OUGD504 End of module evaluation

For my end of module (OUGD504) evaluation, I believe my year so far has been enjoyable yet challenging. In the last few months I found out that my uncle has severe cancer and I noticed that I was starting to fall behind. In order to stop falling behind I took almost everyday during the Christmas holidays to get my work to the level where I will be satisfied. I have successfully come back and created some work that even professional designers have given me credit which is very pleasing to hear.

Throughout this module I have gained considerable amount of knowledge and experience. Whilst creating my design boards I had a look at my previous work and I believe I have advanced by a lot. My design boards are more thorough and more professional. I have really enjoyed the past few months working on OUGD504. I believe I have a stable foundation to keep getting better at what I do. I am also starting to get a theme of my own within Graphic Design. I am looking forward to perfecting my style throughout the year.

Throughout the module I have created work that I am very pleased with and I can see how I am personally progressing. What I enjoyed the most about the module was the variation between briefs. I liked how one week we were getting a week brief which was very intense to another brief lasting 3 weeks and being able to manage your time. Something that I struggled with last year was time management and now I am managing my time well and if I have an issue I will go up to my tutors and ask without hesitating.

I believe I have learnt a lot already throughout this year. I have learnt more in the past 3 months then I did throughout the whole year last year and that shows how intense this course is and I love the intensity. I have learnt new skills such as creating even more books that I haven’t done in the past. I have learnt to experiment more with my work and to not be afraid of mistakes. Especially with studio brief 03 where I played with coffee to create the typography needed for my front and back cover. I was also not very confident about starting a website for studio brief 04. However, after creating my final website design I was amazed as to how professional it looked and what I was capable of doing.

Although I think I have progressed a lot throughout the last years I still believe there is space for me to improve on. Although I have experimented a lot throughout the last few briefs I still believe that I can do more and try things that I haven’t tried before. I also think that sometimes I look too hard into my work and criticize it too harshly. For example before I went to the final crit for studio brief 04 I thought my website wasn’t up to standard and believed that my colleagues did a better job. Once my turn came I was complemented on my work ethic and was told to be pleased with what I created. This was really satisfying to hear and made me want to go back and make it better; to which I did.

To conclude, I believe my independent study has got a lot better although I feel that I should still try to come in when we are not timetabled to get more advice/help from my colleagues and tutors. I also believe I need to start gaining more confidence in my work and be proud of what I have created. I honestly think I have matured as a designer and an adult and hope to maintain this work ethic that I have going on. In general, I have been over the moon with my final outcomes however I intend to further my research and initial ideas.