Evaluation 2009.
In my statement of Intent I stated that I would like to investigate type through motion and focus on digital design. My final major projects resulted in mainly print based designs and a project management exercise. I have continued to research and investigate digital design in my design context project, however my design practice became a very print focused, research driven body of work.
The final major project and last few months of my degree have been a rollercoaster of emotion and self discovery. My statement of intent changed drastically as my work evolved and moved onto a more appropriate avenue for my personal strengths. My strengths lye with project management, people management and project organisation.
My interests still lye with in digital design, especially title sequences and kinetic typography which is why my design context is still relevant to my development as ideally I would still like to work with a digital environment, or a film setting.
My design practice maintained a level of type and layout design, especially for the storyboard briefs and the Scorsese final project.
One of the briefs I completed was the fine art yearbook. This was a collaborative brief with 4 other graphic designers on the course. The team I worked in are not members of the course group that I would socialise with on a regular basis. This was both difficult and a positive, as it allowed me more freedom to negotiate my points without concern that it would result in an argument that could jeopardise a friendship, however it meant that I was not at the core of the project for a lot of the design work. Because of this distance it made it easier for me to adopt a project manager role, organising the research, budgets, quotes, the design specifications, the students (both designers and fine art) and meetings or discussions.
The difficulty having the distance meant that feedback, design specifications and client requests were often ignored or forgotten. This resulted in design errors that needed correction or were completely missed during editing of the project as it was assumed they would be correct if the initial instructions were followed correctly.
It was a difficult role to fill, but a successful one as out of the three yearbook projects on the course ours was delivered ahead of schedule. The role was difficult, as problems from the fine art students came to me and so did any problems from the design team. This meant I felt like a mediator a lot of the time, trying to find compromise and solutions to the disputes that arose. Overall I was very happy with the yearbook we created, however the role took a lot of my time to organise with very little design work to show for all the effort I put into the project.
This feeling is a sentiment that I feel about the final major project as a whole, working for long hours but being of the opinion that there was no work to show for the hours put into the project. Truthfully and honestly the first 6 weeks of the final major project were dedicated to completing the dissertation, this is time I feel I was unable to make up for; despite putting in a lot of hours and effort over the final months. This is the one piece of advise I would offer to any 3rd year student, complete your dissertation before January so it doesn’t detract from the final major project.
The first and second briefs I completed were the ITV2 ident brief and the faber and faber briefs. Both of which resulted in storyboards and were heavily researched based. I very much enjoyed the research and analysis of the projects, but the final resolutions were not up to the standard of a final piece. I would very much have liked to complete the briefs to an animation level, however due to time and large work load from the yearbook these projects were resultant in a storyboard phase. The faber and faber research brief naturally progressed to the Scorsese director season.
The director season was the final brief I completed and was a complete range of printed promotional material for a director season at the local cinema. This brief was originally intended to be a title sequence for a film but after discussions with peers and tutors I came to agree that gaining an all round knowledge of all aspects of design would be a much more rewarding pursuit for me as it would allow me a sound knowledge base to advise and organise a project in a professional design environment. As it turns out the Scorsese project is one of the only projects that I have done that I believe belongs on a graphic design degree. I am usually very disappointed that my final pieces do not meet the standards of the course or my initial project work. Although my project is not up to the levels of many students on the course I believe it is one of my better pieces of work.
I hope that the work I have completed over the last few weeks has enabled me to add a few well designed pieces of work to my portfolio. I hope that my portfolio displays that I have a well rounded knowledge of most areas of graphic design and will show that organisation and management are my strengths.
I have enjoyed my three years at Leeds college of art and design, and I will be very sad to leave, but I feel that the next chapter in my life will be a complete change and very exciting as it is a time that I have not over planned. I am looking forward to it.
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