Typology: Development and the Final result

Developing my final outcome:

• I was not happy with all the idioms I had chosen in my original list of A-Z, because some of them contained very little opportunity for a good visual representation. So I did some further research and found better idioms to replace them - drawing illustrations for a couple each to choose the one with the best visual result. 
• I did a couple of plans for the composition and decided that - since I wanted it to represent very much an A-Z rather than just a poster, a grid system would work best. 

• For the title I did a number of small mock-ups. Type is not one of my strong points, so I just kept it very simple and to the point. My use of type, however, is something that I would like to begin to improve and give more consideration in relation to my work. 

The Final result: 

My final poster

Things I think are successful:

• Something that I think is perhaps the most successful aspect of this poster is the concept behind it. I really like the idea of illustrating the literal meaning of idioms as it makes opportunity for some really absurd and humorous images. Idioms are also collective knowledge making these images fun and relevant to anyone. 
• I think the images that I produced, the layout and type overall give a peculiar and childlike feel to the poster. Due to the nature of the idea and the idioms I choose, I think overall this tone of voice is appropriate, and therefore successful. 
• Finally I feel that some of the final images I choose work really well in illustrating the idioms in a humorous way as well as highlighting the absurdities of the phrases if you were to take them in literal sense. 

Things I found difficult in this brief:

• Time management on this brief was an issue for me. I got it done in time, but to be honest I do not feel like I did everything to the best of my abilities. I would have particularly liked to have spent more time on developing my final poster. 
• Something I found difficult especially at the beginning, and then improved towards the end, was being relaxed with drawing and planning my images. I become too uptight with getting things right and sometimes this can hinder me from producing work at all. 
• I found generating ideas throughout this brief quite difficult. I think I held myself back from thinking 'outside the box' and ended up producing images that seemed obvious or simple. I want to be more adventurous and daring with the way in which I generate ideas surrounding briefs, as I think this will lead me into making more interesting and unique illustration. 

Things I would like to develop:

• I would have liked to improve the crafting of my final images. I would not change my use of ink as it fits the monochrome requirement of the brief and also I just like the overall look of this material. My images, however, could have definitely looked more professional and well-thought through, and I think this would have come from just spending more time on drawing them out. 
• In my crit, it became clear that my composition was not one of the strong points of the poster. I went for the simple grid system, which is alright but maybe a bit boring. Small things like making sure all the text is aligned and the same size would have just made the final result look more professional. I think this also comes down to my problem with time management and the fact that I did not spend enough time thinking about how I could improve the composition.  
• Finally, I would liked to have developed the individual ideas behind each idiom a bit further. I feel like this concept has real potential and I did not fully achieve what I wanted with each image.

In our final crit of everyones posters we talked about the following words to discuss what had been successful or unsuccessful about each others final outcome:

Crafting - Skill - Media - Process, Concept, Character, Research, Authorship, Colour, Design, Imagination...

The discussions that we had about what each of these words mean and finding examples of how they had been successful in people's posters, really made me think of the components that make up a successful piece of illustration. In following briefs I am definitely going to use these words, almost as a template, when developing and also evaluating my own work.