interactive media

Project Goals.

2009-02-03T15:43:00.000Z

Validate to XHTML 1.0 Transitional, CSS 2.1, ActionScript 3 standards.

Producing a website that will have valid code will make sure the website is aesthetically consistant throughout cross-platforms and browsers. Also reducing the usablity errors that are already an issue with Flash. Using W3C's online validation service to constantly check and resure that I have valid code.

Creating a portfolio to professional standards.

Making sure that if my portfolio would not look out of place if it was put on a page with other experienced website designers. Meeting the standards set out in my first goal to ensure this will be the case with my final design. A website that lets the work do the talking, rather than trying to be all singing and dancing itself.

Top 3 placement in search enginges.

Because there is already some famous Andrew Whelan's such as the comedy writer, it will be productive for me to get as high as possible so I'm not just lost in the search and relegated to the latter pages. This will require some research into SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to enable me to put in the right processes to project me to the higher figures.

Flexible and Easily Accessible Website.

I will create a sitemap to make sure no information is more than 2 clicks away from each other, hopefully helping me through the presentation process having all the information on hand to me quickly. The flexibility means that updating it with new work will be a quick and simple job.

Last Semester.

2009-02-03T15:07:00.004Z

The last semester is here and it’s come around quite quick, only yesterday it seems like we were doing team building tasks and dropping eggs from windows. It’s really dawning on me that soon we are going to projected out into the big wide world of discovery to find out how our talents actually rank in the industry amongst professionals and possible employers. Will what we have been taught be enough to secure jobs? Will the experience some people in the class have been gaining throughout the course with side-jobs and projects help towards the final goal of actually working for a professional design company. I’ve thought along the course that many people would not be able to find an industry job, but the people are really starting to show what they are made of. Though before I was really looking at the visual side of it, a lot of members are becoming very good coders and are hungry to learn more of that site; hopefully this will put them forward to where they want to be.

Looking at the last few assignments I’m concentrating on the ones now and leaving the thinking about the final major project some what out of my head. I think my motivation is been something that has consistently come into question with the assignments and hopefully I will be able to show a different side now we’re coming to the close of the course. Never mind proving other members of my class wrong, I think I need to prove to my self that I can actually do great things when I put my mind to it, instead of really resting on my laurels and thinking it will be okay to do this to get through. The Self Managed Learning Plan will be the main way to show this, showing that I can be self motivated with the creation of short term goals and keeping on top of deadlines and to a good quality.

The portfolio assignment is quite interesting, for as long as I can remember I’ve always been messing around with possible portfolios; doing designs and re-doing them 2 days later. In some ways I’m really my own worst critic and find it hard to constantly like the work I produce, forever changing and adding bits to suit my ever evolving outset. Now I know focus is needed to produce something that will not only please me, but the target audience too and the marker. To qualities that they haven’t seen me work before, I’ve always felt this was an assignment I’d really be able to shine in and hopefully this will be the case now we’re finally getting down to doing it. The structuring it to a presentational basis will be a nice mini-challenge also, knowing how it looks on a smart board and making sure all the information will be easy to access and succinct. But I feel I’m up to this task and have a thorough grasp of presentational techniques to compliment the graphical side of the portfolio task.

Word Count [509]

10 Resources

2009-01-12T15:32:00.002Z

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash/index.htm
This website has hundreds of tutorials, ranging from basic flash tuts to dealing with the server-side of flash.

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/
There is a lot of video tutorials on here and deals with the actionscript side of things as well as flash work.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/
A community to get tips and feedback on your work, has loads of tutorials for every problem you could find using flash.

http://www.flashkit.com/
Also a community with hundreds of resources and people willing to help out when you need it. Great tutorials and fast advice.

http://www.actionscript.org
Dealing with the actionscript side mainly, it shows you how to streamline your work and gives you tips and hints for your building process.

http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_flash/
Probably the site that has the most amount of resources, literally anything you want can be found here, with multiple ways to do it.

http://www.flashperfection.com/
Bringing tutorials from various sites to put together a staggering range and depth of tricks, tips and hints for flash users.

http://as3.metah.ch/
I think the most module and class structured resource I've found, it really breaks everything down for you and puts it in an easily readable language.

http://tutorialoutpost.com/tutorials/flash/actionscript
Hundreds of tutorials dedicated to flash users and really focusing on the input of actionscript alongside.

http://flashspeaksactionscript.com/begin-learning-flash-in-a-flash/
Probably the place I'm going to look at first when it comes to the assignment, it's very easily usable for the novice user.

Flash in the Pan

2008-12-10T16:34:00.005Z

The way I see the industry going, when looking around at various high-end sites and at the design top 40's is with Flash. Everyday it's becoming more and more usable and inturn the age old arguement of 'usability' problems is starting to be obsolete, forward movements in not only the browser technologies ability to handle a wider and more advanced range of code. The ability to create interactive experiences that the client/user takes part in, offering great feedback and the knowledge they want is definitely the way forward.

The best customer service is to go beyond what the customer expects of you. Exactly what Flash enables you to do, a person goes there expecting a simple site, but instead you give them an experience. Something to remember. This encourages a return visit, having this interactive process means that no two visits have to be the same melodic plod along to the information.People are always impressed with a well built Flash website, it gives out more of a wow factor than the generic CSS/HTML based interface of old. Now it's become a talking point, encouraging family and friends to enjoy this experience aswell.

It's something I want to learn and have always wanted to learn but never really had the chance to get into it seriously. For this reason and what I know the outcomes can look like I know I'll enjoy getting to grips with Flash, learning how everything works in conjunction with Action Script to produce that wow factor I've always been looking for. Not only that, it suits my design style so much.. I see myself as quite a minimalistic, conceptual designer. That goes for more of a stylistic aesthetic rather than obvious lording of my design talents. Flash with Action Script matches the way I work so much, offering the capability to turn the minimalistic into an experience.

Jog to Christmas

2008-12-03T16:53:00.002Z

I'm quite happy with how the course has gone by so far in it's 2nd year, I've discovered a never thought ability of being able to efficiently time manage. Which is something I've always struggled with, especially when it was taken on by such precedence in the 1st year. That and organization has never been my winning skill, sometimes I find it a barrier that holds back my creativity, though with the new 'Time Log' I've been using with the team project it's helped a great deal.

Instead of having to stop and record what I'm doing all the time.. I just let a full day flow out and then at the end assess how the day has gone and look at what I've done and how long it took me. I think this mixed with a small schedule is the method that suits me best. Starting the day off knowing exactly what I'm going to do, but knowing I could do each bit at any time and I'm not restricted to filling out a time sheet every time I switch from project to project.

It's something I did consciously work on, but not so much as to sit down and work all the fine details out. It's mainly been something that I've needed to get what has been needed done and organize it in a way I know what to do when. With a small help from Tom giving my a kick up the bum when deadlines are looming.. I've really been able to use it and pickup this skill I can carry on with.

Also has the 2nd year has developed, I've really refined my presentational skills and become a lot more confident when standing up there. This gives me the ability to project what I need to say properly and produce good presentations that can connect with the audience. I think a few things have been essential to this, the first of these is preparation.. I think maybe that's the biggest thing. If you are not prepared for the presentation you won't come across as confident because you don't know exactly what's going be said. Knowing your subject matter enables you to be comfortable and stop the nerves creeping in.

The 2nd of these is practice, with could be said as part of prepare, but it's nice to really highlight the need for practice. Going through it definitely helps you prepare, helping you iron out bits of the presentation you don't want to go in, this was very obvious in mine and Tom's practice presentation to Steve and the rest of our group. But because we had that practice and then another 'attempt/practice' the final one managed to come out great and we ended up landing the pitch.

I've really grown in myself over this past year so far, I'm now more mature and ready to handle the pressures of work. My core design skills have been more refined due to the more inspiration I'm having to find has part of A1 again. Confidence has soared recently and I'm happy with the way things are going.

Soft Skills.

2008-11-05T16:00:00.003Z

Throughout this course we've unconciously learned skills that will see us throughout life, namely called 'Soft Skills'; these are skills used frequently and usually occur without us knowing. Simple things like teamwork and communication that can be taken from this course and used in the real world. Taking part in other activities such as football, the skills learned can be displaced and make a person be able to talk to his fellow teammates easier and also work better as part of the team. These are generic life lessons that will follow us around forever.

I've personally learned a lot about humility and trying to be positive when speaking to colleagues around me, helping them along to get to the place they want to be in. Though I still try and give my feedback as bluntly as I ever did, I now see the worth in a balanced approach... helping my points to sink in further and really make a difference.

Presentations were never something I've been worried about in my life, I feel the confidence is there to produce a 'performance' or 'pitch' enabling me to successfully put forward my opinions and findings alone. This course has helped me streamline this, by pointing out things I needed to work on... such as walking around too much and touching my face a lot during presentations. Hopefully meaning I'll be able to communicate the objective of my presentation far in advance of my previous ability.

With the completion of this course there will be the elation of a long-term goal reached. Giving me the confidence to persue things knowing I've got a good understanding of the hardwork and dedication it takes to get there. Experience counts a lot in the industry, not just with design, but with the work ethic that needs to come alongside it, enabling me to the be the best I can... and in the end making myself a more employable person to a possible client or boss.

The, Designer.

2008-10-08T16:56:00.004+01:00

http://www.creativepool.co.uk/employee/jobdetail.php?ref=DES/EN683/JN312

"Global beauty brand is looking for a graphic designer to join their busy studio. Working on a number of sub brands across all forms of print media - packaging, POS, Promotional, marketing and advertising you will be responsible for projects from concept through to print. You will need to possess excellent client facing skills as the designers have autonomous roles liaising with their internal clients and marketing professionals. Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate a creative flair in their folio especially on the lifestyle and cosmetics/beauty brands."

It's working with print design, something I'm really looking to go into a lot more than 'the web' side. Their design studio is located in Centeral London, a place where I think creativity thrives.. offering the bigger range for client contacts, a heavier stream of competition and higher demands placed on the employee. Pushing you further and further, striving for the excellence that surviving in this highly motivated industry requires. And there's no truer place in the 'Design World' than the 'Fashion Universe'. Therefore I expect to be dealing with big fashion brand name clients, leading me further down the path of my ultimate goal, which is high end design.

There are things I'd need to be really familiar with, if I was to be very serious about the job possession; processes and skills that I don't have much experience with right now. This would be working with different textures and inks to produce a certain finish, right now most of my work has been web/digitally based.. and this move towards print would mean an adventure in learning.

It would also mean be building up my portfolio with more examples of “fashionista” work and packaging examples, showing that I could adequately produce work at high end fashion standard, consistently. Having some expejavascript:void(0)rience with actual Marketing would be crucial too, the 2 year Advertising course at Leeds College of Art & Design would enable me to move onto this new pasture in design.

A Structured Cloud.

2008-10-07T22:55:00.003+01:00

The last year was really an adjustment year for me, really stepping up to a more business like pace.. hopefully leading towards showing and getting me comfortable with full industry speed. Which already has started happening in 2 year. My real overall aim with this course has been to sharpen my design skills and give me a firm grasp of the coding side, enabling me to create anything I would want to, how I want to. For this reason I've been glad the first assignment has been CSS, I've been eager over the years to get into the development side a lot more, using CSS, PHP, Javascript. The main reason being because it makes me more employable. And since I'm passionate about the Design sides, I feel developer is just another notch on the resume.

Which brings me to next year's aspirations, hoping to have a place on the Huddersfield Multimedia course. I'm choosing this because it'll give me a wider range of skills and abilities, hoping to have a notch over my competition on employability factors. At Huddersfield they teach 3D modelling and animation, something I've dabbled with in the past and something I'd like to really get into. It would enable me to take simple graphics to a whole new level, giving me that edge over the thousands of freelance designers out there.

In the long term future I'd hope to work for a large (in client) niche design company, a bit like The Design Republic. Hopefully with like minded people with similar abilities and could be part of pushing the boundaries of design.. right now I'm sticking within them for the firm skill foundations. One day maybe even free lance.

Ending Evalution

2008-05-13T17:52:00.000+01:00

Initially when applying for this course I had the misconceptions of being immersed in an arty world of creativity, days out in the parks and industrial landscapes; armed with a sketchbook looking for inspiration. Voyages to unparalleled worlds of electronic beams of light and techno images, which the weirdest of ways relates to the last project, my previous ideas came to be; though more towards the end of the course than the beginning. Constantly throughout the assignments having to jump threw over these academic hurdles, which made me realise my previous thoughts before starting, really were a misconception.

Our first assignment helped me adjust to the pace of higher learning, before this course 6 form had been a slow drag towards deadlines, with no velocity for work at all. Where as here the volume needed-mixed with the time length allowed really told me this was another level; the name higher learning does have the Ronsil effect and is a clear step-up from A-level and college courses. I initially started like a bat out of hell, researching, designing and generally doing everything that made me ignore one crucial lesson I needed to learn early, to be successful on this course and in the industry. This was the importance of time planning, with the necessary time sheets to produce every week; your time actually had to be properly planned out and thought about. Given that I had never done anything like this before, it really took some time to adjust. Halfway through the first assignment I saw the real benefits, after my initial zooming off with getting all the work done, I had looked around and saw that know one else was at my current stage; knowing this I really slackened off thinking that I could take somewhat of a breather. This was soon proved as being the wrong thing to do, as when looking around I saw the majority of people had not only caught up with me, but overtaken where I was currently at. Now in the rush to get myself back up to par, I let the quality of my work slip and the time sheets had really been thrown out of the window, by such a rollercoaster ride throughout the first assignment. Frankly this was the main reason for not passing the first assignment, but in this I did learn the lesson of proper time management helps the quality of your work and also helps you to explore your priorities a bit more when decided when and where to do things along the way.

With this in mind, I started the next assignment with the death of the first one hanging over me as referral work needed to be done and focused on; which made doing this current one hard… having to go threw tutorials that I wouldn’t need until a few weeks time. I was eager to get on with this work there and then. Though because the first assignment was a website plan too it helped everyone cut a few corners that they’d learnt previously, but still the intensity had been heightened and we’d stepped up another level to what our production would continue you at throughout the year. This meant adjusting again and with the referral work still in the background, I found it hard to juggle both… this is really where my referral rut started to take shape. I saw myself focusing too much on the design work, and not paying enough attention to the real ground work that needed to be done so I could do this design work more effectively and too a higher level; this was another lesson I’ve learned throughout my time so far on this course. You can’t run without laying solid foundations to run on.

Going hand-in-hand with the A3 assignment was Image Rights, one that required you to do a lot more graphical tasks along the way; personally this made me happy as obviously I’d really say that is my forte when it comes to the overall task of ‘Website Design’. Within the A4 assignment was the creation of banners for the Jazz artist, the first real graphic thing we’d done throughout the course and up to this point probably the most enjoyable. I really enjoyed the timed part of it where we had to sit down and do all the developmental work in such a short amount of time. It helped me get a real feel for the industry pace. I think this is where I started to shine some what, hoping that the graphic talent I had gathered of the years was able to be showcased throughout this assignment. Which all culminated recently when I was told, if I had not referred the assignment due to my Image Restoration work not being up the level of my other work I’d of nearly reached merit or actually reached the merit criteria for this assignment. Though still laying in this referral rut and finding it hard to get out, trying to focus on 3 assignments this time and also time manage all this effectively was pretty hard going at times. I know from the real rush towards the end of this assignment to complete that all 3 at the same time really effected how I worked on them and how I was able to divide my time between them.

Now finally onto the building of the website, I was eager to get started; get one with the actually website and get something up and running online, but due to my referral rut I was stuck doing A3 work until I finally had it perfect and was able to get on with my design. Frustration set in as I started going ahead with the online design without the final word from Steve to say I could actually do the design how I wanted, and that he was happy with it. Though finally I managed to get the original work passed and sorted so I could move along with the Website work, and due to my earlier progress I had a bit of a jump start on this and was able to get along quite quickly. No huge problems ever really occurred throughout the building of the website stage, and the design I had finally worked out suited the target audience and everything fit together nicely. Recently during the referral work for this assignment, I managed to streamline the site a whole lot more and really make it something that was user friendly and manageable with the good addition of lightbox; and also the taking away of a useless diverting page. Helping the user’s to get to the information they wanted a lot more easily.

Having ‘Revert to Type’ alongside the Builder helped me a lot, when it came to me getting overly frustrated when building the website, I was able to settle back with some design work for the A6 assignment, whether it was the presentation or the timed tasks. I think this was one of the main enjoyments for me during this assignment; it helped me fathom some real ideas about the pace set when actually in the industry and also the developmental process that had to be done so quick, you needed to be on top form all the time. Not only this, it also give me some ways to explore mediums of design that I’d never really dabbled in before, such as newspaper articles and even so much as product specific designs for the paint tubes we had been given. During the A6 assignment there was the under lying presentation looming, well I only say looming in retrospect because up until this point I had been comfortable with doing presentations and was quite confident when it came to my abilities to do them. I think a few factors like not being fully prepared added up to me not performing as well as I previously had done; this mixed with the fact it kept getting built up from the first time and I un-characteristically let the pressure get to me rather too much. I’ve learnt how to prepare in properly in the future and hopefully there will not be a repeat performance of this.

Though out the course developmental work has been mentioned when it comes to the graphical side of your work, I knew this was important but never used it as effectively or to such a large scale as I did when doing the A7 assignment. I really stepped my development game up here, I felt I really needed to show the diverse range and quality of idea’s I could come up with… I tried brainstorming as much as possible just to keep bringing new ideas hoping to improve the quality of the final work I would come up with. This assignment has been my favourite overall and a nice finish to the year, I was very happy with the final CD Digipak produced and it conveyed exactly the message I wanted to, taking elements from the name ‘Gas’ and influencing my whole layout and really being one of the main features of the design. I felt the music was thrusting you into a whole new out of this world dimension, so I knew I wanted to create an environment that was kind of gothic and eerie but at the same time mysterious; hoping that a buyer would be drawn in by the cover wondering what could be behind an intriguing design. Alongside this CD design, was the ‘Emit Records’ logo, I knew something that you wouldn’t see everyday was appropriate. I had a lot of idea’s when it came to the logo and originally wanted to go for something a lot more freeform, to really convey an out of this world feeling something that wasn’t really hitting any limits and could be taken various ways. In the end I went for a logo that used the ‘E’ in an interesting way, to really help get some brand identity to the company and hopefully make this something that people would see and recognise anywhere.

CD Cover

2008-05-12T11:36:00.002+01:00

A cheeky bit of feedback, please?

Aspirations

2008-05-06T14:57:00.002+01:00

This last few days have been such a big few days for me, I think it's the combination of the weather and warmth, it's just brought the real creative side out in me; and I'm so enjoying it while it's here. My juices have been flowing in such a big way, new ideas just falling from everywhere.. not just with a few sources; just everything has added to this storm of creavity. I've definitely been taking advantage of this boost, so much more work in my sketchboook.. today I spent a happy 2-3 hours just sketching new ideas, developing them and seeing the possibilities of where I can take each little nuance to the fullest. I've started throwing these ideas round on Adobe Photoshop and I have to say I'm so happy with the results I've had so far, nothings finished totally yet but I can picture the finished product and am so eager to see how it's going to turn out. I was a little unhappy with the previous CD cover I'd created; though I did think there was enough manipulation and creavity in it thats required for this assignment. And that's always a safe one I can go back to if these don't work out how I hope. But I'm really trying to showcase myself and take this to a new level, a real professional level that you definitely could see on the shelves next to big name artists and not even just blend in; I'm wanting these to stick out from the crowd. Have an emotive effect on a buyer whatever the mood it creates is, just inspire some response and connection from the average person. So when it comes to the music they're ready to explore the boundaries of the ambient enviroments created inside.

I was starting to feel a little burnout before this assignment, and the timing of it was exactly what I needed to get me back on my previous wavelength and direction. Feeling really rejuvenated about everything, hopefully that will show in the work I'm producing again. Even looking on retrospect on the A5 assignment, the concept and everything was there for a great piece of work, but the actual stream-lining and development of it was so no where near the level I could've taken it to. Thanks to some ideas from Steve about the page arrangement and other idea's I could bring into it like lightbox, that helped me push it a little way nearer the level and hopefully to pass level. Kinda made me see things a alot more clearer about the whole concept of a website, get rid of the useless faff and really make your user have the ability to connect with your website; this is what you need to make the user feel like they've full filled their purpose of going there.

Looking forward to the summer assignment and next year I'm so excited, over this summer I'm setting a few short term goals for myself when it comes to my own skills. Remember the phrase 'Skills underpin Abilities', and keep this in mind when learning new things, don't set your goals too high although it's great to be ambitious you have to be realistic at the same time. Ask yourself if you have the ability to learn this particular skill; and if the answer is yes.. go for it. This summer I'm going to make the effort to iron out my personal weaknesses, which mainly has to do with the developing side of everything. I know with some work I could step my coding game up to something where I'm comfortable with it all, though I know this may be a stressful learning curve, I'm willing to go through this to get to exactly where I need to be right now. Get myself ready for this first assignment in year 2, and I previously never thought I'd say this, being my usual stance on the coding side, but 'really get into CSS'. The drive for this is the possibilities open if you have the talent of both sides, developing and designing.. it just makes you such a better prospect for the actual industry and also personal development; I think this willingness to learn and passion for it is what actually takes you to the next level and gets you seriously ready for the industry. I'm hitting this second wind and excited about it.

Look out over the next few days for these final ideas and developed designs to be up for feedback, not only here but on the forum aswell.. and when I catch a few people at ridiculous in the morning times. I think as a class we really need to start getting into some proper feedback in a big way, just think of it as a team of designers and developers with the same goal.. think about how much we can push each other and drive ourselves onto this goal. It'll be so much easier with everyone behind everyone helping, giving the advice and feedback that we need when we need it, and at low points taking people by the ear and pulling them into the right direction.

Gaseous Outcome.

2008-04-29T16:23:00.006+01:00

Closing into the final deadline this week has been a pivotal week in our development and full creation of the assignment tangibles. With the logo already finalised, finished and fully polished off; our total focus fell on the foundations in which the logo mixed with the music and research presented us with. Alongside our earlier work we needed to have our final CD cover idea presented today, not totally finished; but something that would lead and be very similar to the final handed in work. I'd got some really strong ideas and had virtually developed a finished piece with one of them, which I presented in the seminar groups on Tuesday. I feel it got good feedback and people were pleased with the work I did, there wasn't too many complaints when it came to criticism and the ones that cropped up had already been noticed by me and changes planned for the future. Although I still like this design, I don't think it's as good as I could make it or as good as another idea could be produced. I think the composition especially of the pipework is done quite poorly which leads to it not having a great presence in the front cover. Also when looking at it alongside professional CD covers I do not think it would hold its weight very well; just for the simple fact it doesn't jump out of your with any kind of design swagger or smooth graphics; it's a bit plain. This is the main reason for my developing other ideas as much as I have this one, so I can be happy with knowing the final design is the best I could create.

The logo I've developed I feel suits the record label, but not only that I think it really suits the style of my music, originally it looked alot more like a sports logo; but with the recently developed side of it.. I think the logo flows alot more. Symbolising the music and label, with the smooth and clear curves mixed with the sharp points and flat diagonal of the left side, as Emit and it's music it quite a varied range and you never seem to know what your going to get when it comes to the records released.

We're sharply coming to the end of our first year, I think there's a continuous feeling throughout the group that it's so sudden; on reflection at break today over our first day and the activities we did: it really just seems like only yesterday we were talking our introductory walk around Thornes Park and getting to know each other. Over this past year I've seen us really grow as a group and individuals have come together to make it an enjoyable place to learn and design, which is one of the main reasons the year has flown by. Another reason for this is the amount of work we've done over this year, the speed it has really seemed like we've started one assignment then finished it in no time at all. There has always been a lot of work going on at once and the demand asked of us has always been high, so there was no time to flounder around.

Over these next few weeks there won't be a splendid amount of work to do, most of it will be polishing off already worked out ideas and a lot of time spent on the A1 assignment. I think this will be my biggest effort of the year, I know theres alot to do when it comes to A1; especially I've a lot of annotation to do with the inspiration I've been sticking in my sketchbook throughout the year. And also some of the annotations on on developmental work I've done this term, With the added relief of having to stick in loads of previous free sheets, but this part will all be over soon.. eager to look forward to the next year.

Musically Inclined

2008-04-22T16:08:00.003+01:00

Developmental work has a been a big part of my last week, I not only really started to develop my original ideas and previous designs to a better standard but I continued creating even more ideas, through many different mediums. I thought this would help me broaden and expand my range of ideas and give me other elements I could bring into my final design. I also started to sketch to a more accurate standard than I had done before, I felt that with the adding of annotations would really be able to present my developmental ideas and give the marker a lot more of an idea of the actual thing I was going for.

Last week I also finished my final logo which I will upload later, I'm happy with the developmental process that I went through to get to my final design. It shows a clear start to where the idea came from and exactly how I've developed it throughout individual stages, I also showed where I'd tried to use that idea to develop other ways and similar designs based around this initial idea. I previously thought I'd finished my logo, but last week I decided to round the corners on the edges, I just think this made it a lot stronger for the branding and also made my logo relate more to the 'ambient' feel a lot better. Just for the fact it made it abit more natural, I was going by the thought process that my logo before this would of related to a sports maybe surf clothing company a lot more than it would an ambient record label.

I've really been getting along with my CD cover this week, especially when it came to my final design. I set everything up towards the guidelines and started final design work on the concept I had chosen to develop on screen this week. So far it's turned out quite well, I originally went for a floating island in the background idea giving it an eerie effect and hopefully quite space age trying to represent the music on the actual disk. Especially when it had a factory ontop of the island that produced gas, making it kind of a subliminal message towards the person who might buy this record. Then I developed this idea with a planet instead of the floating island thinking that the island might be abit tacky. I now prefer the one with the planet, I've messed around with the factory ontop of the planet; but I think overall just having the planet coming through the smoke gives it a stronger concept and space effect more accurately representing my music.

The Coverage

2008-04-15T16:25:00.005+01:00

I've really been focusing on my CD cover over this past week, trying to get some solid ideas down on paper for when I started moving to Adobe Photoshop. Though I did some small developmental work on Photoshop throughout the week, just so I could my brain onto the design path. Since over the years I've seemed to work better straight on the screen, messing around with stuff and seeing what happens. I think this course has changed the way I design, especially with the developmental work; I've started to prefer to design on paper first and get ideas down, develop them to see where an idea can go. It saves alot of time in the final process of designing, so that there arn't millions of wasted final designs that didn't go according to plan, because I didn't know exactly what I was doing until it happened on screen.

As the week progressed I began to gather more and more ideas, especially since I had started properly researching into CD Covers and found loads of inspirational artwork to spur me on. Even just going threw artwork that wasn't really suitable for my particular genre helped me get ideas, I really liked some of the conceptual photography for bands like 'Blur' and their cover 'The Great Escape', covers that really mean something from a metaphorical standpoint.

I've finalised my logo and really worked on the whole concept of it, due to suggestions made by Steve I made the lines going diagonal on the left edge lineup, instead of the 'e' moving straight down. I think this had made my overall logo a lot better flow, giving more structure. This gives me a stronger brand name and company recognition, hopefully making the business more money in the process as people can really recognise the whole company from just the body of this logo. Not only have I finalised the development of my logo, I've also started taking it to next generations and given it subtle effects to just add a little bit of flare and shine. I think this will help finish the logo off just that bit more and hopefully add strength.

This week I'm really going to make my CD covers into something special, start adding some major Photoshop photoshop effects. Try my best to convey the music that's on the album by with lighting effects and warps. But still trying to retain an ery natural feel, something along the sides of an Aphex Twin effect, mixing the electronic and the natural to create a biotech feel. I'm going to see what photographs I can get to manipulate and create this kind of effect.

Eeee.

2008-04-08T16:27:00.005+01:00

This week has been a swamp with the letter e's, as far as the eye could see.. looking around in class means your inundated with logo's, emitting rays of radioactive waste, e's dancing and waving. A whole variety. It's pretty safe to say we as a class have come up with a good range of designs for this logo project, from what I've seen I can see some very solid ones forming in class, and I know that with a little tweakage they could cut the mustard against professional logo's. At the moment I'm fairly happy with the way this project is going, and am enjoying all the sketchbook work, drawing and manipulating; but by the end of the assignment, I'm going to never want to see another 'e' ever again.

I've come up with a few good strong logos, and although personally I would've gone down a different route to the one Steve actually chose out of the ones given to him, I'm pretty happy with the logo I am working with anyway. I think it has all the attributes of a good logo; it fills the space will, there is some real contrast to it, also quite a recognisable shape.. clear brand identity not getting it mixed up with anything else, and also it works at a variety of sizes. It'll be good to see how this logo fits in with my final project of the CD cover, and if I'm going to have to try mirror the style on there or if it'll just all come into place without needing to tweak. I'm hoping the latter, as I think there is a very distinct style to my work in these situations and all kind've follow a similar path from my way of thinking. Really going for a futuristic effect but still being able to be used in the mainstream and recognised, which will give me that vital brand recognition.

This week is the week to start on the CD cover, now I've got some finalisation from Steve on my logo, I can press ahead with the next task. I've already started doing more precise mood boards to convey my feelings around the type of music and how it will be represented on the CD cover its self. Started jotting ideas down, for images on the cover, graphical features I can put in and how everything will be manipulated for the benefit of the aesthetics. I also need to start thinking about what is going to go on the CD its self, really trying to keep a simplistic feel throughout the job, so this shouldn't be such a long task, I just need to get some real solid ideas down on paper and start developing them into great designs, good enough to compete with professional. As this is the aim of this task, hoping that the cover/cd you have designed, can be put in HMV and not look out of place on the shelves.

I have to say I'm pretty confident I can make it to this professional level, I know the design skills, eye are there it's all a matter of the creative side and hoping that the work I come up with will be some of my best. I know throughout this task I'm going to keep striving for better and better, since we've been given so much time to do this. Hopefully the work will actually match my abilty.

Since the talk to John on Monday and the speaker that came in, I'm going to start going out there and looking at jobs; what design companys want from a designer, what skills..etc and also other educational establishments, to see how this compares to what I'm doing at the moment. Then I will be able to see what my rivals and competitors are being taught whilst I'm here, hopefully knowing all this, when it finally comes time to go for a real job I'll have the necessary skills, attitude and foot in the door with my portfolio to be successful. This past year has gone so quick, I can tell the next one will go even quicker; hopefully all this will make me ready for leaving the course and getting out into the big world. As a safety there's other courses at other places, I can use to top up my skills and really persue excellence before going for a job.. the decision will come at the end of the two years, which one my choice will be.

Emitting Pleasure.

2008-04-01T16:25:00.005+01:00

When first greeted with the A7 assignment I was really pleased, reading all the tasks we would get to do in the next few weeks; pure design. This is exactly how I thought the majority of the course would be when initially signing up. I'm really starting to come into my element here, I can see the designs flowing through my head, already with strong logo and cd cover ideas. The music it's self is so inspirational, and theres so much to use whether it's just the record label name being 'emit' or plays on the type of music they sell being really electronical. I'm taking influences from sci-fi, website design company's like Shadowness and The Design Republic.

With the first few logo's already done I can really see how they are gonna develop into the final product, I've got visions of expanding light shooting around; galaxies swirling, deep see creatures floating and glowing. I'm also really looking at simplistic ideas, especially when it comes to the CD cover.

Emitting Inspiration

2008-03-11T18:00:00.002Z

Today has been a bit of a teaser day, researching into Electronica Labels and other bands also like my chosen 'Gas', and seeing all the artwork created by designers for them. Seeing the logo's and inspirational pieces done around the music, mixed with the pure visionary sounds; really is making me want to push on with the design process. I've already got so many ideas flowing, for both the logo and the CD cover, I've been playing with them; contrasting themes and mixing styles together for the website, as well as the overall branding of the label. I've pretty much got the whole early part of this assignment and the development work already finished in my head, though I know I'll be able to discover even more when it comes to putting things down onto paper for our actual development.

My mood boards really came from these ideas, I had colour schemes for different designs in my head which I proceeded to put into mood board form to see how all the colours work together. See the contrasts they have with each other, which colours are vibrant and pulsating; really trying to mirror the feeling listening to the music gave me. In other words a visual representation of my CD review from yesterday. I also looked at various fonts to go along side my artist and emit and worked some down onto a document, which you will find below this paragraph in a link. These are fonts I really think suit the whole vibe and feel of it, from my perspective; it will be hard narrowing it down to a final 1-2, but I do also have my favourites on the list.

Emit Fonts

I prefer to mood board rather than mind map, it opens my creativity ducts a lot more than simply just writing words down onto paper. Seeing that visual effect the colours and the fonts have in an actual document, then mixing them together to create my desired feeling. I can really see this assignment all coming together. I mentioned it was one I was looking forward to the most to Steve, and I really can't wait to get the go ahead with it. This assignment will really let me use my design skills to their boundaries, then push them beyond the limits and discover new techniques, new ways I'd never really thought of before. I'm hoping to excel with these tasks, I don't think I'm just going to settle for a pass with this one; I need to push this mini-major.

I really enjoyed the CD review yesterday, it did push my creativity in a different direction and working with words in that particular way is something I thoroughly enjoy. Especially as Steve knows, using such a complicated syntax and lexis to convey my ideas to the audience and really try describe exactly what I was feeling and thinking, when listening to the CD. I can't wait to see what the self study work is like.

Breathe Aload Of Gas..

2008-03-10T17:06:00.004Z

With Gas, the first thing hitting you is the overwhelming futuristic flavour that greets the eardrums, says hello.. then warps you at light speed to a distant planet. Finding yourself in a world of eclectic sounds, visions of bright pulsating lights whereeverything is backwards; essentially Tokyo on ecstasy. In this case Gas is more like rocket fuel than petrol.

Comparable to well known artist such as Aphex Twin, Gas is more of an experience than a song; giving you memories, rather than a quick catchy chorus. Presenting an environment for outer space beings to thrive, evolving into watts of living sound. And at the heart of this is 'Wolfgang Voigt' manipulating your mind, body and soul.. as the puppet master controlling his own interstellar universe.

My previous perceptions of ambient/electronic have been seismically thrown out the window. With songs like 'Timestretch~Earthloop' and 'Microscopic' laying the strong foundations for the more eclectic structures like 'Experiments' and 'SeOCl2' to burst through the terrafirma and amaze. Wolf's creations constantly feel like you'd never hear the same song, in the same way twice; every synth, every beat is so exposed to its own interpretation.

Gas offers both the novice and seasoned electronica listener a journey, 'eliminating any interruptions or distractions' on a path to an ambient enlightenment. Do you love music? If you answered yes to that question, buy this.

A6 - Evaluation

2008-03-05T00:00:00.002Z

Personal Overall
Out of all the assignments we have done, it’s hard for me to pick between A5 and A6 for the one I’ve enjoyed the most. There has really been different parts of each that appealed to me a lot. With A6 I think it’s been the timed-tasks, working to a set deadline of an hour or so is something I enjoy; the pressure inspires me to produce better work and on deadline. Sometimes I just need that extra push of a pressured deadline to get something done, especially when I tend to do work and re-do work; causing me problems due to the time restrains. With the timed-tasks, you know there’s that looming deadline and there is no way around it. I wish we would’ve had a little bit more freedom with our designs; working solely with Adobe InDesign is a tiresome objective… especially since I’m really used to using Adobe Photoshop for all my design needs.

Which I got to do when it came time to design our presentation and handouts, I remembered to make this a real design task after the first presentation. Again I continued a theme linked from my presentation to my handout, I made it a real classic design to emphasize the kind of fonts Frederic Goudy created. To do this I used Photoshop to make fading lines for breaking up the text and for details in the corners of the presentation and handouts alike. I felt just this small design feature in my work added some real character without taking precedence before the actual content on both; because of course this is the most important thing.

I was a little unhappy when it came to my actual performance in the presentation, it wasn’t really myself as I’m usually quite comfortable in that environment; as I’ve done presentations hundreds of times. I think outside influences distracted me from producing the performance I actually wanted to when it came to the presentation; I unusually froze up and forgot a lot of the information and script I had memorised for that task. Hopefully I’ll be back to my previous level when it comes to doing another presentation in the future, and definitely in regards with the final task of the course, which is to present all the work you’ve done over the whole course.

Hokai
This task was the one I think I enjoyed most out of all the assignments in A6, because it was so small every detail had to be looked at in close proximity. Sometimes I tend to lose focus on the smaller details when it comes to the bigger tasks and make errors that could’ve easily been avoided or corrected. I was also really happy the turn out of my actual design, I feel it emphasized the brand in the right light and would have worked well as an actual design for this type of product. The information a person looking for this kind of paint would need to take light of; was in there clear and could’ve been seen with accuracy by any passer by. Also with the feedback given by my tutor, he was very happy with the product design also and noted that it is a very workable design. This task follows a methodology that I have had throughout this course, keeping it simple but effective. As I really used to over complicate everything I did when it came to design; now I’ve started to break everything down and go for the simple clean effect.

Vodafone
The Vodafone task, was one I’d of really liked to do out of Adobe InDesign. When I first discovered what this task was I thought it was a real good way to present some serious information with a good layout and arty feel, but due to the restrictions of InDesign I don’t think I managed to achieve this. I previously had picture in my head of graphical features all over the piece, but since we were only allowed to work with the tools given to us and the information given on the assignment sheet; I was a little disappointed with my overall outcome. I think with another 10 or so minutes I could’ve turned this into something really good. At this point I hadn’t fully got to grips with the way precise layouts work and the design features you could include, also the time saving aspects of creating these layouts. If I were to do this again I know I’d produce a far better product, after just the amount of experience I’ve had since creating this one.

Jonathan Gee
I really thought I’d enjoy this task, but I found it quite frustrating. The annoyance that captured me during this task was all down to one point, and that was lining my paragraphs up at the bottom. I was quite happy with the rest of my design; I tried something a bit different with the banner leading down towards the text and next to the picture and especially with the pull out quote; which I also carried onto some of the later assignment tasks. After this task I started to do some real research with Adobe InDesign and used it a lot more, giving me a better knowledge of the software; hopefully something that would push me to improve in the future tasks. Due to this annoyance and also not really paying attention to detail, as I had a typo on my pull quote on the word ‘bad’ and it really hindered the overall look of the piece. Having a typographical error in that way, is not professional at all.

Grid
Today’s Grid task was one that I quite enjoyed also, having previously got quite familiar with in Design; I found this fairly easy and with no time at all was able to create exactly the layout with the margins I wanted. A lot of this was due maths during, breaking down the numbers and working out what each individual cell and space so that all my layout was correct and easy to manage. Due to recent experience with such layouts I definitely think this helped me in the completion of this grid, having sampled other grids from various newspapers and also the ones we did on the Jonathan Gee and Vodafone assignments. The small design tasks in this assignment were easy to produce, I really hit on of my detailed roughs on the head; taking inspiration originally from 'The Guardian' newspaper style for the header. Unfortunately they didn't have the exact font I wanted to use; which was a light thickness Helvetica, which would of suited the theme of 'Jazz' but with a real modern and formal twist. Though I finally settled on Century Gothic is a nice compromise as it suited the feel of the font I was originally going to go for.

Story
Due to the grid and everything being set out in the last assignment this was a fairly easy one to take hold off. After a few rough sketches of layouts, followed by some more detailed versions, I managed to get a layout I really liked. It incorporated the picture as well as a good pull out quote to really draw the reader in. Unlike some previous assignments when it came to using the grid I didn't find that many problems, knowing exactly what I wanted and where to put it. I think this planning helped me so well when it came to these final stages of this part of the Grid/Story assignments. I did have a slight problem when it came to the website address running onto another line. But due to the fact I've recently become more fluent in the language of 'Adobe InDesign', I found a good solution for this by making it slightly smaller but bold, so the website address really stood out to you. A part of this assignment I really enjoyed was the creating the headline, I like being creative in all different ways so this was just another outlet. I toyed with various headlines, using wordplay on snake's names, popular films such as 'Snakes on a Soul Plane', even though Jazz isn't exactly Soul. But I was very happy with the one I finally chose.

Improve
Be alot more adventurous when it comes to the actual designs, adding new and unused elements to really push my designing forward. And attain the next level.

Get used to the programs and applications I will be using to do the tasks, alot more first before starting the tasks. Instead of learning them through the process of working.

Debate Will Continue..

2008-02-26T16:34:00.003Z

Another timed task this week, again I feel it was successful.. I really think my structure in these tasks is an invaluable asset. The main resource of this structure is through my time planning. At the beginning of each individual timed task I thoroughly time plan, in micro format; breaking down everything I need to do in small sections. Having these to tick off every 10-15minutes really helps me keep my time structured and on course. I know exactly what to do, when to do it and with the combination of my brain, how to do it, I don't think people realise how much time planning can affect a small task such as this, even when it's only spread out over an hour or two. It really changes the way you think and go about the overall task, your more conservative with your time, checking regularly.. and it definitely culminates in a better design in the end. Due to the fact that all your thoughts are in check and organised. You are also almost guaranteed to get it in on time following your time plan accurately.

The link to my design, is here Jonathan Gee

I'm quite happy with my progress with both assignments, I've really nearly dusted off A6; with my presentation pretty much completed and only a few fonts that need to be input. My handout has been completed for a week or so and my script is the only thing I really need to write up, though I've got it quite efficiently wrote up in rough. I like my design for the whole thing too, I've got a clear design theme running through the whole thing; going for a classic style to match the feel and look of the fonts that Frederic Goudy designed. Only having a few bars that are 1px thick fading out, just adds a real classy touch to the whole presentation.

I ran into some major problems yesterday with A5, the battle between IE and Firefox was hard at work; my website worked perfectly in Firefox, but I've refound my old hate for Internet Explorer. The website looked absolutely terrible on IE, images were everywhere, text was everywhere.. it really was carnage. But with some steady fixing and amending of tables/cells and random pieces of code that weren't doing exactly as they should be, I fixed the problem. This week I was thinking about having the images linked to instead of just having the images on the site, hopefully reducing my file page size and also making the whole layout look smoother. Now I'm thinking of using lightbox instead, just because it adds smoothness to the whole site, and a certain professionalism. The debate will continue...

Referralgorithm.

2008-02-19T15:59:00.005Z

This has been a good week for me, certainly at top 5 contender for the most enjoyable few days. I think this has been mainly due to the atmosphere within the group, it's become such a more relaxed enviroment to work in; humour inspires design in my books. And all this even without the usual Comedic stylings of Shaun Bellis for the past few days. Alot of the enjoyment as been down to the work we are currently doing, it's things that I really enjoy; building websites and making graphics, perfect combination to work in a harmonious fashion with the groups attitude. I think that alot of the students in the class are also improving at such a clearly vast rate, they can see the difference in their own work, when comparing it to ones of an earlier nature. Especially evident when the knell of the 'dreaded' timed task arrives. Well, I say dreaded in an obviously loose nature as everyone now seems to actually enjoy these timed tasks, not just myself and a select few. Work is handed in 3/4 of the way through the time limit, there's more interaction with Steve, more feedback given to eachother and everything is time planned exceptionally. They say time flies fast when your having fun and we really seem to jet our way through them at the moment.

Today's timed task was to create an advertising banner for 'Vodafone', including the logo and a set advertising content matter. As soon as I heard about this task, my mind raced with vuluptuous amounts of design idea's and ways to present my information. I first settled my heart on a tall-thin banner, thinking that this would enable me to present this information in a very well set out and professional manner. But when it actually came to working on the sizes of banners, a long thin one really caught my eye; I preceded to use that one, creating various different designs to encapsulate the look and feel I was going for. My main target was content, I knew there was no need for obscurely flashy designs. I kept it real simple, thoughtfully managing my white space with subtle design features and manipulating the content to best convey the serious but light hearted nature I wanted to put across. Juxtaposing idea's maybe, but I felt it necessary to project both to the reader with my piece. Due to the restraints of the college computers, I wasn't ecstatic about my particular design, but I still felt it put across the message I was vying for in the right manner.

Any feedback would be grateful - http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/vodafonejpeg.jpg

After a bit of a lull in my design hunger, I can feel it is nearly restored to it's former glory.. if not a little stronger, both in class and out. I'm really starting to love designing again, and if only my computer at home would stop being a virtum vial of annoyance, I'd be able to get on with this alot more.

My aims for this week are to fully finish most of the inns and outs of my website, including the form and validation. I think in the past I've left things to the last minute a little too often and this has hindered my performance on the course, and led me to not actually reach my potential with the design sides of it. Luckily I have been able to rectify this somewhat in the referral process, but I'm eager to pull myself from the dark, foggy depths of the referral process. Onto the nicely paved road to success and passing everytime. Not only will this stand me in good stead for the rest of this year, but will also be a good catapult for next year and the work that is to come for me, inside and outside college. Hopefully I've found the right sum to push me into this place.

Give A Handout

2008-02-05T16:36:00.001Z

This week was a bit of a tightrope week for me, I really had to knock off the referal work quickly and do my best to get on with the current module; it's quite easy to lose sight of this one whilst your doing referal work. Luckily I made an effort to keep up with the rest of the class on the other assignments so that when it came to moving onto them, I stood in good stead and wasn't too far behind those that hadn't referred. I have completely finished A3 now and with bits to do on the A4 before completion aswell I'm confident I will be able to really start concentrating on the other module very soon.

I really feel I'm getting into this Typography project, especially since I started moving on into the handout side of it. With the handout I really tried to give it an overall classic feel, with hopefully would convey the style of Frederic Goudy, my chosen typographer. I'm doing both the handout and presentation in his very own font 'Californian', to add a real elegant feel to both my presentation and my handout sheet. I created gradient dividers of 1 and 2 pixel height, just to split everything up in a nice way and really give off a well organised presented feel to the whole thing. I went a bit of an extra special way on the handout too and produced a corner gradient divider, so that I could put text in a middle bit and it would be separated from the rest. This all meant that I would be able to input more text but still keep it seperated from the other information, making my whole layout look a lot smoother.

This handout task is a big design task, keeping a consistent design from the presentation to the handout means that there will be a theme running throughout your work. Hopefully reflected in your marks. I tried my best to use the design side last time in the presentation and in my handout, I think it worked well and Steve gave my good feedback for this, as not many other people really saw the whole thing as a design task. Needless to say Mark definitely did, by producing a very professional, well though out handout with cover.

I'm really looking forward to this week since I have the design accepted by Steve and can start properly building it for the internet, and especially for the user testing on the first Monday we're back at college. I'm hoping to get it done a few days before that so I myself can do some user testing with friends and family, to make sure my target audience can use it efficiently and just people in general. Also just those days to make me comfortable with the site so I can produce a final proper Usability Questionnaire, one that will ask effective questions and effective tasks to really get the user thinking and the necessary feedback I need to make any changes.

A Colourful Week

2008-01-29T16:50:00.001Z

I'm really feeling good about things at the moment, with my referal work and the A5-A6 work that is on going throughout this. I'm really wanting to get all the referred work out of the way by next week so I can properly focus on A5 and get the most out of it.

The builder assignment is one I'm enjoying most; out of all the previous ones we have done, I think the main reason for this is that building websites is really what my background has been built on. Taking graphical work produced in Adobe Photoshop and providing the Html elements to code it into a fully fledged website, with the final purpose of actually having it on the internet for myself and other's to view. I remember before Christmas, as soon as I saw this was the next module we would be doing, I couldn't wait to get hold of it and see what I could produce and really try show abit of flair in the overall work.

Within the the referral work I managed to show some of this in the form of a change website layout for the plan, my whole website changed.. but still I kept to the goals previously set, and was based around a similar plan to the older screen design. I'm a lot happier with my newest design because I found a way to go really simple, but at the same time keeping the inviting aspects of my older screen design, as well as the overall simplicity of it. I knew keeping this simple would aid me so much down the line when it came time to build it, but still providing some sort of impact on the user. I also aimed for the site to look professional, but not so professional that my target audience might feel rather intimidated; using simple icons and the colour scheme I feel I achieved this.

The newest version you'll find at this link, Http://www.Andrew-Whelan.co.uk
Any feedback on my overall layout would be helpful, so that I could see these problems and input the changes before the hand in deadline comes to haunt me.

A6 Assignment has really interested me, I've always had 'a thing' for typography and I'm always on the look out for new fonts; having my own handpicked crop on my computer with various styles, as a solution for any possible typographical problem I may have. Researching my typographer 'Frederic W. Goudy' has really made me look at some Typefaces I wouldn't usually choose to see, as I find myself drawn to san serif more than serifed fonts. The fact that these are the types of fonts produced by my typographer has forced this comfort zone away and I've discovered a lot of new fonts that I would use in future; for example I'm using 'Californian' for the actual presentation, which I think is a tad ironic as Goudy made that himself.

I feel I've lucked out with a good choice of typographer as there is a wide range of information available for this particular man, also the fact that he did so much in his life. From Teaching to Publishing, makes gathering information for my presentation that little bit easier. Not to mention the fact that Goudy seems to of designed a vast amount of fonts, giving me alot to choose from when it comes explanation time for the presentation (Even if they do all look the same).

Which leads onto today's lecture, I feel a lot more confident about the presentation now that we've had the afternoon lecture going a tad more indepth. I had previously been talking about the individual nuances of each particular part, now that I can really put a name to them.. I think it'll aid me, so it will be possible to get that bit more out of the subject.

Preparation for the presentation is going similar to the one that we did before, in that I feel it's such a big thing knowing the ins and outs of your topic, just as a confidence booster. Confidence matters so much when it comes to presentations, as you just become a lot more able to adequately interpret your particular information to the audience, in ways they understand. Also knowing everything has been done properly and very researched and having the basis that everything is right, stops nerves creeping in when it comes presentation time; nerves that could possibly spoil it all for you. After the successes of last time, I'm going to continue in a similar direction with my presentational style, I just need to remember to not move around as much. That being the thing that let me down abit before. But overall I'm looking forward to this presentation.

Sans-Serif-Raff

2008-01-22T16:35:00.001Z

Quick start this week, being ill Monday meant today I had to get on with things at a fast pace and recover the time I lost the previous day. The first lecture we had today on Typography was quite interesting and has lead me to be more and more into the whole world of font, wanting to know what goes with what, the combinations of serif and san-serif. The uses of colour, italic and bolding in conjunction with emphasis and seeing how everything looks when it is done wrong, so you preceed to discover your own mistakes.

I feel the technical language side I'm really getting to grips with, I enjoy knowing about these words for future reference in conversation and essays, also it is something that shows how professional you are, if you can relate to this terms in the proper manner and how they're meant to be used. All this in conjunction with today’s small timed-task as furthered my want for knowledge around the base of the 'Typography' subject and can't wait to proceed on and learn more about it.

Speaking of today’s task; I found it a mixture of emotions.. on the one hand I really enjoyed it, I love being free (within the brief, of course) to design whatever I want to design, giving position to 'Typography' and the use of colour; colour really does drastically change the look of a font that is visually size and type consistent. As soon as I saw the brief of what we needed to do I was excited and ideas began racing through my mind, though not all of them exactly matched the strict brief we were given. This caused a few problems when it came to getting a bit of feedback from Steve about my initial designs, I realised that I had put a picture in that was previously not in the brief, this being an important part of that actual design caused it to fail.

Thankfully I had a good range of designs that enabled one of them to be successful, but when it came to putting this on the actual page I found that it didn't look as good as I had previously though when sketching this out. Luckily I had another design to refer to and last minute I changed my work to this particular design, got the okay from Steve and printed. Handed -In.

Referral work is coming up and the need for completion is high, I'm pretty confident that I'll pass and be on the road for success, getting this referral out the way and co-incidlingly passing A5-A6 will mean a lot the to future. It will certainly make next semester go a lot smoother and a lot less stressful, just for the fact that I'll be able to concentrate on just the one of two modules instead of last semesters work and the stresses that come with failing that and not meeting expectations again. So on the same page, passing these will give my confidence a big boost; and that is one thing that was knocked quite alot during the beginning of this semester, hopefully it'll return.

A Goud Start.

2008-01-15T16:28:00.001Z

Back into the 'design cauldron', into the melting pot, into the fire.. it's clear to say this semester has begun where the last one left off, everyone is already going at a vigorous pace and burning along with the assignments. I feel the task A6 that will suit me, as I've always had a small interest in the 'Typographical' side of websites; daily checking DaFont for new font's.. having personally handpicked the set of typeface currently on my computer. People, I think.. don't realise how much typography affects a graphic or a website, it really can ruin a brilliant piece; being that the only thing you can focus on when studying the graphic.

I'm eager to complete referral work in order to start building the site, it will be great to be finally let loose on a site I have been looking at for the best part of a month, wanting to get the paperwork out of the way to get down and dirty with it. I think the group as a whole will be a lot more relaxed during this semester, with the fact there is no much written work to hand in.. even though it will continue at a similar pace to the last one. Maybe it's the fact there isn't much hard evidence of the work in your hand, right then and there.. like there is with the many sheets of the last modules handed in. I think there has been a general calm in the group, a sort of 'phew.. thats out of the way, lets build it' kind of attitude, obviously the reason for this being.. that's exactly what we applied for this course to do.

With already starting the A6 research, I have already been able to find out quite a lot about my chosen 'Typographer' (Frederic W. Goudy), given the ones picked out I don't think mine is one of the hard ones at all, there seems to be alot about him everywhere, and some of his typefaces are pretty famous and well known.. like Copperplate Gothic and Goudy.

Wintary

2007-12-22T14:40:00.002Z

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.

Untitled Enjoyment.

2007-12-11T16:45:00.001Z

In comparison to this time last term this week is fairly calm and relaxed, the mean reason for this is that we've already been through this process, we've all passed and know what is needed to pass. Therefore are more relaxed when it comes to confidence of their own work and all the presentational aspects, mainly because this is another website plan; the next assignment may not offer the same relaxed environment when it comes to this point in the term.

I feel settled within the course, everything's running smoothly and I've got into a good routine when it comes to the blog, comments.. a good routine when it comes to time sheeting and recording along the way.

I've worked a lot with the whole creative elements this week, developing my screen designs and banners. Which, of course.. I've really enjoyed. Especially comparing the developmental work to the finished products and seeing the building process throughout.

The final ones.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/thebanner.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/thebanner2.jpg

Bruce Banner's..

2007-12-04T16:35:00.001Z

An intense mood captured the group today as Steve set us the task of doing a certain amount of banners in a certain amount of time; surveying the group I saw some people really struggling to come to terms with doing these banners at such a fast rate, whereas other's coped well and looked relaxed throughout. But for me it wasn't about the amount of designs created it was about the quality, though I did manage to meet the small deadline nearly every time.. bar the last deadline; 4 banners in 30seconds? (This is definitely more like what I expected from the course)

The whole development of today, from those small sketches at the beginning then stepping up to the neater more precise sketches was quite an enjoy time, I think one of the things I like most in design is developing ideas into actual pieces and then seeing how they work in the terms of the web. Though I have to profess to being a bit of a digital designer and prefer to do everything in Photoshop rather than messing around with sketchpads; even when I can see the benefits of all the development plans on paper.

I've created a few banners, I'm 50/50 about these.. not really sure if I do actually like them that much, working at college on Photoshop is frustrating, as there's not the amount of tools open to me like when I work from home. I'll post these few banners to see what you think..

Referral feedback yesterday, what a tough start to a morning going through references over and over again, but it did really help me with the process, I now know how to reference properly and more effectively which will mean good things for the current A3 assignment. The results of the referral feedback where that I passed the main part, but failed the Historical part due to the fact I didn't put the publisher's name down on the book references. Quite frustrating as Steve said the rest of my references were fine and acceptable, but hopefully I will be able to make up for this during the A3 assignment.

Speaking of A3 it is progressing quite well and I've kept track with everything and made sure that my organisation skills this time around were top notch, all time sheets done on time, various points in which I create a micro checklist to see exactly where I am at & also what I have to do, alongside the 'Production Schedule' done firstly. With the over view of this, I have stayed working on a steady track and not really fluxed with weeks where a lot of work gets done, then a week where not al to does. This is turning me into a more hire-able person and shows that I am able to work well in these deadline situations and plan my time out effectively.

Also the Photo Restoration work is now finished, I will be uploading the before and after onto my blog later this week for you all to see. Personally I feel that I've done a good job on it, and people I have shown this to have said it's good; usually commenting on a good use of colours and colourscheme with the right amount of contrast/brightness in an effort to look like the real thing.

Banner 1 - http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/Web-Banner-1.jpg
Banner 2 - http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/Web-Banner2.jpg

Nothing final, just a testing a few things out.

Online Portfolio Website.

2007-11-29T23:54:00.001Z

Http://www.andrew-whelan.co.uk

Tell me what you think of the layout so far.

Hitting the Milestone..

2007-11-27T17:05:00.001Z

Referral work was in today, I have to say I'm quite proud of this piece of work; if it refers again I will feel a lot more gutted than the first time, just for the simple fact that this is my best piece of work and it'll feel like my best wasn't good enough. There must be some ways to improve it, but as I proof read over I couldn't find anything wrong with it. (I'm sure Steve will though)

Getting along with the A4 assignment has been good, today's seminar session helped me change something quite vital in my project and straight after I fixed this problem, and saw that it helped the overall aesthetics of my photograph especially when it came to picking out some of the key detail in the dust and speckle parts. Due to this I've got a lot more comfortable with the course as a whole, no we are getting on to actually designing and more practical based tasks; I can't wait to do the web banners.. even though there is restrictions.

Seeing the referral work finished, spurred me on to doing the A3 assignment; this was because I actually saw a piece of finished work and it showed me that I could do this well and to a good standard. It gives me a benchmark to carry on from, a standard that I've already set and now I will have to meet it every time I do a task, which I think I'm more than capable of achieving.

The time sheet hand in that has been implemented by Steve has helped my time organisation a lot, I frequently look check what I'm doing and comment it off if I have finished, it's got me into a routine so far which I am planning to keep for the rest of the year. Having set an hour aside during class time on a Monday morning for time planning also helped me keep on the right paths.

One thing I have noticed during the A4 assignment is that when it comes to Photoshop there's little you can do with shortcuts, except the ones used with the aid of alt. All the things you need to do by hand, actually do them try stay away from a lot of the filters even if it does look like it might save a lot of time, there's other effects it does to the piece as well that you may not realise until after. But then again Photoshop is a very trial and error program, the best way to learn Photoshop is to use Photoshop; try get on some tutorial sites and work it out that way, ones like mentioned in my links on this blog page.

Restoration, Reclamation

2007-11-20T16:40:00.001Z

An enjoyable week, lighter in the usual academic sense than regular weeks; this has made it a lot more productive for me personally. Being that I see myself on the side of creativity and design applications to practical work, there will be possibilities for me to shine on this particular task and show myself and Steve the work I can actually produce.

I definitely can see a big change in the atmosphere of the course due to this task being a more creative one, I think people try and forget about the other task on a Tuesday; given that this is a the assignment people prefer. With more design tasks like this ahead, I can see it will only carry on like this and the group atmosphere will stay very light hearted, but at the same time eager to complete the work and do have a seriousness about trying to pass.. or more.

I will be posting my first attempt at this assignment on soon.

Referral work is due in next week, so this week is a BIG one for me; there's a lot of work to be moving alone with. First of all I need to finish all the referral work and get that to a stage where it can be handed in. Second I need to carry on with this 'Image Restoration' work, get it to a good standard, post it up on here for feedback. Thirdly I need to continue with my A3 work and get what's needed for next week and also down for my production schedule. Fourthly the catch up notes need to be done for the seminar groups as well.
I also need to have some sort of social life & play football twice in between these.

If the second years are reading this, we 'The First' years are issuing a formal challenge for a game of 5-a-Side Football.. we will expect your answer post haste. We also would like a wager on this so if anything pops into your mind.

Refreshments Served..

2007-11-13T17:12:00.001Z

My title, abstract but accurate.

This week has been quite a refreshing change for me and has definitely backed up my new found revelations about the course, as me and Steve have discussed; over the half term I was thinking hard about this course, wondering if it was actually the right one for me. With which I came to the conclusion that it was, this upped my overall work rate and hunger for the course, in turn showing in my commitment with blog posts / blog entries and email replies. This has been noted by Steve and I've had reassuring feedback which further galvanized my want to be a success with this course, he identified that he'd noticed this particular change in my behaviour and also had some evidence to back what he was saying up.

I've found these past two weeks on the course probably the most enjoyable for me, yet; even though I referred on my A2 assignment, the changed that I feel need to be made from the feedback I was given.. I'd be able to complete with a good 2 days worth of work and get this out of the way, enabling me to concentrate on the other two assignments fully.

The enjoyment has come from the new subjects I am encountering like the argument with 'Art or Design' and the question that was put to us 'Are we Artists, Are we Designers, Or Both? Which is what I thought the course would be like when I first signed up to it, I expected these types of philosophical questions that made us think and explore a lot more frequently; alongside more design work. Which this week I have found we are moving onto more, the 'Image Compression' subject has also interested me a lot, and in the lecture this morning i found myself concentrating on the information quite hard, thinking this to be along the lines of things I am used to. Using Adobe Photoshop to complete tasks and problems.

I've started this latest assignment with a lot more organisation than previously, I already have a place for all my screenshots to be stuck in, micro task checklists to enable me to tick off each part of the assignment as I do it. All my electronic files are organised in their separate folders and every file name is linked directly to what the file actually is and explains what's inside, enabling me to quickly search through and keep track of everything when it comes to burning it out onto a CD for the deadline. All my timesheets are upto date and everything I have filled in on them is exactly what I have done, including right now posting the blog, the work today was completed quickly and efficiently.

Continue on the Image compression work, do essay.
Turn referal around and complete work necessary to pass this time around.
Have alot of creative time and think about ideas for a layout for A4 Task.

Backup the hill...

2007-11-06T16:37:00.002Z

This week has a been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride for the group, the pressure of presentations on the first Monday back, were evident as I looked at the faces around me. Though through the nervousness came a sense of calm as we sat talking in the refectory, it was a real chance for everyone to converse and get to know more people better, I personally thought doing this made us come together as a group alot more. I think it was the shared nervous feelings around the presentation and our first assignment rules that really created this bond between us all and showed Steve that we were one of the groups that could bring its self together and help one another out.

As each person got called up the optimistic feeling within the group rose; mainly because after a person came back from presenting their work they seemed elated with what they had produced, how the presentation its self went and how well they think Steve received their particular presentations. In the aftermath we were told Steve was happy with how the presentations went and there was definately a shared feeling of relief.

The Results: Referral,
Feeling: Dissappointed,
On The Top: Calm,
Comments: I know what I need to do.

Today we had the type of lecture that I thought the course would be based around a lot more, with the introduction of the A3 assignment. The particular question posed to us by Steve was "What's the difference between Art & Design?" a very open ended question with alot of room for discussion, and it really didn't fail to provoke that kind of response from the class and myself. In our new seminar groups Shaun & I were already arguing the thoughts and opinions based around this subject, we knew that when it came time for the class discussion there was definitely going to be some interesting points made; alongside heated debate over the subject. Which after some careful consideration, and of course taking alot of Steve's points into account I settled on that 'I am a Designer'.

This week we have a few tasks to complete; one of these is an essay on the latter subject, I am particularly looking forward to as it gives me sufficient time and space to rant about my own opinion around this subject, and I like to be opinionated on subjects like this. The only thing I might slip up on is the word count being for two essays, I'll have to set it out at 700 each... but about this subject I know it's possible for me to write atleast double that, I will have to find away of fitting everything I want to say in not so many words. I think another thing to take into account is the next essay after this and think about switching the percentage of my word count on each, to enable me to write more than just 700 on this one.

Seeing Red; Mixed With Yellow.

2007-10-30T16:15:00.000Z

Well the colour I've been given is 'Brown'; at first I thought this was a bad choice and was gutted I didn't get more of a primary colour rather than a derivative of orange, or red and yellow mixed together. But as time when along and my research turned up more and more, I am quite happy with the colour and think I come up with a bit of luck in this particular one.

The first thing I found was the links to the National Social Party (Nazi's) which took me back to when I studied it in A-Level History a few years ago, and it brought back a few memories such as the 'Hitler Youth' which was all the pure German born kids in an organisation run by the Nazi's. They'd have days out, fun activities a lot of sport and physical things going on, which of course as a young boy was heaven, they used this to brain wash the kids into thinking the way of the Nazi's, all these boys wore Brown Shirts.
A part of the army that also wore these brown shirts were the SA, the core of the Nazi Party ideology.

I thought I'd give people a preview to what may crop up in my presentation, as it seems to be the biggest thing I've found about the colour brown.. except all the natural symbolism that goes along with it.

In reflection I have found this subject quite interesting, which is surprising considering my first reaction to doing a presentation of a colour was 'Are you serious?' I really wasn't sure whether I would be able to fill the whole five minutes on just a colour. Then after reading into it further I discovered it to be quite deep and one that enables a lot of creativity as well as good practice for presentations in the future.

I'm 50/50 with my confidence right now on the presentation, at the moment it is not affecting me and I'm thinking it will go smooth and I am quite confident about presenting my colour. This may be because I have a generally high confidence level and I'm not that scared when it comes to speaking in group situations whether it is answering questions or the like, though I know that presentations are a whole different kettle of fish. I know when it comes 5minutes before the actual presentation the nerves definitely will start to kick in somewhat and I will start worrying.

I have also decided to keep a practice timesheet this week, which was a suggestion Shaun made as he is keeping one too, just to show everything has been done in an organised time and also just to keep the timesheet being a regular thing and staying with the routine.

Half Termination

2007-10-23T22:10:00.001+01:00

Well, for a week anyway..
After pondering the last assignment and the future assignments over this last week or so, I've realised my mistakes & downfalls, so the idea mentioned by other students in the class and also the original idea by Steve I think I the timesheet collection idea would be a good solution. For the simple fact it helps me keep an eye on everything a lot easier and then when it comes to the end of an assignment that part is not something I have to deal with.

I'm eager to get on with the next assignment to prove to myself & the tutors what I really can produce, the last one (without realising) was more to test the waters for me to see what actually had to be done in order to produce a good quality piece of work.
It's not only helped me understand the amount of work that's involved, but also the detail involved with each task; in each task there is mini tasks or as the lingo would be 'Macro & Micro' tasks. I know that when the next task comes around I will be even more focused and dedicated to produce the necessary quantity and quality work to get very good marks.

In this week of pondering, I did question myself on whether this was the right course for me; after thinking long and hard I decide it really was & that it was more of a complete course for me than I previously thought. I was sad upon hearing there was going to be no 3D modelling or animation involved in the course at all, as I think that is one of the ways media in general is going, but as far as core design skills this is the place to be; it's possible for me to follow these methods out of college as well.

Gold Rush

2007-10-16T13:38:00.000+01:00

With the deadline past mixed feelings are apparent, I'm not sure whether to be happy with what I have done or not.
The main worry for me was the loss of some of my original time sheets and my production schedule, after I had done my evaluation in which I spoke about how good my organisation skills were and how I was keeping up with my time sheets efficiently. I did try to draw some up to cover my steps but found it hard as I only had a few original time sheets to work from, which meant my production schedule was thrown totally off course.

I was however originally stuck on what to write for my evaluation, it took a few days of pondering to figure how exactly what i wanted to include in it, with trying to start but then giving up. I finally worked out what i wanted to say and the words just flowed out and before I knew it, I'd hit around the 850words mark and found myself at the end.
In a way this is similar to how I am when it comes to writing blog entries, sometimes I can just get a topic from the start and seem to go on forever about it, sometimes it takes a while; I usually get it in the end though.
When seeing my actual project and assignment completed, I was overcome with happiness; it is such a burden lifted off my shoulders to see the work all in the InDesign file and looking neat and everything exactly how it should look.

Think about my presentational skills and make some decisions on how I will approach it.
Think about how I can improve with task in the future; which I have already started.
Keep learning Adobe InDesign and working through it's many powerful features.
Try expand my range of designs, I noticed I was very comfortable with the design i did, it was something that I would have done given no target audience to match with.
Prepare a lot better for the assignment, I waited until late to make preparations which meant when it came to the final deadline day, i was worried about presentation and getting everything together; instead of the actual work in hand and proof reading everything.

I am excited about the aspect of presentations, I think it as a key skill that is needed in the industry and personally I am happy to explore it. I can see others in the class are quite shy when it comes to presentations and this might hinder them when the day comes, but I feel that if i prepare properly that it should be a task well within my capabilities.

Tickertape Ending

2007-10-12T22:57:00.001+01:00

The last week is upon us and a serious tone has hit the group, everyone has realised they need to get down and do some hard graft to get this assignment finished. Personally I was quite relaxed last week behind what maybe was rose coloured glasses, this week it has only just really hit me how much work there was left to complete. Last week was when the amount of detail we actually had to go into made its self apparent, but now when evaluating I'm realsing actually how much work we have done.

On paper 2.5k doesn't seem like a whole lot, if you think our average blog posts are around 500 words. But when you add all the research, putting it into page maker, design work.. everything, I certainly did under estimate the amount of work we would have to do, after week one.

And this is nothing compared to A3..

After a meeting I had with Steve & John, we decided I really needed to pull my finger out, or not only would i be letting myself down, but also them down as tutors; they do put a lot of time and effort into this. It is mostly to do with this very blog its self. I seem to find it very difficult to give people feedback and advice unless it is in coordination with something graphical, or something i can break down from what i can see infront of me, and opinion..etc

Master Adobe InDesign, with all its functions.
Proof read, get someone else to proof read.. then proof read again.
Get myself properly organised with paper/digital files.
Look over my finished work & see if I can try going into more detail.
Evaluate it all.

The Homestraight

2007-10-02T15:30:00.000+01:00

Final week for until our first real deadline; I'm strangely anxious about it. I think this being our first one creates a whole cloud of mystery, we've not been through this process before, we don't know how anything around it works, except we hand our work in & get it back with the grade. I know it's not a factor of the work that is making me feel like this, because I'm feeling that I'm on top of the workload and schedule.
I will not be rushing to get it finished, this maybe because I have timed managed effectively enough to allow me the final week be relaxed with my work. All the preparations in my sketch book to give me the necessary information ready at hand to complete my mini-tasks in the assignment quickly and to the best of my capability, has helped with this a great deal.

When first properly learning about Adobe Pagemaker this week, I found it to be an awfully complex programme for the job it was actually doing; it basically incorporates a few lines here & there, but the simple factor that you can't move lines along a pixel at a time greatly hinder it's usage.
I told Steve of my problems with Pagemaker, in our tutor meeting today; in which we agreed due to my history and experience it might be best for me to move on to using Adobe InDesign. Which would allow me to create what I wanted, more coherently than before and quicker.

Yesterday in a meeting with John we decided that I would set a few goals with my weekly blog entries, as this would give me some concrete things for me to work towards & hopefully get the best out of my self study time.

Get familiar with Adobe InDesign / Create my finished screen design with it.
Collect & organise my references; to help me to add them quickly at the end.
Include & annotate some more inspiration work in my sketch book.
Do everything with micro tasks, enabling me to get into intricate details.
Push for at least a merit; marks that will show my actual capabilities.
Finish it.

I've done some nearly finished screen designs, hopefully this will give you the idea of the target market and shed some light on the kind of look/layout I'm trying to achieve.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/ericsite.jpg - White on Black

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/whiteeric.jpg - Black on White

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/seyance/littleeric.jpg - Grey on White

Feedback on these would be appreciated..

'Sick' Graphics.

2007-09-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

Quite an accurate title for a change, yes a colloquialism but accurate anyway.
This week I've been fairly ill for the most part, though trying to keep up with my work whilst pretty much bed ridden. It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be because the things I have left to do on my assignment are really the text parts, most of the creative work & computer work is done, though I still have to write some of it up. I'm still feeling quite confident about this assignment even with the week of work/lectures missed, when going off I felt that I was somewhat ahead of the class in the amounts of work I had done already. With the completion of a lot of my measurable aims/mini assignments.

I took on a side project this week of a local band called 'Final Wave', they've asked me to produce graphics for their Myspace, a number of t-shirt designs & advertising banners. After the band being around for a year or so I will be then creating a website/forum for them. You can view how it's going at Http://www.myspace.com/finalwave
Having already done the graphics for their Myspace and a t-shirt design I'm quite well on with the task, I found it came quite easy for me and the things I did, didn't take that long to create, so no worries about the project affecting my college work.

Any feedback on this whilst I am doing it, would be appreciated. (Yes, i already know about the bkgnd problem)

One thing that worried me about being away was missing the presentation by 'The Design Mechanics', potentially a good source of knowledge as to how the industry actually works in a real environment, as well as useful tips on the business side. Having read John/Shaun's blog I have had some insight as to what happened, but nothing could've replaced actually being their, to meet some of the 2nd year students properly in person also.
But i'm sure there will be other opportunities for both.

One Foot In the Grave

2007-09-18T16:47:00.001+01:00

Probably not the most accurate title for what I am going to write about, slightly hyperbolic, definitely a sense of satire, but Steve did say "Make it interesting". After enduring his wrath on the Monday morning for not replying to an email he sent out, due to not giving him the right email the first time.

In the one on one meeting with Steve, he helped me to get the idea that correct information is a must, especially when mixed with the 'Importance of Effective Communication, which surprisingly is what this blog entry will cover.

Effective communication; something that appears in many walks of life, my personal opinion is that it's a subject that fades into the background of the modern world. Communication creates first impressions, which of course are the things that 'last', the genre of design is an industry that relies alot on first impressions. Ultimately they can the sole reason for you getting a client or not. It's not only the picture of yourself you portray with speech, but everything about yourself gives off a vibe to create the first impression.
Only last week a girl I had met and started to talk to said "you walk with a swagger of confidence", apparently not a bad thing; but this opinion was based solely on the style inwhich I walked, the clothes that I wear..etc. This has all lead me to get to know her more. First impressions are a key part of everyday life, they exist everywhere you look..

Communication effectively enables you to carry on these first impressions and deliver the necessary information for social reasons, but it also is a key part of the industry because if correct information is not passed on properly then certain things can't happen. If on your portfolio website your email is written down wrong, how is a client going to be contact you about a possible job.

New Beginnings

2007-09-11T16:56:00.000+01:00

This lunchtime's mood; Anxious, I'm really starting to come to terms with the paperwork demands that go hand in hand with the course, having previously thought it was more of a hand-foot relationship. My expectations of this course were that it was going to be more of a free-thinking, arty based class.. in which we'd do countless brainstorming sessions, look at many a source for inspiration, experiment with shapes and textures, sadly it is not the designers paradise I expected. Maybe my expectations were a bit too unrealistic as to what the pressures of a real world designer were, maybe I got lost in this 'perfect course' model I had built for myself, as a designer thinking too much always leads to a dead end.

True of course, until I reached the seminar groups in which I was able to have some more one on one contact with Steve, though most of all being able to see what the second year students had produced when they were in my position. I saw that my previous thoughts were not totally accurate, this just one of the hurdles in between clear paths of pure design.
Looking through these first year sketch books I got a more in depth look at the procedures we would go through when creating, developing and producing various design works in our first year. Anxious feeling gone, worries gone, happy Andrew again.

Everyone in the class has helped in making this a comfortable environment to work in, the value of friendly faces especially in new pastures is priceless.

Past, Present & the Future

2007-09-09T23:00:00.002+01:00

Where I've come from, Where I'm Going & How I'm Going to get there

Starting at an early age i was introduced to the world of website design when i was around the age of 11, through on-line gaming communities. After playing for some time and noticing that clans were always in need of a website but never had someone to create it for them, since i was already interested in designing things i thought i would give it ago myself. With my first few websites being made solely of html tables and a banner made on adobe Photoshop, i started to get bored of the simplicity and decided to step my game up somewhat. So with the aid of internet tutorial sites and a mix of trial and error, i was quickly elevating to a standard where i could do exactly what i wanted with a website, of course there were and are some boundaries to it. I begin making sites purely through a html structure and Adobe Photoshop graphical layout, but this could only get me so far, i still felt there was better i could do, just little touches that would vastly improve the overall look and use-ability of my websites. I then started to use fireworks to create and integrate Javascript pop-up menus so that it would give my websites a smoother look and a better interface for the user; i also started using macromedia flash to give my banners an added effect with moving parts so that the banner was always something different.

In an effort to make my sites look as flashy as possible and to show off my talent to the fullest degree i decided to learn how to use various 3D programs, such as Cinema 4D and 3D Studio Max, in which i could create renders to manipulate in Photoshop and then crop a certain part to use as a banner or the render as a splash entrance to a website. Realising this was all a bit unprofessional in the end i started to take use-ability as a much higher priority than just looking flashy.

With the help of this course i hope to further improve my design skills with adobe Photoshop and vastly improve the coding side of my websites, as this has always been the greatest weakness of mine; having friends who are expert coders in the past has allowed me to stick to what i do best, design. After my two years are done here, i plan to finish the 3rd year at Huddersfield University and attain my BA Honours in the subject.
After this is done i will hope to get a job in a small but well known design company somewhere in the country, recognised for superior quality work to other that is produced in the word of design. This will only be achievable through hard work and determination from my part, having consistently good work whilst meeting deadlines and doing outside projects often.

Designer's Manifesto - Part One

2007-09-08T20:54:00.001+01:00

What Separates a Good Designer from a Great Designer

Whilst getting ready this morning, i was thinking about this blog and what i would eventually post on it when i got round to it, deciding my first post needed to be abit of an eye catcher. So i brainstormed what would be a good opening statement, a question sprung to mind after looking at myself, other designers and the work produced by all.
In my opinion there is just two things that separate good designers from great designers:-
The first of these being passion; there are alot of designers around.. actually a hell of a lot of designers that simply see the world of creation, visual communication as a job, just a job. There is no real drive, they do not strive to improve, happy with just a pay check and being able to have the title of 'Website Designer' or something likewise as it seems nowadays that's the 'cool thing to do', everyone wants to be arty these days. Of course this is all because we live in a fashion driven society and everyone is affected, there is not a person in the world that can say they do not care about fashion on some level, know one likes a liar, so don't.

'Passion is the key' to producing amazing work, without passion you will never strive for perfection, you will never have anything more than just money to drive your ambitions (yes money is a good source of drive) but it won't take you as far as passion will. Intrinsic rewards have a far greater effect on your person than extrinsic ones do. Passion is the fire inside that simple money can't compare to, look at all the great historical artists.. most lived in poverty because the drive to be able to do create was more than the lure of easy money.

The second would be a 'designers eye'; this term is tossed around alot in every level of design and not soley used for the 'fashion industry' as some misconceptions would have you believe. A 'designers eye' is in everything that requires colour and some-sort of planning. Simply looking at a designer would give you some idea of the level he is at, yeah anyone can be program wizards and know every little trick in the book, create flawless work.. but if the level of creativity is not there, then you won't go any further; you have reached your peak. Looking at a designer and seeing if the colours he is wearing go together well, the styes of his clothes match, if he is up with the latest trends..etc because there is not only trends in the fashion world, there's trends in all design, things go out of favour.. things come in all the time, like over the past few years grunge/techo has flittered out and in, but there is on thing that will stay consistent, a designer with the 'eye' will always produce great work. Avant-garde you can also see in the way someone dresses, therefore you can tell that they would be likely to experiment in other ways, using design as an outlet for this.

Whilst trying not to over use the term 'designers eye', if you have it.. the possibilities are endless, you could create anything, you find simple things easier, colours, layouts, typography and general knowing what looks good & what doesn't. Having a designers eye is probably the main difference between great work and average work, the people that have it are the ones that win awards, the ones that get the recognition in the design world, the ones that in the end, make the real money and have a real job satisfaction.

To be continued...