Reflection and Planning

Year 3

Semester 1

Plan for this week – 14/09/10

I have got to carry on researching for both my thesis and my FMP
Today i need to an hour to 2 hours reading and then get onto researching for my FMP
I need to look into the writing of stories more and start coming up with more ideas of possible stories that i could go with and put forward to the target audience as potential ideas.

Plan for tomorrow 23/09/10

Finish off my first draft of my Thesis Proposal.
Start to refine my practical proposal.
Work extensively on research and start to look at other childrens books.
Try to start both of my questionnaire’s for my thesis and my FMP.

26/09/10

I have just finished my first official week back at University. It has been a fairly productive week where I have managed to get a good amount of work done but not as much as I would have liked!

Over the summer I managed to gather a good range of research for my FMP and I have also done reading for my thesis. I have had a busy summer but I could have possibly put more work in so I would not have to do so much in the next few weeks!

For my FMP I have gathered a good range of different children’s books, where I have analysed the stories themselves as well as the illustration. I have looked at a range of illustrators as well and it will all be inspiration for me when I start to work on the books.

My original plan for my project was to do 3 books and 3 animations that I write and illustrate myself but I am starting to take another direction in this project. I have been looking at using an old story and bringing it to a new audience. This could be a better way to go as my ideas for my books have not been the best so far and I have no experience in writing a book so it could turn out mediocre and I want this project to be my best ever!

My thesis reading has taken a bit of a backstep recently, I need to start getting into reading it a bit more. I have my plan for it structured now so I now know what I have got to research on more. I have to start writing it soon too.

I have not exactly been lethargic this summer and over the first week back but i can certainly step it up. I need to step it up if i want to achieve the grades i am aiming for! So next week i have to put more effort in and try and be more productive!

Plan for tomorrow – 31/09/10

Continue with my sketchbook research
Read and research more for my thesis start to find examples that i am going to talk about and try and find other peoples views on my topic
Get my questionnaires printed and start sending them off to people

01/10/10

This week has been a fairly good one! I started off a bit sluggish and not working well enough. As with research I find it hard to really concentrate and get a good amount of work done, this needs to be improved on in the next week.

I have now done my questionnaires and they are ready to be filled out. I have done a parents questionnaire and a separate children’s questionnaire. I thought it was important to get both the perspectives as its not just important to find out what the children want but also what the parents want the children to want. I will look forward to seeing the results of my questionaires.

This week I have managed to get some ideas going and more research into other designers and illustrators. I feel I have been too narrow in my research and I now need to start expanding and looking into more forms of design other than illustration. Typography and animation are also important parts of my project and my research on these subjects has been a bit thin so this needs to be expanded on.

My ideas also need to get into more development. I have not come up with enough story ideas. I am still thinking whether to use an existing story, I have stayed unsure what to chose but at this present stage I think it is better for me to keep my options open at this stage. The old stories needs to be researched into more.

My thesis has not been worked enough on this week I have not done enough reading and I need to dedicate some time into this next week. I have been finding examples of work I can talk about in my thesis, I do not want to use a standard example but rather something that is little heard of. I have been finding some interesting research recently and I want to expand on this further over next week.

Next week is a very important one. I need to step up my research and start taking it away from just getting secondary research. I now need to start looking at exhibitions and getting my questionnaires all filled out. So next week is the time to really step it up!

09/10/10

This week has been a tough one where I have worked hard, but I still feel like I haven’t worked hard enough. I have got an important two weeks ahead of me and i have to work better now.

For my FMP I have now got some quantitative research done! I got my questionnaires filled out by some parents and children so it has been a good start. I got some interesting feedback such as children at seven read are into non-fiction stories such as harry potter which is surprising for me as I would have presumed before hand that they are developed enough to read something as advanced as that. Shows that the research was well worth doing.

I also managed to go and see a few exhibitions and get some market research done! I saw the peter rabbit exhibition at the V&A, visited the Harrods children section and went to the Bethnal Green toy museum. The peter rabbit exhibition was interesting, in how the story started and developed over the years. The exhibition displayed original sketches and notes which gave an interesting insight into the early stages of the story which is where I am at at the moment with my stories.

I have started off my presentation work and I am developing that at the moment. The deadline is next Friday so I really have got to work hard over the next couple of week

To do next week…

My written proposal, research, thesis research and presentation.

14/10/10

This week has been my toughest so far this year. With the deadline for my development and ideas concepts coming up I have been completely focused on this recently. For this deadline I have to get ready a broad range of research, my idea development, a 600 word written proposal and my presentation of my project.

On the research front I have managed to get 30 odd children’s questionnaires and about 20 parent’s questionnaires filled out. I have got some interesting feedback and it has definitely been worth it. I can now develop my research further by developing my project such as story choices on the results from the questionnaires. I have also found some interesting work by a few designers which I have not heard before which has been promising.

My idea development has been coming on well. I have a good amount of strong concepts coming on now and due to results from my questionnaires I can now see that they will be well received by both children and parents.

On the experiment front I have now started it off and I have a done a good range of experiments. Some of my experiments have not been successful but that is the idea of experimentation that some work will not go well and you have to test first.

This has been a good week where I have worked hard. I have stepped it up and if I continue this good work over the next week then I will be in a good place with this project and I will not be panicking about having to get done last minute work!

The plan for next week…

More experimentation needs to take place, develop my ideas further focus on my presentation, show my questionnaires research in the most effective way on the presentation and begin reading and researching for my thesis again.

Year 2

Semester 1

Summer work evaluation – 29/10/09

I have been working this week by extending the work I have done over the summer. For the design practice 3 module I have this week chosen my historical event which is the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. I have chosen this due to how it was a huge event in our history and literally changed the world. The event of the wall coming down signified the fall of communism and the U.S.S.R, and also it meant the end of the cold war. This subject interest’s me and gives me a lot of scope to do work around. Over the summer I collected a range of information on the Berlin wall and this week I have been gathering work on designers. I have come up with some different ideas of layouts for the 3 typographic posters I am required to do. For my posters I want them to show the divide of which the wall had the effect on, and I wanted to show that when the wall was constructed it tore up the streets of Berlin. So I thought of using a torn effect so it can show this. Also by tearing it in half in the middle shows how the wall tore the city in two and by doing this it shows that. I have now got my idea in place which is good so I can now move forward. So this week I have done quite well but I would have liked to of done some more work by actually making a start to roughs for my posters. So it is important for next week to be doing that. I am quite pleased with this week’s work in that I have my idea and I feel as though it a strong idea that I feel can turn out well, but next week i will look to step up my work.

In the professional practice module I haven’t exerted myself as much as I have on my design practice 3. Over the summer however I did a fair bit of work and I managed to get quite a lot done on this module. I came up with a few ideas which I quite like and would think would make myself stand out which is important. I still need to come up with more ideas however as I could still come out with a better idea that would be more initiative and therefore would make me stand out even more which is very important. The one thing I do lack on in this subject is research into companies and designers for this module so I need to by early next week of got that completed.

This week I have started my critical theory work. This is my weakest subject and would be where I would need to improve on the most. The small essay i did this week i felt was a good start and i can now only improve on this.

My early progress – 1/11/09

Today I had a good critical theory session where I produced a 600 word essay. I feel now my essay has improved from last week which I am pleased with. But I still feel like a lot more improving needs to be done.

I have fallen a bit behind lately with the personal promotion brief. This is due to not finding a strong enough idea that I felt i could go with. This has delayed me hugely and I now need to catch up. On the positive side I have now found my strong idea. I have decided to go with an idea where I produce a small illustration book. This Book will be done similar to a children’s illustration book but with more adult friendly illustration. It will be in an a2 size and will be called “A small book about me”. It will also be a small portfolio where I will showcase the strongest bits of my previous work. I have done a layout plan aswell so i now know what i need to do. I can now go from here and start to produce roughs. I need to create the front cover, consider my type of font, and also make a start on illustrations. This should all be started by the end of this week.

My poster design for the Berlin wall event is going well so far and I feel as though I am on track for it. I know what direction I am going in due to the roughs I have created. I now need to consider about how I will incorporate textured paper and paint into the poster design. I also need to consider the typeface I am going to use for my posters. Tomorrow i need to commence on this project and by tomorrow i would need to have set myself up for actual work on starting the posters which I plan to start over the weekend.

8/11/09

This week had been a productive one so far. In my design practice module I have put a lot of time in and i have managed to finish off my three posters. For my posters I wanted to achieve a rough, old and torn theme throughout and I have achieved this. I am pleased with the end result. I just now need to make a few adaptations and finishing touches to it then I will be finished. I have just realised that i have made a typo mistake on the 2nd poster and I now need to adapt this but it should not be much of a problem.

On the professional practice module i have experimented with my 3 strongest ideas. I have looked into doing a puzzle, a coaster or a small illustration book. After doing roughs on all 3 ideas I have decided to go with the small illustration book. I now need to research illustrators and then commence working on it.

16/11/09

This week has been my most productive so far. I have managed to get a good amount of work done and I am happy with my progression in my work. On my design practice 3 module I have completed my posters part of this brief. I have added the final touches and I have also completed my sketchbook in this section. I am happy with the finished result now. It has turned out how I wanted it to and I can now start to focus on my information design part. Last week I did a mind map on this and this was a good exercise as it gave me the scope to give me a variety of ideas. My strongest idea so far is by using a timeline to show the important events of why the wall was built, when it was built, what happened during its 39 year history and also the reasons behind why the it fell and the event of the fall. I thought I could also use barbed wire as the timeline its self, so it relates to the wall itself. I also thought I could have pictorial images coming out of it (pictograms) this would be a simple yet effective way of making the information clear. I now need to commence with development of this idea or look into my other ideas as well.

On my professional practice module I have looked at my various ideas and created roughs for them. For my puzzle idea I created a rough for it and now I realise that it is not a strong enough idea as the rough did not come out well. Also my coaster idea did not turn out so well but it was more successful than the puzzle. This lead to me to go with my small illustration book idea as its something that is a bit more initiative and also would make me stand out. The book being ideal to showcase my work I also like, so it can be like a portfolio as well. I have started producing some illustrations for this book and I am now in the development phase. I now have an idea of which direction I am heading so I feel positive about getting this completed in the next 2 weeks.

With my critical theory module I now decided to do an essay on appropriation and plagiarism. This is a subject that interests me and would be interesting to an essay around.

22/11/09

In my professional practice module I have been putting a lot of time into getting my illustration book done. The design for this book has been a timely process; it has taken a lot of time considering the layout for the book. The front cover for my book has taken a lot of time in particular. This is due to that I wasn’t happy with my initial cover I done as I didn’t feel that it stood out enough. I have now come up with a cover that I am now happy with my cover as it stands out well and creates a good first impression, which is important. I have also produced an illustration for this book. This again took a lot of time and consideration to produce. It was a timely process as I put together different elements all together on computer. This meant a lot of adjusting to the illustration to make it strong; of course this is an advantage of using a computer as you can edit the illustration again and again. The layouts displaying my work in my book I am quite pleased with. I now need to get my layouts and finalised and add a few finishing touches then I would of completed my book.

In my design practice 3 modules I haven’t been putting in the designated time for this as I have been focusing on getting my book done. I need to now focus on getting this done for the rest of the week. I have come up with my idea and I know where I am going. I have produced roughs for my barbed wire timeline idea and I just need to put it into computer with the pictograms I have also produced.

I had a lecture on illustration this morning, which I felt was very interesting. I can maybe consider doing my essay on this subject.

26/11/09

This week I have been very busy with other commitments. I have however added the final touches to my illustration book and i have also drawn up the roughs for my pictograms for my information design. I have also drawn the barbed wire timeline and so far it looks like its heading in the right direction. I am again working tomorrow but I have a slot in the evening to commence on putting my pictograms onto computer. My plan for tomorrow is to do just this and then i should be all done on the information design in the next couple of days.

28/11/09

Today has been a productive day! I have been working on my information design and I have managed to complete my pictograms aspect of the information board. This was due to last night drawing up the pictograms on graph paper. This meant today I could transfer it onto computer using the pen tool in illustrator. This meant it was efficient and was quickly done. This process turned out to be quicker than I first thought. I can now focus on putting together my text and headers. This will need to be considered strongly as the wording is very important.

As far as the professional practice goes I just need to print it out then form it into a book. The design and final touches have been done and this is all I need to do.

I am happy with my progress so far on my projects. I am on schedule and I am now at the final stages of each project. Tomorrow I just need to get going with my text part of my information board then I can add the final touches on Friday.

29/11/09

I am pleased with how today went. I have been working on my information design project. I have managed to put my text into the timeline. The text I wanted to keep as short as possible. For my age range of A-Level students I don’t want to daunt them with too much text. This is why the pictograms had to be well designed so they are interesting to the viewer and they also bring across the information. It is important to bring the information across in an engaging way. I believe my information board I have designed is visually interesting and brings across the information in a simple and engaging way. This is what I have set out to do and I am pleased with my end result.

Tomorrow I need to add the final touches and look for typos in the text for my information board. Also I need to print out and form my book for my professional practice. I haven’t looked at different companies enough and I need to start looking into that. If I can achieve this then I would have achieved all my goals for this week.

29/11/09

6/12/09

This week has not been my most productive week. As I have started off to new projects I have been in the thought process and gathering ideas stage for each project. My ideas I am generally happy with but I haven’t developed as large a body of work as I have been doing in recent weeks and I need to now step it up a bit.

With my grove fresh brief I have come up with a range of ideas. The ideas are mixed as some are quite strong and some are weak. I have 3 strong ideas that I am going to follow up and develop more. I need to work on simplifying them down and make them as iconic and simple as possible.

With my moving image brief I have produced a rough storyboard for it. My ideas have turned out to be quite good. I just need to now start putting it into order on my sketchbook and then start putting it onto computer.

14/12/09

Unfortunately down to injury playing sport I have only been able to make it into college one day this week. I have been working from home all week. I have however been able to get a good amount of work done. In my Grove Fresh Brief I have formulated a number of logos and I have 3 strong logos I can go with. I have also been working on the packaging. I have produced different packaging for the different logos. I have produced 1 finished template to go with one of my logos. I now need to produce the 2 more finished templates to go with my 2 more logos then I will be all finished on my project.

In my Moving Image project I have not been so pro-active. I have got my ideas for it done. I have produced a few images on illustrator that will be used in my moving image piece. I still have more stills to d on illustrator before I can then put it onto after effects to produce the moving image. This is what I need to do much more on this week instead of focusing on one project!

With my essay progress I have found it hard so far to get much done. I have researched and planned my work this is a good starting point. I have started the essay itself but I am a long way from completion and I am falling a bit behind with my essay in particular and I need to catch up now.

As from next week I will again have more time off. I am going into hospital for a few days for an operation. This is again more lost time at college. I will again have to all my work from home this week. Hopefully I can get enough work done so I am not behind!

20/12/09

This week has been a frustrating one. I have been working hard on getting my essay done. I have finally managed to complete my first draft for this essay. I feel as though it is the strongest essay I have done so far. It was a constant struggle as I find essay writing hard but I have managed to get an ok essay together. It obviously needs a lot of work but I want it to be the best it can possibly be.

I have been working on my other 2 briefs also. On my Grove Fresh Brief I have managed to get all 3 logos finalized and also 3 templates per logo completed. I now need to produce move boards for my presentation on Wednesday.

In my Moving image brief I have started producing the stills. I have done a few more but I still need to do more before I can put this onto after effects to make it into a video.

Due to having an operation this week I have lost more time and I now need to put maximum effort into the next two weeks to catch up as I am falling behind. It is frustrating as I don’t want to be in this situation but I am confident I can catch up.

25/12/09

This week I have been working really hard to catch up on lost time. I have had a very productive week too and I have managed to put in the time to catch up. My work is now up to date which I am happy with.

On my Grove fresh brief I have now completed this and produced 3 different logos and 4 templates to go with these logos. I have visualized them onto 3d too, this was done using photoshop and the end result shows how my templates would work when it becomes a carton. I am pleased with the final results and I feel as though I have shown 3 very different options that all have their own different quality’s. I have also produced 4 mood boards to show my progression from the start of the process through to the end product, this will be presented today to brand opus.

In my moving image project I have produced my stills but I am now currently in the place where I need to put it onto after effects and this is really what I need to focus on this week.

Finally with my essay I have done my first draft and I now need to get my second draft done but the hard work has been done and i only need to edit it now.

Brand opus presentation – 26/12/09

Two employees from Brand Opus came in yesterday to give a presentation and also gave everyone a chance to present their work and ideas to them via the mood boards. The presentation I found very interesting. The way how packaging design has so much to it than meets the eye became clear in this presentation. The way how psychology is used in packaging was all new to me and I found this particularly interesting. They showed us how the brain works such as the brain shortcuts information. For example it naturally breezes through text without reading it fully. What I found particularly interesting was finding out that we recognize things by their visual distinctions and not by their sameness. Also the way how once you have learnt an image then you cant change it.

My presentation itself was a very good experience. The feedback I got I will take on board as I got both positive and negative comments about my work. They told me that two of my ideas was good but one of them was not quite as good. This was the wheel logo idea as they thought it looked too much like an orange. This is very true and now I realize that this idea was not a strong one. My other ideas were quite a lot better however and they said they do need to be adapted a bit but ideas are there. I was pleased with these comments on these ideas. It was good experience to present my work as I will need to do this in my career.

They finished off with a presentation on their solution to the brief. They showed so many ideas which were finished off to show how it would look on the pack. It was interesting to see there solutions and I thought a few of their ideas were strong and I liked there final solution in particular.

1/12/09

I have been working extensively on my moving image project. I am finding it a timely process as I have been editing it all the time with bits I am not pleased with. I am enjoying the challenge of putting it all together and I now have got 35 seconds of my animation completed but I still have alot more to fit in and maybe I will need to take things out as it could go beyond a minute.

I have also been looking through the D&AD briefs and I have a few possible projects that I feel have some scope so I just need to consider which brief will be the best for me.

The plan for this week is to focus on getting my essay as good as possible and to keep improving it. I also need to continue my work on my moving image. I am currently stuck on a part of my animation and I need a little guidance then I will be back on track.

5/12/09

I have been working hard this week and I have achieved my goals. I wanted to complete my moving image piece which I have done so. I am very happy with how this went. For my moving image work I created an animation on the struggles of escaping from communism. Many people tried desperatly to escape from communism in East Germany and many through Berlin. My video shows people escaping and what they did to try and stop people from escaping. I want to raise awareness to this issue in my animation and I also want to create the emotion of sadness and struggle to the viewer. I believe that I have done so and i’m pleased with my end result. I have really enjoyed creating the animation. I found the use of text very interesting and the amount you can do with text and also imagery invigorating. I integrated a few of my pictograms into my animation also and I used text to represent the wall. When certain words were used then I would use these words to my advantage and represent the words, such as with the word ‘built’ for this I put each letter on top of each other in order one after another so it gets the feel of being built. Also having my pictograms along with the text has come together well. One of the most important aspects of my animation was to choose the correct music so it integrates with the animation. I wanted an upbeat old fashioned style song. I looked at mainly classical music such as piano and orchestra songs. I choose the piece “Jorge Quintero- 300 violin orchestra” as this works the best with my animation and integrates with it all well.

I am also getting there with my essay. I am trying my upmost best to improve this and do the best I can with it. Essay writing does not come naturally to me and I find it extremely hard to do them. It is an area that I am very weak at but I have put my very best efforts into the essay and that is all I can do.

8/12/09

This week I have got to focus my time on my essay to make it the best I can. I have been doing alot of work on refining my essay over the last few days and I have made my essay much better. It still has a long way to go however and this is why this week I need to focus on this.

My practical work is going well and I am ahead of schedule with it. The hard work is starting to pay off and I am nearing the end of a projects. My moving image piece I have tweaked and its starting to all come together nicely. This week will be an important one and my main focus will be on my essay!

10/12/09

I have now managed to complete my essay! I have finally done all the harvard referencing which was a timely a process but I am glad it has got out of the way. I have learnt a lot doing my essay. I have learnt how important it is not to repeat myself and not to waffle which I was guilty of in my first essay. I have also learnt to make sure I keep going back to my essay to make it stronger and its important to rephrase certain parts. I researched my essay fairly well but I could have been more extensive as I that would have given me more scope to write on. I found the subject I chose very interesting and I had strong views on appropriation and plagiarism and I enjoyed these views. In my essay I researched the artist Sherine Levine, initially I regarded her work as plagiarism but after learning more about why she did a picture of a picture called ‘After Walker Evans,1981′. But after a while i changed my views and it made me realise that its appropriation. At first I felt she just copied the work but I now realize that she has taken a previous bit of work into a new era and the fact that her work has much more deeper meaning. I learnt a lot in doing this essay and thats a positive to take out of it even though I did not enjoy doing it.

I am currently looking into the different briefs on offer from D&AD and YCN. I want to try something new and something im not used to doing. My area where I havent always done well in the past with is advertising so I could maybe do a advertising project. This will be looked at in more depth tomorrow.

Christmas break progression – 23/12/09

Admittedly I have not been working as hard as I could have been. But I have been keeping busy by pursuing my other interests (mainly badminton). But I feel as though I have been working so hard recently that I deserve this reward. The fact that I have completed all the work that is due in january has also meant that I can have a break. I have been recharging my battery’s in a way but I still have done some work. I have been working on my D&AD/ YCN briefs.

I am at the ideas stage of this project and I have narrowed it down to four briefs out of the wide selection. Two of these are advertising, one is book jackets design and the last one is an illustration project. As a designer myself I like to consider myself as being fairly versatile. But my main weakness throughout my studying has been on advertising. So in a way I want to put myself out of my comfort zone and try an advertising project. I want to be able to say I can do advertising too, so choosing a advertising project could be a good choice. But I also am really into illustration and the brief I am looking at is about illustrating the O2 arena which is a project that does interest me a lot. But so does the advertising projects and from the two projects I have chosen I have managed to come up with some promising ideas that can be developed further.

So the plan is to develop my ideas further from each project then by next week I need to choose the project that has the most promise and then start to research and develop my ideas even further.

Reflection over last semester – 2/01/10

I believe I have asserted myself quite well over the last semester. Stepping up from doing a HND to going on to a degree was hard at first, but I have managed to get used to the extra amount of work. I am enjoying the course and I am enjoying the challenge that the course has set me. There still is a lot to improve on however.

On my professional practice module I feel as though I have done quite well. I am happy with what I have produced but I am not completely thrilled. My book I produced has turned out well but I am unsure if it will catch the potential employers eye enough. It was designed to show how I am an all round designer but I feel it’s too illustrative. This could put off potential employers (stereo typing myself) as I am not just illustrative and I have an interest in all fields of graphic design. But I am pleased with the end product and I feel its strong enough to stand out, I will just have to find out how it is received when I send it out. On the research side of things I haven’t been organised enough. I have done a majority of my research into companies over Christmas. I should have been working on this before and I have left it till too late on.

On my design practice 3 module I have been pleased with what I have achieved so far. I have experimented with new techniques and I pushed myself. My historical event I choose was the Berlin wall. This proved a good choice as it such a significant and interesting event in our history. I was pleased with my typographic posters I did and by making it by hand worked well. I used acetone on the type onto paper then I ripped up the paper then stuck it on again. This gave it an edgy and old look to it and I was happy with the end result. But on the negative side all three posters don’t differ enough and they look too similar.

The information board I produced I was pleased with too. I produced a board that tells the information in an effective and attractive way. I used barbed wire for the timeline of the major events on the Berlin wall and I created a pictograms series. My board I believe does not look too daunting, as I did not use too much text and this was important I felt. I found information design to be very creative and is a career I am interested in.

My animation I created was possibly my most creative work so far. I really enjoyed this project and I found it very challenging. My animation was on the struggles of those who tried to flee from the communist East Germany and the struggles they had as the U.S.S.R tried to stop them. It is centred on the text a being vocal point of the animation along with the use of some characters alongside it. This animation all came together well.

In the next semester I need to assert myself even more and go up a gear, challenge myself more, go out of my comfort zone, be more explorative and put more time and effort into my research.

Semester 2

Back to College after the Christmas break and a talk from David O’Sullivan from Barnados – 14/01/10

This is my first day back after Christmas. Today I had a talk from Dave O’Sullivan from Barnados and I also had a tutorial. This was a good progressive day to start off with.

The talk was a briefing on a new live brief we have been set. It is to design a logo for the Cardiff half marathon. The race is growing ever larger, the number of entries grew by 42% last year and they aim is for it to be one of the major UK sports events. He briefed us in what they are and not looking for. So certain stereotypes such as running should be avoided. Lateral thinking is required and I am looking forward to coming up with ideas for this project. At the moment I am thinking along the lines of making the use of Cardiff and generating a logo that reflects the city itself.

David also gave us an interesting insight into the industry. He revealed how tight deadlines are and that it’s a bit of a shock coming out of university and then working at first. In the working world you have 2 days to come up with an idea instead of the 6 weeks given on the degree course. You also have to balance many different jobs at one time, which can be stressful. He also told us how important planning ahead is and you need to be organized otherwise you wont meet deadlines.

My tutorial went fairly well. The feedback I got was that I have put in the hard work this year and it has come off and my work was well received. In my professional practice module I have done a good amount of work but I have not been proactive enough with talking to companies as I have only got into contact via email with two companies and I have not sent out my personal promotion stuff. So this needs to be done as soon as possible.

On my design practice 3 module my work was again well received. The final products have turned out well and I have put a lot of work into my sketchbooks but what I have not done is develop my other ideas further. With my typographic posters I come up a good amount of ideas but I only followed up one idea, it was the same with my information design where I have only followed up one idea. But with my moving image piece I came up with a limited amount of ideas and there was not a wide range of ideas. This is a point that I must improve on and I now know where my weaknesses are. So from this point onwards I need to come up with more ideas and then follow up a few ideas instead of just following up one idea.

15/01/09

I have been looking into companies over the last semester and I did find it hard to find companies that would suit my skills. So a company that does a bit of everything suits me as I am interested in all fields of graphic design. Over the last few weeks I have had success and I have found a few companies that interest me a lot. The small design agencies do a bit of everything and these were harder to find than the larger companies that specialise in one subject.

A few companies have caught my eye and I am particularly gaining interest in film poster design. I have sent my blog on to a few companies but I have not heard anything back yet. I will be sending them my personal promotion work along with my C.V and covering letter by this week.

23/01/09

This week was not my most productive week but as I am starting off two new projects so I have been working solely on creating ideas. In my D&AD/YCN briefs I have been creating many different ideas for the 3 projects I have chosen to look at. It’s between illustrating the o2 arena, advertising the new Ikea catalogue and advertising the crisps monster munch to students. I have chosen to do the monster munch brief, this is because I want to do an advertising brief as it is different to what I have done this year and I have created a good amount of promising ideas for it. As I have now chosen a brief, I can now research more and develop my ideas further. This is what I need to focus on this week

In my Cardiff half marathon logo design brief I have been working hard at creating different ideas. I have come up with a good amount of ideas for this brief and there is a few that are quite promising. This week I again need to develop my ideas further and also research into it more.

I had another critical theory session on Thursday and now I have another essay to do. Although I find writing hard I do enjoy learning and widening my knowledge. This is what I have to take out of this essay along with improving my writing skills.

30/01/10

This week I have been developing my ideas for my two briefs I am doing. Although I have put the hours in I don’t feel as though I have done much work at all. I feel as though I have done hardly anything and I am unhappy with the amount of work I have produced. This has got to change next week and I have to be more productive.

I have chosen the monster munch brief and this is what I will now focus on. I have come up with a series of ideas that I feel have a lot of potential. I am going with the idea of making the use of the monster characters and the idea of them actually being students themselves. I could have fun with this idea and I want to put them in situations where students would be such as studying, drinking alcohol, in student accommodation etc. I have come up with 4 or 5 ideas where I am going along with the mischievous monster series. I have thought of the idea where he is causing havoc in the university campus and there is ‘monster wanted’ posters around the campus. The idea of him being an actual student is what I am going to develop as I feel this will be a fun and appealing way to relate to students.

My Cardiff half marathon brief has not been very successful so far. I have come up with some ideas but I don’t feel as though they are strong enough to give me a chance of winning the competition. I have done 2 logo designs and I have got 1 more minimum to do but I want to follow up a few more ideas as well. I need to come up with an idea that no one else will think of and this is the hard part for me. I just need to carry on working hard on this!

02/01/10

Pursue a few more cardiff logo ideas.
Develop more sketchbook work for this project.
Research more for the monster munch brief.
Develop my ideas and work out what type of campaign I am Going to pursue.

Cardiff Half Marathon logo brief reflection – 08/02/10

The brief was to design a logo for the Cardiff Half Marathon and it was entered into a nationwide competition where the winner gets chosen. This brief proved to be a huge challenge for me as I found that designing logos quite a complex problem. I put in the time into the project but I do not feel as though my logos are strong enough to win the competition.

I came up with a wide range of ideas for the logos but I only really had 3 strong ideas while my other ideas were quite weak. I found the process of designing logos hard and I did struggle with it. This brief required lateral thinking and this is where I did fairly well but I did not excel myself enough in that area. Two of my logos I designed I believe are strong ideas as it has a good chance that no one else came up with the same ideas as them.

My stopwatch logo I designed was an idea that I developed to make it unique; I did this by replacing the notches on the stopwatch with the 3 main landmarks of Cardiff (Cardiff castle, the town hall clock tower and the millennium stadium). I like how this turned out as it incorporated the competitive edge of a race (the time you run) along with location of Cardiff. My number bib logo is a simple idea but is not an obvious one. I made it look similar to the welsh flag too, this logo has two values to it as it shows it’s a race whilst also showing that its welsh. My final idea is my poorest one and as the least chance of winning the competition. I wanted to use the wildlife in Cardiff with using birds for it but this did not work out. So I developed a logo with using the birds simplified in the background. I then used a man at the finish line and the Cardiff castle in the background. This is the most descriptive logo but my least iconic and is my weakest of my 3 logos.

I found logo designing hard but I enjoyed the creative process. I did well with coming up with a range of ideas but I did not do as well with developing ideas to their full potential. This is what I have learnt and I must improve on this. I had a range of ideas but only a small number of genuinely good ideas and this is where I also need to improve on. In my work I need to further my ideas more, before I put it onto computer and start to design. I need to do this by sketching out roughly in my sketchbook and developing the initial idea into something more. Instead of coming up with the idea then putting it straight onto computer. Also I need to devote more time to the ideas stage and not just be happy with what I have got.

13/02/10

This week I have solely been working on my monster munch project as I have finished the Cardiff Half Marathon brief last week. I have worked quite well this week and I am fairly pleased with how it went.

I have now devised my advertising campaign that I am going to use. I am going to do 3 poster advertisements and one online advertisement for this. They are all advertisements on the monsters being bad students. This is a campaign I have designed to be funny and also where the target audience of university students can engage with this. The monsters will be seen doing fairly naughty things but not too naughty as I don’t want my advertisements to be over the top. The important thing for this is to consider my target audience and something that more students can relate to (such as getting drunk or not turning up for lectures) the better really. I don’t want to encourage anti social behaviour in my campaign so things like getting arrested or something along those lines can not be used. Throughout my thinking for this campaign I made sure that this would be relevant to the brief so will relate to the target audience but also for it to be quirky and would also stand out.

My ideas are quite good and I am happy enough with them. I now need to work out my layouts for my posters and I need to experiment with rough tests for them. I need to work out whether I am going to illustrate the campaign, use photography or even a mixture or both. The monsters characters are drawn in a very simplistic style and this would be limiting for me to carry on this style with my advertisements. I would quite like to see the use of real elements as I want the campaign to look quite real as the monsters are put in real student situations.

Over the next few days I need to draw up more roughs of potential layouts and also put more research in. I have to push more over the next few days as over the last month or so I have not been working as hard as I could have been.

Things to do today – 16/02/10

keep drawing up rough poster layouts.
research similar campaigns that use a made up characters.
look at illustration and photography.
start testing and developing ideas.

20/02/10

This week I have been really busy with other commitments so I have not had much time to get work done. I am going to allow more time next week to catch up on lost time and it is essential that I do this. In the time I have put in I have managed to get quite a bit done. I have worked hard with the limited time I have had but I have not done as much work as I would have liked.

I have now completed my ideas stage and I am happy with what I have come up with. I believe the ideas are appropriate for the brief and I believe they have potential to turn out well. This week I have been researching more and also testing my ideas. I have been researching into illustration as I now feel that this is the right approach for the entire campaign. I now need to test my ideas more and do rough tests of illustration styles.

I have to also gather reference material. I have taken photos of a library and a blackboard but I need to gather more photos of my other ideas. This is what I need to do over the week, it will be a tough week and I will have to work hard.

27/2/1o

This week I have had a bit more free time so I have managed to get a lot of work done. My monster munch brief is coming quite well and I have done a good amount of work for it so far.

This week I have gone around taking pictures and I have also been developing my ideas onto the next stage. I have now gathered all the reference material I need for my posters. This is of course if I was to decide to use illustration but at the moment I am unsure on what to do.

I have done a few drawings for my poster designs and I quickly realised while I was experimenting that well illustrated work does not give the message across. I now realise if I was to use illustration for my posters then they would have to be kept very simple. The idea needs to be communicated across in a simple way rather than the posters being well illustrated.

Although this has been a good productive week but it has ended a frustrating one. At the start of the week I was sure on what direction I was heading, but now I am questioning whether illustrating the posters is the best approach. I am now thinking along the lines of making the campaign more real. Guerrilla advertising interests me and this form of advertising may be a better one. I now need to look into different approaches and this is what I will have to start the next week off with.

I had a tutorial yesterday. It went ok but I now know that I still have a lot to improve on. I have to improve on doing more work in my sketchbook, working more rough in my sketchbook and also put more time into refining my final work. I also need to experiment more with my final outcomes.

15/03/10

I am back from a week away and I have been working hard today on catching up on lost time. I have ordered a photo album from the internet , this is what I need to form my yearbook. This is a good purchase as it is a retro album with plastic sleeves. I have also personalized the front cover by having the wording ‘Class Of 1977’. I will then put in my illustrations that I have created. My illustrations need to be edited a bit too. It is something that can work and I am looking forward to when it is delivered.

The week before I went on holiday I was stuck on what direction I should go in. I was debating whether using drawing was correct for the brief. I wondered whether using photography would be a better option or even going in a totally different direction all together. I then came up with the whole advertisement being a yearbook itself. This is an idea I instantly liked and I could see working. The idea of it being a real object I liked and it also worked with the student theme. The drawings I also felt could tie in nicely with the yearbook. The illustrations need to be in black and white to give the feel of it being from the 70s. I like the idea of the monsters being the only thing in colour and this could stand out. The illustrations themselves are turning out quite well so far, I have just got to add my backgrounds to them and also look into adding hints of colour.

The idea of it being a yearbook is something I feel has strong potential. It’s a quirky idea that has potential to stand out from the crowd. The advertisements themselves will be put together with pictures of the book itself. I am thinking along the lines of the book with pictured with one of the monsters looking through the book. This needs to be real I need to include either the monsters hands in the photo or even the monsters shadow. I could even look into using both. But with the pictures I need to give off the feel that the monster is looking through the book, this would fit in with a simple tag line ‘ we’re back – monster munch’.

Plan for today – 19/03/10

Get the old fashioned handwriting done.
Get my self authored brief written up.
Get my essay brief written up.

20/04/10

This week I have been working very hard to catch up on lost time. It has been a hard week but I have managed to get quite a lot done. I have managed to complete my illustrations and I have got them printed off on photographic paper. I have reached my main goals for the week so I am happy with that.

This week I have mainly been editing my illustrations on computer and finalising them. This has been quite time consuming but it was worth it in the end as the end result has been quite good. My illustrations I have designed to look old fashioned. They are all black and white with the monsters themselves being the only things in colour. This has allowed them to stand out and this has worked well. My illustration style is quite rough and I like to use texture as well and this is what I have continued in these illustrations. I have designed them so they look like black and white photos and I believe I have been successful in doing so. My final two illustrations are of yearbook photos and the final touches for these was to use old fashioned hand writing for their names and with the title ‘Class of 1977”. My colleague helped me out here and wrote it all for me and I am very pleased with it. It finished off the advertisement very well.

I received my photo album yesterday and I am very pleased with the product. It’s an old-fashioned photo album and fits standard photos in the plastic sleeves. This is exactly what I wanted. The front cover of it has also been personalised to the wording ‘Class of 1977’. I have printed my illustrations to fit into these sleeves. This has turned out well in the photo album and all I am left to do now is photograph the book and then put it together with a tag line.

As for my self-authored brief I have been debating whether to go with producing album covers or book jackets. Both of these subjects I have not done before and I am keen to do something different. For the album covers I am thinking to redesign for a selection of records of old albums. For the book jackets I am also thinking along similar lines to this ideology but I am thinking to remodernise an old book series. These both need to be looked into more before I decide.

27/03/10

This week has been a very hard week. I have had to put in loads of overtime so I can get all my work done as I had my deadline on Friday. On Tuesday I went into college to do my photo shoot on my photo album I produced. This proved to take a lot of time as the photo album has plastic sleeves so this meant that when I took photographs the plastic reflected off the light. This meant you could not see the illustrations well. So I had to keep trying different angles until I got each illustration photographed well.

I managed to get my photographs done and then this led to playing around with the layouts and then finding a strap line. As for the layouts I am happy with what I have come up with and I have incorporated the logo and strap line nicely. Also the illustration is large and stands out. The strap line I chose was “Rebels rise again” and this works with my posters well. Overall I am fairly happy with the how it has gone. But I still feel as though I could of done more with it. I am not 100% happy with it.

For my self-authored brief I have chosen to design book jackets for the author Joseph Conrad. I researched many different authors out of the penguin classics range, out of all the authors I researched I felt that Conrad’s jackets had the weakest designs and were in need of re-modernisation. This is why I have chose him and now I am looking forward to working more on this project.

03/03/10

This week has not been my best week. I have been mainly researching this week as I have been starting off a new project and I have been working on my essay. I have also been working on my presentation that I have to do in a few weeks.

I have started off my book jackets project on the author Joseph Conrad. I have been researching various designers who have worked on book jackets and I now have a good understanding of what I am required to do. This will be a creative but also very challenging as I want to come up with something that is fresh and exciting whilst being appropriate for the brief. I now need to start making roughs and sketching out ideas.

My essay on commodity culture is proving to be really hard to write. I am finding it hard to gather research on this topic. I choose this subject as I knew it would be challenging whilst I am interested in the topic and it is proving to be really challenging! I need to put many more hours into it before I can hand in my first draft.

I have started off my roughs for my presentation, I have got the general concept together now and I just need to work on it much more. I want my presentation to be interesting and flowing. I need to work on how I can interest the viewers and I need to make it strong visually whilst telling all the information I need. I need to make sure I talk about the most important points and not the little things that are not very important.

09/04/10

This week has not been the best one in terms of production of work. I have been completely focusing on doing my essay and it is not going too well. I find the process of writing essays hard and this essay I have found particularly hard. I have been researching a good amount but I have kept changing what I am going to talk about in my essay quite often so a good deal of the research I have done has proven to be unneeded. I have however managed to get it almost complete and I would be able to complete my first draft by early next week.

By completing my essay it will allow me to then work on my presentation and my book jackets project. So the plan for the next week is to complete the essay first draft by Monday or Tuesday at the very latest, and then work on my presentation and book jackets.

16/04/10

I have done a good amount of work this week. I have managed to get my first draft on my essay done which I am happy about. It still needs a bit of work to be done and still needs major refining however so there is still lots to do but at least the hard work is done.

I have been working on my presentation this week too and I have managed to get it all laid out on powerpoint and I have uploaded everything I could do on it. I have talked about my personal promotion, where I have got work experience, my 5 year plan and my skills. I have done as much as I could. I have left blank pages where I can fit in my experience I got from my work placement along with pages for what I did and what I learnt.

I haven’t done much at all on my book jackets project and I need to start working on that more.

Next week I am on work experience so I will not have as much time to do my college work so I have used the Easter holidays to get my work done.

25/4/10

This week I have been at a work placement so all my time this week has been dedicated to that. It has been a good week where I have managed to gain invaluable experience. I worked at a design agency called kube. I worked hard throughout the week and I got good feedback from my work so I am pleased with what I have achieved this week.

I worked mainly on producing a brochure for a school uniform company and I also did a website idea for a photographic and print company. I helped out with the lay out of the brochure and my input was important in the final lay out. Which is going to print.

I came up with an idea for this website on a photographic and print company. I created what the website would look like on photoshop. They liked the idea and they are going to put it forward to their clients as one of the ideas we have. I am very pleased about this and I am looking forward to hearing from them whether they like the idea or not.

The knowledge they passed onto me was also invaluable and I now have an understanding on how the industry works and what I will be doing for the rest of me life. It was a really good week where I worked well and I am happy with what I have achieved.

This week I have got loads to do. I have got to get my second draft of my essay done. Work on my presentation and put in what I have done this week on it. I have also got to work on my book jackets project a lot so I need to work very hard this week!

30/04/10

This week I have been working hard on getting back on track with all my work. After last week I could not put a lot of time into my college work as I was focused on my work placement work.

I have been mostly working on my presentation this week. My presentation took place today. I put a lot of time into it and I felt as though it went fairly well. I have never done a presentation like this before and it was very good experience. It is something I feel I did fairly well at but I know I have a lot to improve on this. I still have a lot to learn.

I have also been working on my book jackets project. I am still developing ideas for this project. I have started to produce roughs and I need to start experimenting with different treatments in the next few days. I have to follow up different techniques and then start to produce the finals by the end of next week. Its going to be a lot of work.

I have done my second draft for my essay and this still needs more work on this. I have to be focused and concentrate solely on my course before I hand in, which is in two weeks time.

8/5/10

This has been a long hard week where I have had to of put in the time to get all my work done. I have been working extensively on my book jackets design and my essay.

I have almost completed my essay and it just needs the final tweaks made to it. I feel I have done better overall than on my last essay. I feel the way I write may still need to be improved vastly on I still have managed to improve my use of language. I have put a lot of time into this essay and I learnt from my previous essay where I did not put enough research into it. I researched this project in the best way I could and this is where I did well on. I still need to improve the way I write and my use of language. I have a tendency to repeat myself fairly often and also I tend to write the way I speak and these are the two main things I must improve on.

In my book jackets I have worked hard on it and I feel as though I am getting near to the finishing it. For my designs I have created an abstract series which have been inspired by Russian constructivism and other book jackets designers. The designs I have chosen to do was a risk for me to take. They are simple designs but they have a distinctive style about them. I have decided to use a collage technique but I am using cut outs of paper that I have textured with a roller and oil paints. The technique of using oil paints and the roller proved to be hugely time consuming, but hopefully it will be worth it in the final designs. I have done all the designs by hand now and all I am left to do is form them together on photoshop. This will be another time consuming thing to do but it has to be done. I have no idea if this will turn out successful but it is a risk I have taken with this project, I have tried something new and I just hope that it turns out well.

Next week is my final week of the year. I am up to date with my work I feel but I do still need to put in all the time I can to get all my work done.

9/5/10 – What i need to do this week

For my book jackets project i need to put my hand made designs together on computer and consider typography. Then lay it out all together. I must make sure i get the typography right!

Finish off my essay and my book jackets project

Print Finals

My information board on the Berlin Wall on a3
My Self promotion book in a3
Grove fresh on a3
Monster Munch advertisements on a3
My book jackets on a3

18/5/10

This week has been by far the most productive week for the whole year! I have put in so much time to get my projects all finished and completed in time for my deadline which I handed it in yesterday.

I have mainly had to dedicate my time towards my book jackets design brief. This week I have gone through the process of putting the illustrations together on photoshop, laying them out to work with the book jacket format, adding the type and then finishing it off with final touches. This took a lot of time to do this process but it all came together fairly well. For my typography I experimented with using computer fonts to make the headings and it just did not work. It did not fit in with the rest of the designs having been made by hand. I then experimented with using the old fashioned font Georgia and then cropping the letters by cutting it up and it gained a handmade feel. This turned out to be successful and it also worked with my illustrations. I then laid each book jacket out so it all works together. It all came together and I believe that it was a success. This project I put a lot of time into but I feel like it was worth it and I enjoyed book jackets design.

This week I have printed off my final pieces for each project and I have finished off my essay and other bits from other projects for the hand in yesterday. I have been fairly up to date with work this year so I did not have to work on my other projects much at all. This is something I want to replicate next year and make sure my work is up to date and I do not get behind with work. This week has been a successful one where I have got all my work done!

Semester two reflection 19/5/10

At the start of this semester I did not apply myself enough. But during the middle and end of this semester I have worked really hard. I had a slow start to this semester and although I did work over Christmas I could have put a lot more time into it and this is one of the things that I will change next year.

Design practice 3

I have done well for this module and I feel as though I have improved from the first semester. In terms of workload I have applied myself well.

For my Monster Munch advertising project I feel as though I have done well with it but not as well as I could have. The brief was to make monster munch appealing to students. So I came up with different idea of the monster being students themselves, to make it funny I thought I could make them mischievous students so they are causing havoc. So i did them in different scenes causing havoc. I hand illustrated the series in an old school style plastic photo album. I did this to give the idea of it being a yearbook, which in turns reflects the retro feeling of the monster munch brand having it been around in the 70s and 80s. I also did my illustrations being black and white with the monsters only being in colour so the illustrations depict a black and white photograph and the monsters in turn standing out. I then photographed the book and put it together with the strap line “Rebels rise again”. Although this turned out pretty well the layouts for me did not stand out enough. I run out of time towards the deadline and this meant I did not have enough time to work on the layouts enough. This was down to a lack of organisation on my part and the fact I did put enough time into the project at the start of the semester. This project I enjoyed and I am pleased with how it turned out but my lack of organisation caused me to lose a stronger more considered layout for my final advertisement.

For my Self-authored project I am pleased with how it has turned out and I have worked hard on this project for the last few weeks. I decided to redesign the book jackets for 6 novels that were written by Joseph Conrad. This was because I believe they were in need of re-modernisation as the designs looked outdated. I decided to make it all by hand as I felt this was more appropriate as the novels are from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. I went for an approach that involved using textured paper that I created by a roller and oil paints, and then cutting out from it to make abstract illustrations. This proved to be an effective technique and gave a nice feel to the book jackets. I also created the typeface for the titles by hand as I used a computer font then cropped individual letter by cutting out the edges at different angles. This proved to be effective and worked much better than a computer font did. Although I was happy with how I worked on this project I believe a lack of organisation at the start of the project led to me not being able to experiment as much as I could have.

Professional practice

For my professional practice module I am very pleased with how I have done this semester. I did a one week work placement, I found this experience invaluable and very enjoyable. I gained an insight into the industry and I also gained experience with working on real projects and also working day to day with clients. This was particularly interesting for me as you have to work more to your clients tastes rather than your own. I really enjoyed the week and I also did some work for them where I helped them out with which was satisfying.

I also did a presentation and I found this to be very good experience too. I felt for my first ever presentation I have done pretty well. There is a lot to improve on but now I have this experience I can go into my next presentation with more confidence. I needed to put more research into my presentation in particular and this is what I need to work on next time.

Critical theory

I find writing essays very difficult but I have really given this essay my very best. I feel more confident in writing this essay and I feel that I have improved so this can only be positive for me. I put more time into research and this made writing this slightly easier for me. I wrote about commodity culture and artists that reflect the commodity culture and is art and design can be a commodity. I wrote about artists such as Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp and also designs role. I applied myself well but I could have found new found research possibly rather than using well known artists and this is what I need to work on next year.

Next year I need to be more organised and generally work better. I need to up my game in all areas as I feel as though I can do a lot better than I have done this year. I have to set myself targets of what I want done each day and this in turn will lead to me getting more work done. Although I have experimented with new techniques all year I still need to try new techniques and experiment even more! Next year I will need to put more time into my work and do my very best!

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