OUGD303 End of module evaluation

Throughout this module I have learnt a great deal and feel like I have progressed a lot from the end of the last module. I think that my skills, management, critical awareness have all improved drastically. 


By far the most enjoyable brief for me was producing Bryony's identity, working with a real client, arranging meetings, getting live feedback on the work. It was an interesting process, what I found with this brief was that Bryony initially started out with little to know idea of what she wanted for her branding which gave me the scope to do what I wanted, within reason. 


Initially Bryony sent through her statement of intent and research file which helped hugely in jumpstarting the brief. I found that throughout the different stages of  the project the communication and feedback was key emailing through new ideas and solutions. Reviewing all my briefs I think that this is one of the briefs that I have spent the most time on and got out of it what I had wanted, a strong piece for my portfolio and scope to carry on developing the type that I created for Bryony's branding. This is one of the briefs that I have focused quite heavily on print and process, due to the nature of Bryony's collection (being handcrafted) the idea was to go along a similar route.


SixteenHT was a project that focussed heavily on process and the production of the prints, starting out as some fun. I have come to really enjoy screen printing and have used this process throughout various different points, coming to appreciate the finer quality and time it takes to produce something that can be screen printed. Personally I really enjoy having a hands on approach to design, trying testing and being in the print room gives a better sense of achievement. It has also helped broaden my knowledge for print, becoming more aware of how print works in a digital fashion.


Another live brief that I worked on was the Printed textiles and surface pattern year book, a collaborative effort, in a team of 5. Initially I thought that this was a good size team but from the experience I feel that the project could have been undertaken by a group as small as 3. I thought that it was hard  My main role within the group was to organise, define the content structure and layout the publication. I found this project to be the opposite of what I experienced in Bryony's project with the content for the book being given to us quite late on which gave us less time to use it and develop a suitable solution. 


Generally I think the module has been a bit hit and miss, the projects that I feel I have learnt the most from and have benefitted doing the live briefs. Working to tighter deadlines, is more restricting but it got me turning out ideas and solutions quickly and more effectively than the last module.  I still feel like I came up short on projects such as typographic circle, as the brief started off really well but was put on hold due to the book fair for sixteenHT and picked up later on, where the idea wasn't as fresh and it was harder to get back into the swing of things.


I have come to realise that from my original statement of intent I have focussed quite heavily on the identity aspect of my practice, it has been swaying in that direction. What I found was the most enjoyable is working on creating bespoke lettering, trying to create a unique typographic approach to each brief that I tackled. I have had the opportunity over the module to collaborate in projects such as Bryony's identity and sixteenHT.