Printed Text and Reading Crit

Secondary Research;

 

Primary Research;

Direction;

Group Crit;
Our group had more people in it than he rest of the group, each of us had a different category;

• Jasper - Spacial Awareness
• Danielle - Packaging 
• Mel - Signs 
• Me - Branding and Identity 
• Anna - Books 
• Kirsty - Magazine/Editorial layouts 
• Emily - Legibility and Readibilty

Each person collected a lot of research, everyone was happy with the amount of research that everyone had. We all received good feedback from our research, this enabled us to move onto the next brief with a large amount of research. Although Kirsty didn't show up to the crit, so we never saw any of her research, which was a bit annoying as she had Magazine Layouts, which was a big category in Printed Text and Reading. In the crit we got told that our next brief was How To...Make People Read More. We could work on our own, in small groups or as one large group within our group, so we all thought about it for a while, we discussed that it would be hard in a group as there were seven of us, although there was only six of us in the crit. We made a decision on that day that us six would work as a big group as we would be able to achieve more, as there are more of us, we thought that over the weekend we would all do some initial research so we have something to work with on the monday, and if Kirsty wanted to join us, she was more than welcome.

Module Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD403
Module Title	DESIGN SKILLS

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME	Daisy Sunshine Conway

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
One of the skills, which I have learnt throughout this module is, how to keep time management. By having shorter, week long briefs, I found that time management was essential as I have other tasks and assignments to do simultaneously with OUGD403. Therefore organising my time was curtail, and I think throughout this module I have increased this skill, as I was able to get my work in to an certain standard on time. Another skill, which has got better, is my ability to use digital methods such as illustrator. Having an illustrator workshop helped me, and from then I could apply this knowledge to my work to make it more effective, and as I learnt lots of short cuts and smarter ways in which to do things I found it took a lot less time, which helped me with keeping time management. Recognition of using different fonts and typefaces to connect to different audiences, and the difference it can make to a piece of design by changing the typeface, I applied this in my mail shot brief in message and delivery, as I realised I wasn’t connecting to the audience, and simply by changing the font, it then became clearer and appealing to my target audience.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
Throughout this module I have used and learnt many new methods of production such as monoprinting, lino printing, letterpress, screen printing, digital methods (illustrator) and hand rendering. Although I have only applied some of these methods to my briefs such as illustrator and hand rendering, I haven’t had much opportunity to use screen printing, although I would really like to. Digital productions have influence my design the most as this process is cleaner and very clear, it shows precision and accuracy, something which is a lot more difficult to do by hand. Therefore this process ultimately made my designs look better, for example in Alphabet Soup I found that my hand rendered letterforms of ‘pop’ weren’t as effective or as clean as the same letters which I produced for the illustrator brief, which shows the difference between the two methods, and shows my skills using them.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
The strengths which I have in my work could also been seen as a hindrance as I like perfection, for example in the message and delivery brief, whilst producing my mailshot double sided, I couldn’t settle with it being close to lined up, I had to produce it many time to get it perfect. This shows that in my work and designs I like to have things looking the best I can make them, so that it Is the most effective it can be. I think that I am getting stronger in using illustrator and more digital methods of producing work, which will only get even stronger. I will capitalise on this as it is a good skill to have, as it produces the cleanest and most accurate work, in my opinion.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
One of the weaknesses I have is seeking approvement from my peers, even when I have chosen which idea or design I think is effective, I like to ask friends to see what their opinion is, and whether they think that idea would be most effective. I also think I could improve my hand crafting skills, as a lot of my work through this brief which has been hand rendered isn’t to the best quality, for example in the message and delivery brief my mailshots, at one point when I tried to stick them back to back, looked really badly crafter, not aesthetically pleasing and didn’t function well. Therefore in the future I will address trying to improve my crafting skills, so that they are at an acceptable level.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
I would do more research into different ideas, and don’t just stay with one of the first ideas which I like. This is because I think after I find an idea which I like, I should do development on that, where I should be doing more so that I can find the best idea possible, therefore in the future I will do more initial ideas. I would take the audience into consideration more throughout the design process, rather than thinking  about whether I would like the design and connect with it, my target audience should be the priority. Although I am designing something, it doesn’t mean I necessarily have to like it, as long as it connects with my target audience, it will work effectively, and this is something I need to remember that I won’t always like what I have to design. Next time I will use and experiment with more colours as most of the briefs in this module has had colours restrictions such as only black and white for the Alphabet Soup brief. This is something I had no choice in, but for next time I will find a minimal colour pallet which I enjoy to use. I would also work on my crafting skills as in this module I found that it is not as accurate as it should be, this will help me in future briefs as when I next get a hand render brief I can make it more effective and aesthetically pleasing rather than the bare minimum quality. Next time I will produce more quality development work, as it is sometimes hard for me to see what my idea was through my development, as even though I want to have more in quantity, I don’t want it to jeopardise the quality of my work, this will help to communicate where my ideas have come from better.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation				X
Commitment					X
Quantity of work produced			X
Quality of work produced				X
Contribution to the group				X
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Mail Shot Crit

 The crit;

Layout for crit.

Mail shot and envelope.

Mail shot.

In this crit we had to get into groups, lay out our work then swap tables. In our pairs we each assessed all four mailshots on the table. This was a helpful way to do a crit as on the crit sheets there was a box for recommendations. This is good as sometimes in crits, people leave unhelpful feedback by saying that they just 'don't like' something, so its not very constructive, therefore this was a better way of doing a crit.

Feedback sheets;

Crit sheet 1

Crit sheet 2

The general constructive feedback which I got from the crits was;

• The envelopes were too small.
• Mailing list isn't appropriate.
• Well designed, but communicate message clearer.
• Very formal.
• Thicker stock, as its too flimsy.
• Mailing list looks like a posh food menu.
• Typeface not appropriate for audience.
• Reconsider theatre theme.
• Add creativity to the envelope.
• Wax seal good but not appropriate.

 I already took the stock into consideration and it didn't work out, and this was the most effective way of producing it, although if I had more time, I would have experimented with even more stock choices. After getting back my feedback, I have found that the stock should definitely be changed and made thicker. Also my envelope needs more work doing on it, maybe adding some colour, and consider the wax seal.

The mailing list is clearly not appropriate for my audience, but the intention was to keep the typeface consistent. Although looking back now I can see that it doesn't work very well therefore I will add another typeface which suits body copy more, maybe look into what fonts magazine articles use. I would change the body copy in the mail shot and the mailing list, consider maybe the front of the envelope too. This will help effect the formality of my mailshot, so that it will appeal to my target audience.

Posters, Mail shots and Mailing list;

Group crit, everything together as a set.

What is Graphic Design for? Part 1 and 2

There are five different reason for Graphic Design, which are;

1. Information and Way-finding
2. Publishing and Editorial design
3. Branding and Identity
4. Product and Packaging
5. Retail and Promotion

How to categorize each element;

• Genres
• Content
• Audiences
• Sectors
• Functions
• Format

Information and Way-finding;

• Structure
• Data and information
• Visual graphic design for example info-graphics
• Complex information
• Making visual instructions
• Signage, road signs, signs in industrial building, formal and non formal

Publishing and Editorial;

• Publishing (ongoing body of information)
• Consider how to work with type and image
• Ebook, E magazine, double page spreads, content, type, image, format, text and grid
• General magazine catagories: fashion, music, lifestyle, health and beauty, current affairs, photography, technology, the arts, food and cooking, the home...
• Publishing - fiction, non fiction, travel, biographies, manuals, children's books, education, reference, languages...
• How to work type and image, make it look good and interesting
• Making things visually engaging in general publications
• Annual reports - catalogues (commercial) (event), brochures, instructional, public sector
• Finding a way to combine different types of publications

Branding and Identity;

• Perceived as an emotional corporate images as a whole
• Identity
• Visual aspect that forms and overall brand
• Working with logos
• Making sure everything is recognizable - creating a popular brand
• Logo - identifies a business in its simplest form

Product and Packaging;

• T-shirts, mugs, calenders(huge market), birthday cards, wrapping paper, gift tags, stationary
• Not all message and concept, the concept often can just be the products
• Packaging - colour, type, form
• Look at the relationship between the high end and the budget
• Buy a product because of the packaging
• Product carries identity, packaging carries identity, packaging is protecting the product
• Think about who is using and consuming it

Retail and Promotion;

• Everything including in the purchasing process - tags, carrier bags ect, - everything has been designed
• Tags, bags, signage, everything included
• Spacial qualities of detail, make sure that it works in 3D to be effective
• Looking at scale, working big or small like a logo

Poster Crit

Final three posters.

The crit;
During this crit, we all had to sit on a table and critique other peoples posters. It was anonymous so that no-one could find out who did theirs, so that you can be really honest without feeling bad. We all had to crit 3 different peoples work, then leave the room whilst the other group came to crit our posters.

This process was good and allowed you to be honest as its anonymous. You could also look at everyone's work, not just a small group, so you could see everyone's ideas and designs.

My crit sheets;

Crit sheet 1.

Crit sheet 2.

Crit sheet 3.

What I took from these crits were that my colours work really well and so does the simplicity of my posters, although that they were also maybe too simple. They said that maybe I should add some more text to the type only poster, just to add some context, but still keep it quite simple.

As a group we found that the image only was the hardest to produce, and also the hardest to understand what the message is, without type its difficult to show the exact message, although with the other posters its very clear why the image is what it is. This crit was very useful as I will be able to develop and change things which I thought were clear, but others didn't, so I can work on the issues which have been brought up.

Research Crit

In my research and delivery crit I showed my initial research, which was a large range of things about my newspaper article.

My article

I used this article because I thought that it would be lighter, as in my crit I found that many people were doing quite serious issues. I found that many people in my crit are doing really interesting subjects, most of which I knew nothing about, so learned a lot from it. The crit was very useful for me as it showed me that I should use this idea and also showed me that I can take it a lot further than just looking into the relationships of each couple, and finding all the cheating allegations made by the media. I could look into why the couples get back together, as a lot of them do it for PR stunts. So to move forward with this I will focus more on gossip columns, and seeing the alterior motives for the couple getting back together.