End of Module Evaluation

Overall, I think that my biggest strength during this brief was being able to produce work that looked contemporary and professional. I have never attempted contemporary design before and so struggled with this, however, looking back I think that the designs I produced fit in well with Oripeau's style - which is very different from anything I have ever made before. Additionally, I used a varied amount of processes and this is best shown in the Icon poster. This is my strongest poster as everything down to the way it was made relates to the research.

Furthermore, my biggest weakness of the module was struggling to break out of a certain type of aesthetic for my designs. I found myself making a lot of iterations of the same thing but then realised I had not explored how the design could be more drastically different. I would quite often flick through my sketch book and think that it all looks rather similar. To combat this in the future I will try and experiment with different style whilst exploring a wide range of designers.

My strong research in this project certainly helped with my image making process a lot. In comparison to the Bloomberg project I had a lot more strong and relevant research and so my designs turned out more interesting, refined, and visually communicated my ideas better. I definitely will continue this in the future and will put a lot of effort into my research as it makes the design process so much easier and a lot more enjoyable. 

Aside from my different approach to the research during this module I also enjoyed being a lot more experimental with my design decisions. During the Bloomberg project I tended to stick to one way of working and the process was often very slow so I did not get a lot of experimentation done. In this module however, I tended to get a lot of experiments done very quickly. This in itself was where I was taking risks as I produced collages and designs using quick processes as it was more about the ideas.

During this module I found it very hard to collate and gather my ideas. Even though having a lot of research is a good thing, it became confusing when trying to organise my research into three categories. Furthermore I struggled when it came to forcing ideas of how to visually communicate my research; this is something that I want to approve upon in the future through brainstorming and design research.

In contrast, I really enjoyed the actual image making process of the project as I was making work that looked nothing like I had made before. The combination of collage and photography worked incredibly well this project and produced designs that were contemporary, interesting, and had strong links to the research.

Personally I think that there is always room to grow and get better, but I do think that I did the best that I could this project, as well as improve upon the last. I have felt a lot more confident in the work I have been producing and am a lot happier with the results than I was with the Type brief. Possibly this could be because I prefer working with image a lot more than type.

In terms of future modules I could improve by working with and improving on type a bit more, as well as explore a more varied range of styles. I feel that my collection of work could be improved if I pushed myself to try things that might not look good. Possibly in the future I should try and incorporate some illustration or a style of design that I am not as familiar with. 

During this module I have found peer feedback to be incredibly useful when it came to developing my designs. I did, however, find that the feedback given to me from my friends was more useful as they new a bit more about my research and ideas so they could give better comments compared to others. For example, when I was struggling with the design for my icon poster - one of my friends suggested that I use a different photograph to collage with all together - and this resulted in the final design. Never the less, crits still managed to help me reflect and work on my designs. I also think that to improve on this module I could have explored some of the workshops such as digital print - or vinyl cutting.

In comparison to the last module I think that I have handled the workload extremely well. I did not pressure my self as much and thus created work that I was happier with. During the last module I tended to get stressed very easily whereas during this project I actually enjoyed myself a lot more as I took a step back. In the future I will definitely look back at hoe I coped during this module and try to mirror what I did so that hopefully I do not get too stressed.