OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience: Crit

This morning we had a crit session with Amber and Simon. We were put in to 6 groups of 6 and we were assigned to a table. We had to lay our work out on white sheets of paper to present it all. We were then asked to go around the table and explain our development and the decisions we have made.

After this, we then wrote feedback down for each individual, most people wanted advice on stock, font choice and whether they had enough work. I found that I was able to give quite constructive feedback which hopefully helped other group members. When it came to presenting my own work I had written down all of the different elements I am including within this brief, to ensure that I had asked everything I needed the answers for.

I feel as though the feedback I was given was quite constructive, however I would have benefitted even more if we had then proceeded to go around the whole class and ask for even more feedback, so that I could see whether there were many more suggestions.

I asked about the following elements:

• Placemats and whether they would be used
• Apron
• Experimenting with laminating
• Tupperware stickers
• Blog or PDF with the recipes
• Show what it would look like on an iPad
• Storage or stand
• Brown bags
• Coasters

The feedback I got was really useful. I asked specifically about stock and font choice to get some general feedback:

• I was told that the illustrative font worked well with my own illustrations
• It was also suggested that I could use fridge magnets, which allowed me to explain my idea of buying small magnetic boards to use
• The swirly font could be too feminine
• I could use a rack that spins around to hand all of the different types of recipes on
• I could iron on to an oven glove
• The green stock was preferred, however the cream stock was also liked
• James mentioned how I could melt plastic to create a stand
• It was said that the individual cards could be misplaced, which is why I would use a belly band to keep them all together

As a class we then spoke about the feedback we had given so that Amber and Simon could see whether we were having any technical issues with printing our work.

I then asked a few more people for some feedback after the crit to clarify what I should do.

OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience: Crit

During today's crit we were put in groups and we were asked to present where we were up to with our work. My group was at 11.15 and there was quite a lot of us as many students were working in pairs. I found that it was a really interesting and helpful crit, everyone made valid comments and decisions were made concerning everyone's work.

I was given positive feedback and people considered the practicalities of mine, looking at the importance of being able to produce recipe cards which wouldn't get dirty and would be easy to use, as well as looking at what would be most manageable for the students.

The suggestions were as follows:

• A poster to use while cooking
• A shopping list of ingredients included for each recipe
• Laminate the cards
• Create placemats

Everyone also liked the idea of me including stickers within my work too, which students could use for tupperware and any food in the fridge. Another element everyone liked was the idea of supplying a tea towel with my own design printed on to it.

I therefore think I may reconsider my idea quite a lot and look at developing my idea of making some sort of calendar possibly with separate stickers supplied for students to use.

OUGD404 - Design Principles Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this module we have learnt a lot of new processes where Adobe programs are concerned. I feel as though I have been taught a lot about InDesign in particular, having never used it before. The skills I have acquired have enabled me to produce the '10 things' publication. I feel as though I have applied them as successfully as possible as I am really pleased with the outcome. To illustrate the skills I have learned linked to grids, I have used the individual pieces of trace within my publication, and I feel this has given it a unique feel to it, although it is quite fragile to handle. I have learnt a lot about the colour theory and I feel as though this will help me a lot in the future, especially because I am not confident with using colour as it is.

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

When completing my '10 things' publication I was able to use the skills I had acquired from previous studio sessions and apply them to my work. I feel as though I learnt a lot about Adobe programs, in particular InDesign. Having never used it before I feel as though I have learnt a lot and was able to successfully apply my knowledge to my designs.

I feel as though I have improved where thumbnails are concerned too. I have always completed thumbnails when completing the developmental process, however I feel as though design principles has emphasised the importance of them, allowing me to grow in confidence with my work and improve my illustrations of my initial ideas.
 

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I feel as though I have learnt the importance of creating well structed and detailed thumbails. I will capitalise on this in the future by continuing to apply the skills I have learnt. I will most certainly be using Illustrator and InDesign more in the future as I feel as though I have managed to indicate the strength of my skills in my work. I have also improved experimenting with layouts and can appreciate the importance of being able to produce clean, concise layouts which are functional and informative. I have discovered that although my work can appear quite minimalistic, I have been able to explore a little bit more with imagery and colour in my double page spread publication.

I have also learnt a lot about typography during this module through completing birth of a font. I think it has enabled me to understand the different parts of typography and it gave me the knowledge to be able to create my own typefaces now as well as in the future.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I feel as though I could certainly educate myself further about colour. We have been taught the basics but there is always so much more to know. I could easily do this by taking books out of the library and studying the colour theory further. I think in the future I will be much more experienced with all of the Adobe programs which will allow me to create stronger designs.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• I will develop my skills on InDesign to ensure that I can create a higher level of design work
• I will continue to read relevant books to help me further my knowledge on colour, grids and layout as well as typography
• I will develop my type skills and consider which fonts I should use for certain pieces of work in order to make them closely representative to the subject matter
• I will have a book binding lesson so that I am more educated for future pieces of work
• I will research in more depth on the internet as well as using books as sources