With this module I wanted the focus to be on branding and creating a range of promotional material. Branding is something that i have wanted to focus on and take time to create a wide range of products which fall Nader this category.
Within this module I have done a lot of research which I feel has helped me understand the idea of branding more, especially within the area that I was creating the branding - exhibition. From the research this clearly informed me what I needed to do and how I could apply it to my own work, in this case I think I have shown a good application of branding throughout all products.
Another section of the module I have improved upon is my printing skills. I have used three different methods, embossing, screen printing and foiling. The embossing and foiling are techniques that are new to me and ones which I have experimented within this module.
In particular the embossing was a big learning curve, I decided t take them time to create a copper plate, which is a process i have never undertaken, learning out to do this was great for future reference. Also the way in which I wanted to we the embossing to create the product was such a way that the people in the print room wasn't sure if it would work themselves, so it was a learning curve for me and them. Through a fair bit of help with the technicians in the print room, we managed to get them working and the result was great, I was impressed, they were impressed and the work stood out well and was still in keeping with the digital printed work.
The final thing I have learn a lot about is the idea of concepts. Through the workshops etc we have had with tutors I have developed the idea of a concept and how to create something that can be applied across a wide range of products, but still be something that could be expanded upon in the future.
2. What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
Right from the start if this project I have focussed on getting the products right and developing the design of them to get a hit standard throughout all designs with the products themselves, this was done by using design sheets. This was also present for the concept of the brief and how this would work over all products.
I have also used a lot of printing methods, some which were new and others that I have improved upon. Designing in this way has made me design the products for print and not screen, getting the artwork ready for print in both digital and hand printing was the focus. The printing methods that I used were all fairly new, embossing was the major one which I have now learnt how d this processor my own. The way which I wanted to use the embossing and print at the same time was new to the technicians and something which made them think how to do it, the results of this were great though and really set the printed products apart from the digital work. Even though the digital products were just as important as the other ones, I much preferred using the printing techniques, which I think has shown that I should develop these skills further and spend more time working on this area of design. Something for next year which I can focus on more.
3. What strengths can you identify within your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
The strengths within my work are the application of the branding and identify of the exhibition across all branding and promotional material. I think this shows within the products because they are all consistent within the design and each one has the same elements within the design, these are just applied differently for the different formats that have been used.
This is another strength - the use of formats within the range of products varies across all media and within the printed work I have used man different formats for the different products which have been created.
The product range is large and works in sets, as I have expanded each product as much as I can to show that the concept and design idea can be pushed and adapted over alot of different products and formats.
The final strength is defiantly the invitations and foiling on the branding material. These additional techniques have made these products stand out more against the digitally printed work, but yet they still all work with the product range because of the way I have applied these techniques. The invitations were a great success and something I am very proud of because it was the first time I had tried anything like this.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how willy address these in the future?
I think the only weakness I can find within my work is that not all products are finished to the highest standard I would of liked. Some products are weaker than others and have some mistakes within the design, but these are things I have noticed after printing them. In future I need to spend more time on the final details of the work and proof reading the work more closer to make sure the smaller details aren't missed.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Manage my time better - instead of leaving work until the final days I will manage my time in order to produce the work more evenly throughout the time of the module, this will make it easier when it comes to the deadline day.
- Blog work as I am going along with the project - again leaving a lot of the blogging until the end of the module has meant a lot of documentation has to be done within the last days.
- Work with the print techniques more - within this project I have seen the outcomes from using printing techniques and what sort of work I can achieve from doing this. In the future I would like the experiment with this further and spend more time doing these techniques to produce a body of hand printed work.
- Work outside of my comfort zone more - with this project I have stepped outside of my comfort zone and worked on areas of design that I haven't done before - branding and way finding. In working on these new areas, I have seen that I can adapt myself to work across a range of different areas of design and I can still produce a high standard of work for this.
- Expand the product range even further - if I had the time I would of liked to further expand the product range to create full range of products which would be used in an exhibition, this could of been proposing the exhibition and what included within the content etc.
Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 5
Commitment - 5
Quantity of work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution of the group - 4
