End of Module Evaluation

At the start of this year, I felt as though I had my rationale down perfectly, all the aspects I wanted to cover were in the briefs I had in mind, all the skills I wanted to work with were included and most importantly I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to be at the end of the year. In hindsight I had probably been a bit over confident.

There are many parts of my original rationale that I haven't seen through or acted upon, which is frustrating but entirely my own fault. The biggest regret is not working with print finishes. Every year, every term I pin point this as something I want to learn about, my knowledge about finishing techniques in minimal, if not non existent. I was determined this term to finally get on with it and I was looking forward to using my new found knowledge in my work. The second problem I had encountered during this module was as ever, self discipline and time management combined with some other things. To begin with I was intent on completing six full briefs and four smaller briefs. I wanted to have my portfolio done by now and I wanted it to be something I could be proud of. In reality I have done four small briefs and can't bring myself to even look at my work let alone put a portfolio together. To say I'm disappointed and angry with myself is a severe understatement. But this happens every time and I say I will turn it around, and sometimes I do for a few weeks or a month then it's back to square one.

The few positives I have gained from the module are brilliant. A summer project which was quite different from what I was used to made me try my hand at a different style of design which I decided to bring into the third year. I'm really glad I did because I like some of the work that I'm producing as a result of that (branding, identity – a lot more digital based work). I had some really great briefs written that I never did which would have helped me develop those skills even more. I still plan to do them, when I don't know.

The four briefs I completed were a good mixture for me to work with all of my preferred skills. Two branding & identity briefs, two illustration/book making/live briefs. I do wish I had made time for one of my packaging briefs, it is something I have a real passion for but don't practice it as a designer. I think in some way I have done many of the things I wanted to do in my original rationale. I have opened up quite a few of the skill areas I intended to, I have three final resolutions which I like and I have had some good experience being involved in two book fairs, making contacts with potential employees, making relationships with a few young designers around the world and setting up my own website.

I have accomplished almost everything I set out to – I've just not done enough of it, and I mean that in every way possible.

Allo allo.

I made some new business cards, in a range of colours...

 

And then I asked the kind people of Facebook to help me decide on what colour to go with. Most people said green of lilac.

So I went back to the drawing board and designed the back of them and threw another colour into the mix just for good measure. Here are my final three, although I'm fairly fond of the olive green so I think I'll stick with that one.

 

Oh! It's been a long time. Have a look at what I was up to over the summer, as well as all the new paper bits for this year (including skill evaluation, my ten briefs and my umbrella statement) and anything else....

http://k-dyer0811-dp.blogspot.com/

AND. I finally have a website! Everything important will either be on my Design Practice blog (above) or on my website.

katedyerillustration.com

Finally got my magazine together to read on screen. Yayayayaya

Hello. As of 6-05-10 I aim to make at least one collage every day for a entire year! 

If you want to have a look here they are on my blog and flickr! Yay!

Identify strengths that you have developed during level 5.


In terms of design I have definitely learnt which areas I want to progress in and which aspects of design I don’t feel don’t want to work in. I think my main strength so far this year is simply being more confident in my own design practice. Obviously there are practical skills I have developed but really I think the biggest change and strength in my individual design practice is becoming more confident.
I’ve learnt what suits my style and what I enjoy doing as well which is useful and will help to expand and develop my way of working.
Although I didn’t enjoy it at the time, the design for screen module was something that when I reflect on it, I really enjoyed. I don’t think I would want to do it again but I loved the challenge and the chance to work with a different format than I’m used to.
The image module was brilliant, I really loved every second of it (apart from the animation brief) but I don’t think my work reflected that which was stupid of me. I liked the short briefs, I think I enjoy working under pressure because there isn’t really enough time to be lazy and not do anything; you just have to do it.


Although it isn’t a strength yet I really want to start working with older print processes and become a bit more of an expert because it’s something that fits in nicely with illustration. The PPD and enterprise sessions made me think about myself differently, I think those sessions gave me the drive to carry on with design. Before I thought of myself as a student amongst lots of other students and couldn’t see how I could be a designer when there were so many better people out there. Luckily working on my enterprise and PPD briefs I realised that it was what I wanted to do and I wanted to do it successfully. I think going over the details of what I wanted my business to be like made it seem more real and sudden which has given me a goal for the future, and it’s always nice to work towards something.




Weaknesses you have identified during level 5.


I don’t think this year has been particularly great, which is my own fault entirely. So it can be difficult to talk about strengths and weaknesses when I didn’t put the time in to be able to realise what they are. Although over the past few months I have really enjoyed the image module, the only weakness being my bad time keeping and disorganisation. I think I have yet to find the balance between how much time I should spend researching initially before I start designing. I spent far too much time researching my subject for my self written brief and then had to rush the product, which I was annoyed with myself about.


My reluctant attitude to digital media hasn’t changed, which almost annoys me about myself. I would like to re-train myself to enjoy design for digital because it’s more of a necessity than a choice now. It’s definitely a weakness I need to work on though.

My enterprise presentation!

March was quite a busy month. Me and my partner in crime, Tom have a little deal going on, I know I should be concentrating on setting up my own business but at the minute I'm focusing on our last brief as second years so there isn't much time left for my own business plans. Luckily Tom has already set up his little from home illustration business which gives me lots of practice for when it comes to doing it myself. Our deal is he draws, prints, gets designy and I do everything else which includes selling his work, coming up with ideas to improve sales, running his shop, customer relations, money etc. It's lovely because I'm getting a better idea of how I will run my business without actually having to do it at the minute. Anyway we had two events to look forward to, the first being Limn which is a monthly live illustration night at Nation of Shopkeepers. Being the launch night we weren't sure what to expect and turned up with sketchbooks, pens, shirts and prints to sell. I think there were some problems with one of the events' organisers not showing up so whilst Tom was doodling I was put in charge of the stall which is always fun. They asked if I wanted to do something but cider had gotten the better of me and I didn't have anything prepared so declined. Which I regret now but I think the offer still stands for the future so I'd like to get my turn at some point. Anyway, it was a good night if not a bit messy. But you can't really go wrong with a projector and a good bar. 

On the same night but earlier in the evening it was the opening night of The Red & the White exhibition. It was a nice little space and a good crowd turned out. Thank you to Ben for sorting it all out and to Ian for taking some nice photos. 

Proposed website design:

I like the simple layout with a large amount of thumbnails and easy to navigate simple links. Strikingly similar to The District's website, yes and it was intentional. I love their layout. This is only a draft though, I'm sure I'll decide I don't like it in a few months.

Emailing my design heroes- 

Asked to pick five of the companies/people/studios we admire I could only think of four:

The District: http://www.thedistrict.co.uk

Bob London: http://www.boblondon.co.uk
Nobrow: http://www.nobrow.net
Heart: http://www.heartagency.com

I emailed them all this (with a few variations depending on who the recipient was) 

"Hello Mr London,

My name is Kate and I’m a designer/illustrator in Leeds. I've been fond of your illustrations for a few years now and have finally decided to pluck up the courage to say hello and ask for some advice.  

I'm interested in collage, colourful illustration and book design. I'm based in the Leeds and Suffolk but can travel anywhere around the UK and would love to come and say hello.
 
I’ve attached a small pdf of my work and if you have a free minute some feedback/any advice would be brilliant.

Thank you!
 
Kate"

I swiftly received a reply from Bob London which was a bit bizarre but ultimately made me laugh and had a bit of valuable advice thrown in there. 

"Hello, hello and thanks for the mail
 
Now, be honest with me Katie, how many people did you cut & paste that  
email to eh? Tell me the truth cos I'll know if you've been lying.
 
What kind of advice are you after? Are you at college?
Are your tutors not doing their job properly?
 
They probably tell you to look at other peoples work don't they?
 
I say: DON"T. Try as hard as you can to find your own style.
There's already too many illustrators copying each other
& they're all working in Sainsbury's stacking shelves.
 
Strive as hard as you can to be original.
It may prove unpopular at first but you'll win in the end.
 
That's all I can say really.
 
Cheers and good luck,

Bob"

I also received replies from Heart and Nobrow asking if I was interested in an internship (how American of them) but I'm not sure to be honest if thats what I want to do right now. That probably sounds stupid but I'm aiming to get something sorted in my third year and for the summer but they were talking about sooner which was impractical for me. Disappointingly after making initial contact and with The District they didn't reply but I have a plan about that...

 

PDF slides attatched to email:

 

Hello blog. I'm going to take this post as an opportunity to catch up on all the things I have forgotten to blog about in the past. Well hopefully everything. I'll see what I can remember.

Lets start with the last time I saw John we were told to start thinking about our portfolio's and our creative CV's. The portfolio side of things didn't worry me too much because I always think a portfolio is something which is quite easy to get right (I was wrong) but the CV worried me a bit. I either waffle on and make no sense or get all shy and become cryptic and awkward. 

I got home and started to think about ways to introduce myself to people I might want to work with or for or alongside. I like the idea of business cards but them, the idea of handing someone a formal business card mid way through a nice informal conversation seems a bit alien and strange to me. I wanted to make something little, more of a written gesture than a scary corporate looking business card.

I like the idea of having something quite relaxed and friendly because that echoes what I want my practice as a designer to be like. 

This isn't something I would ever hand out to a client or anyone really, It's much too vague and assuming. Also I know I like the sort of child like simplicity of things, but I think it sounds a little too babyish. The key is to figure something out which is a good compromise, something I will feel comfortable with and the person receiving my business card/cv will feel comfortable with. 


I like how straight forward it is, thats something I really want to keep, I want something short, sweet and straight to the point. I prefer business cards because they can deliver that.

This was a 'creative CV' I had roughly written out before Christmas. Looking at it now I hate it, admittedly it was only a rough draft but it just goes to show that something I liked five months ago I now feel horrified I ever created. Thats the thing with design, especially when designing for yourself and your own brand it needs to be something that stands the test of time. 


I know what the content of my CV needs to be but when it comes to creating and designing my own brand I feel a bit stuck.

OUGD202 SELF EVALUATION:

Although this module has been difficult for me I still learnt a lot more than I thought I would. I think when it comes to software and learning new skills I find that incredibly daunting because even after attending all the workshops and making extensive notes, I still have trouble remembering what to do which becomes frustrating. I think the turning point for me came when I finally gave in and asked for help. After that, with what little time we had left of the module I felt confident enough to finish the idents and DVD to a standard that I'm suprisingly pleased with. So, new skills would definatley be learning my way around new software. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to after effects and I don't think I went for the most adverterous animations in the world but I am pleased with what I did make. 

My methods of research and gathering information are there, but I still haven't really learnt what to do with the information I gather. From the mountain of worksheets and design sheets and colour tests I'm never relly sure where to go with them from there. For a lot of this module (mainly the movie season brief) I found the easiest way of getting the information I needed and a bit of help was just talking to people and asking lots of questions. I was really positive the week I had my tutorial with Fred and after I started thinking about who could help with this brief so I looked up independent cinemas and the british film institue, after about an hour of staring at my phone and feeling nervous I finally plucked up the courage to dial and ask people about their experiences with film seasons and thrillers. I was suprised by how many people were glad to talk and didn't think of me as the time waster. But then when I put the phone down and had taken my notes, other than take on board what they had said and use it to influence my decisions within the brief I still didn't know what to do with it all. 

This brief has been a bit hot and cold when it comes to strengths, because I've learnt so much. Not just about graphics but other things, It's been a steep learning curve. I've hated it and loved it at times but if I were to pick out several things I have been particuarly strong on in this brief it would be difficult. The are far more negatives than positives in this module for me, which I'm frustrated by as it's completley my own decisions and actions that made it that way. However as I mentioned before, I really am pleased with my progress with software like after effcts and I know one day I'll have to get over myself and use it again so those skills are valuable, even if they are the basics. 

As for my downfalls, there is only one big problem I can identify which sort of covers all the smaller things within it. This brief was hard, for someone stubborn and ultimatley unwilling to learn. Luckily I realised soon after christmas that if i wanted to be a designer then I needed to change, and I felt really positive about that...until things got on top of me again. I'm not making excuses for myself, I'm really not. I know I've been terrible over this module. Half way through the module I had storyboards and after realising I had to make these pictures into something moving I got scared and pushed it to the back of my mind. Which I have learnt isn't and never will be the way to becoming a sucessful and happy designer. I thankfully had a bit of time to try and get myself back into it all with a week to go and to sort out and pick at all the problems I had with this module so I can move onto the next module without the same problems reoccuring. 

Obviously if I had to do five things differently they would include one big one; don't let things spiral and get out of hand. I've learnt my lesson now. 

-Ask for help. Being shy and too proud to recognise when you need help won't get me anywhere.

-Never get distracted.

- Work in the studio more. if I want to become a designer working in a team when I leave uni I need to get some practice in now. We have lots of people on this course I want to work alongside so I should start acting on that and preparing myself for the real world.

- Don't leave myself to my own devices. Hopefully working alongside other people in the course will teach me some self discipline when it comes to work. 

Attendance - 1

Punctuality - 1

Motivation - 2

Commitment -1

Quantity of work - 2

Quality of work - 2

Contribution to the group - 1

My design heroes, The District have just popped my picture on their website! I am full of happy feelings!

PROGRESS TUTORIAL PREPARATION 18-01-10

1. Name strengths that you have developed during Level 5.

In terms of new skills there are a few which have been really valuable, such as learning how to work with motion graphics and getting to grips with print production. I value these new skills because before these modules I had little interest in the technicalities of how something was printed or how motion graphics are put together, now with a basic grasp of both I feel like better and more educated designer because of it. I can't say I enjoyed every second of it, but it's all part of learning and I'm really pleased I did it. 

There are some skills which have been evolving through this year, I think I'm becoming much better at organizing myself and my work, knowing what needs to be done and when. Which seems like such a small thing but lack of organization has been my downfall in previous terms so in the bigger picture I think it's an important skill to get right.

2. Weaknesses that you have identified during Level 5.

So far this year has had a large chunk dedicated to finding out who I am as a designer, so every aspect of my work, how I work and myself have been under scrutiny. During this process of investigating, I've learnt a lot. Probably a little too late though. Over the past few months I have tackled my workload the wrong way which has lead to many problems. For example, when I was given a task or brief I didn't understand or know how to complete, instead of talking about it and being willing to learn I would just push it to the back of my mind which ultimately would lead to a lot of unnecessary stress. Thankfully I can now identify these problems and address them in a suitable way. I now feel in control of how I work and fully capable of anything a module will have to throw at me. Positive thinking had been my hardest weakness to conquer so far.

Current weaknesses seem to be smaller, more trivial problems like getting used to new software and finding inspiration for briefs which aren't where my main interests as a designer are. These things are small and easily resolve so I'm not particularly worried about them. I imagine for the most part they are just things which come naturally if you put in the time and dedication. 

3. Issues that you want to discuss with regards to your current progress.

Currently, I am pushed to think of any outstanding issues. I'm not saying all is perfect but things are definitely up after being down for a while. The only two things I am having a slight struggle with are Enterprise and CTS, mainly because I just don't give myself enough time to think about them and prepare the tasks so they get pushed aside, but I'm aware of this and am trying to sort it out by planning my time more effectively. 

 END OF MODULE SELF EVALUATION



The quality of my research is what I would like to have improved on in this module. I felt that although I had thought about what I wanted to do thoroughly, I didn’t provide the evidence and supporting research to back this up. The research I did was valuable and once I’d found what I was looking for, the research side of the project seemed to come to a halt. The quantity of initial research was good, maybe the quality and my ability to select key information was not. This includes my investigation into print processes and print media. I was eager to learn as much as possible about production media and print technologies however I did the same thing, once I’d found the information I was looking for early on in the project, I found it hard to carry on researching and experimenting.
A strong point in the module was visualising my ideas. Unfortunately this visualisation of ideas came at a later stage in the project. I did feel that once I started the ball rolling the quality and quantity of visual ideas and experiments was good.  In terms of design development, I would have loved to taken advantage of the photoshop workshops more. I did stick to what I know and used the same hand-made techniques I feel comfortable with. I realise that sometimes taking the risk of working with the unknown doesn’t always pay off but I would have liked to expand my digital skills more. Saying that, I felt proud of the 16-page publication I produced as I had never made anything like it before. Considering I had never made anything like it before and I had been putting it off until the last three weeks as I thought it would be too difficult for me to complete to a high standard. I was impressed when I found myself happily spending hours working away at it, trying to make it look just right.
Presentation and organisation is important for me, as a naturally forgetful person I find it hard to force myself into remembering things and I felt I did well in this module. I don’t think I forgot a single thing which must be a first. Presentation wasn’t so difficult although when it came to research, my worksheets don’t look awfully attractive. I’m proud of my final packaging, my mount boards and my 16 page PDF though.
When it came to the final product, I think the message behind the link from what is good to the package design became muddled and a little confused. I think this is easily done with such a long brief, it’s not a criticism of the module, more of personal discipline when it comes to always going back to the original idea. This made the final product perhaps a bit distant from the briefs main criteria.
Overall I am pleased with everything I produced in this module, although when it came to submission I was confused about where the summer taxonomy project tied in. I was really proud of the work I produced for the summer brief and felt it to be a huge turning point in terms of my own personal development as a designer. However there was little opportunity to show or talk about this work with others and it seemed to almost have been forgotten about, which is such a shame considering the amount of care and hard work people (including myself) must have put into that brief.
If I could do anything differently the first would to prepare myself when it comes to research. It really isn’t one of my greater skills as a designer and I wish I did more and of better quality. The second and third combined are technology. In hindsight I didn’t appreciate how valuable the information given to us about print processes and colour was. Instead of just listening to the information in seminars and tutorials, I should have used the information given to give myself the motivation to go out there and try some of the things being talked about for myself. Fourth is purely organisation skills, not being so forgetful about little details and only realising at the last minute. I live in a mountain of to-do lists in the week before submission and I probably overcrowd myself with useless information. I think picking out the key tasks and presenting them to myself in a clear and concise manner would help more than scribbled post it notes. And finally, I just wish I’d done more. More of everything, print processes, design development and research. There are so many things I think I could have covered but didn’t for whatever reason and I always end up kicking myself about it.

.

TOP FIVE IMAGES THAT BEST DESCRIBE ME AS A DESIGNER.


1. SHAPE
2. HUMOR
3. COLOUR
4. MESSAGE
5. NOSTALGIA 

1. What is personal/professional experience?

- preparation for going into the workplace permanently
- a chance to work in many different places for a short period of time. Gaining a wide range of experience in a relatively short amount of time.
- a chance to make connections and contacts that could last a long time
- an opportunity to broaden skills and design techniques
- being able to see how different companies/people with different company ethics work


2.Why is professional / industrial experience important as part of PPD?

- interacting with a working team in a real work place, learning where I could apply my skills in a team in the future
- learning invaluable design skills and techniques from professional designers
- getting feedback on my work from professional designers
- learning the routines and ins and outs of how a professional design team work, which you would not find anywhere else.
- making contacts and networking
- could make me re-evaluate the areas of design I’d like to work in

3. How do you gain professional/industrial experience and what form does it take?

- by listening and watching people, talking to professionals you gain new skills and design techniques
-by networking and gaining contacts, boosting your profile
- you can gain experience by visiting studios, talking to people, helping out
- getting a job in design would count as personal professional experience
- keeping an eye out - everywhere has possibilities, magazines, notice boards, websites, newspapers. This could take any form.

4. What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?

- a direction. Knowing what suits you and where you want to take it from there.
- contacts to build up your own network, which is invaluable
- confidence. Personally, I know the more I put myself out there the more my confidence will grow
- a better cv/portfolio
- knowledge of how a design studio works, the ins and outs and every day goings on.
- people around you to give fresh feedback on work


More to come