What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
The most valuable thing that I have developed throughout this module is the ability to generate, analyse and refine concepts. I have found this to be the most important part of any brief, defining who the project is for and what it's main purpose is important to complete before starting the design. I have applied this ethos to every brief that was substantial enough to have a target audience and purpose, through work placements in studios I have learnt that the audience of the design is the main driving force behind the aesthetics and anything that has been designed for stylistic. aesthetic reasons will fall down under questioning or even become out dated quickly over time.
What approaches to/ methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
This year I have used screen printing as the main print process for 2/3 of my briefs. Using screen print for the gig posters brief directly affected the design development process as I designed the artwork to work well with screen printing. This involved only using 2 colours + stock, I found this resulted in a more effective and interesting design than if I were to use digital print with no colour restrictions.
What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I enjoy working with briefs which allow me to add lots of character to the design, this could include illustration and light hearted and humorous tone of voice. This year I began to apply this interest to packaging which I think is an area of graphic design where character and personality in design is really important. Much more so than corporate branding or editorial design, with packaging there is a specific audience which could be anything from a very young child to an old aged pensioner and the design needs to communicate to that audience. I find this challenge very appealing and I'm looking forward to getting involved with this at an industry standard when I start work at Robot Food in June.
What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
For future self set briefs I will capitalise on using digital mock ups as I think these quickly and clearly show a concept. In industry there is a lot less focus put on physical crafting of objects and much more emphasis on concept and execution of work. I think I need to put more focus on developing brands after I have put in the initial work of designing the logo and basic tone of voice. Something that studios would like to see is an elaborate personality to a brand and not just a logo without any further thinking or depth behind it.
Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- To develop the tone of voice/ personality of a brand to give it much more personality and recognition than a logo alone can.
- To research extensively and test a range of ideas before committing to one route, this will result in more successful design.
- I will try not to have a certain style in mind before beginning a brief and, instead let the research form the aesthetics. This will allow me to avoid designing things based on style and move my practice towards designing based on solid research.
- Test physical mockups of work to assess if that format is the most suitable and address any problems that arise with the handling/ unpacking of the product. This will result in a more user friendly packaging and create a more positive customer experience.
- As I always have done I will continue to seek the opinion of others to improve my design and assess where work can be improved.
