End of Module Evaluation

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

During this module I have tried to use software a bit more in an attempt to give my work a more professional finish. Previously a large amount of my work has been handcrafted, photographed, slightly edited and printed out. This module however I have actually tried to create imagery within the software, with the ideas and designs taken from sketches. I feel slightly more comfortable using some of the software now, however my knowledge is very limited and due to this lack of confidence my work suffers. Conceptually, I consider my work to be quite strong but it is often let down by the resolution. 

2. What approaches to/methods of problem solving have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

In previous modules I have noticed that I have tended to identify very general, or difficult to convey, problems to solve. This has resulted in the design process becoming more difficult than it has needed to be. I have been determined this time to identify problems which are very precise and can be summed up in just a few words. By picking something very precise, I have found it easier to think around the problem; considering why the problem exists, how it effects people, similar problems that exist and how they have been approached. Research has driven a lot of my resolutions this module, being more informed about what peoples opinions are and studying effective design has undoubtedly strengthened my work. 

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

I believe that the concepts that have been driving my work more recently have been a lot stronger than previously. Understanding the problem and being able to explain it to others really helps when evaluating whether a solution is appropriate or not. A lot of my work has relied on interactivity from audiences to work. Using interactivity like this is quite interesting because it allows my design to change depending on the audience. This is a tactic that really interests me and I have been reading up on, in particular the thought process behind the audience and how emotions can effect how well the message is communicated. I find that this interactive sort of design is really difficult to design successfully, because you have to consider more than one outcome. Not only does the "start" design need to be visually engaging and persuade audiences to interact with it, it also needs to allow enough room for changes to be made and for the "changed" design to also be visually engaging. 

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

Although I have probably already mentioned it a few times, I feel my biggest weakness is not being comfortable with software. This is something I plan to address over summer, so that when I come back in September I will feel more confident within the programs and will hopefully be able to learn a lot more next year. I also believe that my work lacks impact. I don't think it manages to entice audiences very well, although the feedback has been good from crits, I think my work needs to be more visually engaging. The ideas seem to be there, but the execution tends to let them down a lot of the time. As an attempt to "sort this out" I am going to be looking at a lot more designs which do have a lot of impact. The designs I have been looking at so far, consist mainly of their illustrative qualities, ability to draw or craft, and the ideas behind it. I haven't been looking much at design that has immediate impact and how it works, so perhaps by looking at that sort of design I can start to understand it a lot more and use similar ideas in my work, if necessary.

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

1. While working on a brief, use the A3 folders to keep it organised and in an appropriate order. The last brief I have done this and it has helped me so much. I have been able to look back on previous ideas and refer to research a lot more easily. It also helps other people to understand the process I have come through to get to my final resolution.

2. Come in earlier. On days like Wednesdays where it is free studio time I tend to come in at about 11 and soon after starting to work I'll have lunch and before I know it I've probably lost 4 hours, which could be spent a lot better. 

3. Teach myself some basics in software. I just need to start off simply and do some tutorials so that next year if I want to be able to do something I won't be too daunted to not try it. I'm really annoyed with myself for not doing it this year and so summer will be my opportunity to rectify this.

4. Look more at pre-existing design. I already look at a lot of design but a lot of it is very similar. I would probably benefit from looking at a more varied selection so that I can learn about different approaches, other than just more examples of the same sort of work I like.

5. Bring food in with me. If I'm hungry I can't concentrate, and I resent doing work. I think by bringing some sort of snack in with me I can continue to work without having to leave college for the shops and I'll stay in a better mood to work. This is probably a really trivial bullet point, but I think it will genuinely benefit me. 

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
1 2 3 4 5
Attendance 5
Punctuality 4
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 4

In Context

Blu-Tack Boards

To encourage interactivity and the storage of Blu-Tack...









Images of boards in context to come once these have been printed...

Research: Interaction with the environment

One of the strongest examples I have seen of this in poster form, is a campaign from amnesty international. They directly use the environment to support their message, with an emphasis on changing the environment to shock audiences and attempt to make them understand the unjust happenings. Parts of the environment are also used as restrictions to the posters, acting as a metaphor. In particular, positioning the posters behind bars, so that the faces photographed appear to be imprisoned. This method for persuasion has a lot more effect on me than other campaigns which tells you how unfair things are. This is because I admire the thought that has gone into the work, its genuinely thought provoking and has immediate impact.

Here is one example of the series of posters. If you want to see more then click the link below.



To see more from the same campaign ---> http://www.adverbox.com/amnesty-international-5/

Interactive Poster Research

As a solution I will be creating interactive boards, this is pretty hard to research so I've been looking at other ways designers have tackled interaction in poster format. This video shows 3 examples which are brilliant. Definitely check it out.

The bane of my life.

I have made a few decisions in the direction I'm going for this "Blu Tack" issue. There are two solutions which are possibilities at the moment. One is a packaging solution which would make "Blu Tack" more portable, and if successful would make it more likely for people to carry it with them. This idea has had a lot of positive feedback in crits and I think it would work well, if presented as a sort of novelty - with the initial ideas being based around chewing gum packaging. 

The second solution would be to provide a specific area for "Blu Tack" to be returned to, ensuring people would know where the "Blu Tack" is and to deter people from keeping it on the walls. 

Although it was suggested I could look into other methods of sticking up work, it seems to be more product design related and promotion of a method which I'm not interested in doing. 

At the moment I'm favouring the idea of providing an area for "Blu Tack" to be returned to. To encourage Graphic Design students to use it, I need to make it visually appealing. Playing on this idea of interactivity is also essential. 

This is a good example of what I am trying to encourage. This designer put this poster up in an exhibition along with black tabs. The aim was to get audiences to stick the tabs to the poster, in effect altering the design. After the poster was created he then turned it into a book. Other than creating something visual there doesn't actually seem to be much purpose to it, but it does demonstrate well how to involve an audience. 

When it comes to the series of boards that I want to produce, I think it would be suitable to create something that can be visually changed. Ideas at the moment include ways of blanking out sections to create letters/words and forming/editing images. 

The magic of hindsight...

Our new brief "Speaking from experience" targets the new first years, due to start in September. It is our mission to pass on the knowledge we have learnt this year, identifying any problems we had, empathising with their position, help them out, entertain them or - if we're feeling particularly cruel - scare them. 

After a fair few hours spent reflecting on the year we've had so far, discussing low and high points we each settled on 5 problems. My 5 problems/pieces of advice were;

NEVER choose Gender Studies as an elective

How to cope without sleep/Guide to staying awake

The art of Multi-tasking

When looking for Blu Tack go low

Short cut to short cuts

Discussing this in groups of 5 I decided to go for the "Blu Tack" issue. Mainly because it's pretty specific and a genuine problem. The majority of the briefs I have handled so far this year have been extremely broad (due to my own fault) and I think I've caused myself more problems than necessary. By choosing something like this I can challenge myself and try and work in a different way than I have all year. So anyway my statement of intent goes a little like this;

What Problem?

When pinning up work Blu Tack is hard to come by.

What to do about it:

Make the new students aware of this problem, suggest a solution for it.

How?

Still haven't really decided on this. But possible ideas so far include:

Providing some sort of place where Blu Tack can be kept

Inform students where people usually hide their Blu Tack, through the method of mapping, or stickers on location

Produce something which helps explain why Blu Tack becomes dispersed, possibly using animation, storyboarding, film or photography

I'm still not too sure what I actually want to achieve with this brief, as to whether I want to entertain, inform, persuade the new first years, or whether to try and resolve the problem for them. 

I think once I have decided on this I can really start to think about how to solve this problem, at the moment there are too many possible ways of looking at the problem.

Type and Grid - Newspaper

Here is my attempt at working out the grids for one of the local papers. It took me quite a long time to work out what kind of system they were using and I got pretty stressed out. When I'd finished though I felt that slight sense of *I know something you don't know* that Lorenzo had promised. I've began to mark out on tracing paper some of the content of the page, including information about point size and leading. I've only really gone into detail on the sections that are a bit different to the rest of the page, to try and work out what they've done. Type and grid is pretty interesting so far, although I wish the sessions were longer. As soon as I start to get into it the session is pretty much over. It's nice to have something to concentrate on for that time, it sort of takes my mind off everything else that is going on.

Type and Grid - Vickie Simpson

We've been paired up with fellow designers. Our brief is to produce a 3 double page spread which is to appear in an appropriate publication, with the content focussing on our partner. My partner is none other than Vickie Simpson. Our first task towards this project was to have a Q&A session and find stuff out that we didn't already know about our partners. Following this we had to write 500 words about them. And also choose some imagery.
So this post is dedicated to Vickie Simpson. Maybe you will learn something about her you didn't already know.

482 words about Vickie Simpson

Vickie describes her own work as an “eclectic mix of media experimentation and illustration” and proudly states that she likes to “cut and stick things”. Anyone familiar with her work will be aware of her love for collage and that soft spot she has for anything second hand. Using collage means that Vickie can brainstorm her ideas as they are generated in a visually engaging away, which in turn inspires her and develops said ideas further. The “hands on” approach is something that she personally values very highly and prefers this method of image making to using just type or being software focussed. By routing through charity shops, car boot sales and old bookshops she has managed to find all sorts inspiration for her favoured way of working – and continues to do so. While in her room she is surrounded by these intriguing objects. Tins, lunch boxes, brass monkeys, sweet dispensers, a tea caddy and the list goes on. Her most treasured find from her hunts is a sewing machine, although, unsurprisingly, it is missing bits. Considering these factors it is no surprise that when asked what her favourite piece of work she had produced her music box topped the list. For anyone who doesn’t know what this was read on. For those of you who do, feel free to carry on reading anyway (no pressure). Designed to look like a stack of old books – actually structured by using bits of old covers and spines of books – the music box held inside it a collection of information about charity shops in Stockport and 100 items that Vickie herself purchased from these shops. Not only does this demonstrate to people the possibilities these kind of places hold, but it also reflects Vickie’s personality and interests quite aptly. It is a combination of second hand items, books, illustrations and music – a quite accurate summary of this young graphic designer. Although there is a strong sense of second hand items, and the re-use of imagery/type (in the form of collage), it is delivered in quite a contemporary way. Whether this is due to certain images used within work or specific messages, there is a definite modern way of thinking behind the work. It is probably this mixture that makes her work stand out from others and why it gains such a wide and varying range of interest. Vickie is clearly confident in the way she works and demonstrates a strong set of skills. As well as using found images from books and magazines, she likes to use fabric, pens and watercolours and has been known to produce some very gripping visuals from this media. When she’s not busy treasure hunting, or drawing birds, she can occasionally be seen riding her bicycle. Possibly to an art gallery, perhaps round York (one of her favourite and recommended places), or maybe even to the next car boot sale.

Some pictures

So help (us)...

Group collaboration time.
Our group = Ollie, Liam and myself.
The task was to choose a problem from the list of briefs and propose to a group of clients our solution, using concept boards.
We chose the brief *Get people to tell the truth*
Researching into it, we found that there had been studies where pent up guilt/stress could badly effect peoples immune system.
Our original solution was to send out balloons which directed people towards an outlet where they could *confess* their secrets to. Following our first crit though we decided to amend the problems that cropped up. We wanted to use balloons because 1) it was symbolic of a virus (which was part of the brief) and more importantly 2) it helped keep the service anonymous - as we wouldn't have control over the audience. This lack of control however, proved to be the idea's biggest downfall. As we couldn't count on the balloons reaching people who would want to use the service.
*****Images of first boards to come soon*****
After a lengthy brainstorm session on a sunday night, while also battling against several other factors (mainly essays/electives/visual language), inspiration finally hit us.
Our new suggested solution was to produce a package - resembling a product - which provided people with a kit where they could write down their confessions and release it (attached to a balloon). Again, we were keen on using the balloon because it fully supported the idea of anonyminity which was the main strength of this concept.
*****New board images also coming soon*****
SO, we presented this new idea to our new clients. We were then faced with the "surprise" of having to swap the briefs with our partners. The next hour or 3 was dedicated to re-vamping/changing/improving/discarding parts of the other groups idea to form an idea we thought was actually possible. This proved a lot easier to pull apart someone elses idea, and see where the problems were etc. Mainly because we weren't attached to the project and had no real vested interest in it. By the end of the 3 hours I was genuinely hoping to take on their brief, I thought that it would be really interesting to take on someone elses work. But no luck. We had to swap back. In the end I'm glad we did because I think as a group we pulled together really well to get things done. On occasions it was difficult having 3 people because there wasn't always something for all of us to do, but then other aspects of the work would never have been possible with only 2 people in the amount of time we had.
Our end solution was a pack which promoted the day; National Confession Day - The Big Release. The aim was to give out these packs to people so they could write down their secrets etc and then meet up in their local release site, so that everyone could let go of their secrets all together.
I was really impressed with the packs we ended up producing, they look a lot more professional than any of my previous work. Possibly because of the amount of work/time we all put into it. I think we all genuinely cared about this project throughout, rather than losing enthusiasm. We all wanted this to succeed, probably because everyone seemed to doubt it to begin with.
The concept boards came together well, and I think by the end of the week we were a lot more comfortable presenting the idea because we had a strong sense of what it meant. The feedback we got from our *clients* was very positive, so well done us.

The final concept boards should sum up most things:









*Click to enlarge*

Recognition Day...Shortlisted

Was really chuffed to find out I'd been short listed for the Recognition Day competition.
I think that the postcard might be sent out as the original idea (the blank maze on it's own). Anyway it should be one of these 3 different versions that gets published...

Type and Grid - Thumbnails

Print induction at Blenheim

The screen printing at Blenheim was quite inspirational. We were shown different types of glues and methods that would allow for raised prints on fabric or paper, which is something I'm keen to try out. We did some screen printing onto fabric - the different stages are shown below. We also did some screen printing onto paper (I'll upload the pictures from this another day)



( first colour printed onto fabric )



( lining up where to put the next print using assotate )



( the two colours printed )



( our second print)

How to... (resolutions)

One of the most common reasons people gave for slowing down their job hunt was a lack of confidence and motivation. (confidence referring to CV writing and interviews in particular). So for my resolution I had initially decided to produce something people could use in the format of a pack. With two days to go before the final crit I decided instead to use a format I had originally considered which was producing a website. I don't actually know how to produce a website and so I got round this by using a *blog*. I then used postcards and business cards to promote the website. The cards seem to work well, but I wish I had decided to produce a website earlier on in the brief so that there was more content. In particular I wanted to include information about interview techniques and time management. But because of the late stage of doing this I didn't have time...irony? Anyway...pictures.

To see the website either click on the *how to* link on the right or visit http://www.speedupajobhunt.blogspot.com

How to...

...speed up a job hunt.

Thanks to the number 27 I have been allocated this task.
Pretty chuffed with it, as it has a target audience that is quite accessible. HOWEVER, since researching into it, it seems like it's going to be a pretty hefty piece of work. There is a lot to cover. And since I genuinely would like this piece of work to be able to help someone I don't want to leave half the stuff out. Plus, you know, in a few years time I might be desperate for this sort of information so it's planning ahead.
So far I've done the following things:
Identified my target audience (people looking for a job)
Set up a survey and started to collect results - to do with what tends to slow down peoples search for a job
Identified some common problems
Researched into how to write a CV and covering letter
Started to research into useful websites for people
Thought about different ways I could present the information
Thought about some of the content

I've found that if I ever want to finish this brief I am going to have to use a lot of time management skills...

Recognition Day...

...a day to show your appreciation to others. However, some of us find it more difficult to do so than others. SO. I decided to target my design at those who did find it more difficult in the attempt to make it easier for them...

At first I wasn't really sure who these people were, and who they would want to thank. To find this out I set up a survey. Some of the results were actually quite touching and for a moment I felt myself thinking that people were quite nice actually...until I read the rest.
An interactive postcard was my chosen approach and I toyed with the idea of forms people could fill in and forward on...but following a crit I developed the idea of puzzles instead.
I thought that the puzzles would be a good idea as they get the target audience involved...and also I like puzzles. Using a series of taglines I tried to link the idea of puzzles to recognition day. Examples of these include;
Instructions: Find the words to say *Thank You*
Instructions: Find a way to say *Thank You*
and
Instructions: Try to fit in the words to say *Thank You*

Anyway enough chat...here's some pictures.



This image was a dot to dot themed postcard, one the dots are joined up it spells out the word *cheers*.



This is one of those puzzles where you have a list of words and you have to try and fit them all in the spaces available...



Unlike the others this image didn't have a tagline. I did consider doing it in the style of a hangman style clue but it didn't look as good so I left it as it was.



This one was a word search that required the target audience to find the words, all of which were other way's of saying *thank you*.



And here is the idea which was developed further into a *final* resolution. This maze took me a whole day to construct so that the only path available to get from start to finish meant that when filled in it actually said *thank you*.



...and finally. The one that was uploaded. It shows the empty maze and the one filled in. I chose to do it like this following our final crits, as they thought the filled in one was more visually engaging. I have to admit I don't particularly like the maze as a visual piece, but I like the concept. I think actually having a hard copy scanned in adds a lot more to the image.

...and finally (again) I would just like to take this space to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped me during this brief.