At the beginning of this module I got off to a slow start, due to my dissertation and lack of time management skills, but after a talk I really feel I started to get well in too flow, and have produced some of my best pieces of work throughout the three years of the degree.
I have started to also realize throughout the FMP where my interests lie, with my future ambition is to work within advertising, and even though I come up with some great concepts, at the moment I feel that my strengths lie with branding and promotional design, in a phrase to some me up as a creative designer. My main aim for FMP was to get a better understanding of who I am really, and define what sector of design I am more suited too, something I really feel I am now at. It also was the perfect opportunity to create some professional work for my portfolio.
The briefs I have completed I feel, even though they vary quite a bit, they all have the similarities, such as packaging, branding and promotional design, which are all my key interests with in design.
The stamps brief I thoroughly enjoyed, developing the symbols and the concepts, considering stock choices and getting away from screen for print and tackling screen printing and foiling. I feel I have really produced some great pieces of work within this brief, but on the same hand I feel it may have been able to be pushed a bit further, but due to time management at the beginning of the module, I found it impossible to do so.
The Bacardi and Mini Brief are examples where I over complicate my concepts, trying to many concepts within one brief, making it hard to understand. I have realised the main reasoning behind this is because I come up with a good concept at first, but instead of going with that idea and developing it further, enabling it to gradually improve and become stronger, I move on to a totally different idea, getting too creative. Once I got worked out my concept with mini, and stripped it down making it easier to understand, I feel I really came up with some great final resolutions, I just feel that if I had not over complicated it in the first place, I would have been able to generate so much work, giving this campaign a lot more mileage.
My strongest brief I feel is the batteries, where personally I am extremely content with the name, logo and branding I came up with. The logo I feel really works well, capturing the idea I wanted to portrait perfectly. The only weakness I would say within this brief is my craftsmanship when cutting and putting together the packaging. Even though in my photographs that I took of my final pieces for all briefs, they look crisp and professional, my craft skills need great improvement. It is a clear observation I have the design ideas, just not the ease of crafting them together.
Overall this course has been a real learning curve for me, with many ups and downs, but I feel I really have grown as a professional designer, strengthening my passion for the design world. In this module especially, it has helped me capture my key strengths and interests within design, enabling me to plan for the future ahead effectively.
