OUGD203 Module Evaluation

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

During this module I attempted to do another animation piece for the Together brief. The last animation module wasn’t much of a success for me, but it was something I enjoyed doing and wanted to do again. For this I had to build on my animation skills refine the way I keyed in movements, making them more smoother and natural, aswell as timing this to background music. I feel this shows through well in my animation for the Together brief, it is much more refined and enjoyable to watch, than what I had acheived previously.

I also worked with experimental hand-drawn typography for this brief too. For the ISTD brief I created a set of 2 typographic posters that work very well as a set, especially the ‘One Love’ poster. For this I had to use knowledge of type that I had picked up when learning about set and compter type, and apply this to illustrated type. This involved measuring up and splitting shapes into grids to draw the type into. Overall I am very happy with that project.

For the Faber&Faber brief, I had to design book covers for a collection a film orientated line. For this brief I had to blend visually engaging design, with certain elements of practical design, such as the design for the front and back versus the spine. The front cover is something to grab the audience’s attention what at a book store, to get them excited about a book, but the spine is a practical element that needs to show it’s users what it is on a shelf full of other books. I also had to take into account more practical sides of design. Because I was desiging a wrap-around covers, things like bleed for the edges when cutting and trimming and leaving extra space for the extra milimeters or so that corners cause so the jacket fitted correctly had to be accounted for.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

For this project I was looking at research from various different source and using design principles found in all of them to help design something for a brief. For instance I was using the video from a computer game to demonstrate how I wanted my cover to take influence from.

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

My biggest strength in my work has to be with type. I take into consideration points like clarity versus aesthetic, when not to go overboard and scramble a message, what sort of font to use for a certain format. I am beggining to get knowledgeable of a few certain type faces, how to use then and when to use them. I also feel I have good layout skills. I think layout is one of the most ciritical parts for design and I pay alot of attention to it.

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

Presentation - I believe I would benefit from a better organised, catagorised and and annotated group of pre-liminiary work. I often leave this till the end and I often don’t have time to change it.

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

Better Project Management - While I am happy with what I have produced, final resolution-wise, it was a push towards the end to get it done in time. I also did not leave enough time toorganise my pre-liminary work organised and sorted.

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

Attendance: 2
Punctuality: 3
Motivation: 3
Commitment : 3
Quantity of work produced: 2
Quality of work produced: 3
Contribution to the group: 3

quantum of solace typography

tomato worked of the typography for the james bond movie, quantum of solace. i was recommended to look at this in a crit and it is entirely fitting for my brief. tomato have been able to add text into frames and make it look natural, like it's supposed to sit there. it is a similar sort of look to this that i am working towards for my covers. there is also a video on the tomato site.

Grand Theft Auto IV Intro Video

this is the introduction video to grand theft auto IV. i am using it as an example of a similar idea i am thinking of doing for my covers. i am thinking of using screenshots from the films, and placing type in the scenes, using visual lines in the shot for alignment for the text. i think this method works quite well, as the typography just 'sits' in the scene quite naturally.

checking out the competition: film stubs

ry coleman has used film ticket stubs in his designs for the faber brief. he has used a subtle, pale colour palette that gives the books a 'golden age' or cinema feel, something very 40's or 50's. a very beautiful design.

checking out the competition: tag clouds

some more faber designs. designer sam baldwin has used internet-style tag clouds to generate a list for the front cover of his designs. he uses different weights of a font to give him the hierarchy impact that i think looks really nice and, interesting. As this brief is being used in part for print on demand, it could even be live updated, so when your cover is designed, it uses the most up to date hierarchy for the tags. check out more information about this over on his website.

checking out the competition: justification

more work for this year's faber brief, by stacey edgwick. i quite liked these designs, overall they are nice with good colour and type choices, but what i really like is the justification of the title text. the text is left justified, but placed right next to the right hand margin giving a faux-sense of right alignment. if this was me i would of probably designed this right aligned naturally up against the right side, but this method gives the appearance that because of the space left on the liens of short words, the text is almost 'hugging' the right margin. a very nice design feature. check some more photos of the covers over on her blog.

checking out the competition: no counters

another entry to this year's faber brief, by 'Vhari'. A cover designed with a wrap-around design (no separate spine design) that looks very good, but I have a small worry that it might be hard to identify these books on the shelf. However off the shelf, the design makes much more sense, the big type tells you what part of the collection the book is from, such as techniques or screenplay, followed by the title of the book secondary. I like the removal of the counters in the characters, it gives the text a heavier impact on the page. again, check the full designs out on the blog.