This module has been really exciting because I was designing under my focused areas of interest and it has helped me identify who I am as a designer. My chosen briefs lent themselves well to conceptual communication, as well as my interest in culture, language and humour. These areas in turn related directly to my dissertation and context book, and I enjoyed having these links which to tie my practice together.
My strengths within this module were identifying strong concepts for each brief. I have struggled in the past with making decisions in order to speed up the design process, but this time round I made faster and more informed decisions in regards to idea generation and concepts. This in turn gave more time to develop projects and push them into more successful outcomes.
It has been a real learning curve working towards a live brief, and because it was the ‘real thing’ I felt extremely motivated to produce quality work which clients would be happy with. Since my plans are to work at a design/advertising agency, this experience has been invaluable as I learnt a lot about dealing with clients and got a taste of what it is to design towards someone else’s ‘vision’.
I found the 7sins competition brief gave a similar motivation because it was for a competition and I think this is why Blueprint and 7sins are my stronger projects, which I enjoyed spending more time on. I feel I pushed the seven sins project well and I am glad that the packaging was developed further and into a more successful outcome than initial plans.
My concept for both the Unesco and Epson briefs were also strong however I think the overall outcome for Epson does not do the concept justice. Even though it communicates my message, the producion needs to be improved for a better finnish. Despite re-taking photos, adjusting angles as well as perspective details, I still feel that it is lacking clarity. If I had managed my time better perhaps a different bridge setting would have resulted in a clearer visual.
In light of this, my weakness in this module is photoshop and time management skills. Although I have used photoshop for all my artworks, and am happy with those outcomes, when a brief such as Epson relies heavily on potoshopped finishes I feel that the concept gets let down by the finish. In this respect I am looking forward to working in an agency because I feel that collaboration would mean that I can contribute my strenghts without being let down by this weakness.
Time management has also been my weakness because although I was working throughout, the feeling of the deadline being 'so far away' in the beginning meant that I let briefs drag longer than necessary. Although in the beginning half of the module Blueprint and 7sins had the bulk of the products finished, I was still tying final bits and pieces together in an amoungst doing the Unesco and Epson briefs. This said, my time management skills have improved in comparison to past modules and I have been more efficient this time round.
This module has helped me find clarity on who I am as a designer and it has also been exciting designing new work to contribute to my porfolio. The course on a whole has equipped me to feel prepared to move into industry and I look forward to new design challenges ahead.
