Evaluation

Evaluation

• 1.
  Evaluation Tom Haase
• 2.
  Research • I wasn’tvery happy with my research I conducted, as I feel I only looked at a limited amount of websites and didn’t conduct any primary research. For example if I had more time or if I had worked harder/faster I would want to create a survey on SurveyMonkey which I have used before. This would have been useful because it would provide information from peers/people my age that I know, making it reliable information and unbiased as I would be asking all types of people, compared to an article made purely through the interest of vinyl records. • Another improvement I would make is researching my client’s original products and how I will be using these to create my products and showing how I will be improving them, with the reason for the improvement as well. • I fairly pleased with the audience information I researched, as it provided me with enough information to create products based towards an idea. I used socioeconomic guidelines to decide what social status I will be aiming towards, and decided the age, gender and character of my audience in detail. This was helpful because it allowed me to limit my ideas of colours and styles etc. making it easier for my ideas and planning and overall production.
• 3.
  Planning – Ideas •To start my planning I used Bubbl.us to create mind maps to show my ideas. I made a mind map for each of my three ideas (poster, business card and website). I made each mind map as detailed as possible with different routes I could take for my products and the outcome those routes would lead to, for example I mentioned multiple different colours, who they’d appeal to, where I would use them, how I would use them and the reason for these choices. I made a variety of routes in my mind maps (image, design/style, font and colour). This was very useful as it gave me a clear guideline of what I want to make and how I can do this during production. It was also a very good way of displaying my ideas for other people, so others could see my reasoning behind what I produced and why I produced it. After completing my mind maps I summarised them and decided my idea I was going to use for my final production and how this would effect my finished product and its appeal to my target audience. If I were to plan future ideas I will use mind maps again, in this amount of detail, and I don’t think I can improve the initial ideas process. • Next I discussed my summarised ideas in more detail and using pictures (as you can see from the screenshots below). I chose two fonts for each feature (heading and information text) using Dafont and explained why I am going to use these fonts. Although during production I chose to change some of the fonts I originally picked as I didn’t like the appearance on my products, meaning I should have planned the appearance more, testing which colours work well with which fonts. The colours I discussed in my planning were the colours I used because they were the store’s colours and standard black and white colours.
• 4.
  Planning – ProductionExperiments • These production experiments were very brief and I didn’t spend a lot of time on them, hence the lack of skills shown (apart from the sound wave image). I made the first two images to show very roughly how I am going to produce my work, along with the professional products I followed as an idea to make them. I then discussed the images, talking about why I chose certain features and the layouts and how this could effect the appeal to my audience. I didn’t use fonts I had chosen in my planning in my production experiments, however if I were to do this again and create my planning I would use the fonts I had chosen in my planning, and the exact colours I displayed and discussed. This would have been a helpful improvement because during production I wasn’t satisfied with the the appearance of the colours and fonts together on the poster, therefore I changed those features to different ones from what I chose in my planning. If I had completed the production experiments properly, I wouldn't’t have had this problem. • The picture on the far right is a sound wave I created following a tutorial on YouTube. However I didn’t choose to use this in my final product as I didn’t like the appearance and I wanted a more simpler look, so I made a different sound wave instead.
• 5.
  Time Management • Inmy opinion I don’t believe I managed my time very well for the research and planning, however with production I think I had enough time to produce my work efficiently and with enough detail and skills shown, although I didn’t produce a lot of work, (only 3 products), therefore I could have possibly used my production time better (worked quicker and harder) to either produce more products or spent some extra time on my research and planning PowerPoints, improving them. • I made a production schedule in my planning, however I didn’t make a detailed schedule, therefore I wasn’t working towards little but often deadlines and was just working towards finishing a product each week and improving them in the mean time (whenever my client gave me feedback). If I were to complete this project again, I would make a more detailed schedule for my production, which would be easier to create and follow if my planning was more detailed and advanced. This would allow me to notice if I’m behind or ahead of schedule, so I know if I need to work harder/faster or if I need to spend more time on my products.
• 6.
  Working With TheClient • This was my first time working for/with a client, therefore I don’t have any other experience with a client to compare this project to. • In my opinion I thought it was fairly difficult with improvements because my client didn’t reply to my E-mails very quick and usually took quite a lot of time to reply, therefore I couldn’t work on my improvements, however in real client projects the client could always going to be unreliable or take a while to respond, meaning this was good experience, as it allowed me to take my own initiative and make my own decisions on behalf of the client, which I think he approved of. • If I wanted a more in depth and frequent feedback from my client I could have visited his store (as I didn’t live far away from it), and spoke to him in person, however I didn’t. This could have been helpful because then I wouldn’t had to wait a long time for feedback, but on the other hand, my client said he was quite busy during this period, therefore visiting his store may have been too pressing or wouldn’t have sped the process up anymore then E-mailing him.
• 7.
  Technical Qualities (comparison) Thetitle of the professional product is very standard with a sans serif font, whereas mine is a little more interesting with a font chosen from Dafont. Both titles stand out on the poster,, however my title takes some attention of the image (because the colour is brighter) which doesn’t work as well. The colour on the professional product has been used much more effectively in my opinion because the bright background makes the image stand out more (as this is the main focus point), whereas my background colour is very dark, meaning it doesn’t contrast as well as I’d hoped with my image. The colour of the text has been used effectively on both products as it makes them stand out as much as they need to, showing similarity in the products. The image itself is very interesting and detailed, making it quite effective, as people will notice this and appreciate the aesthetics of it. However compared to the professional product the image doesn’t stand out or contrast with the background colour, as both colours are dark on my poster. The information text on my poster is clear and easily understandable. The text is fairly small because it’s not a focus point, which is a similar feature to the professional product. On both products some of the text is very contrasting to the background, making it stand out a little more than the other text, meaning it’s more important, showing the reasoning behind both product’s design is similar. The layout on both products are very similar because I used this poster as an idea of how to create mine. The image is the clear focus point in the centre, the title is fairly eye-catching and the information is at the bottom, displayed with less importance and focus attention.
• 8.
  Technical Qualities (comparison) Thetitle here is eye-catching and bold, which is similar to mine, with both titles contrasting with its background. The title is central and below the image, meaning it’s of second most importance. The background colour on this product is very overwhelming, which isn’t a very good aspect to have, because it doesn’t contrast with the image, meaning the image doesn’t stand out. On the professional product the background colour and the image contrast well, which is how I would improve my product. However on both products the title contrasts well with the background colours, making them easily noticeable. The font of my title is the same as my poster, creating the link between my products. The other text is simple, similar to the professional product, and easy to read, as it’s information that needs to be easily readable. The layout is very standard and easy to understand, showing only the important features. The layout is very similar to my product as I used this as a guide to follow, meaning my layout is professional looking. The image my product is interesting and well designed, whereas on the professional product the image is very simple, however for a business card (and possibly their target audience) the simplicity may be a benefit. Both images are central and are a focus point along with the title. The image on the professional product is much more eye-catching than mine due to the colour, which is how I could improve my product.
• 9.
  Technical Qualities (comparison) Thetitle is again the same as the front of the card because otherwise both of the sides wouldn’t look apart of each other. Both titles are contrasting to the background, making it stand out, which is a similarity between both products. The information text is very clear, once the viewer is putting all their attention on it. The use of white and orange in the text makes it easier to look at, as it’s not plain and boring, making certain information stand out more. The layout for both products are very similar to each other,, as I used this product as a guide. Both layouts are effective in making the information clearly displayed, but keeping the interesting aesthetics of the card. The colour of the professional product is likely more effective than mine because the background is clearly contrasting with the image and text, however the colours on my card are fairly dark, making the image hard to see and the text hard to read. Both products have the image on the side of the card, with only half the image showing. This makes the image no longer a focus point, as the information is supposed to the focus of attention.
• 10.
  Aesthetic Qualities The titleon my poster looks interesting, as it isn’t a simple sans serif font, making the poster look more creative. It contrasts well with the background, making it stand out to the viewer. It’s large enough to be effective on the poster and fits with the style of the poster (old- fashioned) as it doesn’t look modern (as bubble fonts would for example). The information text on my poster brings more of a variety of colour and text size, making it look more spread-out, with different sized text. The bottom section with the contact information makes the poster look more professional and makes it look like an actual advertisement poster, instead of just a regular poster. The of this poster is very typical with the title at the top, the image in the middle and the information text at the bottom. This isn’t a bad aspect however because it makes the poster clear and simple, which many people appreciate. The colour of the background on my poster is a little overwhelming and means the attention isn’t focused on the image and title as much as I had hoped. It also makes the poster look slightly washed out, especially when looking at it from a distance, which would be the case a lot of the time, when shown a wall. The image on my poster is a main focus point as you can usually see this feature first. The image of the vinyl record looks very realistic and well- designed (even though I created it from scratch). The image doesn’t stand out as much as I would like, however it still stands out a bit, as it’s a main focus point of the poster.
• 11.
  Aesthetic Qualities The coloursof my business card didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. The dark blue is very overwhelming and makes the whole card look too dark, meaning the image doesn’t stand out as it’s dark as well, and the information text isn’t clear and easy to read. The information text isn’t very contrasting with the background meaning it’s hard to read a little, however the use of the store’s second colour ‘orangey-yellow’ brings more of a variety to the card and makes it more interesting to look at. The title on my business card stands out well as it is large and bold along with the contrast to the background. The overlapping of the title against the image shows its importance on the business card and this is definitely noticeable. The layout of my business card is very simple and ordinary which is useful for a business card as its purpose is to display information and isn't used to ‘catch the viewer’s eye’ as much as the poster is. The image on my card is central, making it noticeable, however the colour of the image against the background doesn’t work very effectively,, as they blend slightly, and don’t contrast with each other. Although the image itself is well designed and interesting to look at.
• 12.
  Aesthetic Qualities This titleis the same as the one on the front of the card, creating a link between the two sides of the card. It also makes the card look more structured as a whole, with the title being displayed clearly at the top. For the information text I used the same font as the text on the other side of the card, again keeping the link between both sides. It is also makes the card look more professional as text is displayed clearly and effectively. The layout of the back of my card makes my card look very professional with the simplicity and clearly displayed information. I like the layout of my card with the image on the right (only showing half of it) and the information displayed clearly, just off centre because it makes the card look more interesting. The background colour on my card (similar to the front of the card) is quite overwhelming and doesn’t make the image look very good, due to its lack of contrast. The colours as whole look aesthetically pleasing, bringing a variety of different colours to the product, making it look a lot less simple and ordinary. The image on the back of my business card, in my opinion, is very interesting as it’s positioned halfway off the card, showing it’s not supposed to be centre of attention. It’s the same image as the front of the card, keeping the link between the sides once again. The image is however hard to see due to the dark background, meaning the viewer can’t appreciate the image as much as they could.
• 13.
  Audience Appeal • Ifeel as if I have appealed to my audience with the overall aesthetics because I have created my poster to be interesting, instead of plain and boring. This appeals to my audience of people aged 18-34 because, typically, they appreciate creative designs more rather than people of an older generation, who usually prefer the design to be simple, with not much excitement. • On the other hand you could say that I have appealed to the rest of my audience (people of an older generation) with the simplicity. Even though my product is more than simple with the imagery and colour, the layout is very simple. The simple layout and design makes it very easy for the audience to understand and read, meaning they are more likely to read the product and see the information because it’s not a difficult task (this is especially true for my target audience of the ages 18-34). • The main colours I used was blue and this is because the store’s main colour is blue, although I believe this colour appeals to both genders (even though traditionally blue appeals more to males. My image is a main focus of my product and usually people would see this image and be interested in the product (as the image shows exactly what the product is about – vinyl records). On the other hand the blue colour in the background of both of my products can be seen as very stand-out and overwhelming, meaning if people don’t like the colour blue or stereotypical views are true with certain people then females won’t be as attracted to my products as males would be and this is the same with people who aren’t interested in the colour blue.
• 14.
  Client Feedback • Arethere any stronger messages you could put in I don’t believe there is much more information to include that is important enough to add, however the message on my products could be more meaningful, especially a message to my target audience. On the other hand a meaningful message could be hard to portray due to my audience being ranged from 18 to 34 (which is a wide range). • What is the target market? The target market is aged 18-34 and I believe, with the research I have conducted, I have appealed to my target audience enough, although I could have improved in this aspect a little more, for example with main colour, as I could have made it a little brighter to appeal more to the females in my target audience. • Too much blue not enough white. The Blue background is a bit overwhelming (this is especially true on the card) I agree with this statement as I have discussed in my technical and aesthetic evaluation, and this would be the first improvement I would make if I were to complete this project again. • Don’t mix new and old branding. Go for the use of one logo The main image wasn’t suppose to a new logo, it was just supposed to be an interesting image connected to the store’s sale item. However changing the image a little may be of benefit as it apparently looks like a logo. • On the footer of the poster use the same font as on the main poster I thought the use of different fonts was a good aspect of my poster, creating more of a variety to my poster, however if my client believes I should have kept the same font, may mean it doesn’t look very professional.
• 15.
  Peer Feedback • Whatdid you like about my products? - The poster provides lots of interesting features and clean visual aesthetics that appeal well to the audience. The brand has been well recreated. The textured background helps the record to stand out, making it obvious to the audience what the product is about. - The business card continue the record lines around the card which is a really satisfying effect. The soundwave that travels behind the record is a good effect too. • What improvements could be made? - The important information such as the discount info and the free parking isn’t very visible at first glance. These factors would really help the brand to gain interest so making them more obvious would help the product. - The soundwave could be an orange to make it stand out more. - The colors are slightly different to the poster.
• 16.
  Peer Feedback • Whatdid you like about my products? - I like the blue sound waves added on the poster making it clear what the product is about and it’s a nice design on the images. - The poster also has a great look to it the font/text is very visible and its simple and basic doesn’t have to much information on it. • What improvements could be made? - I feel like the blue might be a bit too bright and it kind of interferes with the text a little bit but not to much making the text blend a little with the background. Making the blue darker might have solved the small problem but its nothing big I feel like it didn’t have any big problems.
• 17.
  Peer Feedback • Whatdid you like about my products? - There is many different aspects throughout each product that I believe stands out. The most noticeable is the vinyl that is placed in the center of each product. I like this because it has very personal touches for your client, I.e. the ‘Vinyl Eddie’ which helps inform he audience who’s company you’re referring to. - I also like the sound wave that is placed behind product 1. The reason why I like this is because the color helps bring the page to life due how vibrant it is presented. It also works well with the vinyl placed in front. • What improvements could be made? - An improvement I would make for the future is trying to use the same colors throughout each product so it’s easier for your audience to realize it’s referring to the same company. Besides this, I believe everything else indicates this. - I would suggest using the darker blue if you was to apply this improvement as I believe it works a lot better than the brighter blue. The reason why I believe this is because the brighter blue takes the attention away from the product itself.