OUGD403 Module Evaluation

Throughout this module My practical skills have been greatly improved. Coming from knowing very little about the production processes of design or much at all about digital design methods a substantial knowledge of production and design method has been created.For example, studio brief 02 introduced me to areas of illustrator I had no idea existed, the use of pathfinders and clipping masks feeding directly into my final design. Although the mono-print workshop did not form part of any particular brief I managed to use it for a further development of studio brief 03, the direction and purpose this lent to the experimentation with this media produced some really interesting work and allowed me to get to grips with the technology more effectively. Despite being unable to use this process on my final designs, my new found understanding of it means that in future projects I will be able to tell when it can be most successfully utilised and do so.

Through the crits that took place during and at the end of each brief I started to develop a more critical way of thinking, this became useful in not only analysing my own work but other's as well, gradually making the effort to become a more active member of the class. By making use of this skill I have become more and more aware of the delicate balance between the aesthetic of a design and the concept behind it that should be communicated. During the design process balancing these two things can be very difficult, especially when you are very deep in a project, but through the crits and the critical way of thinking these have fostered in me focussing on this problem has allowed me to become increasingly more effective in addressing it. This development can be best seen when comparing my reaction to studio briefs 01 and 05. My response to studio brief one was very thoughtful and heavily conceptual, but I was unhappy with it because the aesthetic and the way I had chosen to represent these concepts was not effective enough and far too obscure. Where as my response to studio brief 05 is pushing in the other direction, I have pinned down exactly what I wanted to communicate but I feel that the aesthetic has taken the upper hand, once again compromising the communication of the design. Although I have not yet found the balance between the aesthetic and the concept this module has allowed me to identify it and start to address it, as I will continue to do in the future.

Something I am less happy about in regards to my response to this module is the sometimes tentative link between my research and the final design. This tends to be because I think too deeply into the line of concept I am following and when I come to blog about the ideas that I have produced, it seems like a large jump has been made between times. This could in turn be because instead of physically doing and experimenting with a thought, I simply think more about it. To combat this I will need to act more quickly on ideas so that the development of a concept seems logical from the exterior of my brain. However, this module has brought this problem to my attention and in so doing, has given me the tools to solve it. So, overall I would say that this module has been a personal success, even if I am not 100% content with what I have produced, I am very pleased with how much my design process has improved and soon hopefully my designs will follow suit.

Studio Brief 03 Final Crit OUGD403

Below are the design boards that I brought to the studio Brief 03 final crit.

Below are the mandatory deliverables for this brief, the badge and A2 poster alphabet.

When it came to my feedback it was agreed that I had communicated what I has set out to when I defined what I waned to do with the words social, functional and confined. I had good reasons for each design decision. Possibly a little corporate in look. It conveyed the idea of a city environment but more in an architectural sense than the people that live in it which perhaps didn't match with Mo's personality. People were surprised at the personality traits I focussed in on and expected a much bigger brasher font.

I think the fact this it looks a bit corporate was something that I was aware of at an early stage and this would have been better explained if I had had the chance to show my design boards. These had the samples of mono-prints I did for this brief and the texture created by this process gave the glyph a much more human font and as a result less corporate.

General feedback that ran throughout many of the designs included:

-People often based their designs on what people liked rather than their actual personality aspects.

-When people research historical design examples people should analyse what exactly they communicate before they use influences from it.

- It was helpful to communication to look at current uses of fonts that communicate similar things. Intertextual references creating fast communication of idea.

- Influences out side photography created inventive designs.

Studio Brief 03 Mono-Print Experimentation OUGD403

For the mono-print workshop final designs for studio brief 03 were used for the experimentation with the new medium. These sketches had too much of a clean cut slightly cold look. The texture created by mono-print seemed to be a sensible progression from this realisation. 

The results were really promising and if more time was available this would definitely be the method of production I would use.

Studio Brief 03 Post Crit Design Development2 OUGD403

The font Briem Akademi std regular has been modified in several ways. The interior of corners have been smoothed out to create even line weight throughout, letters with two stems have had descenders added where appropriate to show a sociableness between letters. 

As a further development, to show where the font might go given more development time, ligatures inspired by the links of the London Underground map and neon signs (a common site in cities) have been added.

Possibly this has been taken too far and the design needs to be stripped back again.

Studio Brief 03 Post Crit Design Development1 OUGD403

After the feedback I received in the interim crit I started to apply the ideas and suggestions to the designs I already had.

One suggestion was to mix two of my concepts together, taking the idea of a city scape silhouette and applying it to the increased ascenders and descenders by putting small windows in these parts of the glyphs so that they are like buildings themselves but still social in main meaning, reaching out for one another.

These are really not subtle designs and are not worth pursuing. However, another suggestion received was to look into type associated with London and urban living, so follow a URL below to the post detailing this visual research.
http://b-taylor1316-dc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/studio-brief-03-post-crit-research.html

Studio Brief 03: Interim Crit OUGD403

The crit took the form of an informal wonder around the studio tables on which were placed each persons work with a page next to it for constructive criticism. The designs that I brought are below, all are created from the concepts collected by my research into what defines a city environment.

The feed back sheets received are also shown below.

There were a couple of contrasting opinions which i think came from people not actually looking at the notes next to the sketches and me not communicating the information as effectively as I could. The most surprising ones of these were "you have based you chosen font on Handwriting alone", which surprised me to start with Because there are numerous personality traits and concepts that have been applied to the type. Yet there were also comments saying that I should use the handwriting as a bases for my font (when I had already done so in a few of the examples). 

The main things to take away from this crit is to spend time on design sheets and how they communicate, but also on a more specific note to experiment further with textures applied to the type, to continue with the descenders concept and look into creating a header text with this.