Research, Collect, Present; Product Final Crit OUGD405

This crit was different from any other that we have done. We set up our work in studio 4 and left the room for amber and simon to view and judge our work at face value. When we returned to the room they gave us feed back individual based on the product alone. We weren't allowed to explain our work or talk about our design decisions. Over all i received mainly positive feedback, however there where some point of improvement to consider.

Positive feed back:

• The use of my own photography

• Well suited to the target audience, and relevant to my research

• Good layout and page design, appropriate for the publication.

• Simple idea, that answers the brief efficiently

• Good use of time management, and appropriate amount of work for the time period.

Areas for improvement:

• Production needs revising- Some of the pages didn't fit perfectly, the picture quality was some times pixelated, I knew this before the crit and am trying to find a resolution.

• Lack of info graphic- I was told that the info graphic in my book was sparse. To improve this I need to find ways of fitting more fact and figures in to the publication. It was suggested that I could do this by layering statistics and facts over the full bleed images with in the book, this is something I will experiment further.

• Add credits for photography to back page- Simon was aware that most of the photography was my own, but it wasn't clear as i hadn't credited my self. As the photography and editing was a big part of my design crediting my self will show where time was spent, taking, editing and placing the photographs.

I really enjoyed this crit. To start with i thought it was quite daunting, not being able to stand up for your own design. However it proved really interesting to find out what others thought of your design souly on the end product. 

I have taken a number of critiques away from this crit and know how to improve my work to make it even stronger. I am really glad that the effort i put into researching this product and designing it was noticed. 

For this brief i tried to utilise my strengths, by including my own photography. Doing this helped me get really involved and intrested in my product. 

I learnt a number of new skills from this brief. One thing i learnt was the use of indesign, i really wanted to challenge my self and try new things for this brief which i think i have done effectively. Indesign is a really useful programme and if used properly is a great aid for designing publications and layouts. I spent quite a while playing around with layout and page design which i found really interesting. As this was my first time using the programme there was lots of trial and error. I think i have used the programme well and tried to be innovative and inventive. I think i could have pushed the boundaries even further and if i was to do this brief again would try and be even more creative with page layout. Another skill i learnt was in bookbinding. At first i had planned to staple the book together, however thought i would challenge my self to learn a new skill. I spoke to various people about the most appropriate way of binding and watched youtube tutorials to teach me how to do it. I found it really interesting discovering all the ways to bind. I decided on a saddle stitch bind in the end. 

Areas that i plan to improve is the print quality. I really like the stock, but need to fix the resolution of my booklet. If i have enough time i also need to experiment new way to add more info graphics to the booklet, in order to make sure my product fits the brief.

Over all i have really enjoyed this brief. I have learnt a number of new skills as well as trying to utilise my strongest skills in order to make a good final product. I think i worked well throughout the brief, paying special attention to time management, which is something i often struggle with. I feel that i have used my research in an informed way. There are areas that i could have improved in this brief such as using more info graphics and improving the print quality.