FMP

Evaluation

Did the past 3 years really just happened? When I first started this degree I don’t think I anticipated it would ever be as intense this. It is genuinely beyond me how I have managed to get through this, and despite the fact that I’ve never felt this tired or ill before, or consumed so many cans of red bull and boost and the extra vitamin C tablets, looking at the portfolio of work I’ve produced makes me realise that it has all be so worth it.

When I consider that the FMP started in January, I do feel like I could have pushed the briefs further, but I’m where I am, on the whole I think I managed to create a significant body of work. I do wish I had a clearer understanding at the beginning of the module, I think I needed to be sure of my briefs more, and have a clear concept. I think I had an idea of the briefs I wanted to do, and to be honest they developed a lot from the original idea, around Easter there was a significant change in my briefs and I ended up shifting them around. Speaking to Matt and Neil from Work Design at Easter gave me the direction that I needed in the first place, and from Easter I had a clear direction for each of my briefs and knew exactly what I needed to do.

I wanted to take on more live briefs and working on the branding for Vintage Luxe, Elizabeth Rose and Tish photography, was an experience to say the least. Lauren from Vintage Luxe was the easiest client to work with - hence why I managed to create a decent body of work, she was engaging, always got back to me and was really easy to work with. Elizabeth and Tish, were of course great to work with, but realising that they wanted to leave their promotional material as close to the end of the year as possible meant that I spent more time chasing them up for work than I did developing any ideas. The 2 briefs together created a body of work, but I do think the brief was more of a learning curve about working with clients than it was a creative project. This is why I decided to pursue the Geek table brief, working with Claudia to design the publication, it made more sense to push this brief as much as I could, rather than relying on Elizabeth and Natisha. I appreciate that they both had deadlines - but I had a deadline too..

Working on the additional briefs made me realise that I really prefer to work on briefs with a quick turnaround, and collaborating with Sarah Pritchard for YCN & Type Begins gave me the chance to have a break from the briefs but also work on something a bit more fun. I still enjoyed the main briefs I chose to work on, the homeware one I feel was successful as I managed to really focus on the branding and packaging rather than just developing patterns. For me I feel the strongest brief was brief 4, the campaign for Amnesty International. As I already had the research there from my dissertation coming up with the campaign was easier than I thought, I feel like the research and subject really helped bring the brief together, and it also fulfils a personal goal and helps raise awareness about something that means a lot to me. I had originally made my beauty blog an additional brief, but then when I think about the fact that I was putting a blog post every other day, I realised I was gathering a lot of content and it was quite time consuming photographing and writing up the posts which is why I decided to make it a significant brief. I developed the brief into a body of work and I think overall it really works, it’s given me a few idea as to how I can develop the blog further as it something I would like to continue with after university.

The collaboration with Lisa, Beth & Sarah for Interior Design was an experience, didn’t think it would take as long as it did to gather content from 19 students. But yeah, it really did take a lot of effort. Beth was in charge for getting in touch with people so credit to her for sending 3927475 emails. Sarah came up with the initial design and she carried this through the print and the PDF. I designed the reverse side of the print, which was a type poster and also helped Sarah work on the PDF layout. Lisa worked on the thumbnails for the print and also got in touch with some of the students. Sending the artwork for commercial print was a lot more stressful that I thought it would be, I still feel a bit worried that Steve won’t like the green when it comes back from the printers. Oh dear. He wanted blue. Anyway, overall it was great working on the yearbook but I feel like I wasn’t able to develop the brief as much as I would have liked, but it did give me an idea of what it’s like working with clients. The Interior design team were great in terms of knowing what they wanted, but when you’re catering for 19 different people there were times when it was a struggle.

Overall despite the number of times I have moaned or winged about the fact that I no longer love Graphic Design, I feel a great sense of achievement in what I have been able to produce, I pushed myself as far as I physically and mentally could, and although I think I could have pushed further, I’m not going to end this module thinking, what if.. I’m ending this module knowing that I’ve got a portfolio I’m really proud of, and more importantly that I am actually alive. Seriously. A few weeks ago the thought of leaving this course and going out into the real world really scared me, and I did not want to leave, as I’m writing this I’m so glad the FMP deadline has finally arrived. I now feel confident in my abilities as an individual to go out there and do what I love. Although I might have a break for a few days first..

p.s should this evaluation have any spelling or grammatical errors, it was late, I’m tired, you get the idea. I’m also aware this evaluation was only meant to be 500 words? Ooops. Just pretend that it is.

+ I’ve really enjoyed working with print and pattern.

+ I still love type. A lot.

+ I’m better at working on briefs with a quick turnaround.

+ Working with clients is always an experience. Doing what they ask and then doing what you think is better is the way to work, most of the time they’ll love what you show them.

- I think for the first time in 3 years I managed to let my blogging get the better of me, playing catch up was not fun.

- Don’t let people tell you what typeface to use.

- Have a clear brief to start with rather than making it up as you go along.

Attendance 5/5

Punctuality 5/5

Quality of work 4/5

Quantity of work 4/5

I had printed my first 4 boards for this brief but needed to do the website mock up, I knew it was going to be quite simple and just had selected information, a lot of the content already on the website is quite type based, so I looked at taking the content from my publication and placing it onto the relevant pages.

I took a screen shot of the homepage to the website and began editing some it, where I thought the relevant information would go. Although there are a bold choice of colours on their website I didn't want to stick to these colours, and although I wouldn't say the pink and orange is the best combination in the world It works as it stands out enough.

I also added some information about the campaign onto the homepage and a section where people can get involved which is just a click through link.

I went on to add 3 more ages, 2 about operation bluestar and then onto to support the free bhullar campaign, which is also documented on the flyers in the mail out. I think the design is quite simple, but then I wanted it to reflect current look of the Amnesty website, as it wouldn't fit to have something completely different.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Submission Form

Evaluation

Design Context

Final Boards

Thursday, 23 May 2013

Amnesty Website Proposal

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Interior Design - Print out mock ups

Type Begins - Photos