Evaluation

Evaluation for Unit 12: Working for an audience

For the unit 12 project I undertook 4 briefs which were; the Shawlands primary school, the Civic Knitwear day brief, the Cooper gallery app design day brief and also the summer school Barnsley College website design day brief. For each one of these brief I had to do some primary research, secondary research and also drawing from observation for the Shawlands brief. The research I did for the Shawlands brief were; look at the primary school, at display boards & at library walls. For the Civic, the primary research I did was going to the Knitwear exhibition. The Cooper gallery was hard to do primary research for as we got asked to see what are the most popular apps out there today and what makes them really popular with student’s, visitor and also artist around the local area. This was repeated when we was asked the similar question for the Barnsley College website; “what websites are popular and how do you keep connected whilst using these websites?” Now for all of the secondary research; again we had to do this for most of the briefs. For the Shawlands brief, I looked at illustrators and children’s books aimed at the age range of 5 to 11. Also I looked at what a children’s customer would like and how I could base my research around that customer I have created on my customer board. On behalf of the Civic Knitwear brief, I had to look at different materials I could use to make my 30cm by 30cm square like bin bags, fake leather, fabric and also cotton, all black so they fit the brief. For the Cooper gallery app we had to research into the layout of the apps we used the most to gain ideas of how to layout our own design for the app. For the Barnsley College website we again looked at the layout of other websites to help influence use how to layout a website. I only really had to use my drawing from observation skills during one of the briefs; the Shawlands primary school brief. I did this during the one and two point perspective drawing tutorial we had with Adam and Lewis. It helped drawing from observation during this task as you can see in real life perspective how it should look from your personal perspective. Also this makes it easier to get the correct measurements first time.

I was able to develop my research with all four briefs but in different ways. For the Shawlands brief, I was able to take the research I did and create ideas for my designs inspired by my primary, secondary research and observational drawings. For the Civic Knitwear brief, I was able to take my research forward by being able to go to the exhibition and know what kind of clothing items are in the exhibition currently. This abled me to make my 30cm by 30cm square for the brief. For the Cooper gallery app brief I developed my research from both my primary and secondary to designing a layout for the app for both a phone and a tablet. I was able to know what colours, links to other apps and fonts people what to make an app appealing to the target audience. For the Barnsley College website brief I was able to do a similar thing with this as I did for the Cooper gallery app; know what colours, links to other apps and fonts people what to make an app appealing to the target audience. The only difference is that the target audience for the Cooper app is artist and visitors to the gallery whereas the target audience for the Barnsley College website are visitors to the website, inspectors of the college, parents and people who are looking for employment at the college.

During the Shawlands project, the client influences did affect my design and gave me guidance for what they would like for each area. For example the client told us that we had to change the colour of the library wall from just plain blue, the display boards have to encourage reading just the same as the library wall has too, and the sensory room has to keep the lights and the items in the draws. Apart from that we has free reign of our designs. On the day of the Civic Knitwear day brief, the client told us that the only limitation we have was that it had to be black and measure 30cm by 30cm square. For both the Cooper gallery app and the Barnsley College website, we was told by the clients that they had to be interesting, relevant, linked to other website/apps and also very colourful but make sure it’s aimed at the correct audience.

The constraints that the client gave us for the Shawlands project were; a time limit, a £100 budget for each area, and also we had to consider children with autistic spectrum disorder. The budget was the most constraints that affected my designs, as I needed make accosting sheet. There is one for each design I created so this means there are 9 costing sheets for 9 designs. Some of the designs I created didn’t turn out like the client asked as they wasn’t clear on how they encouraged reading like the client asked for, but some of them did. I don’t think that any of my designs for the library wall encouraged reading but some if not most of the designs for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 did encourage reading like the client asked for. The limits that the Civic Knitwear client gave me was; the measurements of the square, the time limit and the colour that the square had to be in. The client for the Cooper app and the Barnsley College website were again the same as each other really, as they were that they had to be colourful and aimed at their target audience using all the relevant information that is needed for either the app of the website.

The problems I encountered during all the briefs were very different but I believe I was able to manage them well and solve them quickly and efficiently. The problems I faced during the Shawlands brief were; the costing sheets and the maths behind the costing sheets. I was able to finally figure out the maths once I retried to figure out it over again and then I was able to work out the costing sheets with ease. So both of my problems were solved quickly and easily after I tried it again, I solved both problems together. The complications I faced in the Civic Knitwear brief were as follows; finding out how the square will all join together, what materials to use and also trying to put all of the information about the day onto blog. By the end of the day I was able to create my square using four types of materials, all of them being black so that they fit the brief. The last problem I faced for this brief was when I was trying to add all the photos of my work to the post on my blog from when I visited the exhibition at the Civic. When I came to do both of the day briefs for the Cooper app and the Barnsley College I found that I faced the same problems and was able to solve them in the same ways. For example I confronted the problem of both the app and the website not having a clear set age target audience or colour scheme to go with.

If for all the briefs, I didn’t have any client constrictions I think I might have done some things differently. For the Shawlands brief I wouldn’t have based the display boards on encouraging reading, but instead I would have made them more curriculum based so that the children had a knowledge about what kind of work they could be expecting to do in the academic year. As I didn’t attend the visit to the Shawlands primary school myself, I’m unsure about where in the school the display boards are located so this is why I would change the theme of them from the encoring reading theme I was given by the client. For the Civic Knitwear project I think that the only thing I would have done differently would have been making the square either 5cm bigger or smaller. I would have done this because I think that 30cm by 30cm was a bit overwhelming for myself as it was difficult to make my materials fit to that size and keep it in a square shape. For the Cooper app I would have made the app more about the artist rather than the gallery itself because without the artist’s work in the gallery there wouldn’t be any galleries out there for art. For the Barnsley College website I don’t think I would really change anything because I think that all the information that was requested is all relevant and needed for the website. I also thing that the colour scheme that is really asked for was red, so because read and black are really the only main colours in the College logo, I think this colour scheme works well for the website.

For the Shawlands project, from my research I was able to find plenty of illustrators to base my designs on. For example I chose these following illustrators; Tony Ross, Quentin Blake, Pauline Baynes, Charles Roger Hargreaves, Nick Sharratt, Michael Emberley & Lucy Cousins. I created 9 designs in total which consist of 3 for the library wall, 3 for the KS1 display board and 3 for the KS2 display board. I based my designs for the KS1 display boards on; Charles Roger Hargreaves, Michael Emberley & Lucy Cousins. Them I chose to focus my designs for the KS2 display board on the work from these artists; Pauline Baynes, Quentin Blake & Nick Sharratt. I have also use Charles Roger Hargreaves and Pauline Baynes as inspirational artist for my library wall designs as well as Tony Ross. I have chosen all of these artist as they are either have been a big part of my childhood or are currently a big part in other children’s childhood during their time a primary school.

For the Shawlands project I had an impact from my customer board that influenced my designs were that Leo likes Math’s. I tried to add a bit of Math’s and interaction on to my display board designs so that the teachers could change thing, may be have mini competition or awards for the children. I linked Math’s into my designs my trying different items around the display board that are relevant to the design and then adding numbers in them so that you can learn to count. For the Quentin Blake display board design I had Mrs. Twit’s balloon around the edge with numbers one to ten in them. To make this design more interactive I had Matilda with a speech bubble saying “Matilda’s Word of the Week”. I also has BFG with a thought bubble thinking, “BFG’s dream of the month”. I tried this idea on my Charles Roger Hargreaves display board too by having the Mr. Men and Little Miss’s with speech, thought bubbles or signs with sayings in them. For example; Mr. Loud is saying “Join in the fun by reading the Mr. Men and Little Miss collection”, Little Miss Neat holding a piece of paper reading “Little Miss Neat of the week ________”, & Mr. Messy with a sign saying “Mr. Messy of the Month _______”.

I think that I have done quite well in this project as I like children’s books, I have a younger brother who has only just moved up put out primary school and also I have had experience in making display boards from when I was in primary and secondary school. I think that the only thing that went wrong was really when it came to writing this evaluation. I tried to finish it before the dead line on Friday 5^th February at 9am, but unfortunately as I have a young son only aged 1, I couldn’t finish this evaluation the day before the deadline. So I think that if I was to change anything about this project it would be to start the evaluation at college and have an end of the day deadline not a 9am deadline.

I was able to manage my time well by using my blog, time management sheets and target setting to help me plan what I am doing each session, how long I have till it must be complete, what could stop me achieving the targets I set so I could have a backup plan till I’m able to continue with my original plan, reflection of session, how I can improve for the next session and also what do I need to do to prepare for the next session. I kept a detailed time management log on sheets and then once that week was over I would make sure it was completed and them type it up and print it off. By the end of the project I had 10 weeks of time management sheets which is the correct amount I should have had considering we had roughly 10 weeks on this project from start to presentation. I used my blog to annotate my work so that I didn’t have to write it all on the back of each sheets and then type it up again on to my blog, I just skipped a step but made sure it was up to date as often as possible.

I believe I did a really good job at preparing for my presentation as my tutor let us have practice presentations within a small group of my peers. This gave me the opportunity to have a trail run of how I could tell the audience about my work and get some feedback from them about what I did well and also areas for improvement. This is a really useful thing to do as it will give you other’s points of views and help you understand what it’s like presenting to a group of people talking about your own work. I also made myself a PowerPoint presentation to have on the board behind me so that the clients could see my annotation visually and not just hear it verbally. I consider myself to have done really well during the final presentation as I have a huge fear of public speaking, especially about my own work. So that fact I was able to get up, plow through it with the help of Kat (clicking the presentation behind me as I referenced to my sheets) and finish with including all the facts, costing and initial ideas about my designs makes me very proud of myself no matter what grade I get for the sheet work. The only thing I could have done better about my final presentation would have been to slow down, not to panic and maybe have practice a bit more about the content of each slide right before it was my opportunity to present my work.

I really liked the fact that all of the 4 project were real live projects and that they all went on to create something in the real world and not just for college that will sit in a classroom until we leave. I loved the Shawlands project due to the fact that it was aimed at children to encourage them to read more and that the library wall piece along with all the other area will really be in the school for hopefully a long time to come. For the Civic Knitwear project our work was all put together to create an amazing piece of clothing for the exhibition. I like this idea as it gave everyone something to say about them being in a live exhibition for a real company like the Civic gallery. For the Cooper app, I liked that they tried to ask us to help them design an app for the gallery as they thought that most young adults our age (17+) where all about apps on our phones, tables and other devices. For me I don’t think this was a type of art industry that I want to take forward into the world of work. I am more about 3D wood art rather than app designer. I enjoyed working outside of the college building it’s self as it gave me the sense of what it’ll be like to be in the big bad world of employment. For the Barnsley College website I didn’t really enjoy this day brief as it was not a very long brief and all they really did was ask us question about what we liked about the current website and how we would make it better. Again like for the Cooper app this is not a trade I’m interested in.

Overall I really enjoyed this unit as it gave me the opportunity to try new things, give me experience in other aspect of art and design in the employment domain and working to a specific audience.