PPP - End of Module Evaluation

Looking back at this briefs and the tasks set, I believe I have delivered what was asked of me in terms of producing a creative report on a creative or set of creatives of my choice, a group presentation/pitch of an idea for a new creative event in Leeds, a presentation reflecting on my time on the course so far and looking to the future as a creative and a personal design manifesto.

I struggled with this project more so than I thought. I feel like I didn’t manage my time as well as I could have and although completing it in plenty time, have found this brief rather stressful and hard to juggle.  Ideas generation was quite easy for my creative report and I had a clear vision in mind from quite early on as to who I wanted to work with in terms of my creative report. It’s a shame a lot of the creatives I reached out to did not respond but I was anticipating that. I felt coming up with an idea for the pitch as a team was quite easy, we generally worked well and bounced ideas of one another on a regular basis. My presentation was relatively easy to reflect on my time on the course and my manifesto was easy to produce as I wanted to base it off an issue or mind-set I already try to implement with my work.  My research for Studio brief one, two and three allowed me to gather a lot of ideas and I had a large amount of material I could use for inspiration.  

The tutors have been around and are always available for advice when needed. They have been helpful and have given me ideas when needed which have helped me further develop my work. It was easy to ask for advice on what works best if need be and ‘ve been able to use peer feedback to help develop my work.

I feel the workload has started to feel a lot again due to the number of briefs we’re currently working on at once, it can be quite difficult to almost juggle all the briefs at once, especially when certain modules expect relatively extensive portions of work during important and often stressful deadline periods for other modules. There is a lot of work on at once to be able to concentrate enough time for everything evenly, meaning some modules may get less attention to make sure the module with fastest approaching deadline is up to scratch. There isn’t enough time when other briefs are pushed heavily. I’ve really stuggled this time around and felt very lost, and found it very stressful. I’ve felt almost drowned in work at times and I know that is partly due to my own time management on this module which has been poorer than it should have been, although the poor time management has often stemmed from the feeling of being stressed and often times overwhelmed.

I feel my time management across the whole module could definitely improve. I feel like I need to ask for advice on how to develop my work and develop a broader range of research that will improve my overall grade as I’m currently not happy with how I’m performing, a the time of this deadline I believe there are upcoming tutorials which I feel will give me an opportunity for guidance however I may ask to speak to one of the tutors before then as I want to perform better on the course and feel im rather stuck in my ways and need a little bit of guidance to help kickstart the extra work needed for my grades and my work to improve, especially the research and experimentation portion of my work.

If I was to visit this project again I would be better prepared with time management. I wasn’t happy with my time management and will always try to improve upon this. I would also make sure I’m consistently blogging as I feel this is one of things I need to improve upon the most. With extra guidance on the research and experimentation side of my work, it may allow me to work in a way that forces me to blog on a more consistent basis.  I would give myself more time to experiment with my ideas, maybe allow myself to take more risks with more time to correct or improve anything. Even though I’m happy with my outcomes, giving myself more time to experiment with my ideas more for across all three studio briefs would result in better outcomes. Although I’m overall happy with my outcomes it’s always good to improve upon that and gather even more research to be able to develop more ideas and produce better outcomes.

Studio Brief Two - Final Pitch

This is our final pitch and visual identity for our Life’s a pitch brief called FEGD Ideation Workshop. The concept was to create a workshop for foundation graphic design students at the Vernon Street building. The workshop is intended to introduce students to the undergraduate graphic design course and spark idea generation using methods similar to that of the course. The workshop is intends to form idea generation using techniques taught on the course and utilise the university facilities. 

The logotype uses Bodoni 72 as header and Archer as body text. The main logotype is clear, simple and reflects the nature of the workshop clearly. The logotype is more formal to replicate the look of an actual briefing/workshop. The workshop has a potential to expand and include other aspects such as talks or expand and include different workshop types for different courses, giving the workshop potential to be versatile on cross courses in the long term, with an initial focus on graphic design. After discussion we opted for a more simple yellow and black colour scheme as oppose to the previous 4 way colour palette for a more simplified, recognisable visual identity. The yellow symbolises the sparking of ideas, being bright, bold and interesting while holding black type well. The black type contrasts the yellow perfectly, sits well on any negative space heavy application and is easily legible from varying distance. After deliberation we adopted the Bookmania typeface used In my proposed visual identity as main header type for things such as posters and to be used interchangeably on applications such as Instagram posts. We felt the type could effectively communicate information on its own as well as in conjunction with other typographic elements. 

The flyers and posters designed by Izzy and Selina use the same colour scheme and typography to communicate a consistent visual identity. The posters use a combination of type focused design and the use of the workshops iconography, a combination of lightbulb and brain that symbolises the sparking of ideas. The posters incorporate negative space across the set of minimal, simple posters.

The sign-up sheet is used to confirm the participants of the course. The sheet uses the same colour scheme and typography for consistent branding.

The brief produced by Alex is an outline of the context, aim of the workshop and deliverables. The brief outlines what the workshops entails and what the students will be doing and what to consider. The brief uses the same colour scheme for consistency.

The social media done by Alex and Holly uses the same colour scheme and typography across the branding to stay consistent. The Instagram, by Alex uses each post and merges them together to create large pieces that advertise the exhibition. The social media will also post things like countdowns, example works, and updates from the workshop. The Facebook posts done by Holly use the same colour schemes, consistent typography and use of logotypes but include a simple glad icon that moves when viewing the post. The flag is a nod to the piece of work the students taking part in the workshop will work towards producing. 

The course content and printing costs done by me are displayed on the final pitch to gain a better understanding of both the workshop structure and the possible pricing of the workshop. We didn’t need a physical version of the course structure so we didn’t use the flyer designs, I adopted the colour scheme and typography to make sure it stayed consistent with the rest of the branding and pitch. The course structure outlines the plan of the workshop and how the day will be split up, with the various sectioned being devoted to gradual development of initial ideas.

As we changed the colour scheme to a simple black and yellow we discussed the printing prices and agreed that it would be considerably less than we previously estimated as we only had to print in black and white, printing on yellow paper as oppose to printing in full colour like before. This brought our printing costs right down to a total of £12.20, with the copy cards being £1.00 and £1.50 respectively. The previous costings were my mistake and got the prices mixed up, however the copy card totals still came out to £57.50, bringing the new total cost to £69.70

Studio Brief Two - Proposed Branding in Pitch Form

As we were deliberating about the branding of the pitch, some people didn't want to feel like they had wasted time on their work. I produced a very quick, rough pitch using my proposed branding to the group.