This is by far the best module i have done since starting this course, which is pretty obvious really but im really proud of myself as I know how hard I have worked to produced good results. Although not everything was a smooth journey i have learned some very important lessons and have understood myself as a designer and what my values are.
At the beginning of the year we wrote our rational and i found this quite hard, a few attempts later and i had something that i think showed me as a designer. I feel I now have a range of work that reflects my rational. I think this helped me keep a focus in my work, as throughout the past years I have been a bit of a Jack of all trades which isn't good, but i was scared of restricting myself to much. However i managed to overlap some of my briefs in terms of formats and similar content materials. Both the San Diego Film Festival and the Balloon Fiesta projects dealt with promotional material in formats such as posters, tickets, publication and bus advertising. Even though the approaches to the projects are different I feel i have come to a very similar point in resolving them.
Look back over all my projects I have a few highlights that stand out for me as being more successful. The newsletter project was driven by the paper folding and the layout of the page, I really enjoyed experimenting with different formats and felt that it was a strong point in my work. Also in the imove project, the format and folding of the products is what drove the work. The magic cube was a strong piece due to the folding cube format and was probably one of strongest responses to a concept I had produced and this was resolved on a really quick turnover at the Stone Soup Studio in half a day. Another of my strongest projects I felt was the 1st Brief Astronomy, the resolutions weren’t as up to scratch as I had hoped as I had a lot of trouble with the printing, but it is another of the strongest responses to a concept that I have. I would love to develop this project more and take it to its full potential, as I didn’t timetable for this to be such a big brief. I have learned through this the importance of a strong concept, there is something to work against and I know we have been told this before but it gives a point to the work. After three years I have finally learned this.
One major skill I have gained from this module was my typography, as I have been at Stone Soup they are very particular about typography and as I was working on designs with given content, this was my main focus. I feel I have a really deep understanding about typographic elements and how they work in a design and I will be using these straight away for the next module. Stone Soup has also given me an understanding of a live brief and working with a client and all the limitations and about budget for print. This is invaluable and I was surprised how things work behind the scenes, as well as now knowing a rough estimate for printing costs, which will be great on future print work.
A real let down for this module for me was my 2nd brief for Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, I was really excited about this brief and got stuck into it and produced a range of work that I was proud of. However when it was crited unfortunately not everyone else loved it. The imagery used was not suitable and so was recommended to change. The downfall of this was that I left this brief standing to come back to later as I had timetabled it to be finished, but when I came back to it I was out of sink. It was also hard as after I had experimented with other imagery as I still preferred the original but it had to be changed. I ended up with something that I wouldn’t use as a portfolio pieces and something more to please the people around me. This was the wrong decision but was to late to change it and so I regret the process I had for this project, but again it has defiantly taught me how to approach things for the future.
The time management I had on this module was not kept well at all, it was very hectic working with 2/3/4 briefs at one time and I had no idea how much time to set myself for each one! I must resolve this issue before next module as I managed to start 2 briefs that were unfinished and hardly developed by hand in.
All in all though I have really enjoyed this module, I think I am really developing my own approach and producing work that show of my skills. Just have to make sure I remember all this for the next module.
