Final Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have learnt a lot this module. Before this module I had never used Illustrator and never properly tried Photoshop before. In the first brief we worked in groups and I didn’t do much of the Photoshop side to it, but Joe did teach me some of the basics, which was good to learn. I was very apprehensive about the second brief as it forced me to use Illustrator; but I am so happy that we were pushed to use it. At times I got very stressed out and frustrated but it was worth it as I feel like I have learnt so much and it gave me the confidence to use it in the third brief which I would never of chosen to of used Illustrator before. Also, this module has taught me how to communicate
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I found that making a big mind map of my ideas really helped get my thoughts down which domino effected more ideas. I found for the third brief that watching YouTube videos was a great source to find out research. For example the tour of Elvis’ home ‘Graceland’ you cant quite get the feel for it through images plus there wasn’t actually many good images of the inside of the house. Whereas watching videos you can really see and explained through it too. I definitely think in future I shall watch more videos to collect research as I really do think that they help a lot. I believe that I’ve learnt that the more informed you are and excited you are about a brief the more motivated you’ll be. I think that you really need to become obsessed with what you are doing. I became obsessed with Elvis; constantly listening to his music, watching videos, asking others opinions…It really gave me to motivation to want to produce something great. So in future projects this has taught me just to throw myself into it and get as much research as possible.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
A strength of my work would be that I think that throughout all the three briefs they all portray what they are trying to communicate clearly. I feel like I have done a good body of research especially for the last brief and in future have realised that research is a key part. Also, throughout I have carefully considered the composition of my work and have in fact found that I like to work with reflection. I didn’t realise this until now. But looking back in the second brief I have reflected work and in the playing cards I have used reflection and I really like doing reflection so maybe in the next project capitalise on this and playing around with this. Another strength is that in the first brief I put a lot of input in and communicated my thoughts and ideas clearly to the rest of the group.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Looking back in the second brief I really feel like I should’ve had a set colour scheme throughout so they visually look like they belong in a set. Because I have no confidence using these programmes I did struggle a lot and often found myself getting quite frustrated; a simple thing which would take someone 5 minutes to do would be taking me half an hour to an hour. Though I have learnt a lot from this and the more I was doing the easier I was finding it. For the final brief I didn’t have to use a computer at all but I really do want to build on my confidence and knowledge on how to use Illustrator and Photoshop so thought I would continue to use them. I do think my work has kind of suffered from me deciding to do that as it doesn’t look as good as I would like and think I could’ve achieved a lot better final outcomes if I drew them. But if I had the chance to go back and do it again I would still choose to use Photoshop and Illustrator as I have learnt a lot.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Firstly, I think that when using computer programmes I will scan in my own drawings. I feel like it would’ve made my work look a lot more personal and stronger if I had used my own illustrations. Also, I feel that it was a bad idea to completely rely on using the computer for the entire third brief as I really did get very stressed out. The second aspect that I would do differently is to of stuck to a colour scheme in the second brief; but have learnt in future when creating a set/series that it tends to work better when they have a consistent colour scheme throughout. Though after learning that I created a colour scheme for the third brief. Thirdly, for the first project I feel like we should’ve taken more photographs of different groups of stereotypes so we could’ve got more of a range and picked the best stereotypes. However, we were missing half of the group for most part of the project therefore it was left for me and Joe to do it all and be able to meet up with each other.  Next, I should’ve done more actual drawing in my development stages of my work. I seemed to of gone straight to the computer stage and neglected the drawing side. I felt because I was working hugely computer based I really did miss just drawing. So I think in my next brief I want to do a lot more drawing. Finally the last aspect that I will do next time is try out more media; I really want to experiment with printing I especially want to have a go at screen printing in the future.
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.