Module Evaluation OUGD602

OUGD602 Module Evaluation

Since the start of my time at university my practice as grown on a huge scale. When I first started out I barely even looked into design studios let alone managed to network and get in contact with them. Since presenting in first year all the way to this one my confidence has grown greatly. This is mostly due to the constant practice of public speaking and the improvement in myself, my practice and my work. I am now confident enough to post my work online through social media and the use of my new website.

Creating a promotional pack was unbelievably helpful. Business cards are a quick and easy way to give details across to clients and are pretty much essential. Creative CVs help potential employers easily view my work experience and can continue to be updated regularly. My letterhead can be used to send out more personalised messages to potential clients and employers. My website means that I have a portfolio to be able to send across and link online as well as show when networking quickly and easily through any online means. 

Networking has become so much easier and almost second nature to me. I visit more events and studios than ever before and manage to speak and network with new people every time. This helps to build my network within the creative community and make sure I have contacts throughout. 

My skills both in digital and in traditional methods have improved over the three years and I feel this year I have been able to experiment with both more. Many of my projects were self driven meaning my passions could be shown and I could put so much more effort and my own ideas into them compared to briefs set by clients.

I feel my personal professional practice has improved with the help of the tutors on the course, our visiting professionals and myself. Without this module I don’t believe my practice would be as strong as it has become and I may still not even be looking into work after uni. Whereas now I can see my future definitely lies within the creative industry and I plan to keep it going.

Time Management - OUGD602

Example of time plan used this year.

Every year I vow to improve my time management and often try but fail to do it drastically. This year was different I have managed to keep on top of all my projects using roughly laid out time plans for each one to make sure certain aspects of the project are completed on time. This has helped me stick to the stated deadlines and produce high quality outcomes for each brief. Something as simple as a time plan or adding in events to the calendar on my phone has helped so much over the past year.

York Print Fair - OUGD602

Once again I visited the York Print Fair for the day. I always enjoy visiting this city and to have the chance to view printed work at the same time is great. Sean Mort, and Colours May Vary were featured again at this fair and team I hadn't seen since last year at this very same fair. Toucan Tango are based in Liverpool, last year I managed to introduce myself and discuss work with them. I have family from Liverpool and my Dad lives in The Wirral. Scott is also from The Wirral and therefore we had a conversation starter. He explained that they often work with children and do put on workshops I explained about my work and showed some from my website. It is very helpful to have a portfolio in my pocket at all times for instances such as this. I talked about collaborating with Scott and he seemed keen not as the company but maybe as himself, I told him I would be in contact. The fair is organised by Print Stuff, which is partly run by one of the illustration tutors, Matt. This gave an opportunity for illustrators to display their work, last year the class was displayed as a whole and this year a few friends were able to show off their own collective as OK SURE.

Clients and Live Briefs - OUGD602

This year I have worked with more clients and worked on more live briefs. This meant working with people outside of my normal work zone in education. I worked with people in the world for different pieces of work. I plan to be working within branding, advertising and print, and my briefs show this.

Lady Livid I produced branding for last year. This year I have produced packaging and advertisements for their upcoming album. They also want me to update their branding as they have decided against the old design after I suggested they continue to look and get inspired by other logos and bands. As a client they were very relaxed, I was paid for my work and managed to submit everything to them in a style agreed upon by them. I produced a few ideas and developed it over time to get the final result. They have a grunge like style to their sound and therefore I designed around this and around some inspiration they gathered.

Album Covers for Lady Livid

Character Design for Lady Livid

Creative Networks was a brief set by the university. I had to apply to be the designer working on this project by submitting visual concepts for the brief. I was later chosen and worked alongside the marketing team to produce a set of posters and flyers to advertise the events. The events were spaced out across the year but I still had a lot of planning to do to produce the final outcomes when booking print slots and sometimes only being told a few weeks prior to the event due to issues with booking the speakers for the event. I was also shown how to produce invoices for the pieces as I was paid for each set of posters and flyers. The printing costs were paid for by the marketing department and I had to make sure the invoices were written out to them from the print room. I was able to choose the stock and the finish for each of the prints which, was more pricey than they usually pay but they agreed the quality was better suited for what they needed.

My final client brief was for Izzy Tulip-Parkin, a photography student from LAU. Izzy is a really nice person and her work speaks for itself but she was difficult to work with. Mainly because she didn't quite know what she wanted as her branding and didn't quite know how to explain her passions, likes and dislikes until quite far on into the project. We ended up with outcomes both me and her were happy with. As the branding was for her the outcomes should be influenced by what she likes but it should also reflect her work and be clear. Izzy has since given her packs out to clients and professionals that have complimented her on it. I produced; business cards, logo design, creative CV layout and postcard designs.

Voice Overs - OUGD602

I helped out a few classmates in their projects. Not enough to state collaboration in designing but to lend my skills in voice overs. I am not professional in any way but used to work in a recording studio and have experience on radio. I'm sure the people marking the work will be sick of hearing my voice by the end of the year and not just through the 4 different voice overs. I helped lend an ear to the recordings and helped to emphasise points that needed it or change information that wasn't relevant. Some things were not clear when speaking therefore had to be changed and it proved difficult to pronounce some alliteration. I did this to help out friends with their work whilst improving my confidence with speaking. This also helped to gain a few favours from the friends in the future. It was great to put my skills from other areas to work within design work.

Presentation - OUGD602

Work Placement - OUGD602

After a few months of back and fourth on emails due to other commitments on both ends we managed to work out some dates I can come in to work at Newman. The placement starts on the 25th of June 2018 and will last four days.  It is not a placement in a graphic design agency or a studio but it is within the industry. I haven't got this placement to tick a box on a grade but rather because I enjoy teaching. Most of my family are teachers so have grown up around it, they usually work with younger students than college level but I would like to go into college or university level at some point. Since starting University in 2015 I have stayed in contact with the tutors at my college and have often visited back to check in. In first year I even offered to go in to give a session but once again it was hard to organise a date. My tutors remember me from college and often asked me to help out with technical issues or how to create something in PhotoShop when they weren't sure. We talked about me delivering some print workshops but the equipment at Newman is lacking in the graphics department to be able to show screen print, letter press or anything we have had the chance to do at University. I even asked in the print room if I was able to borrow any equipment but it was a no due to the fact I would be taking to another institution with no safety measures in place for the equipment and no training. Instead we came to the conclusion that I could help out alongside the tutors and give digital workshops to the year 12 students. I am looking forward to be visiting Newman again and potentially finding out whether or not I enjoy this type of work for a future career.

This work placement has not yet been finalised but I have been having phone calls with Dave from Fusion about my placement. Once again emails were not responded to so I had to use other means and call up the company. Dave mentioned he would email me back but never got round to it so I called him again a few weeks later to make sure he had not forgot. He said that this is a very busy time of year for placements but would be able to fit me in. I explained when our final deadline is for university he said to call when I am free and arrange to go visit them so we can finalise dates of the placement. I stated above that I would like to go into teaching in the future but this is not the only avenue I am looking down so have also been contacting agencies so that I can gain as much experience as possible.