what if... Self evaluation

I identified that there was some types of graffiti that the general public didn't appreciate for instance the simple tagging in town or on private property. But at the same time there were types of graffiti most people liked, the type which takes much more skill and type which can also be seen as an art form.

tagging

graffiti as an art form

I did some primary research and gave out questionnaires to the general public we aimed to get a wide range of age groups so we wouldn't get a bias opinion. I also discovered some existing secondary research about views on graffiti in communities from the BBC news website. I went out into Leeds with a camera and documented first hand most of the graffiti areas i could find.

Questionnaires

I found the questionnaires particularly helpful as i got the publics opinion and in most cases people gave me some additional advice about graffiti. The photographs helped me identify the different types of graffiti found in leeds and which were the most common it made me realise that there were some very worth wile and skill full graffiti artists in the city.

I found that secondary research was not always specific enough to leeds and the problem i was trying to solve so i had to construct a much more specific questionnaire which i could get opinions and statistics from. I found a problem was going out in town and asking random people from specific age groups questions but i soon realised most people were very friendly and helpful. I would of wanted to carry out some more research on the environmentally damaging factors of the graffiti paint, this could of been useful in trying to get the graffiti artist to cut down on vandalism. 

5 things I have learnt about the design process over the last two weeks:

1. your opinion isn't always right
2. you can always do more research
3. primary research is much more specific to your problem
4. a wide range of opinions are helpful
5. a good body of research makes solving the problem much easier

5 things i would do different next time:

1. go out and do more research before constructing a questionnaire that will help me avoid having to do two.
2. get more secondary research
3. get more primary research
4. try and get in contact with some of the people my project relates to
5. get more photos of the problem.

End of module self evaluation

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

The main new skill i have acquired would be using adobe illustrator before i started the course i had never used it before and at this point i am very confident on it, using illustrator has helped to speed my design process by not having to draw out a sequence every time i want to rearrange it a bit. I have learnt some new techniques how to set out my design process which has helped to make me work far more efficiently. I have learnt a lot about typography and how i can manipulate the message i am trying to communicate using type.

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

After a brief i would go to the library to browse through some relevant books which gave me some good starting points. The design context blog has been very helpful it was a bit tedious uploading all the images i found on the internet but it proved to be a good resource especially as i could access it anywhere with internet. The design context blog also help keep all my research in one place and organised as i generally loose bits of paper easily. I keep a sketchbook on me most of the which gives me somewhere to put down any ideas i come up with outside the studio.

3) What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalize on these?

I have found that creating typefaces comes very natural to me and after one of the briefs i have learnt new methods how to make them. I will look into creating more of my own typefaces instead of using standard ones on the laptop for my briefs so i can make them more appropriate for the message i am trying to communicate. I feel like i have worked well with my time management on my projects as i haven't yet had to  rush at the last minute to get something done.

4)What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I found that i am a bit rusty with layout and as the module progressed i got better but i still need to practise to get better. One of the problem areas i encountered was the layout of type and image, in some projects i kept having the problem of the image outweighing the type making the poster feel really unbalanced. I feel like i havent been getting enough research of current designers.

Attendance: 5

Punctuality:5

Motivation: 4

Commitment:5

Quantity of work produced: 3

Quality of work produced: 3

Contribution to Group: 4

No News is Good News Poster Feedback

no news is good news Post Card feedback

Illustrator Brief

No News is Good News Post Card

Rational

What:

underage drinking

Why:

I aim to raise awareness of underage drinking and to give advice how to help stop or reduce it.

Who:

 parents as the children who are most likely to drink are still living at home so the parents would have the best chance to help stop underage drinking

How:

I am going to try and Advise and Inform the parents what to do in the case of their children drinking.

Evaluation

My mailshot communicates the problem of underage drinking. By opening the letter you physically break the bond between the parent and the child, this helps symbolise how a parent can loose their child to alcoholism. The txt used on the front was simple and to the point. The advice & facts card were also very simple and to the point. I stuck to my 2 colours + stock, i used blue black and white. The blue on the advice and facts cards were to make them more welcoming. The card which refers the parents to the drink aware website was possibly not needed i could of integrated that message into my advice card. The overall aim for this project was to inform and advice and i am fairly happy with my final result as i believe it communicates this.

No News is Good News Posters

Rational

Who needs to know:

I aim to make a clear message for all adults and children but my specific audience is Adults with children around the ages 14 - 17. 

What do they need to know:

That 13,000 under 18's were admitted to hospital last year due to alcohol.

What will they respond to:

A simple clear cut poster which is straight to the point.

Evaluation:

My set of 3 posters gets the message across but i am not happy with my type and image poster the type isn't clear enough on it for a high impact post. The colour Scheme is not as shocking at i initially hoped, using brighter colours which are more relevant to a hospital could of made it more high impact. I am happy with my type only image as it illustrates drinking by making a beer bottle with the text. The peer feedback i got helped me to improve my type and image poster by adding imagery relevant to the hospital and rearranging the type. I found the Crits helpful to point out the little changes i needed to complete my series of posters

Partner typeface Drop in Crit notes

Improvements to be done:

• Set a rule for the curving of the letters
• a few letters like the D, Z, L and P need to have the top corner curved
• Experiment with the unorganised layout.

Partner Typeface Evaluation

Partner Typeface Final Crit

Issues Raised:

• The name badge is a bit unclear
• Not sure if you have showed enough on the point of unorganised within the typeface
• Some Letters dont fit within the sequence 
• Some more experimentation to be done with counters

Action to be taken:

• Instead of putting the letters on angles and different spacings lay them out in a fixed order so they are more clear and dont angle them, this will allow them to be much more clear.
• Put more lowercase letters in to emphasise the unorganised idea, possibly change round the alphabet so it does go from A-Z. This will mix it up more and give the idea of how unorganised he is.
• Fix the few letters which dont fit by experimenting with different ways of rounding them off or filling in the counters.
• Rotate the counters and see what happens.

Partner Alphabet

Evaluation

The adjectives i responded to were lazy, laid back, relaxed and friendly. This typeface responds well to those characteristics, I made the letters fat and curvy to make them look more approachable and friendly. There are no obvious rule within my typeface this helped to make the typeface look more laid back and relaxed. The font works well as a set but i had to change the way i used it within a sentence as the name tag was not clear enough. All the letters are legible at a large and a small scale. 

Partner typeface Rational

How to rational

Alphabet Soup Crit Feedback

Summer Work Alphabet

Alphabet Soup

Rational

Brief:

Produce a set, series or sequence of 10 A6 letter forms which communicates the word "inflate"

Who needs to know:

Everyone 

What do they need to know:

They need to be able to see that the letter forms represent something which has been inflated

These are the final 10 'g' letter forms

10 Things i want to achieve

1. Learn more about printing processes and to be confident to use print in a brief, especially screen print.
2. I would like to learn more about the use of different types of paper in the printing process.
3. Explore the use of stop motion with typography.
4. Find out more about how you use typography to relay messages
5. I would like to explore using more illustration in my briefs instead of just type based work.
6. I want to get confortable using software like illustrator and photoshop. 
7. I would like to use more software within my briefs
8. I would like to experiment with a wider variety of materials, especially in the briefs i take a hand rendered approach.
9. I would like to learn more about using video.
10. I would like to learn about book binding.

How to... Self evalaution

What role did you take on in the group?
I felt that i was a key part in the brainstorming and that i made some good points. i helped out on the photoshop and illustrator software. I made sure the team kept on the time schedule. I also made sure to take on parts on producing the final outcome in the given time schedule. 
How well do you think you worked as a group?
I did all the assigned roles to the best of my abilities.
How well do you think you worked as a group?
We worked well as a group but at times there wasn't something for everyone to do so some group members felt left out at times. This could of been solved by making sure everyone had fixed roles in the group after all the brainstorming was done.
What were the positives of working in a group?
We could bounce ideas off each other when need for each decision to make sure it was the best. People with different skill backgrounds could contribute interesting new ideas.
What were the negatives of working in a group?
Not always being able to do what you want and having to talk to everyone in the group before an idea was made in order to get the whole group involved and so no one disagreed, this sometimes took much more time then it should of.
Where could you have improved your resolution?
By everyone doing the typeface, that would of saved much more time and we would not of had to download a font which didn't exactly fit with the hand rendered one we decided on as a group. As a group we could of made less complicated decisions around small factors in the project this would of saved much more time.
What were the strenghts of your presentation?
We had two main speakers which made it less confusing for the audience to understand what we were saying. We talked through how we got to our main concepts clearly and why it would solve our initial problem. We gave out handouts which got the audience not only listening but looking at more images of our work.