Evaluation

When I wrote my statement of intent I stated that I wanted to carry on with my print based work, but also get a more rounded portfolio by gaining basic knowledge of indesign and started to do work that had a more considered format. I wanted to do all this under the theme of simplicity.
One brief that I think encompasses all of this is the collaborative interior design yearbook. The main role I took was in project management, but I also had input with the initial layout ideas, and I sat with dase and bel whilst they were doing the work, this meant I had an input in the whole project and picked up knowledge of in-design at the same time, something I wanted to do for my placement beginning in July. Doing the yearbook was a different project for me, I leant the difficulties of working collaboratively, but at the same time picked up skills that I stated I wanted.
With all the other briefs I tried to stick to the theme ‘keep it simple’, I think I managed to achieve this, I tried to keep the ideas simpel, allowing the work I produced to be simple. To kick start this I tried to do some quick turn around briefs, such as the end of year show and music in the mountains, these projects didn’t require a lot of research and got me going on designing.
To begin with I wanted to do book jacket design for my FMP, I started off with the rowing to Alaska book, but I got lost a bit, the work didn’t really have any relevance to what I was trying to achieve as I had just picked a random book, so I never quite finished the brief I set out for myself, although the work I did produce was relevant to what I wanted to achieve at the time, instead I developed the brief, and picked quotes from my history of writing book, this gave the work I was doing more relevance because it became about altering existing type so that it became disfunctional as text but functional as a pattern, I produced a screen print form this but wasn’t happy with it, so I developed the brief again, and chose to produce pattern from a bus timetable. I think that this is the first brief where I have really considered format, and instead of screen-printing the outcome I digitaially printed it; this allowed me to produce the work quicker and therefore produce a more considered outcome. I think this project lacks in research though and I whish id have had more time to do development work, allowing the patterns to maybe become a bit more experimental, I am carrying on with this brief though to produce large prints that can sit along side my book for the exhibition.
I think one of my weakest briefs is the geometrics brief. It started of as a competion brief for ‘ secret blisters’, but because I had produced so much development work for it I decided to use the patterns and produce products from them that could be sold in shops, I based what I produced around the shop ‘the owl & lion’ a shop in Edinburgh which I am hoping to get some work in over the summer, they sell artists cards and cushions est., so I produced products appropriate to their shop, and have sent them images of work.
I have produced a larger body of work then I thought I could, and I defiantly think I moved faster with my work, but not fast enough, and I know that I haven’t done enough research for any of my briefs and I maybe could have informed myself more, but I did keep myself aware through my blog and documenting designers / studios for my design context. I didn’t realize how useful my design context was to me until the last wk when I packaged it all together. I wanted to make it more of a directory so that I had a list of designers to reference, and doing the interviews was helpful as it made me realize that everybody started somewhere, and I also gained two good contacts from them (keep calm gallery & present correct).
I have stuck to my statement of intent pretty well I think, my work defiantly became more professional, I photographed my work a lot better for my website, something I stated I wanted to do, and I developed my time management so that I produced more work. I didn’t get better at my research though, something I would have liked to do as it always lets me down. I find that I see things and take a mental note but just forget to document them, and by the time I do its to late, I would have liked to take more time over research as I maybe would have moved my ides on faster.
I am pleased with the work I produced I know I put as much effort in as possible. There are gaps within my work, but I stuck to the plan that I set out for myself and developed it further.