OUGD504 - Design Production: End of Module Evaluation

OUGD504 module was exciting as I got to design a publication and also an app.  Publication outcome was slightly disappointing but designing for screen was enjoyable and was something I am proud to have made.

That idea generation of the publication was difficult because the only images that I had collected were of restaurants which categorised and limited the amount of ideas I had on the publication outcome. The only thing that I knew I could produce was something for tourists since locals wouldn’t need or use a publication something they already know about. The idea of the publication being the ‘Top 10 Restaurants in Manchester Chinatown’ was because I wanted to inform people of the top restaurants in Manchester Chinatown since tourist may not be aware of the area or the surrounding places. I had an idea to have the publication in partnership with TripAdvisor as it is more genuine sense real-life people have been to then restaurants and have their opinions so it helps the reader decide for themselves they want to go to that restaurant or not.

The publication didn’t turn out as well as I hoped because the stock that I originally wanted to use, which was satin/gloss weren’t available to print double sided so instead I had to use matte paper stock and even then, the cover had cracks since it was folded around the publication. It was disappointing as I tried to do again and although it did have less cracks on the fold, it didn’t appear as high-quality as they wanted it to be even though the publication was going to be free.

I enjoyed the Design for Screen more than I did the publication. At first, I dreaded the brief at first since I have no idea how to make a screen-based design since I have never thought of doing it are had the desire to make a digital design application. Once I thought of the idea, it gradually got easier and I found that I was over-thinking the brief and the design process. The brief was surprisingly easier than I thought and less time-consuming as I thought. Coming up with the idea and the design with easy since the problem that I had identified was a problem that I was having. It was easy to use my own experience to know what I want but then also take into consideration how other people felt about receiving parcels. However, during the early stage of designing, I was pushing myself more than any detail and over complicating the idea of the app and what I wanted in the app. For example, I had originally wanted the idea of having ‘receiving parcels’ and ‘sent parcels’ which made no sense because when you send mail anyway, you get a receipt which defeats the purpose of the app since it’s supposed to be convenient and automatically sync with emails so after asking others, I decided to get rid of that option and to keep it simple. The outcome of this brief was better than I thought it would be considering I have never created a screen-based design before. I was especially pleased with how the artwork and how I could make it look like it was a real thing.