End of module Evaluation

Adele Pierce
OUIL 503 Responsive

Summative Evaluation

I have found this module both challenging and quite fun to be involved in. I think in terms of professional practice and experience of live briefs it has really benefitted me; working to schedules and interpreting different arts into illustration that I would not usually consider. I have explored different formats that I have not necessarily been comfortable with which I feel will benefit me in future modules.
I feel I have really stepped out of my comfort zone and experimented with different approaches within this module, which sometimes I enjoyed and has paid off, but others have been really challenging and not something I have been particularly interested in in the end.

I think this module has shown me that I can adapt to different techniques; and that my work can be taken across various formats that I had not considered before. It has taught me to be more open towards briefs and try tackle them in a way that I will enjoy rather than restricting myself to things I think suit my style more. There have been certain briefs such as ‘WrappedCo’ where I turned it on it’s head and made it my own using character design rather than pattern.
The brief I enjoyed the most was ‘FilmDoo’ because I was really happy with the finished result and it had emotion embedded into it. The brief I feel I will get the most satisfaction out of is ‘Propercorn’ because it is an up and rising brand. Seeing their packets everywhere and knowing that I was involved in that in some way excites me. On the other end of the scale some briefs have been a nightmare such as Spice UK where I was asked to change my design a multiple amount of times. Yorkshire Tea I started to lose interest in half way through because I had a great concept to begin with but just felt individually I could not express my ideas well enough and perhaps needed to collaborate on that with an animator instead.

If I were to start the module again I could have approached the ‘Propercorn’ brief individually, and used the Yorkshire Tea brief as a chance to collaborate with an animator, see how they work with briefs and gain a stronger skill set. I really enjoyed collaborating with Hannah I learnt a lot of digital skills and experimented with colour palettes more. It was really nice to exchange ideas back and forth and bounce off each other. As we both had the deadline to work towards we were less stressed and more laid back in the run up to it as we shared the workload.

I have learnt to finish my work to a more professional standard, which I feel is evident in my presentation boards and project proposal. This developed through crits presenting our work and getting an insight into how the graphic designers display their presentation boards. I have discovered that I work better with being given a more open brief as this gives me room to play around, meaning I enjoy it more and remain constantly interested in what I am creating. Whereas with specific briefs such as ‘SpiceUK’ I lose interest, as it is not something I want to be creating.

Finally, overall I think I have created a good body of work. Despite being challenging, I have experimented with various formats such as clothing, products such as iPhone covers, album covers, wrapping paper designs, animation, logos. These are things I would never usually consider my work to be displayed on when creating an image in other modules. I have surprised myself. However, I do feel there are certain briefs I could have pushed further such as ‘Secret 7’, Illustration Friday (which I did not complete as I lost interest), ‘Yorkshire Tea’. The brief I feel I put my upmost effort and time into is ‘Propercorn’ so I really hope that we are able to get some nice feedback from that.

In terms of time management some of my designs took a couple of hours or days to produce such as ‘WrappedCo’ and ‘Tigerprint’ whereas others took weeks. Balancing these alongside each other to ensure I hit the deadlines was pretty tough but rewarding when completed. What was most challenging for me was getting my head around PDF’ing my blog and arranging everything in order. I feel I have been pretty up to date with my blog but issuu, was an issue! I hadn’t been using issuu throughout so I had to go back and convert every image into issuu, which also took a great amount of time – something I will definitely learn from in the future. I think my drawing skills have improved as I now consider shape more and pattern for example in the ‘TigerPrint’ brief; I tried to step away from line work when creating the plants to give it more of an abstract, current feel. I have enjoyed the module; it has opened my eyes to live briefs and where you can find work which will definitely benefit me in the future. I just wish I’d got involved with more briefs and intend to continue doing so.