OUGD504 Module Evaluation

Overall from both of the studio briefs I have gained a greater understanding of the way in which production methods alternate depending on the needs of the consumer but also the format in which the media needs to be presented. Studio brief 1 was hard to grasp because of the last minute changes which were not notified about followed by a knowledge about the subject I was designing for an no way of possible engaging with it in the way that is needed as we were told to do something that is personal. As we were told this is how it would be in industry, when receiving content for design in the industry it is expected and organised; it did not provide a realistic experience and was an extra unneeded stress which we could have been easily informed of at an earlier date. 

Once the content was properly understood and researched into I was able to begin to understand the direction of design I was going for we were given another brief and forced to move on. Although the brief in terms of the process of making a book gave me a greater understanding of the process and time taken to professionally make a publication to a finished product from design by hand. It also helped highlight to me the difficulties that may occur when in the production stages e.g. having to print, spot varnish and bind my book more than once because of selecting the incorrect binding methods. 

The second brief was interesting as it is not an avenue I had even thought of exploring within design before. Due to a lack of knowledge in terms of the software required to prototype it took a while to get into the swing of designing for a user experience interface, I would hope that the IT department are soon going to hold workshop sessions for XD. Although in saying that the experience of teaching myself the software was a good one and allowed me to learn from the mistakes I made, through doing so both my illustrator and photoshop skills were improved. 

As a whole I feel as if the module helped me develop as a designer, although I would have greatly appreciated some more tutor led sessions in terms of the creation of the UID project as it was something I didn’t particularly feel like I had much guidance in.