Module Reflection - 'Real World' Project

One of the projects that really stood out to me on reflection of this year was the ‘Real World’ module. This was a month long project that involved creating an identity for a youth centre in Newcastle where young people could meet and get involved in a range of creative activities, appealing to a target audience between the ages of 11 and 23. I believe it stood out to me greatly as it was an opportunity to work in a group that consisted of five students. As we were collaborating in a group effort we were all able to identify our strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve the maximum potential from our work. While some students are highly accomplished with using digital software, I feel rather confident with copywriting and was able to put forward this strength and contribute greatly in this area while helping to produce visual designs using the Adobe suite. This group dynamic really inspired me to work hard and contribute as a team member.

As part of this module our group had the opportunity to visit ‘Departures’ design studio in Cardiff Bay to receive tuition from the creative director, Aled Phillips. Gaining constructive criticism from a professional outside our university surroundings was highly helpful as he was able to inform us of how to make an original outcome with his knowledge of the commercial design industry. As Aled found one of our concepts to be more original than the other, we were able to take this advice on board to further develop our more unique idea for a more distinctive design outcome.

At the end of this brief, I received some very informative and encouraging feedback from our tutor Olwen. I really enjoyed this module and it's always good to hear how others think you performed. I am definitely my biggest critic and what stood out most to me within the feedback was,




"If there's one thing that comes out loud and clear it's that you should be more confident about your abilities and be assured that you have much to offer."




When working in a team it can be easy to compare yourself against others and I found myself rather intimidated by the skill level of my four other team members. However, this feedback gave me confidence in my design capabilities and made me realize that we all have our individual strengths. I just need to make sure I have confidence in order to really play to my full potential.

Overall, everybody put in a very solid effort and as a result our team won a weeklong work experience opportunity with Elmwood in London after presenting our concept to the client. This module was able to develop my team working capabilities and refine my design skills by learning from others more proficient in this area. On the whole I found this experience very rewarding and am extremely pleased that our group managed to successfully answer the client’s brief that resulted in gaining a work experience opportunity, resulting in the best outcome from a project I have had all year.