Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN – END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

Module Code - OUGD201 Module Title DESIGN FOR PRINT

Level 02 Semester 01 Credit Value 20


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

I have developed my research skills and took a more independent approach to my work. I found this quite difficult at first but i am enjoying the challenge of organising my own time and trying to keep on top of projects. I have learned a lot of skills with regards to print and colour, and the workshops have helped me apply these skills. I have developed my practical skills using print, through trying screen print, letterpress and various technical aspects to do with print in software like Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator. These will become a key part to my future work and preparing myself and my work for industry.
Print is a really important part of design so all the skills i have learned are crucial. I know more about colour, like CMYK, RGB, Spot colour and using Pantone books, grayscale, duotone and monotone. My approach to using colour in my work will be improved because the knowledge and skills i have developed throughout this module will be a consideration in the future, so i will be able to produce more professional work and better quality designs.


2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

Being independent has become an important aspect for me to carry out my work, organising a visit to a print company with Jonathan really enhanced my research and i gained a lot of knowledge as a result. In future i will use my independence more readily to improve my design approach.
I have developed my idea generation, getting into the habit of drawing out designs and layouts before i start using the mac. I felt i had started to fall into the trap of reaching out for my computer because it was the "easiest" thing to do. It does not help generate the ideas for me though and testing out other possibilities finds interesting results to use in my work. I enjoyed the hands-on work i produced throughout the good brief like mock-ups and test pieces, like creating type with water. Although it didn't create a resolution for this project the technique was interesting and i plan to develop it further as a personal investigation.


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

I think one of the strengths in my work were the different approaches to research. I took advantage of the resources available to me when finding out about print, going on a visit, Writing to print companies to get samples. Going that bit further with research helps my work to develop and enhances the final solutions. In the future i will capatalise on opportunities available to me to improve research and the design process. I think concept development and idea generation is quite strong in my work. It is a key part to the design process so i always try to have a broad range of research to develop a concept which will lead to strong designs and resolutions. I think without a strong concept i struggle to create solutions that resolve the problem being set. I also think the resolutions for design for print were quite strong, i liked the humor involved in the designs.


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

Again time management needs to be improved for me. At the beginning of this module i found it difficult to motivate myself and start working more independently on briefs being set. This lead to a mad rush the last few weeks of the module as i realised there was a lot i could have done and resolved a lot sooner. In future i will plan my time more to fit all the different modules in so i have sufficient time to complete them. Using action plans regularly will help me get to grips with what i have to complete, and i will set my own deadlines for completing aspects of briefs. I feel like some parts of my project could have been improved by better time management because some of my research throughout this module could have been documented better. Also some of the design sheets weren't as strong as others throughout the two briefs due to poor time management.



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

1. Action plans - keep a record of what i have to do and why i have to do it, this will help me keep on track when multiple briefs are underway. I will know what has to be a higher priority at different times.
2.Make sure the quality and quantity of my work is more consistent so the resolutions are justified and completed to a high standard, to the best of my ability.
3.Be more confident when it comes to independent learning, go out, look for different opportunities that can improve research and my designs.
4.Exploit tests and experiments more throughout my work to make more interesting design solutions.
5.Talk more about my work with peers and tutors, this will help push my designs forward and bring out new ideas, approaches and direction for my work.


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


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


Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 4
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 4
Quality of work produced = 4
Contribution to the group = 4

The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Presentation boards - Final crit

Here are the boards i presented for my final crit. A lot of good advice was thrown about which i will take on board when amending them for the final submission, overall it think it went quite well so... yey

Water is good

Heres a few of the experiments i did with water and type, the font is Arno pro. I wanted to see if i could create the brand name of my bottled water in actual water. I think as individual pieces they are quite nice but not quite what i was looking for on the actual bottle packaging/labels. It was good to test this out and at least i know it is possible for future projects, where i can adapt the technique.

Studio Ghibli

I've been working on my good brief and ive been listening to tracks from the studio ghibli films -Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Hisaishi is the artist that performs the tracks. Ive never put a post up here about the S.G films but i think they're awesome. Howls Moving Castle is my def. favourite. The detail in the work is unbelievable.

Studio Ghibli was established in 1985, following the success of Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. Led by the Oscar®-winning Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, the studio became a forerunner in animation, producing features loved in Japan and beyond. Here's where you can find out all the latest news on Studio Ghibli cinema and DVD releases from Optimum, check out a great selection of stills in the Image Gallery and read more about each of the films in the collection. (website)

Letterpress induction

A very time consuming process but i enjoyed it all the same!

Screen print

Here are some prints i did in the screen print induction, i found it helpful because it refreshed my memory on the ins and outs of the process, one of the images shows awful registration as u can see the type is all misaligned. This is supposed to be a three colour print, using 3 screens, however as a group we only had chance to do the two.

Print company research and sample packs

Here are some of the samples i received from two print companies, they have given me ideas of costings for jobs and different stocks available from different printers. One print company is more specialised and they deal with printing cards, from postcards business cards to greetings cards. the other provides a wide range of printing solutions from letterheads, postcards and business cards etc.

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2.)

Visit to Printforms

On Friday with Jonathan, we both made a visit to his Dad's print company. Paul Chapman and some of the other guys showed us round and all the printers they use. It was really informative and a great help with the current print briefs. Paul even showed us how he estimates jobs and invoices them, because we can't actually print our work commercially for the good brief this will gave me an insight into how i should cost my job up.
I gathered a lot of examples of the types of work they print at Printforms and different paper stocks. Here are some photos ad videos of the printers. Oh yeh and the guillotine they use is awesome!

http://www.printforms.co.uk/

Old plates - the green ones - used to be used at print forms, they were metal, now they use a new plate that is plastic based (i think) anyway the image is burnt onto the plate using UV light, when described it reminded me of setting up a screen for screen print. Any way the plates are for each colour channel. The new plates are more efficient because they can be made straight from a computer. The plates are stored for a while after a job so a re-run can be done for a client if needed.





Lots of paper/stock, there were stacks of it all round the printers and i got some free samples, there were two nice samples of sticky backed stock i got one with a black cover on the back so if it was stuck to glass or a window light doesn't shine through it, the other was sticky backed but light could go through it. I think it would be good to experiment with this type of stock sometime.



Job done - storage



Jonathan upstairs in the storage part




Oldskool printer bought for £100











Four colour process printer





Videos i took:

Print college visit

Went to the print college to get a better understanding about the different ways to print design. It was helpful although more time looking at the actual machines and how they work would have been great to see, that's why I've organised to go to another print company with Jonathan to go check it out in more detail. Anyway here is some photos of the print college...

Four colour process printer:





Offset Litho printer:



Metal plate roller, ink is applied to transfer the image, first to a buffer then to the stock:




Screen print roller (Very worn and tatty!):





another printing plate:



Some prints that were by the printer:

shrink sleeve

For the "Good" brief i chose to look at water, i am focusing on bottled water and i am going to design a series of bottle labels for a new brand of water that helps you stay thin, this is aimed at people that go to the gym. From my research into the types of people that go to the gym, their are always people that you wish just weren't there, or you just don't quite get why they are there. For example why do some women think its ok to sit on a machine doing basically nothing gassing away to their mate? Also i feel sorry for the larger person who has basically been forced to the gym by their GP, and whats with the guys that think their God's gift and won't stop looking in mirror. Not to mention the steroid lovers! All these people have inspired me to design a bottle of water just for them, it will be fake, pointless just like them.

The processes i have been researching for print are Flexography labelling and flexo shrink sleeves for bottles. Heres a neat little anim that show shrink sleeve in production...

First things First Manifesto 2000