OUGD405 - Research, Collect, Communicate : PRODUCT self evaluation

In this project we were asked to create a product based on our research theme. My research theme was Buddhism. I decided to create a pop-up information book about the story of Siddhartha Gautama for children.

Things I like about my final resolution:

I really like the way my final resolution turned out because I think personally it is the most professional piece of work I have done so far, especially considering the time frame I was given. I think I have definitely speeded up as a designer and are more efficient in my design decisions. The pop ups are all working and work well will the story.

Things I wish I had done differently:

If I could do this project over again I would make sure I got all of my artwork done as quickly as possible and organise printing sessions as early as possible to ensure there are no problems. I found that because my pop-up artwork itself was not finished in time for my reprographics booking time, I only printed my book itself in the reprographics and the pop ups were printed on the laser printer. This meant that some of the colours came out differently to the book itself and the toner ink started to flake off of the folds on the pop ups themselves. This could have been avoided.
In the crit on 25th Jan, I was told that my book did not fulfill the brief set because it wasn't very informative. Although I could argue that everything I included in the book was factual and critical to Buddhism as a religion, I agree that it wasn't very informative and probably wouldn't count as infographics. I would have needed to include more facts and statistics. 
After the crit I had an idea that I would create a belly band for around the book to keep it closed and also to display some infographics. I even thought about having this in silver foil to make it look like a special 'factual infographic' edition. Although I think that this would look really good, I did not pursue it, mainly because I didn't think I had enough time this week to execute it, but also because I didn't think that that would appeal to my target market. But I know I chose the target market myself and so essentially chose to not stick to the brief.

Overall I really like my final design but there are still some things I need to work on to build up my skills and time management.