Website!

So I FINALLY got my act together and put together my website with a few recent projects. The Cargo Collective site made it really easy to put the site together, easily uploaded projects and I even learned a bit of CSS + HTML. Good times.

 

http://cargocollective.com/bksgraphicdesign

OUPD101 - Personal and Professional Development.

I will be presenting my presentation to the rest of the group on Friday 10th June. Considerably nervous about the presentation at the moment so thought it would be a good idea to begin planning what I want the presentation to be about. Below are some rough ideas of what I want to include. Needs a lot of work and refining before I'm sure that the content works.

 

The main focus of the presentation is to be able to reflect on the past year, both as a designer but also personal development as well. Thought it would be a good idea to look at using inspirational quotes as well as funny things that have been said throughout the year to help focus the main points of the presentation.  

 

Won't post the rest of the presentation on here yet.. teeheeee.

OUGD103 End of Module Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN - LEVEL 4 

Module Code - OUGD103

Module Title – Design Practice 1.

End of Module Self Evaluation

Name - Baljeet Kaur Samra

Blog - www.b-samra1013.blogspot.com

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Having always struggled to work in a group during the Communication is a Virus brief I found that as we were working closely together and couldn't let the rest of the group know what were doing It was much easier, although as always there were issues I now find that working as part of a team is much easier. The Indesign workshops have proved useful both for the double page spread I had to create for Charlie but also for the Speaking from Experience brief where I made the book. Finally decided to make a book and although I didn't bind it properly (decided to staple it) I feel much more confident with the idea of designing and making a book. More than ever time management has been a major issue throughout the year but I feel that I have been much more organised now (despite not remembering to book a print slot in digital print) 

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

I have manage gather both primary and secondary research throughout this module, for Speaking from Experience I was able to gather opinions from everyone on the course. Researching examples of graphic design that I'm inspired by has been a major factor within my design practice. For the Design is about doing live brief I had more focused research on typography.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?  
Throughout this module I have been able to manage my time much better as I have been much more organised. Feel much more comfortable with both Illustrator and Indesign now as they are both an integral part of my work. I feel that my work is more print based and looking at different stocks and print techniques has had a positive impact on my work. Looking back throughout the year I found that most of my work is type based and I think that I have used to this my advantage throughout this module. I hope to focus more on type based design in the future. 

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully? 

I think that sometimes my work can be far too focused which means I loose sight of how I could really push my work further. I need to look at experimenting at earlier stages in the design process rather than making last minute changes. I think I also struggle with the finishing of my final products as I maybe make last minute decisions as to how the final pieces need to be presented. Looking at other examples of Graphic Design is useful and I often find that I leave it too late to start researching other types of design that is similar to what I am working on - hopefully in the future I will be more focused when it comes to researching other works of design.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?  
1/ Book a print slot for digital print a month before deadline.. especially during the end of the year.
2/ Experiment more during the development stages of my work rather than keeping too focused on one idea.
3/ Take into account the audience and who it is I'm designing for as this will give me better direction. 
4/ Take criticism in a constructive way.
5/ Be more motivated and find ways of motivating myself when things aren't going to plan.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

(please indicate using an ‘x’) 

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation			X
Commitment					X
Quantity of work produced				X
Quality of work produced			X
Contribution to the group			X

Speaking from Experience - Final products.

 

Having had time after the crit, I really wasn't happy with the initial posters that I had began to develop.. although there was great continuity within the design once I began developing these posters I thought that they worked much better. I would like to get these screen printed sometime as I think they think they would look great on some crisp white stock in red maybe? Mmm. Didn't reprint the packaging as I wasn't able to get into drop in for digital print (my own fault i know..) Found some misprints in the book too, nice. Despite this I'm really happy with the final outcome. This brief was more than just creating something for the first years it was about reflecting on the year that I had and the design skills that I learned and enjoyed. 

If I had the chance to do this brief again I would a) book a time in digital print b) screen print my posters c) have more fun with it and not get so stressed.

InDesign Final Layout

 

So this is my final DPS for Charlie. Quite happy with the way it turned out but I could still develop it further. The major changes that I made from my initial ideas was to have the dashed line and putting in the blocks of colour behind the questions. Decided to have the background a really dark grey instead of having it totally black. Also changed the typeface to 'print clearly' instead of 'arial' think that this works much better.Just need to get the final layout printed out now.

Portfolio

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Speaking from Experience - Final crit 20/05/11

Had the final crit today, working in pairs I was with Niall and we were critting Steph and Mitch's work. Lewis and Chris critted mine and the feedback I got was quite positive.

Problem Analysis - Very Good

Identification and evaluation of key issues relating to the brief including creative oppurtunities, Target audience and appropriate contexts.
Comments: Aimed towards Graphic students, words and names only relevant to this course - meets brief
Contexts
Issue isn't set on only one problem, multiple issues which create a helpful book.
Maybe experiment with colour.

Contextual Understanding - Excellent

Awareness of the creative and professional context for the work produced, informed by the critical analysis a range of appropriate contemporary creative practices and methods of distribution
Comments: Development work is really well done.
Experiment with different stocks + designs work really well
As mentioned if colour was shown it would be a good addition 

Research - Very Good

Evidence of the ability to gather material from a breadth of sources using a range of diverse and inventive primary and secondary research methods appropriate to the brief
Comments: Although no research present the design has so much info + detail it would be difficult to not think research was undertook
emails, open times, details - very good.

Additional Comments
We both really like the design. simple. effective.
A really good way of speaking about multiple issues but keeping it interesting.
Tracing paper was a bit hard to read.
Really good :)

Really happy with the feedback I got back from Chris and Lewis and think that the only changes I could focus on for module submission would be to add some colour and consider some other stock as well as improving the packaging.. Hoping to be able to print the packaging out onto glossy paper in the digital dungeon providing I can get in during the drop in times. Looking back at the design of the dictionary I think I focused too much on keeping it in the style of the dictionary and could have thought about varying the design a bit more as well as making it more obvious that the pages printed on trace can be torn out. This is something I can alter for the final deadline. I wasn't too sure that newsprint was the best stock to use but when talking to Charlie and Marty they both said that it worked better than the thicker stocks that I had used. A way of ensuring that I could use a better stock would be to look at changing the format of the dictionary by making it slightly bigger maybe even A5 so that I could have more than one term on the page. Also I think the finishing could have been better and would have hoped to print the cover on a thicker stock rather than just paper. It's taught me to book a print slot at least 3 weeks before the crit deadline especially now that it is getting to the end of the year. Other ideas I could pursue would be to create a notebook or sketchbook in the same style of the dictionary, having some definitions on the pages. Also thought that it would be good idea to print out the digital print times, prices and opening times for mac suite/av suite an put them up in the studio - so that everyone knows when the times are!

Speaking from Experience - Crit - 06/05/11

Had the first crit today for the Speaking from Experience brief where we explained what our initial idea was. Using my concept boards I explained how I wanted to incorporate tips and tricks on how to survive the course and how I had developed this by coming up with the idea of a graphic design dictionary.

Feedback:
Good idea, stay focused and consider the method of delivery, a leaflet or poster might just get binned after a while but incorporating the definitions into a notebook / diary would be more suitable.

Taking this on board, I will finish putting together the definitions for the different words relevant to the course and then think about the final outcomes, researching the type of notebook or sketchbook that would be most useful for a new student.

Speaking from Experience - Initial design direction boards.