Design Principles Module Evaluation - OUGD404

The skills I have developed within this module are knowledge and understanding of graphic design itself. I feel I have learnt more in-depth understanding of type, colour and layout through the course of the year. I feel I have developed this, as what I have learnt I have been able to apply to last studio brief of ‘What is a Book’. With this brief I have been able to take this new knowledge and use it to my advantage when creating the layouts for Studio Brief 2. I feel I have developed my skills on adobe programs also by the tasks given to us, for example the ‘Font Family’ and the ‘What is a Book’ have allowed me to push my skills on Illustrator and InDesign to create effective results for the briefs/tasks at hand.

I feel within this module I have developed on a more ‘hands on’ approach. The tasks given to us have helped me to develop my work by hand rather than using digital methods straight away. Tasks such as the ‘Font Family’ have given me the opportunity to start briefs using drawing and thumbnailing to produce my work. This has helped me more to the final outcome rather than developing on screen. This has pushed me into doing more of this in my studio work, which has changed my development process for the better. I found it was much more informative and helpful when design my ten dps on grids and thumbnails by hand, as then I already knew what I wanted to design when on screen. This has greatly helped me in developing not only my process of working but also my process of what I actually design.

I feel the strengths in my work have been the ‘What is a Book’ layouts. I feel this is where I have shown what I have learnt over the past months, and used all this knowledge to my advantage to have hopefully created ten visually effective layouts. I feel this is the task I have engaged with the most throughout the module, as I have enjoyed the process I have been through when researching and developing. I also think a strength through this module is time management. I feel I have kept up to date with all sessions and tasks, which has helped me get through the module easier. I think I will always keep up to date with tasks for all modules both present and the future as it only helps in the long run. I will also keep using a similar design process that I have gone through with the ‘What is a Book’ brief for all future modules. This is due to that I feel my design process has changed for the better and allowed for more experimentation and mistakes, and this is something that I would like to continue on doing.

I feel some weaknesses in my work have been the research stage of each task. I feel I could have pushed myself into doing more in-depth research which would have allowed for a better task overall. I think I will push myself into doing more research, both primary and secondary, which will allow for better briefs and outcomes for the future. I also think a weakness in my work has been the ‘Font Family’ task. Although I went through an interesting process, I feel the final outcome was not at all effective use of type. The task itself helped me in understanding type a lot more, but feel the design element has let me down. I also feel I am still not that confident with type, even though I feel I have learnt a massive amount of knowledge, I still want to learn more to have this greater understanding and hopefully one day will be confident with type and font choices.

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

Hands On Approach – Start using a ‘hands on’ approach as soon as I get set a brief/task. I feel it helps for more experimentation, development and mistakes, which allow for a better end result.

Research – Do more primary and secondary research. It will allow for not only better knowledge and understanding but will help when it comes to the design process itself.

Push Myself – Push myself into more thumbnails and research. This will allow me to explore more routes to take within a brief.

Critiques and Feedback – Set up more informal critiques through the year that will help with final outcomes. I feel this could have helped dramatically with the ‘Font Family’ and the ‘Ten DPS’.

Blog Sessions (the same day) – Although I kept on top of all work and tasks, I feel what would have helped me even further was to blog the design principles session the same day I had it. This will help to remember what we went over and help to create more in-depth blog posts.