OUGD501 - Module Evaluation

Essay
My essay question was ‘How the Digital Dominate World has an Impact on Printed Publications and their Future.’ Print is a very interesting topic to me, and as a fond lover of books, magazines and print publications I thought it would be the perfect topic. Upon starting my essay research I was very confident that print was dying, and definitely declining thanks to the digital age and the rise of technology such as smartphones and tablets. Print seemed to be replaced by digital versions, eg newspapers, eBooks, emails. But during my research into the topic I discovered that I was completely wrong, print is not dying. It is actually thanks to the eBook that print is now seen as something more of a luxury item and a thing of beauty; print has become more appreciated and respected. Premium magazines are becoming more popular. The cover of a book is the first thing that you see, and the first opinion you make about a book, they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we do. As a designer and a visual person the cover would be the first thing that was judged. Well-designed covers add value and appreciation to books. Ebooks are yet to branch out in design, and no digital publication is yet to be pushed to its full creative design potential. They are very new things that have been kept very practical and simple, they are something that has not been fully explored. I came to the conclusion that the most successful way for print and digital to work is to coexist. It is not an either or situation, E books are not a better format replacing an inferior one; they offer a whole different experience. The best way to work is to bring together both the strengths of digital and of print.

Overall I am very pleased with how my essay turned out, I enjoyed writing it. One of the main struggles I had with writing my level 4 essay was planning, I didn't plan any of it and just seemed to add points and quotes as I came across them. It lacked structure and was a mess because of this. So this time I put a lot of time and effort into planning my essay, deciding what should go where and to insure it flows well. Another strength of my essay way that I did a lot of research before I even started to write it, to make sure that I has a good understanding of the topic first. In my level 4 essay I was researching and writing at the same time, and because of this I didn't really fully understand my topic and what I was writing. I am terrible at essays, but I think that I have improved a lot since first year.

The main weakness of the essay is the tone of voice; I just don’t feel that it has a professional feel to it. In the future I will try to spend more time structuring my writing to sound more mature and professional.

Practical
My practical work was a response to the people that believe print is dead. I created a magazine called spread, the celebrated the beauty of printed publications. I wanted to create something that people would want to keep and collect, similar to people’s attitudes towards vinyl records. It would be aimed at more niche audiences.

On a whole I am happy with how my magazine has turned out. One of main strength was time management. In past projects this has always been an issue for me. But while designing this I planned my time more efficiently and completed it well before the deadline. Because of this I found I was not rushing and have more time to experiment with the layout and be confident that I designed it to my full potential.

I came across a problem while cutting out my spreads, they didn't line up when I cut them out. I wasn't sure if this was because I had cut them out wrong or if the printer caused them to not line up correctly. I left my printed quite late, if I had of given myself longer I could have reprinted the magazine and insured that it was cut out with more attention this time.