OUGD301 Evaluation

Richard Robinson OUGD301 | Summative Evaluation

Initially I went into this module thinking I knew what I wanted to develop as a designer and what I thought I wanted to specialise in. My rationale was to look at ways of brand promotion through illustration and motion. Illustration has definitely been something I’ve aimed to use throughout my projects however motion did take a step back.

Within my first brief, I aimed rebrand a fictional store, to create a new image to a younger market. First thing I will never do again is completely make up a brand and then propose that there is something wrong with it? I don’t know what I was thinking with this but what I learnt from it was that in making a decision like this the brief is blown wide open. There’s no research that allows you to understand the underlying problem. This is what I believe ultimately made my first brief loose all focus and actually really dragged it out into a pain of a project.

The brief itself turned more into an investigation on developing illustrative and on screen processes rather than solving a problem, something that can be said for other briefs as well. The main issue I came across with brief one in general was poor time planning, through not creating self deadlines. This allowed the on screen faffing to go on and on, which eventually started to move away from solving an actual problem.

Brief two in my opinion is the only project I can say solves a problem. I had a band that needed a new album cover and method of promotion. It was a solid tangible brief that was great to research, great to understand and carried a clear thought process for me in order to solve the brief. In comparison with brief one I think this is what made the brief more of a success and also created a more solid resolution.

Brief three was to look at ways of rebranding the Television Channel, DMAX. As I was so far going against my rationale, I wanted to include the video aspect that I was initially interested in. However by this stage time was against me and I had to create a quick turn around with the brief. To aid the production of my six video intros, I decided to create a campaign that could run a main structure that could be manipulated to work across the six platforms.

The challenges I came across with this brief, was again starting to feel like an investigation into software. I wanted to expand on my knowledge of Cinema 4D as I could see the potential of the software and how it could aid my studies. The main challenges I came across was the time that comes with learning software and the practice that has to be undertaken. Another issue was the speed of rendering 3D animation, as this soon became a large issue, with 25 frames taking up to five or six hours to complete. Further research and testing then had to be taken into reducing rendering times and looking at ray depths and lighting. Testing was one of the main factors that came with this brief.

The idents as a whole are not my strongest work by far. What I can take from this experience is the knowledge that if I do have to plan a project like this again, hopefully I will have picked up a few tricks but also, I’ll know how to better allocate time for areas like testing which I never really planned for. Really did see that there’s not a YouTube video for everything.

The Feel Good drinks brief was a quick turnaround project that needed a simple message. Rather than looking at re-marketing an extensive range of products, I chose to focus on the brands least successful product, the 750ml Sparkling Juice Drink. Working for Asda’s Home Delivery service, I was lucky enough to get hold of some selling figures for the brands range and more importantly look at which type of customer was purchasing.

The problem I found was that people struggled to know what the 750ml bottle was all about. Was it a mixer or a premium straight drink? I aimed to show that it could be both with the ‘Beautiful Blends Cocktail Calendar’. The calendar would be supplied in a compact CD size format and sent out as a mailer with a different ‘simple’ mixture each month, keeping the brand in the heads of consumers all year round. The idea was nothing new than what’s been done before but I was happy enough with the resolve as it was done in such a short time. The campaign was reinforced with a single page spread, web page and coaster design for pubs and clubs.

In general the last month running up to deadline has been a constant push. It’s led to extremely fast decision making that’s sometimes worked and sometimes not, taking me back to the drawing board but overall I think this could and should have been avoided. Time management is always something I think I’ll have an issue with. What I NEED to do in all future work it so set self deadlines and more importantly, meet them.