Wintary

As it's not summer, winter in the title was more appropriate.

Looking back at this first semester it's been one of many highs, many lows, ups and downs, highlights and low lights.. definitely a rollercoaster ride to start the course. I think the main reason for this was everyone adjusting to a new style of working, a work load that hadn't necessarily been as big before; it really is miles away from working in the school/college environment I was previously used to.

A thing that had plagued me in the past with regards to work, is when evidencing the whole process; which is very important regarding this course. I've definitely improved in this aspect, but still it is not as good as I would like it to be, I feel it lets my sketchbook down a lot and I really need to get that side of the work organised and put to good use. It shows in my development of my screen designs also, I do alot on the actual screen instead of in my sketchbook, and without thinking about evidencing I make big changes, therefore my developmental process breaks down. I do think on the whole now, my sketchbook is my biggest weakness; with this in mind I will work hard next semester to turn this around and make it a strength.

But i think another part of my organisational process has improved greatly, at first I had real trouble with the time sheets, not only just filling them in and planning my work out to the right amount of hours, but actually keeping them all in one place. The hand in method has definitely helped me a lot here, now I'm in a good process and doing my time sheet has become almost automatic, setting monday morning before the first lecture aside to complete it helps me work out my week quickly. Showing my vast improvement in this aspect to myself, was in the last time sheet when I had done the whole sheet and then counted my hours up after and realised they hit exactly 32hours, bit weird has I hadn't really thought about the amount of hours yet, I was just putting down what needed to be done.

The group as a whole has blended together quite well, this is a big highlight for me.. the last Tuesday at the pub after deadline, really should that we'd all come together as more of a team than a group. I think the people who have left have actually aided this in a way, it's forced people to make different friends and then get integrated into the group as a whole more. The team that has been created in the group has definitely built a structure of help, with the big aid of Shaun (no pun intended) everyone seems to be therefore each other, when it comes time for helping each other, whether it's people letting others have notes or just helping them out with ideas and feedback.

I'm looking forward to progressing with this course, when I've pondered about my future; I can really see how this course will help me get there. I don't even mean the HND degree side of it, I really feel this course will enable me to gather the right skills and professional mind frame to work in the industry to a very good level. The course has already made me look at my design work with a more critical mind, I'm thinking about so much more when inputting each feature into banners and layouts. The last design for example, because of the target audience I tried to limit the visual distractions and only put pictures into the info that actually needed pictures, this would not only make my information more dynamic, it would lower my global page sizes a lot, making my website fast and reliable.

I've already enjoyed the days off we have had, even though I've fallen a tad ill.. but this has given me time to explore my creativity. I have been messing around with different styles of design, using techniques I'd not thought of before, creating things I really wouldn't of in the past, that's another way I can see this course has changed me, it's forced me out of my design comfort zone. The portfolio site I'm messing with at the moment has a real Russian feel to it, taking some slight inspiration from another portfolio I've seen recently, but expanding it and taking the theme to a relative extreme. I think when posted on my web-host (which thankfully now is back up) everyone will be able to see a distinct change from my usual style, but still see elements of my older work in there.

This week has been a bit of one disaster after another, first my web-host completely shut down due a hardware failure at one of the data centres. Then my dad decided it was a good time to switch over to wireless, which we've been having big problems with; which is also the reason why this evaluation is day late. I've also got quite ill, swollen glands are always nice. But all that said I'm looking forward to Christmas and the semester that follows.