Speaking from Experience. Time management.

End of module evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD104
Module Title	Visual Language

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME

Sadie Thompson

BLOG. ADDRESS

http://s-thompson1013.blogspot.com/

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have definitely learnt a great deal throughout this module, as it has been running since September. I feel that I have learnt a lot through the colour theory sessions which made me realise the importance of colour combinations, how they can effect a piece of design and how it is perceived by the viewer. I also learnt a lot during the type and grid sessions. I really enjoyed these in particular and feel that they helped my understanding of page layouts before having my InDesign induction.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
During my what is a line brief I became more used to gathering primary research, as this was a key part to my topic of conversations. This is an improvement from the previous module as my primary research is definitely something that was lacking. I have collected a lot of overall research for what is a line, which has certainly helped develop my work by taking influence from different styles and techniques used. However I do feel that I could have done more in depth research for briefs and tasks set earlier in this module.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I really like my final illustrations for what is a line; I am starting to find that I feel comfortable working on Illustrator and normally like what I produce when using this programme. What is a line has helped me to realise that hand drawn illustration isn’t necessarily my area of expertise. I also feel that I produce some good layout redesigns for type and grid, I really enjoyed these sessions and think that with more practice on InDesign it is definitely something I could become very interested in.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
I feel that I sometimes leap ahead with my work, and dive straight into making a final design. I have to stop myself and make sure I do the back up research and development work that is not only required by the course, but also essential to giving my work more depth and to gain outside influences. In the future I intend to be on top of my blogging from the start and to consider all ideas and design developments before going down the first path that takes my liking.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
*Back all my work up with solid research to give my work more depth. *Blog absolutely everything as I go, I need to stop telling myself that I’ll do it later. To gain the most from my blog I need to be doing this straight away and all the time while it is still fresh in my mind. *When I give myself a time plan I need to do it. I tend to plan my time efficiently, but then not be strict enough with myself to follow it. Doing this will help me to get things done on time and avoid the mad rush to meet deadlines at the end. *Organise my notes. I found by the end of this module that I have misplaced a lot of my original notes and work, especially seeing that this module in particular is quite a long one. Organising my paperwork, along with blogging will help me to keep everything up to date. *Try not to stress out. When I motivate myself to do work but don’t stress myself out about it I generally enjoy it. I need to organise myself better so as not to stress and actually enjoy and look forward to developing my design work.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation			X
Commitment				X
Quantity of work produced			X
Quality of work produced				X
Contribution to the group				X
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

What is a Line?

These are my two final illustrations from 'What is a Line?' that represent overheard conversations. I really like these final designs, they are visually pleasing and quite eye catching. 

I found this brief quite hard as I have gotten out of the habit of drawing by hand and found it difficult to slip back into it. This brief has helped me to discover that I am actually more comfortable working digitally rather than hands on. I think that it is clear to see when comparing these images with my sketchpad that I produce better designs and illustrations using software like illustrator as opposed to drawing by hand.

Simon Gosling email correspondence

Thanks Sadie.

I'm glad you enjoyed it and found it useful.

Good luck with your course and have a lovey Easter,

Simon
--
Simon Gosling
Senior Producer/ Client Services , Commercials
Framestore, 9 Noel St, London, W1F 8GH

T +44 (0)20 7208 2600
M +44 (0)7717 776 852

Click HERE to PLAY Coca Cola's Super Bowl ad.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sadie Thompson"
To: "simon gosling"
Sent: Tuesday, 19 April, 2011 10:14:00 AM

Hi Simon,

I just wanted to say a big thank you for the presentation last Friday and letting us have a little look around. Me and Ellie really enjoyed it and found it very interesting, Thanks again.

Sadie Thompson

Our second placement week at DLKW Lowe was spent in the design department. I was really looking forward to this as it's more the kind of area I would like to get into when I finish uni. Our first couple of days were spent using Flash, I was a bit apprehensive at first as I've never used it before or anything remotely similar. We were asked to carry on with one of the briefs we started on downstairs using one of our concepts. We had to design and animate a banner advertisement dor a webpage. Both me and Ellie decided to carry on with the Halfords brief as this would be the most interesting to animate, but we chose different concepts to go with.

Framestore

To be entirely honest I hadn't heard of Framestore before Natalie mentioned them to us on Monday when she told us we would be going there. After visiting their site and finding out that they had done the CGI for some amazing films and adverts such as Avatar and Narnia I started to realise how much of a big deal it is that Natalie had managed to get us shown around. 
The reception were we waited was stunning and had a huge mural of Coca Colas most recent advert. We also helped ourselves to the Framestore freebies left out!

We were then shown into an office and introduced to Simon Gosling who took us through a presentation. The first thing of course that struck me about the office was the very impressive trophy cabinet along the far wall, which included six D&AD Pencil awards.

Simon talked us through how they worked on Avatar which was absolutely amazing and mind blowing to see how much is put in to even just the shortest bit of film.

He then talked us through the Andrex advert, and explained to us how it was quite a touchy subject as people were so used to seeing the original puppy, that seeing a more human like animation may throw some people off. Because of this they had to get the puppy looking as real as possible, they achieved this by taking 4 steps...

Modelling - essentially 3D plastacine, this stage also includes rigging a skeleton

Texturing - eg-adding fur

Animation - getting it to move

Lighting - making it look realistic

We also had a chat about the Coca Cola advert that was shown during the Superbowl... a very fought over spot for advertisers. The advert itself cost approximately 2 million to create and a whole 6 million just for the air time! 

He then went on to talk to us about an interactive project that they'd been working on with Nokia. The idea is that anyone can create a bit of CGI, merging it with their own videos all from their mobile phone. Although their were some complications, because of the file size that is required for this app mobile phones simply do not have the capacity. They solved this by having the files sent to a 'render cloud' and then the customers can receive their videos via the web.

  

We then went downstairs where a team were hard at work, but were kind enough to talk us through what they were doing... which I didn't  manage to follow for very long! Maybe I'll stick to graphic design then!


Simon showed us out and told us that if we ever needed any help we could come to him. We have his email address and I think its great to be building up contacts already. He also told us it's not what you know but who you know in this industry, some very sound advice I'd say!


I left Framestore utterly speechless, so much information was fed to us we didn't quite know what to do with it. One things for sure I am extremely grateful for that opportunity that was presented, and at least if I never win a pencil award I've seen one close up! 

The next brief we've been given is for Marston's Pedigree. The idea is that sons and daughters should buy their dad a pint for fathers day. We brainstormed our ideas together and came up with the idea of daughters inheriting bad traits from their dad, such as a moustache or a receding hairline. We thought that visually this would be a humorous approach and would also approach a different audience, the daughters rather than sons.

We pitched all of our ideas including this one to Richard and Remco and they really liked it and helped us to develop it further. they asked us to mock them up with the logo and slogan at the bottom.

We were then given a brief that was for a new ride called Killer Kraken for Heide park, a theme park in Germany. This is when I started to really realise the strain of constantly churning out ideas everyday, and dealing with the thought of basically being told that they are crap. Fortunately, once again Richard and Remco really loved our ideas for this brief and we mocked them up. They chose which ones they liked best, which were the lift doors, the bottom of the coffee cup and the toilet seat. they told us that they will be pitching these ideas to the clients and will keep us posted, so fingers crossed!

DLKW Lowe placement

Me and Ellie had our first day at our placement with DLKW Lowe today, at first I wasn't sure whether to be excited or nervous, maybe a mixture of both! When we approached reception (after walking into the wrong building!) my first feelings were excitement, Natalie showed us round the offices and to our desks and all I could think was how much of an amazing opportunity this is going to be!

http://www.dlkwlowe.com/

We were then introduced to Richard who gave us a brief and showed us into a separate room used for discussions. The brief was for Halford's and their bicycles. They're main marketing problem is that supermarkets like Tesco's and Toys R Us are selling cheaper bikes. So now the message that Halford's want to communicate is that their bikes are more robust, durable and strong.

Richard basically wanted us to brain dump, no matter how stupid or unethical the ideas may be. So we did just that...

Richard seemed impressed with how much we came up with and told us which ideas were great and which ideas weren't . This was great and definitely gave us an idea of what this kind of industry would be looking for.

"great, you have come up with a lot of fucked up ideas, I love it"

Natalie later introduced us to Framestore. She has arranged for us to spend the whole day in their studios on Friday. After having a look at their website I am really excited about this and think its going to be a really valued experience!

http://www.framestore.com/