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A to Z project
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CONTENTSINTRO / TITLE PAGE
VCT ESSAY
A-Z
SUPPORTING WORK
PPD ESSAY
INTROINTRO / TITle page
VCT ESSAY
A-Z
SUPPORTING WORK
PPD ESSAY
Hello, welcome to my a-Z. The brief was to
create an a-Z of graphic language.
It’s supposed to “say something visually
interesting, entertaining or informative”, so I
thought I’d make it about me.
This is a multi-platform project. I’ve also
created a micro-site:
www.adams-alphabet.blogspot.com
VCT ESSAYaN examINaTION Of emOTIONal desIgN aNd THe sHIfT
TOwaRds THe self, usINg sTefaN sagmeIsTeR as a
cONTexTual case sTudy.
my response to the project; an a-Z of graphic language, has
been very personal. The spreads are almost like diary entries
and the format I have chosen to present the work: a blog,
also reflects the personal nature of my response.
Throughout the project I have looked at the work of stefan
sagmesiter. There are many things I admire about him, but
I think in particular it is his honesty that engages me. In
his book made you look, the reader is allowed access to
sagmesiter’s inner thought, the book contains excerpts from
his diary, it contains successful work as well as unsuccessful
work. He also rates all of the work and lists the design fees
involved. This is an access-all-areas experience. Nothing is
swept under the carpet or kept from view.
“If I want to touch somebody’s heart with a piece of design, it
has to be true and sincere. The audience of my design will feel
if I’m honest, if it comes from my heart. Just like my friends
know instinctively if I’m being authentic. If I’m true, if I have
the guts, I have the passion, my message will get through.”
what is apparent and inspiring with sagmeister is the ongoing
process of self-analysis, which the reader is allowed to
witness. He will readily admit if he is happy with a piece of
work. Interestingly though, whether or not he is happy has
more to do with how genuine he feels he has been with his
response, and less to do with the technical quality of the
work. Indeed very little emphasis is placed on technical
quality or meeting traditional standards of good design.
This is apparent in his shift to using his own handwriting
instead of computer rendered typefaces. His aIga posters
(cutting, and headless chicken) are clear examples. I think it
takes a lot of guts to produce a poster for a graphic design
organisation that completely ignores traditions of ‘good
design’, uses hand drawn type and has no clear grid.
sagmeister is clearly capable of producing technically
strong, clean design (as evident in his early work; business
cards etc), but what makes his work stand apart is the focus
on concept over technical mastery:
“I suspect that in ten years’ time this touching design is
going to be the only kind of design that’s going to be done by
actual designers. all that professional, good looking fluff is
going to be generated by sophisticated computer programs.“
after looking through sagmeister’s book and websites, I
have a few favourite pieces of work: The aiga detroit poster
(cutting), the aiga National conference New Orleans poster
(headless chicken), the lou Reed set the Twilight Reeling
and the two books themselves; made you look and Things I
Have learnt. There are a few consistent themes with these
works: unconventional treatment of type, subjective design.
I apologise, this is the extent of my essay. Time got the better
of me. I have done plenty of reading and now the design of
the pdf is complete I can focus on the essay.
He highlights what type of work he wants to do throughout.
How has emotional design, that has been explored in product
design and branding manifested itself in graphic design.
How does sagmeister set up possible conditions that engage
INTRO / TITLE PAGE
VcT essay
A-Z
SUPPORTING WORK
PPD ESSAY
good design, failed on both counts. I believe that designing is
something that you have to do for love. If you are committed
first and foremost to producing good design then you’ll make
money as a by-product because good design is something
people are willing to pay for. But that financial reward will be
a bonus, a gift.
sagmeisters list of credentials for design work that touches
his heart:
new perspective
trigger of memories
passion and guts
surprise
virtuosity
beauty
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VCT ESSAY
the reader/viewer and lead them to an emotional response?
most effective when there is a shift from mass medium to a
smaller more personal audience.
different media: design vs fine art, product design, film
making, writing
subjective design. design that requires the reader to do some
of the work.
QuOTes
Is it possible to touch somebody’s heart with graphic design?
I think one reason for all this fluff is that we as designers
don’t really believe in much. we are not much into politics
or religion and don’t have much of a stand on any important
issues. I guess when our conscience is so wishy-washy so is
our design.
I’ve seen movies that moved me, read books that changed my
outlook on life and listened to numerous pieces of music that
influenced my mood. somehow, I never seem to be touched
quite the same way by graphic design. I know, the comparison
is not all that fair, afterall, movies do have 90 minutes to do
all that heart touching, books have several days, while most
graphic design has to connect in seconds.
I think it was Katherine mccoy who said that graphic design
can never rise above its content. If I have nothing to say, the
best design can’t help me.
art is something that happens, its an experience, not a quality.
Brian eno
In my experience, every designer whose prime aim in into
business was to make money while at the same time producing
VCT ESSAY
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BIBlIOgRapHy
Books
No more Rules
made you look
Things I Have learned In my life so far
How To Be a graphic designer without losing your soul
web:
sagmeister.com
Thingsihavelearnedinmylifesofar.com
A-ZINTRO / TITLE PAGE
VCT ESSAY
a-Z
SUPPORTING WORK
PPD ESSAY
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Art School C*ntsmaybe I should elaborate on my theory...at
art school, like any school, there are cliques.
The art school equivalent of the ‘cool kids’
would be the art school c*nts. These are the
guys and girls with the art school dress sense
and haircuts. They party in east london and
delight in going to obscure private views.
They swan around like maverick creatives -
which they may or may not be - who knows.
Its hard to tell if they are trend-setters or
trend-followers.
I hope I am not one these guys. I might be
though, I do wear a Barbour.
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BooksI have a tendency to accumulate graphic
design books and never read them.
I’ve decided to put an end to this! I’ve read
three books already this year, and I really
enjoyed them. One book at a time, I am going
to be a reading machine!
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CollagraphThrough out the first term I signed up for
various printing inductions. surprisingly,
collagraph was one of my favourites. a piece
of card is used as a starting point for a plate.
The surface is then added to, or scraped
away, to create relief. The plate is sealed
with shellac, intaglio inked and printed like a
traditional etching plate.
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I went to university once before. I studied
fine art but I chose to leave in the second
year. It felt like the right thing to do at the
time; the course wasn’t stimulating, another
year and a half seemed pointless.
someone called me a ‘drop out’ once. I didn’t
like how it sounded and I haven’t forgotten it.
so I’m back at university to put that right and
become a graduate.
Drop Out
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EnjoymentI get bored. I am bored. Bored of this
project, bored of being a student again.
I want to be out in the real world doing
something worthwhile.
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FriendsI’m a one man wolf pack.
One of my close friends let me down. Our
paths don’t cross anymore. I have friends
now, but not close friends. It feels like there’s
a void but I’m still too bitter to do anything
about it.
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Green“Don’t design landfill.”
“Beautifully designed things have value and
longevity, but mediocre design usually ends up in
a bin.”
These two statements were made by a
speaker at a talk I recently attended; How
To Be an eco creative. It made me aware of
some important issues in design and in the
wider world. I have since made a conscious
decision to try my upmost to be a socially
responsible designer.
I want to pass the message on and help raise
awareness. These sites are a good start:
Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest
Lovely As A Tree
Transition Towns
Chris Jordan
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HandwritingI have always liked handwritten type. I think
this quote from stefan sagmeister sums up
its appeal:
“I am not obsessed with typefaces and find the
selection of just the right one a rather tedious
exercise. Using my handwriting eliminates that
process, personalizes the piece and can be
interpreted as an anti-computer statement all in
one easy move.”
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Isobel WilliamsI met Izzy in October. I liked her instantly.
she’s the sunshine kid.
Izzy:
> is my favourite illustrator
> doesn’t get in bad moods
> refers to herself in the third person
> has quickly become one of my best friends
check out Izzy’s blog she’s great.
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Juxtaposition is an image placement approach
whereby related or contrasting images are
placed side by side. It may imply similarity or
dissimilarity.
Juxtaposition
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Know Your AlphabetI found this poster at the 99p store in
elephant and castle. Its one of my favourite
examples of an a-Z. It brings back childhood
memories.
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LetterpressIts taken a while - but I finally got to try
letterpress. I enjoyed setting type by hand,
it appealed to my obsessive nature. I hope
to find excuses to spend more time in the
letterpress studio this year.
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MantrasI read Things I Have learnt In my life so
far by sefan sagmeister. I felt inspired
to produce some mantras of my own. I like
them, but I do feel this sort of typography
is verging on pretentious. also, I noticed
writing mantras can make you think you’re
wiser than you actually are.
I just found a whole website of this stuff:
Things I Have learned In my life so far
But two is enough for me. who’s going to top
sagmiester anyway?
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Newspaperswhat amazes me about newspapers is the
speed and quantity with which we consume
them. The rise of free newspapers means
they are now more abundant and less
valuable than ever before.
yesterday’s news is old news, but yesterday’s
newspapers are forgotten.
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Origami“Our culture and society rest upon twenty six firm
pillars, the letters of the alphabet, and they’re not
going to give way that easily”
In his book The essentials of Visual
communication, Bo Bergtrom says it can
seem as though pictures are our enemies, but
letters are our friends.
He says most people are afraid of pictures;
and analysing a picture can often say more
about the person doing the analysis than
about the picture itself, which turns the
process into a kind of self-portrait. He
suggests that on this basis we have to
hope that the pictures teach us the value of
admitting our secrets and the dangers of
hiding them.
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I designed a poster to encourage my new
course mates to join me for a night out in
Hoxton (see Art School C*nts).
I printed it digitally, then made further
prints using solar etching. This technique is
similar to traditional etching but allows you
to develop images directly on to the plate with
uV light.
Poster, Print & Process
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she is the mother duck!
I owe her a lot, probably more than a load of
cards with ducks on and one letter of an a-Z.
QUACK!
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RelationshipsI’ve dated plenty of attractive girls but I’ve
never been in a serious relationship. I’m
25; I wonder at what age I’ll start to get
concerned?
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Saint SagmeisterIn the acknowledgements of the book How To
Be a graphic designer without losing your
soul, it says; “Thanks to Stefan Sagmeister, the
patron saint of this book.”
sagmeister has now been bestowed with
the prestigious honour of the patron saint
of adams alphabet. sagmeister’s work has
inspired me throughout this project and
motivated me when I ran out of stream.
(It was either him or Isobel Williams, and it
couldn’t be Izzy because she’d love it too
much).
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TalentDo some people have a different way of seeing
and thinking? Is talent gained from experience or
are you born with it?
I think design can be learnt, yet some people
have a natural talent for it. It pains me to
admit it, but I don’t really consider myself to
be a talented designer. I’m not sure I have
the raw ability or the creativity.
I will work hard to be a technically strong
designer. I would like to lead projects and
work alongside the more talented designers.
I do however, have some friends who are
very talented designers and create beautiful
works. check out these guys:
Rob Francis
Joe Hughes
Isobel Williams
Mike Calandra
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Universal Languageuniversal language refers to the language
of symbols. I designed a set of abstract
symbols to be used by hunters. I don’t know
any hunters, but I’m sure hunters would love
them.
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VinylVinyl is wonderful. No other format of music
is collected and treasured like vinyl and most
likely, never will be again.
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Web DesignI’ve dedicated this year to acquiring skills that
will help get me employed. Knowledge of web
design seems to be in high demand, so I’m
studying short courses alongside the degree.
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XeroxThe photocopier is almost regarded as
obselete, but I still think its a great tool
for image making. I used it a lot during our
workshops at the start of the year and I think
its good to embrace anything that gets you off
the computer!
adams-alphabet
A ...
B ...
C ...
D ...
E ...
G ...
F ...
H ...
I ...
J ...
K ...
L ...
M ...
N ...
O ...
P ...
Q ...
R ...
S ...
T ...
U ...
V ...
W ...
X ...
Y ...
Z ...
YellowI like yellow, it evokes happy memories. when
I see yellow I think of sunshine, flowers, post-
it notes and rubber gloves.
I think I’m correct in saying that the
combination of yellow and black creates
the strongest possible contrast of any two
colours.
adams-alphabet
A ...
B ...
C ...
D ...
E ...
G ...
F ...
H ...
I ...
J ...
K ...
L ...
M ...
N ...
O ...
P ...
Q ...
R ...
S ...
T ...
U ...
V ...
W ...
X ...
Y ...
Z ...
Apple + Zapple + Z should be a sin! which would make
me a sinner.
I live in the ‘undo’ culture. I worry it makes
me complacent. I know I should spend more
time thinking and planning a design, but I
head straight for the computer safe in the
knowledge I can always ‘undo’.
I wish I did more design manually.
letterpressing, screen printing, sketching
and drawing. even cutting, and pasting with
scissors and glue. I’m going to make an effort
to try for the remaining two terms.
adams-alphabet
SUPPORTING WORKINTRO / TITLE PAGE
VCT ESSAY
A-Z
suppORTINg wORK
PPD ESSAY
WORKSHOPSThe project began with 5 weeks of studio
workshops. They were optional but I chose
to attend as many as possible in order
to intergrate myself into the course. The
workshops were diverse; covering, amongst
other things, technical skills, conceptual
thinking, experimentation, research and
analysis techniques, image making and
contextual theory. studio days were divided
into three sessions with several workshops
running during each session. This required
us to select the workshops we felt would be
most helpful or relevant.
Workshops
Images from my chosen workshops.
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOPSwork produced during the studio workshops.
DRAW
adobe Illustrator workshop for year One processing: The language of code
tradition innovationregal, royal, deep colours, jack wills,pimaries, bauhaus
bright lumionious, loud, contasting, apple, punk, secondaries
tradition innovationregal, royal, deep colours, jack wills,pimaries, bauhaus
bright lumionious, loud, contasting, apple, punk, secondaries
language of colour
WORKSHOPSwork produced during david’s subvertising
workshop. The brief was to alter an advert
and reframe, or poke fun at, its meaning.
PRINTING INDUCTIONSI signed up for a variety of print inductions
over the term. They required a full day but
provided an opportunity to experiement with
new techniques. I produced some interesting
work, some which I used in the content of my
a-Z. The workshops I attended were: lino cut
and relief printing, solar ecthing, collagraph,
letterpress and screen printing.
PRINTING INDUCTIONSwork produced during the print workshops.
Clock wise from top right: solar etching,
letterpress, lino cut, screen print, collagraph.
TALKSdurng the term I attended two ecca lectures
(enterprise centre for the creative arts):
How To Be an eco creative and making The
most of social media. Both talks helped in the
development for the a-Z. The social media
talk was a catalyst for creating the blog, and
the issues discussed in the eco creative talk
directly influenced my letter g (green).
SKETCH BOOKSI got through two and a half sketch books
for this project ! I used them to record
my thoughts. They are filled with concepts
and themes for the a-Z, lists of letters and
sketches for the layout.
INSPIRATION
1 dividers and playlist magazine
2 year planner
3 coronation souvenir
4 posters from lcc
5 dictionary and definition of ‘language’
6 grafic and Vice magazines
7 ual short course guides
8 collected leaflets
9 school portaits
10 design books
11 books on layout
12 non-design books
13 sketch books
14 free publications
15 ‘green awareness’ material
16 exhibition literature
17 illustration source material
18 silly postcards
19 colour wheel + favourite pen
20 family photographs
21 wim couwel book
Inspiration for this project came from far
and wide. I collect the things that influence
me. The items photgraphed were kept for all
sorts of reasons: the imagery, use of type,
layout, concepts, colours, information, etc;
collectively they were my inspiration.
12
45
6
8
910 11
19
121314
15 1617
18 20
21
7
3
4 206
DESIGN CHOICESThe design of the pdf has gone through
many incarnations since the project began.
countless experiments with grids, layout,
navigation, format and typefaces have led to
the final outcome.
MAKING THE LETTERSThe content of the spreads took considerable
time to construct. The following pages give
an insight into the process.
MAKING THE LETTERS
THE BLOGThe idea of the blog was to allow the work to
be accessible to a much wider audience than
a pdf or book would allow. This was my first
experience of publishing online, I looked at
several blogs for ideas and inspiration.
BIBLIOGRAPHYmade you look
Setfan Sagmeister
Things I Have learned In my life so far
Stefan Sagmeister
Basics design: grids
Ambrose & Harris
Basics design: layout
Ambrose & Harris
The essentials Of Visual communication
Bo Bergstrom
How To Be a graphic designer without ...
Adrain Shaughnessy
watching words move
Chermayeff, Geismar & Brownjohn
who I am and what I want
David Shrigley
The alphabet Of manliness
Maddox
80 20 100 wim crowel crouwel designs
Warren Lee
The amazine
Lazy Oaf
student guide VI
Vice Magazine
letterform collected
Grafik Magazine
special Report: music
Grafik Magazine
The History Issue
Vice Magazine
How To Be green by Nat walker
Monthly article,Grafik Magazine
playlist
Weekly culture guide, The Times
Books PeriodicalsWebsites & blogslazy Oaf
www.lazyoaf.co.uk
www.facebook.com
lookbook
www.lookbook.nu
fda design for graphic communciation
www.fdadgc.co.uk
Indexhibit
www.indexhibit.org
daniel eatock
www.eatock.com
Isobel williams
www.isobelwilliamsgotablog.blogspot.com
James Brook
www.factoryalphabet.info
ella camponi
www.melikesyoualot.blogspot.com
mike calandra
www.theloudmouthbraggart.tumblr.com
Rob francis
anotherfuckingdesignstudent.tumblr.com
PPD ESSAYThis has been my first major project on the fda, having joined
the course at the start of the second year. I had previously
studied part-time and short courses at lcc. The transition
has been fairly difficult and I have found this project a
considerable challenge.
The projects on my previous courses had typically been 2-4
weeks in length with relatively straight forward briefs. This
project could not be more different! I have been slightly
over-awed by the scale of the project: the time given, the
amount of work expected, the separate elements required
and self motivation needed. The project has not been without
its problems, but I feel I have learnt a great deal from the
experience and produced some good work.
The project began with 5 weeks of studio workshops. They
were optional but I chose to attend as many as possible in
order to intergrate myself into the course. The workshops
were diverse; covering, amongst other things, technical skills,
conceptual thinking, experimentation, research and analysis
techniques, image making and contextual theory. studio days
were divided into three sessions with several workshops
running during each session. This required us to select the
workshops we felt would be most helpful or relevant. during
these early weeks I was also able join year One software
training sessions and undertook several print inductions.
By mid November, the workshops were completed and we
were expected to begin work on the hundred page pdf. I
quickly decided I wanted my project to exist solely as a digital
document, rather than designing something for print. an early
problem I encountered was using grids so at my first tutorial
Ben suggested I change the format from a5 spreads to single
a4 pages, which david subsequently approved. This proved
a very good suggestion and made designing the grid a lot
easier. another early idea was to put the work online, making
it accessible to a much wider audience than a pdf or book
allows. at that point I did not know how realistic it would be
given the time available and my web publishing skills.
at this stage I was lacking a clear idea of where I wanted to
take the project, and although I had further group tutorials
throughout November, ideally I would have liked some one-to-
one sessions to talk through my ideas and direction. I did try
to arrange this but it was a very busy time for the tutors.
In early december there was a formative deadline when we
presented a draft version of the pdf. The feedback from my
tutors and peers was positive. They felt my work had strong
elements but also highlighted several areas to work on. It was
suggested the layout could be improved by varying the size and
placement of elements and allowing for more white space.
I took the feedback on board and planned to continue
developing the project after finishing work for my elective.
However, the formative assessment had been the last week
of term and the subsequent university ski trip, christmas
holidays and illness combined to distract me. It was quite
some time before I got fully back into the project. I accept
responsibility for this set back and have since worked hard to
catch up, but I know I allowed myself to waste valuable time.
salvation came in the form of blogging and stefan sagmeister!
Over the christmas holidays I borrowed his book Things I
Have learned in my life so far. I read it from cover to cover;
it kick started the project, provided a source of inspiration
and helped me to develop my own ideas. I set about creating
INTRO / TITLE PAGE
VCT ESSAY
A-Z
SUPPORTING WORK
ppd essay
new work for the spreads, but rather than concern myself
with layouts I decided to record this work on a blog. I didn’t
have time to build a website, but a blog was the ideal solution
due to its template structure and quick publishing. I created
a separate page for each letter and set up a navigation menu
using basic HTml coding.
The blog approach allowed me to focus on creating content for
all 26 letters and view them as a collection. This really helped
me to finalise a theme and make the content coherent. The blog
went through many changes with some letters having several
different posts created and tested. The format made editing
the collection easy.
creating the blog also helped with the pdf design. The blog
itself is clean and consistent with a generous amount of white
space framing the blog posts. I wanted the spreads of the pdf
to be more sophisticated and varied but still retain the feel of
the blog.
although I know I should have made better use of the
christmas holidays, I did manage do plenty of reading. I
read three books to help me address the issue of layout that
had been raised in my formative assessment. These were:
‘made you look’ by sagmeister and two books from the
Basics:design series; ‘grids’ and ‘layout’. all three have
excellent examples of grids, image placement and handling of
type. I hope I have been able to incorporate some of the ideas
into my own design. I certainly feel I have a much improved
knowledge of the area and that this project (along with my
work placement report) represents my most considered use of
layout to date.
for the final weeks of the project I have been finalising the
content of the blog and transferring the content to the pdf.
although at this late stage I have not allocated my time very
effectively: I have spent a disproportionate amount of time
working on the spreads and content, and not really allowed
sufficient time for the essays or supporting pages. I do not
want to let myself down by failing to complete all the work
required so in the future I have to allocate more time for any
supporting work required.
The theme of my a-Z is addressing what I have learnt about
graphic design as a subject, and about myself as a designer
and person. I am very happy with the finished pdf, I believe
it represents a significant achievement and a considerable
step up from last year, in terms of quality and contextual
awareness. The design has been developed and informed
through research. I have looked at numerous contemporary
examples of work for print and web, and subsequently feel
I have improved my knowledge of the subject. I have also
become aware of important issues such as social networking,
sustainability and the recession and their impact within the
industry. I have taken the opportunity to learn new skills like
screen printing and letterpress, as well as improving my
design thinking and problem solving through the workshops.
I have been able to utilise the feedback from my tutors and
peers to good effect, taking on board their comments to lead
me to further research and ultimately, improve my work.
I feel publishing my work online represents a significant step
forward. It has allowed the work to reach a wider audience
(at the time of writing the blog had 45 views and had only been
finished a week). This has helped me to gain further feedback,
and also demonstrates an increased awareness of self
marketing and self promotion.
The area that has been least successful is self management.
I am concerned by my lack of motivation over the christmas
break, and at not effectively allocating my time between the
separate areas of the project. looking back, it would have
been helpful for me to have broken the project into sub-
projects to better deal with the large time frame.