What went well? – I think my group and I spent a lot of time discussing ideas in both projects and everyone came to the majority of the sessions meaning it was easy for us all to have a group understanding of the work we were carrying out. We also had no real disagreements about any decisions in either project.
What did I learn? – I learnt a lot about how differently people work within a group and that not everyone is as loud and as opinionated as me and that speaking to people and asking them what they think instead of expecting a response straight away was needed. I also learnt that sometimes within a group the best way to come up with an amazing idea is instead of coming up with one or two really good ideas, just to keep coming up with as many ideas as you can even even if some are useless, and other group members will speak out about their favourites and help to chose one.
What didn’t go as well as expected? – I think the thing my group struggled with in both projects was that after we came up with an idea and decided on the style of what we wanted to do, we struggled to all end up using the same style and idea.
What would I do differently next time? – I think next time i would definitely focus more on creating more pieces that were a combination of everyones work. Although we did this many times, I would have liked to try it out more, especially with the illustrators. Although we often created collaborative pieces they would often be someone would create something with other peoples guidance and ideas instead of everyone directly contributing.
How did I use my skills to contribute? – I made sure that no matter what we were making, wether it be an illustration or painting, or a poster I always tried to contribute in some way, wether it was me giving advice to someone else about how they should lay something out, or me using knowledge on typography and hierarchy etc to design my placards.
Did I attend, engage and commit fully to my project? – I think the most important thing for me in this project was feeling like I had done enough each week so that our work as a group was good enough so I always made sure I attended every time my group wanted to meet so that I could produce the best work I could.
How has the process helped me to develop as a graphic designer? – I think the main thing it has taught me is to be open about trying anything, for example I never usually would’ve tried illustration but have done because of the brief. It’s also taught me a lot about the process of working in a group and how to get from initial ideas to a final product in a group scenario.
How did I consider the audience, tone and communication of the project? Did it change or evolve during the project? – We struggled at the start of our second project to decide who our audience would be as I think initially our idea was very broad, but through more group discussions and initial ideas we were able to narrow it down and decide on our audience. Throughout the whole process of both projects I think the both of my groups were very conscious of the target audience and everything we created took the audience into account. Our tone and communication did change in both projects as I think the more we thought about each of our ideas the more we came up with extra ideas to add in and slightly swayed from where our outcomes were initially, but I think that was all about thinking what was best for the outcome.
Ben Jackson 