FCP WORKBOOK PEER REVIEW

For my course, Fashion Communication and Promotion at NTU we produce a work book which we complete throughout the year. In this work book we add in work such as our thinking process, process of completing the work, our research, work from seminars and tutorials and just any other work we are completing surrounding the course. The main reason we complete these is for when we are assessed all of our work and thinking and process is clear, it's also a great thing for me personally to look back on and follow my own process and development, or help me in future projects.

To ensure we are completing our work books successfully we have under taken two peer review sessions in our seminars where we have laid out our work books around the room and then others in the seminar can anonymously leave there feedback on certain pages or the whole book, with either positives or constructive criticism. I wanted to share the feedback I received with you and also reflect on what they have said about my work book and how I will continue to develop my work book.

In the first session this was the feedback I received

The main feedback I noticed I received commonly was 'very detailed', 'more imagery', 'clear process', 'shown development', 'great explainations' and 'add writing'. There were a few repetitive comments which really helped me to see my strengths and weaknesses very clearly. The common positive feedback I noticed was, that I had great explainations, this was about my annotations on images and my process as I felt it is crucial my reader knows exactly what I mean and whats happening. The next was thourogh notes and research, this again is something I feel is so important in my book as research is crucial to my work and my notes should explain my thoughts and ideas in depth. Another piece feedback I received was that I had a clear process, this is very important to me and what I try hard to produce as I think its so important to show an in depth and clear display of your process, for both me and other readers, it's important that they can see where the ideas have come from and my research and development to how I ended with my final outcome as so much happens in the process. I also received feedback that they liked my visual display, I wanted to make it very clear and aestheticly pleasing so I am glad this has been successful. I did also receive common negative/ constructive critisms such as include more images and visuals on text filled pages which I do agree with but some pages do need to be more text orinatated but then also some could definetly use more images to back up more points and as evidence. I also received the feedback that I should add more annotations and text to more photographic pages, so the complete opposite the my other feedback, from this I can see that I need to find the right next balance.

Something else that I picked up on from the feedback was that my reader didn't notice something which I had intended for them to. My projects continue on from one another so all of my visual evidence was included in the first part which then supports my ideas in the following project, from this feedback I have realised that I shouldn't expect the reader to do this so I will now carry over my evidence to back up my ideas where neccisary.

Overall it was very clear to me which sections of my work book people were commenting on in their feedback, because I was already a bit aware of the issues, as in my first project I displayed my process and ideas very visually with a lot of images and minimal text, this was because the images were my evidence and the story for this section but I agree it could have used a bit more annotation and explaination. However in my second project I used a lot more text to explain my ideas and process, this is because I wanted to ensure it was clear to readers and it didn't require as much imagery. For my first two projects I wanted to experiment with the two different styles and now after reading the feedback I feel I need to find a goof in between of the amount of text and images I use on each page, but still keeping it relevant when needed.

In our second peer review, this was the feedback I received

This feedback overall was a lot more positive than the last review with very few constuctive criticisms. Something which I noticed was that someone commented on how well my work was annotated, something which I was advised to do in the last review, I feel it is important to annotate my work so that is it clear whats happening and my thoughts are clearly portrayed to the reader. Another bit of feedback I noticed was that I clearly showed progression, something which was appreciated in the last review so I continued to work on this, as it is really important to show my ideas and thought process for me and my reader to know where things come from and see development. I also received feedback that my work book was clean, again something which was noted on the last review, this is because I didn't want to over complicate my work and over load the pages. However I did receive feedback from someone that they didn't like how I switched between working vertically and horizontally, however this is something I like to do as I choose when it is appropriate and fit the work best, it also keeps my book interesting and has some variety. I then received more positive feedback on how I clearly showed my thought process, again something very important for idea development. I did also receive feedback that I could use some more supporting imagery, similar to last times feedback and I do agree with this, on some pages I could do with adding some more imagery to back up my ideas and research.

My overall reflection on this feedback is that I feel it is a lot more positive than the last one, however I do with there was a bit more constructive criticism so that I could try and improve my work book. There is no mention of having too much text or imagery which was very common last time, so I feel I have a better balance.