Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Context of Practice: Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel a skill that i've really developed since last year is applying the theory into the publication. The theory has been applied to the design and the content and I feel that this is the best attempt of putting a academic theory into a publication which subject is not academic. It isn't obvious and written out to explain and include the theory it's submitted deep into the design without conscious recognition which also is what the theory is about. Applying this skill has improved my other briefs as I've learnt to implement ideas and concepts into the design. It's also improved my layout skills with type and image as I had a lot of layout to do and had to keep the design consistent but different to maintain interest in a repetitive publication. By researching into fashion editorial and look books I was able to apply similar atheistic in order to display similar characteristics like professional, high end and expensive. I also feel in relation to academic writing my skills of referencing and structuring of my essay has vastly improved. I was able to talk about sources without ruining the flow of thought and was able to create sources link in an order that read well.

What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

My approaches to methods of design production have really developed with this practical piece as I had a lot of pages and the way the publication was and the designs decisions I made meant I had to bind one way or another. I learnt japanese binding and a bit about perfect binding in the production of my publication. This informed my design development as it meant it effected the way I designed and lay out my pages, I had to consider margining and positioning of pages in the way it was bound. I also had to consider how the fold out would work and fix into the publication. I have been unsuccessful in printing publications in the past but I was really pleased how well this went and although a few lessons were learnt in the binding I still feel that as a first attempt it is good. This has developed my process because I have now have experience in laying out a publication and in binding.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
One strength I have noticed in this module is time management. I have effectively completed the design process and production in plenty of time with little wobbles and mistakes. By coming up with my concept early on and therefore having more time to develop and strengthen it, it meant that when designing in advance it went well and was productive. This then lead to the production which was a bit more complicated as printing took longer than I had thought and the thickness and amount of publication I had quite realised until the printing was complete. This meant that my initial binding wasn't going to be as straight forward as I had thought and I was going need to have more assistance. I didn't manage to have the assistance due this realisation coming about late and the tutors not being around to guide me therefore there was a few wobbles in the production of the binding as I wasn't familiar and things I thought would be possible weren't. However due to my initial time management skills it meant that this was able to happen and not effect me drastically. I can capitalise this in the future as with my dissertation and practical piece I really will need to have a clear process and time management in organising myself.

What weaknesses can you identify in your and work and how will you address these in the future?
One weakness I can identify in this particular piece is the production though as it didn't come out as well as I had thought and even though somethings I considered such as margins to bind there were other things such as trimming down to B5 format which I hadn't really thought through. It wasn't as clean and trimmed as I had hoped as well as the fact that the Japanese bind suffered as it didn't have red string like it was supposed to. These weaknesses can be addressed in the future as I am now aware of the limitations and practicalities of that specific bind and the amount of pages. 

Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from these?

1. Look into binding before hand
This will prevent a bad experience in binding out my depth
2. Extend my publication to other products and appropriate pieces of design so I go beyond the brief and learn to apply the same theory across range of formats
3. Research more for my theory of the publication so that I research beyond my essay and the practical piece and essay go hand in hand
4. Use more processes to develop more knowledge in production e.g. emboss and foiling
5. Ask for help with the academic writing so that I can improve even further on understanding academic texts 

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity or work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 3
Contribution to the group - 4

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