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 web: Final outcome

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR WEB
FINAL OUTCOME

OUGD504 Design for web: Logo Development

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR WEB
LOGO DEVELOPMENT

First of all I created a circle on illustrator. I need to create a vector logo so that it can be permeated across all areas of my website no matter what size it needs to be. I watched youtube tutorials and researched on line how to create a tear drop vector.

I first created a path across the top of my circle so that all the anchor points were separate.

I then stretched the top of the circle out so it was the right sort of shape for a tear drop. When i had created the tear drop shape I added text.

I decided to use the typeface BLACKOUT. I think the heaviness of the type face works well to contradict the fluidity of oil spills.

This was the final design that i settled on I next decided to invert the logo to add more weight to it.

I am really happy with the final logo. I think the typeface used connotes heaviness and seriousness, paired with the oil drop shape the logo represents the efforts to provide aid to the oilspill disaster, which is the message of my website.

OUGD504 Design for web: Digital wire frames

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR WEB
DIGITAL WIRE FRAMES

OUGD504 Design for web: Coding website

OUGD504
DESIGN FOR WEB
CODING WEBSITE

For the website design I decided to use the same wire frame that simon had taught us during our web sessions. I did this as i am not overly confident with web design and could use the code we learnt with simon to refer to if I got stuck.

I first created a file named root to store all of my work in, It is important to create a root folder in order to keep all of your work together.

I then created an images folder with in this to store all my images in.

I next created an Index page and css style sheet.

After this I clicked 'save as' and saved the remaining pages in my website

Using my CSS style sheet i set the body copy text that i wanted to use, I chose font colour size and font family

I also chose a font style and size for the header.

I set the container size 

The navigation size

The logo size and position

Button size and position.

I used bright colours so i could map out where all of my boxes were and to make sure they all lined up.

Next i set about creating my buttons.

I opened up an illustrator art board with the correct dimensions, making sure it was in web mode.

I created the first layer of my button.

I then created a new layer to create the second layer of my roll over button.

This is the second layer of my button. I saved each layer of my button separately. I clicked save for web and saved them as .png with the names about.png and about1.png. I repeated these steps for all of my buttons.

To create the roll over image i selected it from the insert option on dreamweaver and followed the steps.

Once i was happy with the layout of the page i created a template so that the code could be applied across all of my pages. Each page will have the same code with a section called 'editable content' This is where i can put all the images and information for my website.

I next made a left and right column for my website, This is to put in the editable region of all of my pages except the home page.

Again i changed the colours temporarily to make sure everything worked. 

I next had to format the images so they were appropriate for web. I edited the image size and saved them as .png files .

As my web site is now all set up all that is left to do is source all of my information and images and add it to my website.