Module submission form.

End of module evaluation.

Submission boards. Brief seven: Geek Table.

Geek Table; printed pieces.

Printed Geek Table final pieces. 

The back of the postcards have the geek table logo and my geeky skill name so I can be distinguished from everyone else in the geek table but these pieces can still be linked to this particular brief and collective. I've duplexed the postcards so that they feel high quality. The great thing about them is they would be easy enough to post out and work well because people like to recieving something physical and tactile. 

Geek Table; Reworked pieces.

I've been meaning to edit my Geek Table pieces based on the feedback I was given in our crits and I've finally gotten round to it! The pieces haven't changed massively in themselves but the context of them has. I decided to create postcards instead because the original purpose of having large scale prints was for the exhibition but obviously we aren't doing this anymore. The postcards can be used a promotional tool for my skill within the geek table as the overall brief is partly about promoting our skills. I think this format suits my pieces much better because when I drew the original artwork, I did this quite small so by having smaller outcomes, you don't lose any of the detail and they feel more apropriate. I'm going to print them onto watercolour card because this fits with the fact that my pieces are hand rendered. 

Rewritten briefs.

As I've gone through the module some of my briefs have changed ever so slightly for various reasons. The main thing that has changed on many of them is the outcomes that I've created. The reason I've changed the outcomes has been because I felt with some briefs I was creating product for the sake of it when there was already a substantial amount so I've taken products out of the outcomes. These are my final written briefs. 

Geek Table; photoshoot edits.

These are the edited photos for the Geek Table submission boards. 

Geek Table: photoshoot.

Images of the Geek Table publication and business cards. 

Final crit.

My current resolved work set out for the crit.

There were a few specific things I wanted to get out of this crit but it was mostly about the quality of my design boards. I wanted to know if they told the story well for someone who was looking at my projects for the first time. At this stage I knew exactly where each of my briefs were going so feedback on extension of briefs wasn't particularly relevent because there just wasn't the time for this. It was maybe good to think about how the briefs could have gone further though in other peoples opinions. The feedback I got given regarding my boards was positive in the sense that the people discussing them had never seen the work before and they understood it all. The only negative feedback I'd gotten really was to do with the fact my blog wasn't completely up to date but I knew this already despite trying to catch up in time for the crit. Overall, the crit was really useful and it was so good to see what people had been doing, everyone had some really amazing stuff!

Geek Table; update.

Basically, we've had so many different meetings for this brief that I've lost track so I've decided to write a blog post of how the general idea of the Geek Table developed to get to where we are now. This is probably a lot easier to follow too. 

The idea began with the fact that we all wanted to have a brief where we could just design and have fun. We needed to think about how this could link to and inform our practice though so put in constraints that we would have a brief a week and set up the collectivw and after we'd done the pieces each week, meet up to discuss the pieces people have created. Kind of like a mini crit but between ourselves. Beth created crit sheets for this purpose so we could all record the feedback we got. This then turned into a brief every other week because we got really busy with our main briefs so agreed this would be best. We then thought, in the grand scheme of things we were creating work and could actually do something with this. We decided to track down a few places where we could hold an exhibition of all of our work and then I thought I could get my friend Emily involved because she wants to be a curator. We got so far with this and then just fell flat because gallery space wasn't available and it was going to take a lot to get it all set up. 

This is then where the idea of the publication came in as suggested by a member of the Geek Table. Instead of having to go through setting up an exhibition, we could still showcase our work but in a publication format that we could send out to studios and use as a bit of self promo. Ideas came from this too in the sense that people then though we could create business cards, badges and postcards to really push the Geek Table and in a way make it it's own brand. Everyone was quite happy with this idea because we all like a bit of print. 

Claudia and Baljeet then took on the task of designing the publication and decided we would go for a newspaper print so our work could be quite large and could be shown off. 

We now have the finish publication! so as well as submitting that we will induvidually submit the pieces we created for the briefs we set (photographs to follow this post)

Progress surgery.

With the progress surgery I didn't really have any questions in particular about my work because I knew exactly what I needed to do to get the work done. I went through each of my briefs and took examples from them to show Phil where I'd got up to and the sort of things I was producing. There was a bit of concern about how much I still have left to do for various briefs and the fact I don't seem to be stressed about it yet. I think it's trusted that I will get everything done though in time for submission though. The main piece of advice I got was, how can I really push all of my briefs in the time I have left available to me? and also not to forget about the greater context of my briefs and how various products will exist. I know that I really need to speed up the pace after this progress surgery but I'm confident I can do it. 

Crit.

This was the first proper crit we've had on actual produced outcomes and I felt I had a substantial amount of work in order to get the relevent feedback I required. At this point I had products for some of my briefs and concepts set in stone for all of them as well as various design development so people could see the direction that my work is going to take. I had some specific questions I posted to people about which designs they preferred for various briefs as I'd kind of hit a brick wall with some of them. I feel overall, this crit was really useful and I got a lot out of it. The briefs I was stuck on can now be taken forward using the feedback I've been given. People also seemed to like the direction my briefs were going in so this was really good because at least I know they are working and will hopefully be successful. I filled out a sheet myself too just so I know exactly what I need to do next in order to move on with the briefs. 

Geek Table; re-written brief.

After a recent meeting we decided that the exhibition just isn't going to happen for the Geek Table. We thought we had it in the bag with one venue but then there appears to have been some kind of mix up. As an alternative and because we don't want to have just done this for no reason, someone came up with the idea of producing some sort of publication for our work to be showcased in. This can then be used as a bit of a self promo element. Due to these changes, I've re-written the Geek Table brief. 

Geek Table; crit three.

We had the third Geek Table crit to discuss the alter ego brief and the guilty pleasure one at the same time as we set these briefs to be done for the same deadline. I got no specific feedback on the guilty pleasure brief because this was straight forward type and everyone understood this straight away. In terms of the alter ego brief it was suggested that I add me dressed as a farmer because this is my alter ego and at the moment it's not represented as well as it could be through just the image of a pig. The other piece of feedback I got with this was to consider changing the format once I produce more imagery because it might work differently once it has been added to. I definitely want to go back and develop both of these briefs so they exploit my skills fully because I feel if anything, these two were a little bit rushed. 

Geek Table; brief four.

The other brief we had to do for the Geek Table in the same week was our guilty pleasure. Again this didn't have to be design related in order to make it more interesting to see what people would come up with. My guilty pleasure is the band McFly because they are quite nostalgic to me. I decided to design a piece with type this time because all of my pieces have been image so far and although this is my design focus, I could still utilise my geeky skill through hand rendered type. This is another piece that I've coloured using pro markers although it's not as obvious on this piece. This has worked quite well because the area where there is colour is quite bright. I didn't really get any further development suggestions for this brief as such but I have my own ideas about how I'd like to improve it so I will definitely have a go at doing it again. 

Geek Table; brief three.

The third Geek Table brief was to create a piece of design that represented our alter ego. This didn't have to be design related, it could be absolutely anything because we all felt this would make the outcomes a lot more interesting and personal to us. I decided to design something linking to Farming because I have this connection due to my dad and it's an ongoing joke that if I wasn't a Graphic Designer I'd be a Farmer. I've utilised the hand rendered style again due to this being my geeky skill and used pro markers to colour the image to mix my pieces up a bit. The main piece of feedback I got from this piece was that although the Geek Table understand it because they know me, it might make more sense to other people if I draw me as a farmer to go with it too because at the moment it kind of makes it seem like my alter ego is a pig! woops. 

Geek Table; crit two.

We had our second crit to give each other feedback on the second brief that we have done. This brief was 'In the zone' so we had to include what gets us in the mood for work, visually. I didn't really get any feedback suggesting specific changes, they were more about the use of stock and how I could really enhance the final piece. It was suggested that I print the piece on A2 glossy stock to enhance the orange colour used within the artwork. The imagery would work quite well big but not too overwhelming. There was also a comment about a nice use of orange tones. Although nobody has suggested any massive changes for this brief, I think I'll go back and develop it further for myself if anything because I know it can be a lot better than it is at the moment. 

Geek Table; brief two.

In keeping with the first brief for the Geek Table, I wanted this outcome to be quite minimalistic and simple too. I decided to illustrate my iPod and headphones as these are the two things that get me in the zone when doing my Graphic Design work. I then drew musical notes because I thought these could create some kind of background for the other imagery so there wasn't going to be a massive amount of white space. Although I feel this outcome is satisfactory I could definitely also develop it further. I think in order to make this better I will explore more shades of orange to give further variation and also explore layout further. I may consider changing the format of this piece to see if this could enhance it because this brief doesn't have a size constraint. I feel the colour constraint has been difficult to work with because the design looks quite plain so the further development areas I've mentioned should enhance this. 

Geek Table; crit one.

The first Geek Table crit was a success! Everyone had done something completely different but very true to themselves in terms of what they love about graphic design. It was great to see what ideas people had gone forward with after various discussions too. I already knew that I wanted to develop my own piece further and everyone has given me some great ideas on how I could so. I'm going to try out some of my favourites and at some point we'll have an interim crit so I'll be able to show everyone how my idea has changed. I think I'm really going to enjoy doing these briefs because we get to have fun with it and it's quite relaxed. 

For the next brief the theme is 'In the zone: what gets you in the mood for work?'. The constraints for this brief are, we can only use shades of orange and it has to be on white stock, white can be used as a colour because the colour of the stock doesn't count. 

Geek Table; brief one.

For this brief we all had to go away and design something using our 'geeky' skill to represent the skill. For me I had to represent my hand rendering design skill so I decided to hand render the things that I use to hand render my work. The idea of these briefs is that they are very quick and an opportunity to do what we love so not much development is involved. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the outcome so far but I definitely feel that I want to develop it further because it looks a bit too simple at the moment and there are a lot of things I could do to enhance this. The fact that the drawings of the tools aren't completely perfect is definitely my favourite element about this piece because realistically hand rendered work is never perfect anyway. The colours are based on the actual tools too and the fact they are all constrating has been a bonus because it makes the piece look overall more visually interesting and exciting. I did two pieces to take to the crit, one of the tools alone and another a repeat pattern using the same drawing to see what people think works best. I think my personal favourite is the piece of the tools alone because I like the fact it's very minimal and would be able to work on a range of different scales.