Summative Statement

Within this module I have tried to produce a body of work that relates to me and what I want to do with my practice and where I am going after uni. I feel that the quality of the work may not be to the standard of what is expected at this level in our course, but I have come to the realisation that although I don't want to be an illustrator that I actually don't have the natural talent to be one anyway and I think that has really knocked my confidence and motivation.

I would have liked to have produced more briefs for this module but unfortunately I was poorly organised with prioritising the modules during the first term as I only focused on COP and It has really affected my work as I have had to play catch up with both PPP and Extended Practice, even afterwards I think I should have not done the Hasbro brief for D&AD as I could not submit it for this module and it took time to make the videos.

I am really proud of my Final Major Project as I feel like i have accomplished some personal goals of mine. I feel like my practical and digital skills have gotten better and I have worked really well to the advice of my tutors. I only wish I could have done this all year round as I feel like Ive really benefited to the practice over the last few months.

I think my passion I have with this project has been a big motivator for me as I have spent many long hours in the studio even re-doing things to improve them and I have felt accomplished within myself. I am quite happy to have this as the last project for me to leave this course on as I feel like in the time I had I couldnt do anymore, but obviously with the way I have been working, especially the last few weeks, I feel with time I could have only gotten better.

Project Report

Presentation Boards

Updated SOI

Packaging Mock Up

For the exhibition I am going to stick my box design over a box that I will purchase, and I have found one online which fits my measurements, but for now this is my proposal of what my packaging will look like. I will use the border design for the game to cover the rim of the lid and i think it looks really good.

Game Finished

I am very happy with my finished product, I have been able to print all of the elements and hard back the board. I have not made it to bend as the last time I attempted this, it didnt work so I decided the safe bet was just to make it flat.

I cant as of yet cut out the cards as i need a circle cutter but I will have to do this for the exhibition but I am really happy with how they have printed as they have come out perfectly aligned.

Overall, I am really pleased with myself as I have put a lot of work into this project for months now with all of the research that has gone into it and I am happy that I have pushed myself to better my work as I have gone along no matter how long its taken me and I think it's really paid off!

3D Longboats

My longboats have finally been printed and sent to me and I think theyre absolutely great. I had to talk to the printers to get them in different colours for the different players but they look amazing and add that extra element that will appeal to the target audience.

I couldn't have wished they had turned out better to be honest, I had shields designed to be printed separately to be stuck on but the designs were too small to be printed so for now this is all I can do, but i dont think it makes them worse at all and I am very happy with them.

Colouring Book 3rd Illustration

I have finally finished the third illustration for the Extended Colouring book brief. I am really happy with it as I tried not to overcrowd the illustration and i think on its own, it is my favourite out of the three just for the simplicity.

Overall I really like this illustration when put all together, I would have preferred to change the line thicknesses so the foreground was thicker than the background but with the time I had, it would have taken too long to re-do the trees in the first image so they went together as a set.

Packaging

When putting the packaging design together I was getting really deflated by the composition, with the rectangle shaped box leaving a lot of empty space.

When I got home I decided that a square would be a lot better as the illustration could be bigger, filling more of the composition and taking centre stage like it should.

I also changed the title from black to a grey as i thought the black was too invasive to the image and stood out too much and not with the image.

Packaging Illustration

Once again I have really benefited from the advice of my tutor, the illustration I was going to have on the packaging is really bad, it has no expression or movement.

Patrick gave me some great advice to change the illustration and I think it has really paid off, I am quite proud of what I have done for this. I am not very good at drawing people but I think this is a definite improvement to work I have made before. I really think the time I have put into the project has made my skills improve. I think the illustration and the digital skills have gone up a level personally.

I think there could be improvements, I feel like the arm looks wrong but I am not sure how to fix it.

I have tried to keep the shading to a minimum and keep it stylised for the audience I am targeting. Overall I am really happy with this and I think I really work well to critique and value the help a lot.

Colour Wheel

Ive made the colour wheel for the game, and printed it onto mountboard so that I can put a pin in the middle and it spin

Board Finished

Im really happy with the Board game, I think I have definitely pleased myself in regards to my personal goal to work on the comments i got from COP about the development of my Illustrations. I dont think I could have done more than I have obviously theres always room for improvement but I've done my best in the time I had.

Shield Designs

Im really happy with the shield designs so far, they are quite simple and serve their purpose as illustrated fact cards.

I have chosen the colours for the following categories:

Blue - Vikings In England

Green - Religion

Red - Lifestyle

Yellow - Invasion

Map

I have finished the map for the centre of the game and although I was worried that it was too boring and plain compared to the rest of the detailed illustrations on the game, Fred reassured me that it serves it purposed and I dont need to worry about changing it.

I will be placing the Vegvisir over the top of this anyway so it wont be as visible as this.

I was worried about having Northern Ireland divided on the map, as at the time Ireland was one and because it is educational i didnt know whether this would matter but I thought I would keep it recognisable to the children audience.

Speaking To Fred

I asked Fred for a mini-crit in his spare time today as I find him really helpful to me. I asked him about my shield designs and the game so far as a whole. He said i need to stop thinking of each element as an isolated illustration and start thinking of everything as a whole package as I am worrying too much.

He reassured me that my designs so far are working well doing what they are meant to do, which has reassured me to carry on and stop over thinking it.

Writing Out The Facts

When I spoke to Patrick the other day, we also discussed how I am going to write the facts on the cards. He gave me a great idea which was that I could do multiple option questions where I give a Easy, Medium, Hard option to be able to move 1,2, or 3 spaces depending on what the player can answer correctly.

I really like this idea but now I have come to writing the research I have gotten into questions and answers, it has made it a lot more difficult as now I have to include 3 facts on each question, meaning I need to do some more research for some more cards to make it's playable game.

I think this is something I will have to do after the deadline for the exhibition as I have to prioritise my time at the moment to finish the practical as that is taking longer than expected. But I am sticking with the multiple choice question as I think it is a really good idea although more difficult.

Sea Background

Ive made the background for the board game, and although it's what I wanted, minimal, shapes etc. When I have put it on the board, the colour overpowers the grey detailing that I have done and it almost hides it. I am going to have to ask for some advice on it tomorrow.

I do quite like it though as it is quite simple and gestural and does look like birdseye view

Border

When I spoke to Patrick the other day, he mentioned how he thinks I should do the border similar to the carving in the centre of the board.

I re-designed the detail to be similar but a bit different and used that as the patterned that was consistently ran around the edge of the border.

I also left little plaques for the runes from the vegvisir to be places on the four edges

I am really happy with the finished product.

New Game Moving Places

I have finally finished the new game moving places for the board game and I am really happy with how they look in the end. They did take a full day and a half to make as at first I really struggled with painting them on the computer. I think my lack of experience and skill really hindered me.

The more I persisted, the better the they got, i used new skills like using the effects on photoshops and clipping masking textures and the added details of cracks on top, really make them stand out.

Im very happy with how these look now and I am glad that I took the advice from Patrick as I think these are 100 times better than the other squares I did before hand.

Devil's Causeway

After researching Devil's Causeway with Patrick, I feel like this will be a great change to the game. I really like the hexagonal shapes that are formed in the stones, It will look really good on the game.