Good is... evaluation.

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? I have a greater understanding of print as a whole in terms of how certain processes work such as die cutting and foil blocking and I now know how I can apply these to my own work if they are suited to the brief I am working on. I have knowledge of the most suitable print processes to use depending on wether or not I am creating design for mass production or a smaller print job. I haven’t really applied these to my own work in a literal sense but I have proposed them so that if my product was actually created this is how it would be but this shows understanding of the methods and the fact I am able to explore design for print in a mature manner. I have also had my first client interaction during this module with the visit to Team printers. This has been quite important as this year I am likely to be talking to many more clients so I am more aware of how you interact with these people and this is also a company I can add to my contact list for future reference. I also feel as though I have been a lot more experimental throughout this module, trying things that I haven’t really before such as packaging and bag construction. Although this is quite a small factor I feel as though its a step in the right direction. These products have worked quite well within my design work because the results I have got are quite a sophisticated response. One of the quite significant things for myself is that i’ve developed my skills in having conversation with tutors. This has been really useful because it has made me feel more confident with my ideas and I have been given guidence where needed.  2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? Through the things I learnt about design for print when researching for my booklet, taking part in workshops and also on the print visit I become aware that the colour used is quite important because when the artwork goes to print someone checks over it to make sure the colours are correct because colour can look different on screen to what it does when it is printed out. Due to what I had learnt I made sure to use pantone colours in my design so I knew exactly what I would be getting, this was my starting point in a sense because my artwork is quite simplistic so colour made up for that. Stock also links to the colour and effects how it will look so this was also a massive consideration with my own work because I didn't want the colours to change. Stock has informed my design development because I had to test different types of stock in order to find out which one(s) would work best. Special finishes are also something that I have proposed for most of my final pieces and this has informed my development process in the sense that it would round everything off nicely at the end giving a sophisticated response.  3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I have become a lot more experimental with the final pieces I create in terms of the range, instead of just sticking to things such as posters i've worked more with 3D elements throughout this project. To capitalise on this in future I will try and incorporate something new that I haven't tried previously into each project and even if this doesn't work then at least I have experimented with it and learnt a new process. I feel that my final pieces show that my illustrator skills have become stronger because the responses I have created are quite neat and i've also learnt a few new illustrator skills. To capitalise on software skills in general i'm going to try and learn some of the shortcuts I currently do not use, this will make the design process somewhat quicker and will generally be a handy skill to have. Finally, I feel as though confidence shows through my work because a lot of my design previously tended to be on white backgrounds and not very experimental in terms of colour but this time my work seems quite different to the design I was producing last year. This shows confidence in terms of the fact i've been willing to take more a risk and work a little out of my comfort zone. 4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I haven't really experimented with stock enough throughout this module because I was creating a range of products i'd automatically thought they should all be on the same stock to link together but this is obviously not the case. My bag and packaging design should be on card rather than cartridge paper to make them a bit more durable  and possibly even of higher quality. In future I will make sure that I experiment a lot more with stock before making a decision about which one I am going to use therefor it won't be a last minute realisation. I also didn't really keep on top of my blogging throughout this module so did chunks of it at a time which meant sometimes I had missed something out or I had forgotten what i'd already done or was yet to do. In future I will blog things as I create them so I can constantly look back on the decisions I made rather than trying to decide why I made them at a later date. A few parts on some of my designs didn't print out properly when it came to my final prints such as there being a gap between letters, although this is not a massive issue it is a bit disappointing because I was sure i'd checked them before transferring them to my memory stick. In future I will re-check this artwork when I bring it up on the mac in the digital dungeon before hitting print. 5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? - I will blog as I go throughout my project because this will help when I am making design decisions and constantly remind me of why I made certain choices. It will also be less to consider when i'm coming to the end of a module and I can concentrate on final pieces. - I will experiment more with stock when it comes to printing a final design during the project then I can be sure the stock I have chosen is the correct one for the piece I have made and make sure I have plenty of time to re-print onto a different stock if needed. - I will come in more during my studio development time on a friday and saturday because the times I did this during this particular module I got quite a lot done and it made me feel less under pressure because I was making the most of the time I had left to complete my work. - I need to do tasks within the same week that I am given them because during this module I didn't prioritise them as such so when it came to the end of the module they had built up and it took me a while to get through them. - In future I will have my presentation boards printed in the digital dungeon because for this module I printed them in the mac suite in halves and due to the cropping the printer automatically gives around the edge they haven't fit together properly. If I print them in the digital dungeon I am likely to get a better result and will reflect good alongside the rest of my work. 6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:  (please indicate using an ‘x’)   5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor 1 2 3 4 5 Attendance x Punctuality x Motivation x Commitment x Quantity of work produced x Quality of work produced x Contribution to the group x The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.