WORK RELATED LEARNING ONE
Jacob Ham
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DATE
7th April 2017
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DEADLINE.
7th April 2017
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Brief.
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(Handed out in September 2016)
To complete a series of mini projects that are either simulated, live client or personal briefs that will have set deadlines leading to critique from both tutors and peers. The main focus of these briefs is to generate creative ideas and show clear progression throughout the process.
With this in mind, I should be expanding on each brief and developments, exploring ideas to help give myself a broader view of the various aspect of design. The outcomes of each project or task will be an individual responsibility for project management, client, and
tutor liaison.
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Although the majority of the work will be practical based, 25% of the assessment is based on employability skills, which cover communication skills, independent working alongside working as a team. Correctly planning time, the creative process and using my own initiative on projects.
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Personal Aims.
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(Set in Septemeber 2016)
Throughout this assignment I aim to complete all briefs to a professional manner. This meaning handling deadlines without complication or missing them. Every week I could be presented with new tasks to complete, so it would be best to constantly keep on top of my workflow, which allows me to stay prepared incase of a new brief. Throughout the duration, I will also be working with clients that I have found myself and this should be recorded in 1-1 tutorials along with being in my WRL sketchbook and my PPD blog. Each project will be different in size and contents but that does not stop me from expanding on the brief, although this increases my workload it will have a positive impact on my grade, but most of all it presents me with a perfect opportunity to develop my skills as a designer further than they currently are.
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In conclusion from start to finish, I aim to see clear progression of my work and with that improvement of the standards I produce.
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Module Evaluation.
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Introduction.
Since the start of the course I have produced a workbook that showcases my thought process, final designs and extension tasks. Although I have included a strong range of both work from inside the college and outside, it would be best to reflect on my progress from start to finish to gather key areas for improvement for WRL2.
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Deadlines.
Throughout the brief, I have been faced with working on various lengths of projects and I have grown to love doing both long and short tasks, for various reasons. Long briefs present me with the chance of getting attached to a project and developing it in great depth, exploring aspects that I would struggle to do with a one week deadline. Often, I conclude that the project drags and should be much shorter than it is, but this can be a good aspect in case of presentations, so I can gather professional prints prior to presenting my work to the class and my tutor.
On the other hand, I have been faced with shorter deadlines that often range from a day to a week, these deadlines are fast paced and make the process of designing feel a lot more enjoyable but stressful at the same time, keeping me busy until the work is approved by the client or hits the requirements of the brief set by my tutor. Overall regardless of the length, I feel that I have handled each one professionally, hitting every deadline and completing extension tasks when I felt like they
were needed.
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Types of briefs.
During the past six months, I have had the opportunity to work on various types of briefs, whether that is simulated or client briefs. Overall, I feel that, working with clients has provided me with a greater experience compared to simulated briefs. Client briefs feel more personal, with simulated briefs being completed by the rest of the course but often the outcomes are different in styles. Simulated briefs allow me to get feedback from my peers and tutor, this is more crucial feedback and covers a wider aspect of the design process. On the other hand, feedback from clients are often with the goal of getting the result that they favour towards, rather than exploring new ideas. In conclusion, I feel that I have handled both formats of briefs with a professional manner and in result of that have a strong portfolio of work for gathering clients over the summer period before I start year 2.
Progression.
This project has allowed me to rapidly progress my skills as a designer and become more confident in both myself and the work I produce. During the start of the module, I was sceptical about showing my work to others in the class, and personally that is no longer an issue. Since I first started designing, I have forever wanted to improve my work and this module has helped me to accomplish that in such a short time.
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When I first started the module, I simply just placed my work in to InDesign and annotate them slightly, however time I have annotated every aspect of my work in more depth in the next brief. Now when developing concepts for a logo, I create a mind map showcasing my thought process and including feedback from clients or peers to give a greater breakdown of my work.
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Overall from a designer’s perspective, I feel that if I compare my work from August 2016 to March 2017, there is a superior difference in quality and that can be seen in projects that I have redeveloped such as Streamer Market and my Personal Branding. I have gained a wider knowledge of the area in which I would like to pursue in the future, and now feel that when creating brand guidelines and logo designs. The outcomes are to a high professional standard that clients are happy with, even more when they are ones that contact for redeveloping my work from nearly a year ago.
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Future.
Although my main focus is branding and logo design, I want to ensure that I can be the best designer regardless to what type of brief gets put in front of me. In the future, it would be best to explore various aspects of each brief, going over the top with both annotations and research to ensure that I have a greater understanding and increase my skills as a designer. In the future, I should look to annotate every aspect of my work along with gaining constant feedback from those around me.
During this module, I have tried to develop my skills elsewhere rather than focusing on branding and logos, with experimenting with websites, posters and even football shirts. I have defiantly benefited from doing so, with now looking into exploring both Website and UI design over the summer, whether that is working with clients or creating stimulated briefs for myself.
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Aims for the summer?
During the summer, I aim to explore branding and logo design further mainly working with clients to further progress my skills. Another aim for the summer is to prepare and start development of my critical study which will either be based around “Animal Cruelty”, “The Great Expectation” or “Depression”. Regardless of which subject I choose, exploring grid systems and editorial based design will be crucial for a successful outcome for this project, with the outcome being a printed book that will be handed in on the deadline.
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Reflecting on my personal aims.
At the start of this module, I set myself aims in which I should complete with every project. In reflection, I conclude that I have successfully completed these aims, with hitting all requirements for briefs along with keeping on top of my workflow by correctly managing my time and projects, using Microsoft Notes to help tick of completed projects. During this project, I have had 100% attendance to lessons, this meaning never missing 1-1 tutorials allowing me to get feedback from my tutor to improve my work further. I have expanded projects wherever I could, revisiting briefs months after they were submitted for client approval, a great example of this is “Hoam Grown” in which I went back and developed guidelines to be professionally printed to present to the client. This shows professionalism along with improving my employability, which is something rather crucial for finding a job when leaving the college.
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Conclusion.
In conclusion, I am extremely happy with the outcome of this module, especially my most recent projects such as; Spark Creative, Streamer Market, Personal Branding and Douglas Johnstone. These projects set a high standard for future projects, when focusing on branding and logo design. I’m rather pleased with how much I have changed since the start of the year, in terms of confidence but that seems to be down to working in a environment with people who share similar career aspirations. I have defiantly learnt a lot of new aspects of design that I can use to take forward and use in the future. Having a mixture of stimulated and client briefs has allowed me to develop my skills much quicker than focusing on stimulated brief with the main goal of having your work used and when it does it only motivates you to better yourself next time around.
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