INTERIM EVALUATION

I N T E R I M   E V A L U A T I O N

I'm going to start the following interim evaluation by taking into account all modules I've carried out since I started BAGD back in september. It will be good practice and an interesting reflective process to look back on how I worked when I started and how I work now, hopefully there's a difference and I work more efficiently now. 




EVALUATE THE PROBLEMS THAT YOU IDENTIFIED AND HAD TO RESOLVE WITHIN BRIEFS.


I think with most briefs, looking back on briefs in the past especially, say for example if it was a 2 week brief. I struggle to find a clear concept and design direction and because of that reason I tend to work quite widely, with varying visual styles and quite a lot of visual research, such as a broad range of related imagery. Usually in the second week after a crit, I had a clearer idea and by that time I only really had a few days to nail the visuals, so looking back on it I should become better at selecting ideas and a plan of action earlier, allowing more time for visual development.


For example, the mail shot brief (OUGD403) I went on quite a tangent. I was looking into creating cleaner characters and looking at comic book characters names and how they reflect their personality!...

EVALUATE THE KEY CONSIDERATIONS  THAT YOU HAD TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHEN INVESTIGATING BRIEFS


The first key consideration to take into account when investigating briefs for me has been whether it makes sense and has a purpose and how people will interact with, and react to it. Looking back on my outcomes, some have had more purpose in context than others. One of the ones I think which is a bit dodgy is our group brief 'How to Buy a Diamond Engagement Ring', it was a group brief so deciding on an idea and everyone being on the same page is an issue in itself. At the time we all thought it was a perfectly good idea but looking back on it now, visually it could do with some refinement to look consistent and standardised.


The actual concept needs a bit more thought, in terms of how people would interact with the app and shopping guide. We never really considered how people would even know of it's existence, or any promotion. Also the idea of secrecy was a big one and there's probably more secretive ways of going about things than using apps on your phone. There was a lot of products, it would have been good to just sit back and reflect on everything while we were on the brief.

EVALUATE THE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES THAT YOU HAD TO UNDERTAKE IN ORDER TO RESOLVE BRIEFS


I often do a lot of secondary research and less primary research, my secondary research usually consists of articles and visual imagery, and design inspiration which has somehow informed my own product aesthetically or functionally.


For example, I carried out a lot of secondary research for the '100 things' brief (OUGD405), especially at the 'collect and categorise' stage where I carried out a broad range of research into the topic of weddings, which I then went more specifically into Bollywood and Indian Culture with. You can see here I also carried out a primary research survey on the topic of Bollywood and India which I got interesting feedback from and it did inform my final product. You can see the survey here


Sometimes I've carried out a survey and not actually had it inform my final product too much, this could either be because of poor design practice or a poorly designed and executed survey. I think it's the latter. For example with my 'what is a line' brief for OUGD404, I asked people what colours they associate with different genres. It's a pretty valid question but most of the time the colours just overlapped, it did actually allow me to get a better idea of what kind of colours associate with different genres but in the end I went for a more intuitive approach and looked at album art, and things like that to find a more subtly associated colour.


EVALUATE THE EXAMPLES OF SECONDARY RESEARCH THAT INFORMED YOUR DESIGNS


I think I carry out a fair amount of secondary research but the results are mixed, it seems as if I just go for quantity over quality sometimes, and have tons of articles, which to be truthful I've only skim-read and thought it would be useful to put on my blog for reference.


Other times I've been thoroughly interested and informed by secondary research. An example of this is when I watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Davis Guggenheim recently for my stamp brief. I found it very interesting and it allowed me to nail the theme and message I wanted to communicate, along with the tone and visual style.




EVALUATE THE EXAMPLES OF PRACTICAL RESEARCH THAT INFORMED YOUR DECISIONS


Sometimes I've carried out a survey and not actually had it inform my final product too much, this could either be because of poor design practice or a poorly designed and executed survey. I think it's the latter. For example with my 'what is a line' brief for OUGD404, I asked people what colours they associate with different genres. It's a pretty valid question but most of the time the colours just overlapped, it did actually allow me to get a better idea of what kind of colours associate with different genres but in the end I went for a more intuitive approach and looked at album art, and things like that to find a more subtly associated colour.



I also carried out a primary research survey on the topic of Bollywood and India which I got interesting feedback from and it did inform my final product. You can see the survey here


For the 'Communication is a virus' brief we went into town and scouted out the kind of target market and target areas we wanted to promote our material. It was very useful to see the kind of environment, talk to shopkeepers and things like that. It only increased our awareness and knowledge of the issues we faced moving forward.

EVLUATE THE BREADTH OF INITIAL IDEAS THAT YOU GENERATED IN RESPONSE TO THE BRIEFS


I did quite a varied amount of visual ideas for the proverb brief, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to say and to interpret the quote I had which was "Necessity is the mother of invention." 

On the other side of the scale, looking back on my 'What Is A Line', i haven't done much visual variety. I already had a good idea of what I wanted to make and just made it, the final product in my eyes is successful but it could have been so different if I carried out more visual development. 

EVALUATE THE BREADTH OF VISUAL INVESTIGATION THAT YOU EXPLORED BEFORE DECIDING ON YOUR DESIGN DIRECTIONS


I think in some cases, continued visual investigation informed and helped to develop my final product. I quite enjoyed my rain D&AD poster brief, it was only a week but I enjoyed it and tried to be a bit more experimentative, here are some examples of visual investigations. 

2 week STAMP IT brief

I think the kind of role I've been taking more and more recently and especially with the recent Stamp It brief is an intuitive approach

INTUITIVE APPROACH

This is the development of thought process, which is primarily based on internalised perceptions and knowledge, that is to say an internal repetoire. This type of thought process may occur spontaneously, without being evoked specially. This is actually a systematic process that takes place subconsciously. 

With the stamp brief, I started it later than I planned to, I had basically a week to really start my research and development and get the final outcomes printed, so I had to rely on a sort of 'reaction' to the brief and to go with it. Almost straightaway I had an idea which was based on postcards and greetings, I then applied this to a greeting from the future. All of these had subconscious influences such as the old wartime posters, dawn of space travel, dramatic tag-lines, black and white atmospheric gradient styles etc. At the same time, this reliance on intuition probably had an adverse effect on the possibilities of design development as it was a quick reaction and then just going with it.

I also probably didn't spend as much time as I should have taking into account the target audience, how they'd interact with it, whether the subject is relevant, whether it's been done before, whether it's a touchy subject which may cause offence and other issues.

Visually I'm happy with the outcome, I scratched the first set and started again and more in tone with my own style and stamp on it, so I'm glad I took a step back and evaluated the first set and whether it was working or not. Overall, I think it could do with more development, possibly some promotional material and an overall sense of a proper campaign and identity rather than a set of stamps.