Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Design Process: EVALUATION

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I feel i have developed my researching skills in this module as i had a breadth of research on branding based on all different topics such as colour psychology, logo development, history of brands and effects on society. I also didn't just use the internet like i usually would and looked into a lot of books and video footage. I think i have applied this new found knowledge effectively to the extent that my designs were well informed on how branding can be used to encourage people into purchasing and therefore combining brands from effectively two different markets for a campaign attracting a different audience to a brand to boost sales. My initial idea of cost effectiveness in buying brands was also well informed as i saw through the logo development research how brands were simplified into simple vector shapes that were built up to build an identity therefore i disected the logos for one idea to represent the basic shapes that encouraged extra spending on the relatively same item and that this would work on the target market due to society factors i found in research. I feel my skills in research really improved my design ideas as they were well informed and the visuals were based on information. With our group 'How to..' project we used my initial 'How to..' as the research i had found was interesting and there was a lot to visually investigate with the idea. I can defiantly say i have a new skill in purchasing diamond engagement rings from this project as the primary and secondary research i carried out really enlightened me on the topic which i at first was clueless about. Therefore our group had a true knowledge and understanding on the topic which i felt really developed our ideas and final product as a whole as it all had a use and basis stemmed from the research.

2. What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

One approach to methods of design production i feel i have defiantly developed is research. Before my research was mainly just visuals to work from for my design ideas and often the definitions of words. This brief however is completely different, i now have pages of information on a wide variety of different topics stemming from the original interest using a different methods of research which completely overpower the amount of visuals i have. This new way of researching has really informed my design development process for the better as i was able to range my approaches of the subject of interest and eventually focus in on an appropriate idea. My ideas then actually had a foundation of knowledge behind there purpose, function and audience. For the penguin reading campaign i knew what brands to work with, what format they should be in and where they will be due to my research into locations in which people choose to read. I also knew that using branding would be what would attract the audience into following the campaign from my initial research into branding and that using colour and logos for brands can manipulate people to purchase. This allowed my design development to communicate the message more clearly without any extra hassle on the design or evidently having to state what it was doing as the designs spoke for itself, this all due to the information it was formed from. This led the final piece to be well informed and make sense.
I have developed my method of design production by using illustrator to generate different ideas, altering the design in different ways to clearly see how it helps or doesn't help communicate the message. This helped inform my development as i could vary how i manipulated different brands and see what worked best. In the future however it is worth noting that i feel i should do more design sheets by hand first before i start digitally developing ideas as when i looked back at my folder i felt there wasn't much evidence of this, especially for the 'how to..' group task.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

The strengths i can identify in my work are idea generation as i had a breadth of different ideas how to go about my topic on which i developed on from starting first with colour psychology, going from that onto manipulating brands to the reading campaign for penguin. My ideas helped me solve the problem effectively and communicate clearly and simply. With the use of different ideas i feel i had a good basis to go back to and draw bits from which encouraged further idea generation. I will capitalise from this strength in the future by constantly developing my ideas on from my initial idea until i get a solid ground of function, purpose, audience and format. Another strength i identified in my work was that the '100 things..' products worked as a set and all communicated the same message and didn't array from the true message and purpose. Although they varied in design slightly they all still worked together for the same message and were obviously a set. I advantaged from this as it fitted the brief and kept the design simple and clear,communicating better. In the future i plan on sticking to one design idea and will try not to merge different ideas all into the same set of products as it will interfere with the communication and draw away from the purpose. I plan on keeping it simple and effective rather than trying to put all the ideas thought into one brief. One idea and go with it!

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Weaknesses i found in my work was time management and discarding of ideas that weren't working. These two weaknesses were the result of one another. My idea of manipulating brands with purpose to show the cost effectiveness of buying into them took a vase amount of time and energy as i kept trying to work with the variety of ideas i had and didn't focus down on one as i couldn't decide. Even then after i started to focus slightly i still couldn't get them to communicate clearly enough no matter what i added or changed and couldn't think of the right words of putting it. This effected my time drastically as i kept trying to make it work instead of accepting its not and discarding it. This led me to go back to an initial idea i had formed right back when i was looking at colour psychology that i had slowly developed as i knew it had potential in the design. I had little time to then form ,develop and make design ideas for this idea. Considering these factors i see it as a blessing that i did realise it wasn't working and ended up going for a different focus as it meant i didn't hand in something i wasn't happy with and i ended up working on an idea i really liked and thought visually worked well to. In the future i will address these issues hopefully earlier on and choose an idea that i can enjoy rather than one i constantly struggle with. My object is to identify this issue earlier on within the brief and to brainstorm a variety of options to go about the subject with function, purpose, audience etc rather than chose an aspect and not knowing where to take it like it did with colour psychology.

I need to note down my ideas more often so i don't forget key aspects as i have only just remembered this quote and that i wanted to involve it. I need to refer back to my research throughout!

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

Next time i will firstly think through my idea throughly and consider the different aspects of it before i start designing and from this i gain a more solid foundation for idea generation that communicate better. Also i will do more primary research on my subject as the majority of my research is secondary based, this will then help me focus on specific issues and have control on what information i gain which i can then chose and use for my designs. Within group work i want to have an even distribution of decision making and a more fair weighting of work were everyone can add to the design idea. From this everyone will gain within the group as it will be an idea generated from everyone aiding decisions and all can have input into the actual making and thought behind it. Next time on a brief i will produce better quality final pieces and consider production and cost of the items that i produce. I would of loved to see my posters large scale as it would of aided my decisions on communication a lot more and helped me develop them further. Also the production of the cup and sleeves needed to be considered a lot more in advance to when it was as theres a lot of work that needs to go into the shaping of the design and to see it in 3D would of been a lot better. Finally i will try and do a variety of different formats rather than stick with posters as it would create a better picture of the idea in this case the campaign and allow my skills in designing to go further into using different formats and structures such as nets rather than just flat based work. 

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: 
(please indicate using an ‘x’)  

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance
4

Punctuality
3

Motivation
4

Commitment
4

Quantity of work produced
4

Quality of work produced
3

Contribution to the group
4

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