OUGD 603 – Extended Practice Evaluation.

OUGD 603 – Extended Practice Evaluation.

Overall I am really pleased with how this module has gone. Throughout the year, I think you can see my design work getting stronger and stronger. I got to work with clients for the first time, which was a different experience. I really enjoy the structure of working with a client and getting told what to do and having constant critic and feedback. Also, this year I got to do a lot of editorial work, which is something that I really enjoy. During the course of this year, I also get to print and bind publications, during a number of briefs I did have trouble with this­. I had trouble cutting out the zines and using the guillotine, which ended up taking chunks out of my work. As I am still pretty new at printing publications, I blame my error on that. I hope to become better at it with time. In the future, I want to take my publications to a professional printer to be printed and bound to ensure they are the best quality they can be. I got to work collaboratively multiple times again this year. I found that working with another person improved my organisation skills. When you are working with another person you can’t always just work when you want to, you have to fit around them, this took a lot of organising.

My time management this year has really improved. With having to juggle so many briefs at once I found that managing my time well was key. I tried to not work on the briefs one brief at a time, but working on multiple briefs each week. This is much more similar to how a real studio would work, so it is best that I get used to juggling briefs now. Organization was also really important this year. I kept everything in subfolders and made sure everything was clearly labeled. In the past I usually names them “final final final 1” which starts to get confusing. This year through clearly labeling everything and subfolders it made finding the files I needed much more efficient.

What I wished I’d done: I would have liked to have done more screen printing, I found that I used it hardly at all this year with the process being so time-consuming. For my portfolio, I think it would have been much stronger if I could have shown different processes and the different ways in which I can work. Another thing I would have of done differently is not leaving printing until the last minute. I usually finish my designs then waiting until the end of the year to actually print them. This is not the way to work; it leaves no time to fix any printing errors. Three of my publications I would have liked to print again but I didn’t have the time to. Not leaving printing so late means that I have more time to ensure that I am happy with my final designs and more time for trial and error. I wish I had spent more time in the studio. Towards the end of the year, I found I that I was in the studio every day. Working for the studio I was able to produce more in a shorter time as I had fewer distractions. Also had the printer and scanner right there to use when I wanted. I wish that I had spent more time in the studio from the beginning of the year.