Business Card: Evaluating

Business Card: Evaluating

Measuring Success

To evaluate my success, I should look if it has transferred the message. Does the logo look smart, elegant. Does the logo feel optimistic, friendly, cheerful? Is the mnemonic easy to be noticed and does it make the company name easier to remember? Does the font look simple, easy to read, and friendly to the eye? Does the design on the back attract attention, make it unique and recognisable. Does the layout on the front have harmony - Does it look neat, organised, appealing and comfortable and nice to look at? Do the colours and gradient feel smart, exciting, trustworthy, and professional? (Does the change in size make it look more "perfect", balance, good-looking?

Evaluating Success

Feedback

• When first seeing the logo, most people recognise it is a face, but 3 or 4 thought it was a swan (which I knew people would, which is elegant).
• They felt weird when the lines are all curvy, and things looks smooth and elegant, and the work "industrial" came out. This isn't much or a design problem as it is a purpose that it is made smooth and elegant, to cover the actual thing of manufacture. I should just maybe consider myself as "designer engineer" or just "designer".
• The card doesn't exactly suit my job. It looks more like a doctor's or a dentist's business card.
• The box that only has three side completed didn't look so good. (My idea was to make it like a tab coming out from the side, but they thought it makes it look uncompleted). Four sides making a sealed.
• The corners on the back looks kind of empty (I don't agree much with that, the main attraction is in the centre and if more is added it would be too much, and there isn't much to add)
• The logo looks elegant and happy.
• The face looks smart and confident.
• The blue have a sense of hope, like the blue sky.
• The front is organised, tidy, and is good to look at.

Personal Thoughts

Yes, I think the logo blue, shining eyes look very smart, and adding the small smile there (eye), looks trustworthy. The whole logo definitely look very cheerful , optimistic, and friendly. Orange give a sense of fun, while the lines are all curvy, looking organic and smooth, light, easy, relaxing. It does look kind of like a swan so its elegant. Also, it has a big grin and a smile in the eyes. I think the S across might be a bit hard to see, but the rest of the mnemonic is quite noticeable. I think once you notice it, the whole smartness, trust, grin, and the name should be tied fondly. I think the font is pretty good, and it makes it look more like a business card because most cards and some formal things use it. So that the whole card doesn't just look "fun" and impractical. The logo on the back is quite good. The layout is great, there is enough white space. It is organised when the logo is on a side, and the information on the other. However, balance is okay remained because their size doesn't vary a lot but the text might seem like many things when a logo is one. The fact that orange feel heavier did help a bit.

I agree it's kind of like a dentist business card. I think it might lack some corners and squares. I also think the blue was too much on the bright side. Also, the grin on the logo might just be too big, "seems like half of the logo is on the grin so maybe there's something to do with the mouth..." but there wasn't, so not too good there. I think the lines on the back does look appealing and smooth, but then it start to look like lines on a notebook, kind of annoys me a bit. Also, the white might just have contributed more to the dentist part. There might be a little too much repetition for the logo in the front and back, especially with the fact their sizes are similar. It might be okay, doesn't seem to bother me a lot. I think the colours look smart, and cheerful, not very professional because there is very tiny bit of grey (the gradient and font helped with this aspect, but still it's not calm enough, cool but not calm). Except the blue looks too "dentisty". A mistake that wasn't intentional is that the front have too much orange when it's only suppose to be about half. That was because I was working with a too-big-bleed, and I didn't saw that when I zoomed to normal and check because the bleed did had a lot of blue. I think that has to be fixed before printing, short-term stuff to fix but important. It doesn't look very technological as I wanted it in the brief.

So for myself, I'll give it a 70%.

Improvements

1. I think I should change my position into "Designer Engineer". I make this change because a smooth, elegant, smart, and cheerful design doesn't fit industrial. However, there is no way we should make it look like factories, square, and pollution, that doesn't help people buy products. Therefore, I will turn it around and make my position fit the branding. Which would "Design Engineer" because design comes first but engineer also comes as a part of my job, I don't just design, so I don't want to take that away.
2. To solve the problem of it looking too much like a dentist's card, I think I should make the mouth of the logo smaller so the focus doesn't go too much to the oral part. Also, the blue on the eye I can keep maybe, but for the rest of the card, I am going to tune the blue to less green and less bright.
3. To solve the problem that the lines on the back look too much like notebook lines and complicated, I propose three ways to improve and see which is the best a) turn the opacity down b) delete the lines c) Put a small logo on right corner and thicken the lines a bit. Turning the opacity down might help make it less complicated but will still look like a notebook probably. Deleting the lines will make it much simpler, but then it might be too empty. I would make the colour a dark one, maybe brown, and no gradient. Some flatness might look good because. And the brown seems lacking and it contrasts with the logo, so it's mainly for visual affects, not branding. Putting the logo out of the way but making sure it is there. The lines might look good by themselves but then more movement and 3D will look much better. It might also get rid of the repeating logos on both sides of the card.
4. There is too much orange on the front side and the gradient was hard to see. To solve that, I would put back the exchange point of colour as 50%, in the middle. Or adjust it if it's not good.
5. To make it more technological, it might need like a redo. Because this card is no where close. I imagine it to be more straight lines with round corners and grey a darker green and blue gradient. But now I think that I'm more of a designer first. However, still, the company isn't all about design, so some feel of technology is needed.

Impact

Our company sells electronics that is used in a person's daily life. We want to transmit the idea that we can make their life better, and I think the smile in the mouth and eye does express it. I mention smart is the human's goal now in the design brief and we want to express it and the blue and the blue eye helps. Although we mentioned about fifty-year old people, this card mainly focuses on teenagers and people in twenties. They seek excitement and orange is exciting. Some 40-50-year old might also be interested, but the card is not as much speaking to them. It doesn't look very luxurious though, and not very cool, maybe more grey could help. I mentioned that our clients love technology, and that is true, but I notice companies like samsung and apple and LG don't put a very technological look in it. It attracts attention; It has mnemonic device to help it be remembered; The colours are basically the colours of the company logo so they should be associated and easy to recognise. It fulfils my design brief okay and is probably going to be recognised and help the branding and feel for the company not too bad. Except it fit adults less and it's not luxurious or technological.

3D Modelling - Evaluating

3D Modelling - Evaluating

The Product

Feedback from Peers

Good: It is very awesome and amazing. I kept the structure simple but had what people would want for a desk.

Bad: It is very modern but the flames on the side give it a kick. The flames make it look good and creative. It is good but the colour aren't that good and it is not suitable for adults and elders probably.

Improvements: The cabinets (shelves) can have a glass to make them look better. If it should be more for studying, the flames should be taken out.

I agreed all of the feedbacks. They all are true and very useful.

Feedback from Myself

How much did I fulfil the Design Specifications?
What I am making (the desk) is for myself. I think it is pretty good and I like it very much. It turned out better and more amazing than what I expected. Although the model is not printed and made into a physical desk yet, I can see that it is really usable, and it is practical. From how it looks and the design of it (that it doesn't stand with table legs but a huge solid bottom), it should be able to support properly. The thickness of different layers should be thick enough, so it should be durable. It is also made accurately to scale so it will fit where I'm putting it. It is also a unique desk with styles that I like and colours that matches the area. It also have most of the things mentioned needed in the design specifications. However, it is still missing the "thing for putting arms" thingy, and the "statue" of my head (which is also mentioned needed in the design specifications). I couldn't make it in time because couldn't figure out how to get it in sketchup before we are done with Creating the Solution. Still, that isn't the most important part of what I wanted and it wasn't the main idea of the project, so it is fine for me. All I want is a desk which is useable, practical, suitable for me, and specially designed for myself, which is done. I am satisfied and happy with the product.

The next step is to improve it. To take it to the next level, I would like to add what's left - my (statue of) head - which will make it much cooler and much more remarkable. I would also make it a little higher, because I realised before it just fits me. When I grow (which should be soon), it's too small and short for me. If I have a taller one now is ok, but a smaller one in the future is not. From the feedbacks, I think I will make the glass for the shelves although it is not printable (just to make the digital model look good). I would also re-consider the flames and fix it. To take it to the next level, I can also use like meshmixer to add names. And then the next step is of course to print it out. It would take a lot of cardboard and time though. Maybe I can do it in the holidays.

The Process

The process was pretty good. I used my time wisely and have made great decisions. The inquiring and analysing phase really helped me understand more about the softwares (which I used afterwards) while we are telling others about it. I also liked the developing ideas phase, and I did pretty well on it. It let me think precisely again and again about what would be the best choice for the best product I want most. It also make up my mind and I had a much clearer idea about what I was going to make. It also let me set a goal and have a high expectation to myself. I guess I did well because I really put some effort thinking and considering. I liked the Creating the Solution part the most. It was so fun to make it and so exciting waiting to see the final product. It was surely tough and I was struggling to do my best and to do most of the design specifications as I can. However, you know what happened.

In order to prevent that to happen again, I think the next time I do another project, or to continue this one, or to redo this one, I would surely learn everything and make sure I know them before creating the solution. That can make sure I wouldn't go into struggles and rushes again, then I can enjoy creating the solution more and have fun relaxingly.

Upcycling Musical Instrument: Evaluating

In this phase I will reflect and get feedback and evaluate the process I went through and the product I have.


The product

I got feed back from about ten of my classmates. They were generally good. The guitar is awesome and a neat instrument. It is really durable. The decorations and colours are beautiful. It sounds good like a real guitar. The way the string is tightened is really efficient. And it has a lot of effort in it. It challenges me and fulfil the design specification in the developing ideas phase.

I should add more frets because when the player pressing closer to the body, the string touches the body and don't sound that good, and the finger stops the string from vibrating long, so I should add frets, in the correct place. Though this is actually meant to be a one-string guitar, maybe adding one more string makes it more cool.

To bring it to a new level, I will surely put frets. Also, I'm not using proper paint, I'm only using acrylic, so I'll definitely use proper paint for wood and cans. I would also like to make it tuneable in a more effective and convenient instead of bundling a string around a screw.



The process

I decided to make a good instrument, I considered a lot of variations, and I tweak things and improve the design all along the way. I can work faster in the create ideas phase, and maybe be more clear in the instructions, I can also think about how difficult it is to make the project so I can go through the rest smoothly. I enjoyed the developing ideas phase because it was very useful, especially the variations. If I have a chance to improve the quality of my work on future projects, I will maybe think more carefully in the developing ideas phase in the variations so I don't have to keep going back and tweaking things in the creating the solution phase.