Reflective Practice - Speaking From Experience 1.2

Evaluation

Setting my own brief was an exciting prospect as it gave me the opportunity and freedom to tailor the project to me. This helped to develop deeper concepts because I had an interest and passion for being creative on paper rather than computer. This is something that I have learnt this year and I feel it is appropriate to share this experience to the first years. 

My concept was to produce an graphic outcome that encourages first year students to move away from digital sources of design and use practical techniques, particularly at the start of a brief. I reflected this throughout my project as I created some monoprints of texture and tone which is an analogue technique and then, as my concept developed, took them into digital to add depth and visuals to my composition. However, if I had managed my time better when juggling other briefs, I could have explored other processes such as letterpress and screen print as this would have emphasised my concept even more. I think the decision to digitally produce and print was a good one because it makes reproducing it easy and quick, allowing it to be shared to all members of the year. 

I am pleased with the research that I did before choosing a concept because it helped me to produce a more appropriate response for my target audience; first year graphic design students. Using the library sources broadened my research as I looked into 'RAVE ART' which showed a lot of examples of ticket and poster designs from 1986. My research into Konig was really beneficial because of his rebellious use of type which gave me the confidence to experiment with experimental typesetting. Playing around with the type definitely influenced me to create a contemporary, post-modern outcome because I enjoyed being expressive with it. My research was really broad with impacted a lot of areas of design that was relevant to my concept and brief, this made making design decisions a lot easier. 

I would have liked to add colour to my composition, however I was pleased with the layout and monochromatic colour scheme as it was, and I began to run out of time. I am pleased that I didn't rush this process because the compositions we made using a 9x9 grid system and I couldn't find space. In this case, less is more.

I believe I have taken advantage of the colleges facilities and worked with the inspiration and skills that I have been introduced to this year to produce one of my strongest pieces of the year in my opinion.