Task 9: Design Project A: Critical Reflection

DESIGN PROJECT A: CRITICAL REFLECTION
RSA ROYAL MAIL POSTAGE STAMPS
CELEBRATING BIODIVERSITY

The aim of the project was to create the stamps designs for Royal Mail for celebrating Biodiversity. I started to do this project by searching about Royal mail stamps designs and Biodiversity. First, I did search stamps designs and then searched about the Biodiversity. I did mostly research in the internet for Biodiversity and stamps designs. The web information was very useful to learn about the Biodiversity. I have also searched the stamps designs in the library resources. I have created the research map which was very useful to plan the search for the subject. After doing a lot of search about the Biodiversity, I have taken some pictures of the nature; I wanted to combine the photos with my designs. Finally, I have decided to do illustrations and using text for this specific stamps designs project.
The objective of the project was to heighten awareness of the Biodiversity. The main topics were; conserving Biodiversity and why Biodiversity is important. I have selected why Biodiversity important; in this subject the most important issues, were maintenance of air quality, soil quality, maintenance of water quality, nitrogen cycle, pollination, provision of food and health care. The Ecosystems drive natural cycles that are important for the earth, these cycles depend on the species. They are water cycle, carbon dioxide, oxygen cycle and nitrogen cycle. I have selected the plants, tree and fungi for these cycles.
The research is very important to design a good project. I believed that doing research helps a lot to develop the design and the ideas. I explored more ideas after searching every time. Doing a lot of research and sketches of the stamps were so effective to create innovative stamps designs.
After searching all the necessary information, I have started to do designs of the stamps. My intention was to design innovative stamps designs. I wanted to do design stamps which can be very simple and distinctive. I realized that the simple design is more effective than the complicated design. That is why I have tried to do designs of the stamps as simple as possible.
My aim of this project was to create clear, type and illustration related designs. The project had to be an innovative and creative. I have used single background colors with illustration designs and typography. I did the development of the designs step by step. I believed that doing a lot of different designs helped me to accomplish good designs. I have created original and very interesting stamp designs. I did a lot of modifications and design development on this project. After creating stamps designs, I have done stamps packaging designs. I have used the illustrations of the stamps on the back page design along with explanation of designs and on the front page with some text information of why is Biodiversity important. I have also designed the poster which is clearly indicating that Biodiversity is very important subject.
The target audience was very large age group that is why creating comprehensible designs that will communicate the right message to the great audience. When I was designing the project, I had to pay much attention to font sizes of the text and the colours. I had tested stamps designs for asking to some people about the tone of colours and readability of the text. It was very important to produce matching colours for each stamps and readability of the text.
When I was doing this project, I have felt that the stamps designs might be interesting but doing more and more designs by time, I have realized that the size of the stamps was the most important aspect on this project. I have understood that the first rule was to pay an attention on the size of stamps when creating first initial designs.
I organized my time very well to work on this project. The time management was the most important factor to achieve this project. I did not have any strict study program but I have worked constantly and spend a lot of time on this project. By working regularly, I finalized the project without rushing to the deadlines. While I was designing, I was also doing a lot of research; I believe that research is crucial to produce clever design concepts. I have done a lot of changes and development on this particular project. Doing many modifications improved a lot my design ideas. When I was doing this project, I felt very much inventive; to feel imaginative supported me to make good designs.
After having tutorials, changing the designs helped me to improve and to see the mistakes more clearly and solve the design problems more easily. Especially, I have learnt a lot about the stamps sizes and to create clear and readable text and images. In the end of the project, I have realised that I did a huge development on designing stamps. I believed that the stamp sizes and colours are very important to design good stamp designs. I have enjoyed doing stamps design. I am very pleased with the result of the project. I have created very appealing stamps designs. If I do similar design project in the future, I will pay great attention to the size of the stamps, the text and the colours. This project was very much valuable experience for me to create accurate and great stamps designs.