I have really enjoyed this module, as I was felt I was ready to start doing live projects for clients. The process of completing projects for clients and interacting them was definitely a needed experience, and a valuable one which as prepared me for more work. It was also interesting to see what was expected of me from clients.
I enjoyed being able to choose my own briefs, so that I can do more web design projects and complete projects that people have previously asked me to do, but I didn't have the time.
As I am most interested in web design, I had the opportunity to design three websites, and build one of them myself. This is beneficial to me because I can include them in my portfolio to not only attract more clients who want web designs, but to show that I am a web designer.
I found it easy having briefs lined up, because I have been asked to do work prior to this, such as Air Up. But I couldn't do it at the time due to having too much work, so being able to incorporate it into this module was beneficial.
I also heard people would need some design work, such as Matthew Savage Photography and Companions Pet Shop, and I was able to offer my services because I knew that I could use it as work, and so doing me and the client a favour.
When it came to competition briefs, although it was fun choosing what I wanted, I think I made the wrong decision when it came to the individual brief and I didn't enjoy it at all. It didn't benefit me in any way because I don't like packaging, but the only silver lining with this project is that I won the competition.
I was surprised how quickly I was able to complete projects, and it gave me a confidence boost as I thought that they would take me a lot longer. The briefs in this module are definitely the quickest I have worked. I think than when you're doing work for a client you want to impress them and show how efficient you are by completing something quickly rather than wasting time on the project, so you are more motivated to get on with it. I have found that this also benefits me, because if they want changes doing then I feel like I have enough time to go back to it, and when I don't charge clients I'm not bothered because it hasn't taken up a lot of my time. With saying that, since doing these projects for this module, I will never do work for a client for free again.
It also made me feel good when clients were surprised at how quickly I worked, notably for Matthew Savage Photography, P.A. Kelsall and Keith Baldock Artist. These were all the website briefs that I did, and I think this could be for two reasons. People expect websites to take a lot longer to design because they are quite big and I finished each design in a day, but also because I really enjoyed them I was really motivated to start and complete the project to show the client what I could do.
I worked a lot better on the fast-paced briefs, but when it came to the individual competition brief I felt like I dragged it out a while. I think this is because I started it in the November, and the deadline wasn't until March. This made me think that I had a long time to do it, and I kept putting it off because I wasn't enjoying it.
I've definitely learnt and improved on skills throughout this module and been able to try skills that I wanted to learn. I've never really been great at presenting or proposing work once it has been finished, so I have improved on my mockup, boards and photography skills. This has been really important throughout the module because I want to look professional when presenting work to clients.
For the competition briefs I had to produce boards, and I wanted to include photographs so I had to make time to do that. I was apprehensive about using the photography studio because I had limited experience in there and I wanted to get them perfect as this is the only thing the judges would see of our products. As I took most of the photos for the collaborative by myself, I felt a bit of pressure at first. But I soon got into the swing of it and was comfortable putting the equipment away. The outcome was good, and I would be confident in doing it again.
For several of the briefs I produced mockups to show the client so they can see their work. I did this for Matthew Savage Photography and Air Up so they could see how their work would look as opposed just an image of the design. I definitely think it is a good idea producing mockups because not only does it look more professional, but it makes me feel more confident about the work. Although I can picture what it will look like when printed or used, that doesn't necessarily mean the client does.
Through using Illustrator throughout the whole module on every project, I have improved using that. I have picked up little shortcuts and learnt about new tools that I hadn't used before. These included how to use grain textures, the merge tool on the pathfinder and using brushes.
When I built the website for Keith Baldock Artist I also improved my coding skills. This was the first time that I used Lightbox, which helped me create an image gallery for his portfolio. This was also the first time I took a website live, so that was a new process that I had wanted to learn for a while, and was valuable to me.
I loved the collaborative brief, it is one of the favourite projects that I have done this year. I also loved working with Sarah again, which we did last year. We have improved a lot since then, and knew that we wanted to collaborate this year as we now live together and already work together all the time. We had already been helping each other improve skills since the beginning of the year, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to further that.
However, when Fred warned that people who are best friends and live together shouldn't work together we did attempt to find another partner. Alas, this was unsuccessful and we decided to pair up. We didn't think we would fall out because we are really honest and straight with each other anyway.
We chose the YCN brief, BEAR. We thought of a few ideas for it when we first read it, so we knew we would be able to get started on it straight away. Sarah loves illustration and wanted to do some more for her portfolio while I wanted to improve on my illustration skills, so it was a good choice.
Although most people split their work down the middle we very much worked together on everything. We shared files so we could work on and alter which each other had done. This may have slowed us down more and wasn't as efficient, but we got a result we were both really happy with, and the design kept improving throughout the process. We got the work done in the end, and although stressful, I wouldn't change the way we worked. I think it was actually beneficial that we lived together, because we could always work on it and ask for feedback. I particularly asked for feedback a lot because I wasn't very confident with my illustration skills, and I wanted to work to Sarah's standard and style, so she knew what to suggest.
I did feel like we didn't have a lot of time to produce it, and we did want to do more initially. I think I would have enjoyed the process of it more if I wasn't as stressed to get it finished, but it was rewarding when everything was finished and we had the photographs.
I do like working in a group, but I always have done so it was good to do another collaborative brief. I look forward to seeing the results of YCN in June!
I definitely have learnt how to interact with clients more, and this has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the module. It's so exciting to produce work for someone and send it to them knowing that they could use it and it will be seen by lots of other people. Although, I do get quite nervous when I send it incase they don't like it. I have been fortunate throughout this module that my clients have all like the work that I've produced. Some have asked me to make changes but I have been happy to do that because its ultimately their work, and I want to make them happy. No one has asked me to do changes that I thought were unjustified. It has also been satisfying to work with real life clients as this is something that I hadn't done before. I never felt under pressure, and I think this is partly because I worked quickly on each project so that I never became too attached to a design and I knew that I could just change it if they didn't like it. The only project that I would have felt rejected for if the client didn't like it was the Matthew Savage Photography website. This was because I thoroughly enjoyed the project and had been really excited about starting it. I made sure the design was absolutely appropriate to the client and had thought about everything from optimising the photos to user navigation and I was really confident that I had done the best that I could. I was really nervous when I showed it to him, but his reaction was really positive so that was a big relief. He had a couple minor changes he wanted to make regarding the type, but that was fine. That gave me a big confidence boost.
The only client that I had who was a bit frustrating was for Companions Pet Shop. This was because the client asked me several times if I had started working on the logo yet, even though I had said I was busy with other work first, so I made time for it that week. I produced the logo with all the clients requirements and a custom font that I created. I then sent two boards to the client with three logos on for them to choose, and the concept underneath them. I kept asking the client to look at them, and they did - four days later. This was inconvenient for me because I had allocated time for any changes before that due to a tight schedule I was working to. The client said that they were happy with the design - but they had been thinking about moving their business to gain more upmarket customers and sell higher quality products. This has changed the audience and would have influenced my design decisions had they communicated this to me. So for now, a logo isn't needed until they sort out what they are doing with their business.
Regarding the individual competition brief that we had to pick, this was the only project throughout the whole module that I haven't liked. I don't like packaging, yet I chose a packaging brief. I did this because I felt like I should give it another chance to see whether I like it, and improve my crafting skills as you had to produce the packaging for submission. Throughout the project I realised that I had little knowledge on what materials were suitable for food packaging, and I didn't have the resources to make the packaging. This frustrated me throughout as I couldn't think of an innovative solution to reinvent bacon packaging and I didn't think I could produce a good mockup. I wished I had chosen a different brief at the beginning which would have been more beneficial to me, but I stuck with it. I did a lot of research and thought of a lot of ideas, but I still wasn't happy with my final resolution. I felt like I spent more time on it than I should have because I was trying to think of the perfect answer. I had spent so much time researching the most suitable materials and thinking of a solution, but in the end I produced an idea the best I could, which was a reasonable solution, just nothing amazing. It answered the brief, but I just wasn't happy with the outcome.
When I sent it off for submission, I actually won the competition. However, I don't feel any better about the project because I didn't enjoy it, and I don't think that it benefitted me in any way. I think this shows that I am a bit of a perfectionist and spend too long on a brief trying to get it right, and setting myself high standards. I don't think this is usually a problem, but I need to learn to know when to just move on and design with the ideas I have so that I don't run out of time and cause myself stress with it.
Overall, I have enjoyed this module and I feel a lot more prepared to have clients in the future. I wish I had time to have completed more projects because there was a few more websites that I could have designed. But I knew that if I took anymore on I would have less time for my other modules and my work/life balance would suffer. I am happy that I have managed to do some logo designs as I hadn't really done any before, and expand on my web design portfolio. It has been a really beneficial module to me and it has definitely prepared me for working at my web design placement at twentysix digital and interacting with new clients.
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