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OUGD501 - Module Evaluation


BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN
LEVEL
05
 Module Code 
OUGD501               


 Module Title
Design Context


END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME
Alex Dyson


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

Yet again I have developed my academic writing to quite a large extent. Never taking any courses involving essay writing has made the progression difficult but I have definitely improved. Developing the method of triangulation has been useful too within essay writing because it helped me draw conclusions with a more academic method.









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

I wanted to think outside the box and not make another book in this module. This lead me to brainstorm further and I decided to build an organisation. This meant taking a lot of things into consideration which unfortunately meant there wasn’t enough time to code a whole website or print and make all of the physical elements. Designing the full campaign was the most important task so I concentrated on that. Even though I couldn’t produce any outcomes, presentation of concepts, ideas and concepts is very important so I made sure I designed a set of clear and concise boards to tell the whole story.












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

The critical understanding of the subject I have investigated has been clearly presented over both my written work as well as the practical body that supports it. This has been possible due to the research carried out and the strength I have developed in finding relevant and useful information to both back up my points as well as counter them. I would like to develop my primary research skills more over this summer for my dissertation.

















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

Even though my whole project is consistent and well executed, I would of much rather code the website in full and physically produced all of the printed materials, time management would of provided me with more time to complete this however I have struggled a lot to fit everything I have wanted to into each of my modules so each have suffered independently.










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

Next time I will plan a lot further ahead and get working on it sooner rather than later, this will give me more time to plan, develop concepts and produce a larger body of work. Working more into concepts always erases loopholes and faults that may not of otherwise even been noticed, this also strengthens the quality of finished products as they have had more time and thought put into it.









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




x
Punctuality




x
Motivation


x


Commitment


x


Quantity of work produced



x

Quality of work produced



x

Contribution to the group




x
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.


OUGD501 - Studio Brief 2 - Final Outcome

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 2 - Print Design

For a creative based magazine I designed a double page spread which would serve as a gateway of promotion to the website for the audience to learn more about the organisation and hopefully react with it and sign the manifesto.




The journal which I would provide within the membership pack will be a very simple design as it will only be used to document 'good' acts of the creative. The front page would just be the logo and 'Journal' written in the branded typeface. The insides would divide in one project per spread with space for 20 projects within it.













The certificate for creatives that complete the journal will look like this, the name is fake.






The membership card that would come with the journal would look like this.





OUGD501 - Studio Brief 2 - Website Design

To begin the planning of my website I wrote down the pages which I thought would be useful on the site as well as what they would contain.

Homepage:


Full screen slider, Buttons for menu, social networks and slider elements.


Manifesto:


Manifesto, Join us w/ sign up boxes.


Creative Concerns:


Points and paragraphs for each.


People Involved:


Influential creators, list of people that have signed up.


Shop:


Products including T-shirts, membership packs & prints.


Contact:


Email address, phone number, address, map and message form.


After I had all of this stuff covered I sketched out some wireframes/thumbnails of how I wanted to website to be laid out.





After sketching it out I first laid out all of the button elements on the page with perfect balance, ratios and margins. The background image was then changed until I felt it fit within the grids in the best way.









Once the sizing and content was designed, I changed my mind about having a full screen slider as there was no use for it. This mean taking away the buttons and the slider menu. I also highlighted the button which would link to the manifesto in green.



Upon clicking the menu button in the top left corner, the menu would slide out from the left pushing the homepage across. This would work very fluidly to give a more user-friendly dynamic. The links would underline when the mouse hovered over it.




Upon clicking the manifesto button, the user would be brought to a page dedicated to the 'Honest Things First' manifesto that was written in my essay when critically rewriting the first things first manifesto to make relevant to our current day practices.




When a user scrolls, a darker bar will appear at the top of the screen where the navigation is fixed. Upon reaching the end of the manifesto, the detail boxes are laid out in hope that people would sign the manifesto themselves.


In the creative concerns page, the organisation talks about their beliefs and what needs to be put right, this just emphasises the points made in the manifesto as a sort of conclusion of ideas.



In the People Involved page, there is a slider menu of big names who have so far signed the manifesto, these people haven't actually signed anything but if a designer saw these names and look up to them, it is more likely that they themselves would be more inclined to it. When the user scrolls down they see a list of four columns which names everyone who has signed the manifesto as well as their occupation.



The shop follows the same grid rules as the 'People Involved' page. Products include two variations of screen prints and t-shirts for an example.


The last page was the contact page to allow visitors to ask questions and get in touch with the organisation.




OUGD501 - Studio Brief 2 - Branding & Identity

The first thing I needed to sort for this organisation was a name.

I first thought of CEDO - Creative Ethics Defence Organisation.


However CEDO is already an organisation in spain for studies of oceans and deserts - Centro Intercultural de Estudios de Desiertos y OcĂ©anos.


I liked the ring of Creative Ethics so tried other ways of displaying that.


CEPO - Creative Ethical Protection Organisation.


OCE - Organisation of Creative Ethics.


I wasn't liking any of the other ones I came up with so just decided to bite the bullet and go with CEDO.


I decided to have a look at logos of socially and environmentally based organisations, the examples I found were strong in some ways but very visually weak. This would not be an option for my organisation as it is aimed at creatives directly.










I wanted to make the identity serious, creative based and well designed. I found out about a book called Branding Terror which focuses on how terrorist organisations have branded themselves. I thought this would be an interesting read as all terrorist organisations stand for something and believe in it and must represent that in their visuals (no matter how bad they are). Exactly what I want to do, however good rather than bad.




When I actually got the book, I was in a sense quite disappointed because of the amount of repetition throughout, no fault of the author or anything, terrorists just aren't the most creative individuals.


A concept that ran through all of them was using an image or symbol of a globe to represent their aims of their beliefs being followed everywhere. This would then be supported by other visual elements like guns or religious books.


This works completely for all of them, no matter how badly done they are. I took a photo of an example to show, no more than one was needed.





 This got me thinking about the elements I would need in the organisation's logo. A globe would be contextually relevant to represent the aim of world domination of good design. 

This lead to playing with ideas in my sketchpad at the same time as digitally. I started to develop a rather strong logo towards the end, below I have posted photos of what was created.



The sketches really helped me create an image from my head before creating it digitally, this sped up my development and motivated me to create something of a good quality.









When it came to deciding on a typeface, I made the decision to play with some different outcomes, sans serif originally looked a bit awkward because I wasn't executing it very well, without thinking to research into how I could make it look good, I decided to work with Big Caslon to give it a bit of a CIA feel, however upon finding out how to work type around a curve, I gave sans-serif another go which would give it a bit more of a non-governmental image. 

This looked much more relevant and also had a strong creative-esque feel to it.

From the development of the logo, the predominant typeface within the organisation's branding would be Futura Medium, and then for body copy or smaller type, Futura Light.




Colour was a clear option to me, after seeing other organisations logos and critically analysing them to determine what put them together, a lot of them use green to relate directly to the natural concerns they believe in. 

My organisation also benefitting the environment but also the economy, society and social welfare as a whole made me think further.

Growth and development is a key factor which runs through all of these elements, which again is a direct connotation with green, however not as bright and in your face as the 'eco-friendly' societies. A mid-tone green would be a good colour to complement the visuals.





For use of smaller spaces and such, this logo would be far too detailed to see, therefore I created an alternative logo for other uses.



 

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