The group that I was in for the final crit for this project the majority of people had been really thorough with their research and through process leading up to their final designs. However, one thing that was mentioned was that the final designs and the research did not often have a strong enough link.
I was really impressed with the way people had discovered their starting concepts and how conceptually in depth each design was. When it came to my designs the response was mostly positive but there are a number of things that I need to bare in mind. The concept was really strong and not the predictable way to go. However, I may have gotten so tangled up in the conceptual side of my design process that the actual communication of idea suffered. Something that I need to take away from this is that at some point in each project I step back and ask myself if it is communicating what I need it to.
Another point that was raised was that the variations between my designs was not large enough. I got too caught up in this one aesthetic and did not explore all areas of the concept. For the next brief which is tied in with this one I will look at this further and push out of my comfort zone slightly more.
Evaluation:
In very general terms I am happy with the out come of this project, there are many things I am happy with. For example, I really like the way I based all the development of my designs on the concepts I started with at the begginning. This will help form a concept based design process which is much stronger in the long term that just doing what looks good.
I am also pleased with the way that I pushed my self a little beyond my comfort zone with the aesthetic of the letters. there were many times I doubted whether or not the look of the letters worked but took peoples opinions on board anyway and continued with it.
The problem of legibility and lack of usability that I encountered when i was almost at the end of the brief really scared me but I am quite proud of the way i managed to keep a cool head and solve the problem by creating the lower case designs through the use of colour lenses.
If I were to do the brief again I would look at doing many more variations of design by looking at possibly one concept and all the different ways I could communicate it, rather that getting stuck going down one very narrow aesthetic pathway.
I would also make the starting concept of damage more clear. I got too caught up in how clever and conceptual the designs were that I didn't stop and ask my self if the letter forms really communicated damage.
One the production side of things I would also have liked to start producing the coloured lenses for my lower case letter forms much earlier than I did. It ended up being quite a rushed job and I would have preferred to have a full coloured sheet that would lay over the letters rather than small lenses, but the production method I chose didn't allow it.
The main bits of experience and knowledge that I will take on to my next brief and absorb into my design process are as follows:
- Constant self criticism. Asking myself whether or not what I have designs not only fulfills the brief but also communicates exactly what I want it to. Hopefully this will also help me to become more decisive during my design development stages.
- Arrange crits my self with other members of the course. there were many stages when I felt I could have benefited from a quick crit, just to give me more direction so next time i feel this I will just ask same of my friends on the course for some feed back.
- I need to learn to balance the demand for conceptual integrity and aesthetic thought. Once again hopefully this will be helped by more crits and critical thinking in its self.
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