OUDG 405 Self Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have an increased knowledge of Photoshop and illustrator, which I used for all of the design briefs in this module. I have also applied some of the techniques and theory’s we have been taught in other modules to this one, for example which layout is correct as well as some colour theory and the correct use of type. In most cases I have applied the skills I have learnt as best I can. In some mock up pieces I used tools in illustrator for example to get work done very quickly and when I went to finish I worked into the designs until they were much more desirable. This is evident in the posters for the 100 things brief, were the posters all started looking very messy and gradually progressed.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
In this module, especially on the 100 things brief I carried out huge amount of research that meant that when I went to design the work I full understood what I was saying. I found that I could write body copy on the subject fluently and did not need to double check facts online. I felt that I fully understood the topic, although it is not black and white and there is no conclusion. I also developed more on the system of designing in illustrator. For the products I made were mostly text based with vector graphics images. The How To brief really tested my ability to produce work quickly and work as a team which is a skill I definitely think I have improved on since the start of the year even.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think I have become less afraid to produce more experimental work and not follow a pre-existing style as closely as I used to. In the future I would love to break free from conventional design for a module, although saying that I love design that follows the rules too. I also think I have worked out some good colour theory, in most products I would like to think that the colours are all suitable for each other and none of them clash. This is a skill I could develop further however, I feel that although I know what colours wont go together, I don’t yet fully understand which colours do.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Weaknesses I have is that I feel slightly like I have become obsessed with illustrator and have become tied to its limitations. For the next module I would like to leave Illustrator for some experimental work in a different medium. I also think I made some design errors on one of two of my designs, for example the Dark side to Diamonds poster, which has a terrible drop-shadow effect on it. There is a message here that the effects in illustrator are to be avoided at all costs. I also started using high resolution images in illustrator, which was a huge mistake because it crashed the program on Macs, even my Pc struggled a bit. In the future I need to edit the images in photoshop and rasterise them until they are a low enough resolution that they will not crash illustrator.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1)    Create some design sheets and sketch more designs, I except that this will allow me to explore more ideas. In a way at the moment, I experiment in illustrator, but of course the limitations here are huge. 2)    I need to document the design process more clearly, at the moment I tend to design things in illustrator and neglect any form of documentation because I feel that if I stop designing I will fall off the horse. I expect this will allow me to get better grades. 3)    I should listen to good criticism early on and change my designs. I Did change my designs because of suggestions this time but after I printed  and ran out of other opportunities to print people still pointed things out to me they would like changed, in the future I should print things cheaply and ask for help during the designing instead of after the final prints. This would obviously allow me to change my designs while I still have a chance. 4)    I should manage my time better. In this project I found that although the designs were all spaced out I did somehow end up blogging at about midnight or in the early hours of the morning. This is because dinner, washing, socialising with the people I live with can fill a gap between getting home and working on projects. I desperately need to find a good balance and stop cooking meals that dig into work time I guess. This should give me more time to document the days work and generally be a better designer. 5)    I need to learn how to prepare designs for print better. I went several times to print out stuff for this module and although most of the settings were ok, because I had lots of double sided, things got a bit confusing and the alignment was rarely correct. There are lots of reasons for this, mainly my set up, then I found out that paper from the library is cut to the wrong dimensions. In the future I could go and talk to James about prints and then go and buy the paper and set up the files. This would allow the print process to go smoother and take up less time.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x