James moore ouil503 end of module evaluation

End of Module Student Evaluation BA (Hons) Illustration Module Code: OUIL503 Responsive Name: James Moore Student ID: jm260353 Learning Outcome

Evidenced where?

Blog, Visual Journal, Roughs, Final Illustrations, Storyboards, Development Sheets etc. (No more than 75 words)

Your grade Using words: > poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent

5A4: Make appropriate use of a range of research methods to investigate a topic and produce work relating to the critical, cultural or social context of art and design. (Knowledge & Understanding - Research and Critical Awareness)

This is found most prominently within my blog, with a deal of research having been done for all briefs.

Examples include finding the music and contextual references for the Richard Hawley poster, watching each film for the film society brief, in order to give a proper representation of the films on show. The biggest example, and most effective would have to be the mix of primary and second hand research for the YCN brief, from looking at the existing posters to specify where things may be going wrong, to meeting with actual ballet dancers to find out what is new and exiting in the industry from them, as well as generating unique material thanks to them.

Very good

5B3: Generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions and/or arguments using the language, materials, processes and techniques of a designated discipline. (Cognitive Skills - Problem Analysis, Problem Solving)

Primarily through my sketchbook, the ideas come to Good fruition with loose sketches, simply with the aim to test layout and framing. It is then through digital process’s I really find myself testing what I can do with those foundations, be it figuring the design layout for the comic cover, or the typographic layout for the Grand Budapest Hotel poster. This process of experimenting and tweaking is often how I generate my output. Admittedly, I see potential for more experimentation with the sketchbook stage, possibly playing with colour or medium here to switch up the work I create. I know how important it is to keep an open mind , so its silly to get caught in this loop for my process.

5C3: Respond to set briefs or proposals in a professional context.

(Practical Skills - Visual Quality and Conceptual Development)

All briefs can be seen in full on my blog, with my every thought and change documented throughout the process. I always tried to keep both the client/ market in mind, as well as what is appropriate for the job/ product itself. Miscommunication is the worst thing that can come from an outcome, I understand this from encountering the issue, examples being the No Country poster, completely misselling the film’s tone. Also the Moby editorial, with the theme being hard to understand. But alongside that are works I know I can be proud of, primarily the YCN gifs, as a means of getting people to stop and re consider their thoughts on ballet.

5D3: Exercise selfmanagement skills in managing their workloads

Again, found mainly on the blog, with my progress and thoughts on it documented, but also through the successful completion of the briefs. This is seen

Good

and meeting deadlines/apply interpersonal and social skills to interact with others. (Key Transferable Skills, Organisation, Communication and Evaluation)

most clearly through the selection of outcomes featured within the project report. There were times where I clearly admitted that outcomes had to be rushed due to busy schedules. This was an issue that was entirely on me, mixing priorities between modules primarily. This is a lesson learnt, as spreading time equally allows you to maintain a quality in your work, its nice to have a selection of good outcomes, but done right I could have a complete selection of work to be proud of. Team work on the other hand went really well, collaborating with the others in a way that allowed our different work to aesthetically and thematically match. On top of this using the brief as an opportunity to meet the dancers, through that getting to understand their world to strengthen our project.

Summative Evaluation Before this module, I had little to no experience working with briefs set outside education. It has been a wake up call as to what I can expect from the industry going in to freelance design/ illustration, or comics. I now have a better understanding of how timescales work for briefs, what it is like to have multiple briefs to work on simultaneously. I’ve really had to maintain an understanding as to how time keeping and organization helps both the work standards, and state of mind in personal life. These issues have been addressed through the use of lists, I find that having a list to keep all my tasks, alongside their timeframe, to be a really helpful aid, and also makes completing work slightly more rewarding, being able to strike the item off.

Having to work on so many tasks as the one time has caused me to realize that I may be stuck in somewhat of a rut when it comes to my process. Noting earlier in the evaluation, there are clear opportunities and areas for improvement in my draughtsmanship and sketch process, being rushed to get to a digital stage. This not only causes my work to miss opportunities of surprise developments with medium tests, but also means that my work looks too similar from time to time. If this increases, I could run the risk of my work becoming stale.

An area that I didn’t expect to advance in was through design. Shown primarily with the film society posters, little lessons were being learnt on layout, and making appropriate use of all the elements (illustration, type and general layout). I feel this came to fruition with the Richard Hawley poster and comic cover, having a great deal of thought put in to how I can contextualize the imagery to tell a story, how to experiment with the layout and positioning. This even extended to playing with the elements, using the tangles of the guitar cable to spell out the type for the poster. This is key If I’m to pursue a career in making my own comic. Its great to have a story that looks nice and reads well, but I have to give the market a reason to pick the book up first, by capturing their eye. My design boards have surprised me also in this sense, what was a dull task of repeating progress became really quite useful and exciting. I found myself aiming for a unique style that I can’t wait to bring to future work.

My biggest advances came from the film society, and comic briefs. I look back at each of those outcomes, and know exactly what could be done to strengthen them. Something I see as growth, developed from the learning process of those briefs. Design isn’t something I feel too confident about, but thanks to the posters, I can absolutely say I’m improving, and am hungry to continue that. The comic may not be up to the standard I now want, but this is truly a great thing, I have an incentive to experiment and advance, find what I want to change about my work in order to make a comic that I would want to buy, and can be proud of. The cover design for the comic has me wanting to branch out also, I now feel the need to practice making rendered works, to really capture the material used (gold), and also work with 3D modeling, to have a better

understanding of form in general, and how to capture it through drawing.

There are clear areas for improvement, the occasional time management slip up, stinted process and something I haven’t covered yet, pickiness when it came to selecting briefs. In hindsight, I see that a lot of the issues I had with illustration Friday rested with me. I should have applied my own rules, restricting material use perhaps, applying specific colour selections, anything to force the task to advance my practice.

Chances are, I really wouldn’t get the opportunity to be so picky in the real world, so it wasn’t healthy to work like this for this brief.

This module has given me the most to think about yet throughout the process of uni, I can tell where I’m improving, where I’m failing, and it’s really exciting. The module has offered me more of a direction, which has been achieved by throwing me in to the deep end on a wide variety of briefs, all requiring different skills and landing me in new scenarios. Because of the simulation of working under professional conditions for actual clients, I know I’m much closer now to working as a professional, than I was before the unit.