Personal Professional Practice

I feel that I have definitely developed skills throughout this module that I wasn't so strong with at the beginning. For example, after producing the final for my secret 7 submission, I feel a lot more confident when using various tools that Illustrator has to offer, as I've never actually used the software to create illustrations or full colour images. I've also become a lot more confident when structuring my designs and choosing the typefaces to suit the design choices and brief, which has been reflected in the Communication Is A Virus brief, where our work was produced to a high standard that was consistent.

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

I have learnt how to use Gold Foiling, which I had never even heard about before joining the course. This helped with the Speaking From Experience brief, as both Joe and I were a little uncertain on how to create the designs we had in mind, so it helped to find an easy and effective method that was also extremely cost effective and produced something that I am really proud of! I've also realised that thinking outside of the box, and using balloons as a method of delivery can be done - I was a little bit worried that my idea would be thought of as unachievable but was pleasantly surprised by the class and tutor feedback.

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

As per usual, my final pieces are still coming across a lot stronger than my developmental work, but I wouldn't say that this is always a bad thing, as I'm happy to find that I consistently produce good design work. I think my ideas are definitely becoming stronger and I am able to back up my ideas with stronger research and theories. I have also found that I work really well in groups, and have gained a lot more confidence due to crits and group work on the course.

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

I definitely didn't work on design sheets as much as I could have done. When working on Speaking From Experience, I noticed that I can actually produce design sheets to a high standard and that it definitely helps to produce the final outcome! I think that I will definitely address this in the future, as I have learnt how useful spending that extra bit of time coming up with more ideas can be, and I want to be able to hand in a large body of work at a high standard, rather than what I felt was possibly the minimum.

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

1. I will manage my time wisely. I found that, because this module was quite long, it was hard to keep on top of my time management and I found myself rushing a lot of the work near to the end of the module to catch up on what I had missed out.
2. I will produce various design sheets for each separate brief, as I now understand how well this helps towards developing my final design, and that my design ideas often become stronger from doing so.
3. When working on group projects, I think that it will definitely help to hand in my own copies of the rest of the group's work, so that it can be assessed as a whole in my portfolio, rather than just from photographs on my blog.
4. I would like to try out more methods of production, as I found it really interesting learning how to Gold Foil my designs. I would really like to create something that has been screen printed, so I know how it works, feels and looks for further briefs.
5. Keep up the better attendance, as it has definitely been helping me to keep on top of my work and stay focussed in class so I know exactly what is going on and when. This also helps to keep me motivated, as I get to see what my piers are producing.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced					x
Contribution to the group					x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.