OUGD102 Self Evaluation

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

I think my skills with Illustrator and Indesign have moved on much more, the work has almost forced me to use the software and experiment and develop ideas with the tools such as the pen tool, and adjusting the weights of stroke and fill. It was a breath of fresh air to actually be shown Indesign properly and be able to create a book with ease, ordering pages as appose to attempting to teach yourself in your ND course for an FMP, mentioning no useless tutors names (Chris Coldbeck) 

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

The blog on this particular module has been really useful, a great place to get feedback from work, put down your ideas and show a clear path of where you need to take your ideas and processes. The what if? brief was my favourite of this module and problem solving in a group was not only useful but really enjoyable to do, to be able to devise a solution from a problem has been useful.

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

The strengths have been through the use of a computer from the research, development through software and documenting on my blog from crits and progress. It doesn't feel like a chore anymore to update the blog, I'm now quite happy to ramble on individual posts about my work.

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

Time management has again been an issue, working on weekly briefs was intense in the first module, but I eventually got used to it and I worked alright, but with the book brief spanning 5 weeks, I had a tendency (and I think a few people did) to relax for the beginning of the brief a little then have to work much harder towards the end of the brief. If I had worked at the same pace throughout, I would of definitely produced more work. 

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

1. More primary research

2. Be consistant with work amounts

3. Timetable days more, have a fixed list of things to do that day, organised from the start!

4. Use the studio more, i did in the first module, but slipped a little with going home earlier.. I do work better at Uni.

5. Don't be so focused with ideas in development, I keep doing it!

Are there any things we could have done differently that would have benefitted your progress?

The same as the list of 5 really, and get organised. Use time for effectively.

How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

(5=excellent, 1=poor)

Attendance: 4

Punctuality: 4

Motivation: 3

Commitment: 3

Quantity of work produced: 3 (I'm not happy)

Quality of work produced: 3

Contribution to the group: 4

Ps + Ai + Id = A6

The book from the Ps brief we had to show the design process, If Im honest I didn't really know what to do for this, what to include so I basically showed the design process for a previous brief. Working from the initial 100 photographs collected onto the what if? brief finals.. showing the process and design decisions on how it lead to a smile campaign. Even though it is stupidly simple, I do really like it. I haven't really got used to simple in my work, I always think it needs more. For this Im relying on the images to explain the process. I think it does.

100 brief, final crit.

You can take feedback in loads of different ways, wherethe its just opinions or if its actually constructive. Had my feedback earlier today for the carton book contraption and i got some really useful feedback. David Gasi and Boysie Sands gave me my feedback which I'm really happy with, feedback I can use and work from. Anyway! what they said..

'large quantity of focused secondary research, extensive collection of exciting bottles/cans/branding. Good collection of health affect related material. Fair amount of primary research, could use some more.'

'Good evidence of development process, focused but maybe more variations could be helpful. i.e. more visual exploration of book in container concept'

I agree with what's been said here, I think when creating the container, and the short brain storm, one on level I thought that a carton (because of its shape and capacity) was the only way to go under the time frame. Maybe research more into different concepts, even if it was a few pages to atleast show the experimentation. I think I'm going to add some drawings towards the back or my book to show I have now considered this.

'Understand the design process, shows progression, develop container box, show contextual understanding, but maybe fruit juice is under represented for resolution, but with soft-drink content.'

Again highlighting the previous point with the relation of the softdrink content and the fruit juice carton, although some facts do relate, its not as strong so ill look into other packaging as ideas.

Good exploration, physical, but very direct to resolution. More conceptual work required, but is evident in design sheet. More design sheets?'

True, for my final net I did only trace the net dimensions and recreate it, wherethe I could of changed the dimensions so it was more of a book shape? more page layouts?

'Good effort! Expand variations, concepts, its very focused again.'

This point covers my views of the project. Its become too focused again which I have a tendency of doing with my work, as soon as I get an idea, just jump onto it, which is wrong! I need to experiment more. I really want to do well next module.

The book.

Ive lost count of how many practice prints Ive done, so I went ahead with the settings on my printer all sorted, the stock sat perfectly in the printer and what I thought was everything sorted, printed fine, until I came to trim..

Vertical alignment was perfect throughout but the horizontal wasn't in a few places, I think this is the worst example in the entire book, where you can see around 4mm of the wrong page in the gutter. Not a happy bunny. To be off by a weird amount, I dont think it was down to the documents themselves, they were laid out properly, I think it may of been down to the paper feed on the printer. As this wasnt a duplex printer, it doesn't know the the paper will need to be reloaded into the printer. I think it was just pot luck and unfortunately it hasn't worked a couple of times.

Some pages came out perfect which I'm really happy about, it looks quite tidy.

Some pages Ive got away with just but still not to the standard I wanted.

The additional folds look quite good, and alignment hasn't been too much of an issue with these (the pages were 85 mm wide instead of the book pages which were 95 mm) 

The book bound with staples, (which wasn't a problem), I thought staples would look untidy but it doesn't I quite like it. For the final hand-in i will have this book, layouts of each page spread, and a net layout of the outer packaging. With problems with printing on a large scale only until recent. I think i will print the net at full size eventually, for personal reasons.

Carton Development.

Some of the images aren't in the exact order, but you can tell the flow where things have been refined. Feedback from my mini crit will be posted shortly.

Final Crit.

Just had my final crit this afternoon for the book project. Couple of points highlighted from the feedback of what I need to address in the coming week before I hand in the book. A title/strapline needs to be defined to show the reason and draw people into the book.. Im currently working on 'whats inside? - revealing the truth of what is in your favourite softdrinks'

Is the type choice working? I can see where they are coming from with the choice. I think the size doesn't justify it, I feel filling the page is required and maybe smaller text laid out would work much more successful. These crits are useful to see where you might be going wrong and not notice something you've been staring at for weeks.

Visual variations? Again i see the point of why they said, but I want to keep something corporate with the whole interior and exterior, maybe adjustments with the layout is all thats needed? ill investigate and have a mock done for monday to showw.

Borrow drinks packaging? I thought they would say this, I know what they mean like the 'shelf life' book which adopts a packaging exterior but I want something a little more subtle for packaging, but would still be packaging, say innocent or dorset cereals.. just come to mind. I dont want a real tack looking exterior then a subtle interior. Ok rant over, I shall develop and return. 

It came!

I ordered what seems like an age ago, the shelf life from amazon.. and it came! :)

Its the kind of book you'll only look though a couple of times and occasionally tell people about but it is really good. Funny products in different categories, and really my original layout for my book. Simple image and a little piece of information.

Quicksand..

Is my new favourite font. Yup. Dashed, bold, italic and any other combination. Whats yours?

There are alternatives..

After all the drink slaying im doing, i think its best i should show some alternatives available that don't have all the crap in that the others do.. Ive sampled 3 but 2 recently, Pepsi raw and Red bull cola.if I had to live with one it would be pepsi raw, i actually shelled another 98p for the tiny 250ml can of the stuff.. So dam expensive. I had red bull cola earlier today and it tastes (direct quote from Victoria Perriss) 'actual bum' but if you shell over a quid for a can of coke, you finish it. I did however like the little bull in the ring pull, nice little feature to add to the can, and the classic redbull shaped can..
I wish there was more drinks like this, cheaper, and much more widely available.. and a diet version without the aspartame? These are too sugary :(

Couple o' designs

I want to keep the interior quite typographical, a couple of ideas to draw attention to the main and key points and facts Ive found out, with related facts selected and placed next to these main pieces. Just a piece of development really.

STATEMENT update.

Hello! quick update from the crit I had earlier today which I think went really well. Got some good feedback about the direction I should take the book, and how it should look. After progressing from just bottle visuals, the main focus of the book will be of 'whats inside' the drinks, revealing the truths about what is inside the average softdrink. The main 100 will now be of facts and statistics for drinks and their effects on health. Originally I wanted to just show the effects of drinks on how bad they are, one sided.. but now to keep the arguement balanced and not put people off completely, Im going to include facts and figures about water and healthier alternatives, which should work pretty well. Browsin' on t'web I found some splash images of water here which I thought about including towards my work. When you see drinks in frosted glasses and loads of ice splashing into the glass, it makes it look really nice and makes you want to drink it.. I thought something like this for on the cover to tempt you in but then show you the facts so you think twice.. nice little twist? Might not make sense now, but it will when I do it. Originally I wanted a gif on here to show the drink pouring, that didnt work so ol' fashion photos will have to do. 

Now I know why I bought a light box and two lamps to university with me.. 

My favourite. The size does justify them.. 

^ Click dat fool. ^

Mmm diet coke. Shame it has Aspartame which can cause cancer.

Data visualization

Beautiful data visualization I found on ffffound.com. Originally a flash based tool to see relationships between the 'online media buzz across various social media outlets' made for google, by a company called Instrument, and another called Grid/plane. Unfortunately hard to understand completely at this is size and as an image, but just a nice way of displaying information, layering colours and simple shapes. mmmm

Get your book on.

The book from the workshop we had on book binding with intense roger back before christmas, pretty happy with how it came out, but I don't think this would be the best way to bound my book in the final piece.