OUGD603 / Module Evaluation

OUGD603 

Evaluation 

Managing my own time this year for Extended Practice has been a huge learning curve for me. I always slightly struggled with this aspect in first and second year, however having to organise my time efficiently on my own for this module made me plan and utilise my time effectively. Being excited and enthused about the briefs I was doing also was a big help, as well as live and collaborative briefs as I didn’t want to let the client or team member down. 

I found undertaking the number of briefs I did challenging, and at the start of the module fairly overwhelming. I found a great way to keep level headed was to extend my Context of Practice project (the value of hand-made design in the 21st century) as it is an aspect of design I feel very passionately about. By extending this and focussing it towards the craft of ceramics, I was undertaking a lengthy research-led brief that I spent at least one day a week doing throughout Extended Practice. I found having this day of working completely practically kept my ideas fresh as I found a balance between digital and physical projects. I think having this balance is so important, as other wise I could have become bored with my computer based projects. 

The freedom to work collaboratively was something I thoroughly enjoyed this year. This collaborative process has now become a lot more natural and beneficial to me in comparison to when I was first introduced to it in first year. I have found that utilising every member of the teams skill set to compliment one another creates a much more well rounded and comprehensive outcome that would not have been achievable if working individually.

Another aspect of Extended Practice I have enjoyed this year is having the choice to explore new techniques and processes. I was able to get a grasp a much better understanding of video and stop motion this year, as well as using Premier Pro. This is a skill I have always been interested in and I now feel a lot more confident in this area, it is something I will develop on in the future. 

I found feedback in this module very beneficial, I feel that as a class we have learnt to be more critical and by using this to our advantage (critiquing each others work) it has enabled me to grow as a designer. Although sometimes I didn’t take on board every bit of feedback given, I always formed my own judgement based on feedback collected from peers as well people external from the course. 

A weakness I found in this module was not being confident enough in my work and comparing it to others. This made me doubt some of my work and at times lose motivation, however having regular feedback sessions helped subside this and as I learnt that everyones briefs were so different there was no need to compare.

Overall, Extended Practice has been the most challenging yet also the most rewarding module I have undertaken to date. This is because I chose briefs I was passionate about, as well as live briefs, this made me want to create the most professional outcome as possible and therefore really stretched me as a designer.