EVALUATION

Overall Evaluation

Hindsight is an irritating thing, and although I am extremely happy with where I am right now I sometimes, throughout the course of this module have wondered where I would be had I had some of the realisations I'm having now, a lot earlier in my degree. The major turning point in my FMP was submitting my statement of intent, I was having a lot of problems with trying to include all of my interests in one sentence, and it has changed a lot throughout this year. I finally got it down to 'Conceptual, research driven design for independent publication with a focus on human behaviour and language'. I think it definitely sums me up as a designer, and is extremely relative to my future plans and design strategy after I leave. Originally it was centred around film, music and literature and I was having trouble in crits when explaining my work to people, because what I was doing wasn't always necessarily under those headings. Changing it to human behaviour and language has allowed me to explore a more diverse range of topics within my work, it will always be under those headings, but could potentially be bigger that culture.

Having a more focused statement of intent allowed me to write in detail my plan for my FMP, which would usually be a massive problem for me as most of my degree has been very heavily conceptual and research driven, and so writing my own self initiated briefs has been hard for me. It is easy enough to write about something you're passionate about, but when you're told you need strict guidelines and reigning in then it becomes difficult to pin point what you want out of your briefs. My statement of intent allowed me to come up with a series of headings that I could look into and actually stay excited about throughout the course of the last module.

One of the things I was worried about was the fact that I am not one for processing, and trying out particularly experimental formats and stocks, but I began to realise that I am not concerned with those for a reason. I had initially said in my statement submission that I wanted to experiment with screen printing more, and I did, outside of my FMP and although I enjoyed it I found that it wasn't relative to my practice. I have been able to bullet point my practice so that whenever I feel anxious about what other people are doing, that I realise that it isn't always relevant to me;

1. I am an ideas person
2. I don't like branding
3. I want to stimulate and educate
4. I am cost effective
5. I work faster than I think

Finally, 6. It isn't all about Graphic Design; and I learned this when it came to writing my dissertation – mine wasn't Graphic Design related in the least. I have learned to use Graphic Design as a tool and not have my entire life revolve around it. Like last module I started off with a lot of briefs and my blog labelling was all over the place, and so I have actually cut out a lot of what I was initially going to submit, this wasn't due to time, money or enthusiasm, it was because I realised that a lot of the briefs I was trying to pursue were very similar and could actually exist together. I got a lot of feedback on my briefs throughout my FMP from professionals, both who came in and who I contacted myself which really helped me to shape which briefs were worth it and which were just taking up my time. Getting really involved with the people I contacted helped not only with my briefs but also getting myself out there. Speaking to people I admire such as Steve from STACK and also Alasdair from Article allowed me to understand and make clear the reasons why I do what I do, for the love of tangible printed ideas.

One of the briefs that I had to opt out of, that wasn't working for me or my time, or my health! - was the Fine Art Yearbook. I was initially really quite excited about yearbooks and the prospect of being involved with one, after all I am quite obsessed with publications. I didn't have a design team to create an initial pitch for the Graphic Design yearbook, and so I took some photographs and made some boards with the paper specs and all of the details on how information would be organised and planned to pitch by myself until I realised it was illogical and probably not allowed. I ended up getting another person to put their name to my pitch, this wasn't necessarily someone who I would choose to work with. I didn't really think it would result in anything, I just wanted my pitch to be seen so I wouldn't regret not pitching entirely. Getting the Fine Art yearbook was one of the happiest moments of my degree! I was so happy because the previous Fine Art yearbooks had been so well executed and by past students who I really admire.

There were a lot of students who hadn't gotten a yearbook and so we were told to pick some of them up, again the people I ended up weren't people I would ordinarily work with, due to differences in opinions and design, but I was still very excited about it. I was delegated project manager and was in charge of organising people. There's nothing much more to explain about this brief, it started with promise and resulted in me almost having a mental breakdown! I didn't get on with any of my group because I didn't rate what they were designing, and it ended up with two separate PDF's every meeting with Fine Art because I would work by myself. I regret not pitching by myself and being able to form my own super group! Hindsight is very annoying. I had to quit the project because it was taking up so much of my time due to stress of not being able to get everyone in one room at a time, the lack of work I felt other people were doing, the disorganisation of Fine Art, the standard of work my group were working, the list could literally go on. The only thing I am happy about is that the group ran with their own ideas and not any of mine, because the sole reason I couldn't go on with that brief is because I wasn't prepared to put it in my portfolio.

It is bizarre to look back on first and second year where I was so clearly half hearted and my organisational skills were dreadful, simple things like automatically creating a pitch board for any client who asks you for an idea have shown me that the structure of the course and all of the feedback we get are useful. The way I present myself and my work has drastically changed – I am no longer away with the fairies wondering if I should have taken Fine Art or Photography. I now know that I want to create design for a purpose, and not selfishly.

This has been one of the main problems that I have encountered within this module, my designs have not always accurately reflected the work, effort and research I have put into them and so people have had trouble connecting and understanding my aims. One of the main things I have learned is that I cannot forever be my own target audience, and most of the time people may not understand or even be interested in what I am, I worked on this a lot over the past month in trying to make my work accessible, not commercial, just tying them to an event or a campaign so that I could sum up my aims.

The most important part of this module has been finding my feet and where I want to be after my degree. I have previously been so anxious and scared about leaving, but for the first time in three years I can genuinely say that I am excited about not knowing. My design Strategy presentation was a turning point because I proved to myself that I can gain and sustain contacts who want me to work for them, in securing artwork for Article and OWT, and also in starting friendships with people all over the world who I admire. This degree has done something that I never thought would happen; it has given me a plan and a life strategy. I feel inspired by the people around me and the people I haven't met yet, it has given me confidence in myself, my work and my ideas.