OUGD301-Evaluation

This module has definitely been very beneficial to me,I have been encouraged to develop and grow as a designer and define my specialized subject which lies in type and image combined.

I made sure I chose the right briefs that were going to put this specialism into the right contexts. My briefs focused on editorial, design for print, book cover design and retail graphics. I defined all this information in my rationale and SOI at the start of the module and I think now the module is over I definitely think I have achieved what I proposed.

I have developed massively in my software skills for photoshop and illustrator and indesign especially...I really wanted to familiarize myself with this software as I didn't feel confident with it to achieve the results that I wanted with my work. I do like indesign but I still favour illustrator and I think I will always use this unless indesign is absolutely necessary, the fact that I favour illustrator maybe because a lot of my work is illustrative and i'm an illustrator.

I feel my strengths over this module lie in illustrative techniques, I am really pleased with the illustrations that I produced for my Penguin Design Awards brief, I set out 4 weeks to achieve this and worked on my drawing techniques and style and I feel that I have almost got my own little style and individuality to my illustrations which looking back to my SOI and Rationale I specifically wanted to achieve and develop on that issue.

I think my level of commitment to the course has risen drastically, I've raised my game as I know I really want this and I want to do well and achieve the best and I know that just from becoming more committed I am in the right mind set for doing well and interacting with people and getting opinions that are going to help strengthen and improve my work.

I think in general I am more precise and accurate with my work and I am constantly looking at my design context blog and comparing it to the work that I am doing.

My weaknesses I think have shown through my photography on my final boards, on screen I thought my images looked pretty good but when enlarged to A2 scale the picture quality wasn't that great and i was disappointed with the outcomes so I think the top of my xmas list should be a new digital camera! Overall I think my photography skills are good I just need to modernize my camera or borrow a more professional one from college in the future.

Also another aspect to my final boards was spelling mistakes ...after they had been printed I did notice a couple of mistakes in my spelling that I missed so that is a lesson to learn in the future that will save me a lot of money.

I think that also because of the pressure that I felt under to work on this module I feel that my dissertation kind of got put to one side, I didn't forget about it and was very conscious of the amounts and deadlines that I had but I wanted to concentrate on my design practice. This how ever is not good, I should learn to manage my time more efficiently so that I am not under pressure and set out scheduled days for me to concentrate full on dissertation research and writing.

Overall I am very happy with the quality and quantity of work that I produced over this module and I am looking forward to getting on with my final major project!

Bibliography

Bibliography

 

‘Taste tees’ t-shirt brief

 

http://www.behance.com/

 

http://ffffound.com/

 

http://www.eioclothing.com/

 

http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/blog/

 

http://www.blanka.co.uk/

 

http://funkrush.bigcartel.com/

 

http://idnworld.com/mags/?id=v16n2

 

Special Packaging Designs (Agile Rabbit Editions S.) by The Pepin Press and Pepin Press

 

 

Penguin Design Awards brief

 

http://ffffound.com/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books

 

http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=3302

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland

 

Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 by Phil Baines (Paperback - Mar 28, 2006)

 

http://idnworld.com/mags/?id=v16n2

 

 

 

 

Festive Leeds Brief

 

http://www.leedsliveitloveit.com/

 

http://www.behance.com/

 

 

 

 

 

DANAD Don’t Panic-Resistance

 

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/posters/

 

http://www.adpunch.org/entry/womens-aid-act-until-women-and-children-are-safe/

 

Reflecting on my statement of intent that I wrote on the 25/09/09

Looking back at my statement of intent I'm really pleased that I have managed to achieve most aspects that intended.  In as such I am referring mainly to really establishing myself and recognising my specialised subject and style, which I now know definitely focus's around image and type combined used for design for print.  I purposely chose briefs that were going to help me achieve this and develop my skills in both illustration and typography and also the software such as illustrator and indesign.

I think over time I have come to the conclusion that I am not necessarily that interested in branding and identity but I'm not going to rule it out just yet!

 As for visiting other agencies other than ATTIK, I have been in contact with Billington Cartmell and I am looking to do some work experience with them in January so that is branching away from what I know and experience other fields of work.

Crit rules!

These are the rules that we have to abide by before going into a crit now so that they work more efficiently and we get the most from them so that our work can move on and improve.

Final crits...

At this point in time I am very happy with the work that I have produced and I feel like I have had good time management throughout each brief to get me to the point that I am at now!!!!

I think the general content of my boards were all appropriate and needed although I had feedback and a lot of my boards needed some sort of hierarchy so that the message and concept is communicated correctly so I will have to work back into them and improve them.

The reasoning behind 'taste:hk'....

I came up with taste:hk at the start of third year...the reasoning behind it is quite basic but I think it is quite unique and sums me up as a graphic designer.  The reasoning behind the word 'taste' is basically because I love cupcakes and I love drawing them and ever since first year I have managed to involve a cupcake in alot of my work, a cupcake has always been associated with my name in presentations etc. so I decided to keep this as an on going thing... the taste emphasis's the tasting a fresh creative designer...and the fact that I love cupcakes just emphasis's the tasting! 

So the heading of all my blogs involve this 'taste hk' ...hk obviously asscoiated to my name Hayley Kavanagh.  

I have made 'hk' slightly more creative by playing with the type and making my initials look like a heart.  This is on my business card also and although people may not get it straight away once they turn to business card to the reverse it is clearly explained.

T-shirt brief...

After consideration and talks in tutorials with Justin I decided to split my t-shirt brief into two sections... one section being the range of 1o womens and mens t shirt designs inspired by Lady Gaga and Lupe Fiasco and the second part of the brief being the packaging and promotional side to it designing labels, tags, gift wrap,bag packaging, promotional stands etc.

This will then in turn widen my variety of skills that I have aquired in this module instead of all my briefs mainly focusing on illustration which relates to my statement of intent and rationale.

This is a questionnaire I carried out on survey monkey on the internet...I think it was a good quick professional way of presenting questionnaires but I think it is better to just produce print based ones that you can personally give out to people and get quick responses from them to then get on with creating your work.

1. Do you wear screen printed t-shirts?

Yes

 

2. Is there any clothing company that you like or regularly buy t-shirts from?

 

1. www.buytshirtsonline.co.uk (gildan and fruit of the loom)

 

2. jonny cupcakes

urban outfitters

h&m

 

3. Do you prefer quite simple or complex designs on t-shirts?

 

1.simple but funky illustrations/prints..

sometimes a lil complex but fitting in with a cool unique style

 

2. simple

 

4. What shops do you like do go in on the high street?

 

1.Very rarely primark for a blank tshirt to print on if I'm skint.

 

2.urban, h&m, exit, chimp

 

5. What price would you expect to pay fro a screen printed t-shirt?

 

£10 to £20

 

6. Where would you think screen printed t-shirts would fit on the high street? For example could you see them in boutiques or big stores?

 

boutiques, especially if designed and printed by individuals artists/illustrators/printmakers or small collectives. People enjoy being unique and having clothing that can't be found elsewhere which is why I don't like high street shops. I work at River Island but will never buy a top from there. I enjoy selling my own eldavo brand tshirts. I hope to sell mine in a boutique sometime where I can keep limited runs of tees sold so that my cool funky designs will be hard to come by, better still, you'll be the only one wearing it! H&M on the rare occasion for a blank tshirt to print on if I need it urgently.

Another important issue about this brief is that it initially aimed to be a collaborative brief with Olivia Greaves but after looking at the work we were both producing we decided that we both had different intentions for the brief and wanted to do different things with it so we decided to go solo...that way I could work with the type and image combined that I initially thought which again refers back to what I stated in my rationale and statement of intent.

Resistance brief...

I have chosen to do the  Resistance DNAD brief... I want to have this as a short brief along with the Christmas festive bag brief that I did.

Although this brief is again very image based like the other briefs I have chosen I think this brief gives me an option to elaborate and maybe involve some information graphics into what I produce.  I want to focus my resistance brief around resistance to domestic violence and produce a hard hitting illustration based campaign raising awareness to the issue...

I wanted to produce some like this and really try and communicate with my audience and I think this is a great opportunity for me. 

Design for print lessons...

I know that I am not that confident in Indesign but I think these design for print lessons have definitely made me more aware of Indesign and how it can benefit my work...I had a chat with Mike and basically I think that I can work better in Illustrator and as long as I can produce professional high quality stuff in illustrator it doesn't matter what software i use...the software shouldn't hinder my designs or get in the way of what I am trying to do. Seeing as I am illustrative based I think it makes sense that I am using illustrator to be honest.

Evaluation of my design practice against my SOI and Rationale...

I have taken a second to evaluate and look back at my statement of intent and rationale and see if the design practice that I am doing now is reflecting what I have stated.  

I think overall I have been very precise when picking briefs that are going to benefit me and are relevant for what I want to get out of third year.  I think one immediate change is that I didn't state that I wanted to be able to create my own website and I think I am going to extend one of my existing briefs being the T-shirt brief and take it further to actually producing a website for the designs to be sold which is then putting it into the relevant context, I could have just placed it on Facebook but I want it to communicate to a wider audience and I want to aquire the skills for web design.

I came across this front cover for one of the creative review magazines and I thought it was very relevant for my PPD. The question is right out there...getting straight to the point!

Paper Stocks

I have emailed this company to see whether or not they could possibly send me some samples of the paper stocks that they have available for me that would help me aid my Penguin Book cover.

Progress tutorial 5/11/09

Overall I am happy with how my tutorial went today, i feel like I am on top of my work and could confidently talk about what stages I am at with each of my briefs.
What I think I have to think carefully now is what my last brief is going to be, I want to pick some thing that is going to help me develop my skills in in design, I have seen a brief on the ISTD website so i think i may look into that one.

No-Title magazine 5/11/09

I recieved an email through saying that No-Title were looking for new illustrators for their magazine so i got in touch with a lady called nadine and she has put me on the mailing list so any jobs that come through that she think I will be interested in will be mailed to me to see if i am interested and if so I have to send samples of my work and they will assess from there!
I got an email through today saying that they were looking for someone to design the front cover of the magazine so i have sent them some samples of my work and hopefully hear back from them as that would be great to get my work out there!
There are a few examples of past magazine front covers here and I think the style is really suiting to the work that i produce so i hope i have a chance with this one.

Feedback from crit on 22-10-09

I came away feeling quite positive about where I am going with my work...a few things that became apparent i my crit where the fact that I need to make sure I am doing sufficient amounts of design work by hand on paper and not just going straight on to the mac which I found I have been doing for my Alice in wonderland brief! I really need to work with working the type into my illustrations that I have used so that is what I am going to crack on with in the next few days!
As for my t shirt brief that I am working on I need to make sure that I am considering the composition and layout of where I am placing my designs onto my t shirts to make sure I am working with the t shirt beneficially!

Leeds Shopping Bag competition...the results!

It was the results of the Leeds Festive shopping bag competition yesterday and I went down to the light where all the competition winners work was displayed for the public to view. Overall there were 4 people who got shortlisted and then Mary Portas decided the winner. I was very pleased to get shortlisted to the final 4 but unfortunately I didn't win....but I was happy with my designs and I'm glad I went for it and entered. For being shortlisted to the final 4 we got the opportunity to go to a retail business forum at the corn exchange which was really beneficial as we were mixing with potential people who could help us...on the contact list there were people from big design companies such as elmwood!

Feedback from show and tell 14-10-09

I felt quite positive coming away from the show and tell crit on wednesday, I had positive and critical feedback and I am going to take in to consideration the comments made about the briefs that I am working on.
My 'Happy Shop' burlesque style logo didn't recieve very positive feedback and although it was only a short brief and the entry on crowdspring has expired I still feel I would like to work on it for myself so that I can then place it in my portfolio and be happy with it.
As far as my Leeds Goody Bag design goes I have submitted my designs now so it is too late to change them but the feedback from the crits was that the hand rendered type was favoured although it would need changing slightly so that it was more legible so I am going to change that before i put it in my portfolio.
Finally the feedback from the Penguin Design Awards brief, it is early days but the illustrations I have done everyone seemed to like and find very appropriate for the genre of the story.

Festive Leeds Bag competition brief...

When I recieved the email for the brief I instantly thought this would be a great opportunity for me, I have emailed for more information and I am now going to work on this now untill the deadline which is Wednesday 14th October.

Not only will it be a great opportunity for me to get my work out there into the general public for thousands of people to see but I will also be able to work with image and type, so it is going to be an image and type driven design for the process of design for print that will be printed onto the product being a bag for the context of advertising and promotion.

Feedback from Promotional material 29-09-09

Overall the feedback that I recieved was quite positive, some things that were mentioned were it was neat, worked well together, good use of colour, good size, good variety or work, good use of type, creates impact and effective logo.

Although not all was positive, the negatives that were given to me I kind of already knew, I think I needed more time to varify these but oh well! These are easily amenable though, I need to keep the borders of my examples of work consitant, need to keep my identity consisant in form of type face, crafting of business cards could be to a higher standard, improvement of stock chosen and my images were a bit small.

So overall I am happy with the feedback given to me, I am going to make necessary adjustments to make my promotional to a more professional and high quality standard so that I will be more than happy to send it out to clients and design industries.

Statement of intent 25-09-09

Statement of intent- 25-09-09

Over third year I really want to see myself establishing my own style and focusing in on an in particular area.
I want to develop my interest in experimental typography, I think I could bring my illustrative skills into this and I think it could open a whole new path to me.
I have also always wanted to become more involved with image and type combined and have this shown through my work so I am going to develop more on this.
From working at ATTIK this has opened me up to other paths also such as branding and identity and I want to continue developing my skills in this area, I have become a member of crowd spring over summer and this enables me to enter live briefs and a lot of them are surrounding this area so it is good experience for me and I also recieve feedback from the clients that post the briefs so this is also beneficial.
Another thing that became apparent in my presentation is that I need to go and visit other design agencies other than ATTIK to get a feel for how others work. I want to go and explore Manchester and see what opportunities there are there for me.
I think it is really beneficial going to work placements even if it is just for the day because you learn so much so I am going to push myself to go to as many as I can and also visit designers that I am inspired by.

Rationale 25-09-09

Rationale- 25-09-09

The underlying reasons for me focusing my work around typography and illustration are basically because I think these are my strongers areas as a designer and I think there is always room for improvement and there is a lot I still need to learn to become more successful. I think this way I will become more professional and my outcomes will be of a higher standard.

I think it will also be beneficial for me to work collaboratively with designers that are suited to my style, I really like working with other people and having a second opinion about my ideas and I think this will also help me improve.

As I have said in my statement of intent I want to make sure that I go and visit or speak to designers that I am inspired by and this will boost my confidence and attitude towards Graphic Design and it will help me start to get my work out in the industry and begin to get my name known and collect contacts for when I finish college and I am going to be looking for a job.

Time schedule for 4 briefs that I am carrying out:

Don't Panic-Resistance brief-1 week

T-shirt and packaging brief-5 weeks

Penguin Design Awards brief-4 weeks

Festive Leeds bag brief- 2 weeks

Themes that I am interested in...

1. Typography- Subject
2. Book Cover design- product
3. Layout- Product
4. Type and image combined- Subject
5. T-shirt design-screen printing- Process and product
6. Gonzo style drawing-Subject
7. Design for print- Process
8. Logo design-Product
9. Discovering new type- Product
10. Advertising- Context
11. Website- Product
12. Branding- Subject
13. Illustration- Process