End of Module OUGD301 Evaluation.

BA (Hons.) Graphic Design - Evaluation
Module Title Design: Design Practice 3 OUGD301

I have enjoyed Design Practice 3 and feel that I have managed to gain a lot from it. However, I have felt a little stressed at times and felt that the pressure of being in the third year got to me a little at the beginning. I didn’t feel like it started as smoothly as I’d have wanted either, as the first brief I took on was my first real live brief and that ended up going a bit pear shaped. I also didn’t start well by not working at much pace. I thought we had a lot of time in which to get things done and we were in control on how long we wanted to spend on each brief therefore it didn’t really matter when I started it and finished it. How wrong could I be…
For me, this module has taught me about how to structure my time, how to plan ahead and how to not drag out a project, spending more time on it than it needs.

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

Throughout this module I have gained many skills and feel that they have vastly shown through in the level of work that I have been able to produce. The most notable of these I feel are my organisational skills and time management. Managing myself to get things done and being strict enough to get them done within that time scale has always been an issue for me. Without structuring my day and writing action plans for tomorrow at the end of my day I don’t think I would have been able to get through this module. Before I had never used this organisation within my work, which is why I always felt as if a job was left half done, and not to my full potential. At the beginning of the module I wasn’t doing any of this and by the end I don’t know how I managed not to!

I have come to realise what it is I want to get out of my work, who I want to see it and new ways of applying it to print products, which is what I am primarily interested in.

I have developed skills in screen print and screen printing onto material. This is a process that I have always wanted to try and felt I had to incorporate in one of my briefs.

I feel that my software skills have also come on and enabled me to do more things more stress free. Last year I learnt to back up my work and back it up AGAIN. This time round I knew to embed files and when it came to producing my presentation boards I didn’t lose files.

I spent a lot more time photographing my products and resolutions, taking care to set up lighting. I borrowed a camera that was able to take pictures of a higher quality and edited them in Photoshop so they looked as good as they possibly could. Presentation skills have definitely improved and I see a better professionalism within my work.

Finally, I feel that crits and tutorials have really helped me to improve my personal evaluation and constructive criticism. Being able to attend a crit with a few questions to gain feedback from peers helps a lot. Learning to take criticism and go away and use it constructively has helped too. From this I have gone on to improve my work and evaluate my weaknesses.

What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

I have realised that spending more time in the studio benefits me no end. My regular days before consisted of me attending timetabled sessions and coming in to get things done that I had to do. Now I have a lot more structure to my day and the work I generate is of a better standard and I’m working at a better pace. I enjoy the studio environment and atmosphere and being able to bounce ideas off peers and other creatives. This has a vast effect on the amount of work that I am able to produce in a day. Taking feedback in crits from peers and tutors has helped me to develop my work and identify my weaknesses. I have also had to go back to the drawing board a few times, so to speak, in order to progress. At times I found myself feeling frustrated with the illustrations I had done and just not satisfied enough in order to progress. Drawing out my ideas, visualizing layouts and generally just doodling helps me to focus and work harder. Generating work by note form and writing ideas just doesn’t help me.

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

My strengths lie in illustration and image making. I'm primarily interested in design for print with a specific interest in logo, promotional material and applying illustration to a range of printed media.
I am able to develop an idea well and experiment with it so feel that I am good at visualising ideas and producing development sheets. I am also getting better at recording my briefs and how I develop them in order to get to a final resolution. This is a skill that I have strengthened within this module, along side evaluating the progression of my work.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

Research both primary and secondary needs improving with in my work. I feel like I have a noticeable imbalance between that and my development, so in future projects need to allocate more time for effective research. I also feel that I have a tendency to spend more time on a project than is needed - I need to know when enough is enough and when to move away from it and use my time more effectively on other briefs. This module has seen the Cake logo brief and the T-shirt design brief be dragged out far too long which has resulted in my two other projects being rushed and I feel wasted.


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

1. Plan ahead and structure my time.
2. Research both primary and secondary.
3. Feel more confident with the briefs I have chosen and don’t be disheartened.
4. Consider what I want to see in my portfolio and how professional I can make it.
5. Stick to short briefs and not waste time on long dragged out ones.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 4
Motivation - 3
Commitment - 4
Quantity of work produced - 3
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 4

The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.