Studio Brief 1 - Interim Critique

OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup

Interim Critique

Today we were randomly split up into small groups of around 8 or 9 students, we then took it in turns to present our initial concepts to each other in order to receive feedback. I found this exercise extremely useful as it allowed me to gain a host of qualitative data that I can use when moving forward with my designs. The students in my group were extremely engaged and offered constructive feedback about the elements of each design that they like and what they though I could improve to make the design successful. 

When I asked for initial feedback on the designs I received the following responses; 

They liked how deeply I had immersed myself into my assigned word, looking past the obvious connotation in order to create a range of emotions from the word.

They liked how I had used symbolism to represent connotations for example using the line in design 14 to represent the mathematical symbol and the slashes in design 10 to represent self harm.

Design 14

Design 10

When looking specifically at each design the group made specific comments about particular designs for example; 

Design 3

one student said they liked the use of colour in design 3 and suggested I could look at using influences from space if the design was developed as space is vast and empty, this could better represent my assigned word than the current landscape scene. 

Design 4

All the students liked the use of the white space and small typography in design 3 as it created 'a strong design with minimal details'

Design 8

Design 8 was praised for its abstract origins, one student said they liked the use of red as it made the design 'pop' and stand out, they also said it would make a good display font but were unsure how it could be converted into body text. 

Design 9

Design 12

A lot of positive feedback was received by designs 9 and 12, they use similar themes on minimalism and modernism. The group as a whole said they liked the minimal details and they thought they effectively represented both 'Futura' and 'Empty' in a creative way that solves the problem set within the brief. One student said they particularly liked the vast use of empty space in design 12 as 'it works so well with the minimal details' 

A few final observations I was given to consider were that to one student lower case letters gave more intimate connotations of emptiness whereas to her capitals represented bold and confidence, another student said they preferred the use of outlines instead of a block fill as again this gave connotations of confidence. These are factors I will consider when developing my concepts further. 

Overall I have found this critique very interesting and it has given me a host of feedback I can consider when choosing 10 designs to develop into sophisticated concepts. To help me choose the strongest 10 designs I asked the group of students to mark their favourite 2 designs on the sheet in order to give me an idea of which designs they felt were most successful. This was extremely useful as they picked some of the designs that I personally thought were weaker than others they did not choose. 

Critique Feedback