Thursday 22 May 2014

OUGD603 // OUGD603 Summary

I feel that this year has been a great success. I have defiantly been more engage with the year as a whole and I feel that I took control of it and produced some great work. At the beginning of the year, I set out the brie which I thought would be best for me, soon after starting to work on certain briefs, I realised that the idea of being hands on and physically making things was becoming more apparent within my work. I tailored my brief from here onwards to accomodate for this.

It wasn't until completing the dissertation and working on the practical element, that I really started to know what I wanted to do. I have always been interested in print and this has been the main medium in which I work in, but researching into the subject further within my dissertation gave me a greater understanding and appreciation for the subject. I put everything I learnt through the research into practice by producing the COP practical element and it was this that made a sudden change to my practice.

After working on COP module and having this idea of print in my head, alot of my briefs changed either on the outcomes or I worked on completely different briefs. I really got into the idea of print and focussing on creating beautifully crafted products for every brief that I undertook.

The main brief from throughout the year was Dialogue exhibition, this brief went on for the majority of the year as it was a huge project that consisted of a lot of smaller elements to create the final exhibition. As a project that the final outcomes was based on print, this again was within my area of design and working on the project, especially the print and curation side of it, really opened my eyes yet again to the design area. I found that I was enjoying being down in the print room, much more than being sat at my computer in studio. Working on print gave me something to focus on and engaged me all the time, whereas I found that I got bored really easily sat at my computer working. After working on dialogue, this again pushed the idea of print for me and I brought the physical print back into some more of my other briefs.

The year has presented its ups and downs, I feel that the briefs and times before christmas weren't that great, the briefs I completed then are of a good standard and ones which I don't think I wouldn't do again, but they weren't in the right direction for me and my practice. Although it was doing them briefs that proved to me what I did actually want to work within. After christmas I felt that I found my feet and started to work on the briefs that really engaged me and I started to produce much better work which I was proud of and confident to show. From then onwards I think I have developed as a designer further and further.

I have found the self-directed approach of the year good and bad. I have liked the fact that it was self-directed and all the briefs were down to us to choose and work on, but in some instances I did miss the structure of having the different modules and set deadlines. The latter end of the year, I did start to set myself clear deadlines and made myself stick to them as I found some of the briefs went on for much longer than they needed to. With this year being structured how it was, it has felt more relaxed, but I still feel as though I have produced as much work if not more than last year. One thing I did miss from the previous years was the crits. I always used to find these useful and often changed projects etc from the feedback of the crits, not having as many of these this year was a shame as I do think they are valuable to the brief and for feedback.

Overall this final year has been a great experience, I feel that as a designers it helped me massively realise what I want to do when I leave the course and my time here has been great. The year has gone really fast and I am going to miss the atmosphere of the studio and everyone involved with the course. I wouldn't change anything that I have done this year and I don't think I would do anything different if I was to do it again, because everything that has happened throughout the year has had some effect on my practice - in a positive or negative way, but either way it helped develop and define the type of designer I want to be and the designer I am that is leaving the course. The past three years have been very valuable to me and have been blast, I am very proud of being apart of Leeds College of Art.

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