another one,

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

I believe that i have developed many skills within this module, one of them not being critical studies.... however i believe my final resolutions on illustrator have become amazing in comparisson to previous modules where i used photoshop all the time and everything was all pixelated. Now rather than thinking illustrator as a task i think of it as fun! i also have developed skills on Indesign and can make double page spreads without a worry! i believe the best skill is that i have found how to enjoy things rather than think of them as a chore

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

i have developed a better understanding of research and have now understood it isn't just for informing yourself and becoming more aware to the brief at hand, but it is also there to back up your designs so you have statistical information proving your theory is infact a problem to be solved.

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

My work strengths are that i am calming down, and this is shown through out my work, as i am not producing 100's of design sheets filled with crap but i am now judging things via quality rather than quantity. As i said before i enjoy this a lot more so i will carry on with this but try to make more quality work!

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

My weakness' s in my work vary, on the How to brief i did a map on how to do things although this was my first time productivly using illustrator, so admitedly its not a strong piece of work but is a giant leap from what the production could/would of looked like otherwise, also the video didn't turn out exactly how i wanted on some clips. but i can deal with that, i know for future reference.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- use my blog like i did in other modules
- produce more research to back up my designs
- record/document more data
- keep a diary of time management to prove it is being done
- Take time out of one project to ensure i spend time on my weak points (critical studies) as that matters more to ensure i pass the year. (learned from that mistake as now i am worrying 24/7)

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 4

Evaluation

Speaking from experience is the brief we received latest to date and involved our past knowledge in use of the past year as students.

We have been asked to find an appropriate problem and to solve it with reference to our experience.

in all there are a lot of possible problems which could be taken into consideration for the freshers. 

over 85 percent live in halls and have never lived in Leeds before, In my experience i had been twice before hand, due to this it gives a feeling of being singled out, although the truth in the matter is you are not alone, by majority your all in the same boat.

Although this is not the only problem at hand, here are a few problems that exist today:

Isolation 

Lonely

Unfamiliar city

Getting lost

Not having the confidence to speak to others

Home sick

Missing friends and family

Budgeting

Cooking

Washing up

Living alone

Meeting new people

Finding university

Knowing who to talk to and what to say...

these are just a select few of hundreds of thousands.

In all, what we have to produce has to be interactive and help people overcome the selected problem

and is aimed towards students who are coming to university (more aimed at Graphic Design Students, as that is the course we have experience on)

I have chosen my problem to be the first day, Most people on the first day are not sure how to

act, how to dress or how to even get to university. 

So i would like to solve this problem with an interacting video based in a humorous, unprofessional tone in order to create a confident reaction, rather than something which is to serious or professional, as that way it makes everyone up tight and nervous. 

The most important thing at the start of a course is to fit in around your co graphic designers. 

Humour is the perfect way to solve this.

The beauty with the video i wished to produce is that no background knowledge is needed for

the viewer, and even if it is stuff they already know, it doesn't go a miss to be reminded as from

my experience, your not exactly yourself on the first day?

The possibilities of something going wrong in the video are at high risk, which is why a lot of prep work is beneficial in the design process to make sure there is a back up plan, if something was to go wrong. 

My projects limitations on this project would be to get to up tight and Peter Jackson on the process. As it is a humourous student video (in intention).  So i don't need the following to be perfectly planned:

Actors/ Actress's 

Studios/ Backgrounds

Lighting  

Reflections 

Etc.

In all the DVD is aimed to make the first years laugh and get to know each other a little better and that is the only purpose it serves, it doesn't need to be the next Harry potter, just something to flip that bag of nerves inside out.

As the idea seamed to be going well and a bit of a hit with people i told, i then thought i should think about packaging for the piece. Originally i thought about designing some caution taped work. But 

then i got the idea of the How To For Dummies, and how i could humourously take the piss out of it (Pardon my French) the more i thought about the two hand in hand the more my project work came along in a appropriate tone and made me more confident about decision making and where to go next and organizing my time. 

If i was to use some pre designed work for the DVD case which was of purely primary i don't think

it would have the same desired effect on the piece. 

Again with the talent being Graphic Design students i do think that this guide could be associated with much more that simply a new university crowd, the DVD commercial could be proven relevance to everyone who isn't confident about dressing, doesn't know how to act in front of people, or generally how to socialize with new people in the work or social place. 

The materials and programs i plan to use for this project is a Panasonic Handy cam, Sony tape, Card, Dowel, Tape, Illustrator, Card, Glue, Final cut express, Quicktime and Toast to burn the footage from the scratch disk to the DVD device. 

After completing this project i believe the final outcome serves the intended purpose and works in reference to the brief associated with this project and is my way or speaking from experience. 

Unfortunetly i am unable to see how the reactions would be on a first day as everyone who has seen the DVD enjoys it and laughs as intended but they are not in the right mindset for the production to work.

Double Page Spread

Throughout the double page spread project as stated before i wished to

produce something with personal feel and a hand made touch which you would not 

get with any average magazine.

Here are the development stages of my spreads.

As basic as this looks it still took a good 20 minutes to get right 

as areas didn't add up in places and well it went to the drain more than once.

however in the end i got it right.

Page 1,2

Page 3,4

Page 5,6

After these were produced i experimented with using a backing colour

although i like the outcome of page 3,4 i don't believe it is appropriate 

and in context it doesn't give the visual representation i anticipated for 

such an effort. therefore i plan to tea bag the plain pieces and rescan them in to make

a more interesting individual outcome.

CD case and cover

As with my design board i still wanted to stick with the ..... for dummies theme

in all i decided my disk should work with the cover as a set. 

Originally i had designed a Cd cover which would fold out as a 3 12x12x12 square set

although i though that was to much hastle to deal with on such a short space of time

so i decided to make a wallet for the DVD to be stored.

this wallet has a Electric yellow stock colour and a combonation of red, black and white to 

create an eye jolting and attractive tone and aproach to the audience.

Here is what i have designed on illustrator to be printed out:

Design board for crit

My design board is designed as the famous 'how to.... for dummies guide'
It is desgned this way as i wish to solve my problem in the same way that the company
for this have which is to inform the audience 'first year students' to do, be or say something.
my production will be dvd based and the packaging of the cd will infact be to a similar aproach as this design board.

here is the illustrated version, and a photo of the board used for my presentation.

Mani...what now?

What did I used to be?

At the start of the course i was incline to believe that i had a 'style' which would
be 'my thing' during the course.
Blind to this sill observation i did not see the possabilities around me of really experimenting
with diffrent visualy attractive ways, therefore i was trapped in a box.

Where are you now?

Currently i believe that i am overcoming the obsticle of where i was, i am not a expert with other programmes and what not although i'm confident experimenting with these forms of design process and i am enjoying the course alot more because i am learning lots of things from my co workers and tutors around me. p.s. i hated semina's but now i can't get enough of them!

Where do I intend to be in the future?

1. In all my main mindset is to achieve some visualy attractive pieces which look great in my portfolio so i can attend another 4 years at New Yorks College of Art and Design.
2. I intend to be able to use every programme and be a utter geek at all these programmes
3. I would like to be able to work faster and more efficiently for the time given and be able to flip around briefs with ease, or at least with a stronger mindset than before.

A graphic response/graphic product/piece of work that makes a statement, comment, observation, instruction or gives advice about our experience of the first year of the course to the next year's first years.

Problem:
Surviving the first year

What am i going to do about it:
give the 'fresh meat' some tips on socialising and getting through the first day of the rest of thier lifes

How am i going to do it:
I am going to produce media which is formal yet humerous to inform students of

When am i going to do it:
within the time scale given for the brief