Self Evaluation

Coming up with my own projects was ofcourse going to be exciting in terms of portfolio and being able to use my style with my strengths, but I didn’t realise it created a lot of unpredictable development which was retrospectively very interesting.

Attached along with this pack are two early versions of my written briefs, and through these and developments for each project on my blog, you see how projects have jumped changed and formed, most times, in to a completely different deliverable!

Exploring possibilities of outcome given our more flexible time period created chance for designs and new ideas to grow a lot better than they would have done in a shorter span of time. Although I always aimed to have certain projects done by a certain mark, I took the chance to give some a little more time when an interesting point of feedback or inspiration took course.

Working on these showed reiterated how quickly getting contact/feedback should be done as a big learning curve was that feedback is essential to any brief and design development. Graphic design is about the demographic being targeted and the way the design will be channelled and this year I have explored more of a variety of these avenues, wether it be stickers or social media advertisements.

This has shown me I enjoy being versatile in my deliverables, and I have been challenged in this by clients or by experimenting with different outcomes such as pull up banners. I have a more informed awareness of the power design has to get a message across, wether it be words or visuals. My projects aimed to show versatility in outcome as graphic design can be applied everywhere! Despite this I still wanted my own style to come through in the way I design.

Feedback throughout this year through portfolio surgeries, placement and careers advice have strengthened my style more than ever as I have received feedback that I was aiming to hear. My portfolio and style have said to have been commercial, fun and easy to understand. It was also encouraged to keep inputting illustration as it can be an additional strength to separate me from competitors in industry.

I have been applying for jobs and opportunities as I have learnt on this course to just go for it, which is a confident skill I have gained. I have had my first creative interview which through my variety of professional engagement this year and professional feedback, would have been less prepared for.

In presentation feedback, I was delighted to be complimented on my presentation and people skills which suit my desire to work in groups. I am very much a people person and communicator, always enthusiastic to my peers, which will give me an edge in interviews and for the types of agency brand jobs I have been applying for. Going freelance has never seemed suitable for me due to my character. Through this year I have realised through end results of my projects that I would have loved to expand them even more with other skills, that would be present with a creative team. This is positive as I could see my end designs going in to other avenues which indicates they are strong.

My design is always quite bold and colourful, which gives me a style. I worry about this however, not looking versatile enough, but the jobs I am going for require a eye catching design or idea. I have chosen not to visit or apply to extremely corporate companies as this is not me.

Definitely for improvement while I work towards the future is too polish my end products even more as the mock-ups I have created this year I haven’t been happy with. Beginning to do product shoots with relevant materials beside the product would have really boosted my design work and I am going to do this from now on. Also, I realise I have been lucky in terms of time to complete these projects but realise in industry there are strict deadlines and unexpected ones! Thankfully, I enjoy deadlines and towards the end of one I thrive under the pressure, and this year managing my own projects and collaborations has strengthened my scope on how much more I can transform my ideas in to and present them to team or client.

Despite these issues I am quite happy with my work, as I wanted the pieces to show who I am as a person and a creative in my portfolio, and through feedback I am happy to hear this has come through to people! My self-branding and portfolio are tied in together importantly to represent my energy and enthusiasm as a designer which I hope works well for me in the future!

Brief 9- Final magazine

Brief 9- Stickers and initial test print

Research Brief 10- Evaluation

This research brief was an exploration in to the impact design can have on a person's mental state, mood, and the transforming the environment they are in. I was particularly interested in researching how colours can affect the mood of a room and what visuals would make people of all ages in group therapy feel more inclined to open up, relax them and calm the environment.

For this brief my focus was a group therapy session called frazzled cafe held in M&S cafe's up and down the country. Through research and personal experience, counselling appointments are hard to get and mental health problems are rising in society. Having a session like this is a great way to allow those struggling to come and talk to others. I have always had a key interest in mental health and this was a way of tying graphic design with this.

For primary research I wanted to speak to a variety of professionals who work in mental health units/group therapy to get an idea of how or if design is implemented as part of the therapy. I spoke to a mental health support worker who gave me useful information on what visuals and colours irritate patients. I also emailed an art therapist who gave me useful links and advice based on his experience with using art working with people with mental health problems. I contacted Inkwell arts and Morag Myerscough (who inspired my project idea), but unfortunately they didn't get back to me as they are understandably busy!

Research was also obtained through personal experience in medical/therapy rooms, which I found a theme of abstract art, which I concluded was to not be relatable or too distracting to the patient but adding a sense of self development and expression. I wanted to have informed primary research for this project as well as visual research, to get the most effective result. Whilst speaking to a Lush employee similar themes were used within their product design, as well as bold natural shapes such as leaves and flowers. There is a universal enjoyment of natural scenery which was important to experiment with for the banners.

Pull up banners were chosen as they are transportable and the concept is they are design that can be taken in to any situation and transform the space to relax the patients/members. Sessions in places like cafe's could look distracting or not catered to a session so this is a way of having transportable interior design almost!

Using the existing Frazzled cafe branding was done as in future projects in studios, there will be a lot of designing around existing logos and brand identity so this was great practice for that. They have their successful brand identity already and this was a way of extending this to cater their sessions. I have emailed them to ask if they would like to use my designs but unfortunately did not hear back in time for submission. This has taught me as this is a research project, these contacts should have been contacted a lot earlier in the year even before starting design, to gain more input professionally. However, through visual research and feedback, as well as my interviews, the designs are well informed and hit the targets.

The aim was to create pull up banner visuals that were relaxing, soft, non distracting, adding calmness to any environment. I enjoyed experimenting with linoprint for this project, as print is more trusted than digital, but in the end the leaves added a holiday aspect to the designs so this wasn't taken further. This taught me a lot about environments impact on people. Plants are suggested for those stressed or that have mental health problems and I would suggest these are brought to sessions, but work well with the pull up banners I have designed.

It was quite hard working to the size as I found it quite limiting due to the narrowness but is informed and has the affect desired. The research was very enjoyable and can apply to future projects. If I were to do it again I would have created an adult colouring book full of plants, as this has been a popular therapeutic tool of late. This is because I wanted to the workload to reflect the weight of the research. I am considering doing this as a personal project and if Frazzled Cafe get back to me, I could suggest production for this.

Research Brief 10 - Final banner

Final feedback on these was that the second two are more visually interesting, but could still look quite harsh. It was suggested with the shapes I source inspiration from Japanese designs like these



'smoother images are more soothing. Maybe try taking the third one and apply a Gaussian blur. Love the texture just think it’s a bit more aggressive if you get me but a blur could make it look more like clouds?'

My solution was to pick the middle image but using gaussian blur on the shapes to soften the imagery. My conclusion was that the leaves looked to tropical, even though they are definetley calming, they are better there physically along with the soft imagery. In this case it looked too plant themed rather than a non distracting environmental/interior addition.

Similar to these images just put up in university about mindfullness. Similar direction in designing a visual to accompany mindfullness, soft blues/whites shapes.