Evaluation

The outcome to my ‘Sustainable Nature’ project consists of a book aimed at children of the age of 6, it contains texture, activities and fun illustrations to engage and educate my audience. My aim for the book design is to educate children about the importance of bees and how they can help protect and save the winged insect. I also created postcards and bookmarks to accompany the book design as I felt my target audience would enjoy these collectables and it would remind them about the importance whilst sharing their knowledge with others. I feel my outcomes relate to my project title as bees do so much for humans and we go about our everyday lives without even realising; they pollinate 70 of the crops we eat, a third of our food chain would not be available without bees and they contribute £400million to the economy. However, bees are slowly disappearing from our environment;farming practises continue to disturb the naturals habitats. The bees are also under attack from varroa and it is only the treatment and care provided by bee keepers that is keeping colonies alive.

My final outcome is different to what I predicted at the begin as I started the project looking at sustainable nature as a whole, but I soon discovered this subject was so large and wide it would be physically impossible to narrow it down into one final design. This is where my design focus turned to bees as I did not realise how important they were to the human species, this also made me question how many others do not realise about the importance of bees. I decided to choose a young target audience as I felt this would reinforce the ‘sustainable’ aspect of my project aim - If you teach young children about the importance of bees and how they can help they will grow up with the knowledge and will make a difference, they will then be able to pass their knowledge onto their children and so the cycle continues. 

Throughout my project I have been able to record my ideas, successful outcomes, design references and anything else which I felt was relevant and helpful to my project in sketchbooks; I found this extremely helpful as I was continuously able to refer back to it throughout my project as it progressed.  My online blog has also been helpful to my development and the success of my final outcome as I was able to record my thoughts and be reflective on the development and work I was creating; I feel this really helped me push my idea’s and designs as I could identify if I was going off track or my outcomes were unsuccessful.

The weekly group reviews played a major role in pushing my ideas and pace at which I worked at forward; the range of opinions in my group was helpful in sparking new idea’s and inspiration for my final outcome. This was also reinforced with the mid-point review as it highlighted my weaker errors and ones which I needed to stop neglecting and focus on, for example I did not focus on the ‘Draw It’ page as much as I did the ‘What are bees’ page.

I feel my FMP plan helped to organise my time efficiently between important factors including research, experimenting, developing and reflecting. Although my subject focus slightly changed the plan still gave me a rough guide with timing; I feel I could have improved this by creating a new plan.

The range of experiments and explorations in my work contributed to my final outcomes as it highlighted successful techniques and materials I could use in the outcome. I feel my development process was continuously strong throughout my project as I pushed an idea until I was completely satisfied with my outcome; I feel this was a helpful process when deciding on typography, composition, materials and images as I was able to explore all the ideas I had to identify the most successful and audience appropriate. I feel my most successful development was the development of my stitched bee illustration and crop page, the experiments pushed all possibilities for these pages and the final outcomes exceeded my expectations as they were visually interesting whilst being fun and engaging for my target audience.

I received a range of feedback through one-on-one tutorials and group discussions, the main point which was continuously repeated throughout each stage consisted of creating an impact on my target audience by shocking them with the reality that if bees die we would die as well. However, I did not feel comfortable with this idea as I felt my target audience were to young and they may find it frightening and overwhelming. But I eventually came to terms with creating an impact and decided on the simple sentence ‘If Bees Die, We Die’ - I positioned this in the centre of the last page with small typography. I did not use any images asI felt the space increased your focus on the typography which would help you absorb the sentence; I chose to use this on the last page as I felt it would stick in the audiences mind and encourage them to make a chafe and help save the bees.

The mid-point review also contributed to my progress as it highlighted successful aspects of my project so far and also weaker ones which needed improving. The feedback I received focused on 4 main topics : Research, Experiments, Problem Solving and Contextual referencing. I received very positive feedback which helped with my confidence towards my project whilst encouraging me to push myself and ideas further. The main suggestion I received was again creating an impact and shocking my audience.

Overall this project highlighted my stronger and weaker aspects of my idea’s, processes and development skills. I have learnt that I need to be more time efficient as I get carried away with one aspect of my design, for example I put a lot of energy into the double bee page and realised I had less time to focus on other pages such as the ‘Draw It’ page. I would improve this in future projects by balancing all aspects  and ensuring I am giving an equal amount of time and energy into each piece. I would also improve my reflective analysis skills as I feel I did not stay on top of my blog and discovered when I sat down to reflect on what I had done I had actually forgotten as I did the process a week ago; to improve this I would ensure I reflected as I went along to ensure the critic I was giving was accurate and helpful towards me progressing and improving.

I feel the main skill I developed throughout this project is to always try new idea’s and processes no matter how weird and bizarre you may think they are because it is always the unexpected outcomes which become the most successful - I experienced this when printing on acetate and discovering the ink would not dry on the silky surface but would create beautiful textured prints which became a huge factor in my final outcomes.

Next year I am moving onto to a BA Hons Degree in graphic design; I chose Nottingham Trent as my place to study as I was overwhelmed with their facilities, especially their old printing techniques like screen printing and typography printing. I feel this final project has reinforced this choice as it has highlighted I enjoy the handmade process in my work and like creating unique prints with unusual techniques. Overall I feel this project has pushed my motivation and passion about graphic design and I am determined to continue developing my own skills and style within this subject until I make my own way in this competitive industry.