I love feminine photography styles...

Came across this website and loved these images.


http://pinterest.com/pinkpeony84/oh-snap-photography/

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88534299/brooklyn-bridge-8x10-photograph-balloons

Study Task 4// 20 Things I've learned about myself..

10 Things I have learned about myself personally since the beginning of the course:

'The home town...' (Notice the grey sky.)

• I have come to realise that I do enjoy doing computer-aided design, as much as I hate to admit it because I was always so sure that I was a 'hand-rendered' kind of designer.  I now enjoy different techniques and understand that some techniques work better for different things etc.
• After being at home for a week, back in Lockerbie, the most dull and grey place in britain, I have realised just how much I have come to love Leeds as a city.  But I really do miss the countryside... and the stars!
• I love living with friends and now find it strange to be by myself... (perhaps not a good thing).
• I'm sick to death of helvetica and that's why I'm now using 'Georgia' on my blog, it just flows nicer.
• I HAVE to start referencing things, I always completely, well and truly forget.
• I enjoy cooking, however only for myself, if someone else is going to eat it then that means it has to taste nice... which stresses me out.
• I'm quite a relaxed person but occasionally have erratic outbursts of stress, usually on a Thursday evening before the crits on Fridays.
• I really dislike public speaking and presenting work, however if I decide in my head prior to presentations what I want to say then usually it goes okay, so no more 'winging it' because you just look like a fool.
• I enjoy looking after myself and the freedom of being parent-free.
• Sometimes I find it hard to get motivated and the weather definitely has a great effect on my motivation.
• ++++ I'm really easily distracted, must charge ipod.

10 Things I have learned about myself as a Professional// Graphic Designer:

• I am no longer a technophobe and Illustrator is my new favourite tool in life :).
• I really appreciate none-serious fun and quirky Graphic Design, I think sometimes designers are too serious (obviously there are times when you have to be) and often a quote I heard somewhere comes to mind that 'artists take themselves too seriously.'

Gemma Correll 

http://youmightlikethis.com/2011/02/artist-interview-gemma-correll/

• I have learned a lot about typography, I used to shy away from it, being more of an image maker and tended to use 'hand-rendered' type.  However now I understand more about 'personalities' of typefaces and understand kerning, tracking, leading and a few other things.
• 'Thinking through a problem' spending time initially coming up with ideas and researching instead of just jumping to designing or wondering why an idea hasn't just 'come to me.'
• I would quite like to try designing a few magazine spreads as I haven't done that since school.  I also  really enjoy designing sets of things, for example the 100 things project was great because we had to have 10 graphic products therefore I felt I could make more sense of the products instead of designing one thing and imagining what the other things would look like.
• I'm constantly tuned in to the designs in the world around me and often stand and look at the bollards, with line-up posters on them that are dotted all over the city, for a little too long.  Line-up posters are something I'm really interested in as I absolutely adore music and would love to get into that line of work one day.
• I'm eager to learn new things and intend to spend much more time in the print studio this term.
• I'm generally a slow designer and seem to take life at a slower pace than the people around me, so the majority of the time I am not satisfied with my outcomes, I really need to quicken up.
• My designs have come a long way since the beginning.  At the start as I was getting to grips with new software, I really hated everything I was designing because I knew I could do better.  Recently I feel that my CAD work has improved greatly since the beginning and I know that it will improve leaps and yards or whatever that saying is.
• I don't like talking about my own practice and don't particularly enjoy reflecting on things, after reading through what I've just written above I have realised when talking about myself I tend to be quite sarcastic and I hope to get over this complex.

End of Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Throughout the 405 module I have developed skills within illustrator, discovered new techniques and came up with new design idea’s.  I also feel like my typography designs have became much more aesthetically pleasing since the beginning of this module.  I am happy that my pieces of work from the 100 things project, all carry the same design style and you can tell they are related whereas in the past I often found it difficult to make things work in the same style.  Also in the second part of this module (100 things), the design sheets I drew up in the beginning were very helpful for generating ideas and developing early imagery, unlike in the ‘how to’ group project, I only completed a few design sheets and then went on to lose them.  Also I have become much better at sourcing the research I need.  I created my first survey and also carried out an interview.  I now understand qualitative and quantitative research and this was useful when it came to finding the information I needed about my project.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? Throughout the module I have mostly used illustrator as it is a quick way of making good designs.  Instead of screen-printing my t-shirts and bag, I used photo-transfer paper, which you just need to iron on.  This method is quick and easy and you can use as many colours as you like.  The only downfall is that they don’t look as good as screen-printed items.  In the future I would like to be more organised and leave enough time to screen-print.  My approach to the projects have also been different throughout this module as I have planned out in the beginning what I intend to do instead of just jumping straight into designing.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
During OUGD405, I have had to organise my time much more.  Recently (since Christmas) I haven’t had the use of a laptop at home and therefore I had to make sure I was completing designs at college and often stayed late in the mac suites using the software there.  In the beginning I thought this would be a major disadvantage however it proved useful as it meant I kept on top of the workload and kept my work out of home-life.  I intend to get a new laptop very soon, however I wish to stick to the way I have been managing my time more recently.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
My skills on photoshop are very limited and I intend to broaden them by using and practicing with the software more.  I feel like I have limited myself recently to computer-aided design when really I enjoy more hands-on designing so I intend to try out more of the workshops available to us at college.  Since the last module I feel that I have become better at blogging, but I still feel like I need to blog my process instead of just the beginnings of a design and the final outcomes.  I also need to engage more at the beginning of projects, for example the individual ‘how to’ I wasn’t interested in at all and rushed my research last minute.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Be more organised prior to the hand-in, instead of rushing around trying to find lost design – sheets. Work as hard at the beginning of the project as I do at the end. Experiment with different processes, which will then give me different outcomes and a broader knowledge of what process would suit which project. Complete tasks as I receive them, instead of getting in a panic the day before they’re due in. Keep all blog pages up-to-date.
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				*
Punctuality			*
Motivation				*
Commitment			*
Quantity of work produced			*
Quality of work produced			*
Contribution to the group			*
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.

Critique Feedback

Design Direction:

• Works well as a set
• Lots of outcomes
• Images link to one another
• Relatable

Design Development:

• Designs have developed into lots of products
• Made it work for each one
• Increase information on map? Photography?  Able to relate to?

Visual Quality:

• Eye-catching
• Effective
• Colourful
• Relevant
• Really Good

Technical Competence

• Used different variety of skills
• Thought outside the box

Additional Comments


Maybe experiment with wristbands further but they look amazing still.


I agree with the feedback I have been given and I would have liked to make the map more legible however I think photographs would not fit in with the style of the design and might stand out and look funny.  If I was to re-design the wristbands again I would like to have them printed on the real paper wristband stock if I could get my hands on some.

Cool Posters

Posters below by Doug Summers, poster competition for oxfam campaign: