Blog address: http://www.a-mushtaq1114.blogspot.co.uk/
What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I think I've developed skills in collaborating with others and time management. In the 'communication is a virus' brief, we worked in a group, we set ourselves quite an ambitious social media project and I think we pulled it off fairly well. Assigning tasks, good communication and time management was needed so we all knew what we were doing, where and when. I think we worked pretty well as a group after a slightly disorganised first week and came together in the end. Comparing it to previous group projects, I think I worked more productively in a group now than I did then, which is a positive for me.
I think I've also developed skills in manipulating type and focusing on the core aspects of graphic design to convey a message. For the 'It's your choice' brief, I focused on frame, format and type, and didn't use any image and illustration to communicate the message. It was difficult at first but definitely a learning experience.
What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
The Erik Kessels brief was a really enjoyable brief for me. This was one of the first briefs where I felt I had put my own stamp on my work and worked in a style that I was interested in and felt I could do justice. I also went to a more traditional approach and used the photocopier extensively, one of my posters is simply a scanned photocopy, with no digital type and very little digital editing software input. I think it created an interesting effect and made me realise a little more that the computer isn't the be all and end all of graphic design, it's merely a tool.
For the 'stamp it' brief I watched a few movies to inform me better on the environmental subject and being 'green', how global warming is effecting the world and so on. I decided to take advantage of the librarys DVD library and I felt it informed my final work and research greatly. In particular 'An Inconvenient Truth' actually led to my concept of inconvenient truths which I developed. The concept was to create stamps communicating an almost satirical look at the future and the idea of brushing things off
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think my work is starting to look a little more polished and I think my work is slowly starting to reflect my own personal interests and strengths more than in previous modules, in particular the 'It's Your Choice' brief which I wouldn't change too much about as it stands.
My design sheets are getting a little better, this has been a recurring issue of mine, I think i've addressed it slightly but not enough. Overall, I think they've definitely generally improved from previous modules.
I think handling type is one of the strengths of this module, I think i've handled and manipulated it well in my 'It's Your Choice' set of posters, using type as image in a way. I think I'm becoming stronger and pushing smaller details, instead of creating loads of little details, I push smaller details creatively. I've found that small details and adjustments can make a huge difference. My work has been quite idea-led, which I think has become a strength of mine.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your and work and how will you address these in the future?
One that came to mind straightaway is that I think generally and in this module in particular, my work is inconsistent in terms of quality and finish and it's an issue I want to address as it's not ideal. I think some briefs have been handled stronger than others. My 'stamp it' brief is one of the weaker set of products in my opinion, in terms of communicating the message and the overall finish of the first day cover packaging.
I think I still need to improve when it comes to the context of the design and how people other than me will react to it, sometimes when it comes to the tail-end of the development process I kind of get excited and forget to consider small details that could just add an extra level of finish to the product, like extra packaging, accompanying material etc. I think i still think very 2D, in the sense that I visualise my work to be a flat piece of design, rather than considering packaging and other design.
5. Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from these?
I will manage my time more effectively in terms of the design process so I give an ideal amont of time to researching the concept, design development and leave myself enough time to evaluate my finished products and how I can improve upon them in time for final crits. This extra cushion of time will allow me to take a step back and analyse my work, rather than analyse it when it's a little too late and i'm busy with new briefs, making it more difficult to revisit the project.
I'll consider the audience and context of the work more, thinking about how they'll interact with it. What purpose it has, is the concept solid, is the message clear etc. It's been a little inconsistent so far and I want to iron this issue out. I think sometimes I do work I class as strong and work which gets a positive reaction, and some which kind of falls flat. There's no middle ground. Considering my work more carefully will add another piece to the jigsaw and help my work become more professional and viable in the real world.
I'll stop working digitally so much, a lot of my work is begging to be screenprinted but kind of stupidly sometimes I make my work look screenprinted...instead of screenprinting it for real?! Looking back, it's a bit silly and I should just screenprint it for real. This has been a recurring issue aswell and one I've failed to address so far, which is disappointing on my behalf. Working less digitally will give my work a different finish and more variety, people notice small details such as handprinted work, laser cut etc.
I'll research more deeply into subjects and topics rather than just researching for visual inspiration. I think I'm guilty of this with the 'communication is a virus' brief, I only researched into business cards, brand identities etc. Looking back on it, I could have researched into social media, whether people use social media, what they think of it, do they use it and so on, so many underlying issues I could have looked at but didn't. In doing so, it would only add to my knowledge on the topic and give me a wider view of the area we were headed towards with our twitter page and project.
I'll spend more time drawing, I drew more than usual for my It's Your Choice brief, the ideas you get down on paper tend to be more kind of organic and creative, especially when you keep on forcing yourself to keep drawing. Once the obvious ideas are out of the way, everything just syncs together and you tend to get more creative ideas down on paper. I think it worked wel for me as I think it's my strongest project in terms of deliverables in this module.
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