1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?I have learned how to manage the colours of print work properly to ensure I can print the colours that I want. I have researched the potential of different colour modes and looked at contemporary practice using these to gain inspiration for my own designs. I now understand what each of the colour modes can do and how I can use these to further my future work. I used this work to create a set of 6 A3 spreads and think that I have applied the principles of what I have learned to these spreads in an effective way.
I also developed skills in different print processes including screen printing and letterpress - something I have wanted to do for absolutely ages. Unfortunately the direction that I took my 'good' project in, as well as a lack of time, meant that I did not include the use of these processes. I did however learn about lots of other types of printing, such as offset lithography, pad, gravure and flexography. These processes tend to be on the costly side and due to the facilities available at college, I only had access to CMYK printers. My work for the good project focused on the use of litho for my leaflets and boxes, and flexo for the production of my foil sachets. I could only mock-up on Photoshop what these sachets would look like. Despite not being able to actually use these two printing processes I feel that I have fully understood what is involved in printing with them, what they can be used for and how costly they can be.
I found learning about all the different parts of print processes to be really interesting. Things such as Pantone swatches, foil blocking, varnishes, embossing and stock are the really fun parts of printing. These are things that I can now consider using in the future to improve the quality and professional finish of my work.
2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?Understanding how printing works has meant that I know more about the possibilities available to me when generating work which in turn means that my work no longer has to be limited to the CMYK inkjet printing that is so readily available within the college. I have done a good deal of research which helped me to develop my work and sometimes given me restrictions to help focus my ideas.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?I can work well with colour which is something that many designers struggle with. I like to come up with a few designs and experiment with them fully by tweaking it slightly until I come up with the best outcome. This means that I find it easy to create thumbnail sheets of designs which are so vital to design. My production skills have improved greatly from what they were last year. When I get started on work I can produce designs at a rapid pace and this is an important skill in design practice. My primary and secondary research have been quite strong in this project and have heavily influenced the outcome of my project. I really enjoy research driven design and feel that I can respond well to it.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?I need to make sure that the finish of my work is complementary to my overarching concept. I felt that my packaging was a lot better than what I had produced in some of the projects we did last year yet I am just awful at hand rendering things. Perhaps I should stay away from packaging design in the future. I also felt that my idea development was sub par in this project. I found it really difficult to come up with something that could promote the health benefits of mint effectively and I think I just went for something that was obvious. Normally I feel that my ideas and concepts are the strongest parts of my work and I experiment more to get the maximum amount of development before creating a final outcome. But it just did not happen this time round. I think if I had time managed more between the good project and the colour project, this would have been rectified. This probably had a lot to do with the start of the year when I felt like we weren't doing anything when really I should have been working hard from the beginning. I also am not fond of long briefs such as this. I prefer to spend ages doing intricate research and then spending a short time actually solving a brief.
5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?1. Create a time management plan at the start of the project to give me some idea of where I should be with a project at any given time as well as working harder from the beginning.
2. Experiment more with printing processes by actually using them and not just mocking up things using Photoshop.
3. Make sure I have enough time to make full use of the different printing facilities.
4. Develop my designs further to suit each element of a project, rather than sticking to one style.
5. Think harder about the concept and come up with something more innovative in order to create something better than just packaging.
6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 5
Commitment - 4
Quantity Of Work Produced - 3
Quality Of Work Produced - 3
Contribution To The Group - 3
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