Formative Feedback

Overall, I’m really pleased by my feedback for the formative assessment and am glad that it’s mostly positive, yet still informative on areas I could improve in. I feel like my work is being received well, which I’m super happy about too. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t see critical feedback as a bad thing. I think naturally it’s an instinctive emotional reaction to be disheartened by critiques on your work or even yourself, but that’s just part of not only being a student but being in any working industry right? You have to be able to be willing to always strive for better, otherwise you’ll become stagnant in an industry that constantly moving and growing with the world around it.

Knowing that my feedback is also coming from a tutor who has an extensive professional industry background is also incredibly reassuring, as Sarah knows where skills need to be built that one would require to move into the fashion business sphere.

Positive feedback to continue to keep up with:

I received tons of positive feedback on the work I’ve completed so far! The tutor appreciated my blog layout and how clear and understandable it was to navigate, which is great because I did take time to create my blog in a way that stood out to everyone else’s and was organised. They also liked my collage artist research and the way I experimented with my mediums in a way that reflected my artist, as well as the well considered presentation of my brand heritage report to reflect Gucci. Again, I did put a considerable amount of time into the brand heritage report so I appreciate it being recognised in this manner. The marker also loved my customised shoe design, which again, really pleases me as these shoes are probably my most favourite thing I’ve created within this unit and they liked its commercial appeal and reflection of my chosen artist.

I also received recognition around my correct use of Harvard referencing which is good, as in the Toolbox unit, I lacked with my referencing, but due to our Academic Communication classes, I have managed to learn how to reference correctly and want to continue to reflect that in my blog. In terms of my design work which I was most concerned about, the tutor appreciated the experimentation and process of my sketches and thought the brand research was evident within my final line-up which I was pleased with. In terms of media, they expressed good engagement with the work and solid experimentation.

My business work, which is my chosen pathway work, received only positive feedback which I was overjoyed with, as I really had poured hours of effort into my final pages. The marker thought my work was excellent visually and in line with my customer segment, with a good display of thought process. The CAD designs also related well within a commercial range with strong links to my artist.

For my overall PPD writing, I have been good at evaluating my strengths and weaknesses within sessions and have appropriately worked with feedback from tutors and my peers.

Areas for improvement:

A few notes were made in terms of how my work could have been or can be bettered. I plan to use these notes in my future work to improve upon my overall outcomes.

It was stated my brand heritage report could have detailed more connection between my brand and the customer and as a business student I feel I should have also extended my research into a more business focused area as an added element of my report. The marker also mentioned that the design work I do doesn’t necessarily always have to be “outlandish” and can be more simply executed while filling the brief as well.

Personally, I was never incredibly daunted by this formative assessment, in terms of being scared of the feedback I would receive. I knew there would definitely be small areas for me to improve upon within my work, as I feel one can always do better if not more, but overall, I’m someone who is generally quite confident in their work and am quite aware of where my strengths and weaknesses lie, as well as someone who is very self-aware and constantly trying to improve myself, which I also feel is reflected in my work. I’m also quite naturally organised and am not the person to leave things until the last minute, as I don’t necessarily do my best work under time pressures. I feel I will engage really well with these improvements that need to be made and have a good understanding as to how working on these areas will benefit me and my work.

What to do going forward:

Going forward, I will try and place extra effort into the business side of my work throughout as many tasks as possible to enhance my business skills and also reaffirm my pathway choice, as extra knowledge and research can never hurt. I will also keep a close eye on my design work to make sure I don’t go too extreme with it.

I feel like these little adjustments to my way of working will significantly improve my final outcomes, but also make my learning experience more enjoyable and I will end up getting more out of each and every task I complete.

How I feel about the feedback:

I’m ultimately very happy and proud of the feedback I received as I feel I put a lot of effort into Part 1 of this unit and really pushed myself to produce my best work. The areas of improvement were also quite specifically outlined for me quite clearly and rather miniscule which makes it rather easy to slot it into my work ethic and the advice also makes sense in terms of how it will better my work, giving me further direction. Overall, I feel like my hard work is paying off and my organised nature is ultimately allowing me to progress within this unit quite well with a certain sense of ease.