OUGD603 - Module Evaluation

To reflect upon eight completely different briefs, experiences, lessons and outcomes seemed difficult at first thought. However, when I reflect upon this year with rigour, everything fell into place just as I planned. I approached third year with my portfolio being the constant focus of the year, with everything in some shape or form helping forge a distinct portfolio. This was all down to careful planning and the tenacity and patience to create a body of work, which I am happy with. The briefs I undertook were all thoroughly choose in relation to my portfolio. With questions such as 'what skills does it show?, does it represent me? is this the sort of work I want to produce in the future? etc. Thanks to constant critiquing and tweaking I was able to craft a set of briefs which will more or less form a bulk of the portfolio. And when I think over them individually I really couldn't say which one I enjoyed the most, they were all great in their own way. I think this is down to my careful planning of the briefs, as I never got bored or disliked what I was doing which made this year incredibly enjoyable.

I achieved my aim of creating work which represents me, with the two briefs focusing on Newcastle. For me this was important as I didn't want to finish this year, with work which had zero relevance to me. I wanted something I could talk passionately about in a job interview for example, and I have achieved this with Dobson the typeface and The Grainger Market identity. All the other briefs undertook presented me with new experiences and lessons to be learnt. Collaboration was a big experience, and in particular working with a level 6 photographer was a great collaboration. But for me collaboration is about sharing ideas and sharing opinions. This year in particular has made me realise that one of biggest assets of being a graphic designer, is having an opinion people listen to. It's made me really think more about how I collaborate, as collaboration can simply be a conversation about design. Exchanging opinions and in turn understanding the bigger picture. This I think will only make my practice better, but it has also made me more grounded.

Lessons learnt from extended practice have been timeplanning, but not to say I've struggled with timeplanning. Yet at times having set deadlines would have benefited my process and project management. One aspect which got in the way a bit was context of practice, during dissertation I was only doing the Grainger Market brief. Although, it was huge brief I maybe should have had a small brief completed before Christmas. This could have enabled more briefs to undertake but I don't dwell on that too much as I am happy with what I have achieved this year. The next step is now collating all the work into a portfolio which will celebrate each brief but also celebrate this year and my learning over the three years on this course.