My feedback from my tutor was encouraging, but after receiving it, I felt like I had not fully explained my thought process properly in my assignment blog. I am going to return to this to ensure I explain everything that was informing my choices, and also to address some of my tutor’s questions and advice. The suggestion to evaluate my solutions against the brief AND examples of best practice is one I will definitely take forwards, but I think a good starting point will be to return to my third assignment (as it is still fresh) and evaluate my two little books of typography.
Reading through some of these comments, I did feel as if I went through certain thought processes as I was creating my mood boards (for example) but perhaps I did not articulate these thought processes as well as I wanted to in my blog. I definitely agree that notation against examples and in my sketchbook is far more useful to me, however I like to bring my whole process together and make links in my blogs.
It was wonderful to read that my creative methodology is improving and that I am bringing previous research into my current work. I am also pleased that my work comes across as thorough, as this is always my intention. On reading this feedback, I think my focus needs to be on continuing to exhaust all possibilities and evaluating my solutions and process as I go along, to ensure I am creating something fit for purpose.
I found the golden section research quite challenging, as it was not something I had ever looked at in detail, so I intentionally did lots of research so I felt as if I had a decent understanding. I am glad that my research came across as being strong and that I used this in the other exercises. I will certainly take on board the suggestion to evaluate my solutions against examples of best practice (I intend to go back to my third assignment to try this).
One of the tasks I intend to put on my to-do list is to go and reference the typography and layout examples on my Pinterest boards (and potentially use a selection of these to evaluate my assignment against). I was pleased, again, to read that my process is strong, especially developing a range of ideas. I do not have the ability to use Adobe InDesign, however I have been experimenting with Affinity software, so I will definitely intend to continue to strengthen my skills on Photo, Designer, and Publisher. I had not really used digital technology much in my illustration before, so this has been a steep learning curve throughout this course. I am hoping to continue developing my technical skills.
I thoroughly enjoyed the research aspect of Part 3, so I was delighted that my thoroughness came across in my ‘Type samples’ exercise. The running theme in this feedback is to think about context; where do typefaces work and where don’t they work? Are there examples of book design that show off good or bad typography? Can I evaluate my own work against these examples? A big focus of my work going forward will be to consider how my choices compare to examples of good practice and how well my work fits in context.
My tutor recommended lots of books and links to explore, which I will be selecting a few from to take a look at in the coming weeks. I enjoy having new sources of inspiration and I think it will be good to have a continued awareness of my typographic and layout choices as I move into a new section of the Book Design course.
Overall, I am pleased with this feedback and I feel determined to show that I have considered context in my creative process. My first action will be to return to my Assignment 3 blog and ensure my thought processes were clear. I will then select some examples of good practice to evaluate my little books of typography against, while also considering the brief requirements.
Jade's OCA Learning Log 