OUGD401 Context of practice evaluation

OUGD401 Context of practice overall evaluation 

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD401
Module Title	Context of Practice

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME	Johnathan Pell

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you     think you have applied them? Academic writing: I have effectively developed and applied this area of my practice, before starting the degree and this module my writing skills wasn’t that great, iv learnt to take my writing style form something quite conversational to more professional and formal use of language. Semiotic theory: This was something completely new to me and I have slowly developed it through the year and used the knowledge I have learnt to help analyse other peoples work in a little more detail. Harvard Referencing: I learnt basic Harvard referencing in college, turns out everything I learnt was wrong. I now understand the importance of Harvard referencing and how to properly reference each type of source material to help link my elements of research and quotes into my essay in a precise manner.   Research skills: This is something I have developed greatly through the module, learning not to rely on internet sources and looking into more academic sources I have gathered a broader range of research to inspire work across all modules as well as my publication I created at the end of UGD401. Connotations: This is something I have really gone into depth about, I have applied connotations within my design work across all modules looking into aspects of code within common connotations and personally investigating colour theory and connotations.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process With the module been quite a theory-based module there wasn’t really much physical design practice we did. My design practice was the same, carrying out research, ideas generation, ideas development, fine tuning ideas and productions. The element I did develop in terms of design production was taking theory-based work into a physical outcome. Taking my essay and analysing it and developing ideas for physical work from key points within it I managed to create effective design solutions that can clearly be linked back to my essay with a basic synthesis and explanation of my outcome.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? Connotations. I considered connotations a lot through my designs and will continue to look deeper into connotations of other aspects instead of just mainly focusing on colour connotations in my work. I will carry on using academic sources to influence my research to gather more solid bodies of work. Analyse of my work and other peoples work, using the skill set and knowledge from this module I have been able to produce more in-depth and detailed descriptions to help spark more defined ideas. I will continue to keep this in-depth analyse but carry it out more regularly as in my research stages of projects I never really include many examples, a wider range of examples of research will help me produce stronger design outcomes down the design development stage.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? Semiotics, I understand the basics of this but I feel I need to personally investigate it a little more. During the summer I will take some books out and look into it a little deeper to help myself understand the theory behind semiotics as it can go quite deep I feel it would be a good thing to know. Academic writing, I was far too conversational in my essay. I need to develop my use of language and tone of voice to create more formal and professional texts. Format, in my publication I could have considered the format a little more. I will research into format choices so then the design of layouts and use of image can work alongside relevant format choices.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Research. Gathering more detailed in-depth research will help me create more considered design outcomes. Concept driven ideas. My publication although successful wasn’t very conceptual, with COP been quite a theory based module I could have created a more conceptual idea rather than just a simple idea that derived from my essay. The idea of doing a sneaker redesign was just an imitation of points that I made in the essay, I wish I had thought of an original idea sparked by these points instead of just imitating my own version of a sneaker & hip hop artist collaboration. But I suppose it fit with the essay. Time management. Managing my time better will help me spend more time on creating more developed and finely polished work. Rather than rushing on tasks that should have a lot of time put in and spending a long time on catching up on lots of short tasks. Design development. With me only creating one physical design outcome in this brief I didn’t take the design development stage very serious, I should have thought of a range of ideas like previous module briefs, helping me refine and select the best ideas to advance from. Format and construction consideration. I really didn’t consider my format and construction method, better time management would have allowed me to experiment with different construction methods like binds, paper stock choices, printing methods. To help it be more relevant to my concept.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality				x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.