OUGD603 - Extended Practice - End of Module Evaluation

Overall throughout extended practice I feel that I have proved to myself that I am a competent designer. Being part of the Students Union has really helped me create some really professionally finished briefs to keep me going throughout the year. Working with them gave me experience of what it will be like working with a client, exercising my communication and professional skills.

My briefs have been very competition heavy this year in order to try and win awards to get my name out there. Also I find it’s easier to follow someone else’s brief than to write your own from scratch. At the start of the year I had planned a few self initiated briefs, however as the year has progressed my initial brief plans have planned and I have only completed one self initiated brief. I do wish I had pushed more to completing another self initiated brief because I really enjoyed the brief in the end. There are only a few briefs that I wasn’t so pleased with the outcome of, and all of these are smaller less significant briefs like The Little Art Collection. Looking back I do think that I should have focused on bigger briefs rather than the smaller briefs that I completed.

I feel that throughout the year I have managed my time really well, always submitting all my competition briefs before the deadlines and working towards a deadline for ones that didn’t need to be submitted. Also this has meant that I was able to complete more than 10 briefs, keeping my design process going at every stage of the year.

Through collaborations this year I have learnt a lot of new skills like animation, working on the Lifting Tower Projection with animators. I have also learned that some collaborations can be harder than others, simply through lack of communication. But I think that the collaboration projects I have completed this year have been some of my strongest because of the constant feedback you receive from your peers.

Overall I am really pleased with my progress into this year. I have found a specialisation that I love doing and have successfully put it into action. The difference in my work between this year and last year is noticeable - this year I have been able to complete my briefs to a much higher standard in my opinion. I have been able to build a really professional looking portfolio from briefs that I have completed this year.