Evaluation

Finding a clientThe first part of the project for me was finding who I wanted to potentially take on as my client for the project, and this was something that was important to me, as I felt that I needed to be working on something I would actually enjoy rather than it just being something I was doing for the sake of doing. I also wanted to make sure that I actually was doing something I was skilled in, like graphic design based work, rather than taking on something like Photography for example.The first step was to decide who I wanted to contact, and at first I thought about the idea of doing something for a shoe shop, so I looked for a few independent shoe shops around York and tried to get in touch. Unfortunately my repsonses were fairly limited, but a great idea came to mind. I decided to get in touch with the owner of cake delivery shop ‘Munchies Cakeaway’, whom I happened to also work for, and thought it would be a fun project to get involved with espeically considering the fact that I already knew a bit about the client having worked for him for several months.

The original email I sent to various shoe shops including ‘A Watkinson’ and ‘Up & Running’.

• After successfully getting a response from Oliver Webb (the owner of munchies), we then met in person (informal brief) to discuss ideas and what he might want from me. I liked the ideas he was throwing out and definitely wanted to get involved, so then I emailed him asking for a formal brief in which he filled in a template we’d be given. I thought it would be absolutely essential to try and maintain good client/worker communication from the very start of the project, and this is one of the reasons that I though receiving an informal brief as well as a formal one would be beneficial to the project. The formal brief can be found below.

Creating work• After successfully being briefed by Oliver, it was time for me to start work.

What I’d learnt so far was that the requirements of my client were very specific, and he knew exactly how he wanted everything to be prior to even starting production. Some might argue that this would make the project easier, but I’d argue that I’d prefer to have more of a free reign. He had briefed me 2 specific tasks, the first (and most important) was the redesign of Munchie’s Cakeaway menu. He wanted me to make It look more interesting, and felt that it lacked in terms of imagery, but at the same time didn’t want a complete aesthetic overhaul.

• The second task he handed to me in the brief was making Facebook and Twitter banners that would display basic contact information about the shop, and also look fun and eye catching.

• A style sheet was given to me in which I had to strictly follow colour schemes, fonts and other visual rules set in place. I’ll present the style sheet below.

• On this slide are some very basic mock ups of what I wanted to create for my client. These were created very quickly, with the intention of simply showing my client a very vague idea of the way in which I could lay the pieces of work out.

• After creating the original idea for a Munchie’s ‘milkshake man’ mascot, based on what he had told me he wanted me to create, I decided to show him the idea. This was the original image I created and sent him.

This was an incomplete piece of work, but I wanted to see what my client would think of it early on, rather than risk him not liking it after spending a large amount of time on it.

Unfortunately, he didn’t actually like this original design for the milkshake man, and sent me the response two slides below.

• This was the original balloon idea, which he felt lacked detail.

He then also sent me these sketch ideas that he said he’d like me to try and work from when creating the mascot.

I proceeded to send Oliver a host of different emails, all highlighting different potential ideas I’d come up with and different drafts, but unfortunately for me, by this point it seemed that he has slightly lost interest in the project and is yet to send any more responses to this day.

• From then on, I felt that it was completely up to me to get everything done by myself, without any guidance from him, and I came up with these final ideas, all the time aiming to stick to the information I’d been provided with while not being able actually get any worthwhile feedback off of him. This was the final balloon idea I produced for him. Like I said , I went by the fact that he had told me he wanted it to be of higher detail than the previous design.

• After playing around and creating these final images for my client, I was finally as ready as I would ever be to make the menu and banners. Again, as I’ve said, by this point I was pretty frustrated at the lack of communication that my client was giving me, but at the same time, I was willing to really give it my best shot. First I tackled the menu, due to Oliver specifying it as being the primary task and priority, and this took me a solid couple of weeks of hard work from college. The banners were then fairly quick to produce, but due to the complete lack of feedback on them, I really had to just do them how I actually wanted them to look, and how I picture Oliver would actually want them to look whilst referring back to the formal brief.

Final menu – inner and outer

Final banners – Facebook and Twitter

Top: facebook Bottom: Twitter

Managing the project• Overall, I wasn’t particularly pleased with the way the project was

managed. This was mainly, as mentioned, down to my client being useless at replying. I don’t blame him for this, as I know he is a busy man, and runs multiple different businesses, making it hard for him to reply. Maybe this was something I should’ve considered prior to starting the project. Despite all this, I think I’ve done a great job at working by myself in order to get everything done to a high standard, and to create work that I am myself proud of, and my client seems to be to. In terms of resource management, it’s all gone very smoothly. I knew exactly what resources I needed from the very beginning, and was aware that I’d need access to both Photoshop and InDesign throughout the project, both at home and at college. Time wise, it was slightly tight for time due to the constraints of the project, added onto by the fact that I was having to work on a project for Ben simultaneously. I managed to get everything done on time, but admittedly It was getting slightly stressful towards the end.

Requirements of the brief• Despite the lack of communication between me and my client through

the bulk of the project, the brief I was given was nice and clear, and gave me lots of details in which I could work off in order to make sure what I did matched what my client wanted. Added to this the addition of an informal meeting/brief, I could get a great understanding of what he wanted early on, and I feel that the face to face conversation involve in the informal brief really helped me gauge a better understanding of what he wanted from the project. Throughout my project, despite minimal feedback I would constantly refer back to my written brief, and also the style sheet provided, to maximize the amount of correlation between the final pieces and what the brief set out to ask of me. To conclude, I felt that I was more than efficient at meeting the requirements of the brief when considering the circumstances I was put under due to my client’s lack of communication. I went for ‘fun’, ‘excitement’ and novelty value and my primary targets, just as the brief had suggested, and feel that the end products are a valid reflection of that.

Legal • There actually wasn’t a great deal I’ve had to consider from this

perspective. All of my images used through the project were sourced by myself, meaning that I created them, making me the owner. This has completely eliminated the need to obtain any kind of copyright for images used. To add to this point, the fonts used (Gotham Bold and Gotham Book) are both free fonts, meaning that I could stay out of trouble at all times. All of the content of my project is completely safe from a legal perspective, and this was something that I took into consideration at all times. It was particularly important due to the fact that it wouldn’t actually be me getting in trouble if I had breached copyright laws, but would actually be my client who found themselves in legal trouble. This is something that you’ve really got to consider in a project like this, because a client who ends up getting sued on your behalf isn’t going to be a happy one, and certainly won’t be one who pays you! Other than this, there wasn’t really much for me to consider from a legal perspective, and I feel that the project was handled well when it came to this issue.

What have I learnt• The main thing I’d say I’ve learnt through this project is that working for a client can be an extremely

stressful task to undertake. This if for a multitude of different reasons, such as the fact that time constraints can always get in the way, and mean that you’re actually constantly under pressure when doing the work. Also the fact that you can’t really do what YOU want, but instead have to throw some of your own creative tendencies out of the window in order to cater for your client’s own needs is something that I find fairly stressful. To add to all this, I’ve learnt that client communication is pretty much completely essential to a project, and without constant feedback, it makes it much more difficult to actually make something that you yourself are completely sure your client will be pleased with.

• In general, I feel that clients can be quite close minded, and I learnt that it is normal for draft work or early designs to be rejected by your client and told to be improved upon. I guess it’s fair to say I’ve learnt now that this is a normal part of working for a client, and not something that can be avoided, because ultimately, the client is always right. THEY are the one paying YOU to do the work they want, and not the other way round.

• If I was to over do this sort of freelance style of work commercially, I’ve learnt that I’d have to ensure more communication between me and the given client, and this is something that in a professional scenario of course would’ve been much more organized than it was in this project, through more discussion meetings, phone calls etc.

• I’ve ultimately learnt a lot about myself too, and I’ve learnt that I do very much enjoy the graphic design style of work in which I’ve done for my project. Perhaps this is something that I might now choose to pursue in the future, and I feel that this project has been greatly beneficial in this sense and provided me with a taste of professional work that I’ll use in order to excel me in future projects, whether professional, in education, or just for fun.