Self Set Module Reflection

As my University experience nears its end, I have been asked to reflect upon two projects. I have decided to evaluate my self-set project in which I found one of the most challenging.

We were given the challenge to create our own brief, which at first glance sounds easy, however developing a well thought out piece of communication for a subject is one thing, but having no boundaries and restrictions is an aspect of this project that I somewhat struggled with. Having restrictions is something that I’ve always felt present when completing my degree, even though throughout university we are told to “go wild with our ideas” I feel that having restrictions and constraints allow projects to seem as if it is a ‘live brief’, this gives you a chance to experience more of a professional approach and a much better understanding of time management when it comes to the real world.

I decided to tie this project in with my dissertation subject, which I had recently completed prior to this project. I chose to look at comic prejudice and levels of offence, a subject that I have always been interested in when it comes to communication.

Throughout the build up and research to this project I knew the final piece was going to carry a somewhat controversial impact because of the subject matter I had chosen. I selected three subjects of social matter that I felt the comic process exposes, Racism, Homophobia and Sexism.

I felt it was important for my communication aim to be shown in the form of three anonymous individuals, using subtle information graphics on the outer box. I intended this to be acknowledged by the viewer but not understood at first. The idea was to show each individuals reaction to the jokes shown throughout the series of booklets. I now feel that this could have been better with more consideration.

I encountered a few damaging problems with this project. Two weeks in to the four-week project I fell ill causing me to have to leave Cardiff and miss a considerable amount of vital project time. On return I received an extension from the tutors, but I feel that the damage had already been done, falling out of sync with the project and not being in a creative environment had affected my outlook on the project and in turn built a dislike for my final project.

After sometime and thought, I still think the idea is one of my best and produced some really interesting results. The module feedback I received flagged up many of the worries that I had when designing for such controversial content, however I feel I have learnt a great deal from this project, good and bad.