Practical work evaluation

After completing my practical work for this project I can now reflect on successful I feel it has gone. My ambitions were to create an publication in the form of an online to inform the reader on examples of art and design in politics and what this can do to help change the world.

 As highlighted in my essay I feel both artists and designs when confronted with an issue they feel in touch an passionate about they feel a social obligation to act in some way. Exploring examples of this theme a range of formats shows how varied each example of can be and still have a lasting impact. Within my essay I spoke of the image being a powerful tool of promote change, this is explored in a range of examples in the magazine, through painting, sculpture, installation art, photography, graphic design, mural design and using social media I planned to give an overview of the power of the image and feel I have done so with success. 

For the format of the magazine in my research the artist Ai Weiwei spoke of the internet being the greatest art form of the 21st century and the best and most accessible platform to voice your opinion, due to this I wanted to make my designs work in an online format and using the website 'issuu' meant I could display and share my designs with ease. As shown in the issuu link bellow. 

In terms of design and content I looked closely at the work of Adbusters, Baseline magazine and The Black Cover Book', 'The Grey Cover Book' and 'The White Cover Book' works by Ai Weiwei, all with an emphasis on highlighting political and social issues around the world. There design in essence was direct and impacting, the use of large bold typography and black backgrounds was a design feature seen throughout the various design this was then something I knew I had to translate into my own designs, and I feel I have done this to good effect. The choice of dynamic images was something that really adds to this, using either black and white images or image with a strong use of colour, overall I feel with the photos I have picked they are appropriate to the content and are engaging in the context. Some elements of the design I feel could have been improved upon the use of consistent typography, for me this is something that can be changed throughout a publication but some my think it needs to be totally consistent throughout. Another issue I feel I could have improved could be thinking about a range of ideas, I feel I may have just gone with my initial idea and a range of ideas would bring up theme I didn't initial think of. Lastly the other thing I feel I could definitely have improved upon is the creation of my own additional content, my idea is to celebrate politically driven art and design but inclusion of my own design work in response could have proved engaging.

Overall in my practical work for Context of Practice I feel my design fully relate to the themes in my essay and the designs I have created are to a high standard with a lot of research and development backing up my design decisions. I feel my knowledge of politically driven art and graphics has greatly improved but I would like to look to keep improving on my essay writing and application of design principles and ideas highlighted in more complex texts. Context of Practice is the project I feel I struggled with most on my time in the first year, I found it difficult to get motivated for the projects but after I reworked my essay after my feed back and may my work relate more in line with my interests in graphics I found I really enjoyed a further level of analysis in the theme of graphics. Feedback is a large part of making insuring my designs are appropriate and competent but is another aspect I feel I could have pushed and improved upon. I am pleased all in all with my final outcomes for this brief and would like to look to continue to explore the them of politically driven art and design.