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.
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