OUGD401- Module Evaluation

 What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I tried screen-printing for the first time during brief 3 of OUGD406, which led to me wanting to improve my skills within this module. It was really challenging but I feel more confident in myself to be able to screen print more complicated briefs. This module has allowed me to build my skills within researching and analysing work in a particular way particularly through writing the essay based on the arts and crafts movement.

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Context of practice as a whole module has definitely helped me to develop a further understanding that work often has a concept or a meaning behind the work and I think through attending lectures it has helped me to be more knowledgeable about the thought process behind work and not just aesthetics. Through attending lectures it has definitely given me an insight into other disciplines within the college but also a greater knowledge of my own such as the print lecture, which inspired me to pick the arts and crafts essay in the first instance.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my strength within this module has been improving my ability to write about artwork and design as a whole. My college previously had already given me quite a capable skill set to understand how to analyse work however I think this module has definitely allowed me flourish with my skills in essay writing and enjoying research especially into William Morris, print production and lectures/ socialism and social movements.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I think even though I really enjoyed the production of my visual response and of course writing my essay and attending lectures I feel as though my weakness would be that I could of improved my visual response by planning my time better to allow for longer to design my actual pages. I had to design them quite quickly and I would of preferred to have had more time to develop these especially the pages using lilac.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

- Plan more time to allow for mistakes/production (screenprint).

- In conjunction with the first comment I will allow more time for the designing of my piece.

- Research a broader range of sources for my essay as my sources were probably quite limited.

- Research further and more indepth into the areas that interest me the most from lectures.

- Push myself to consider more initial ideas and perhaps think of a variation of ideas which wouldn’t be an obvious resolution.

OUGD401: Final Piece

As my final design overall I'm quite pleased with the finished outcome, the stock choice definitely works better than using a thin white stock as the off white and texture of the paper makes the product feel quite expensive even though it actually isn't. Making the book and screen printing actually didn't cost an awful lot, however it did take a long while to produce so that is why I left a longer time for production than I did for the actual designing of the pages.

 I'm pleased my work reflects my initial intentions from my essay of wanting to take my own thoughts and what I believe to be correct about the arts and crafts movement and creating something which could be used in todays industry with the aesthetics of the medieval inspired type/design. In terms of the movement as a whole and when I was writing my essay what I really wanted to portray was the socialist principles behind it. Therefore I think by using a variety of different quotes from my essay and William Morris' lectures from my initial research worked incredibly well with the screen-printed and crafted production of my book. In terms of materials I found that Morris began to use extravagant materials for binding which were incredibly expensive and therefore went against the overall principles of art being for everyone. Therefore I think my own design works as being hand rendered and of a good quality, but uses sensible stock choices which aren't overly flamboyant which reflected by using a perfect bound method. 

 I was really pleased that the gradient worked when I tried to create it even though it took several attempts. However there are a few issues which I'm not quite happy with, the pages which use lilac aren't as readable as the others and I think if I were to recreate this I would edit the design of these pages to create more white space. 

Design decisions: 

Production: Screen printing, I chose this method to recreate the ideals of the arts and crafts movement through using traditional craft methods which take time and care. I chose screen printing in particular because it allows me to use a whole range of different colours and create a variety of different pages and designs rather than having to use the fonts which are available in my initial choice of letterpress. 

Font: I chose point size 15 for Morris' Gothic this was so that the type could be easily printed using screen print but also highly readable on the page as this type is quite small and delicate for body copy however it does reflect the 15th century inspirations of book/ type design. 

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/hihretrofonts/morris/

Bind: I chose to use a perfect bind as this simplistic bind is quite cheap to create and is often used in a vast amount of book making. I wanted to make sure my book wasn't too flamboyant in its production to keep the cost to a minimum yet still create a good quality product which led to my stock choice. 

Stock: I actually used a 300gsm canaletto bianco because of it's thickness it made my book feel good quality and the colours contrasted the papers beautifully. I felt that using a thinner white stock was far too harsh and looked quite modern therefore not suiting the overall aesthetics I had researched. 

Colours: I chose my colours from looking at a large amount of William Morris' textiles designs and used a colour picked to choose my favourites to create a feminine and matching colour scheme. (Pink, lilac and blue) When mixing these colours for screen print I used quite a large amount of white to make sure these colours weren't too bright and appeared to be more of a pastel shade. 

Borders and backgrounds: I chose to include floral and natural backgrounds, some of which were from wallpapers I had collected from scrap textiles companies and others I had hand drawn myself. I chose to use these patterns to match the aesthetics I had previously researched from not only Morris' work but also that of the Italian press' books.

Overall I made all these decisions from my research into William Morris and his consistent careful choices of design and craft much like his quote suggests. (Which also appears within my book)

"I found I had to consider chiefly the following things: the paper, the form of the type, the relative spacing of the letters, the words, and the lines; and lastly the position of the 

printed matter on the page."

This brief was an incredibly brilliant opportunity to learn a new skill which is that of screen printing. I had my first try with it in OUGD406 for the alternative movie poster however I really wanted to improve my skills with it. Even though this brief was incredibly challenging to complete in the short time after easter I really enjoyed it. I found that a lot of time was spent waiting for screens to dry and preparation for this process. I really loved creating using screen print and definitely will want to use this again. This brief was also a brilliant opportunity along with the essay to research into areas that I enjoy, personally I love history so to be able to research into lectures and zeitgeist (spirit of the times) was brilliant. I also saw the link with the quotes I used and how they can also be linked to modern day in terms of art and design- it should be cherished and the craftsman/ designer paid a good amount for what they enjoy to do which definitely does link to my own interest into social issues/ change within society.