Module Evaluation

The responsive module was one that I was most looking forward to entering the second year as I am an individual person who likes to select own briefs and do my own thing a lot of time, so having this freedom to choose was perfect for me. However, thought this module I have faced some challenges as well as I had to manage my time perfectly to finish everything on time because there was a couple of briefs and modules I had to do at the same time.

Entering the module, I wanted to choose briefs that differentiate from each other, in order to demonstrate my skills as a designer showing that can tackle various practices rather than just ones I am most interested in as I would never learn anything. Since photography and editorial design is my most favorite discipline, I tried to incorporate this into the briefs.

This is why the collaboration brief was my favorite one because I could use my photography skills to take successful photographs in the professional studio and use them for the posters. While collaborating with Katie and Bobonut on the Fur for animals brief my aim was to improve my skills within photography, design and determine whether this was an area I'd like to build upon my future career in design. Starting this brief I was quite worried and stressed as working in the group is not my favorite task but I really enjoyed working as a collaborative as it was very interesting experience, allowing me to learn new skills, gain more knowledge and learn a lot from each other. Working with Bobonut and Katie encourage me to be more confident and allowed me to develop my skills in photography and editorial design. I discovered that the collaboration was enjoyable, but this isn't a field I want to pursue further anytime soon. I managed to learn about new software Final Cut Pro during this brief which was incredibly interesting and something I'd like to develop into for future briefs, and become a lot more confident using it.

I have really enjoyed the substantial brief which was the Quorn. I have chosen it because it seemed interesting and engaging even from the start. The brief allowed me to create an interesting campaign based on people's views and feedback. As I am a meat lover person I could think of things which influenced me to try to be meat-free for a day and use it in my campaign. In my previous modules, I didn't do many surveys or questionnaires as I had no idea how much it can help me to create a successful design or project and how it can influence my decisions. Gaining feedback for this module gave me a lot of confidence when I was doubting myself. Feedback is an extremely important aspect of the course, as it can determine your success and weakness.

I feel the small briefs were the most challenging ones for me, mainly because I left them to the last moment as I have focused only on the collaborative practice and Quorn brief. This really affected my work as there are many things which I would like to improve and add. This taught me that I should better manage my time and to do not leave things to the last moment as it never works.

Project Report

PROJECT REPORT

Quorn

This brief was submitted as part of the Student Awards in this year's YCN competition. The brief involved the creation of a campaign to encourage people to go meat-free for the day. The aim was to think about how my campaign may encourage people to feature meat-free meals in their day-to-day lives.

This brief was chosen mainly because it seemed interesting and engaging to participate in. Moreover, it has a personal influence on me. As being a meat lover person this brief allowed me to gain more knowledge about something new for me. I think it is important for people to control how much meat they are consuming on daily basis. I believe if every meat lover person will try to have at leat one meat-free day in a week it would save millions of animal's life because of the less consumption.
Also, it would help a lot of people to maintain a healthy lifestyle as eating meat every single day has disadvantages as well. It is very important people understand the effects eating meat causes on the environment and people can live a healthy lifestyle without it. I have found this brief interesting as
I am a meat lover person I have looked for things which have influenced me to become meat-free for a day so then I have used them in my project. Also, it was very beneficialand interesting for me
to hear other’s opinion and their views. Also while working on this project I have gained a lot of knowledge about vegetarianism and found out that there is lots of different food which might replace the meat which sometimes tastes even better.

I wanted to produce a product which could be distributed everywhere around the world promoting
Quorn company, a product that could be as easily accessible as possible. I have created simple
and friendly approach of series of posters, leaflets, and gadgets to grab the audience in different age group. This is why I didn't want to go in the scaremongering direction as it would be inappropriate for children. Also, I have created the food diary for a week promoting Quorn recipes giving people a range of different options to try instead of eating meat, just to show them how many substitutes vegetarian food has to offer. Mostly I thought about things which influenced me to try to be meat-free for a day and what other people would enjoy having.  I didn't want force people to be meat-free for a day as I wanted to make something interesting and encouraging to try. I have done a lot of different surveys and debate as I believe the public opinion really counts and it showed me the direction in which should go.The whole project was based on surveys and people’s opinion as I wanted to create something which will have an influence on the audience and with their help I think I have achieved what I wanted to at the start of this project.

If I am honest, although my resolution fits the brief, I felt I could have pushed this a lot further. Perhaps could have printed out and actually posted something physical for the judges to look at. It would have also been rewarding to create some kind of interactive video to encourage people to go meat-free for the day and gain a new set of skills.

However, I feel as though I did create a successful campaign, which does answer the problem that brief states.

Penguin - To kill a Mockingbird

The Penguin Design Award entails choosing from a selection of three books from different categories and rethinking the cover design.

For this brief, the options included To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend.

The choice was obvious for me when reading the brief, as I have detected my own working style during the course. To kill a Mockingbird is an adult fiction novel which immediately ticked my fancy. To Kill a Mocking Bird is a classic piece of literature produced alongside with the film. I have also read it before and watched the film so I had an idea of what kind of design I might produce for it and what is the theme of it.

This brief was quite challenging for me as I am not a big fan of designing book covers, mainly because I am not good at illustration or Typography as well. But I have found a solution for it to instead of creating illustrations I used silhouettes. Also, I have focused too much on the collaboration brief same as on the substantial brief so this had an impact on my smaller briefs. This has taught me that I should manage my time more effectively. Overall, I am pleased with the final outcome of my work. The design is only in white and black colors mainly because I think adding colors to it would make it look too colorful and friendly whereas the book is about 'death'. The final outcome is simple, clear and suitable for the target audience which are adults.

Papyrus Student Brief

Raising awareness in teen suicide is important.The brief involved the creation of the colouring book style drawing, a visual representation of something that helps me feel calm and relaxed, with a couple of lines description of what is it I've drawn and why. Previously in my spare time, I have done a couple of similar illustrations so this brief was something I really wanted to focus on.

Papyrus is the national charity to the prevention of young suicide. One of the areas they focus on is on the importance of keeping our minds healthy, this colouring book should be used as a preventative tool for keeping a healthy mind.

I have come up with the pattern design of the sun which is repeated through the page in a thin, clear and simple style. I feel this illustration is appropriate for the theme of this brief. I have chosen the sun mainly because of the sun, nice weather, warm makes me calm also the sun represent life, influence, and strength. Also, it symbolizes energy being clear, and self. The design is simple without many details as I wanted to give people a bit of space for their own imagination.

Athought I feel my design could me improved more, by adding a bit more details to it. Also, I didn't read the brief correctly as I thought I need to leave the blank space for someone else to write the message and in the last moment before submitting it for the competition I had to add some text to it. This taught me that I need to read the brief much more carefully because sometimes missed details might have a huge impact on my design. Overall I am happy with what I have produced. 

Fur for animals 

Working in the group is not my favorite task but I really enjoyed working as a collaborative team this year as it was very interesting experience. I believe we produced some really good work and worked very well together. For the collaboration section of the responsive module, I chose to work with Bobonut and Katie. Bobonut and Katie also study Graphic Design but we all have different skill sets so we could share our knowledge together and learn a lot from each other. I felt that Fur for animals brief would allow me to show my photography skills gained in my previous years of study, and would be a great way to develop my skills in this area of design and ultimately let me discover if this is a potential field that I'd like to go in the future.

Fur for animals brief was to create a piece or pieces of online content video or image which will persuade people who have bought or are considering buying garments made with real fur to change their mind. It seemed challenging but good to complete as a collaborative project. As a group, we eventually came up with 'Furry Friends or Furry Trends' an online campaign using friendly and mostly emotional approach. By targeting the emotional side we believe is the most appropriate and effective one. Also, something which people would like to share on social media and feel some emotions towards it. We didn't want to go in the direction of scary and brutal approach as we thought that this style of work would be overused.

As a group, we have come up with a range of different posters including photographs which I had a chance to take in our professional photography studio and to make an interactive video with the real animal rabbit.

I think our resolution effectively answered the brief. We communicated out resolution through an interactive video and posters. In terms oh how we approach the brief, the work load was split between us. Katie had a knowledge on software skills and how to effectively edit the video so she concerned herself with the animation of the video, Bobonut had a knowledge about social media, how to distribute our work, whereas I concerned myself with photography and all the photo shoots. During the filming and photo shoots, we had many trials and errors that we had to challenge yet resolves between ourselves. Without Katie and Bobonut, I could not have made a visual submission like we did. Through this brief, I have developed my photography skills as well as software skills using the Final Cut pro to edit the video.

Overall  I feel we produced something to be proud of and made a great team together.