End of Module Evalaution

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BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN LEVEL 05Module Code OUGD303

Module Title DESIGN PRODUCTION - DIGITAL

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME Chris van Niekerk

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have

applied them?

Editorial & Layout for print is probably one of the main skills I have developed throughout thismodule, I have applied these skills to making commercial printed books as well as hand crafter

books. Utilising a clients budget and needs with my own creative freedom and creating books

which fit the project.

Typography is another skill I have kept developing. My choice in type and knowledge hasvastly improved. Knowing what type face fits with what tone of voice and how an audience will

interpret it.

Print, since working in reprographics I have utilised my position as a print supervisor andexpanded the range of stocks and print finishes on digital formats greatly. I have also dabbled

in more screen-printing to utilise the process to pint on surfaces I could not print on using a

digital process. Client relations, I have developed my skills in dealing with clients a lot and knowing how to run

meetings to be able to get the best out of my clients. Working with the Fashion Degree program

has opened my eyes to working with creative clients in the Fashion industry.

Photography, Again I have developed my studio lighting skills and product photography a lotthroughout this module and I have applied this by actually photographing a clients work to a

professional standard.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they

informed your design development process?

Client meetings and art directions. Since working with a lot of clients this module I have foundmy approach to design has changed to the point there I would do concept pitches and get type,

colour and layout examples done to an initial point then get confirmation from the client before

pushing on in order to not do a lot of work for no reason encase the client was not happy.

Design Context has played a large part with informing my design process before starting.Seeing what else is out there and exactly what tone of voice to touch on for my audience is a

key.


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3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Working with editorial, layout and type is definitely a strength in my practise. I have gottenmuch more efficient at sourcing content or telling clients what content I need to produce

editorial projects. I find working with image and type is much easier for me and I have become

more efficient at it.

Branding & Identity in my practise has gotten much better and I have been capitalising on thisby undertaking more branding briefs to vary my design practise.

Photography, This has helped the presentation of my work a lot as well as being able to helpclients out with bit of photography when pushed to a deadline.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Working with colour seems to be something I have been kind of avoiding although my practiseseems to work in full cmyk due to working with image or utilising colour with paper stock is

another way around I have been using. But for future branding briefs I will focus on a small

colour pallet and stick to it from the start. Documenting my work has always seemed to be a weakness.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing

these?

Not working with unmotivated Designers, this will spread the workload much moreevenly and generally get more positive final outcome.

Picking my briefs more carefully and making sure I get paid at the end of it. This willallow me to get the money I deserve at the end of a project. Drawing up contracts with clients before a project and getting them to sign it. This will

allow me to not have to deal with last minute issues clients seem to come up with.

Not biting off more then I can chew. I work hard all the time but there is a line where Ineed to call when enough is a enough.

Learning how to design websites. this is something I really feel the need to get into andsomehow I always get hung up on print and never get time to expand into the digitalfrontier.


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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 questionsrelating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Specific project evaluations:

Fashion Yearbook

The Fashion yearbook has been a steep learning curve especially in the form of client

relations. I have learnt that some clients are just not worth working for especially if

you do not get paid at the end of the job. The Fashion degree tutors (Suzie Mason &

Paul Luke) were very nice at the start of meetings but I could clearly tell that they had

no idea what they wanted which made it hard for our groups design process. We kept

bringing ideas and design to the table but everything seemed to not say Fashionaccording to Suzie Mason. Besides their course being utterly disorganised and Suzie

actually told us that she has one of the weakest year groups to date and that we should

mix student work in order to hide the weaker work amongst the stronger work and

actually be bias towards the better work we pushed forwards and created design

outcomes according to what she wanted. Suzie also went against Freds advice to get

2 students 1 from each pathway to represent the course and help guide the design

process so the students would be happy with the outcome. This led to the studentsbeing unhappy when they finally saw some design work and Suzie suddenly changing

her mind blaming us to an extent and sacking off our design outcomes and promising

the students new work created by Paul Luke.

As far as our group working with clients like this was completely demoralising and it

was a constant challenge to keep everyone designing even though we knew

realistically we were wasting our time during FMP. I had to take lead after everyonekind of gave up and generally just got on with the work as it was just not getting done

by anyone besides Sarah Roberts helping me. Kirsty Fruin was an asset to this group

without her dealing with suzie would have been impossible.


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Augmented Greetings Cards

Augmented Greetings Cards was a really enjoyable brief as I got to work with Daniel

Holroyd. An individual who had a great input into the project especially from his

DFGA point of view. I found that our skills complimented each other and we could

produce outcomes never before possible if it was just me. My only regret is not

working with an illustrator on this project I feel that If we had a more illustrative

input we could get a higher standard of greeting card finishes.

Overall

Ignoring the various low points during my final major project I found my passion lies

in editorial design and I could spend hours working happily towards producing finaloutcomes. I have also gotten much better at dealing with clients by the hard lesson I

learnt dealing with Suzie Mason. I feel confident that I could complete a freelance

brief to a professional standard from this point onwards and feel more motivated then

ever to be part of a busy studio in the future. I will in future also pick the designers I

work with much more carefully or just work on my own instead of having to work

with unmotivated students which generally just delay the whole design process.

Documents

End of Module Evalaution