Final Evaluation

My rationale has remained the same throughout this module; I have continued to focus on branding and promotion across print and motion. However, my statement of intent has changed, in particular the briefs I intended to do at the start. I had to drop the Fashion Branding due to the client being slow in getting back to me, which has been an issue across a lot of the live briefs I’ve worked on.

The Yearbook and St Martin’s brief have been the most stressful, which is down to the clients. For example, the St Martins brief was extremely slow due to the client not being able to pick who she wants to work on the branding, resulting in re-pitching several times. Even when she picked Maya and I, we still had to pitch one more time, in the end; we have had to produce some of the other deliverables outside of the FMP due to it holding up our schedule and individual deadlines we had. Thankfully, this did not affect the working relationship between Maya and I. This is a slightly different situation with the Yearbook brief as there were group tensions from the start, but we have ended on a positive note and can look back and learn from errors.

I have learnt a new program this module also, for Brief 04 – E4 and Brief 03 – ITV2, as the kind of visuals I had in my head were not possible to produce in After Effects so I started to learn Cinema 4D end of February, beginning of March. At first, I was wondering if this would mean my ideas would be inhibited slightly due to a lack of knowledge, but it actually set me free. I was able to produce whatever ideas I had written down, and I am really pleased with the colours and quality of the finished pieces. Especially the E4 deliverables, I think the music really refines it and makes it more final than my ITV2 idents where I would have liked to have had a narrator talking over the top, but finding somebody without a strong accent, who would be willing to record audio may be more hassle than its worth.

I am glad I did the E4 and ITV2 brief, as it was a chance for me to do what I wanted to do and enjoy, and it is something I would be proud to have in my portfolio, plus it gives me more content for a showreel. I am equally as glad I did the other briefs as they were a chance to work with clients, one on my own, one with Maya and one with Nick Morgan, Natalie Jackson and Kirsty Hair, so it gave me an all round experience.

As always, I think time management has been a weak point, writing this evaluation now, I can think of many things I should have done, which unfortunately at this time is tough, as I can’t have another go.

Relating to the issue of time is the motion graphics work itself, as much as I have a real passion and spark for creating this kind of work, especially in Cinema 4D where it has that high quality, glossy look, this is disadvantaged by the time taken to render and work with it. For example, to render my Discoball Ident for ITV2 with a duration of 10 seconds, it took 2 hours to render.

In terms of my boards, I am pleased with the way they are, they show what I have done for each brief, and I am actually surprised at how well the motion briefs turned out as the images came straight from Cinema 4D which is RGB, as when I changed them in Photoshop to CMYK, they became murky. An error with the printer and paper stocks has resulted in me having 3 different stocks for my boards.

With respect to my final products, some of my St Martins work was water damaged when I wasn’t in the studio, so reluctantly I have handed some in. This was the same for the Indiependent brief, a few deliverables were ruined but they have been photographed, although they all needed reshooting after advice from the Final Crit.

Without the chances to work on live briefs this module, I don’t feel I would have been ready to work with clients straight after university. The learning experience from these briefs have prepared me in a way I wouldn’t have achieved without the Final Major Project on this course.

Looking back over my work, from the past three years, I am shocked at how my work has developed, and how my pathway within Graphics has changed. I started the course interested in type and layout for campaigns and posters, and now I am more image based interested in motion graphics, for branding and promotion.

My blogging has really let me down this module, there is a lot of development work missing for Briefs 3 and 4, and I am worried this will have a huge effect on my marks.

I feel I have worked to the best of my ability, with the exception of poor time management, and I have learnt a lot about myself personally and professionally. I walked in to the course, naïve and unconfident, and now I feel my confidence has built up and I know what I want to do next. Touch wood, this is a positive end to the year, and the course.

Brief 01 - Final Boards

Open publication - Free publishing

Evaluation:

 The Yearbook brief has definitely been the most challenging brief to date. The brief began with myself, Amy Leigh, Natalie Jackson, Nick Morgan and Stephanie Ogelsby. Steph left the group within a few days, but this didn’t make too much difference. Amy and Natalie were the original group members so we were briefed on their concept and we helped to develop the concept further ready for the first pitch to the Fine Art team. It was clear from the beginning they were not happy with this concept – I must admit it was quite sexualised. Looking at the final design, I can see just how far away we were. Amy took on the role as the project leader, which became difficult at times due to not being able to get hold of her, or not turning up sometimes. The next concept was underway, I was never fully behind it, as it seemed too literal, but I grew to like the idea. The group were having problems at this stage, as we had been delegated jobs, which left us doing the harder work while Amy was responsible for the flyer. As I am new to publication design I found it very daunting to all of a sudden be responsible for a quarter of the layouts. We agreed on a grid and begun working to this to come up with layouts, it was tricky as Fine Art were supposed to supply us with statements and images, but were slow in doing so, it became tedious for me to have to mention at every meeting we were still awaiting images. At this time we were still developing the second concept we called the ‘glitch’, it was a glitched students image for the front cover. We were struggling in our weekly meetings as Fine Art didn’t appear to be happy about the ideas we were coming up with which made tensions rise between the groups. Amy left the group and all of a sudden the concept dilemma didn’t matter any more. Down to just four people, we voted we wanted to come up with something new, something that was ours, rather than the idea of one person. We still carried on part of the concept which was the stamp. We had to work quickly as time was ticking. While I was in charge of images I realised over half of the images didn’t match the spec. I did state at the start to send over 300 dpi TIFFs but this was ignored and overruled by my group – which lead to problems with images later on. We finally had a concept that we liked and Fine Art liked and this really uplifted the spirit of the group, and it became more enjoyable. It made Fine Art more cheerier which is always helpful. I definitely learnt to bite my tongue in this brief, we all did. Towards the end Sheila was extremely rude to us, and refused to see us when we desperately needed her to sign the design off to avoid missing our deadline. We are all happy with the publication, although I wish I had a more design role in the end stages, as I was more admin, and sorting out images. I was involved more with the beginning design development, but I guess not everyone can do the design. After Amy left, there wasn’t a real sense of leadership from anyone, Natalie was the main point of contact and organised meetings but she didn’t lead. It was more of an equal effort, which appeared to work for us.

Interim Evaluation

As its Easter I felt this would be an ideal time to reflect on where I am up to, and what needs doing in order for my briefs to reach full potential - as I know I am probably not as far on as I should be.

With the Yearbook brief there have been lots of ups and downs, it didn't help having to restart the project after a member left the group, but I feel we are now in a much stronger position than we were before. Even after our hiccup I feel we have progressed further than other groups, we have the layouts sorted, and nearly all of the information and images. Just a few odds and ends that need tying up.
The key considerations in this brief have been the clients requirements, they have been quite picky about what we have done, and so its our job to pay attention to what they say in order to go away and design something that makes them say wow. I feel quite happy with the progress with this in general.
The difference from where we are at now to our initial ideas is astonishing - we have moved on so much - and this has pleased the client as they weren't so keen on Amy Leigh's original concepts which seemed slightly 'out there' for what they actually want.

I am glad I decided to end the Fashion Brief with Gemma, it was moving far too slow for me, and I didn't want to feel rushed towards the end.

The St Martins brief is still moving ever so slow, we are still pitching, and this is beginning to become a bit of a problem now. The key consideration for this brief is Camilla and the patients, we have to consider Camilla's requirements which are quite vague of late, but we also need to consider the patients as every walk of life will walk through that door and see that logo - it needs to be easy to understand, clear, non offensive, non discriminatory, and welcoming. Maya and myself have done research into existing medical logos including the competition for St Martins which is One Medicare. We have looked into the different kinds of deliverables, taking into account the NHS branding guidelines which we have taken very seriously and studied carefully, always referring back to when designing something new.
Our breadth of initial ideas have probably been too extensive, we have spent an awfully long time on 'initial ideas' through no fault of our own and we need to push Camilla gently into selecting someone to work with.
I have learnt a lot about competing for a pitch here, I never thought of it as a competition until the other 'pitcher' had told the entire year group one of the ideas Maya had come up with was a copy. Its at this point where Camilla is realising what she wants and there have been similarities in ideas, surely this is a good thing.

The ITV2 brief is still moving very slowly, but I fully intend to give myself a kick up the bottom and get on with producing the motion as this is going to be very time consuming - especially in Cinema 4D. I would have liked to have got this one nearly finished over Easter but due to my ITV placement I am now 2 weeks behind schedule.

E4 brief I still haven't started I regret to admit - I do not feel very motivated towards this although I know this is my chance to 'shine'. Again, this should have been really under way throughout Easter but my work placement has got in the way slightly, which means some serious hard work when I return.

The Indiependent brief is going well, the client is happy with the work I have done so far, I just need to really push this to its full advantage.

I am glad I decided to end the Fashion Brief with Gemma, it was moving far too slow for me, and I didn't want to feel rushed towards the end. I am equally as glad about ending the Alton Towers brief and the Fashion Promo Video brief, I think I would be in a far worse situation if I had continued with them.

Mini Evaluation

Where I am up to with each brief so far:

Brief 01 - Yearbook:
- Students need dividing up between team.
- Layout discussion between group - then to begin designing.
- Front Cover.
- Need to chase up statements and contacts...again.

Brief 02 - Fashion (Gemma Thurling):
- Awaiting Gemma's work to begin initial ideas.

Brief 03 - NHS:
- Waiting for feedback.

Brief 04 - ITV:
- Initial ideas - develop - storyboard.
- Need to learn Cinema 4D - gather books/tutorials.

Brief 05 - E4:
- To start.

Brief 06 - Indiependent:
- Initial ideas - mac - client.
- Colour font experimentation.

Brief 07 - Alton Towers:
- More ideas and experimentation.

Brief 08 - Fashion Film
- Meeting with Brian tomorrow.
- Meet with the girls to discuss ideas. (31st Jan)

Brief 09 - Design Context
- Ongoing research
- Finalising contact list.

Looking at this list I am able to see it looks like I am spreading myself quite thin. I am not definitely going to drop a brief but this is something I am considering in order to reach full potential with my work.

Design Context (9) is compulsory, the Yearbook (1) brief is pretty much compulsory and has moved too far to leave. The NHS (3) one is not definite until the client selects the successful pitch.

This leaves Briefs 2,4,5,6,7,8.
Brief 4 and 5 I feel are my briefs - the briefs where I can show what I'm about and what I enjoy, these are briefs I cannot drop. Brief 2 still hasn't started and I am not really sure whats going on. Brief 6 is ticking over nicely, and its an opportunity to do charity work and live work (looks good on the CV and is a good way of helping!), and Brief 8 I will find out about tomorrow.

End of Week Evaluation

As it is the end of the week, I thought I would summarise where I am up to:

Brief 01 - Yearbook
- Glitch images - to upload to DP and DC
- Front/Inside initial ideas to upload to empty blog post.
- Inside attempts once design agreed on.

Brief 02 - Fashion
- DP - Nothing as yet.
- DC - My own fashion branding research.

Brief 03 - NHS
- Collaborating with Maya!
- Need to develop ideas.
- Come up with a strong pitch for w/c 20th February.

Brief 04 - ITV
- More design context.
- Need to come up with design context.

Brief 05 - E4
- Need to begin context.

Brief 06 - Indiependent
- Begin sketching ideas based on emails from client.

Brief 07 - Alton Towers
- Cinema 4D