OUGD 406 END OF MODULE EVALUATION

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD406
Module Title	DESIGN PROCESS

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME	LUKE ROSSITER

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have used the skills I have picked up throughout the course over several modules and built on them for this final design practice module. One skill I have developed in particular is screen-printing, which I used for the first time in this module. It is a technique that I have neglected for far to long in the name of time management but the results that screen print gave me has lead me to believe that the time consuming process really pays off. Other skills I have applied and developed include my improved understanding of the manipulation of image and text in terms o how the two entities interact with each other.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? I tend to approach the design process with a big emphasis on what I want to see, more often than not neglecting other peoples tastes. This can be a problem but in the environment of the studios it is easy to do because we all have pretty similar tastes. I also tend to work in reverse, experimenting with ideas on the computer and then working out how everything can fit together with the images I have created, instead of drawing what I imagine things could possibly look like on paper. The approach to this module has been very different because for many of the brief we have been given much more freedom to create our own ideas as well as freedom to manage our own time. I have struggled slightly with both but in no way failed to carry out the tasks I was given. We also worked on a collaborative project this module which was different because we really had to decide our own direction from scratch in a group environment, which was very challenging. We also had some issues with another group having a similar idea, which may have impacted on the design decisions we made for absolutely no reason given that it was such a non-issue that was blown out of proportion by genuine misunderstanding.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I believe that my strengths are seen in the final product of the work I produce and the later stages of the documentation I make to get there. I also like to carry out research into the subjects I choose but unfortunately this mostly consists of secondary scientific stuff and not enough primary personal views. I think I have a strength in layout and the interaction of text and image, balancing the dynamics of a page to make sure every aspect is viewed. This is evident in the Your Choice brief, which has a heavy emphasis on text working with image. I also believe that in this module I have got better at picking the correct colours for my design. I have experienced this in the Your Choice brief again where I realised how shockingly bad the cars would look in full colour and opted for a two colour plus stock design.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I have a weakness in neglecting documentation in the early stages of the design process, when I’m generating Ideas I sketch things all over the place and create large sheets of notes that are messy and often cannot be understood by anyone other than myself. I have also fallen behind on documentation of contextual research, often I will look at things online and totally neglect my context blog, in the your choice brief all of the designs were based on the visual styles that the films posters employ, although I did all this research I don’t believe I ever saved the work or documented how I applied these styles. This is a major problem I have at the moment; doing work and never documenting it. It is very simple to change this for the future; I just need to think about what I am doing before blindly moving on to the next task. Another weakness is noted in the stamps brief, I allowed my own personal opinion to affect the process of my design. Just because I don’t believe that stamps are a good way to help the environment doesn’t mean that my politics should have an impact on my work.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? i)               I will work to improve the documentation of the early stages of work in my design process. This will allow me to get better marks for the work I have done, and clear up time in the future when I panic about loosing all my design sheets. ii)             I will make sure that all of the contextual research I do is documented properly. I frequently visit design blogs and websites so this should be very easy for me; I just need to improve the way I surf. iii)            I have to spend more time working on design sheets, they are too messy and although I can understand them, people who are marking or critiquing my work will be confused unless I improve their legibility. iv)            I will take a more productive role in group tasks. I contributed work in this modules collaborative project but I think that in the future I could improve the way I interact with the group, to stop saying things that I think they want to hear and express my opinion more openly. v)              I will try to get 8 hours sleep a night, I believe that if I do this I will be able to manage everything more easily. I am probably getting 6 hours a night at the moment and I can tell that I have become less a articulate speaker and have not been able to help people as much in crits, or come up with ideas that real mean something or stand out.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation			x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

YOUR CHOICE// Screen Prints

Here are some photos of the final submission for this brief. I think the poster came out very well from its start with the horribly coloured ford mustang. The orange colour came through very vibrantly, and the black is pretty solid too. The use of image and text and there relationship between the two is the central theme for me, It was the hardest part of designing the posters. Fitting the quote around the odd shapes made by the cars in interesting ways was a real challenge, but lots of fun.

One issue I would have with the series is that it isn't initially obvious what is going on here. Most people can understand the car film references, especially the Drive and Death Proof ones but it isn't really clear what the poster is about or who it is aimed at. Although I feel this is more of a problem outside of the brief as the proverb posters were pretty obscure also, perhaps more so than here.
I suppose the poster is aimed at fans of car chases and screen print. Ultimately I wrote this brief based the proverb brief in a way that would allow me to generate a something fun, and try a new process whilst not giving myself a very easy job.

YOUR CHOICE// Screen-Printing

After arranging the 6 different designs to a poster format I prepared them for screen print in our old print room in Vernon street. I chose to use the same colours as the digital designs and mixed the orange as close as I could with acrylic paint and fixer. This is the first time I have ever screen-printed my own designs and I wasn't a totally smooth ride, It took me two days in the end.

 I had to use a huge screen for this print, I printed onto paper which was larger than A1 so that I could print the A1 size with some boarder.

This shot is of the first colour screen, I decided to print orange first and black on top. 

 I printed many test versions to make sure the ink and alignment was correct. I decided to align the second screen by hand with every print which was time consuming but necessary because of some intricate parts of the design. 

 Some of the test prints did show some issues, here the black ink was not coming through the screen despite several runs. I washed the screen with some water to clear this problem up.

 At several points the orange ink was reacting with the black for some unknown reason, after several more test prints this problem seemed to clear itself up.

 Also the orange ink was streaky for a while despite a good mix of paint and fixer, this problem was also solved after some test prints were knocked out.  

YOUR CHOICE// FINAL DESIGNS

 Here are the final designs for the Quotes from each car film. Each one covers a single film which stands out in the decade it was made, from the 60's to the present.
Each poster had to follow strict 2:1 dimensions and I could only use two colours which included black. To create some linear designs I also developed each one in the same way; by tracing the best images of the cars the films feature with the pen tool followed by colouring the windows, wheels and grills black. I then added the text and additional imagery which should mimic the style of the films original posters in some way or another.
My next step is to screen print these images. I want to screen print because the colour reproduction will be strongest that way, especially with the black.
I am happy with the results here, especially with the Ronin and Death Proof posters. I suppose this is because I have been more experimental with the type here and the results paid off.

60's BULLITT

70's SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT

80's THE BLUES BROTHERS

90's RONIN

00's DEATH PROOF

10's DRIVE

YOUR CHOICE// Drive 2010's

 This is the progression of my drive posters from sketching the model car to the minor detail changes and tweeks made to finalise the work.

 I used this red 2011 Mustang 5.0 as the car for Dirve. In the film the car is black and represents the Drivers dark and scary side, when he breaks out from his shell and starts killing people with hammers.

 I ended up getting rid of the mustang logo because it is not needed and is way too large, I think because the  photo is a press release. I also shaded in the light fitting so all that confusing light detail is covered.

 I obviously started the type experimentation with the font that the movie poster famously used. Well it actually used an adaptation in Mistral, I've only got the regular version, but it will do. I have also traced the famous scorpion from the drivers white jacket. It links with the quote as well as making an obvious connection to the film.

Here I started with something different but very common, Bebas. Most of the rest of my design from this point focuses on fitting this text around the car.

 I also switched the scorpion to the mistral font. This further links the quote to the film poster and also makes a nice break from a wall of bebas, which I think would be a mistake.

 Here I am basically messing around with some new fonts (steelfish) and how the text can fit around the car.

This image shows my favourite layout so far. With the text facing away from the car, aligned right, all except the mistral which continues over the mustang.

Here I reflected the car so the type sits up against a flatter side of the image. Although this all fits together better I feel that this layout has less personality somehow, perhaps because im always trying to fill all the space and in the previous layout I had broken away from this. 

Finally I aligned the text to the left allowing in to hug the car. I like this less for the same reason as stated above. Also here the interaction between the mistral and bebas is less messed up or interesting.

YOUR CHOICE// Death Proof 2000's

 This is the documentation of the poster for the Quote from Death Proof. "Fair Lady, Your chariot awaits". For this design I needed use an image of the actual death proof car because of the distinctive skull painted on the front. This image features on the front of the late release DVD cases and a few official and unofficial posters.

  I carried out the standard tracing method for this car. Interestingly the lights sit behind the grill so aren't visible here. The car was obviously chosen for its very menacing aesthetics.

 I added the skull and some text. I am trying to create the b-movie feel that Tarantino also wanted to create with the official poster with the film itself. I feel that this font is too over used and identifiable as a comic book horror type.

 I experimented with this more cut back text. I like the feel of this type better, it fits the b-movie poster feel and almost looks like its pronouncing the engine tone of the car revving.

 I added these racing lines which morph into road lines for some decoration. I also use them as a frame to hold some block text with a slight angle adjustment.

Tested a few western style typefaces, the character 'stuntman mike is referred to as a cowboy at one point and much of the film has a western tone to it.

I decided that the font called 'Friday 13' suited the quote and feel of the film the best and also reflects the intentionally trashy filmography.

YOUR CHOICE// Ronin 1990's

Ronin is more of a heist film than a car film but it does feature two very famous car chase scenes in a decade which really lacked any good driving films as far as I can tell.

 Tracing the car and colouring completed I realise that the M5 is the only European muscle car to appear in the line up, this car was remarkably ahead of its time. I also like how BMW's show off their iconic double grill so, which is easily recognisable here. My only concern is that the way the tire is positioned could be interpreted as a mistake on my part.

 Here I have added some colour to the drawing in the indicators, also a fairly iconic design on the older M5. I also started experimenting with text. I want to reference the Japanese 47 Ronin story by cutting up the text, also harking to a 90's grunge style. I also reflected the image of the car, to balance with the other posters so far.

 I continues with is sentiment while adding some more dolour for balance and to create a more interesting design. The font here is called Airbus Special as is taken from the Airbus logo.

 Here I broke away from the theme so far and looked at how else the type could fit around the image.

 Here I returned to the cut up text and added horizontal lines to add some content and dept.

 I positioned the lines in an uneven way to add a more 90's grunge take on the work. They also act as off kilter ruled lines for the text to sit on.

I doubled the number of lines to really add a block of colour under the text.