Origin presentation and evaluation

Today we presented our exhibition proposal to peers and a variety of tutors and level 5 students. The concept and professionalism of the presentation was generally well received however seeing it all laid out further cemented my thoughts about the idea being a little too middle of the road and boring. I think we knew it likely wouldn't be selected before the presentations began which is not a good place to be.  

The main positives given to us in feedback where: 

• The general theme of 'origin' is very strong and interesting and definitely something that could be developed more in order to have a more refined collateral outcome for the exhibition.
• The overall visual identity was very consistent across all elements of the exhibition and produced a strong brand for the exhibition itself.
• The humour in the video element livened it up a bit 

Constructive Criticisms: 

• The Instagram was not concise enough and was too contemporary/futuristically themed and was seen as quite weak compared to the other elements. 
• The juxtaposition between concept and branding makes it look a bit like a museum gift shop? 
• Shelf layout is not practical - try making them horizontal and longer to interpret the 'tree of life' idea more practically. 
• Is the typography appropriate to the theme? 

I think all in all I was impressed by our presentation and think it was a big positive that the brand was so visually consistent, apart from the Instagram which we should have revisited yesterday really once our aesthetic was more refined. I do agree that the Instagram specifically didn't fit and feel that the video I made for it would have gone some way to righting this, however due to the wifi being so bad we couldn't get it uploaded in time for the presentation. The video did feature at the start of our powerpoint though, which injected some humour into the presentation and broke the ice to some extent. Credit to James and Elizabeth, the presentation itself was quite professional and all bases of our concept were covered in detail. 

I feel like the theme was strong from the start and this was picked up on by the peers and tutors, however, personally, I feel our end products just weren't impactful enough. We moved away from the theme arguably too much after our crit with Orlando. Admittedly he was right on some level and we weren't really designing a graphic design exhibition any more so change was needed but I feel like the final outcome has gone too far in the opposite direction. Causing the idea to lose some integrity and just be too middle of the road. This makes me a little worried for next year as I don't want ideas to stifled like this, I feel like we should have been more independent and found a better compromise. 

However, despite these issues, I feel like our group actually worked very well together to produce such concise and visually consistent outcomes. It didn't really feel like anyone wasn't pulling their weight even when other commitments mean members weren't all in at the same time, everyone was on the same page and working together, a testament to the commitment of group members.  

Upon viewing the work of peers I feel like we weren't the worst group but certainly weren't the best. The most effective groups had centred their design around the exhibition design, such as '1686' who had a solid, if a little impractical, concept involving interactivity for the viewer who would categorise genres for themselves, eventually creating data on the subjective position of microgenres. Although the idea wasn't quite fully formalised the concept was great and showed an element of interactivity that we were lacking. We would have gained some of this much-needed immersion had we just had little touches like my idea for the white gloves and archive books but our final concept was just too boring. 

In terms, if my own input throughout this project I am a little disappointed. My involvement felt a little fragmented as I had to leave at 3:30 on a couple of days due to Erasmus commitments and a family birthday. Therefore after the change of idea and reallocation of roles I wasn't left with anything too major to get my teeth into. However, this being said the group were happy with my involvement during the feedback session and commended me on my idea generation at the start and my ability to work with others as part of a team. This was really pleasing and motivated me to return to the usually high level of input I believe I normally give to groups.