Friday 21 March 2014

OUGD503 - After Crit Progress Review

After the final crit for this module, and everything that was discussed in that, I decided that it would be best to review all the work I had done for the module at this point to see if there were any gaps or issues in the work I had done in each brief and for the module as a whole.

At this point, my two large briefs, Domino's & Oasis, are at the point where they need to be submitted in a few days so huge changes can not be made on them. On review of these, I decided that the Domino's brief was completely at the point for submission and didn't need anymore work on. However when it came to the Oasis brief, both Daisy and I had read the feedback given and agreed that there were a few issues that needed addressing, mainly in the way our response has been executed and put together. While we have done what the brief asked and answered each outcome, there is not really an overlying concept behind the work, which is definitely something we need to address to tie it all together and make it much stronger.

The main focus of my review is on my individual briefs. In reviewing these, I looked back at what I initially set out to achieve in this module, and what I wrote in my interim evaluation in January.

Overall there is a sense that I have fulfilled everything I wanted to get out of this module and everything I wanted to do in this module.
Things I have achieved in this module so far:
  • Improved presentation skills
  • Improved quality of work
  • Improved conceptual ideas & carrying them through
  • Submitting to live briefs confidently
  • Good time management
  • Creative compromise
  • Experience working on a real brief for a real cause (not just a university driven brief)
  • Win a cash prize
  • Improved portfolio
  • Improved quantity of work
  • Worked on briefs which I wouldn't have necessarily done before/areas of design I had not have much experience in before
  • Experience working with a client and their vision

I do feel that I have done a lot of work for this module and have thrown myself into as many live briefs as I could find and had an interest in. However, what comes with that is that I do have a sense that some of the work I have created for this module, for the smaller briefs, has not necessarily been to the best of my ability, and that is a bit disappointing to me as a designer. I wanted to create work which pushed me as a designer throughout the whole module, and while I do think some of the work has achieved this, there is some work that hasn't.

Some of this that can be put down to the clients brief or vision. I have found it hard with some of the briefs to create visually good work when their idea of a good design is not my idea of a good design. However I don't think that this is an excuse for some of the work I have created as some of it has been lazy and not had a lot of time spent on it. At this point I would say that at least three of the briefs are not up to par and don't have enough developmental work or good work in general.
These three are:

  • Tigerprint Christmas Cards
  • Charlie & Reed, Charlie's Foodshop
  • Harry's Bar & Grill

I also feel that while I enjoyed the 'Object Marketing' brief I skipped a lot of developmental work because I got one idea and went straight into it without taking a step back and planning it all out. I think that this has been the underlying issue with the other three briefs above. I got one idea and then stuck with it, making the brief very quick and easy without thinking what else I could do and how else I could approach my response.

At this point I think that there is not much point trying to reinvent my response to the Tigerprint brief as I never saw this as a brief to focus my development on. It was more of a fun brief to do and play around with. The response I am particularly disappointed in is the Charlie's Foodshop brief, as I feel I did not create a very good response at all and did it very quickly without much thought. There doesn't seem to be much design in it. I feel like I just put some words in a hiarachy and put it in a box. This is a brief that I would like to revisit and create a response that is a bit more visually interesting and has a running concept through it.

Something I have also noticed is that there is quite a lack in image work throughout my responses to briefs too, which is disappointing to me as this is something that I wanted to experiment with and improve my skills with during this module. While I have worked with images in Glacier Coffee, Tigerprint & Secret 7", I feel that this is because the briefs required image work and not because I decided to include it myself. I would like to use this and incorporate this into the reinvention of the Charlie & Reed brief.

It was also mentioned in peer feedback that I hadn't done any work with photographic images. While I did experiment with this in Secret 7", the final design was vector based. With this in mind I would like to find a brief which does incorporate the use of photographic images in some way.

It was also said that I had a lot of small briefs which were quick, and didn't have many which were a bit larger. I would like to address this and find a brief where I can be a bit more developmental and create a larger amount of work. I have found that the majority of the large briefs are now finished or very close to the deadlines so it would be unrealistic to attempt to do one of these. In hindsight I do think I should have created a response to one of the Starpack packaging awards briefs. These were briefs which needed a lot of work and had good prizes for winning, and I do think I should have taken advantage of this while I had the chance. I will try find a couple of briefs that I can use as larger briefs and create a larger response to.

While I have a fair few logo design briefs, I do feel that I could definitely find another one which I can develop and create a very strong response to, and create a whole brand identity behind it. This is definitely something I want to explore, and to create an outcome which I am proud of. Another type of brief that I haven't had much experience with is creating an App or Website. I am not so confident in my ability to create something commercially viable for a client in this area, but the only way to get confident in this is to find a brief and respond to it. 

With all of this in mind, the next step I will take is to find a couple of potential briefs addressing these issues I have, and to reinvent the Charlie & Reed brief.

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