design for obvious reasons. I

experimented with block colours, shapes, tye and layout through design sheets to give me a clearer idea when i was to move forward digitally. 

Design Development

I used a strict type and grid template to create my publication. Each title page for films was exactly the same type but a diferent colour code and placement of hal-toned image. I used half-tone images to preserve the quality of the image when printed at large scale and to also reflect that of traditional printing methods. Each colour was chosen carefully for the colour coded films and that relates back to the films or building in some way. I experimented with placement of type whilst maintaing the strict grid format.

Mock-Up

I created a qaurter size mock up so i had a hard-copy. this helped me get some good responses in the crit feedback as well as giving me a physical copy to make it much easier to check for typo’s and other
mistakes before i sent off for a final A3 sized newspaper to be printed.

Final Newspaper

I sent off for my newspaper using NewspaperClub.Com. They are quite a unique service that work on sending .psd files and print your newspaper using industrial printers. The finished printing quality is really nice and well worth outsourcing this, as appose to printing it myself, using newsprint.

Format

I chose to use a newspaper as the format for a number of different reasons. Firstly, I wanted to keep the publication quite modern and up to date. A creative newspaper is keeping things interesting. I was also
thinking about product placement. You could maybe pick it up in an independat book shop or picture house. This seemed relevant to the content. Lastly, i wanted to symbolise arcitects work. They usually work on large scale sheets to design, and sometimes blueprints so this was in the back of my head when I was considering format.

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