Overall I've really quite enjoyed this brief. Originally when we were proposed this brief I was a little anxious about what was in store, in the previous brief with a collaborative partner decisions were shared and direction was taken forward together. For this brief it felt at first like the complete opposite.. What do I like? What do I want to produce? What limitations do I have? The first time you write a brief feels very weird, calling all the shots and making decisions with noone to tell you different.
At the end I'm quite surprised with the results, I'm quite proud of what I've achieved with the time I've had and with few limitations to what direction I can take. A strength to the brief has been the ability to create and experiment in some cases so much more than I would. I had a small set of guidelines to produce typefaces which would eventually promote skype and was left to it. I think writing the brief yourself makes it much more personal, and much more important to achieve in. The nature of the brief mean't I wasn't by a mac all of the time and sketching to try and visualize ideas, it was more of a case of trial and error throughout the brief. If something worked, I kept it and tweaked it, if something didn't then it was reattempted or stopped altogether, making progress and developing stronger ideas gradually.
I think that was one of the weaknesses of the brief throughout the 5 weeks, I knew how long I had to produce a body of work but the brief was very open ended, knowing I had to produce typefaces but with fewer other restrictions. Should I have set time scales to produce certain amounts of type tests for certain dates? Would I have produced worst typefaces because I would of felt rushed? or more possibilities to have a wider variety? should this of been one of the considerations to direct the brief throughout?
Crits and feedback sessions were really varied in quality throughout, the 'show and tell' crit we had wasn't as expected, not with the actual feedback I received but with how people used the time. In the partners I received only 3 pieces of feedback from the entire group whereas we (my pair) made the effort to give constructive feedback to each member of the group which felt alittle selfish. I did enjoy the initial concept crit for deciding briefs and the final crit format. Both felt like very professional environments and I came away with really useful feedback for both.
Since beginning the brief and as I have progressed, the idea of directing my own brief and creating my own projects seems so much more inspiring to direct what I produce, I'm realizing so many things i want to produce that I haven't considered before- more identities, merchandise, skateboards, DVD covers. I think I'm going to enjoy writing my own over summer.
