To do

• Research design companies/companies in my areas of interest
• Freelance photographers/film/design
• Worldwide organizations (I want to travel with my work?)
• How to contact/who to contact

starting properly

1. What do I want to achieve this year?

I want to maintain a high quality level of work throughout the year so I can finish my second year with a decent mark and a positive direction to take into 3rd year. I also want to learn new skills I can take on with me throughout my future careers, and produce art work that will help promote me and convince me what I want to do. I also want to do work I enjoy and that relates to my favoured areas of design. I hope to also have secured placements that are relevant by the summer.

2. What do I want to achieve by the end of the course?

I want a good mark to leave with and introduce myself to future works with. I also want to have a collection of work that can help me direct me and promote myself (impressive portfolio). I want to have enjoyed myself throughout the three years, and have learned and done things that have made this course worth while. I also want to have produced a really good short film, or have really pushed myself in the film field. I also want a few connections/references to turn to when I leave as support.

3. What do I want to achieve in my career?

I want to engage in my job and enjoy it, if I am to take it home every night then it has to be something I can really get into. I also want to be recognised for it, a set of skills that I am best at.

WRAp it up, feedback

In my group I got 11 votes for the category, 'Best use of Type and Image'. The comments I received were:

• Really nice use of colour, striking imagery
• Fantastic colour choice, good scale for the poster
• Great use of colour and stock
• Colour and stock are visually engaging 
• Great stock and colour choice, the composition looks good too
• Very well done
• Colour looks great on the stock

I am happy with this feedback, the comments I received are complimentary and I did enjoy producing the work. I do like the image&type on the poster and little straw envelope, with the right audience I feel this does have potential to promote a product. For the box, I like how the strip that you rip off to open it, is patterned with strawberries. 

However, I am disappointed in myself for not perhaps using the print&packaging element well enough? I didn't get any votes for 'Best use of packaging nets' and 'Best print considerations'. I know I could've done better. I feel that I spent a lot of time on what I was packaging & why, the design, colours etc... that I abandoned the brief's real intention. I spend too much time thinking about what I could package, I should've chosen a word and an image more chaotically and just had fun with it. 

Some of the final products were very impressive and showed great amounts of creativity.

more photos uploaded soon

over summer...

1. Learn more about Illustrator, become a lot better at it
2. Get a job so I can afford to do things
3. Keep on blogging my design context throughout the whole summer
4. Try and get a good enough tan that can is completely natural
   
5. Find some really good design context, that will inspire me more for next year
6. Keep myself busy, do not become a massive slob
7. Try and go on a bike ride every day to try and get rid of some of the wobbly bits I have developed leading up to Summer
8. Get into this summer brief, I want to enjoy it and also pick the right 'good' things
9. Take lots of photographs (disposable&digital)
10. Read a really good book&watch a really good film
    

OUGD103, evaluation

I have liked how this module has taken steps from project to project, I have been able to experiment with a variation of production and process methods. From 'communication is a virus', I learnt that I definitely really like aspects of using video to communicate messages. I was able to develop my skills in Final Cut and work as a partnership with Sean Perkins, which was a lot of fun! I also like the work towards filming, story boards, inspiration, a lot of it can be done through imagination, which is how I like to work. I like to visualise work before I produce it.

Vogue was a nice little brief. It was something I had almost total freedom with, I liked being able to just produce a poster after given one word. It was such a simple, short brief yet also enjoyable just to have a little fun with producing a poster to be entered in a competition, with fingers crossed. I followed my gut when it came to this brief, I felt we had too little time to drift about, when I thought of Vogue, I thought of French. French colours, french text, handwritten almost like a sketch book along with a diary entry. The text is a short poem I wrote, about the pressure 'vogue' creates. I enjoyed this brief and would definitely like to do it again.
I also thought InDesign was a fresh project, the whole software was new to me and I enjoyed finding out about it, I feel it will be very useful for future projects. I liked how what we were being taught were double page spreads that you see every day in magazines and newspapers, and I feel after new knowledge about layouts etc.. I understand it all much more. I also liked this project because I like layout in design, I think it's important. Working towards an article was interesting as well, writing about someone and relating a piece of work to them seems automatically purposeful and exciting.
Speaking from experience was a project that I found fun to work with. The title itself already makes it something I can relate to myself, therefore audience and research is something I can really indulge with. I chose to promote my piece through posters and things quite visual, I feel that when I was a first year I was given so many things, that sometimes just a simple piece of visual graphic design can make a difference. The highlight of this project was actually the production method. Due to me being a bit unorganised in the fact that the digital print room was overflowing, my print slot was too late for my work to be ready for final presentation. I decided to screen print. Luckily, I really enjoyed doing it, and have basically learnt how to do it, I reckon I could go down to Vernon street and be alright with sorting it all out and stuff, cleaning screens etc... It also looks so much better then digital print, when dealing with block colours.
All in all a productive module I think, learnt, developed, enjoyed new processes and techniques. I feel I could've pushed myself a bit further though, maybe take things to the next step, challenge myself! Start now.

speaking from experience, self evaluation

I identified the problem through speaking from my own experience that, when you have freedom, independence and money you tend to make the wrong decisions. I aimed to help first years prioritise what they ate/bought etc... When I asked the current first years what they wanted, I received answers like "a really nice lunch everyday", and "a chocolate bar". When put alongside what they should actually get, in terms of what they 'need', the answers were "a homemade ham sandwich" and "special pens for my type and grid". I was aiming on constructing a piece of design that communicated the relation, and difference between what people want, but what they should actually get because it is what they need. My research fitted all into primary, with aspects of it including both quantitative and qualitative. I communicated directly to first years, I wanted to get feedback that actually happened to students this year, seeing as the brief was 'Speaking from experience'. I think my questionaire was useful, my overall project was dealing with quite a simple, straight forward idea which developed from a very simple design context. This method of research was easy to understand, relate to and also was fresh and realistic as it came from real situations. In terms of research development that could've helped me, I think I could have done more design context research in order to experiment with poster designs etc... Although I did find pieces I liked,

and they did influence me, there is never a limit on how much DC you can do. Throughout this project, basing my answers on design process, I have learnt:

1. Getting feedback from existing first years and yourself is more trustworthy and relevant, especially when dealing with a project that is trying to communicate to people who are currently in your own position
2. Never be completely satisfied with your work early on. I realised that trial and error is a good way to progress your work onto something better. I thought I was happy with the type and layout of my first design, but I changed it and tried something different and I actually preferred it a lot more.
3. Colour makes a huge difference, I have decided the colour pallet I used for this brief I actually really like.
4. SCREEN PRINTING IS LOVELY. I originally planned on digital printing my posters and all my work, for efficiency and just because I didn't think of any other way. Everything happens for a reason, my print slot was quite late and I wanted to have final visuals for Friday. I had a few days in which I decided to screen print, although the process itself is so long, the outcome is so much better. I also think the style of my poster (block colours, simple drawings, bold font), works well with screen printing. I will use screen printing again.
5. Sometimes simple is better, I went from choosing little phrases that would go on the designs, with detailed drawings, edited on photoshop etc... to just two type and two images set out in a simple way. This looked a lot more effective and assertive.

Next time, if I were to do things differently, I would:

1. Further research into my project, varied typefaces and design context.
2. Perhaps experiment more with overall content, what other ways could communicate this problem
3. Did I find a solution too early on?
4. Decide to screen print earlier so I could produce more of a variation of my posters, also, not produce 10 copies on the best paper
5. Maybe find a more complex way to solve this problem? Was it too simple?

OUPD101, self reflecting

Which of these words describe you as an individual?
-tolerant
-determined
-ethical
-decisive
-objective

Which of these words best describe your approach to life?
-objective
-laid back
-organised
-reflective
-direct

What do you want to be?
-critical
-flexible
-informed
-committed

Which of the following qualities do you look for in others?
-tolerance
-confidence
-responsibility
-punctuality
-commitment
-creativity

List ten things you have learned:

1. Working collaboratively to solve problems and produce work
2. Managing my time effectively
3. The effects of using video, and the software (Final Cut)
4. The process of screen print
5. The process of letterpress
6. My way around Leeds city and Leeds college of Art
7. I work best when I am at college
8. How good the lightbox is for enhancing overall appearance of work
9. Buying lunch everyday probably takes up most of my money
10. I really like using lens-based equipment for my work, but also like using specific type

List ten things you want to learn:

1. I want to be able to use the lazor cutter by myself, I think it's amazing
2. How to use a really complex video camera
   
3. The depths of Final Cut and other video editing software
4. I want to learn more 'design context', I want to find really amazing pieces of work that I really like
5. I want to learn Illustrator in more detail, I still find it confusing
6. How to produce a massive piece of letterpress work
7. Using clever typography
8. Where I can print onto objects
9. More about traditional methods of printing
10. Broadness of Graphic Design

Which of these words describe your ambitions as a designer?
-expressive
-commercial
-effective
-ambitious

What do you want your work to do?
-inform
-entertain
-promote
-change
-persuade

Which of the following words do you associate with your work?
-process
-idea
-message
-media
-concept

Which of the following areas have you developed your skills in?
-video
-photography
-idea generation
-composition

Which of the following areas do you need to develop your skills in?
-colour
-type
-research
-drawing

Which of the following are you interested in developing skills in?
-typography
-video
-photography
-advertising
-motion graphics