Reflect on collaborative working in a team and with a client in an industry context:
Working as part of a collaborative group on this project gave me a better understanding of how design work operates and is created within a team, particularly when working alongside the marketing students. One of the main advantages was being able to approach ideas from different perspectives with additional knowledge from my group peers. Moreover, whilst my focus was more visual and design focused, the marketing input sometimes unintentionally helped me shape how the work would truly connect with an audience, making the outcomes feel even more considered and purposeful. I believe this will certainly benefit me within future projects. The development of our concept was extremely influenced by group work. Early creations were shared and built upon collectively, which helped expand the direction of the project as we went along, as not everything was figured out all at once. At the same time, this meant that decision-making was not always straightforward as we had to consider different opinions. Ultimately, decisions were made based on what worked best for the overall concept of the campaign. I believe ‘The Moments’ idea gave us lots of confidence within our campaign. However, there were also some practical challenges when working as a team. Meeting up, keeping communication consistent and making sure everyone was contributing equally was difficult and I don’t believe a perfect balance was ever achieved. A certain member of the group I was in contact with for most of the time working together way more than the other members, and he provided lots of ideas, as did I. I believe this is down to us both being organised individuals. Although, I still believe every member of the group contributed and was keeping up-to date with the campaign and I could tell they had passion for it. Furthermore, collaboration had a strong impact on the iterative design process. Feedback from both the group and tutors meant that ideas were constantly being reviewed and adjusted. Instead of sticking to one fixed direction, the work developed gradually through testing and refinement, which I think makes for great outcomes and really helped strengthen the final outcomes. Additionally, working with a live client added another layer to the project. It meant that ideas had to be more realistic and aligned with an existing brand, rather than purely experimental. This meant we were simply improving areas of the brand which I enjoyed. Feedback from the client was useful in identifying where the work felt appropriate and where it needed adjusting, so it remained authentic to the brand. Finally, this experience also highlighted the importance of communication. Explaining ideas clearly, especially to those outside of a design background, was essential and fairly new to me but a great opportunity. Understanding and communicating with each other was key and I think it went a lot smoother than I had envisioned. Overall, I believe the project provided a much more realistic insight into industry practice, showing how collaboration, feedback and input all contribute to the development of design work as a team.