Throughout this responsive module I feel that I have developed as a designer in more then one way. I have started to tackle personal and proffesional problems that were arising within my organastion and design skills.
My aims for this responsive module was to tackle my illustration skills. Throughout my time on the course I have always been intrested in developing these skills as I have always ‘doodled’ and i thought it was time to apply these skills to see if I could gain any improvement.
The modules I am submitting I have tried to variy in skill set so i can achieve more confidence within specific areas.
Confidence when submitting designs I feel, has always been a low point for me. I would always be consious of my designs and what people would think of them but I feel that within this module I have become slightly less paranoid and started to think of the real issues behind the briefs so that my designs benifit.
My skills with digital aspects of design were also lacking. Throughout this module I ave tried to devlop my skills on illustrator and indesign. Mocking up boards has taught me about proffesionalism and layout, and has also benifited my selction process of design.
Selecting the right designs to be taken forward and portraying the designs in a clear contextual format has given them a sense of proffesionalism in itself.
The responsive module has simpily given me a cahnce to select and explore a selection of different briefs that I will probably never get the chance to do again. The selection process has allowed me to pick briefs that best suit my time manangement, design skills, and genrally the way I work. I was quite aprihensive when first starting this module, due to confidence and technical issues, but since undertaking briefs at my own pace and selection it has given me encouragment.
From this process, I have discovered that the best way for me to work on briefs, is if I can control time scales. The briefs that worked best for me included the Threadless T-shirt brief and the It’s Nice That brief. These two briefs allowed me to explore a range of products and devlop ideas futher then specified. The Its Nice That Brief I found enjoyable because it encourged me to actually think of how the user will interact with the product. I know we have discussed this in sessions, but this brief gave me the opetunity to actually figure out how to do this, why I am doing this and who it is actually being produced for. Exploring a range of ideas and tackling the issues that came with the project really inspired me in other aspects and modules of design. Co-ensiding with this brief, the Threadless competition was a new and exciting competition, and something I had never really entered before. Using refreshing and creative illustration that I liked as a designer gave me the oppetnity to focus on something I really wanted to focus on. I explored methods of devlopment, such as adding colour to hand rendered illustration and experimentation with different styles of illustration. I found out that I liked designing for varied age groups when it comes to illustartion. For instance, the Whittlebee competition allowed me to deisgn for a very young age group. I had to simplify designs and characteristics in order for the audience to relate and understand the illustrations. And for the Threadless competeition I could create more detailed or ‘stylish’ illustrations that related to a specfic ‘student’ based audience.
I feel however, that some of the briefs I selected did not work out well for me. This was because I felt that the final products did not reflect the input or that by the end of the brief I felt that the time management had be ‘dragged’ out.
Briefs such as Design Crowd gave little oppertunity for diversity. Strict guidelines and very short time frames I thought worked for me, and in most cases they do, i just felt that this brief was slightly forced. The research I undertook, I belive, was to minimal and therefore my designs suffered. I feel that the final designs look slightly ametur and do not reflect me as a designer. However, taking this into consideration, I did use illustrator. I am still learning skills on illustrator and it took alot of time to figure out aspects of the package such as selecting the right tools to do the job. I do feel that my skills in illustrator have devloped, but I need to spend more time tackling this, as the course requires a high level of technical proffesionalism that I need to grasp quickly.
When creating teh final boards for all my briefs I used a template. I wanted to keep all the boards simular in order for them to look like a module set and portary proffesionalism. The boards are kept simple, with minimal text, however I find slecting the right images a difficult task. I tend to upload most designs to prove I have done the work, but this module has helped me to home in on specifics and highlight the main aspects of my pieces.
The boards helped me to detect weakness in my designs. Putting each brief in context and devloping starting points has been a challenge but I have enjoyed working cross-media to enforce tatical decisions.
Working collabrityly has also been an enjoyable experience which has taught me a lot about myslef and as a designer. When developing ideas on your own you can get whisked away with things, but as a pair, you have to combine ideas, listen to others and still maintain your own perspective. I found that I balanced this quite well. I was open to hearing critisism about me designs and would ive constructive critism to work on ideas. I felt that as a team we responded to the task quite well. Setting boundaries for each person and mini-deadlines allowed us to hand in on time. By working so close to someone you start to learn alot of design skills and Beth was great at passing on tips on illustratior and other techniques that pushed me as a designer. I felt that we worked well together to achieve an outcome that contributed our two diffenrt design skills.
- Recognising own interests
- Articulate your own concept
- Professional Collaboration
- Time/Project Management
- Creative compromise
- Presentation skills
- Professional Confidence / Professionalism
- Working as a team
- Idea generation
The main attribute though, personally, has to be confidence. The confidence to submit deisgns, teh conficede to hear criticism, the confidece to push my weaknesses and to talk / undertake proffesional tones.
I still feel that there are areas for improvement that would allow me to devlop futher. Such skills in technical aspects, such as programmes eg. illustrator. I think I need more practice in mocking up designs also. How can I achieve this? In what way would it be best for the audience. And of course my time managment skills. Short briefs do work best for me, but i need to explore ideas before i jump into designing etc.
I think if I really get stuck into future designs, this responsive module will help me cope with my design load and design managemnt.
Overall I have found this module very benifical as it has allowed me to introduce and selct designs I like but also puch boundaries. I have found that the collabrative brief with Beth Hayden really taight me a lot.
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