End Of Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this module I have learnt a lot more about analysis, looking further into a piece of work seeing the motives and its influences, where it sits in history, and why it was made. I think that I have applied this new skill especially well within my study tasks and my essay. I have also learnt about theories and key theorists and how they have influenced the world. I also think that I have developed my research skills thoroughly and I have applied these new skills by collecting more valid and academic sources, I have also looked into more books and I think that this is evident in my essay and my publication; which was primarily informed by a certain book, and this book also helped me with the idea of my publication, which I found really interesting to research.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have been a lot more research orientated in this module, and I think that this developed through the module, which in the end informed me well for the practical element. I have also tried to synthesize context and practical sides of my work and made them into a publication.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think that, especially for my publication I have a strong body of research, that really informed my piece, I will continue to develop this strength by finding more academic/ reliable sources that I can use to inform my work.

I would also say my publication has a strong concept and the audience is well defined, I also think that it does connect to my initial essay and the two interconnect. I will try to do this in the next module and I will continue to push my concepts and use them in more academic pieces.

As well as this evident in my study tasks is my ability to analyse and I will continue to do this when looking at pieces of work, and I will try to use this skill to analyse my own work.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I think that the design of my publication, could have been better, I felt as though I had to rush through the actual design of the book, although I do feel that it is appropriate for the audience. In the future I will try to organise my time more efficiently and perhaps not go into so much detail when researching, and as well as this start the project earlier, as one of the main weaknesses of my work was the limitations I had when it came to producing the final piece, such as time, printing, binding etc. I had to design around these limitations, and ideally I would in the future like to have as little limitations as possible.

Another weakness in my work that has been identified to me is my essay structuring. I will learn from the structure of the essay so that I can form a better essay in the future, which will make it more intellectual and organised. I can do this by looking at help on the module handbook and planning the structure of my essay not just the content.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Plan my time more efficiently so that I do not have production limitations, which means I can produce almost anything I can think of, which might make for a better more innovative piece.
2. I will structure by essay in a more academic format so that I can triangulate more successfully with 5 or 6 sources not just 3 or 4.
3.  I will spend more time on designing and developing my practical work so that I can explore my own practice and be completely satisfied with the end product.
4.  I will collect more defined research so that I will have an extensive knowledge on one particular area that I will be able to discuss in an essay at length.
5.  And finally I will try to start pieces of work more immediately allowing myself the time to plan and design.

Attendance  5

Punctuality  5

Motivation  4

Commitment  4

Quantity of work produced  3

Quality of work produced  3

Contribution to the group  3

'What is Good' Rationale

When I began my practical response I looked back at my essay, I had discussed whether designers had the responsibility to make the world a better place. I thought about what I could produce as a response, I looked into various ways designers have tried to make a good social impact, I had found a few case studies that showed this. I looked into certain types of design, but then it occurred that I could produce a piece of design that in itself would have a positive social impact. This is where I got the idea of my content from, I worked back from the audience of my essay, I broadened who should make the world a better place, by including everyone, I feel that everyone has a responsibility. 

I was exploring these ideas and I remembered that I had referred to the First Things First Manifestos in my essay, I looked back over these and within them Garland and Poynor had mentioned various forms of design that they considered to be worthy, and ethically/ socially good/positive. In one of the manifestos the term 'educational tools' was used, and this is where I got the idea for my audience and format from. I decided that I would make a publication aimed at young adults who where still at school, I had decided upon this particular audience with the help of someone else's work (that I have mentioned in my research) who had decided to aim at a younger audience as there opinions and views of the world are still changing and still being questioned, instilling these positive views into a younger audience could change the future, whereas with adults it can be harder to change their minds. 

As well as this in my research I had found a quote that I felt was key, I think that this quote gave me the idea for my content, which was looking at four views of good ethics from religion and four from non-religious, I wanted to show the two fundamental sides, and I wanted to compare them and show the audience there are different views and we should understand this but we can work with one another, as well as this I wanted the audience to understand that there is no definite good and bad, it is an undefinable term, hence the name of my publication 'What is Good'. 

I wanted the book to visually represent the idea of two sides, I thought back to when I was younger where I had a book, one half was english and one half was french. And the idea was that a mole on each side starting in either country, travelled under the english/french channel and they met in the middle. This is where the idea of a back to back publication came from and this would be the format, as well as this the two sides would meet in the middle and there would be a summary. 

As for my design decisions, I kept a simple appearance, I used icons as a key to summarise important information, this is all with the age of the target audience in mind. There was a lot of information and it was hard to simplify down as it is such a vast topic, I highlighted key principles in colour. I wanted the piece to be engaging, not overwhelming so I had a spacious layout as well. I chose to print on an off-white, more textural stock as I felt that it would add to the look of the book as well as this the colour and texture may be more inviting to read.