OUGD504 Final evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	05
Module Code	OUGD504
Module Title	Design Production

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME

Sam Cook

1.     What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? Through out this module I think I have developed a number of skills. Firstly I have been to a number of different print process workshops. I have developed skills in screen printing, embossing, laser cutting, etching, book binding and lino cut. I now feel a lot more confident when using these processes and plan to put my new skills to good use in future briefs. I have found embossing and laser cutting particularly interesting; as these were 2 of the processes I used to produce my book. I also feel that my confidence has grown and can now go in to the print rooms feeling confident in my abilities and not rely on the help of technicians and tutors. Design for web has been a huge learning curve for me. Before this module I had no previous knowledge of web design or coding. I feel I have learned the basics needed to code a simple website. However I feel I could have pushed my self further. I found web coding daunting and couldn’t get my head around it, instead of asking for help or seeking out my own solutions I buried my head in the sand and tried to focus on other things, because of this my website has suffered. If the opportunity arises to do web coding in the future I will try harder to develop a deeper understanding and challenge my self to be more creative. Design for print and web taught me the importance of having a defined concept before designing. This module has taught me the skills to think more conceptually when interpreting a brief. I think my conceptual thinking during this brief wasn’t the best, however I have learned of its importance in future briefs. The brief also taught me how to permeate my design across different medias and the importance of considering web when designing print and vice versa. My time management over all still needs to improve dramatically, I tend to get so caught up in how much work I have to do I end up doing nothing at all. I need to be better at planning my time efficiently and splitting my time between different briefs evenly. The use of to do lists and calendars could help me with this in future.
2.     What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? For design for print I have developed lots of skills in terms of design production. At the end of last year one of my goals was to try out different print methods. I have tried a number of these, but could have organised my time better in order to try even more. I experimented quite a bit with embossing on to my leather book and the optimum way to do this. If I had more time I would have created a copper plate to emboss with so I could test between wooden plate and copper plate and see which left the best result. In terms of design for web I think I should have developed more scamps and wire frames in order to make my end result stronger. Doing more preparatory work would have helped my end production considerably.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I think one strength in my design for print module is the final outcome, I really pushed my self ot create something I was proud of. If I had have organised my time better I think I could have developed my book even further. I also need to be aware of how long things take to be delivered when ordered online as this hindered my over all design. I think another strength of my design for print and web was my ability to design a large quantity of design in a short period of time, this has taught me the amount of work it is possible to produce.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? OUGD504 has been a huge learning curve for me, I personally think I have suffered from the lack of time constraints and tutor initiated work like we had last year. I need to learn to be more independent and rely on my self to get work done. Motivating my self to do work has been a constant struggle. I am constantly putting myself down and judging myself against others, which isn’t productive at all. I think if I spent less time worrying about my work and more time trying to develop it every module would be more defined and developed for hand in. A constant battle with me is blogging, I still haven’t found a productive way to keep on top of blogging and yet again it has all crept up on me, due to not blogging regularly I have also lost lots of developments and prep work that would help to improve my over all grade. In future I will blog little and often in order to keep on top of it.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1.     Blogging frequently, I plan to blog frequently in order to keep on top of the work load and save my self the stress of doing it all last minute. 2.     Starting workload immediately, I need to start the work load as soon as its set and not procrastinate. This will help my final outcomes be more developed and the best possible version they can be 3.      Researching more, I need to start researching more so that my final outcomes are well informed. 4.     Self-belief, I need to be aware of my own ability and not get dragged down comparing myself to others and doubting my self. 5.     Developments, I need to develop my work further, through the use of prototypes and thumbnails. In future I will start developments even earlier.
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					*
Punctuality					*
Motivation	*
Commitment		*
Quantity of work produced		*
Quality of work produced			*
Contribution to the group				*
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.

OUGD504 Design for print: Final outcome

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT 
FINAL PRODUCT

OUGD504 Design for print: Book binding

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
BOOK BINDING

Here are the steps i took to bind my book.

Firstly I used a bone folder to make sure my pages were extremely well folded,  I then put my pages in order and secured them in place with a bulldog clip.

I used a needle attached to a wooden handle to punch holes into my print book.

I repeated this step with the leather, this proved more difficult due to the thickness of the leather. Eventually poked all the holes through the leather.

I used a saddle stitch bind, Again threading the needle through the leather proved very difficult, During this stage I damaged the inside of the book.

I completed the saddle stitch to bind the book together. I think this stage was blighted through the use of makeshift tools. If i could rebind my book i would do more research in to tools and tricks to help binding with leather.

OUGD504 Design for print: Embossing leather

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
EMBOSSING LEATHER

For my print book front cover I wanted to emboss the title. I decided to create an embossing plate using the laser cut as this was the way from my research that i felt more confident with, in hind sight i should have tried to create a copper plate to emboss with too. I created the art work on illustrator, making sure to mirror the text and invert the colours. I then set my work up on the computer linked to the laser cutter. 

This is the final laser cut, I had to double raster the design to make sure the letters were really pronounced in order to create a deep emboss.

I then cut the plate down to size and used sand paper to eliminate all the excess filings.

                                                

This was the first test of my embossing on to the leather, as I hadn't sanded down the plate enough it left a brown imprint on the leather. I sanded down the plate more to ensure this didn't happen again.

For this trial I decided to wet the leather before embossing, this was recommended to me by Lorraine.

I am really pleased with the final outcome, the emboss looks much more prominent. However if I had more time I would definitely make a copper plate as the wood block has left an unwanted texture on the leather.

OUGD504 Design For Print: Proof reading and solving.

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
PROOF READING AND SOLVING

Although I had briefly read through my book to make sure there were no spelling mistakes I unfortunately missed a glaringly obvious one after I had sent my book to print. I decided to go through my book with a fine tooth comb to make sure it is perfect. I have only just realised the mistakes a few days ahead of the deadline, hopefully I can go to a drop in print slot to solve this.

In hind sight i should have prepared for this and left my self a lot more time. This has taught me that it is imperative to proof read in great deal. In future i will also get someone else to proof read my work for me.

This is the uncorrected spelling mistake, unfortunately it is a header and in bold writing so hard to miss, as I want my book to be of high standard I hope to be able to resolve this, however due to time constraints it will be hard.

I took this opportunity to refine other areas of my book that could be developed more. I tweaked a number of different things to improve my print book.

The first thing I noticed that was my contents page came after my introduction. Looking at other books I noticed that this wasn't a common convention of a standard book to I changed them round.

I also added page numbers to my book to make navigating around it better. I think that adding the page numbers has improved the functionality of the book no end.

I added more information to the preparation stage of my embossing section as it was sparse before hand.

OUGD504 Design for print: dying leather

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
DYING LEATHER TESTS

Although I plan to leave my leather undyed I decided to experiment with a few techniques too see what the outcomes would be.

The first technique I tried was coffee staining.

I first boiled down a coffee and water mixture to make sure it was very concentrated. I did this to form a thick brown like paste. I then used a sponge to paint the solution on to the leather.

The result was a tan like leather. I liked the colour of the final outcome, however the solution seemed to dry out the leather and it became less playable and hard to work with.

The next method I tried was using leather shoe dye. As the dye is purposely mad for leather i am hoping the outcome will be more promising.

OUGD504 Design for print: Book grids and production

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR PRINT
GRIDS AND PRODUCTION

I want to keep my books simple and minimal, I want the design to be timeless and straight forward. The size of my book is A5 I chose A5 as it is ergonomically, it is the perfect size to slip in top you bag and big enough to display the information that i feel neccessary.


Grids:

I decided to create a 4 by 4 grid in order to aid my design and layout.

I next started to play around with the information i had trying out different layouts 

I really like the image on the right with the overlapping text however i think with the information on the left it makes the layout look unbalanced and contradicting.

Here I tried to correct the imbalance by moving the header to the left hand of the right page. However I still feel that the double page spread doesn't match, and doesn't flow. I also think that this design does fit my concept.

                            

I really like the simplicity of this design, the page looks equal and balanced this is the page layout i will use throughout the book.