OUGD201 - Evaluation

The research i have done for this project has been really in depth so i could have a better understanding into the subject matter. This has ranged from looking at online news paper articles from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Holland and Japan to street and online surveys. Emails and telephone exchanges with companies has been the biggest feature in this project. Getting information about costs, process and opinions from printers to stock companies has really been a challenge because of the reluctantness to communicate with students.Traveling to stock company's has been good and interesting but i regret the fact that i didn't visit a printing company. Forums and blogs have been a really good source of information to get in-depth opinions and overall this research has helped me pinpoint a very strong concept and message within my project.

I researched into depth with different printing methods for my project but because of restrictions in Muji's philosophy and concept rules, this became very restricted. Most of my research then became focused on eco-friendly stocks and printing inks that would compliment Muji's philosophy. I still have gained a lot of knowledge into print process's that i didn't have before and hope to put them into great use in the future.

My design development for this project has been personally week and this i blame to the fact i didn't leave myself enough time to do it. The reason for this is mainly because i spent ages researching and also because i changed my project after hitting a brick wall early on. However i think that the idea's i came up with are strong and do inform the target audience very well. My In-design skills have improved greatly but was very frustrating at times when developing my 16 page booklet. Problems with links and organising work on my desktop cost me valuable time and patience.

Documentation of this project has been poor, something i must address for the next project. Reluctance to blog i feel may have cost me some valuable time because it allows things to be more clear and also allows you to get some feedback. My organisation of my work into portfolio's has been great as always but has no purpose since its not getting entirely marked.

My reusable bag informs the viewer of Muji's philosophy in eco-friendly design and the packaging is minimal and ties in with the Muji look. This i feel answers the brief and is of a relatively good standard. It doesn't look out of place in its context. The 16 page booklet is great and i'm proud of it. Its minimal, 1 colour and informative. This is what i intended to do and it does its job perfectly. The grid design and layout works great and the format is perfect so you can slide it into your back pocket or purse. One thing i wish i had on there was the images i had taken before i printed it out, lost because of missing links.

6 things i will do differently next time.

• Experiment more with printing process's and stocks.
• Be more selective over research, don't dwell on it and spend too much time on it. Get most of it done in the first week so i have a clear concept.
• Generate more design ideas and develop them more.
• Get the work done as quickly but as effectively as possible. Stop dwelling.
• Keep up-to date with my blog. Do blog post more frequently.
• Make sure all files are together and easy to find.