OUGD502 - End Of Module Evaluation

http://issuu.com/alexdyson/docs/self-evaluation_form_ougd503_level__ccbb2215c25814

There was an issue embedding the isssu document, apologies.

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 2 - A Design Presence Web Presence

Being in quite a rush to get to a print slot, I unfortunately fled my workspace where i had all of my sketches and completely forgot about them, by the time I remembered I fear they have been thrown away.

Nontheless, I never documented these but the development of my site was very fast.

For my online presence, I wanted something reliable, cheap and convenient. I hate the idea of updating so many areas of web in respect to social networking and blogs. This gave me the idea to check out two prospective hosts, cargo collective, and behance pro-site.

After some reviewing and research, I decided on Behance pro-site because of the convenience to publish work on there and have it automatically feed to my professional platform. This also gave the option to use both template features and custom css and html.

The price was also a good factor as it only costs £6 a month (less than netflix!).

Using a fixed grid system of three columns, I developed a homepage which reflected my brand as well as my printed media. I didn't want to use a template because I didn't want mine to look like anyone else's so I started with the basic layout and then customised it to my plans.

Following suit with my branded colours, I kept it to blue and white until the user hovered over the project. This highlighted the project with it's true colours.

My about section is a resume in a sense which describes myself and my name. This is the backbone of what needs to be on there. Over the next coming months I plan to develop more pages such as a personal work blog, and more about my outside interests.

Upon clicking on a project from the homepage the user is greeted with a list view of images from the project, a description in the column beside it and then links to the other projects beside that. Right at the bottom of the page you find the footer from the homepage with all the social networking links (Facebook is not personal page, it is a page for design work).

This website is now live and working so feel free to check it out! - www.pencilwound.com

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 2 - A Design Presence Design & Production

Designing books is something I have gained a lot of experience in whilst at university, but not once about myself. I found this particularly challenging however I realised I learned quite a lot about myself by doing it. This also gave me the chance to evaluate some of the work I am most proud of.

I wanted my business cards to fit into a low budget but make a big impression too. I have become a big fan of good quality stocks and felt that GF-Smith Colorplan fit the bill perfectly. After ordering the duplex royal blue and pristine white, I designed my cards appropriately, with my logo in white on the blue side and then my details in blue on the white side. Using so much contrast really makes the logo jump out of the card.

I wanted to brand two different kinds of envelopes that I would use to send both my portfolio book as well as my letters and invoices. This creates a stream of consistency over the same media in different scales. To do this I presented my logo in a box in the top left corner, the opposite traditional side of a stamp placement. This would give enough space to write the address as well as place a stamp.

The invoice was actually the first thing I designed when I was preparing some work to send to a client I had worked with when they requested an invoice. Even though this was done rather quickly, it followed all of the same grid rules as my book and had all of the necessary information.

The letterhead came after that and followed complete suit with it. Removing the financial details and replacing the breakdown with letter content.

Finally, the contract was the last thing that was completed in this layout. This spanned over two pages detailing all legal and financial elements of work that was involved in transactions.

Once my stock arrived, I created the positives for my screen printing. Business cards, book cover and envelopes.

Once these were sorted I got preparing and printing straight away.

Everything came out perfect apart from the occasional dud where the ink bled or wasn't cropped properly. If I was a working professional I would have money, and if I had money I would of gotten all of my business cards printed at letter press printers for an upmost professional finish.

The biggest problem I had out of production was an unfixable issue with the studio printer which couldn't print double sided and aligned to the other side, this made certain pages lose/gain margin space or warp the centre. Otherwise, everything would of been perfect.

OUGD502 - Life's A Pitch - Presentation

My responsibility was to design and prepare the presentation format after all of the content had been organised and selected from our previous research.

We wanted to give a light-hearted approach so we appeared as comfortable people that enjoy what we do, putting in a few funny elements such as pictures or quotes would help keep the audience engaged throughout a stream of presentations.

I am both really bad and lack the confidence at speaking in front of large groups of people so it was quite difficult for me to go up in front of everyone. I feel that maybe the light hearted and funny approach wasn't the best now as no one laughed at the parts I hoped they would and even though we had practiced and rehearsed a lot,  we all missed elements out because of nerves.