Speaking from experience: Self Evaluation

What problem did you identify?

How 1st year students can make the most out of the studio/college environment and 'squeeze their creativer juice'

What evidence did you find to support your decesions?

First of all, the first evidence that i used to support this decision take on this problem was myself and my experience as a first year student at the LCAD last year. I found that the studio is a creative environment, not before the way it was decorated but becase the people around it and the facilities on offer.
i found from speaking to fellow classmates and questionaires that they agreed with what I proposed. There are things that would have been useful to them they if they wre told about what they could do.

What nethods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?
(categorise your research usings terms:primary, secondary, quantitative and qualitative)


Most, if not all of my research was primary as I used my fellow classmates as the main source of research ( as they are the target audience a year ago) therefore it was the most sensible way to research.


Primary Quantitative: Questionaires to LCAD Graphic Design sutdents , and actually talking to my classmates about what ideas I have and what they think would have been useful for them to know last year about what to do around studio. Many of the things they worked out for themselves but it would have been useful to know from the start.

Primary Qualitative: Also questionaire ( yes.no ) answers


1. Do you find that the LCAD Studio is a creative environment?
yes
no
Why?
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2. If there is anything you could change about the studio to turn it into a more creative environtment, what would it be?
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3. Do you find talking to your friends/colleges in the studio helpful to your work?
yes
no
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4. What about the tutors?
yes
no
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5. Do you do your college work in your room at your accomodation?
All the time
Often
Sometimes
Not very Often
Never
Why?
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6. Where do you enjoy doing you work most? and Why?
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7. Where or in what kind of environment would you like to work in most? ( this can be anywhere-real or imaginary). Please try and be as detail as possible
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8. If your bedroom could be made into a more creative environment to work in, would you consider spending more time working in it?
yes
no
Why?
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9. What helps squeeze you creative juice?
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10. As a first year student starting this course, would you have found it useful to know what you could do around the studio/your bedroom to help your creativity?
yes
no
may be


Secondary Quantitave: Further more i aslo did some research on being more creative around the studio work space and etc...
Secondary Qualitative:


What methods of research did you find useful and why?
I found actually talking to people as I go the most useful of all. the questionaire was useful in terms of getting the project going and supporting the problem but when it came to the actual advice that I could give to the 1st year students, I thought that talking to people and using what I personally learnt was the most useful. Also showing people what advice I have come up with and seeing if they agree was also very useful ( supports what I produced)


How did these inform your response to your problem?

They guided me into producing the most useful advice to the new 1st year students. it was very useful on informing my response to the problem. However, the apporoach to my response was a personal addition, I wanted to keep it fun and lighthearted rather than making it a serious response. but it also came as a result of talking to my classmates and from the crit. i found that problem wasn't as serious a problem as some like wayfinding, bdgetting and etc. but it would stillbe useful. Therefore I thought that a mimicky, fun approach would be the most appropriate.

What research could you have carried that would have proved more useful?
perhaps a second quesitonaires after I decided on a definite approach and response to collect more useful advices and etc.

Talking to the second and third years?

different aproaches for the advice other than a concertina etc.

List five things that you have learnt about design process over the last five weeks

1.Time management is essential! As we've had five weeks on this project it was important that I made sure I managed my time reasonably. As we had a fairly long time to do this project, it is easy to leave things to the last minute. however, I managed my time pretty well, I would like to think and I managed to spend a reasonable amount of time researching, generating ideas, experiementing with appraches and leaving enough time to produce the final products.

2. This is the first project where I started to realy use design sheets. I really didnt want to to it before ( using a layout pad) as I had a thing about using good paper in my design process but I have learnt that I was wrong...about myself. I used a layout pad for this project and I found it to be a much more effective way for ME to generate ideas. I wasn't bothered about making it all look nice and pretty, i jus produced ideas as it came. It was very fluent and quick and useful. I ws able to do sketchsed much quicker as well. Layout pad...

3. Asking more questions in crits! Ive always found crits very useful but for this brief, as we had so many crits i was able to ask more and specific questions than usual. Its good to listen to what people have to say but asking them more quesitons back was so effective in perfecting the idea. products.

4. BLOG!! I've blogged...and blogged and blogged for this brief. I took on Amber and Fred's advise about writing everything down on the blog and, yes it is what i have to do any to get the grades but i actually found it to be so useful. Id create something on Illustrator or Photoshop and I would immediately save it as JPEG and blog it and write something about it. Or if i had a crit then I would blog it, name the blog as whatever it was and its an effective and organised way for me to document things.

5. TALK to people...even when they don't ask you. This is actually what I put down as one of the advices for the 1st years on my project but I think it applies to everyone. Approaching someone who doesn't know what I'm doing and explaing the project is so useful. Its just like having a quick, fast, mini crit. 1. saying it out loud somehow helps and 2. getting a different response is always great. I hav'e found that for this project, you work on it one your own for so long that sometimes you get really absorbed into what you're doing and forget to look at it objectively, therefore talkin to someone helps ( especially someone who is blunt and direct)

List five things that you would do differently next time

1. BOOK print as early as possible. I say...the minute you kind of know what you want to do, as soon as you know its print based...book a time for the deadline. I'be managed to do it for earlier briefs but for somehow for this one i was stupid enough to leave it for the week before , especially during this time of the year!

2. although I've been pretty good at using sketchbooks and designs sheets and blogs for this brief.... I've not done enough of continuous evaluation for everything I've done which I think would be very useful.

3. make Design Context'ing' more of a habit, at the beginning of the project I've looked at designs and designers who would be useful and inspiration to me for this particular project and the idea generation process but I think i stopped doing it when I started to really get into the design part of the project ...may be its not a bad thing??

4. Plan my day. Some of the days i've just ended up wasting deciding what to do. I should plan my day ahead the night before so I know exactly what I need to do. I think this would be a part of a better time management.

5. Think about the distribution of the products earlier on rather than at the end of the project and having less time to think about it. ....again, this might be part of time management..?