design practice: January 2013

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Last year I had no understanding of print including colour for print and printing on stocks and especially printing processes. This year I have gained skills in print and publications where I can now effectively design in order to produce print based materials in appropriate print finishes, colour and processes. For example I have tried screen printing, foiling, vinyl and the laser machine to create different finishes on selected works in order to focus on hierarchy, create detail to design and create higher quality pieces. On top of these skills I was able to make decisions on how my work would be eventually printed due to the purpose and that effected my design decisions in colour scheme, stock and format as I had the awareness of potential client budget. These skills have been invaluable to how I design, effecting my ultimate decisions and my use of software making it more professional. I applied these new skills to different areas of my work: my print manual I kept the majority of it with a black and white colour scheme using halftone images in order to reduce costs, I also tried different processes on both my print and print for web briefs so I could experiment with different colours on stocks (e.g.. white on brown stock, black on black stock). I feel I could of applied these skills more effectively though as I did struggle with learning a mass of different information and remembering to consider it constantly. I really found it difficult with actually following through with my design decisions when it came to producing the product. The colour schemes and stock decisions with the resources I had really made it hard to produce a quality final product. I couldn't print my print manual as planned because after a long time rearranging the pages so the chapter pages aligned with the right images to print on the tracing paper when I went to print I was faced with the reality that information overlapped. As crushing as this was to realise I have defiantly learnt from it and my design decision in stock and layout will effect each other dramatically and need to be aligned with the right format as well as the way the binding effects the print process.

What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have worked differently within this module with the development of my ideas. I have started using sketchbooks instead of big sheets and this has helped be able to refer back and keep ideas fresh in my head when sketching. This has helped me to encourage my ideas and develop them further in my process instead of how I forget small things I noted on bits and bobs of paper last year. It is a better process for me to keep focused on my work and maintained organised and its really benefited me development process. A method I have developed this year is practical elements of print for example screen printing. I was always scared to go and screen print as I could remember the workshop at all and felt I would disturb the place. However I was pushed to do it within this module for design for print and web. I really enjoyed it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be even though it didn't turn out very well. This has informed my development process because I now can visualise things differently and it gives me more options for colour and techniques such as examples of spot colour in publications. I plan on using it more in the future to help me with my quality of finish and to improve me skill assets.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
A new strength I have found this year is web design. I had little experience with html coding from old networking sites but I learnt a lot in the sessions on how to actually use them properly and what they meant. I had little stress with putting the website together and it came quite naturally to me with the coding and maths as I quite enjoy it. I would like to expand on this skill further and try more complicated coding in the future. I'm going to take advantage of this new strength I have found by looking into briefs on a web design basis instead of automatically thinking of print. This will mean I can build my knowledge and also approach it differently to others giving me a new look on design in a more technological. Another strength i've identified in my work this year was my grid and layout skills in my print manual in particular. I learnt to use a grid and actually used one for the first time and this transformed my work. I really learnt a lot and strengthened my skills in layout through this project as I had to deal with a lot of copy that I've not had to before. I learnt to deal with changing and editing copy in order to get the right justification and get rid of orphans and hyphenation. This made my layout more clear and atheistically pleasing. Overall this gave me more strength in grid and layout in my designs as I was able to achieve a precisely designed publication which transformed the overall appearance. From now on I will be able to capitalise on this new strength in my work by using grid and layout structures and devices to keep my body copy looking neat and professional as well as generating slicker looking layout of type and image which complement each other. Another strength I have witnessed is my ability to juggle multiple briefs at one time and I am able to keep them all at a decent stage in the process instead of letting one fall dramatically ahead as I concentrate on another. I think this may be because I have tried to focus in on my briefs into the areas of designs I am particularly interested in where I can. So for example with the print and web brief I looked into interior features as well as food packaging, two areas which I would really like to explore further and also with the print manual, a lot of my concentration went onto layout as I really enjoy editorial and publication layout. This is something I plan on doing more and more where I can so I can identify and develop my areas of interest in the industry more. Where I may not be able to alter the brief I may expand upon in areas instead if possible to show the range of product and distribution.

What weaknesses can you identify in your and work and how will you address these in the future?
A massive weakness in my work within this module is my quality of finish. I really tried to focus on the end point this time as I always visualise how I want it to end up as something you can actually handle and look at it and be in a quality which will show off my design. I feel I really let myself down though in producing what I had visualised and let the struggles defeat me. I wasn't able to print my manual as I had hoped even though I was so proud of my layout and format decisions and so my mock up I feel doesn't do my design decisions any justice. Similarly with my print and web I did not get the appearance I was after as I had no luck sourcing the stock that was appropriate and printing in the way my design would have to be. Although I no my resources are limited to what I can possibly propose I feel that these decisions I made on stock and design made it an incredibly difficult task to execute my design in the way I had hoped and therefore my time was spent trying to produce something which was impractical in my means and stopped me actually expanded my range further. I always find techniques and materials and think of ideas that are something to propose but not necessarily something I can execute and finish myself. I have defiantly learnt this lesson massively from this module as the brief and workshops were all teaching about producing yourself and having the knowledge to understand print and how to print for your designing. To address this I am going to think about my design decisions in the beginning and think about how it could be executed so that even if it is something a bit more difficult to produce I will have time to consider, research and experiment with actually making this a reality instead of being left disappointed at the end. The other weakness I identified in my work is my boards for crits. I really do need to get better quality imagery, that being research and my own, so my development and work are presented in professional manner and do it better justice. Also a structured layout throughout so it is clear and professional presentation of my thought process, development and final results. This will lead to even more qualified responses in the crits and constructive criticisms. I am going to take more care and attention in presenting my work and take pride in preparing and showing my work to others.

Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from these?
Choice of format/stock: I am going to identify what design decisions I make in my briefs so that I am able to execute them well so I can get some more experience in producing good quality end products, especially for use in my portfolio.
Boards: I am going to do my work better justice and work on my presentation boards so my feedback improves as will my entries into live briefs and layout and grid skills.
Blogging: I am going to make sure the imagery I take of my development, experimentation and final pieces are of a higher standard again to do my work better justice and so I start to appear more professional as I will display my work more in the public.
Processes: I experimented with more finishes within this module which I was please as I always wanted to screen print and foil. I plan on actually building this into my designing further and not making it just experimentation of media. This will build me up a bigger set of skills as well as making me more design conscious and broaden my mind to new things.
Think: I want to really challenge my creativeness and research more into what i've not seen just so I can broaden my horizons and venture into different areas that i've not tried like decorative typography, photography, moving image. I want to gain a new direction of looking at briefs as well as learn new things. This will allow me to test different areas of design before I start to focus my practice and also to be able to offer a wider range of skills and possibilities to clients or studios.

Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 4
Motivation - 3
Commitment - 3
Quantity or work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 3
Contribution to the group - 4

I recreated the website for the phone so it works across different medias:

I developed the look by going back to promotion material to get a paper texture and a goos simple layout of information

I then looked at how the video explaining and promoting the event would appear and how it could be spread across networking sites.

Final visual:

The homepage would appear like this and a play button would fade in which would link to the video.

The video would appear and the user can play and watch what the event is about and how to get involved. The end page would leave them the option to share across numerous networking sites and also a link to the app where you instructed on how to fold a crane out of paper.

On reflection I decided to alter the entering text for sharing. I wanted it to be a square so that it could than become an animation and fold into a crane and zoom out to the image of the video and be in place of a crane in the chains on the image. This would symbolise that they had done there bit for annual peace day for sharing the event with others and making more awareness as well as being more interactive and interesting like the event is to achieve in activating against peace.