Interactive Media

Final screen designs

2009-03-24T19:44:00.001Z

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Portfolio screen designs

2009-03-10T22:10:00.016Z

Below there are three screen designs for my portfolio.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Any feedback would be great, thanks.

Competitive analysis

2009-03-03T23:33:00.010Z

http://www.gemma-harris.co.uk/

This student portfolio is Gemma Harris’s. The navigation of the website is annoying; it is only a one page site which, when you click a link , just takes you down the page and to get back to the top you have a scroll; after having to do it a couple of times it can get on your nerves.

The layout of the website is good, apart from having it all on one page. When you first get on to the website you straight away see her work, which is good because that is the main purpose of going to the website. Even though it is basic that is kind of a good thing as it does attract you more to looking at her work rather than the website itself, but it could be made a bit more fancy to show off her web design skills. Also Gemma has done more than just web design, so she could have used her website to show off some of her other skills such as photography and film. People are more employable with more skills so that could advantage her and help her get more projects.

The bit about her could maybe be cut down as there looks a lot to read and on the first look it can put you off reading it. She doesn’t really need go into detail about what she did on her courses or how she learnt web design, a brief summative couple of paragraphs would be fine.

Overall I think the website is good but could be made a lot better by having a number of pages instead of just one.

http://www.strawberrysoup.co.uk/portfolio/index.php

This is the professional portfolio. To get this website I searched on Google for web design portfolios then clicked the seventh page just so I didn’t choose from the normal first two pages. This one stuck out to me because of the strange name; I think the company can carry the name off as there is no stupid remark linked to the name.

The look of the portfolio is simple, I like how they have used an image that looks like a cork board with well known companies who they have worked with pinned on it. It gives the idea that if they have worked with well known companies they must be quite good. The colour scheme is linked in with the name of the company, strawberries are red so the colour scheme is mainly red, for the background they have used light red stripes which gives you that bit of colour but not too much, a block of red for the background would have been too strong.

Navigation though the portfolio is easy, the gallery layout allows you to see the range of websites they have created and they are labelled as to which project they were. When you click on the images of the websites you get a good description about each project and it also mentions which skills they have used for that certain project. You can view larger images of the websites and also go on the live website.

Overall I think the website looks good, is very easy to navigate round and gives you a good amount of detailed information about the projects they have done.

Delivery Requirements

2009-02-24T23:13:00.000Z

To make my portfolio website I will be using a range of programs and technologies to make the site. I will be using the basics like a computer and an internet connection to create the website and make it live. The other important things I will need to create the site are the technologies and programs. I will be using programs from the Adobe Creative suit, such as Dreamweaver to build the site and Photoshop and maybe Flash to create elements for the site.

The technologies I will be using is XHTML (version 1.0) this will be the code that is been used to arrange the content of the portfolio before sorting out the presentation. I will be using CSS (version 2.1) to do the presentation of the website. It makes it easier to keep the web pages looking more consistent thought out the website and easier to make any changes. CMS (content management system) will be used within the website, with it been a portfolio it will be updated regularly therefore it would be easier to have a CMS. IMAP will be used as I would like some way that people could contact me via e-mail.

Also I have my webhosting already set up which means I can upload my site as soon as it is completed and I have my e-mail address sent up so e-mails can be sent to viki@victorialouisefisher.co.uk and my URL is www.victorialouisefisher.co.uk.

Target audience

2009-02-10T21:34:00.007Z

Primary audience

Educator and potential employer/client

The main purpose of the portfolio now is to pass my assignment and to do this I must meet the targets my tutor has set for that assignment. Also the point of the course is to get us ready for employment so you could say that the other type of person it is aimed at is potential employers/clients.

Example-John-Paul is a 29 year old senior designer and is looking for a new junior designer. He works for a small design company in Huddersfield; they have been advertising and have recieved quite a lot of CV's and John-Paul has the job of going though the CVs and online portfolios to choose people to interview.

Age: 30+
Gender: Male
Occupation: Teacher
Online Experience: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency and activities: 8+ hours a day, websites for work for research, informational websites and design websites
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection

Age: 26+
Gender: Mainly male but female as well
Occupation: Senior Designer / Manager
Online Experience: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency and activities: 8+ hours a day, websites for work for research, informational websites, design websites and portfolios
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection at work and broadband at home

Secondary audience

Students

Other students will be looking at my portfolio to get an idea of my ways of working and what I am like. Also to get inspiration and to look at the kind of thing they could do.

Example- Edward is a 20 year old student who is studying web design, he regularly looks at students and professional portfolios to get ideas on how to make his portfolio look. He also wants an idea of what kind of work he might be doing.

Age: 18+
Gender: Mainly male but female as well
Occupation: Student
Online Experience and activities: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency: 8+ hours a day, informational websites for research for assignment work and design websites
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection at work and broadband at home

Portfolio goals

2009-02-03T22:43:00.001Z

1. Validate to XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.1 standards
Validating to W3 standards will make the website work well in different browsers and different browser versions, also to improve search engine visibility and gives a sense of professionalism.

To measure this goal I will validate the web site using w3c XHTML and CSS valuators.

2. Validate to WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Guidelines 1.0
Making the website more accessible will allow the web site to be viewed by a larger audience.

To measure this goal I will use the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

3. Easily updatable
With the website been a portfolio it needs to be easy to update so new work can be added regularly. Also my portfolio might need to be edited for job interview to suit the job I am going for.

To measure this goal I will set task to complete that will involve edit parts of the portfolio to test how easy it is.

4. A high search engine rank
The most viewed websites on a search engine is the first three pages, so I want to aim to get my portfolio on one of though pages. The lower the pages number the better.

To measure this goal I will search for my web site in search engines to see were my web site comes up and using Search Engine Results Pages to measure the position.

Flash and Final semester

2009-01-21T13:01:00.003Z

For my self managed learning plan (SMLP) assignment I have chosen to study Flash and ActionScript. When I came to choosing the subject I wanted to study I didn’t find it hard to choose as the job adverts I preferred were more creative based. I am glad I picked Flash but it would have been good to know about PHP as well. I also chose Flash because I am not that interested in coding so I went for an option that could involve a bit of creativity.

Flash does include coding and I am not looking forward to learning that because it is like learning a new language to me and even though I want to learn it, it gets really frustrating. To learn Flash and ActionScript I have bought some books, usually I mainly use the internet for resources but this time I decided to choose a different approach to learning a new subject. The only thing with books is you can’t highlight them and scribble notes all over but I am sure I can find a way around that.

Employers looking for new web designers usually look for people who are familiar with HTML and CSS for a start, then Java script, PHP SQL and ActionScript3 as extras. So you should at least know HTML and CSS then know at least one of the other technologies but the more knowledge you have of different technologies the better. I think it would be better knowing a bit of all technologies rather than know a lot about just one.

At interview you would look better saying that you knew about a range of technologies rather than just a few. Web design is about learning new things all the time, so even though I am learning Flash for this new assignment it will change, as new versions of Flash will come and ActionScript will get updates, and therefore the new changes need to be learnt.

This college year has gone really fast, I am nervous about how soon it is that I will finish the course but I am also in a way looking forward to it. The first year was a bit different to the second, it seems to be more self-study based now. I have enjoyed doing this course but at some points I have felt really stressed, so will be glad to have a rest for a bit. I am looking forward to being able to design my own portfolio, the previous students have done some really good websites for theirs.

The final presentation isn’t too far off now but I am not that nervous about doing it. The presentation is on my work and my thoughts and feelings about my work, therefore I will find it easier to do the presentation about something I know and it won’t be the same as anyone else's because my thoughts and feelings are mine and no else could explain my work as well as me.

Word Count: 499 words

List of resources

2009-01-15T10:26:00.002Z

1. Flash CS3 Professional for Windows and Macintosh:Visual QuickStart Guide by Katherine Ulrich

2. Flash CS3: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover and E. Vander Veer

3. Learning ActionScript 3.0 (A Beginner's Guide) by Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser

4. Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock

5. Adobe Flash CS3 Professional How-Tos:100 Essential Techniques by Mark Schaeffer

6. http://www.w3schools.com/Flash/default.asp

7. http://www.good-tutorials.com/

8. http://www.tutorialized.com

9. http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/

10. http://www.actionscript.org/

New skill

2008-12-10T17:22:00.001Z

The new skill I would like to learn is Flash with action script. The only experience I have had using Flash is on my previous course, I tried to use Flash to make a presentation for some images.

I didn’t get long on the project so I didn’t get much done with the presentation, as it wasn’t an important part of my project and I was learning it my self and in a rush so I did learn anything really. What I did learn I can’t remember and I doubt I was doing it right anyway.

I am not really into the coding part of web design, so I wanted to learn a skill that could include a bit of design work. I know the action script is coding but Flash isn’t all about writing coding.

The only other skill I was considering learning was PHP, but I thought if I didn’t find CSS interesting, so what is the point in doing something similar. It will be good to learn how to make an interactive document using flash. In previous years I think they did games and clickable image. I’d like to know how to make an animation or a little simple game.

When I was looking at the job adverts for the I Me assignment I saw a lot of the job I choose asked for flash as a skill they were looking for. So today I have found some recent job adverts and again they all say flash is required for web designer. Most of the skills on the job adverts we have covered in detail with our assignments but there are a few that I don’t know and flash is one of them.

Flash is a skill I want to learn and with wanting to learning it, it will make it a more enjoyable assignment.

Advert 1, Advert 2, Advert 3

Reflection of the second year so far

2008-12-03T15:16:00.000Z

Start of the year
I didn’t really start this year that good because I knew that I wasn’t going to pass the summer assignment. The week before the summer assignment hand in date I hoped to get all the assignment finished within good time, but loads of things seem to happen that week, which didn’t make it easy for me to do that. For example my friend’s house flooded so I had to help trying to stop more water getting in her house, so that lost me at least a days worth of work.

With us starting later this year it means we have assignment work to be done in the holidays. I did prefer it when we got a break from the coursework and a week off to get ready for the next new assignment. I feel like it’s just course work all the time and it would be great to have a break and not have to worry about it.

Summer assignment
I liked doing the summer assignment, but if I was ask again to choose whether to do a summer assignment, I wouldn’t want to. If I have things I need to do I like to get them done and out of the way or they are always on my mind. So the summer assignment seemed to be always in the back of my mind. I think it was because I had loads of time to get the assignment completed, so I didn’t make aims to get tasks done for certain amounts time, I just did bits when ever I had time. At least I know were I went wrong and I can do it differently if I ever have to do anything like this again.

CSS assignment
I had a few problems with the CSS assignment, mainly because I didn’t understand how to edit the HTML properly. The websites I have built before have all been done using the design view so I haven’t had a lot of experience with HTML coding and coding doesn’t really interest me. Once I had sorted out the problems I was having with HTML coding, CSS seemed easier to understand.

Team assignment
The team assignment as been a lot different to the other assignments, mainly because I am not working by self, I have to consider everyone else in the team. In a way that adds quiet a bit of pressure as I don’t want to let my team down. It’s been good to get the experience working as a team and working with clients. One of the main things that I have found useful about this assignment is learning how to handle clients, some are more difficult than others and how to act to forwards them can depend how fast the progress of the project can go.

Assignment 12
I like doing creative tasks so I am really enjoying doing this assignment. It’s good to have a change from sat at a computer all the time.

Soft Skills

2008-11-05T16:59:00.004Z

Having a range of skill does makes you more employable, a lot of skills are mainly common sense and building on skill that you were taught as a child. Is include manners, times management (getting to school on time), team work, listening problem solving and etc.

Time management is usually one of the first skills an employer get to see. When going to interview you should be there on time or even better a bit earlier to show enthusiasm. Time management is a really important skill. You wouldn’t want someone to be late meeting you, so why should you do something to someone else that you wouldn’t like. Time management doesn’t just mean getting to place on time, it also means meeting deadlines comfortably.

A purpose of a company is to fulfill customer’s needs and be professional at the same time. Therefore customer service is a really good skill to have, it includes been able to communication in a confident way with customers and been able to keep calm even when a customer are being rude.

Listening is an important skill that everyone should use when been told information. The way you listen to people is to been done in a polite way, always look like your interested and trying to answer questions ask in a professional way.

Team working is not always some people’s strong point but working as a team can make you more confident and help you produce a better working standard. It is good to know you have the support of other people in your team and you get a good understand relationship with them. Problems will always occur when working, so it does good if you can problem solve calmly and simply. Also problems could be fixed quicker in a team than individual, but it’s always good to know you’re capable of doing it on your own.

Word Count: 310

Junior web designer job

2008-10-08T22:39:00.003+01:00

When searching for jobs I looked for jobs close to were I live, this includes Leeds and Wakefield. The Job vaccines that I found and thought would be best for when I have completed course, I read though then I chose the one most suitable for me. The job advert I have chosen is based in Leeds and is for a junior web designer. The salary is £15,000 a year which is about average for a junior designer.

Skills the company is looking for is someone who knows about the print process, able to work with both web and print work, excellent layout designing, artwork skills and have a good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, In design and HTML.

The advert also asks for someone with a degree in graphic design/ multimedia design or a related design subject, even thought when I have finished the course I won’t have a degree, but that shouldn’t stop me applying for the job. If two people applied for a job and one had the qualification that the company was looking and the other didn’t but had a better portfolio that the company really like, they probably hire the person with the better portfolio.

I would prefer to do both web and print work and that was one reason I choose this advert but I haven’t been though the print process before, but from previous assignment we have discussed the print process, so I have a bit of knowledge of it .

The skill I would have to work on would be HTML mainly but also the knowledge of the software’s, you can never know too much about how to use software’s and techniques when using them, so the more practice I have using them the more convenient I will be, allowing me to create better work.

Second year, Loves and Hates

2008-10-06T21:07:00.002+01:00

The last year as been a total change for me, I seem not to have as much spare time and time flies. The course as been really enjoyable and I have learnt a lot so far and I have much more to learn which I am looking forward to.

At the moment I am really enjoying the team project assignment, it’s something different and it’s good to have a chance to work as a team, because there isn’t many opportunities I could do this before employment.

To be honest I don’t really have an interest for coding, so when I found out I would be doing a CSS assignment I wasn’t looking forward to it. The start of the assignment I couldn’t really get my head around CSS but now I have had a go myself I understand it a lot better. I am always open to learning new things so I am giving it a go and trying my best with the assignment.

Before I started the course I hated presentations, now I am still nervous about doing presentations but not as bad. Now I just get nervous the day of the presentation unlike before when I was nervous at least a week before. I still think there are a lot of improvements I could do on presenting, but with the practice I have done so far, it as helped my confidence presenting and I am not too worried about doing the final presentation.

When I have finished the course I have two options either to carry on with education or find employment, and I haven’t yet decided 100% which I want to do. Although I think I’m more for carrying on with education. Its 6 months away so I still have a bit more time to think about it.

Year 1, Final evaluation

2008-05-13T18:36:00.002+01:00

When I first started the course I had no expectation of what it was going to be like. One thing I did expect was to do as much planning as we have done, but I think planning it's a very important part of creating some thing.

In September I didn’t know much about how to create a web site and how to use professional software. In the first assignment I learnt about CSS and XHTML which I had never heard of before. Now I know what they both are and have created a bit of the code, to make parts of a web site.

From the first blog entry I did, I said that at the end of the course I would either do a third year or get a job at the end of the course. I am still undecided about what I want to do at the end I suppose that decision will be easier to make when the times closer.

Also in the first blog entry I wrote about my lack of confidence, I feel like my confidence has improved over the year and I hope it keeps improving, till I get to the point were I am happy about my self and the work I produce. I still have a part time job and I feel that, my job has also help make me more confident. At work I really enjoy working as a team and getting to meet different people everyday, I think since I have been working there my team skills have improved. I Like how you can do your own thing but still bounce ideas off each other.

Assignment 1
A1 the sketch book assignment, hasn’t felt like an assignment because it has been on going for months. I have kept my sketchbooks neat and tidy and I collected some inspiration when I found some good pieces. Having a sketchbook has made me more organised with my work, helping me keep all my work together. The sketchbook has been good to see the development work that I have done, it’s helpful to go back and look over the work I have done before and read the notes I have. The most important thing I think I use it for is to take lecture notes. One of the things I think I could improve on is to research more about the topics that we have had lectures about, this could help me understand the topics better if I ever misunderstood them.

Assignment 2
The second assignment was a web plan. Web plans aren’t my favourite assignments to do but I don’t dislike doing them. While doing this assignment it was the first time I had, had a seminar meeting. I think they are a really good idea to use on this course, I smaller groups are better to ask questions but larger groups are better for getting feedback. Even thought A2 was a lot of written work, we still had to present it neatly and consistently. This is what we used PageMaker to do, we have been given a template so that all the assignments are laid out in the same way. PageMaker was quiet easy to lean how to use so that when I had got use to the program more I had a go at using Indesign. I find In design easier to use and plus it can create tables, which is good because for A2 I spent ages makeing tables in PageMaker using lines and boxes.

Assignment 3
Assignment 3 was another web plan, from doing the first web plan I had a good idea of what we would need to do for this assignment. We all also got given extra work as well, which was to create the content of the web site. The web site was to contain basic computer terms, because of the course before I had done some work on computer terms so I knew about most of the terms I had to write about. The web plan had to be in a good as amount of detail has we built the web site for assignment 5.

This was the first time we had to do two assignments at the same time, I felt worried at first thinking that I might struggle to balance the work out. After the first couple of weeks of the assignment my worries stopped and I found my own way to balance my work out. This consists of time tables and checklists.

Assignment 4
Assignment 4 was the hardest assignment for me, because it meant using Photoshop. I had not used Photoshop before, so I struggled to know which tools to use, for which area of the image. After referring the assignment first time I redid it and pass the second time. Second time round I felt the image looked a lot better and I felt I had learnt how to use the tools better. I think even though this was the hardest assignment I have done so far I think it has been the assignment I have most improved at, including my skills using Photoshop.

Assignment 5
Assignment 5 was building A3’s web plan, I felt that the plan was in as much detail that it made it easy enough to create the web site. This was the first web site I had built, but I had used Dreamweaver before so I had a slight advantage knowing the basic of how to use Dreamweaver. The lecture we got on, how to use Dreamweaver was still very useful as I learnt about a lot of short cuts and easier ways to do things.

Assignment 6
When I was told that I had to do a presentation for assignment 6, I was a bit nervous but then I thought what the point I have to do so what the point in getting nervous and plus there isn’t much to be nervous about. I didn’t mind doing the presentation, I was a bit nervous while presenting and I could not say some of the French words but apart from that I felt it went ok. I liked researching about the typographer but I think I could have improved my assignment by including some more about the typefaces.

Assignment 7
The assignment I have just completed is A7, I have enjoyed this assignment the most. I liked it because it has been the must creative and there has been less written work. My spelling and grammar isn’t the best so I prefer to do less written work because it takes me ages to check thought my work when its complete and I can still miss errors. The thing that took me a while to do for this assignment was the measurements for the CD cover.

I feel like have learnt a lot over the first year, I can now see an improvement in the work I produce. There are still things I need to work on like, my concentration and confidence in my work. Hopefully I should work on them more in the second year and in the summer, so that also the quality of my work can improve.

My aims for the course next year are …
*Is improve my skills that I already know
*Get to know software better (Photoshop, Dream weaver and etc)
*To improve my self motivation to complete work sooner
*Not to refer my work
*To get merits

CD cover 2

2008-05-08T16:30:00.001+01:00

This is my CD cover with the text, logo and bar code added. Please leave a comment with any feedback. Thanks.

CD cover background

2008-05-08T15:34:00.002+01:00

This is my background for the CD cover, if you could give any feedback that would be good. Thanks.

CD cover and final finishes

2008-05-06T22:12:00.001+01:00

The hand in date for assignment 7 is next Tuesday and I am abit stressed about it. I have a complete logo that I am happy with, the pre flight document is ready to be filled in and I am looking forward to writing the evaluation for the assignment. I enjoy writing evaluations as they are a good way to finish an assignment, as it makes me look over what I have done and how I have felt though out the assignment.

The only thing that I am worrying about is my CD cover, I still have to finish it. Tomorrow I am getting it complete so I can have the pre flight and evaluation done on Thursday and check though my work Friday. So Saturday can be used to do final checks and changes. I am going to have all my work complete and ready to hand in on Monday, so I can show my work in the seminar meeting so if any improves need to be done I can get them done Monday.

The checklists I did last week, will come in useful this week as they will help me remember what needs to go were and check I don’t forget to do something. Well doing assignments I like to set aims, like if I have a task I need to completing I’ll set a certain amount of time and make sure I finish the task in that amount of time. This helps me concentrate better, as I have something to aim for.

So the main thing I need to do this week is finish my CD cover then I should be calmer about next Tuesday. I will need to do some more Photoshop tutorials, so that I can make more changes to the image on the CD cover, so I am showing a range of Photoshop skills.

CD cover ideas

2008-04-29T16:57:00.000+01:00

On Monday the lecture on printing artwork was redo, it was good to go over the lecture again as it is better to understand some thing new when it as been repeated and you have had time to take it in.

Last week my seminar group started researching pre flight documents. I couldn’t find many examples last week but this week I search something different in Google and I got a whole range of pre flight documents. We put the example together and showed each other what we had collected.

Monday I didn’t feel well so I went home at dinner, but the group carried on with the pre-flight document work. They e-mailed me thought out the afternoon to keep me up to dates on the progress of the document and so I could add any input. The version that was completed Monday was a good first copy, it just needs a few details added. This includes a sentence about checking the images used are 300dpi and to add contact details to the document. After those few details are added the pre flight document should be completed.

For the seminar meetings this week two groups were mixed together. I wasn’t sure about this idea, as I didn’t real want to say my ideas in front of a larger group, in case people thought my ideas were rubbish. When we got in the seminar meeting we were asked to put our work on the wall. I put my logos up and my CD cover images. I would have liked to had more work to put up, but I have been finding it hard to settle on an idea for the CD cover design. Now I have come up with the idea using dancers on the front and back cover, I thought of this idea because with the music been described as the next generation of dance music, the dance theme seem to fit. Showing my work to larger group wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and I got some good feedback from the meeting.

My logo is now complete, I printed out my logo with the different typefaces and colours so that in the seminar meeting this week I could get feedback on the logos. The feedback I got was that, the logo should be kept in black and white as a colour didn’t seem to suit the logo. Also I was told that on the CD cover if I use a black background I could make the logo white so the logos doesn’t mix in with the background. This is a good idea, as I am planning to use a night/space background, which is mainly black.

Today we had a discussion about the second year. The talk was about what kind of assignments we would be doing in the second year. After the talk some people went out of the class room to talk to Steve about going on to the second year. This is a good chance for Steve to tell us what he thinks to how we are doing and tell us what he thinks about us progressing on to the second year.

Logo feedback

2008-04-22T17:30:00.000+01:00

Monday we started with a lecture on printing artwork, which I thought was very useful as I am up to the stage of doing the CD cover designs. After the lecture the rest of the day was a get on with it day, apart from when we got feedback for A5, the builder web site. I wasn’t sure what feedback I would get about the web site. I was happy with the complete site but I still think it could have looked better. The feedback I did get was to compress my images, and change the backgrounds of the images, from cream to white to make them stand out more and to make the images not mix into the page as much.

With the feedback I got for my presentation, which was to spell check. I noticed quite a lot of errors in my spelling. This has learnt me to spell check my work more, using word’s spell checks or any other spell checks because I don’t always pick up on my own spelling errors. Spelling is one of the main things I need to improve on and I am trying different way to try and be better at spelling words correctly.

On Monday I spent most the day looking for inspiration for my CD cover. My music doesn’t really have a certain theme or thing that I can associate it with, so I have been looking at a range of different images to try and get inspiration. At the moment I have ideas for futuristic themes, nature theme like beaches and woods and season themes. None the designs I have done so far I like so I am going to keep trying different designs till I find some I think will suit the music.

My logo is coming long ok, I have to finalise the shape of the logo and I have uploaded the different shaped so any feedback would be good. The typeface that I have is not the final typeface, so I also will be posting the typefaces and colours that have been chosen to suit the logo soon.

Starting the CD cover designs

2008-04-15T17:07:00.003+01:00

For self study this week I have been working on my logos. I have been doing my logos in Illustrator and having a play about with different parts of the logo. I have used a range of different colours starting with the basics and this week I am going to try other colours. When I have finished experimenting with all the different ways of changing logo, I am going to printing them all out so I can see all the logos laid out together, which will make the changes more noticeable.

The other thing that I have been having a look at is typefaces, I looked at a few last week but I carried on looking at more. The type of typefaces I have been looking for is bold but modern, this suits the type of music that the record company sells and plus the bolder it is the easier it is to read/see.For making the different shapes, I have been trying different sizes and thickness for lines. Without seeing the logo it’s hard to see what I mean.

Also for self study I have been thinking of ideas for CD covers. I created some mind maps, to help me make some decide of what I could sketch. I have done a range of different designs, as the music on the CD I was giving had random songs. I could not get any ideas of the music or the song titles. Most of the song titles were foreign, so I am going to try and translate the words and see what they mean and maybe if they are suitable, I could use them to base a design round.

Today in my groups seminar meeting we started off by talking about our logo design, what they are like now and what improves we could make this week. The main topic for this week in the seminar meeting was the CD cover designs. We mainly talked about the designs and we will be showing them next week. I am going to try and get as much of the CD cover design work done and even start trying to get the designs on the computer in self study time.

On Monday we got our presentation/timed tasks feedback. I wasn’t sure how I did for the assignment, I thought maybe my presentation wasn’t good enough. The feedback I got was to change the position of some text on one of the time tasks and check my spelling in my presentation visual aid. I was pretty happy with the feedback as there wasn’t anything major wrong with my work.

Logo designs

2008-04-08T22:58:00.001+01:00

This week I have been carrying on creating logos. I have got over 60 designs, each one as different as possible so I have a range of logos. I have enjoyed doing the logo designs because I like going the sketches and its some thing a bit different from what we have been doing before. Yesterday I chose some of the logo designs which I thought would best suit the company and redrew them also adding colour. Some of the colour I choose didn’t suit the logos and made the logos look rubbish. When I have got the logos on the computer it will be better to start experimenting with colours, typefaces and shapes. For now though I am looking at colours that would best suit the company, and the type of company it is.

Today I went on a font web site and choose a range of font that I could use for the logo. I also got an example of what the logo would look like by getting a sample of the font saying ‘Emit’. I got the typeface in a range of sizes so I can if it is still readable at a smaller size. For this week self study I am going to go though all the fonts I have collected and see which I think would be best for the logo.

In the seminar meeting this week we looked our logos and chose the ones we should develop. I didn’t have a favourite logo design and I didn’t really know which logo design to chose. So the seminar meeting was good this week as it help me decide which logo to develop.

Now I know what logo design I am going to develop it using different colours, typefaces and shapes/lines. When I get my complete logo which I am happy with I am going to test it in different size, to check it is visible when really small. Also this week I have been thinking of ideas for the CD cover. I have been collecting inspiration, like other bands/artists CD covers and photographs.

Mondays lecture was about how to use Free Hand, I found this lecture really useful, as I have not used Free Hand before. Even though we have only been shown how to use Free Hand, I am going to have a go at using Illustrator so I can use a range of programs. Been learnt now to use Free Hand will make it easier to use Illustrator, as the programs do the same thing, but I do expect there will be some differences between the programs.

Starting Assignment 7

2008-04-01T21:09:00.002+01:00

It as been the first week back from the Easter holidays, we started by having a lecture on what the new assignment consisted of. It was good to go through what we needed to do, so I can make a check list which will be useful for when I need check what I need to do for the tasks. For A7 we have to create a logo, CD cover, pre-flight document and conclude with an evaluation. I am looking forward to doing this assignment as I get to be more creative and so far I have started doing some logo designs, which I have really liked doing, the only thing is that I can’t always think of new idea when I want to, which makes me see why the logos and inspiration I have collected is so important.

We then had lectures on designing logos, from the lecture I learnt rules to making a good logo and the different type of logos. I noticed there were different types but I didn’t know there was a type called New generation. New generation logos look more appealing, but when the new generation logos are just in black and white they don’t look that good and can sometimes be hard to recognized.

At about 2 o’clock yesterday a former student, Jonny Haynes from Technophobia came in to talk to use about what his job is now. It was good to listen to him and see some of his work what he had done his self and in a team. He also give me a good idea of what the industry is like, some of things he said me thing about what I want to do after the course, I prefer not to work for someone else and just have my own business but I can now see the good things about working for someone else, and that is that I will learn new skill, for example learn things from people who have different skills to me.

The class did a case study on CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) logo, we had to create a redesign for the logo, I liked this task as we got to work in groups which helped for getting feedback and choosing the final design. The only thing we could have improved on is presenting the logo. I thought only one person in the group was going to have to explain about why we had chosen the final design, but it was meant to be the whole group and only 2 people in our group really talked.

Below I have added some of my logo designs, any feedback would be good.

Reading Week Tasks

2008-03-11T19:03:00.007Z

The tasks I was given has all been enjoyable, apart from having to listen to the music. The music isn’t what I usually listen to and I don’t really see the point in the kind of music I was given, in some parts of the music it as some kind of creepy sounds. So having to write a review on music I didn’t actually like was hard. At first I didn’t know what this certain type of music was called, but once I had researched for a bit I found out the music type was called ambient.

I had to listen to the music a couple of times before I could start the mind maps because I didn’t know what to write. Even though I did the mind maps yesterday I went over them again today and added a few extra points so it made it easier to collect things for the mood boards. I have liked making the mood boards, first I choose a colour scheme then I chose the images and fonts to suit the music. I have done mood boards for some songs, the record company and the overall the album I was asked to listen to.

Here is some mood board examples which I have used (It’s for the first song on the album)

Colour Scheme

Image

Font

The thing I have most enjoyed this reading week is collecting the logos, once I had started collecting them I couldn’t stop I ended up collecting 50 and I could have carried on collecting more of them. I tried to get a wide range of logos, so I covered a lot of different company types, from car manufactures to children programmes. It was harder collecting the record labels logos as I had to find the right record label to suit the album I was given and then a lot of the record label didn’t have logos on the internet that I was able to find. I collected just under 30 logos and they all look very different, some I like, some are not that good and some are processional looking. Most of the logos I collected all had the name of the company as the logo but some just had images which I thought doesn’t make you link the logo with it company easily.

Gel- sol - 1140 Review

2008-03-10T22:08:00.003Z

First view of the album cover it looked like water going over autumn leaves, which gave the expression this album, would be relaxing nature music. Once the CD had been put in to the CD player and I started listening the first song my original idea of what of the album was going to be like disappeared.

The first song (Assemblage point) starts off silent making you think that the CD isn’t working then the music is faded in creating a relaxing start to the song. The name of the song gives you an idea of what the song is going to me about, Assemblage meaning collecting. The song is a collection of sound brought together to create comforting symphony. The song is a great start to a wonderful album.

The music on this album can be described as caress and confusing, it relaxes and calms you but at the same makes you think about the music. Bursts of different sounds and voices are added to the songs in certain places, which makes you feel like the sounds as been created right next to you. This making the music create a range of emotions for example calms, upbeat and shocked. The first time you listen to the album the different range of sounds and beats can make you think why have they added that but the more you listen to the album the more it sells its self to you.

This type of music is said to be the next generation of dance music and I can hear why that as been said, the music is different but likely able and once you have listened to it once you wouldn’t be able to stop listening to it.

A6- Evaluation

2008-03-04T22:34:00.001Z

Before the first timed task, I thought I might not like doing the tasks but after finishing the first task I was shock that I actually like it. For the first task I had to create a book cover for Font book. When designing the tasks product, I designed as many thumbnails as possibly in the time I had allocated for that part of designing, I found the more thumbnails I had the better it was to choose the final design as I had a wider range of designs to choose from. When I did the final design I made sure I did it to scale of what it was going to be on the computer, so when I got on to the computer I didn’t have to mess about with measurements.

Font book was a practice task, the first real time task was Hokai. This was one of my favourite tasks out of them all but I did have a problem while making the design. I lost a lot of time because I couldn’t get the page size to the correct size, but in the end it was because the margins weren’t set at 0. So I added all the information I had to use, laid out the design, spell checked and handed it all in on time, but if I had not had the problem I had, had I could have got feedback on the design and done some improvements on it. This did teach me to set the margins to my chosen size and allow leeway time, so if problems do accrue I have time to correct them.

The second task was to create an advert for Vodafone, advertising a designer’s job. When I did the design for the Vodafone advert I liked the design and I still do but I think I could have done a bit better. For this task I finished 20 minutes early, this gave me plenty of time to check my work and get feedback. Learning from the errors I had with the Hokai task, I got feedback on my designs all the way thought the stages of the designing of the Vodafone advert. Which made me fell more confident about my work because I wasn’t having to worry if my designs were ok.

The Jonathan Gee task was my least favourite, I wasn’t happy with the design I produce. Near the end of the time I looked at the design and thought it looked basic so I try to add some things to make it look better but I still aren’t happy with how it looks. I handed the design in 5 minutes before the end, so I was pushing it a bit that task. Improvement I made from this task was to stick to my time plan, has for this task I used more designing time then I planned to use. So when we were asked to remove out least favourite piece of work, I removed this one. I thought the design looked plain and boring. As I wasn’t happy with the design I did and it was the last minor task before the major task, I felt a bit nervous about doing the major task.

Before I did the two tasks today I thought I might do designs that I wasn’t happy with. So I wasn’t really looking forward to doing the tasks today, but once I had started them I really enjoyed them and I was pleased with the designs. One thing that occurred while doing this task, when I was put my design on to the computer, the image that had been given didn’t really fit in the space I had chosen to put it and not all the text would fit on with the size of the image. So I swapped for one of my other final designs because if I had tried to make all the content fit on the page, the text would have been unreadable.

When I first found out I was going to after do a presentation I wasn’t really bothered. I like creating presentations, I just don’t really like showing them. When doing a presentation I find it better to be all prepare and ready for the presentation so I am confidence about what I am talking about. The only thing I didn’t like about this presentation was the French words, I am really bad at speaking French so I tried to break down the words using a web site that help break them down for you. I have enjoyed doing the research on Roger Excoffon but there isn’t a lot of web site with information about him and his typefaces, but I did find some very useful articles by two men that came in useful. One was called Grace and speed of Roger Excoffon, it described about his life and what he was like, which made it better for me to understand what Roger Excoffon and his life was like. A lot of Roger excoffon typefaces were display font that would be hard to read small and they give a lot of impact to words.

Roger Excoffon only designed about 11 fonts so when choosing 3 to go into more detail I chose 3 of his most popular typefaces. I found a web site that shows Roger Excoffon typefaces used in everyday life. These images were good to add to the presentation as example and it also shows that the typeface a used for a range of different things, like on shop signs. For the hand I chose a different way to show his typeface examples, this was the alphabet typed out a number of time using Excoffons different typefaces.

The feedback I got on the last presentation I did was that I didn’t finish well, so I am going to try and improve this time by firstly adding a slide at the end of the presentation asking if there is any questions, so it will remind me to ask if there is any and also I need to remember to give my handouts out. The main improvement I wanted to do was to try and keep it to 5 minutes, which I did today.

Overall this assignment as made me do things I didn’t think I was good at or liked. I use to hate presentations the thought of having people’s attention just on me made me really nervous, but I can feel improvement in my confidence in doing presentations. Improvements I think I could make when doing presentations is to start stronger and carry it on though out the presentation.

Improvements for the time tasks would be stick to time plans and received as much feedback as possible so that improvements can be made to my work, which will help me make a better standard of work.

A week till the hand in date!

2008-02-26T17:11:00.001Z

Today we did another timed task, for this one we had to design a newspaper design for a Jazz artist. I wasn’t happy with the final design I produced. Near the end of the time I looked at the design and thought it looked basic so I try to add some things to make it look better but I still aren’t happy with it. I handed the design in 5 minutes before the end so I was pushing it a bit this week. Improvements I could do next time are stick to my time plan, I used more designing time then I planned to use.

After dinner today we had seminar meetings, we went over what should be handed in next Tuesday. It was good to go thought what is needed so it’s fresh in my head. We were also given an idea of what we will be doing in the reading week, I am not sure what to expect. It sounds like we are going to be given some strange music to listen to and ask to make designs for it.

A5 work isn’t as good as I wanted it to, at the moment I am a bit lost with it. So tomorrow I am going to work on my A5 and hopefully get the web site done, so I can continue with the testing and start thinking about the evaluation. For the web site so far I have created all the pages and I have the feedback form nearly finished I just need to validate it and link up the e-mail button. I have tried linking the e-mail button, but I haven’t been able to do it yet, I am going to keep having a look tutorials, till I get the button to work.

For my self study last week I work a lot on my presentation work, I have cut down the amount of information per slide, made the text larger so it’s easier to see and used more slide so the information is more spread out. I have had more images to the presentation as I thought too much text could make it boring, the images are examples of Roger Excoffon’s typefaces and an image of Roger Excoffon. I have also added to my handout, I have added typeface examples and web site addresses that have information about Roger Excoffon and his typefaces. When I did the presentation last week I had my speech wrote down on little pieces of paper, so this week I have typed up my speech and have printed it out in A5 size, so I have less pieces of paper when I am doing the presentation and I can update my speech a lot faster and easier.

Finished my image restoration

2008-02-19T16:50:00.001Z

Over the holidays have been doing a lot of course work, mainly working on my image restoration work. My referral work was due in on Monday so I had to get all my A4 work to get done in the holidays. For the image restoration I have to remove the fold line and do the corners of the image. I had a few problems doing the image because at first I couldn’t see any improve and that made me stress that I wasn’t going to get it finished in time. So it took me quiet a few attempts till I was happy with the image. I can see a difference between the image I did before and my new image, the image is been more sharpened, as more contrast and the fold isn’t as visual as before. I am glad I have got my referral work out of the way so I focus on my other two assignments now.

On Monday morning we did the usability testing. Before I did it I thought that I wouldn’t like doing the testing, because I wouldn’t know what to say about people web site. Give feedback was easier that I thought all the web sites were good and there were only little errors that I notice. The feedback I received was very useful, a lot the same things got mentioned. Including homepage needs more link to, the logo was already a link to the homepage but I am also going to add other link. People also commented on that not all the terms had pictures, so I am going to get pictures for all the terms. There are other things I need to improve but the two above were the main things that were mentioned.

Using the feedback I got on morning I did a few improvements to my a5 website. I made the size of the page smaller, before the width was 900px now it is 750px. This make the website look better as the text isn’t has spaced out, so there is thicker text blocks which makes it easier to align the images with text. For this weeks self study I am going to try and get all the improvements done before next week, so I can get more feedback. The website will be uploaded again this week, feedback on improves would be nice. Click here to view the site.

Today we had a presentation on newspapers design terms and then we did a timed task. The task was to create an advert for Vodafone, advertising a designer’s job. I enjoyed doing the task and I even finished 20 minutes early this gave me plenty of time to check my work and get feedback. Last time I did a time task I think I used too much time for designing so this time I just used 10 minutes for some thumbnail design, 10 minutes for the 3 final designs and 10 minutes for my final design. I got feedback on my designs all the way thought the stages of designing the advert. Which made me fell more confident about my work because I wasn’t having to worry if my designs were ok or not.

This afternoon in our seminar groups we practice our presentations. I did my presentation in CS3 In Design, and I forgot to change the file format so I could open it at college in CS2. So I had to use an older version of my presentation, so my presentation didn’t go as good I wish could have. Hopefully next week we can have another practice and I will a lot better. This week I am doing work a bit more on the presentation then I am going to do a lot practice, so I can get better at the presentation.

Image restoration progress

2008-02-05T16:59:00.000Z

For self study last week I started doing my referral work for A6. The main thing I need to do for the assignment is the image restoration. So last week I was shown the first stage of what I needed to do to improve restoring the image. Last week all I did was take the blemishes out, It took me nearly 3 hours to take them all out, but I do think the image looks better at this stage then it did last time. Using the guides made it easy to break the image into stages, so I didn’t feel I had loads to do. I also sharpened the images more than last time which made more blemishes come out but it make the image looks better and you can see more details. This week I am going to have a go at doing the main scratch and the corners. I was going to do the top corner last week but I didn’t estimate to spend as long as I did taking out the blemishes.

On Monday I did a lot of work on the back to basic web sites. I have got all the pages made but I am just not happy with how they all look at the moment and I had a few problems while creating the site, but now I have discussed them with Steve I know how to revolve them. One of the things I didn’t understand about was the template, I used the template to start the pages but I thought I might be able to update the template which would update the rest of the pages, but it didn’t. The thing that looked bad on the web pages was the massive spaces between the texts, and if I didn’t have a space between the body text and the title, the paragraph would have to be the same font style when I wanted the title bold and the rest of the text not to be.

Today at 9 o clock we had a timed task, I did enjoy the task but the only thing that I messed up with I lost a lot of time because I couldn’t get the page size to the correct size, but in the end it was because the margins wasn’t set at 0. So I added all the information I had to use, laid out the design, spell checked and handed it all in on time, but if I had not had the problem I had, had I could have got feedback on the design and improved it. Hopefully next time I will not have a problem and get my work done a little quicker so I am not rusting at the end and get some feedback.

Presentation work and building a web site

2008-01-29T16:59:00.000Z

This week I have been carrying on with my A5 and A6 work, which as been the presentation for a6 and building the web site for A5. The presentation work is going good, there isn’t loads of information about the typographer I am doing about but there is a bit about where he lived and few details about career. Roger Excoffon only designed about 11 fonts so I have chosen 3 of his most popular typefaces and I have gone into more detail about them. I have also found a web site that shows the typefaces used in everyday life, like on shop signs which will be good to add to the presentation or the handout as it will show an example of what the typefaces look like. The feedback I got on the last presentation is that I didn’t finish well, so I am going to try and improve this time by firstly adding a slide at the end of the presentation asking if there is any questions, so it will remind me to ask if there is any and also I need to remember to give my handouts out. My main improve thought is to try and keep it to 5 minutes and I would be happy if I could do that.

Last week for my A5 self study I started building the web site, I haven’t got that far with it but I am happy with what I have done so far. I have already had to make a few changes from the design, because when I have put the design in Dreamweaver it just didn’t look right, so I am going to screenshot changes I have made and stick them in my sketchbook and annotate the screenshots, so that when I come to write the evaluation, I can look back and see what changes I did.

Also for self study this week I collected inspiration, I found a couple of web site with some good inspiration, so I took a hour or so collecting some then I printed it out and stuck it in my sketchbook. I haven’t annotated all the inspiration yet but I am going to finish doing the rest this week and hopeful I will finds some more inspiration.

First timed task

2008-01-22T17:01:00.001Z

On Monday morning we had a demonstration on basic CSS. When I first started this course I had no idea about CSS, but from the research I have done for web designing assignments and from the demonstration, I now know a bit about CSS. When I researched about CSS I thought it was all confusing, as I don’t understand programming languages. We were shown I few CSS tags and shown how to create CSS using Dreamweaver, I understood all the information we were given and showed, which made me think if I can understand the bit that we had been shown maybe I will be able to understand more about CSS.

The course I was on last year I had to create a web form, but I had to teach my self how to make the form. I did make a form but I had problems, so I was really happy when on Monday when we got shown how make forms in Dreamweaver. It was simpler that I thought to make a form properly, but I am just not sure how to link the form to the CGI bin. I should be able to find the information I need to link it up, so I might have a test before I have to do it for the assignment.

For A5 we made a checklist of things we need to do. The class came up with 30 things, some the points were obvious things like spell and grammar checking, but that is really important thing to do and it is something I need to do regularly when doing pieces of writing. The checklist is going to be useful and I will use it to check my work so I include all the things I need to pass this assignment, but I am also going to do my own checklists. When doing assignment I found it useful to have checklists. I have main checklists that have all the tasks I need to do, and then I break it down into smaller lists. I do this so I don’t feel over loaded with work and I know what needs to be done.

This morning we had our first timed task for assignment 6, I really liked going the task but I didn’t expect to. For A6 I didn’t really know what to expect, so I haven’t been looking forward to it or not wanting to do it but I have been a bit nervous of what the tasks were going to be like. When we were first given the brief, I panicked that I wouldn’t be able to think of ideas, but once I had started designing I got some idea. I did about 10 small designs then I choose 4 of the 10 designs that I thought looked the best. After I had done the 4 final designs, I choose and drew the final design that I was going to develop on the computer. For planning I estimated 45 minutes, for putting the design on the computer I estimated 30minutes and 15 minutes for checking my work. I completed and handed my work in on time which I was happy about, but I don’t think the work that was produce was excellent. This task as made me a bit more existed about doing the other tasks but I am still nervous about what the tasks might be.

Today we had a seminar meeting in our new groups. This week I learnt I have to collect more inspiration and read though unit 4 again. For next weeks meeting we have to have a draft the typographer presentation ready, the presentation I did last time about the colour yellow was too long so this time I am going to aim to get the presentation the right length.

Another week back

2008-01-15T19:54:00.001Z

All holiday I wanted to know my results, I had to wait untill Monday afternoon to get them as we had a talk in the morning. I was already nervous about get the results for the assignment and then the talk in the morning didn’t make me feel any better. The talk was about the results not been good enough. I always try my hardest, So some of the things said I found a bit upsetting, and it came across to me as we hadn’t tried.

After the talk, we had a demonstration on how to use Dream weaver. I have used Dream weaver before so I know some basics, but I learnt easier ways to do things, which will make the web sites easier to make. We got to have a play about with Dream weaver. After the demonstration I went over all the things that we had been shown and then I went on the internet and look at some tutorials, and looked up solutions for problems I had, had before.

While we were experimenting with Dream weaver, people went to get their results individually. When I found out I had passed A3 and failed A4, I was more bothered about failing A4. I am glad I have passed A3 it’s just doesn’t seem like I have.

Today we went over what the new assignments include. For assignment 6 we have to do a presentation, which at the moment I am not that bothered about presenting it but I am sure I’ll get nervous when I have to. The presentation as to be on a typographer and the person I am aiming it on is Roger Excoffon. I have researched for hours today but I can’t find a lot of information today, all I could find was a bit of information about him and some information about some of his typeface. So I am going to do more research at home because a lot of web sites wouldn’t open at college.

Evaluation for semester 1

2007-12-21T20:01:00.000Z

The last semester, as been harder than the 1^st semester has at the beginning I had 3 assignments to do. After I had handed my referral work in, I didn’t really worry about my grade I was too busy trying to get all my other assignments work done. But when I did get my results I was really happy has I wasn’t expecting to get my grade that day. I have enjoyed doing the 3 assignments so far, I have had good and bad moments while doing the assignment. It’s good when I concentrate for hours and get lots of work done, but the bad things are like when I lost my work and when I had problems with Photoshop, but I have learnt how to solve the problems I have had so if they do happen again I know what to do.

For assignment 4 I had to restore an image, this was the hardest task so far as I didn’t know how to use the software that I had to use to restore the image. When we were starting the Photoshop task I was about to hand in my a2 referral work so I was quiet stressed out and not knowing Photoshop but having to use it to restore the image I started stressing out more, which didn’t help. When I finished restoring the image I was quiet pleased with it, it wasn’t as good as other people in the class but I was happy with what I had done. I know I could improve with restoring images and when I have more experience with Photoshop I could have and other go and see how the second image, would look compared to the first image I restored.

There is a number of things that I have improved on because of this course, first my time management, I wasn’t bad a managing my time before but I am better at it now and It has been useful to use, when I have been doing my assignment work, to sort out when to do different tasks and get all my work done on time.

When I started the course my confidence was really low and over the past couple of months it has improved because of college and work. At both college and work I have done things I don’t like doing. When I had to do the presentation at college I was really nervous and I don’t think I could have done it in front of the class but I would be really pleased with myself if I had, and hopeful I will be able to do a presentation in front of the class and be happy with the presentation I give. When I found out I have to do a long presentation at the end of year 2, I didn’t mind as it’s a long time till I do it. I like preparing for a presentation I just don’t like showing it, so if I do, do the presentation in the second year I will be so happy, because I will prove to myself that I can do them and If I have to do it for a job one day hopefully I will be better with the experience of doing other presentations.

I like how I have to use the sketchbook to record every things, I find it useful for when forget some information or I want to find a useful web site I have been on before, as I can just go back and look in my sketchbook. I have enjoyed collecting inspiration for the sketchbook as it as help be with designs I have had to do, for example my screen designs. One thing I think I could improve on with my sketchbook, is taking more notes in seminar meetings, so next semester I’m going to aim to take more notes seminar meetings.

Having a blog was new to me when I first started the course, I enjoyed writing the blog entries as I get to reflect on what I have done in that week. When I found out that I had to leave comments on other people’s blogs I was a bit nervous about doing it, I thought what If I say the wrong thing or what If what I write doesn’t make sense people are going to think I am stupid, but the more comments I do the more I am less bothered about doing them.

I feel like I have learnt a lot so far this year and I have enjoyed learning all the new things I have been taught and improving on some things I knew. I am going to carry on working my hardest and aim to get getter grades next semester. I always just expected passes but when I get higher I am really pleased, so this year I am going to aim to get a merit for at least one of my assignments.

When I finish the course at the moment I would like to do a third year, I always think that it’s better to have more education, but I am not at the end of the course yet so don’t know exactly what to do till I am nearer there. If I decide that I don’t want to do a third year I would get employment. Since the start of the course I have said I would like to be a web designer and the course as made be surer about that. I have enjoyed all the designing of web sites and I am looking forward to getting to build web sites.

Screen design- please leave feedback

2007-12-11T21:35:00.000Z

Banner- please leave feedback

2007-12-11T20:50:00.001Z

Banner 1.

Banner 2.

Week before hand in date

2007-12-11T20:35:00.000Z

Last week I tried to get all my work done so that I could have it ready for the seminar group, so I could get feedback on, but I didn’t get all my work complete. I am happy with were I am up to now though, I have lot of work done and ready to put in the template, just few more things to complete and improve.

This week we haven’t had any lecture instead we had discussions about the assignments, I found it useful to have as it went over every thing we had to include, while we were going over everything I wrote down all and tasks with click boxes next to them, so I can go thought my work and click off what I have done and see what needs doing.

Today I have completed my first version of the banners and got feedback on them, I am going to improve the banners using the feedback I got and then post them on my blog. I have few more things to do to my screen design and when I have done them I will also post them up for feedback.

Next Monday, Steve as offered us the chance to do our work at home, I am going to get up in the morning sort some things out at home then go to college. I should have all my work done before Monday so all I need to go to college to do is have my work read though and checked for spelling and grammar errors, and also I will properly print my work out at college so I have it ready for Tuesday.

Completing assignment 3

2007-12-04T17:07:00.000Z

Today I have designed and started making banners. The banners that are been designed, are for Jazz musicians. The class was given some pictures and I have to choose 2 to use to create the banner around.
I am not sure what I think to this task, I don’t dislike it but I am not existed about doing it, it’s probably because I haven’t done any think like this before, so it’s all new to me.
To design the banners we had certain amount of time to complete the design work including annotating the designs, this made all the first designed rusted and kind of messy. For the final designs we had about 9 minutes a design, the time went really fast, I finished on time the only thing I wanted to do was check I had done everything and the one thing I missed out was the font size. After designing the banners, I started making the design on the computer, to do this I had to use Photoshop. At the moment Photoshop is annoying me, I don’t know to use it so things I want to do I can’t do, because I don’t know how to use the tools. I spent about 2 hours looking for tutorials that explained how to do basic things in Photoshop like fill a square with colour, which I final found how to do and how to make squares have round corners.

Last week for self study I have been doing my screen designs for assignment three. I have completed some thumbnails and I have chosen four I like best and I think will best suit the purpose of the web site. I have posted the final four on my blog, at the bottom of this entry.

Also for self study last week I carried on doing the image restoring. I started again with the image, this time I think I did better than before. The only thing is that where the fold line was there is still a faint line, which I have tried to get rid of but nothing I have tried as worked. I haven’t added to colour the image yet but hopeful I will be doing that this week.

On Monday it was my birthday and on the same day I got the feedback for the improvements I did on my a2 referral work, and this time I passed which I am really happy about, and it made my birthday better, because now I can stop worrying if have passed or not.

Screen Designs

Below are my 4 final screen designs, please could you leave feedback about what you think to the designs and any improves you could reccommend .

Screen Design 1.
Screen Design 2.

Screen Design 3.

Screen Design 4.

Learning how to use Photoshop

2007-11-27T23:21:00.000Z

This week I have been continuing with the image restoration task, at the beginning of the task I was existed about doing it but it’s harder than I thought it was going to be. I don’t know how to use the tools on Photoshop, so I am have problems deciding which tools to use for which part of the picture. I have been trying different tools and I am finding some useful and others I am still finding out how to use. So this week I am going to carry on practicing with Photoshop and start from the beginning with picture, and hopefully I should get better with the program and restoring the image.

While I have been doing the image restoring I have been doing my delivery requirements, completive analysis and contents for assignment 4. I have enjoyed writing the contents for the web site because as I like learning about things I don’t know and learning more about things I already know.

I have completed all my referral work this week and I handed it in today. I am glad I don’t have to work on it any more so I have more time to do my other course work. I worked on my referral work a bit the first week after I got my feedback and on the second week I got more work done, but on the day before it needed handing in, I started noticed little details I could improve which took me ages to change. For example I edited some of my information and then I had to move all my references around after, and I had to do this a few times had I kept editing my text.

Today and yesterday the class did a timed tasked. Monday we had 15 minutes to design a black and white business card and then we had 15 minutes to put the designs on the computer. The tasked showed me how much work you can get done when under pressure. We were given certain information to put on the business card, we were not to not exclude or add information. Using information that I was given, I thought it would make it easier not to make any mistakes but I was wrong, I made spelling errors which I also missed when I proof read. Today we did the same task but we were given more information to include. I thought this made the business card harder to design. After we had done the designs on the computer, we printed them off and stuck them on the wall to get feedback. My business card wouldn’t print out so I didn’t get feedback on mine but it was good to hear other peoples feedback has it help me understand things I could have improved on mine.

Restoring Images

2007-11-20T17:00:00.000Z

For assignment 4 this week we got a lecture on how to restore images. I was looking forward to learning about restoring images, but once I started trying to restore an image it was harder than I thought it was going to be. There is a fold across the photo that we are restoring and at the moment I’m having problems trying to remove it. I have no experience using Photoshop so it all new to me, so all I can really do is just keep playing about with the program and hopefully my skills in using the software will improve.

This week for the seminar meeting, the groups had to have goals, target audience, delivery requirements and completive analysis finished or at least started for the meeting. I got all 4 done but I need to improve on the delivery requirements, because I need to research and write about the technologies. From the seminar meeting I know some things I need to improve on, including check my goals, improve delivery requirements and add extra points into the completive analysis.

Last week I did the Image compression essay, it took me hours to write it, as I didn’t know how to start it, then I didn’t know how to word what I was going to say, but when I had completed the essay I was happy with what I had done. I am going read though it again this week though and see what I could improve on it.

For my A2 assignment I haven’t done as much work on this assignment as I have wanted to, but I am going to do a couple of hours two night. Hopefully I should get all the A2 work done by Thursday so I can check it all for the rest of the week.

Three assignment to do!

2007-11-13T16:21:00.000Z

This week I have started assignment 3- Back to Basics, Has it is another web planning assignment I have an idea of what is needed to be done. I enjoyed doing the last unit so I hopefully it should be the same with this one.

A worry I had this term, was that I would be doing two assignments at the same time and for some time I will be improving my assignment 2, so I would be doing 3 assignments, but now I know what the assignments are and what I need to do I feel a lot more confident about getting the work done.

Last week I started the, are we designers or artists essay, I did a lot of research before and while I was writing the essay, which I found very useful. In the essay we had to talk about The Designers Republic work, I thought their work was good but not all of it was my taste, but it was good to see the type of companies they have worked with.

Today we have been learning about image compression, at first I was a bit over loaded with all the information but I do under stand it and I do have my notes to go back to if I need to remember any thinks about Image compression. After dinner today we got shown how to do image compression using Photoshop. We then got some images given out and we got to mess about with compressing different images. I am looking forward to writing the essay and I have enjoyed learning about image compression.

For self study this week I am going to be writing my compression essay, A3- goals and target audience and Improving my A2. For my A2 improvements I am going to spilt up all the tasks I have to do then set certain days to do certain task, so I know what needs to be done and when I need to do it.

Back at college

2007-11-06T17:33:00.000Z

This week we are back at college, the first day back was a kind of bad day back, Firstly I had to do a presentation, I didn’t get much sleep on Sunday night with worrying about the presentation, I started thinking that my presentation was rubbish and that I was going to make a fool out of my self. When we got into the classroom on Monday we found out that the presentations were just going to be in front of Steve, I was relieved but I still felt nervous, plus I was anxious about getting my A2 assignment grade.

When I did the presentation I felt nervous, the time went so fast I thought been stood doing a 5 minute presentation would feel like ages, but it didn’t and I went over the time limit. I think for my presentation I spend more time researching than I did making the presentation. I researched all the words in my presentation that I thought people wouldn’t understand and I thought Steve might ask me what they mean. In the presentation I included a map to show were all the different cultures were, was going to make little drawn pins and put them on the map to make it clear were the cultures were but I run out of time and thought it would be better to practice the presentation, then add new things. While I was doing the presentation I had clue card because when I get nervous I forget what I am going to talk about, so I wrote plenty of notes, I wrote extra notes so that If I run out of time I still had things to talk about, but in the end I didn’t need them and I had to cut down on the other information I had planned to use.

While we were waiting to do the presentation the class was sat in the canteen waiting for the last person that did their presentation to come down and tell who was next. As we all waited to do our presentation, we got on as a group and supported each other, people were showing each other their presentations and handout, which made me more calmer, because the people in the group had done different information in their presentation but done in the same idea as me, which was using lists of words and then they were going to talk about those words.

After dinner we got our assignment results, I got referred, I was expecting it well I thought if I tell my self I have referred then it wouldn’t be that bad when I got told I had. When all the class had been told their results the room had like an unhappy atmosphere. We were asked to write a online learning journal entry but not to publish it, I couldn’t write one because my mind was just blank. I was upset that I had fail mainly because I felt like I had let my self down and secondly I had let my family, not that my mum and dad were upset or angry with my result, its just they saw how much hard work I had done and how stress out I got and it would have been nice for it all to pay off but I just didn’t do well enough. Now it makes me think if I have failed this assignment what’s to make me pass the next one, I know I will have to try harder and I am considering cutting my hours down at work, so I have more spare time. I really want to do well on this course and when I got told the assignment referred I panicked about getting the assignment up to a pass, Steve’s been saying how hard it’s going to be doing the two assignments this term and adding a third one just made think if I was going to coupe with all the work. Hopefully I will and it’s better that we have a little break between getting the results and doing the touch up to the assignment work, it tells us start and understand the new assignments.

Reading Week

2007-10-30T14:41:00.000Z

On Monday I emailed Steve for the reading week task, I didn’t have clue what it was going to be, while I was waiting for Steve to e-mail back, I went on MSN messenger to talk to the other group members, I think its good we all have some way to communicate between each other. When we all got our e-mail from Steve telling us we were doing a presentation on a certain colour (mine is Yellow), we all told each other which colour we got and we were talking about the different colours, martin told use all a useful web site we could use to find information on the colours.

When I found out I had to presentation I was fine about it, I am not bothered about doing the presentation till the night before I have to do it and that’s when I’ll be nervous and I’ll start panicking. I am doing my presentation on Yellow, Yellows my least favourite colour, but I am getting use it after researching it for so long. I have found out some good facts about yellow and I didn’t know that different cultures had different meaning for colours which I have found interesting.

After I done quiet a bit of research I started to make a visual aid, we were told we could either use Powerpoint or PageMaker to make a presentation, has I don’t have PageMaker I have had to Powerpoint, Steve doesn’t like animation, so it just a simple presentation, I have used a few images and tried to use as few words on the slides as possibly, so the people that are going to see the presentation don’t get over loaded with text.

For the presentation we have to include a visual aid and handouts, I have started the visual aid but for the handout and sure what to include yet, I thought about using the important information I am going to talk about in the presentation and include some web sites were I got the information from. I also have to think about when I want to hand the handouts out during the presentation, at the moment I thinking near the end, but I want to use a image in the presentation and if I can’t find a bigger version of the image to use in the visual aid, I might include the image on the handout and give it out when I get to that images slide so people can view the image better.

The presentation has to last 5 minutes, the longest presentation I have done before is about 1 minute and when I did that it felt I had been doing it 10 minutes because I was so nervous, hopefully been well prepared and organised I should do ok with the presentation on Monday.

Half term

2007-10-23T22:02:00.000+01:00

This week is half term, I have had a read thought the next assignment sheets but I am going to have another read thought and write some question down which I want to ask about the assignment. I am looking forward to the next assignments and I want to try harder than the last assignment, I know I tried to do my best for the last assignment but I am nervous about getting my results, I hope I pass but I will be upset if I don’t get a pass but all I can do is try and get my work better.

I am looking forward to reading week to see what tasks we have to do. The only thing is, I am worried it might be complicated task and I might get stuck and not know what to do, something like using photo which I don't how to use the program, but hopeful if that happens I can contact class members or Steve for help.

I have been collecting inspiration so that I can stick it in my sketch book when I get it back and I have also been researching and been having a go with different software's so I also have some notes to stick in.

The first assignment has been handed in!

2007-10-16T13:46:00.000+01:00

On Monday I wrote my evaluation, I found it quiet easy to write after the first bit which I had to think how to start it. On Sunday I wrote a bulleted list of things I should including in the evaluation then I used the list when I wrote the evaluation on Monday it was good to have an idea of what to write about and in the end I wrote too much and ended up cutting it down, It was hard cutting it down because I thought everything I had wrote was meant to be included and taking things out was like missing parts out.

The last thing I did for my assignment was referencing, I had about 15 references and I estimated it would take a couple of hours which it did. Thought the assignment I had 2 pages in my sketchbook were I put all my references, so when I came to reference I decide were the references went in the assignment then added them, having the 2 pages of references made it easier to reference as I didn't have to search thought my sketch book to find the all.

I handed my assignment work in today at about 11 o clock, I am glad I have handed it in I am now nervous about what grade I have got, but I know I have tried my best.
Last night was the most stressful night of this assignment I knew I didn't have a lot to do it was just I knew it was going to take me along time to do it so I started wondering if I was going to get it complete in time then I started worrying the work I had already done was wrong, so at one point I had to have a break and when I went back to my work I planned what I was going to do and got on with it and finished it.

This afternoon we had a lecture on presentation, Presentation are the worst things ever for me, I aren't the loudest person every, so I hate it when i am centre of attention, I don't even like it when I have to answer questions in class, because I get nervous then i start mumbling or I can't even talk and I worry what I am going to answer is wrong. I want to improve my presentational skills and get better at speeching out loud and hopefully a bit of practice should help.

Deadline

2007-10-09T16:33:00.001+01:00

This week I have tried to finish has much of the assignment work has possible, so that in our seminar group meetings today I could see what I could improve on my work. So for self study this week I wrote a list of all the tasks I needed to do and then crossed them out when I had done them, I felt more relived the more tasks that got crossed off. I tried to get all the tasks complete for this week but I in the end I didn't, I did as much work has I could but it took me hours to put my work into Page Maker, It took me 2 hours today to make 1 table and I had to do three. At first I found tables hard to make but the more time I have spent doing them on Page Maker the easier I found them to make and the better they looked.

The only other thing I think I might have problems with is doing my references, now I have collected a few more paper-based references and I have some electronic references, I can start putting the referencing into Page Maker but I am not sure how easy or hard its going to be or how long its going to take me so I am going to estimate a couple of hours so I have plenty of time.

When I got feed back on my work the thinks I need to improve on is:
Referencing - A good range of references (including paper based)
Goals- Check they are all measurable
Delivery Requirements - Choose whether to say the web site would be HTML or XHTML(including CSS)
-Find more references to back up what I have said in my delivery requirements
Competitive Analysis- Label screens shots and tables
Screen Designs- Change the colour names
-Add more measurements on to the designs

Evaluation- As well as making them improves on my work this week I also have to write my evaluation. It should make it easier to write by using my notes.

This year is a lot different to last year at college, last year deadlines were changed so deadlines came when ever tutors decided they wanted them, that could be 2-3 week after the actual deadline which was unfair really because it was a bit annoying when you got all your work done for the "deadline" and then other people that could be bothered going their course work got extra time, so I do think its good about the strick deadline so it makes it fair for everyone and we all know whats going to happen on the hand in day. I know I will have to have all the work done for the deadline and I haven't got that much improvements to do but I am kind of worrying if the work I have already done is good enough work, Ill be happier when its all complete and handed in.

Final week nearly!

2007-10-02T15:49:00.000+01:00

This week I am considering has the last week of the assignment, but really the assignment deadline is 16th October. Steve recommended we finished the assignment a week easily so we could do any improvements we needed to do. I feel like I am doing OK with my work and I am on track but I still feel a bit nervous about getting all the work complete and to a good standard.

Has last week we learnt how to Pagemaker this week I have been having a go at doing some of my designs and the site structure diagram using the program, I had a few times when I didn't know how to do some thing, like I wanted the shape of the buttons on the web site design to be a box with rounded Corners, I tried looking my self for a way to do it by I couldn't find it so Gary showed me how I could round the corner and once I had been shown how to do it, it was easy. The work that I am doing in Pagemaker is just rough, but I still think it looks like a child has done it using word so I am going to think of ideas I could make the design look better, I could start with getting the sizing right, then I could try using different fonts that would be more appropriate for the topic.

There is a couple of things I have got left to start this week this includes assets table, budget statement and the evaluation, but it might be best to start the evaluation next week after I have completed all the other tasks that need doing. For the other tasks for the assignment, I have started them but I haven't finished any, I think you can always improve your work but I don't think you should spend too much time looking for mistakes or you can mess up your work.

I am find my sketch book very useful for all my notes but It's just hard trying to find the notes I have wrote, so I might start using the back couple of pages in my sketchbook as a index, I have already started numbering my pages I just need to go thought my sketchbook and write in my index which pages have what on.

Screen Designs

2007-10-02T10:50:00.000+01:00

This week I got a comment reccommending I upload some of my web site designs on to my online learning journal so that I could get feedback on them, I thought it was an excellent idea.

My web site is about Guy Fawkes and it is being aimed at children in Primary schools aged 9-12.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Could People please comment on what you like and dislike about the designs and which you think would be most suitable.

First time using PageMaker

2007-09-25T17:01:00.000+01:00

Today I learnt the basics of PageMaker. Pagemaker I thought was more complicated that programs like Word, but in a way they have a lot of the same features just PageMakers tools are a lot more advanced. I liked how a good piece of work comes out of what you make on PageMaker and how more professional it looks using Pagemakers than word.

Last week with for my self study I Started my screen designs. After the first few thumb nail web site designs I got stuck on idea, so I took a break and looked at magazines and watched television to see if I could get any inspiration, which I did, from Magazines I got the idea of using a picture for a background and also from watching television I got the idea of colourful buttons and blocks. I have learnt if you try hard to find inspiration your less likely to get it and if you just use whats around you and use your imagination its a lot easier. After I had done all the thumb nail designs I did bigger versions of some of the thumb nail designs. I asked my sister to help me choose which designs to use as I thought It would be good idea to have an other persons view on the designs. There were a few of the designs my sister really like so I used them and then we choose two other designs, all the deigns we choose were chosen to suit the target audience. I have two preferred designs they are similar but have a few differences like one has buttons and the other has text links.

One thing I will have to do for self study this week is make sure I write out all my references together and what I have used the reference for. I was glad on Tuesday when I got a e-mail back from a person I e-mailed asking permission to use their pictures, they said I could have permission to use the pictures, I will have to reference the pictures to say which web site I got them from and whose photos they are.

Second Week of the assignment

2007-09-18T15:45:00.000+01:00

For my self study last week I did some work on my assignment, the tasks that I have done so far have been understandable, I have chosen 4 goals for the web site but I hope to improve them, For the Target Audience I wrote quite a bit, well more than needed, so when I have finish the other tasks I am going to after go back over the Target Audience and cut it down from a A4 page to a small paragraph, I suppose its better I am having to cut it down instead of been stuck what to write. The next task I started is Competitive analysis, for this I am comparing two web sites about Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes has many pages of information but only a couple of web sites, so I have chosen two web sites, one that isn't that good and could do with a bit of improving even though it has just been updated last week, and the second web site is good, I have used the second web site so I can see how to improve my design.

I am still a bit unsure about the time sheet, I am doing the work just not understanding how to show it on the time sheet, for ex sample I don't know what to do if I do research for my competitive analysis, i do the research all the thought the task for competitive analysis, so do i write down it took me 5 hours or do I write it took me 1 hour yesterday and 2 hours today. At the moment I have left it blank, I was thinking about putting an overall of hours it took.

Yesterday I started my screen designs I though it might I have been easyer but it pretty hard thinking of many different ideas and designs. The Internet came in useful, has I look at a range of different web sites to get ideas, i found some really good web site which gave me some ideas, the web sites i liked I took a screen shot of and wrote down the address. At the moment I am doing thumb nail designs so I can find a design that will best suit the topic i choose.

This week I have e-mail a few people to ask for permission to use some of their pictures from their web site, I have some more people to e-mail has college doesn't allow you to go on hotmail at college I have wrote peoples e-mail address in my sketch book and I am going to e-mail them from home.

Start of the first assignment

2007-09-11T16:10:00.000+01:00

On Monday I started a new assignment, there was a lot to take in as there was loads of information, I fairly understand what I have to do but I am still a bit nervous of what is expected, as I am not sure if the work I will do will be good enough.

First thing I did after I had been told what the assignment was was research the person I have chosen to design a web site on. The person I have chosen is Guy Fawkes, I chose Guy Fawkes because I remember doing about him in Primary school, but had to use books and I can remember how boring it was reading and copying from books, so I got an idea to design an interesting and easy to use web site.

When I researched Guy Fawkes there was quiet a few web site about him and there loads of pages of information about him for schools, but the pages had hardly any information on them and no pictures on some there which made them not very interesting for children. I found two web sites that I am going to compare for a competitive analysis task which I am going to do next week, one web site could do with some improvement and the other web site is good and there is only a few things I don't like, but I can take the good ideas from both the web site and use them in my design and I can use the bad idea and changes them in good ideas if I want to use them.

Today I created a weekly plan and production schedule it took me half hour to do. For the production schedule I sorted out what tasks need to be done and estimated how long it was going to take me to do the tasks, which was quite difficult because I don't know yet how long a task is going to take. So over 4 weeks I have about 3 tasks a week to do but I am not sure if that will stay as planned, has I might need extra time or I might finish a task quicker that I expected. For the weekly time sheet I just write when I start a task, how long I estimate it's going to take me and how long it actually took me. I find using time management useful and helps me get less stress when it get close to the hand in date, because if I use the schedule right I should complete the assignment a week before it’s due in.

So today have done two tasks and started on a third task. I have set goals for the web site I am designing this task told longer than I thought and I had to have a good think about what I wanted the goals to be. The second task I have done is set a target audience which is primary school children. I enjoyed doing the research work to find a suitably target audience, its good to see what other web site are like so I can compare my design to their web site to see what they have better so I could improve my design.

Using a sketchbook to keep notes and idea is useful and when I do find inspiration I can just stick it in the sketchbook and go back to it when I need inspiration, which is good because I won't find inspiration just sat looking at a computer. I am going to keep stick good inspiration in my sketchbook so I always have some fresh ideas to look at.

Today my small group I have been put into had seminar meeting. I didn't know what to expect at the meeting but now I think the meeting are going to be useful for when I have any question about what I need to do on a task , how could I improve my work or if I have any problems I can discuses them at the meeting.

My past, present and future

2007-09-11T16:05:00.000+01:00

The first school I went to was Kirkhamgate Primary school, in Year 2 and 6 I did my SAT’s both exams I got average results for my age. In 2000 I went to Outwood Grange high school I got 12 GCES, grade C’s.

This year I got a GCE in applied ICT and the two years at college made me more mature and independent. The second year at Wakefield college I tried harder than the first year because I started doing a lot more work out of college, and I was glad I did because the second years grades were better. So I learnt the more work you put in the more satisfying it is when you get your grades.

Now I have started the Interactive media course I am looking forward to the assignments, the new things I am going to learn and improve on. I would like to pass the course at the end of the two years with a good grade. At the end of the course I want to be more confident and have learnt how to have a good client relationship with all clients.

At the end of the course I am thinking of two options I could do either do a top up year or get a job, I am not sure at the moment what job I would like but I am considering if I pass this course and get experience as a designer for a couple of years, maybe doing some teaching.

To get to where I want to be I am going to have to do some things to improve myself, first thing that I would like to improve would be my confidence, I could do this my pushing my self to do new things and things I don’t like doing. I have just got a part time job which I’m hoping will help for the future because it will improve my team skills and confidence. I am going to treat this course like a job by always trying my hardest and being on time. I have done a time table to show when I am at college, when I am working and when I have to do self study, I am also going to keep track of important dates, for example when assignments are due in.