The first brief – Design for print.
This
brief has been my favourite, I have learnt a lot about print and how it works
within the industry, my knowledge of this has grown an incredibly and it’s very
useful because I am interested in this area.
Designing
throughout this brief was a joy; this was the best publication and my favourite
that I have designed so far. I took a different approach to this than any other
I had before. I sat down for a couple of days and worked on the layout, doing
sheets to get a wide variety of layouts in the first place. From this I selected
the best ones and digitalised them, when it came to designing the actual
publication I could just drop the text and images into the layout. This process
was so much easier and simpler than anything before. It also made a better
designed and thought out publication in the long run.
Throughout
this brief I have experimented with different types of print, using different
techniques again this has taught me a lot and shown me more things to learn and
get the grip of. Printing techniques are definitely something that I am
interested in and want to explore more. The use of the laser cutter within the
brief has been considerable. My main publication, sample folder and proposed
packaging all contain the laser cutter – I think I have used this to the best I
could and produced something which is different to anything I would usually do.
Mixing the stock and colours together has made an interesting design process
and outcome and something I have enjoyed doing along the way - this brief has
shown me that this area is what I am interested in and exploring this more is
what I should be doing throughout this year for going into my third year.
The
outcomes of this brief I think are really good; they are of a great standard
and work fully as set. The only thing I am disappointed with is the fact I
haven’t been able to make / get a box for the products to be packaged in. I
have the lid made and that gives an idea of what it will look like but still I would
have liked to actually make it and finish off the brief completely. Other than
that I am happy with what I have done and how it has turned out.
The
Second Brief – Design for Web
With
this brief this is the one that I have learnt the most. Before this I had never
done any sort of sort design. I knew some basic html coding, but nothing to
build an actual website.
The
workshops we initially had were very useful and I found these great in telling
me what I needed to do, but I felt as though I learnt the most when I sat down
and started to design the website itself. In this brief we had to deign a site
around our summer brief – at this point I was pretty fed up with my summer
brief choice and didn’t really want to do it, but I had to for the brief.
To start
with I tried to do something too complicated and my camps made no sense, but
then I simplified this down. In doing this I realized that usability of the
site wasn’t very good and it was hard to navigate through all the images, so I
changed the design again. The last design was the best for the content that I
had. This design involved using lightbox, but I didn’t want it as standard, so
I had to edit the css myself – this was a massive learning curve, knowing what
to delete and what did what was good to find out and change, a lot of the time
I was guessing at first – then once I worked it out, I knew which areas did
what.
I am
pretty happy with the website I have created for this brief. I don’t think that
it is the best looking site and there are things that I would change with it
now, but I am glad that I have done it and learnt what to do through this
website. If you compare it to the website in the Print and Web brief, you can
see how much more I have learnt and put into practice on that site – it looks a
lot better aesthetically and is much more technical than the first website. I
am glad that we have done this brief and learnt about web design, because it
was something I had been wanting to look into but I had no idea about it in the
first place, now I feel as though I can design a basic website and would be
confident taking on a brief about building a website for a client. It is a
skill that I am going to be able to carry through all my time as a design and
something new that I can offer as a designer.
The Third
Brief – Design for Print and Web
I
believe that the work that I have produced for this project has been very good.
Given the time that I have produced the final outcomes in, I think I have done
really well with the project, once I had changed the idea and got it to the
right stage and on track I did actually enjoy doing it.
I took
on a different approach to designing this project and used a more hand drawn
style by using a tablet, this proved to be a success. I firstly enjoyed using
this process and doing the drawings and I think the aesthetics of it really
work with the idea and concept of the publication.
Throughout
the project I have tried to try as many new processes and used different stock
to produce the final products. In terms of printing and printing techniques I
do wish that I could of experimented with this more but the products I have
designed don’t really lend themselves to any of the techniques.
I have
worked with new stock in creative ways, using the trace for packaging and
designing and printing the newspaper. The publication was bound using binding
screws, which is something I have never tried before and another binding
technique I can add to my portfolio. This was really successful with the
publication and I really do like the aesthetics of screws with the publication.
The company identity was a favourite of mine, once I had the idea I could apply
it across the different formats which I loved doing - even coming up with the
idea for the branding was good and something I enjoyed. Creating the business
cards was good too, as I got to be creative with stock and use the laser cutter
to create the front of the business card – this also got around the dreaded
double sided printing. The branding side of things I love and really do like
the outcome I created for it.
Overall
I am happy with the products that I have designed and created for this brief.
The brief was tough when I first started and made me think a lot about it, but
in doing this I have learnt a lot about briefs and how to break them down in
the first instance. Within the brief I was heading the wrong way and designing
down the wrong route, enough to make me not want to do it anymore, but being
able to turn that around when I had been working on it for longer than I had
left on the brief amazed myself. It has given me a lot of confidence in what I
can actually do in a limited amount of time and I have learnt that I do work
well under pressure. This brief has been a good learning curve for me and even
though its not one of my favourite and I have enjoyed doing it and it has been
useful for myself as a designer.
Module Overview
Looking
at the module as a whole, it has been a great learning curve throughout all the
briefs and I liked the end brief combining the two new aspects we had
previously learnt. Looking back at this module and the work I have created, I
am very happy with it all and I think as a module I have done a lot of work,
more than what I thought. It has been a long module and lasted a long time, but
it doesn’t feel that way, especially within these last few weeks.
This module
has made me experiment with new techniques, work with stock and look at stock
in a different way to make sure it is what I need and how to apply it. I have
learnt new technical skills through web design and within the adobe suite too
for getting work ready for print. It has been a great module, with lots of
useful information for me as designer; I have enjoyed each brief and produce
some of the best work I believe.
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