Dom Rugman OUGD303 – FMP Evaluation
This module has allowed me to really find out what I truly do and do not enjoy. Although it has been lengthy I don’t feel I have made use of the entire span of the module, making final decisions far too late in the whole process. The briefs I have pursued have all been different in their own right and I’ve enjoyed the separation of themes, subjects and outcomes. Working on 4 main briefs; two branding and identity projects, a research publication and yearbook publication; my practice has ranged from art working to photography to copywriting to bookbinding. As a designer finishing my degree I understand it will be rare for me to utilise all of these areas of practice in an industry standard job, but it gave me a last chance to exercise as many skills as I could. Working with Liz to create and develop her brand, Michi, was a real test of collaboration across disciplines. Although I initially perceived the brief to be a formal ‘client-designer’ relationship, it definitely turned into more of a collaborative effort with ideas been thrown back and forth more regularly than I imagined. This was welcomed, as I’m always grateful to have another creative with whom I can discuss and develop idea with. Initially we spoke about incorporating various print processes into the project but as the brand developed we started to feel that less was more in terms of delivering a coherent identity, working only with necessary processes in order to achieve the desired outcomes. The second collaboration I was involved in was the BAGD yearbook. This brief was one that I felt offered me the least engagement with out of my main briefs throughout FMP. Although I had a large say in the concept and pitching stages of the process, my involvement with the physical design of the book was lesser than I initially hoped for. As a group we regularly looked through the document to pick up on any pressing issues that were on hand, but Matt pulled the majority of the content together. Although I say my involvement was lesser, I spent the best part of a week photographing everybody’s work in order to get consistent shots in terms of lighting, quality and background. The photography session enhanced my skills ten-fold in the SLR department, teaching myself a few tricks that I’d previously not been aware of. The brief also involved talking about and abiding by specific printer specifications, determined by cost and feasibility, another positive in developing my professionalism as a designer. Waveform was a brief I particularly enjoyed. I think having the opportunity to develop the branding from scratch and then work with artwork from an outside source allowed me to focus on building the identity coherently opposed to messing around generating artwork for prolonged periods of time. I still had a massive input on the artwork, but having a base made decision making quick and designing became a lot more fast paced. Working alongside music events such a festivals and night clubs is something I would want to keep in my practice, I feel the nature of the events allow for a much more creative and expressive output, with little restrictions other than communicating a certain feel and delivering the relevant information. This brief encouraged me to think on a larger scale about my range and method of delivery, although not being able to physically follow up some of the proposals, I utilised Photoshop heavily in order to bring the whole experience of the identity together in one place. Twelve Trips was a brief that I left on the back burner for too long. As it was partly a research brief I left it hanging once a lot of the initial content progress was out the way. Once I got into the brief I started develop a much greater understanding of layout and the general ups and downs of creating a full publication. The brief worked my InDesign skills up quite dramatically, fully getting to grips with paragraph styles, master page setting and many more features I was partially unaware of. Split into two sections, the book allowed me to work on 2 dissimilar
sections but with a running theme. The photographic section encouraged layout skills working with images while the vector side allowed me to experiment with a more graphic art approach, meddling with illustrator to create interesting content backed up by facts and statistics. As much as I enjoyed the brief towards the end, I don’t feel as though physically making and binding books is my forte – the satisfaction of completing the publication was quite significant, although the process was extremely tedious to say the least. Overall this module has been slightly hit and miss for me. I know for a fact I could’ve developed a much stronger body of work had I made firmer and quicker decisions earlier on in the module. That said however, the work I have produced I am confident in and happy for it to represent me as the designer I currently am. I often find it hard to appreciate my own work and always find myself disliking a lot of it almost instantly. I can fairly say in this module I have felt less of that negativity towards my own work, whether that is me gaining confidence in my design or loosing my eye I’m not sure but I can only hope for first option. Stronger time management would’ve most likely boosted my work output although there is a reason why I find it hard to time manage and that is that I tend to find myself working most efficiently when a deadline is approaching. From what I’ve heard of many designers in the last 3 years is that this is all too common in the professional world of graphic design. That isn’t to say I’m going to settle for that last minute ethos for the rest of my life, but it’s reassuring to know I’m amongst many others with the same style of practice as myself.