2ND Year Final Project – “Hindsight is 2020”

The last project of the academic year is one of freedom. I’ve already discussed a little about the year’s Final Practice here. Basically, the Final Practice gives students free reign over the design they want to peruse. It could be an article, an app, a series of posters, a product, whatever you want. It’s an opportunity to work on something one’s really passionate about!

On the side to the personal project is the incentive to build a portfolio of the past works made during study. This could be website-built, printed, or PDF-based. I’d rather cover the portfolio task in it’s own post, but every student juggled working on organising a portfolio alongside their Final Practice and other modules. The portfolio assembly was a scary (yes, ‘scary’) task in the back of my mind as I worked on my personal brief.

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Personal project musings

We had a lot of leeway, and so I discovered there are projects that may be worthwhile pursuing in the future. I hadn’t thought about making apps prior to brainstorming project ideas.

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Final Project proposal page 1
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Final Project proposal page 2

I wrote a proposal for a product that could be health or lifestyle-oriented. I wanted to market fruit tea specifically for children.

I find that writing a proposal for a project is easiest when it’s broken up onto sections. I hope the format makes reading it easier to digest for a stranger – and that was the sort of feedback I got in sharing it with peers when I asked for critique. Definitely, there’s always room for improvement when writing these sort of things. It has to be seen as a document you’d present to someone investing in your ideas.

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A page showing distribution of my time

I think I could have organised my time better. I made timetables to follow through with. But I found myself burned out at times. When I got frustrated with aspects of the project, I knew I should take a step back, but knowing that I would ‘fall behind’ my schedule would make me feel even more frustrated or stressed. It’s actually fine to edit my plans as I go, as long as I have the end-goal in sight and am aware of how much time is really left.

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Looking at traditional illustration on packaging

I enjoyed looking at a packaging design again. It was not possible to take my time in stores to hold and feel a bunch of different packaging, and so I had to rely on what I could find searching online. That’s OK as I’m not unfamiliar with the importance of physical qualities of packaging.

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I guess I couldn’t have gone to France to window shop anyway. (Image from Kiss My Chef.)

The amount of elements involved in the project were overwhelming at times. I had to take into consideration brand names, product names, packaging nets, illustrative assets and so on. Like other students, I was working on this project alongside other modules so I had to balance this one with other modules and portfolio development. (I had more-or-less finished most other modules, though they weren’t tidied up.) I really felt a sort of mental wipeout over the amount of different tasks. (Thankfully nothing like a full-blown burnout.)

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Very early digital illustration assets

I thought that making the assets for the project would be straight-forward, but it’s not as simple as I had thought. Looking at traditionally illustrated packaging, I wanted to do the same. In the end, I turned to digital artworking methods. In the past, I had made the mistake of not putting together my assets from the previous packaging module to-scale, which made printing awkward to say the least. Somehow, the need to work to-scale still catches me off guard. I also really wanted to make different tea flavour packaging to help reinforce that the product I proposed could exist in real life. It means a larger workload, but theoretically, I could make one set of package illustration assets, and tweak them twice over if I wanted to make 3 products.

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I made studies of different types of packaging nets

Making nets is no problem in the end; I’ve looked at enough to understand the importance of practicality over flashy, unconventionally-shaped nets. I’m also conscious of wasting resources. (Even for a hypothetical product!)

As of writing, I took a break from looking at or thinking about Final Practice so to come back to it with a fresher, clearer mind and eyes. I’ll be sharing the finished assets and box designs. I hope to have some more positivity to share about the project overall, and share the deeper process of portfolio building.

WKL200 – Reflection (02)

All students are asked to take part in seeking out freelance and open design briefs over the academic year in the Work Based Learning module. The module helps to reinforce the understanding of working with others, and taking advantage of the chance to find and complete projects that appeal to us. I hope that in writing this, it will help me put aside any negative feelings about the past few months, and see the opportunities I took advantage of, and any enjoyment I got out of them.

I’m going to split up my thoughts of the module quite simply as ‘hardships’ and ‘enjoyment’, finishing off with my thoughts on the module overall. Of course, my feelings are more complicated than that, though I want to keep this post from being too lengthy. Anyway, the amount of trials this year definitely feel enough to warrant their own section.

HARDSHIPS

The end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 were rocky, and fraught with problems, so it’s not difficult to understand the past academic year has been undercut by many issues that diminished the quality of learning and education.

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Early logo scamps for the Siemens‘ open brief

I’d mentioned it in an older, specific post, but one of the open briefs in which graphic design students across all year groups tacked was for the company Siemens. I found understanding the brief difficult! It was a ‘logo design’ project, but the logos were desired to be illustrative, and the visual language of sports teams that was desired, was not associated with the workforce. I felt glad to have created anything looking like a half-functional logo by the end. Work churned out by fellow students was very competent, but ultimately, no student work was chosen. A staff member at the wind farms instead created their own logo for use. Who made it? I don’t know. (But…. it’s… not good.) It’s very saddening to have wasted a lot of passion and time and effort.

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Specifications for a display board to show a recruitment campaign poster

Because of the effects of the Covid-19 virus on world-wide economy and all types of business, some of the briefs that students worked on would be put on hold, and perhaps they will never be seen to the end. The briefs that I worked on while in Switzerland with Festland were for a website build for a French-styled boutique called Le Soir Le Jour, and the other was an entire apprenticeship recruitment campaign for the energy-providing company EW BUCHS. I made illustrated assets and mockups for freebee merchandise, mockups and idea germination for a social media campaign, storyboards for filming video, and rough illustrations for the poster and flier design. It’s a shame that the work put into the advertisement campaign and website building have no end results to speak of.

I also fell into trouble shortly after returning home amid the Covid-19 pandemic, finding my license to important computer programs and run out. The programs I needed are not cheap to rent, and I had to be careful about what I was spending my money on, given that the pandemic meant that I didn’t have any workplace to go to. I later found access to the programs through the course, but by that time, the deadline of one of the projects I had already past. In fact, I have not heard back to understand the end result of the logo redesign.

ENJOYMENT

Some of the projects that I took part in to contribute to the Work Based Learning module did see completion. I was lucky to work on short projects that were fun, while also helping me sharpen my digital skills.

The chance to work overseas was a great opportunity. I can’t say it was without stress but it was an experience I’ll cherish. I think I made friends and hope to keep a connection with the agency I worked at. Given the circumstances, I sent out a postcard to the company, and some other items in the post to one of the staff because tactile mail at this time is something to be appreciated, however old school it is.

Even if a number of briefs that I worked on were not seen through to the end – for whatever reasons – the better understanding of different design jobs and the requirements needed I came away with it worth the time spent.

END THOUGHTS

Recently, I had a video tutorial with a tutor – actually, I’ve had a bunch of those lately since conventional lessons are non-existent at present – and we talked about the expected outcomes of a designer’s projects. Not all projects are seen through to the end. Not every brief is made by a client with a solid understanding of design. Most ideas won’t even be developed past rough ideas because only so much resources can be spent on the ‘right ideas’. So it’s not ‘bad’ to see many thoughtful solutions to problems left unrealised. It’s just… how it is.

As stated, the time spent on the unfulfilled briefs was not an entire waste of time or effort. I still widened my skillset and I gained a better understanding of some tools. That a number of briefs I took on did not make it to the very end is unfortunate, but I can accept it. I’m going to look forward to future projects that allow me to craft something great!

Unrealised Goals – Finish them in summer 2020

The summer is fast approaching. The academic year is reaching it’s end. Sure, student timetables are out of whack now, but it’s important to keep going. I need to set myself goals over the summer months to keep my creativity and interest in design up. I’m looking back at a project not long since handed in, and I know that I want to revise elements of it already.


I handed in my responsive project – a live brief outcome from the UN and the World Health Organisation. I will admit that I swayed the brief to suit my own emotional and mental-wellbeing, from ‘raising awareness of Covid-19 to prevent the spread’ to ‘coping with the pandemic through activities’. The thing is, I had to write a proposal, so I found justification in the angle I ‘tackled’ the brief. In modifying the brief, I could focus more on subjects that would help me cope, while being – theoretically – more productive.

Essentially, to address the problem of Covid-19, I chose to design for a child audience, and ‘market’ an activity that would be cultivating inside-grown plants from mail-order seed packets. The real drive for the project being to give kids more structure and short-term goals at home when schools were closed. I wanted to include two mini zines (8 pages each) with information and facts on the types of plants that can be grown from the seeds, and garden insects that are beneficial to outdoor plant growth.

I explored a couple of different illustration routes to see what could suit seed packet design and little booklets, but it was a lot to take on in such a short space of time. I only got as far as making mockups of the basic layout for a proposed packet design, and one zine. I made many illustrations, but I don’t think they’ll go to waste. This project included my first tries at creating digital collage.

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Hover fly digital ‘paper’ collage

Although it’s far more time-consuming than I had thought – I still felt a lot of gratification upon finishing any insect collages. I am very happy with how some of them turned out.

I wish I had shared more of my development work as I was working on the responsive project. I shared a little over some Microsoft Teams DMs and Discord, and got some interesting insights into other’s thoughts on paper collage. I realised the variety of the  papers I could use – the ‘paper’ being digital – were bigger than I thought. Newsprint and even photographs can be utilised for different textures and to suggest different patterns.

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Ground beetle digital collage

I’d like to make more bug collages over the summer, and fill a whole printed, colour booklet. I want to finish the black and white zine full of line garden insect drawings I started for my responsive brief, too. I’d want to make the hand-drawn illustration version downloadable, printable, so that folding it and colouring it is an activity on top of learning bug facts.

There’s a lot go milage in my proposal as it’s not explicitly Covid-19 specific, it can exist outside of the initial brief timeframe, which lends the ideas longevity. That’s why it’d be worth returning to the project in my own time.


One of the last modules of the academic year is a ‘personal project’. Again, I have full reign over how I want to approach design. It can be anything. ANYTHING! Naturally, I generated a number of ideas that I can’t possibly address within the soon-approaching deadline. Some ideas probably aren’t worth looking at closer than I already have. But the ideas that I can’t address in the meantime are worth looking at in the future. I can set myself goals to achieve some of these projects.

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I thought a lot about different routes to take a ‘personal’ project

Some routes I was interested in were stationary sets – letter-writing sets… sticker design – health and wellbeing product packaging, spotters guides, and the good old bestiary. Here are a few notes I took in my sketchbook while musing over spotters guides and bestiaries:

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SPOTTERS GUIDE??
spottersguideexample01
I even thought about phone applications in relation to spotters guides
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Etchings and ink illustrations of grotesques by Arent van Bolten, made between 1604 and 1616

Books full of creatures from folk tales, or video game monster indexes have always interested me. There’s definitely fun to be had in illustrating (and writing for) such things. So I can see myself making images for some variation of a bestiary myself.

Whatever routes I can venture down, it’s all an excuse to make illustration that I can put my heart into. Digital or analogue; I don’t think it matters much which I use, but the medium would probably change in relation to the illustration style I most want to dive into.

… But I chose what I had thought to be the quickest and most useful route to myself, thinking about the near-future. I’ll be looking at packaging design. I’ve worked on some before. I’ll put to the test the knowledge I’ve learned in the past!


Planning out projects during the summer months and staying up-to-date in wold design news is vital as to not lose the heart I need to find work in the creative industry. It’s also important to keep up my blog; write about any design I find of interest, show any development of interest, and so on. The next logical step… is to finish all of the modules I have already! But then… then I can work out a schedule for the summer. And meet unrealised goals.

NCI508 Feedback – “Success is born out of struggle”

After receiving my feedback for the Digital Skills Application module (which included understanding parallax website design and coding skills) I’m actually really pleased with my feedback. I’m proud of myself! Perhaps… this module result is my highest mark this academic year…? It wasn’t an easy module for me to get to grips with. I definitely struggled with the coding aspect at times. Looks like the fight was worth it!

The goal of the module was to code a website to represent our Graphic Communication course. Some visual assets (and an optional brand guideline) were handed to us. ‘Goodloop’ is the studio name and there are pre-existing graphics and colours tied to it.

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Goodloop logo by peer Micky Wier

Looking back on the Digital Skills Application module, it definitely had emotional ups and downs. There were times where I was exited to learn more about contemporary website design and exploring so many interactive websites was a treat. I pushed myself to uncover new knowledge. I can’t lie; did find teaching myself coding difficult. I wish I had found the website W3Schools earlier into the module. Though, I do believe that I’ve retained enough coding knowledge, that if I were to work together with a front-end developer to make a website, it’d be easy sailing.

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Sketchbook pages on WHOAMAMMA

I was proud of my research page layouts and I got much better acquainted with Adobe InDesign. Therefore, I want to share images of my research sketchbook. The sketchbook does look odd when printed and bound as I had to print it single-sided, while I made the margin larger on the ‘inside’ of the pages for the purpose of binding it double-sided, leaving room for the spine. It means the margin is uneven on the hard copy, and text on every other page is rather close to the spine but there’s nothing that can be done about that.

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Research on NEA MEDIA
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Pages on UNIBROW ARTS FESTIVAL and OLYMPP

My layout of the research made it easy for my tutor understand the vital elements of the websites I’d looked into. I covered the aesthetics of the sites, functionality, and key design elements.

It was mentioned that I could have improved my research by delving into the pros and cons of the website designs. I should have used more professional language and terminology to enhance my analogy and critical thinking. Yeah!

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Page on graphic a designer’s portfolio; ALEX PIERCE PORTFOLIO
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Another graphic designer’s portfolio; ELYSE NIEZGODA PORTFOLIO

These last two pages you see above were of creative’s portfolios I found online. I recorded and submitted a video analysis for each of them for my tutor to sit through. In recording videos, I learned a lot about how to present my thoughts and myself clearly to the listener. The feedback I received for my videos was very positive!

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A really early, really basic layout plan for the top of a page

After looking at so many websites, I made various rough plans of how the website may be laid out.

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Example of what a ‘student profile’ section of the course website could look like

I did enjoy generating ideas of how elements of the site may be laid out. I thought the course website – being a creative course – should involve some individuality of those teaching and studying. I’d have liked a profile section to make use of student-submitted profile pictures, bios, and signatures. Very visual and playful.

Ah. I appreciate my tutor feeling that my sketches and plans were ‘charming’!

Knowing that I didn’t have to be able to write code that that accurately reflected my plans, suggested layouts or aesthetics meant that drafting plans was more relaxed and less restrictive. I know enough code that I know what is and is not ultimately doable.

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Working in Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is a friendly program to code in, it does close lines of code for you automatically, which depending on where you stand, is either a boon or a curse. If you want to develop the good habit of closing your tags, then the fact Dreamweaver does it for you isn’t as helpful. The program also offers suggestions of code while writing, which is nice if you’re a beginner.

It’s an easy program to get to grips with, and there’s no reason why one shouldn’t use it if one happens to own a copy. I will admit that I believed my coding ability to be weak while working on this module. I was quite stressed and upset at points, thinking “Why can’t I do this faster??” or “I don’t understand this part of the code at all!” but learning code takes time – much like learning anything. I should have been more patient with myself.

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Part of the CSS I used to edit the carousel HTML code

As for talking through my website code in a video capture, I found it much more easy-going than delivering in-person as I could always re-take a video if I really happened to mess up. Delivering my thoughts, I found it good to split my desktop screen in half; show my website code on one side, and the website in-browser on the other.

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Quicktime recording

Here’s what my desktop looked like as I presented my own code and website via video. Dreamweaver on the left, safari tab on the right.

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Top of the page I coded

The website I coded doesn’t visually represent the website I had drafted; though I experimented with elements of code that I proposed I’d use in exploring possible site development.

I managed to talk through the shortcomings in my video analysis of my coding and website presentation; visibility problems; usability issues etc. and it felt good that I could articulate these over video – showing that I felt something was less than I had wanted and that I would aim to fix it.

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Student profile layout

Showing my desired design choices through my sketchbook drawings, my lecturer understood clearly the type of aesthetics I would have liked to implement if I had a higher skillset in coding. The suggestions I made for the website’s feel could easily be given to a front-end developer as visual examples they could work towards.

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Example of a manual carousel of student design

My footer could have been better presented if it was… rich. There could also have been a better segregation at the bottom of the page; that the footer was indeed its own thing. I also deleted the code for the sticky navigation bar at some point and it’s less comofrtable for the user to search for sections on such a long page sans a sticky or floating navigation option.

My tutor was happy enough with my video delivery, rational justifications of my code, and method of thinking. It was suggested that video could “…be be a method you might want to consider in the future,” weather it be to present development of a work as a time-lapse, or “…if you use a different technique in illustrator or photoshop or indesign…” …even a cap of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it may be a better way to communicate my thoughts. And I do find it hard at times to explain my methods through text. Visuals can really help communicate an action or design choice. I agree that video is a good method to look into in order to deliver my thoughts and working process.

How do I feel about the module overall? Hmn! Relieved that I learned something. Happy that I can communicate my methods clearly. As I said, it was difficult, but it is rewarding to come out on top!

WKL200 – Reflection (01)

In January, the company Siemens approached graphic design students for logo work. Presumably because the belief that students face less creative constraints due to their freelance status. (But boundaries are set by briefs, regardless!) The brief presented was a challenge for me, with highs and lows.

As with all clients that approach you, it’s important to understand where they are coming from. I needed to do a lot of reading up on the company, as I knew next to nothing about the history of Siemens or the specific line of work that the logos were requested for; their off shore wind farms.

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Diagram showing Hohe See and Albatros’ planned number of turbines

I did end up researching what the daily routine of an engineer is, what environment they are working in, the clothes they wear, and the equipment they use etc. But the brief strained the importance of the place the work was at. The brief also made it clear that the The logos were not for the farms themselves, but rather the people who work on the farms. The workers were keen to wear emblems that reflected themselves as a ‘team’.

The specific farms that required logos were Hohe See and Albatros and Horn Sea TwoThe most important of the key desirables was to create a symbol that represented the men at work and their ‘team spirit’. The workers were very interested in emblems such as the ones created by Bands FC (Football league and Album cover crossovers). This element of the brief was not received too well by a number of students (for being restrictive from the get-go) and many approached the brief in other directions initially.

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MIT Media Lab directory that used symbols for departments

I even approached the brief by attempting to create logos that shared visual elements (shapes or pattern) to keep some consistent identity across the two teams. The decision to explore this was made concrete after looking at logo work by Pentagram for MIT Media Lab. This approach was not well understood by the client, and I understood that they disliked it.

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Logos made using arcs that can be read as waves or wind

When I presented pencil scamps to the client, it was very much a case of straying too far from the client’s wishes, and my scamps were not meeting the goals. I had in mind a more conservative and corporate logos – ones that work great in monochrome, and on any scale –  ones that could be easily replicated on clothing, letter heads, stationary etc.

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Hohe See and Albatros logos that use the same arcing shapes

Versatility of the logo was something that actually wan’t a necessity. It wasn’t stated in the brief that the logo would be for anything more than ‘personal use’. But it also wasn’t stated that the workers would be the only ones to sport the logo either. I had drafted and crafted a number of logos thinking they’d have to adhere to the general rules of logo design.

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Vectors I made to explore Hornsea Two colour options

I experimented a lot with the pen tool and manipulating the lines ever so slightly to get very smooth curves in some of the logo concepts. I was really happy with the vague images of the logos above –  I thought that because the viewer could interpret the lines as they wanted the logo could represent what they want. Is it the wind, is it turbulent waves? It’s what you make it.

The abstract angle is the wrong road to travel for this particular client tough. They were less enthusiastic with examples from students that were a less direct answer to the brief. What was demand was something ‘simple’, something ‘obvious’.  And I can admit that it was deflating. It took a lot of potential avenues out (experimentation, and fun). But it just means I had to attack the problem from another angle. I did find it difficult to get exited over the sports logo direction, and don’t feel that my best strengths are able show through.

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Early vector of a more football-like emblem

I returned to looking at the issue of providing the client with a crest-like logo. I drew many new scamps focussing on the albatross and the wind turbines. The sort of logo work I ended up vectorising became more of an illustration. (It also wound up looking a lot like a pre-existing Football emblem, I later realised.) Arriving at this conclusion, I feel that the brief really wanted a illustration from the start; not a logo.

I was given pointers by a tutor to help ‘modernise’ the feel of my first digital attempt of a ‘sports-inspired logo’. Varying the line width of the rings and removing the lines around the type gives the image a more contemporary look. It was desirable to remove the lines from the bird itself. I added a SOV vessel and wind turbines into the sea.

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Revised colour ‘Hohe See and Albatros’ logo

The logo as above does not function (or read) well in monochrome, however. This is because this logo was not initially conceptualised as a black-on-white mark, and is relying on a lot of colours and lines to communicate to the viewer. Without colour, it suffers a lot. (Believe me.)

I had wanted to work on this logo more and refine it with the aforementioned details before presenting digital logos to the client, but I was occupied overseas and busy with a work placement before I realised the time to pitch had arrived, and I hadn’t the program to do so. Since I wasn’t present for the presentation of student works, I do not know the outcome of the project. I would have liked to have heard some feedback on the vectors of my scamps that were dismissed beforehand, and the opinion of the emblem-like logo that was made closer to the client’s wishes.

Looking back on this project, I feel proud of the progress I have made recently using Adobe Illustrator, and how fast I can move when I need to. I feel happy with my more abstract symbolic designs even if they are not going to be utilised –  they were genuinely enjoyable to craft.

NCL508 Feedback – “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.”

Receiving my grades for the Digital Skills Application module today, I am pleased with the results; the general feedback. Dare I say, proud?? I set my goals high, and I achieved. But not without much determination and perseverance.

This module felt intimidating at first… Create food packaging with all of the essentials of a real product, when I’ve never actively thought about food packaging design essentials at all? I was worried that I wouldn’t engage with it adequately; wouldn’t immerse myself in research enough to create commercial-worthy… industry-standard, work.

The module was split into two bodies of work; a digital research sketchbook and a digital portfolio. I learned a lot while organising my research in Adobe InDesign. I improved some core digital skills when using Adobe Illustrator in creating many assets and making essential visuals.

The aims that I have been given are to:

  • Build confidence in decision-making (!)
  • Organisation and planning during final push of realisation
  • When essential, allocate the most time for final artworking

All of these aims are connected, actually. If I had organised my time better – spent less time fussing over options to take – then I would have had more time to work on the final packaging’s visual assets – the illustrations; the artworking.

So, my major regret was derived from my time management. I could have created more assets and thus made varied package designs (than just one solid one) if I had taken charge of decision-making. I’ve realised that I need to work on my bravery in decision-making; my bravery in general. If I face my fears head-on, I can move forward faster. In this case, faster is good.

Summertime Module – Reflection; Self and Others

Returning to study this semester, I had been anxious about presenting research and findings of “bad design” and personal development over the summer. Turns out, there was no need to feel upset. (There never is, is there?) I was given a good round of constructive criticism to reflect upon. Least surprising was being told that I should place more value in my ideas. …It is something that I grapple with routinely. This year, I strive to more closer to a confident problem-solver.

I am going to attempt to reach out to other designers though platforms well-used in industry. I want to become far more confident in sharing ideas with like-minded creatives and receiving outside criticism –  that is, outside the safety of the studio.

SAM
Screenshot of a peer’s blog entry.

My peers looked at poorly-designed subjects that I hadn’t; beauty products, stationary, food packaging, and automobiles, just to name a few. It was good to see a variety. Most peers shared their research and development work though their blogs, some gave presentations with printouts.

Other students who looked at food packaging in particular gave great examples of how strongly visual language can effect a consumer’s confidence in what a product actually is. A salad dressing bottle with the fonts and colours that evoke a car wax bottle is very disorientating. A novelty eraser blind bag that possesses the same playfulness and whimsy of confectionary wrappers is confusing and potentially dangerous.

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Screenshot of another peer’s blog entry.

Students who looked at apps discussed visual hierarchy and font families. Students made sure to mention the importance of leading, kerning, and tracking. Legible, sensible, and coherent icon design is important too – for use not only on apps, but public signage and restaurant menus, too.

One thing I never touched upon – an important element, too – is the material that a product is made of. Paper stock, printing processes… an object’s material quality helps reinforce its function. Material can say a lot about who the product is marketed to.

As stated previously, I take from my critique the need to develop confidence in my own design and solutions. No one gave feedback on my verbal presentation, but I know that if I had rehearsed the information that I had shared prior, it would have been a smoother delivery. …All presentations feel as if they could have gone better in retrospect, don’t they?

NCI404 Feedback – “Through perseverance than strength.”

Although I have already written in detail about the poster brief, sticker making, and risograph prints that I made elsewhere on this blog, I want to write up my thoughts on the Practice Enrichment module as a whole now that I have been given feedback.

I’d admitted previously that I had difficulty with the risograph session – getting a composition together – but in the end I sourced my images from magazines and made a pleasing enough image.

Colour Photocopy Riso Collage page Teal
Colour photocopy of the collage that became the teal layer.

Only 7 final images out of the run of 10 were of a good, consistent quality. But I think that’s a good number and I’m eager to try my hand again at risograph printing. With enough trial and error, I imagine that I could create some very pleasing work.

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End result.

I think I need guidance to go though the method of creating decals again. The workshop was s quick; but through practice, the task should become easier. Creating a crisp and solid graphic that performs as you want is the hardest part; printing it is a technical process.

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Four designs (including mine) are fit onto a strip of vinyl in Cutmaster 3.

The vinyl graphic needs to be in monotone; although a finished multiple colour vinyl is possible, if the work is made of different, individually printed layers. My Creative Juice logo was simply black. The work has got to be a vector in order to work with the Cutmaster 3 program, which sends the data to the vinyl cutting machine.

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This machine cuts decal.

Sticker-making felt a lot simpler a process. As long as the graphic is sharp enough to print as the desired dimensions, it doesn’t need to be a vector. I used programs and technology exclusive to the creative industries’ department. The most important specific to remember is the cut-contours’ line with of 0.25.

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Detail of a sheet of stickers.

With the feedback that I have received, I am happy with the results. I am encouraged to push on and keep up the momentum and drive to better myself, to continue learning at my own pace to become a solid graphic designer.

Reflecting on this past academic year, I have achieved a lot, learned much more than I had thought I would (or could), and I intend to keep it up. And there’s so much more to learn when I return in the autumn.

WRL100 Review – “Work towards one goal in unison!”

Looking back, Work Related Learning, or the Branding module was a brief that I struggled with from start to finish. I was rarely at ease, with little confidence in my own ideas. I was personally distressed at the time, and upon refection, I would say that affected my productivity and perhaps my ability to work with others.

Though my end result was a “fruit juice” themed studio, I went though numerous aesthetic ideas as I tried by best to cut through the brief. The brief essentially asked students to rebrand the graphic communication studio. In “rebranding” the studio as Creative Juice, I had the chance to design logos with the visual language taking cues from fruit juice labels and stickers. Yes, I did learn a lot about fruit stickers; more than I thought I’d ever need to.

I feel that I could have been better organised in presenting my work. I used a sketchbook for scribbling down notes, ideas, and supporting sketches, a ring-binder file for the hard-copy of my online research and digital development work, and later printed off my brand guidelines as their own booklet. (The brand guidelines could have been bound and presented better.)

this is it the logo
Polished colour logo for the course’s branding module.

This project could be undertaken as part of a group, or carried out solo. I was actually eager to work with other students. One peer from the group of students I asked to join, set up a Discord server to share website links, Google Drive files, and other information. I contributed as much as I could.

wayfinding notes
I’m thorough in my note-taking.

the screenshot from above is a capture of a page from my Google Docs. I can say that I did learn a lot during research, and realised that there was a lot more consideration that goes into “branding” than I had initially thought.

moodboard example studio
I didn’t use my initial mood boards because my ideas changed a lot throughout development.

The mood board above is of an “energetic” theme. As I anticipated, making mood boards was fun; I made a few, and most were scrapped. But it really helps to solidify an idea – or just to move onward – if you can capture the right sort of visuals and aesthetics. Most importantly, it’s fastest, and easiest to communicate with images than words (as long as the chosen pictures make sense in context).

I failed in working harmoniously within a group; I left the peers I had chosen to join prematurely in order to finish the module solo because I felt that I wan’t gelling with my partners, and that I felt stifled, somehow. When at work I take note of a co-worker in need of aid, and they do when I too need help; but it’s a much different dynamic in a studio – in an agency – and I hope that I can work towards better interactions with those I share ideas with.

I continued to work through the module despite my frustrations, and came out with a solid concept and aesthetic. I also learned new digital artworking techniques within Adobe Illustrator. It’s hard to look back on a module that I had so much trouble with and say that I “enjoyed” it, but it was worth all perseverance for new knowledge and skills. I’m also happy that elements of my work (such as the inclusion of plants in the workspace) are being taken into consideration when giving the studio a new face.

APD100 Review – “Learning is a verb.”

Time to pin down my thoughts on the course’s advertisement module. I have a category on this blog where I keep examples of advertisements that I like and store research on the topic of advertisements. The research covers marketing strategies, target market and demographics, and so on.

It was no secret that the majority of my peers really didn’t enjoy the advertisement module. And I too, had some difficulty with it. But once I realised that there were no boundaries when it came to the ideas I could put forward, or the content that I could produce, it became a more enjoyable module. The module did however, drag on (to an excruciating length).

I think I faired best with the short exercise to advertise a rollercoaster. The task requiring one to craft a 6-panel storyboard for a video advertisement. That meant that one could imagine the the end result could be animated, live action, or a mix of the two. I found storyboarding easier once I realised that there is a plethora of online stock photo galleries one can use to get an idea down on paper faster if it’s content one isn’t used to drawing.

tutupig
A sketch of little pigs in tutus… Silly, but I had to get it out!

The major body of work was made up of advertisement brief to market the Ballet performances of the Royal Opera House to the younger population. I have never been to any ballet, and so I had to research a lot about it in order to generate ideas that could fly. Some ideas included animated commercials, interactive or ambient advertisement, and the traditional poster. I chose to tackle the brief from many angles.

As I’ve not been given any feedback yet, I wonder if any of my proposals to any of the brides would really have been feasible, or if I had pushed things too far, if the ideas were too weird. I really was intent on making strange content (in the hopes that it was memorable) but perhaps to the point of being too oblique?

I had an ethical breakdown during this module. Hh… h-hooray…?

In the end… yeah, the module was… bad. But dare I say I felt good about pumping out many strange analogue drawings in such a short space of time. No doubt that they don’t go down well, though. It has to be said that I still feel uneasy when I imagine creating work for services and products that I don’t agree with. We’ll see what change the future brings.