End of module evaluation.

Throughout the module I have capitalised on existing skills but also learnt new ones that are going to be very relevent to my practice as a designer. I have also gained a lot of knowledge on areas that I was aware of but had linear understanding of. I'm going to evaluate below each brief induvidually because each has been so relevent to my growth as a designer but in many different ways. 

Black and white print

Originally, for me, the main focus of this brief was to gain a greater understanding of print processes but also apply these processes within my design work. I feel i've got so much more than anticipated from this brief because of the depth of development within the pattern design and also the product range became quite significant. This has however, not over-ridden the understanding of print processes because I found how each of my induvidual products would be printed and although I'm not able to apply all of this yet, It will be really useful to have this understand for the industry. I had no problems as such with this brief because everything was really straight forward, the techniques, processes and stock used were all so well considered that nothing seemed to go wrong. I changed the brief slightly so that the products had a realistic context (being sold in paperchase) but feel this didn't hinder the brief because it extended my research and my knowledge of the retail sector the products fit within. 

Strengths: The development undergone throughout this brief has been a definite strength because it has informed the final product range and in particular the visual aspect of this. The fact the product range works together is another strength because each product was created induvidually so it wasn't really until the end result that I saw whether it was successful. 

Weaknesses: The products weren't made for the purpose of submisson and really, if I'd have taken more care crafting then this range would have been quite nice to submit. 

Penguin Design Award 2012 'The Wind in the Willows'

I think this is one of the only briefs that stayed very true to what I originally wanted to get out of it. Initially I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with this brief because it was a new area of the industry to me. This put me off starting the brief for a while but I found once I got into it and just went with the flow of the design process, I was really pleased with the work I was creating. The design process I used meant that I focused on the competition half of the brief initially which was the book cover design because I knew that once I had this, the rest of the products would come together because they would be based on it. I still realistically have time to go back and re-visit the bookcover design for the purpose of the competition because I can't submit my entry until next year. There were no problems during this brief as such, things just seemed to take a lot longer than I initially anticipated. 

Strengths: The character design is really strong because they all stand out induvidually from each other and have their own characteristics but at the same time when they are put together they work as a set due to the illustration style. This was the first time I'd properly vectored characters too so this skill is definitely a strength. 

Weaknesses: Again, the crafting of some of the products has been a weakness because although the majority are put together really well, not all of them are and it would have been nice to submit these as a range together. Although it's not necessarily a complete weakness, I got way too into this brief which meant I neglected some others for a while. In future I need to prioritise all briefs equally. 

Illustrative type

I initially got really stuck with this project because I didn't know how to stylize the typefaces in order to make them fit to the particular film's I'd chosen. Due to the fact the whole type sector was relatively new to my personal practice I just didn't know where to start so for quite a while I put this brief off instead of trying to plough through it. In the end I spent a lot of time sketching typeface ideas and relating back to my visual inspiration because I knew I had to push on with the brief and didn't want this to hinder my overall module. I actually surprised myself because once I came up with ideas for typefaces the rest of the elements just seemed to come together quite easily so in future I'll definitely just encourage myself to stick at something until I feel i'm making progress. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to drawing too so although the typefaces took me a while I feel as though it was well worth it. As well as achieving everything I said I wanted to from the beginning I also learnt a bit more about the film industry in terms of merchandise and I've realised I quite like this area so this may be something to extend within future projects. Theres so much research and so much to learn that I just find it really engaging and interesting. The overall outcomes do what they were intended to but I feel the product range could have maybe been larger in terms of the elements I found within the merchandise range. This isn't a huge worry though because the focus was on hand rendering, branding and type and not product range. 

Strengths: My hand rendering skills seem to have definitely developed. I have my own unique style when it comes to type and illustration now which is something I can continue to capitalise on throughout the rest of my practice. My persistancy not to just give up on a brief must be a strength too because I feel what I have achieved in the end has been worth it. 

Weaknesses: The product range is a weakness but I think this is more of personal thing because many of my other briefs have considerably more so I know I can achieve more. The general development of the brief isn't that consistent and comes from the typefaces mainly and this module is very heavily weighted on development so I maybe should have thought more about this. 

Coca Cola

This brief was the final one that I started and has definitely been neglected because I spent the least time on it. Despite this, I have still really enjoyed the brief and feel as though there are many positives that have come out of it. This was another brief that once the character design was done, the rest of it just seemed to fall into place because everything needed to be consistant. Due to the fact I was using an existing brand and think this is another thing that made the brief so successful because I already had certain elements given to me such as a brand colour and logo so it was just a matter of what I was going to do with this. Initially I was panicing a bit about this brief because i'd left it so long but as soon as I started designing I relaxed and really got into it. There was a lot of existing material that I had access to in terms of the brand and previous advertising campaigns so I used this to my advantage and used it for inspiration. I feel that my dissertation has helped me relate to the brand better because a lot of the research i've done is balanced so i've seen both sides of it which means I can speak to the audience properly with the designs. I've enjoyed this brief because it's allowed me to explore branding in a different way by being able to research and existing brand and it's values and also what makes a brand so successful. I feel i've got everything out of it that I originally intended to which is also very good. Initially the brief wasn't meant to be completely digital based but I feel this has been another plus because it's made me consider context more within all of my briefs and how things will work in the real world. 

Strengths: Consistant design has been a strength throughout this project because I've taken one element and applied it throughout everything in order to create a successful campaign. The ability to apply research properly to a brief is another strength because the Jean Paul Gaultier campaign definitely inspired my own. 

Weaknesses: Time management has been a definite weakness with this brief because it could have been so much more if i'd given myself more time on it. This has definitely been a lesson learnt though and will make sure I don't do it again. 



One thing to note with all of my briefs is that I didn't stick to the time management plan at all. I started off really well with this but as I got into the briefs I spent more time than anticipated on some of them. I think if it had have stuck to it the Coca-Cola brief wouldn't have been so rushed so this is something to bear in mind within the next module. 

Submission boards.

Physical products to submit: sample of foil blocking

Products to submit: prints and postcards

Products to submit: printed typefaces

These are the PDF's of the final boards for submission. I've also listed the things i'm going to submit with each project as samples of the stock i've used, how things have printed and how the colours have come out. I'm quite happy with the layout of my final boards because they are clear, ordered and explain my brief well so that for someone looking at them for the first time, they will be able to understand what each brief is about. 

Submission form.

This is the submission form to go with my work when I submit on the module deadline. 

Branded elements for submission.

These are the branded elements I created for submission with my personal logo on just to add my own touch to the submission part of the module. I have created a front page for my A2 folder and as well as this there are dividers between each project to keep the physical submitted products seperate within the folder as well as the boards. 

Bibliography.

This is my bibliography for all the brief research I've undergone during this module. 

Final written briefs.

These are my final written briefs based on the changes that have been made throughout the module. 

I've written a short evaluation of each project to state how the brief began and how it has changed.

Black and white print
This brief came from Tigerprint as a competition where they asked you to design a maximum of five repeat black and white patterns. I submitted three entries but unfortunately I didn't win. At the very beginning when I first wrote the brief I hadn't even defined the product range but just stated that the patterns would be applied to a range of products. I then re-wrote this brief and wrote a list of products I was going to design. By the end of this project I have taken a few of these products out but for justified reasons. The biggest thing I changed was that instead of competiting against Paperchase, my products would be designed for Paperchase. This didn't mean changing anything massively as such, just revisiting the product range to make sure it fits with the company. I changed storage boxes to gift boxes because gift boxes fit into the product range a lot better in terms of there being stationery products and then gift products as before it didn't really fit into either category. The great thing about this was that I didn't actually have to change anything about the box but decided it suited a different purpose better. I also got rid of postcards because I felt that consumers are more likely to go for the greetings card option with this being blank and it seems to have more quality than a postcard. Postcard also didn't really fit in with the Paperchase product range because i've never seen anything like that instore. I knew the briefs would be subject to change and I feel these changes have made the brief so much better than the original intentions, i've feel i've learnt so much more by applying these changes.

The Wind in the Willows
This brief started off as a simple bookcover because I was just basing my own brief on that of the penguin design award one. I decided to extend the original brief and create a whole promotional range of material in order to go along with this cover and make the brief more substantial. The range went from being just a bookcover to a range of promotional posters, a range of bookmarks, shelf banners/wobblers, prints, postcards and window display. This was definitely a lot better because it meant I was pushing myself more and testing a range of skills so I was certainly going to get more out of this brief. By the end of the brief the product range had changed again. These changes were quite small and were with the promotional posters, window display and banners. I realised that if I create one substantial enough design for the promoting the book then this could be used on a range of different scales to suit different purposes and if the advertising was all the same then there would be no confusion. I also changed banner to bunting because after seeing something online I felt inspired to do something completely different that would be more engaging for children. This brief has shown me how much the research can inform design decisions and inspire my personal practice. 

Illustrative type
For me, this is the brief that has developed and changed most throughout the module. Originally I was just going to design typefaces based on themes of personal interest and create prints from them of the full typeface and then write quotes with the letterforms. I was really struggling with this brief intially and I think that it was because it was so broad and didn't really have any focus at all so I kept putting it off. I then came up with the concept of basing it on the theme of film and extending the brief via proposing a company and a product range. This idea was a lot better because it made it substantial and gave me a lot more to work with as well as focus. Once I had defined the product range and theme I was away with this brief and really enjoyed it. This was the brief that had the least amount of changes in terms of the product range and all that was changed was I took away the idea of creating personalised name signs. I decided to get rid of this product because it's only specific to a section of the target market and I want to try and make the products desired by all areas. Although this product range is quite small, I don't feel that effects the brief because the focus was still, at the end, on designing three full typefaces and I feel I have achieved this considerably well. 

Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola wasn't actually one of my original ten briefs that I had written at the very beginning of the module but I brought this in after being told we had to consider how our dissertation could link to our practice. I thought it would be great to have a brief running alongside my dissertation because one would constantly be informing the other and they should both hopefully prove pretty strong. I've always been aware that Coca-Cola produce a limited edition range of bottles every year so thought this would be a great and fun project for myself and there were particular things I could also get out of doing this brief. I chose the theme of christmas because we were getting to that time of year so thought it might help me be more festive but also because there are so many possible outcomes for this so I knew I wouldn't be stuck. This is also a big time of year for the company and they always have a design for it so there would be plenty of research. The product range shrank slightly with this brief because I decided not to use the floor sticker and not create the shelf banner. The reason for doing so is because the concept of this brief is to really create and promote the bottle designs and with these two elements I felt I was designing them for the sake of extending the product range. I don't feel that they promote the product as such and spread the message so they are particular necessary. This was a good project because I got to design things I haven't before and have a real focus on the context of things and how they would exist in the real world. 

This is a copy of the original penguin brief so that you can see how i've extended it within my own. 

Coca-Cola; final products//specifications.

This is the final product range for the Coca-Cola brief. The range of products works very sucessfully together because all the elements utilize the repeat pattern that I created for the bottles intially. Due to the fact the colour is consistent too this is something else that brings everything together and makes it all look visually appealing. The great thing about utilizing the Coca-Cola red within this brief has been that once things are applied in context you see just how much they stand out against other things which is definitely a plus. 

None of this product range has been printed purposely because when I looked at the products I had created, I couldn't really print anything to a realistic standard so the context wouldn't really make sense. Instead I have put most of the elements into the context which they will exist in so you can see how a range of methods are being utilized to really promote the range. As i've not done this for many of my other projects I feel it has worked to my advantage because it shows that I really understand the context of things and can work across a range of them.