OUGD406 - Design Practice Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this module I seem to have developed a lot of new skills. I have become more confident in using InDesign as well as Illustrator, I feel as though the workshops we had were very helpful as I hadn't used InDesign prior to them. Our communication is a virus brief allowed me to develop my skills within group work, I found it challenging working as a group a lot of the time, especially when not everyone turned up to college to get involved with the work that needed doing. However, I was able to overcome this and learn how to deal with it by assigning jobs to people and making sure that I did as best as I could with the work I had to do myself. I have developed my drawing skills even further and feel more confident applying illustrations to my work, giving my work an added personal touch. I also feel as though I have developed my research skills in terms of always being aware of the briefs I have set and constantly looking out for anything which I find inspiring to me.

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

When designing throughout this module I have been able to value the importance of making prototypes in time for crits as well as having a lot of design sheets and thumbnails to show so that my feedback is as valuable as possible. This has helped me with the design development process as I have been able to show a long journey of progress throughout my work, with clear indications of where decisions have been made and have, as a result, changed the way in which I approach a brief.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I have been aware of my choice of typography within my work and have been able to explore and identify the stronger fonts to use. I feel that this has enabled me to personalise my work a bit more, allowing it to be recognised as my own by other people. I also feel as though I have been able to help the first year group feel welcome when they start in September as I know how daunting the first day is. I hope that I have been able to create something which is useful and memorable to them. I have also applied colour to my InDesign brief which is quite a bit commitment for me, as I am used to working in monochrome.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I feel as though there is always more that can be done with a brief, but there is also a point when you have to stop and make sure that the work you have produced is as polished as possible and designed to the best possible standard in the given time. I probably would develop my speaking from experience brief even more if I had the time, and I would like to propose to the first years that they should make a Facebook page or a blog whereby they can share their recipes. I was going to create one myself, but thought that this would be a good way for them to interact with each other and also get to understand how Blogger works. Therefore, when presenting my work I shall propose this idea to them.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• I will develop my skills on InDesign to ensure that I can create a higher level of design work
• I will continue to read relevant books to help me further my knowledge
• I will constantly look out for new inspiring blogs to help me with my work
• I will develop my type skills and consider which fonts I should use for certain pieces of work in order to make them closely representative to the subject matter
• I will push myself even harder to try and improve upon my overall end result in terms of quality of print and how creative my results are

OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience: Crit

This morning we had a crit session with Amber and Simon. We were put in to 6 groups of 6 and we were assigned to a table. We had to lay our work out on white sheets of paper to present it all. We were then asked to go around the table and explain our development and the decisions we have made.

After this, we then wrote feedback down for each individual, most people wanted advice on stock, font choice and whether they had enough work. I found that I was able to give quite constructive feedback which hopefully helped other group members. When it came to presenting my own work I had written down all of the different elements I am including within this brief, to ensure that I had asked everything I needed the answers for.

I feel as though the feedback I was given was quite constructive, however I would have benefitted even more if we had then proceeded to go around the whole class and ask for even more feedback, so that I could see whether there were many more suggestions.

I asked about the following elements:

• Placemats and whether they would be used
• Apron
• Experimenting with laminating
• Tupperware stickers
• Blog or PDF with the recipes
• Show what it would look like on an iPad
• Storage or stand
• Brown bags
• Coasters

The feedback I got was really useful. I asked specifically about stock and font choice to get some general feedback:

• I was told that the illustrative font worked well with my own illustrations
• It was also suggested that I could use fridge magnets, which allowed me to explain my idea of buying small magnetic boards to use
• The swirly font could be too feminine
• I could use a rack that spins around to hand all of the different types of recipes on
• I could iron on to an oven glove
• The green stock was preferred, however the cream stock was also liked
• James mentioned how I could melt plastic to create a stand
• It was said that the individual cards could be misplaced, which is why I would use a belly band to keep them all together

As a class we then spoke about the feedback we had given so that Amber and Simon could see whether we were having any technical issues with printing our work.

I then asked a few more people for some feedback after the crit to clarify what I should do.

OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience: Crit

During today's crit we were put in groups and we were asked to present where we were up to with our work. My group was at 11.15 and there was quite a lot of us as many students were working in pairs. I found that it was a really interesting and helpful crit, everyone made valid comments and decisions were made concerning everyone's work.

I was given positive feedback and people considered the practicalities of mine, looking at the importance of being able to produce recipe cards which wouldn't get dirty and would be easy to use, as well as looking at what would be most manageable for the students.

The suggestions were as follows:

• A poster to use while cooking
• A shopping list of ingredients included for each recipe
• Laminate the cards
• Create placemats

Everyone also liked the idea of me including stickers within my work too, which students could use for tupperware and any food in the fridge. Another element everyone liked was the idea of supplying a tea towel with my own design printed on to it.

I therefore think I may reconsider my idea quite a lot and look at developing my idea of making some sort of calendar possibly with separate stickers supplied for students to use.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Presentation

 

 



OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience: Crit

Today we had to present our proposal boards. We signed up to crits with about 5 or 6 in each group. Our group consisted of Ellen, Harrison, Adam, J'nae and Vicky, Sam and I. We presented our work to Simon and two of the third years. All of whom gave us really useful feedback listed below:

• It might end up making homesickness worse - maybe need something to distract them
• Specific gender? Will boys use it?
• Create stamps online and send away the design
• How big will it be?
• Can you re-design stamps?
• How many are you going to produce?
• Cost?
• Stock?
• Focus on one idea
• Postcards instead of envelopes
• Recipe book you can write in yourself is a really good idea, more homely and personal
• Really important because a lot of people are homesick
• House box idea is amazing and makes it more interactive
• Really nice concept and well thought through design wise
• Consider time and cost
• Really like the concept of handwritten letters and recipe book
• Great design boards
• Production costs?
• Good use of primary research
• Really like the recipe book idea
• Well thought out idea
• Recipe book one of strongest ideas and could tie in envelopes and letters to coicide with that idea

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Evaluation Extra

DRINK TEA

How did we work as a group?

Group members failing to attend group meetings

Often we would arrange to meet as a group to discuss progression and development with our work. We would also meet to make important decisions which initiated the end concept and was the perfect opportunity for jobs to be given to each individual team member. This was frustrating as it meant that we would have to communicate via Facebook at the end of the day and reiterate what had already been said during the day.

Lack of enthusiasm and commitment

I felt as though there was a huge lack of enthusiasm with the brief a lot of the time and group members couldn't wait to leave to go home. There was always something that needed doing so it would have been helpful to have more people volunteering to help out rather than ask what needed to be done before leaving. I think some group members felt as though they didn't have a particular role in the group where design was concerned. This was voiced and I decided to be the person to give out possible suggestions of what could be done next. This is something that everyone in the group could have thought of themselves and if this had happened we would have been much more productive and ahead of schedule.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Evaluation

As a group what problem did you identify and why?

 

We looked at how drinking tea could me promoted and came up with the idea of linking it with charity so that it was related to something current. We chose to do this because we thought it was extremely important to try and make the idea relevant and apply it to a real life situation. This allowed us to essentially create our own live brief to be completed in time for Red Nose Day.

 

What methods did you use to gather your evidence to prove this was a problem and what forms did it take?

Primary
For primary research I initially went to stores in Leeds which had their own mugs and also photographed a cup I was given in M&S as I quite liked the design of it. Beth and Danielle visited Whittard's in Leeds also, to price up their tea as we were originally going to use theirs but it proved to be too expensive in the end. I also emailed Comic Relief for a fundraising pack which included balloons, stickers and a form to fill out for our donation. Harrison and I finalised the plans with the buildinds department which involved revising the floor plan and also filling out a risk assessment. We also asked permission from the cafe downstairs to see whether they would allow us to sell tea and they were absolutely fine with it as it was for charity. Harrison and I also tried to see whether it would be possible to get funding from the college for printing costs but it turned out that we were unable to. This wasn't an issue however, as we all contributed to the costs and didn't mind as it was for charity. Beth also brought cups from work for us which enabled us to get 100 free cups saving us all money.

Secondary
I looked for disposable cups and lids online, searched Amazon and eBay to find that they would be too expensive to buy. Especially as we wanted plain white ones which were good enough quality to use without spoiling our design. I researched bellyband designs as well as paper cups. Beth looked at branding and identity for 'Charitea', whilst Harrison looked at app designs.

Quantitative
For our quantitative we looked at the costs of the products we were sourcing as well as looking at the prices of the tea sold in the cafe to ensure we could sell our tea at a reasonable price. We then made sure we kept a note of which tea was sold and when by having a chart on the day whereby we marked it each time a cup was sold. This allowed us then to create a poster showing the results of our tea sales.

Qualitative

Our qualitative research consisted of feedback from tutors and students during our crits as well as group meetings. This allowed us to make sure that we were working well and producing the work we needed.

 

What methods of research did you find useful and why?

I found it useful actually going into shops and looking at existing designs. This helped me a lot as it enabled me to consider the designs whilst designing the bellyband. I would have loved to have developed the actual shape of the cups but this would have been impossible and not cost effective as we needed a large amount of cups for our stall. I also found it helpful carrying out secondary research on the internet and also using the packaging net book I took out of the library as this enabled me to create a variety of nets to work with.

 

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?

We could have possibly looked at carrying out a questionnaire to gather more primary research as this is always useful to do. In our situation however I don't think we would have benefitted much from this as the whole point was to discover the most favourable flavoured tea. Therefore if we had known this to start with it would have defeated the point.

 

How did you manage the workload as part of a group?

As a group I think we could have managed the workload much more successfully. I feel as though everyone was appointed specific jobs within the group but didn't necessarily get things completed straight away which meant that we would lose out on valuable time. Harrison and I worked really well together, making sure that everything was ready for the event by going to college for 8am on the Wednesday to get everything printed. We also ensured that everything was ready with Sarah the night before the event by storing everything in the stock room. I feel as though if everyone had succeeded in being at college every day we would have been able to successfully perform as a group. With this in mind we were given this obstacle to overcome and work with, which I feel we managed to do very well.

 

 

 

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Printing Costs

Today Harrison and I inquired about printing costs to Mike Flower. Simon suggested for us to ask about this because our brief is in aid of charity. However, when we went to ask we didn't get the response we had hoped for. We are therefore going to have to rethink our printing costs and the stock we are going to use. It all depends on how much we want to spend on printing as a group. I don't mind spending on it as it is for charity but we will have to have a group meeting about it.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Crit

Today we had another crit. We went into the studio and sat around in a circle with Simon and two other groups. The other two groups went before us and spoke about their work and what they had produced over the past two weeks. We gave our opinions to them and then Simon made some suggestions.

Then it was our turn to present our work. I started by explaining how we had come up with the idea of 'Charitea' to tie Comic Relief in with the theme of tea. I then showed the rest of the group the belly band I had produced to wrap around the cup and explained how I had contacted Comic Relief for balloons, stickers and a fundraising form. I also showed the print out of the character designs Sarah had illustrated and explained how I had developed the idea to represent tea bags and the shape of them. We also explained how we had to get permission before we could definitely go ahead with the tea stand. Harrison, Beth and Danielle then proceeded to explain the pieces of work they had produced.

We were given lots of positive feedback and nobody really made any suggestions for what we could improve or add to our design work. I was quite surprised really as there is usually always improvements which could be made. In terms of cost though, Simon did say that we could probably get funding from the college as it is a charitable event. We will be going to ask about this on Monday and we will be inquiring about it to Mike Flower as he is in charge of this. We then spoke about the donation of 50p for each cup of tea and mentioned that people may want to donate more. So I said that we would benefit from having a box to collect the money in and after the crit I said that I would take on this responsibility. Other people suggested maybe having biscuits if we got the college funding, something like rich tea biscuits to tie in with the theme. Victoria suggested that we could maybe print off stickers to stick on the balloons and make them our own, we may do this if we have the funding. 

We then asked about the A2 design boards and decided as a group that we would produce these on the Thursday before our presentation on the Friday morning.

I felt as though it was quite a useful crit in a sense that we were able to listen to other groups' ideas and compare the amount of work we had all produced and how different people had approached the brief. At the same time however I feel as though we, as a group didn't really gain that much in terms of developing designs. I am looking forward to doing some extra design work and creating the box because I feel as though there isn't much more that I can contribute with until we start printing promotional design work off next week.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Group Work Development

Today Harrison and I took on the responsibility to clarify a few issues relating to our tea stand. We went to the people in charge of building regulations and asked them whether it would be possible for us to go ahead with the tea stand on Thursday 7th February from 11am-2pm. We had a chat with them and discussed where we should locate it.

 

We were then asked to produce a floor plan to show where the table would be as well as the kettle and all of the other necessary equipment we will need. We also had to fill out a risk assessment sheet and email it back to them.

 

We then walked round the college to see how many floor stickers we will be needing and how many pages we will need to print them on. We made a to do list for the rest of our group as well which consisted of the following:

 

• Decide on font
• Contents and design sheet for poster
• Decide on logo
• Decide belly bands and bottom of the cup
• Crit and digitalise illustrations

 

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus: Power Crit

Today we had a power crit with Amber. We got together as a group before the power crit to make sure we had everything necessary ready. A couple of group members had proposed our idea to college on Friday and they said that we would have to complete a risk assessment form and draw out exactly where we would be setting up our tea stand.

We went outside the studio and decided the best place to locate the tea stand in the corridor but not in the way of any fire exits or entrances to any of the studios. We will be utilising the tap in the studio to fill up our kettle to make continuous amounts of tea.

After we had done this I asked the rest of the group about the brief and whether they had a written version from the weekend, but nobody had completed one so I asked the rest of my group to read over what I had written and everyone was happy with it so I printed it off ready for the power crit at 2pm.

During the crit Amber asked us where we were up to with our idea and we spoke about several issues. One of the issues was the fact that the Whittards tea would be too expensive and we would end up having lots left over which would go to waste. We therefore decided that we would use other flavoured tea bags which are more cost effective.

I also mentioned the cost of paper cups and how the ones I had found were quite expensive. Beth then mentioned that in her work they have lots that are often going spare so we are going to experiment with them before purchasing any.

Amber was happy with the brief and she was looking forward to the end result, as a group we are working really well together and I am excited to see what we produce.

OUGD406 - Design Is About Doing: Crit

I felt as though the crit today was very successful and I particularly liked the format of it. We were all put into groups, Harrison and I were assigned to a group and it turned out that most of our group weren't in today which meant that we were asked to join another group for today. In our group we therefore had James, Jane, Pri and Danielle.

I started by presenting my work and the concept behind each idea. I then asked the rest of the group for their responses and narrowed my designs down to three of the most successful. From this I was able to ask the group for suggestions about how I could possibly improve my work to strengthen the designs. 

Below are the two designs which were liked the most and the comments which were made about each one.

 

This design was liked by two of the group members as they liked the use of colour. They felt it created impact and they were instantly drawn to the heart. 

 

Everyone in the group liked this design and said that I could maybe try it with a red heart in the centre rather than a white heart, as it may draw in more attention. I will therefore show these changes and experiment before making a final decision on the most successful design.

I got most feedback on this design as it is quite detailed and I wanted to know what I could do to improve it. Once again I was told to try it with red in the design. It was suggested that I could change two lines vertically and two lines horizontally to just break the background lines up a bit. I was also told to maybe try erasing the lines from inside the tuxedo and placing heart inside it in the same way I had done on the first idea. 

I experimented with all of these ideas and came to the conclusion that I actually preferred the middle idea with the heart remaining white. This is because I felt as though the red in the centre was too harsh and it made the design look less professional.