What skills do you think you have developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have continued to improve my essay writing skills throughout this module, however I do feel that I am not 100% happy with the triangulation methods I have used. As usual the most important things I have learnt from this module has been from the contextual study through the lecture program, which has genuinely changed the way I think about a graphic designers role in society. The lecture program has also introduced me to new philosophical ideas and the thoughts of great thinkers, that I now refer to frequently in my evaluation of design and contextual work. Certainly in terms of my publication for this module I can see how the concepts of panopticism and the gaze have heavily influenced my work whilst I was also able to apply these theories to the subject of religion, something I am deeply interested in.
What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
On this module the first step of design production came from a contextual and theoretical understanding of my subject. As I made up the story of my subject from scratch I thought this would give me free range to produce a crazy range of products. However upon writing the content for the publications I was clear that I should reign in the presentation of my Ideas so that the reader does not get confused or lost in them. It was to this end that I decided to go with two publications, these would allow me to present unusual ideas in a usual way; hopefully making them seem more believable and understandable. I stitch bound the publications along the spine and inkjet printed them on a range of three stocks. I did not fully experiment with new ideas in terms of production but the unusual theory of the content was the reason behind this. Saying this these are the first stick bound books I have made, and the results are pretty good so I am pleased that I understand how to create this type of publication now.
What strengths can you identify in your work and
how have/will you capitalise on these?
The main thing I have enjoyed about this particular module has been the ability to choose a subject I am really interested in and really analyse it in a new way. What the module has given me is a deeper understanding on how, for example, the church uses a panoptic gaze to control an individual, which is an angle which I had not examined religion from before. This new knowledge is what has improved my work over the last few months and given me a new skill to analyse the meaning behind my work in a new way. In the future I can continue to use topics that we covered on panopticism and the gaze and apply it to new areas of design like brand identity, advertising and possibly even public relations or art direction.
What Weaknesses can you Identify in your work?
I have a weakness to generally ignore a lecture if its content is largely a list of photographers, with no real theoretical grounding in the subjects we are studying towards. This isn't a criticism of any lecture, just that I should pay more attention to the different contextual applications of the things we learn about and not focus solely on my own discipline. Gaining a greater understanding of a subject like photography will probably greatly improve my work overall, however this year I have often wished for a few more design focused lectures and a few less about photography.
Identify five things that you will do differently
next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Follow up lectures with my own ideas and notes that I can refer to for a more personal understanding of the topic. For example we could receive a lecture about the gaze, I could write about the gaze in the context of computer gaming and have a deeper understanding from this. This would how have to be long winded, but just a note of my own ideas.
- I would have liked to have started the publication over Easter instead of when we got back. The most important thing that I need to improve is time management and the ability to say no to things that will take my eye off the ball.
- Blog studio sessions and the discussions we have had in them. Basically I would like to bring my laptop to these sessions in the future and blog about them then and there so the notes I make aren't lost and the ideas I generate in these sessions are not lost with them.
- I would like to expand my knowledge of other designers and bring their work into the contextual studies module. I can gather a lot of other examples of work and ideas that are floating around out there from a range of sources and interests of mine however I find it hard to find many designers that I can talk about in any great detail. I think this will improve the way I think about the design industry in general and give me a more contextual grounding in design itself.
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