Portfolio Evalutaion.

So it is the end of Second Year. My aim this year was to create work for my portfolio, as you can't be a Graphic Designer without some work to put in there! I think I have done this, I was quite easily able to fill up my portfolio pages with work that I was happy with.

The start of the portfolio summarises what I want to Foucs on, Print based promotional design. I have included other pieces of work that I have done is well, such as stop Motion. I thought I might as well put it in as it was quite a strong piece of mine, i thought. I just hope it does not confuse what I am all about.

The start of my Portfolio is definitely the strongest, so In my third year I hope to fill the rest of my portfolio with pieces just as strong and then my entire portfolio will be focussed.

There are some weaknesses within my work, but there is something I will always be able to improve on. Since I have noted my focus of creative advertising for print, I now pick up the advertising world alot me, but I do need to get more involved with it.

For my dissertation I have decided to write about the polemics surrounding the colors of Benetton Advertisements. It will allow to discuss a campaign that has had a huge impact on the world, and the brand. It will also allow to discuss some of the negative connotations associated with advertising.

Nice. A good end of Year Video.

End of Module Evaluation.

What did I learn from these briefs?

I learnt more about the area that I want to focus on in my third year, image, print based, creative advertising. I enjoyed exploring this, knowing that It was was my speciality was going to be. I enjoyed the Nude brief the most, as I felt it had alot of potential and I could push the boundaries of it, rather than just have one final poster design.
These briefs helped me to clarify what my design work was all about, and what I want to focus on, which has hopefully boosted my confidence.
I felt quite happy with all my final resolutions, but felt i could have developed the Capital one brief a bit more.
I did not know if i would be able to work on three briefs at a time! But i did, and i quite enjoyed being able to swap between them, so that I did not get bored of any of them.

What would i do different next time?

Not get ill! I would have liked to spend a bit longer on the nude brief, but being ill half way through the 5 weeks made this a bit difficult.
If I were to be set the briefs again, i don't think i would do much different, as I felt i managed my time quite well and completed all the projects to the shcedule that i set.

What skills did I use?

I was happy to be able use a bit of photography in my work (nude brief) as it is something i enjoy and am also wanting to improve, as I was not able to explore this in the image module which is what I wanted to do.
I tested my conceptual skills, I struggled a bit at first, but felt I ended up with strong concepts across all projects. I find that i get really stressed If i am not happy with a concept of a brief, as I still consider this to be the most important thing to create good design, and always try and stress that.
I also learnt to simplify! Which is something i wanted to do more after the collobrative brief, this shows in the Postcard design i think.

Do i feel ready to go into my third year?

I feel more confident to go into my third year now, and feel a bit more focused. So overall, I am happy with this module. I feel these final pieces help bring my portfolio together to show what I am really about. I am happy with all the briefs I have completed in the seond year, which is not what I can say about my first year!

Considering logo Design.

The brief says to increase brand awareness so it seems a bit silly not to put the logo on. But I think it ruins the poster slightly as i like the mystery behind it.
Here are some designs with the logo on.

Nude final Pieces.

I am unsure if I should use stitching on the final pieces. I have done some variations, I think this are quite good.

I was booked into the print room yesterday before I had chance to do any of this, so I printed them big without the stitching, on sugar paper because they are big on recycling! They look good :)

Business Card Development.

I scanned the labels in and did a bit of development on Photoshop with them. Although I think what is nice about this business card design, is that they are printed on cotton, which makes them more unique and interesting. So the final piece will be printed on cotton, but i did some of these layouts to get an idea of how they could look.

Summary Board.

Taking environment into consideration. And presenting all my final pieces.

Nude - Development.

I thought about what else I could do to support my poster designs. I started off by doing a leaflet, something informative and give away. 

But then i went on to doing something simpler, a business card. I thought the posters could be in a drugstore, such as boots, and then could be backed up with a stand with a set of business cards on. The two locations I see my posters being in are the drugstore, where it will be obvious what the poster is about. And also somewhere out of context such as a billboard or in a bus stand. This way, the posters are more intriguing and the meaning is quite ambiguous. This way it may capture more unlikely customers as they log onto the website to see what it is all about. 

I don't think it was necessary to include the logo in my designs, i felt it would just make the customer more curious. 

Nude.

These are the two posters I am going to go with. I chose to go with 2 final pieces, on boy and one girl. Although I have a variety of different photos that could be used as posters, these two are what I feel to be the best. I chose one boy and one girl because they said that they want to be considered a uni-sex brand. I felt that the plaits on the girl helped to portray a bigger, or more obvious girl/boy difference. I am happy with these two posters, the only thing that I would change now is, the difference in Background colours, but this is something I can not really resolve now. I am going to try fiddling around a bit more on photoshop and see what I can do. 

Direct Mail Research.

Another thing I could consider is binding. I have thought about sewing down the edge of the leaflet, to give it a 'bound' feeling. It does seem to have to much of a 'printed' feel to it.