Research & critical awareness This module has improved my critical awareness within the design industry. It has allowed me to think more conceptually about design outcomes and produce solutions that are appropriately informed by context, target audience, culture, production etc. I've become more established in researching the most relevant areas to each specific brief and translating my findings into visual developments and improvements; this in turn has improved my time management skills as im able to focus on the things that matter.
Doing such a large number of briefs all written in different ways (casual, formal etc.) has helped me in the way I approach and understand them. Im now able to address the 'problem' within each of them and also other people's design solutions in order to solve and improve within my treatments. For example during the collaborative brief we addressed the issue of a lack of enthusiasm, inspiration and bravery within certain levels of creative discipline education, we felt this was an alternate target audience to what most people would choose for the brief that would give us an edge. We then took this problem and created a visual and physical design solution.
With every brief I do I am seeing the quality and overall standard of finish become more and more professional. The variation of outputs and increased exposure to save formats, size, prototyping are leading to drastic improvements. The visual quality is also becoming much more detailed; where I previously would just produce a standard digital design with mock ups. Whereas in this module I have pushed myself in creating physical prototypes, videos and other forms of collateral.
The amount of creative skills I have learnt and improved within this module are outstanding especially in comparison with previous briefs. In particular I explored the use of film to present my ideas, concepts and designs. This is something that will impact my practice massively as I find it really difficult to present physically (powerpoint and speaking in front of people). Developing these film and editing skills allows me to present in a professional manner whilst demonstrating my capabilities in this form of media at the same time. Within this module I have also become increasingly interested in illustration and how you can appropriately combine it with type and digital design. I have begun to develop my own styles that can be applied to both image and typography; the benefits of which for the future means I can fully produce bodies of work that require knowledge/skills in graphic design, illustration, film and more.
The most enjoyable part of this module by far was the Fortune favors the brave collaborative brief. I found the ideas of another creative alongside me then sparked my own imagination further than it does on its own. I feel this is the most valuable piece of experiance i've got from a collaboration brief so far and it's reinforced the importance of choosing to work with like minded and passionate people. I was able to self assess my strengths and weaknesses enabling the best allocation of roles to create an equal workload. My knowledge of type, layout, colour, format etc. gave me a sense of control over the overall aesthetic meaning I could ensure each decision was well considered and informed. Since the collab me and Jazz have decided to work together again on a self lead project over the summer period; so even if we don't win anything from D&AD I have made an amazing connection for life. I now know that working within a collaborative cross discipline environment professionally would be the perfect outcome after graduation rather than taking a freelance route.
My experiance with the smaller briefs improved my ability to complete a large number of briefs in a small amount of time. It made my research more direct and meant each decision had to be carefully considered before wasting too much time experimenting with execution. I will continue to push myself to enter competitions as it gives me a sense of the industry standard when it comes to quality and time.
One thing I didn't do within the module was collaborate with an animation student as none of them were interested in my chosen brief. During the brief itself I feel we coped well enough without but it would of been interesting to see what another discipline could bring to the table in terms of my long lasting practice. In reflection I will aim to contact members of the course and discuss the possibilities of graphic design in conjunction with animation.
In conclusion this module has taught me a huge range of skills both practical and personal; whilst improving my confidence in my practice and standard of design work. It's changed my opinion on working alongside others as it's now something I feel could fuel me to become an better at concept generation.
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