Evaluation

I created a website for my Final Major Project that includes images inspired by the short stories in the book Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann. My final major project has been a challenging personal journey which has led to me learning many new things about myself and my capabilities as well as learning new skills that I can take with me into my future career. It has allowed me to highlight and improve on my strengths and decipher my weaknesses which I have tried to improve throughout the project and will continue to do so after the project finishes.

After completing the proposal for my project in December I had doubts over whether it was the right project for me to undertake and whether I would be able to achieve the outcome to the standard I desired. Originally my project was going to be based on classic fairytale characters and aimed at children, but I struggled to find a way to make this subject matter original and different to what had been done previously by other creatives. I then began changing my idea in many ways such as by altering the target audience, changing the stories the project was based on and creating different final outcomes. I started several different final ideas and eventually chose to base my work on the book Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann and decided to create a series of images based on the stories from the book. Although restarting my project did take up a lot of time and created more work for me, in the end I think this was the best choice because I felt more passionate and inspired than I had been previously.

I think the variety of stories in the book has allowed me to create a diverse set of images that look professional on my website. In the future, I would like to develop my project further by creating images based on all of the stories in the original Strewwelpeter book. There are ten stories in total plus two poems that were added in a later edition of the book, and so creating images for all of these would create a strong set of work. Also in my work I focussed on the main characters of the stories and so I think if eventually I could add in all the characters I would create a very large portfolio for myself. I have ideas for how I could represent the other stories and so it would be a waste not to use these in the future to show off the full range of my creative skills.

Another way to develop the project would be to create short video clips or add in audio clips of the characters to portray their personalities and actions as well as to make the website more diverse and interesting. I feel the website may be slightly monotonous as it is comprised solely of still images which works well to show my skills and portfolio but is not as exciting for my target audience. If the website was more dynamic it may entertain my target audience more and therefore make them want to see more of my work or collaborate with me in the future. Also, if I created different versions of my website with different languages I could reach a larger audience with my work.

Another idea I had was to give people access to the website when they buy the book or have it instead of the book.  The original book has been published hundreds of times with many different illustrations and layouts and so an online version could help to make the book more modern and appeal to a wider audience. My website is currently best viewed on a desktop computer as the phone version is not quite as slick currently so I could create another version of the website especially for phones.

If I was doing this project again I would have somehow tried to decide on my final idea sooner. I spent a lot of time changing my idea and developing several ideas which I could have used to develop my final looks in more depth, create more images for each story and create images for more of the stories. Therefore, I think my time management could have improved if I had given myself a deadline for making a decision about changing my idea. Also, if my budget was bigger I would use more elaborate styling to portray the characters in more depth and so I could have full length images as well as close ups to create a wider range of images.

I would also use a wider range of models including male models to again add more variety and to show my skills in men’s hair, make-up and styling because this I think is lacking from my final project. I used female models because the stories my final looks were based on mainly had male lead characters and I thought that having them as female would show that I interpreted the stories in my own way. A negative of this decision is that I may have made my audience smaller by not having as large a variety of models. An important thing for me was to get the personalities of the characters in the stories across to the audience. So I decided to use people that I thought had the ability to portray the different characters and that did not necessarily fit the stereotype of most professional models.

I enjoy photography and have learned a lot throughout my time at university especially in the past year. Therefore, I decided to do all of my own photography for this project to show what I have learned and the improvements in my skills. Overall I am pleased with the photography I produced especially on The Inky Girls and Shockheadedpetra shoots as the lighting, composition and angles work to produce exactly what I was aiming for. There are some images where the photography is weaker as the photography styles required I am not as strong at producing. Perhaps I should have collaborated with a photographer on some of the shoots so that all of the photography was to an equal standard, but I am proud of what I achieved.

IT skills are something I have always struggled with during my time at university. At the start of my final major project I found creating my website difficult even after attending almost all of the IT lessons. However I shared my concerns with my technical instructor and he showed me an alternative program I could use to make my website that he thought might suit my learning style better than the program I had been using. I feel that by persevering and working hard at my IT skills some of them have improved. For example, I edited all of my images in my project and this is something in the past I have found difficult but I feel like I have been successful in producing the effects I aimed to create. I think that taking on challenges such as photographing and editing all of my own images has been a strength for me in this project. However, it has resulted in not much collaboration with other creatives in my project which in hindsight I maybe should have changed because I do work well in a team. For example, I have done make-up, hair and photography for several other student’s projects.

During the project, I have spoken to not only the tutor I was assigned but also other tutors and technical instructors to gain as much advice and information as possible to find the best solutions to problems I have faced. I feel that throughout my project I have solved problems faster and felt better about my project and ability when I have been honest about my weaknesses and concerns to my tutors. This is because they have then been able to help me find solutions to my problems which has helped me progress. In the past asking for help and sharing my problems has been something that I have struggled with as I used to think that I should be able to do everything related to my course. However, I have learned that nobody is good at everything and so it is best to ask for help when I need it and this is an important thing I will take forward with me in my future.

Overall I am proud of what I have achieved in my final major project and feel that I have developed as a creative and as a person through the challenges I’ve overcome and the things I have achieved. It has improved my confidence and technical skills and so I will be able to utilise these in the future when working on other projects.