Design Principles Evaluation

Colour Theory
Colour theory was probably the most difficult to grasp in terms of all the technical information, and the idea of perception of colour was sort of mind blowing and insanely confusing. Using the coloured paper to demonstrate it practically did help though, especially being able to photograph it to understand a camera's effect on colour. Using the pantone swatches and being able to see the breadth of colours was amazing, and I definitely want to start using pantone swatches more to inform my designs. I feel like I am now more generally informed on colour, and more confident in being able to talk about the technical terms such, and applying them.

Photography
This was probably my favourite workshop, as I have always wanted to learn properly how to use a DSLR camera, but previously I have never had access to a decent camera. The workshop was long enough and informative enough for me to learn the basics and then be able to experiment, and I think I actually produced some decent photographs. Being able to explore the college given the brief of photographing circles was also interesting, and having to focus on frame and format meant that I was able to think more about the image I was taking so that it could be more visually interesting. The way the brief developed into the hot dog booklet brief was also really enjoyable, and I liked the freedom we were allowed.

Typography
Learning about the elements of typography that I had never even thought about before was really interesting, and the practical elements where we had to create frankenstein type really helped me to understand the anatomy of type better. The exercise on the hierarchy of type was also quite interesting and has definitely informed my work from then on. It was also really useful that the module was being taught around the same time of the type tasks we were creating for our design practice module. Although I still struggle with some elements of the anatomy of type, I do think that if I keep going back to the tasks and things taught to me I will keep improving.

Grid and Layout
This has been the most useful module for me, and I really liked being able to learn the process by actually doing, with guidance from Lorenzo. Learning about leading was one of the most interesting things, despite it being quite difficult to grasp - particularly where there is negative leading in copy print. Being able to create our own layouts to work on the technicalities of grids was really quite difficult, but really helpful and interesting, and it was encouraging to be shown very experimental layouts that showed us that just because layouts can be very formal in their organisation, design wise you can be incredibly creative.