Evaluation

1. Briefly describe the final outcome of your project and the progress you have made, and if applicable how it differs from your original Project Proposal:

My final outcome is a book that aids the design process between the client and designer. It helps to achieve a better relationship between the two. I have also created a website and a poster to show this. I also produced another two posters; one being to promote the website and the other to promote the App side to the website. They all link to helping the client / designer relationship. Although I am proud of the outcomes I have produced it was not without problems and even a dramatic change in plan. I was originally going to create posters and leaflets but completely change this idea to a book and app after research had taken place. This again got changed when I learnt that it was too hard for me to produce and App and I decided to make a website which is something I new how to do. I feel that I have progressed in this project as making books and websites isn’t something I tend to do in my style of work and I wanted to push myself further in the sense of the App. However, I found that it was harder than expected and had to take a step back to actually assess what I could potentially do in this time limit. I feel that my ideas are stronger than my skill and I would benefit from more teamwork-based work.

2. What methods have you used to show how your learning has effected your project eg FMP Blog/ FMP Plan/ sketchbooks etc, and how has this helped with development of your work:

My sketchbook has developed a lot of my learning and just by writing things down has abled me to go back to basics and start ideas from scratch rather than doing everything on the computer. I did have a tendancy to go straight to the computer but with a sketchbook I tried to start my own patterns and draw them out prior to using any software. As well as this, researching into different websites and writing down my thoughts has enabled me not only to lesrn about the client / designer relationship but to change my idea into something that will help benefit them more in the long run rather than a few posters. I do feel that my blog lacked enthusiasm but when it was completed it felt like another achievement and helped push my work through reflecting on the week. The only problem was that time was pushed and I was rushing a lot of the blog posts, which meant I couldn’t reflect as much as I would have liked.

3. List the targets met (from the original FMP Plan and any that were added later):

My targets were completely lost in the beginning of the project as I didn’t finish research until week 3 rather than 2 but after this they were met by switching around the things I was creating. The target of developing designs by week 5 was met as well as finishing the project in week 7.

4. Reflecting on your overall final major project, please discuss any developments which have contributed to the final outcome:

My project was so successful because of the use of research as it enhanced and shaped a lot of what I ended up achieving. I wanted to create something that helped clients see how much designers do but rather than patronising them I found that the decision making was the problem and took this on board within creating something to aid this process.

5. Please state what advice you received from others during your FMP, and discuss what you found particularly useful: you should refer to group reviews, one-to-one tutorials and feedback from evaluation groups

I got a lot of advice throughout the 7 weeks and this was through both one to one and group discussions. I felt that the group reviews where we swapped groups and people wrote feedback about each other’s work was the best advice as it really pushed me to do better. I feel that by seeing others work it gave you an insight on how much they had done and pushed you do as much as they had. As well as this you got feedback from someone who hadn’t seen your project from the beginning and this made it harder for you to explain your idea in your sketchbook pages, which is something the examiner will have to do. I knew that I hadn’t done enough at this point in time and it was a real eye opener to see what people thought of your work so far. As well as groups it was nice to have one to one talks which helped me to come to decisions on certain things and even inspired me to make ones I didn’t even know I needed to make. The tutors gave a new light on my project and so did hearing the views of my peers as they gave a truthful insight into what worked well and didn’t as well as potential new ideas.

6. Key points to take away – things to change about my approach (give at least 2) eg improve time management, what skills you have developed and how this will affect your future course/career and things to continue doing and to build on (give at least 2). What are you going to do next year? (NOTE – you may find it useful to refer to this document at the beginning of your next self managed project.)

The things that I would take away from this project are being able to manage time correctly. Although I did not run over time during my project I feel that I did spend too much time in research and I could have improved my final outcomes just by making a simple decision to get out of this research zone. In my future self managed projects I will be more aware of this and try to make a decision prior to the project start making it easier in the long run. As well as time, I would say that it is good to set your standards high to begin with rather than lowering them and improving them. I sense that if I didn’t push my self to do things I haven’t achieved before then I would never learn and I have learnt a lot more about Adobe After effects now than what I did at the start of the project aiding me in my future. I have now learnt how to make 3D objects in this software, the next step is to learn how to move them. I am going onto do Graphic Design at Ravensbourne next year and I feel that this project has benefited me greatly as I have improved a lot of my skills both in Photoshop and moving software. It also gave me the opportunity to experience the amount of work I would expect both in the real world and the course I am going into. This sets me up for my future in Graphic Design and helps time management feel a lot easier than if I had not of done this project.