Gary Benn - HND Interactive Media - Wakefield College

What I'm Doing Now.

2009-09-14T14:45:00.005+01:00

Hello everyone,

Since I have finished the course I have been doing very busy!

First of all I have been doing a few freelance projects for family and friend’s businesses and have also been concentrating on my web hosting business; Hydro Host.

I am so glad I chose to do the HND Interactive Media course. It has allowed me to further my skills ready for this industry and has enabled me to think about what I want to do with my life. I am very happy with the grades which I received but am considering topping it up to a BA at some point in the future. I think I just want a few years out getting more experience before I go and do the top up.

I wish all of the new and current students of the HND Interactive Media/FDA Web Design course at Wakefield College the very best of luck and success. If anyone needs any help please feel free to contact me either through das forum or eMail through my portfolio. Alternatively you can read through my Online Learning Journal to get an insight into my leaning throughout the course.

Looking back through the journals of past students was highly influential and useful to my progression on the course.

If anyone needs cheap web hosting whilst they are on the course look no further, www.hydro-host.net. Also if you enter the coupon code WAKCOL91 at the cart you will receive 12% off all web hosting plans.

All The Best,
Gary

Affordable Web Hosting:
www.hydro-host.net

12% Student Discount Coupon Code: WAKCOL91

Screen Design Changes

2009-03-17T22:52:00.003Z

Here are changes I have made to my porfolio screen designs:

I have used a more formal grid system (as seen above), 14 columns.

Any feedback would be greatly apreciated! If you are a member of dasforum please comment there in the showcase section.

Thanks in advance!

Portfolio Designs

2009-03-10T20:11:00.003Z

Here are two initial screen design for my portfolio.

Design 1:

Design 2:

If you are a member of dasforum, please comment there.

Competitive analysis

2009-03-03T17:46:00.001Z

Student Portfolio

richardfoley.co.uk

The website is clearly set out and takes advantage of a two column layout. Visual content is consistently at the top of the page spanning across both columns leaving the bottom half of the page for explanations and other text. I feel the space could be used slightly better. Whilst it is advantageous for the viewer who only wishes to see pictorial content people may have already clicked elsewhere before they have reached the text.

The body text throughout the website is rendered in a large typeface which takes up more space. By reducing the default type size more graphical content could be added keep the viewer interested.

Content has been split into two quite definite spaces, Web and Print. This allows the user of the website to quickly navigate to content they want. It is easy for the viewer identify which section of the website they are currently looking at from the breadcrumbs at the top of the page. However; once three levels into the website (from the home page) it is not possible to return to the upper page without using the main navigation. I think a great opportunity has been missed to add hyperlinks to the breadcrumb system which would further aid the user.

Professional Portfolio

thedesignmechanics.com

Throughout The Design Mechanics website there is reference to the portfolio, giving snippets of visual content. It attracts the user’s attention and entices them into the full portfolio.

The website is quite dynamic with visual content changing on the front page. Into the actual portfolio like richardfoley.co.uk the content is split between web design and print design to allow their customers to see the type of work which is required for them.

It is obvious from the portfolio that only selected designs have been entered into the public portfolio. This creates a very dense image regarding the high quality work which the company undertakes.

The work is displayed in a very clean, clutter free way making excellent use of the light box effect. This adds interaction between the user and the website, users are more likely to stay on the page than a static page simply because ‘it does something’.

The large white spaces around the content in the content viewer allows users to look at the work without distractions of other colours and articles.

This website has made use of hyperlinks within the breadcrumbs which aids users’ navigation around this large website.

Web plan

2009-02-25T14:40:00.002Z

Goals

XHTML 1.0 Strict/ CSS 2.1
• Aids cross browser compatibility
• Reduces load times
Measurable via the W3C validation service

Maximum of 3 clicks from home page to get to desired content.
• Aids usability of the website
Measurable during usability testing.

Implementation of CMS
• Used to tailor the website for specific purposes
• For quick updates and to manage content effectively

150k page size limit
• To control page load times
Measurable using the Firefox Developer's Toolbar.

Long Term Goal

High Search Engine Rank
Measurable by monitoring the rank in popular search engines over a long period of time.

Target Audience

Primary Target Audience – College
Steve is an academic primarily a Mac user but on occasion uses Microsoft Windows. Internet access is through the college’s high-speed Internet connections. The purpose of his visit to the website is to assess the work contained within the portfolio. The website will also be seen in a presentation, displayed on a projector.

Industry Professional
James is a 36-year-old industry professional. He runs his own design agency web and computer savvy with a keen eye for clean design and usability. Paul is primarily an Apple Mac user but is also familiar with Microsoft windows. He accesses the website using a MacBook Pro using a high-speed broadband connection. Paul’s primary purpose for visiting the website is to view the online portfolio of a potential employee. He has found the portfolio by copying the address from a CV.

Student
Scott is an 18-year-old sixth-form student who is looking to enter into higher education. After finding the HND Interactive Media website for Wakefield college he is keen to find more about the learning on the course and therefore heads to find previous student’s work. Scott is very creative but has basic computer skills.

He is looking to find a very clear and easy to follow portfolio showing an obvious progression. Scott is unsure whether he wishes to take a career in web design or solely graphic design, therefore he is wanting to see a wide variety of techniques and final products on show.

Scott is a life long Microsoft Windows user who accesses the Internet through a shared home broadband connection.

Delivery Requirements

XHTML 1.0 Strict
XHTML will be used to define the overall structure of the web site. It will contain content, either for static pages or as an output from the CMS. Using well-structured XHTML documents will aid search engine optimization as well as usability.

CSS 2.1
CSS will be used to stylize the pages in the portfolio. It will be used to define the layout of each page as well as typographical styling, managed from a single document. This will allow for site wide changes to the layout quickly. CSS enables the style and content of the website to be kept separate making it easier to add, remove or update content without the risk of styles being changed.

PHP5
A PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is needed to process PHP elements of the CMS as well as my contact form.

MySQL
MySQL will be used in conjunction with PHP by the CMS system to access, display, store and edit information contained within a database. All data managed by the CMS will be stored within the MySQL database.

CMS
A Content Management System will be used to manage dynamic content such as portfolio work. The use of a CMS will allow content to be changed at ease from a web based GUI (Graphical User Interface) and allows the portfolio to be tailored to specific purpose.

IMAP
IMAP will be used to access emails stored on the remote server which have been sent via the feedback/contact form on my portfolio. IMAP is the new standard for email, all messages are kept on the remote server.

PHP Resources

2009-01-13T23:15:00.003Z

www.ineasysteps.com/books/details/?184078282x
PHP 5 in easy steps. Book explaining the functions of PHP and MySQL in easy steps, going from very simple tutorials to more advanced functions.

www.php.net
Holds a wealth of information regarding php, including functions, downloads links and resources.

www.w3schools.com
Tutorials for SQL, tests, resources and quizzes

www.w3schools.com/php
Contains many PHP tutorials

tutorialized.com
A community aimed at self learners offering tutorials for just about anything. There are hundreds of php tutorials.

freewebmasterhelp.com
Introduction to php including step by step tutorials.

The PHP Anthology
After using sitepoint’s CSS book which is very useful I will be using “The PHP Anthology”.

Learning PHP3
“Learning PHP5 is the ideal tutorial for graphic designers”. Begins with a soft introduction moving to more advanced features.

safari.oreilly.com
You can sign up for a free trial of Oreilly's Safari service and read their books for free online.

killerphp.com
Video tutorial website. The tutorials assume you have no programming experience therefore you learn from the very basics up, by creating a foundation to work on.

PHP

2008-12-10T17:31:00.001Z

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to make the decision of the technology to go with for my self managed learning, I couldn’t decide weather Flash or PHP was the answer. After looking at several job advertisements PHP appeared to be more popular than flash.

I think it would be beneficial to my learning and in the future to know PHP 5 and MySQL. If learning PHP 5 it would almost be necessary to further this learning to MySQL as the two technologies fit hand-in-hand.

I think as the web changes it is important to keep up with current technologies. The internet is changing, people don’t want to just visit websites, they want to interact with them. It is ever more important for websites to contain dynamic information.

In the past I have “dabbled” into the previous version (PHP 4). I have had no formal tuition in this subject and my understanding was basic.

Changing configuration files on script installers
Very basic statements

Many employers are now looking for people with a wider range of skills such as server side programming languages, XHTML/CSS are now seen as expected. With larger website implementing content management systems PHP is becoming more and more important.

After the self-managed learning plan I would like to understand the uses of both PHP and SQL; what programming language should be used for what purpose. It would also be necessary to know how to use the code correctly and securely.

Most internet websites now collect information from their users, either in the background or by asking the viewer directly. I would need to be confident with the use of a database, how to set up and manage all aspects, from inserting information, creating it’s structure and updating. Outputting information is also a must.

5 Months Left

2008-12-03T17:29:00.001Z

I really can’t believe I am sat here writing this, a third of the way through the second year. It has flown.

I’ll start off with grades:
A8 – Pass
A9 - Merit

A8
A8 was completed over the summer holiday period. I was quite nervous about the this one as it was all written. Some of the topics were quite interesting and will help me a great deal in the future both in and out of college.

I am glad this assignment was gotten out of the way over summer. It leaves now some more interesting assignments to look forward to.

A9
To be honest I imagined this assignment to be significantly harder than it was. Having said that I have learnt a great deal from John.

One of the biggest learning curves in this assignment was the practical tests. I learnt more in these situations than anything else in the assignment. There is nothing like a little pressure and a realistic situation to keep you motivated.

A11
The team brief is still ongoing but is quickly nearing it’s end. It has been a valuable experience, but also an exact clone of the atmosphere of past team assignments I have worked on in other courses. In my experience of them they never work. However things are getting better after a few hiccups towards the start of the team. Things are starting to move along.

It has been a very good experience designing for real people, who need real websites. The clients we are working for at the moment are not very exciting or inspirational, but I guess these jobs do come along in the real world.

Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our efforts for ND Photography and Games Design, but I enjoyed the design tasks.

A12
A12 has just started, after a “Shaky” start it is set to be a nice assignment. By shaky I refer to my presentation on Concorde. As usual my nerves get the better of me in these situations and start shaking and it is noticeably visible to both the audience and myself.

I have been given the opportunity to re-present next week which I am confident is going to be much better. The thing that gets me is the fact I was presenting to someone I know, not a complete stranger. I feel I would not be so bad if I was presenting in front of a stranger. I have done it once and I know it’s not so bad, I shouldn’t be that nervous on the re-present.

Today has been spent being creative as part of the reverse design process. I am really enjoying it, once you get over the “ERRR what do I do stage”. I have been able to express myself much more fluidly, rather like upstairs, which scares me to be honest.

In summary, there has been so much happening over the last 3 months and I still feel as though I’m learning. I am looking forward to the CMS unit.

Transferable Skills

2008-11-05T17:22:00.000Z

I think soft skills or transferable skills are very important for both life in general and the design industry. They are skills which are applicable to almost any career. They include skills such as time management, communication, leadership etc.

Communication
Communication skills are important for most jobs. In the design industry we are trying to communicate a message to it’s viewers. Presentation skills are useful for communicating an idea in a pitch scenario to a client.

I feel I need to practice my presentation skills before leaving the course. I feel I have become more confident within myself since presenting on the course. Presentation practice is a good exercise which has enabled me to express myself.

Time Management
Prioritising time is an important sub-skill of time management. We have restrictions on our time every day, It is important to plan and use it in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Leadership
I would say the ability to motivate myself and others is a vital part of leadership. Leadership, by personal example, together with experience is something which is mainly attained through practice and watching how others react in similar situations. I feel I need to build on my group leadership skills; I feel when managing a group I am too “soft” and am afraid to get my case across in case I cause upset.

Problem Solving
Being able to solve problems effectively is a skill which is needed more than ever in the website design and development industry. Every design job is effectively a problem which needs solving, every difficulty which arises when coding a website is a problem solving task. It is important to be Self Motivated as well as have the determination to solve problems.

These skills are often practiced within the background and are rarely noticed. I think it is important to build upon these skills whilst in education.

Aims to be a Junior

2008-10-08T23:31:00.003+01:00

The job advert can be found at BD Recruitment

This seems job seems quite a suitable role for myself when leaving this vocational course. As this is a junior position it would be seen to me as a role to gain industry experience.

This opportunity will allow me to gain a more accurate understanding of what is required within the industry. However, a theoretical knowledge and basic experience is needed. It will be my aim to acquire this knowledge and experience during this academic year and any subsequent top-ups.

By the end of a top-up course I should have the relevant knowledge needed to apply for this role. I will need to build on the basic understanding, which I already have, until my work is perfected to a professional level. I will need to take care of a significant amount of my own learning to ensure any technologies and skills, which are not covered on the course, are adequately gained.

Whilst I have covered the use of PHP I will need to take a more structured approach to my learning. PHP is one of the main subject areas that I would like to cover in my self-managed learning plan later in the year.

The Job requires a sound knowledge of XHTML and CSS coding. My interpretation of “Good Working Knowledge” is a to be able to work in to w3c standards, and be capable of hand coding if needed.

Flash is a technology that is preferable for this role. I have touched upon it in the past but again would like to take this into a more structured learning plan in my own time in order to build foundation knowledge.

With this role being very local, quite creative and scope for progression within the company I think this is a suitable opportunity for me to aim towards.

Where am I Going?

2008-10-07T22:33:00.001+01:00

After the first year on the course I have, in my opinion, achieved so
much. I am looking forward to the second year's adventure. My aims for
the second year are to continue on the same steep learning curve and
improve my skills to a professional level.

I am still quite undecided as to which part of the industry I wish to
enter into. As I have stated in previous journal entries I started the
first year expecting it to be solely web design. I thoroughly enjoyed
the print related assignments, which have made me question which
specialist area I would like to enter into. I think I will have a more
accurate answer to this question as the year progresses.

I want to come out of education feeling confident enough to be able to
walk into any post, which may arise. I don't think I will be at that
stage by the end of this year. I would like to continue to a top up
degree at the end of this course.

I, so far have enjoyed the way the HND has been run and would like to
progress onto a top-up at Wakefield, if it was available at the time.
What I am certain about is my determination to top up to a degree.

Even if it was just to fulfill my own personal goal to be accredited
with a degree I think it would be worth it. I feel there is no
replacement for formal education.

After any relevant top up I would like to do a business or marketing
related course, as I still have the ultimate ambition to become self
employed, either on my own or in a partnership. I think a business or
marketing course will help me understand where I should go afterwards.

Look How Far We’ve Come My Baby

2008-05-13T17:28:00.001+01:00

I never thought I’d be writing this so soon. I am flabbergasted with how long this year has passed by. It has almost passed me by it was that fast. I must admit there have been tears, sweat and blood shed over the last 30 or so weeks.

Looking back at the year there have been regrets but I wouldn’t change a thing. As well as being mistakes they are also learning curves and something to build upon.

Looking back to the work which was produced in earlier in the course there is an obvious improvement in every aspect of my work. I am reasonably happy with the grades received this year. I will use the second year to improve on these grades with the hopes to be receiving high merits and distinctions. This year has purely been to learn and gain experience and I have certainly done that.

A1
There has been an enormous amount of pressure in the back of my mind over the year regarding assignment one. The fact is I know there is more I could have done to improve it and make better use of my sketchbook towards the beginning of the course. I am please that the uses have come a long way since then and have learnt to use it slightly better. This would need to be taken forward to the second year also in order to explore with ideas more.

I have found it a very useful tool which I would have really struggled without. It was one of the first ports of call for ideas and inspiration. The journals are probably equally if not more important as they hold our thoughts, emotions and past. It is a record of 9 months of our lives and our experiences on the course. The journal is a great place to refer back to when producing evaluations, like this. It is also a way to receive help and gain an understanding how our predecessors were feeling when they were undertaking the same task.

A2
What a shock. The second week of the course when we got our first assignment, That’s the Plan, I sank in my chair and wanted it all to go away. I was so uncomfortable with the whole situation. It was the first academic assignment had had completed in years. It just seemed like there was so much work to get through.

Once I got through the first few weeks I found it quite easy and was already learning. I really enjoyed designing a website for a purpose. Looking back at the designs now I think they are reasonably nice to say it was a first attempt.

To have passed the assignment first time was quite a welcoming feeling. My first success on the course which was hopefully on the road for the same.

A3
Back to BASIC was more focused at building on the knowledge and experience which was picked up from A2. After the fist web plan had been created it was a very simple task to re-create a similar document was I was able to finish it in a relatively short period of time. One of the hardest parts were research for content. It was not hard but quite time consuming.

Towards the end of the assignment I was very eager to continue and jump straight into the building process.

A4
Image Rights was a rather difficult assignment as it was running along side the second web plan which was much more information. Unfortunately I allowed it to take a large percentage of my time which left me struggling slightly towards the end to get the work completed.

The Image restoration wasn’t the most exciting task in the world but over the course of those few weeks I had learnt so many skills in Photoshop. It was more of a systematic, time consuming task rather than a difficult one. I was amazed by the results though. I never thought I would be able to produce something like that.

I found the image compression essay the most difficult as there was a lot of accuracy needed with figures and statistics. I was disheartened by this task as I didn’t not very much confidence in things like maths.

A5
What we have all been waiting for. I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. Building the website I had previously designed. I learnt a lot over this assignment. Over the course of the building process I uncounted several problems with the coding which where quite frustrating at first but then they became a challenge.

A6
I would have to say I feel that this unit was the most enjoyable out of them all. It showed me that there is more to design than just “pretty images”. It showed me that the simple designs are often the most pleasing and appropriate.

Typography is something which since then I have enjoyed to look at. It has made me more aware of how layouts should work.

Studying the notable typographer Roger Excoffon I have found a range of new typefaces which have the same meaning but are totally different. After the first presentation I was not looking forward to the second, on the notable typographer. It was, I found much easier than the first because I knew what to expect. This did not however stop my nerves getting the better of me. But I think I was more relaxed and confident when at the front.

I think I am now ready to do presentations more regularly in preparation for the final presentation in exactly a years time.

A7
This assignment was really a means of summing up the year in terms of what we had learnt. Some way or another all the knowledge and experience we had gained throughout the year had some part to play in the montage of tasks covered in this unit.

As said in my A7 Evaluation, the most stressful section of the unit was the redesign of the emit logo. I found it so hard to get away from the same ideas. I needed to be much wider with my design ideas and not have this tunnel version effect I am so prone to.

In summary
It has been a very stressful 9 months but it has been worth it so much. The experience I have gained in irreplaceable and invaluable. Over the course of the summer I wish to practice my abilities in many of the areas which have been covered in the first year. This will enable me to keep the knowledge and ideas racing round for use in the second year.

It is amazing how someone’s life can change so much in just two thirds of a year, their aims, desires and experience.

My aims for next the next year
• To get at least 3 Merits
• To get at least 2 Distinctions
• Build a portfolio
• Get more professional experience

Word Count: 1,164

Almost there

2008-05-06T23:14:00.001+01:00

I feel this week I am making excellent progress! It is all coming together now. I think my artwork is finished, I just got to complete the CD body which is well on the way and will only take an extra hour tomorrow. And the advert.

I am slightly confused and annoyed that I have been working for most of the day on everything but when I look back I don’t really see much change from yesterday!

I feel I have been using my sketchbook much better over the last few days which I am feeling quite good about now.

With just 7 days (156 hours) until the deadline, I feel the highest stress levels in my life, but think it is really helping me. A driving power. I am hoping to get the assignment all finished by midnight Saturday, this leaves the weekend for me to concentrate more on A1 and the evaluation for it.

I got some new paper today to print my artwork onto. It is really nice, I got the stuff Mark sugested in a previous enteries comments so thanks Mark!

I have posted my artwork on the forum for feedback but I haven’t yet received any.

Below is the post:

Outer:
http://garybenn.co.uk/A7/Artwork/Digipak%20outer.pdf

Inner:
http://garybenn.co.uk/A7/Artwork/inner%201.pdf

At first I was struggling to find something that "worked". Then Steve and Tom set me off looking at the track listings. Plexus is one of the most prominent of them all. Plexus is a group or network or nerves and/or blood vessels.

I wanted to create an uncomfortable feel about the design as that comes across quite heavily when listening to the CD. It also fulfils the track name "miasma" which is also the bands name. Miasma is a foul or unhealthy smell or gas.

The original images can be found at:
http://garybenn.co.uk/A7/Artwork/originals/

Thanks

Blame it on the music....

2008-04-29T22:08:00.002+01:00

The last 7 days have been quite stressfull to say the least. I have been lost and feeling numb about the whole unit. I really enjoyed the first part with the style quide ect. But I knew I would feel like this when it came to the CD artwork. I was dreading it.

Feeling like this has, in my opinion stumped my open mind and creativity to it and has had a knock on effect to my performance. When discussing this with Steve this morning he had a consern about the Cultural studies next year. As far as I understand how that works is not a problem I can be quite creative when left to do something like that. But with the openness of this unit but to pull it all back to a spcific purpose from the beginning is where I struggle. I don’t expect that to make too much sense but I don’t really understand myself.

It was always going to be a hard task as the music is so diverse. It can be, and of course with most music, it is interperated on a personal level. In other words it will mean different things to different people acording to their own life experiences. This makes it quite hard to design for.

Again with the logo design I got fixated on a single design, which I was really getting into. I know I MUST try to stop myself doing this. I’m actually quite annoyed with myself to let it happen again. No matter how hard I tried to get it out of my head the designs were all the same. I think it is a natural reaction and most people will probably go though this, if not in design in everyday life. If we fear something so much we will try and block it out. The quote comes to mind, its different but so true and is very similar:

“When Something is too overwhelming, too painful, we deny it, we choose to believe something else.”

When I got back into college Steve set me off on another track (no pun intended). Another way of getting Ideas. It cerainally worked. I have come up with something I’m happy with.

The concept: Taking one of the track names, plexus. Which refers to the nervous system. I think this is an exelent starting point. Afteral everything from our emotions have something to do with the nervous system. Some parts of the CD have an eerie and sinister feel to them.

Below is the Digipack outer, it is still in development and needs some work.

Any feedback would be apriciated. The typefaces are going to be changed slightly over the course of the week.

Also this week I am going to make some slight changes and modifications in order to clear the academic hoops set out quite spcifficly in the assesment criteria.

Also over the course of the week I will be posting amendments on the forum and via eMail.

If its not right its wrong...

2008-04-22T22:54:00.004+01:00

Overall I am happy with the progress I have made this week. I will start this journal entry by talking about the recently awarded grades.

Results
A5- Pass
A6- Pass

I am actually quite annoyed with myself about my performance in the last two assignments. As always I think It was a case of silly mistakes cropping up that could have been easily avoided.

The BIGGEST silly, stupid, annoying mistakes I made was with A5. There are advantages of having more than one computer, but the dis-advantages sometimes outweigh the advantages.

I constructed my website on my laptop and all of my other work was done on my desktop. And of course In the panic of getting everything complete I forgot to transfer my website files to the desktop where I later went on to burning the CD.

Of course the website files were still very happily sat on my laptop and were missed off the CD. I knew what I had done only days after submission. It was too late by then. I don’t know if I am angry or upset. Probably a mixture of the two. It was something that I could very well have avoided.

Of course that put a massive downer on the entire assignment. Other than that I think the website went quite well and given the circumstances I am happy, and thankful for the grade.

There were a few things which I could have improved slightly, such as clickable images to take the user to a larger version and is certainly something that will be on the list to consider for any future projects and indeed if I were to do it again.

With regards to A6 (Typography) all was ok; it was just more of a level of consistency. There were a few little parts of one (or two) of the timed tasks, which could have been improved on. It just goes to show, you can’t let your attention go on something like that.

Overall I am happy with my grades. At the start of the course I said it didn’t really matter to me what results I was awarded. It is not really what I am doing the course for. I want the experience and so far there is not a single regret (apart from the CD). One of the main things is that I can certainly see progression in my skills and I have learnt so much. To me that is worth more than some piece of paper that has a grade on it. It is all about self-achievement and how you feel you are doing.

Obviously the grades are very important too, they give people, including myself, a great deal of confidence. To me it is a superficial accreditation for the work, which has been produced, and as a stepping-stone to urge you onto striving for the best.

Print Lecture
The print lecture was quite interesting and answered many questions of the unknown. However I don’t feel I know enough about print to go straight into commercial print. I think I would benefit from having a test run with a printer as a trial and error. I think sometimes that is the best way to learn.

Although I understand more about the colour spaces a little more now I still don’t feel completely comfortable with them. It would be useful to know the effects and see the effects of getting them wrong. It is something that scares me actually.

Style guide
This week I have been concentrating on my corporate style guide. At the same time producing the documents such as the letterhead and business cards. I have enjoyed creating the document. I see it as a design task in it’s self and have used it as a chance to produce another layout using the design principals learnt several months ago and have begun adding the print terms that was in the final lecture of the Year*.

The letterhead and business cards are something that I have particularly enjoyed producing. I have found I quite hard to find a balance between something that works and something that looks nice. The thing with a letterhead is most of the space is required for the letter content. I feel on my design I have utilized the space available to get something that is just right.

Letterhead
Most of the first years have seen my letterhead and have given informal feedback. I would like for those people to give some feedback in their comments. This will allow me to record it and make more accurate amendments to my designs.

The main thing that is worrying me at the moment is the fact that there are 2 objects that flow off the page. A stripe that goes straight the way down. The problem with this is if it was commercially printed it should have a bleed on it. This will push the paper size above A4 thus costing more.

At this time I don’t see it as a problem as we have not been given a “budget”. I think it adds to the design slightly.

Business card
Below is my chosen business card design, which I am very happy with. It fits in with the style of my letterhead and corporate style. It has been designed to be “future proof” in having lots of blank space for such things as long names and email addresses. Incase you cannot see there is a large watermark of my logo as the background. I really like the use of watermarks for things like this it gives a very subtle appearance, which is a massive contrast to the bright stripe down the left hand side. I feel if I did try adding the logo as a solid image but it looked quite “plonked” and cluttered the design. The Tint is at 8% which is just enough for it to be visible but gives the right amount of contrast to make the text legible.

*First Year lectures

Midway mayhem

2008-04-15T16:44:00.002+01:00

I don’t quite know what to put on here today. It has been quite a painful week. I have not been very well, so have not really been as focused as well as I should have been.

I must say I would be happy if I never saw a logo again in my life. The experience of designing the Emit logo was very stressful. It took a lot of refining to come up with something which was suitable. Before the development stage the roughs were also quite hard to do, having no experience of designing logos and for a company I knew little about.

I think I am getting there though, I was not happy in the slightest, but the more I changed it the more stressed I got. But now It is slightly growing on me. I can sort of see what everyone was saying in the feedback now. I was trying my hardest to block it out though over the last week as I was so fixated on a single design. It is like tunnel vision, you cannot think about anything else.

If anyone has seen a recent version of my slightly older version I really enjoyed the i and the dot. I am looking forward to using it again in some other project. It cannot be seen to go to waste.

towards the latter part of last week I started looking at corporate style guides and have continued this week. I must say it is a nicer task than logos. I think I am actually starting to like it.

I must say I am not looking forward to the artwork, I don't know why, I don't think I am ready for anything elaborate quite yet so it may just be something based on geometric shapes.

Following a class conversation today, I feel a great sense of achievement in doing this course and trying my god damn best. I have not missed a single day. There are a lot of people who would not have put faith in me and would not have believed it in a million years, to those people I would just like to say Thank You. I feel there is more direction in my life and I have certainly changed as a person. God forbid it I think Steve is actually cracking me when he says we are designers not artists as designers have more direction and are aimed at a commercial market. But I still think everything comes under artist, Designers, Fine artists photographers, who is to say a chef is not an artist.

Logos Logos Logos

2008-04-08T16:59:00.003+01:00

It has been quite a frustrating week. I can honestly say I hate logo design. Although at the same time I like it. It has been a big challenge. Today’s seminar session for some of us was quite an intense feedback session and I have received some valuable feedback.

I am happy that the 3 designs I liked the most hav

e been deemed as the most appropriate but all needing much more development. I am going to post up on the forum the three designs also adding development in.
I get the feeling that the logo (pictured below) has somewhat tickled the liking of Steve, providing more work and development is done. The problem with how it stands now is the fact it resembles the letter C which I think this is shown in my initial development (also below) how I came to this idea.

I need to put back the integrity of the E footprint and will experiment this week with how I can do this. I currently have a few ideas on how I can do this.

Today’s lectureette on Corporate Style Guides has made me slightly more relaxed about the idea of it. In knowing what they actually look like and what information needs to be in them. I am actually feeling quite confident and am looking forward to doing it this week.

I see it as a great opportunity to practice my page layout and design skills. With this I also have a lot of ideas whizzing round on how I can lay out the information.

Things to do in this week’s self study:

Give feedback on logos to the people in my seminar group who did not get time for as much feedback as was fair.
Develop Logo
Experiment with colour schemes for logo
Corporate style guide plans
Type face research

Any feedback you can give would be most appreciated, also please don’t forget to see the post below.

Feedback wanted for logos

2008-04-08T16:55:00.003+01:00

Logo 1Logo 2

I think both of the above need to have the word "emit" written on them somewhere. Perhaps a logo which can be used with image and text together or both seperate - Loose.

Thanks for any feedback you can give.

2008-04-01T16:06:00.003+01:00

Well we are back to normality at last. I'd like to say it has been a relaxing and enjoyable break, saddly not.... I was also quite missing the place. Reading week was quite an enjoyable and creative week so I was eager to get going with the next tasks.

Logo Design

I thought it would have been more difficult to design logos than I am currently finding it. Once you get into sketching the rough ideas your designs become quite fluid and dynamic. I think I have got quite a bit to work with but will continue to do another page or two.

I have started sketching out ideas in my sketchbook for use as a logo for the Electronic/experimental record label, EMIT. To start with I am working with just a black pen to work work with the shapes and build up a foundation. Later in the development of some of these ideas I will be producing them with more accuracy and procession which will allow me to identify more easily what will and will not work.

I will then bring colour into the designs.

Below is just a few of the sketches I have drawn up so far, please let me know what you think, if I'm you have any pointers i'd be really grateful.

The thing I am most struggling with is the fact I have a design I really like and I want to progress it. However I am going to stick at the initial development as you never know I may find something I like better!

Tasks for the rest of the week

More rough designs for logos
Choose to develop a seriese of logos
Add colour to devceloped logo
Experiment in drawing applications
Print examples of logos from Steve's Presentation

Plug for Shaun.

Thank you very much Shaun for finding the link to the royal mail website!

listening week?

2008-03-11T17:40:00.005Z

Before Monday I really didn't think I would enjoy this week at all. But once I got into it I found it was actually quite 'fun'. My sub woofer certainly got a good working. The bass on some parts of the CD was really good.

The music wasn't my kind of thing, and when I first listened to it I didn't think it was so bad, but the more I listened to it the more annoying it became.

I think Monday was the hardest day on the course so far, I found it so hard to concentrate on the music, but in the end I got there.

I think if someone else had the same CD as me the outcome would be so different as different people will interoperate the feelings and moods in very different ways.

I wasn't expecting there to be so much influence and meaning in it as there actually was. I managed to get quite a few mood boards and ideas from it which i'm happy with.

This week has really enabled me to take my sketchbook further and really just concentrate on it as I have to admit I have been neglecting it somewhat. I have nearly filled half a sketchbook over the last two days and I hope to continue this week in my self study and during the easter holidays.

Below is a photograph of my sketchbook where I have collected examples of logos for major companies:

Below is a photograph of one of the mood boards I created for CD:

I am really excited and in suspense of what is to come for the next unit. I think it is going to be a very enjoyable unit.

CD Review

2008-03-10T17:43:00.003Z

Miasma

Miasma is another sensuous offering from Em:T an ambient record label. An album which anyone can relate to from any mindset. Taking you through a journey of emotions -from betrayal to new life- into an exciting but relaxing state of mind.

The tracks take you through rollercoaster of the subject’s regret and unhappiness and turns into something positive, musically describing the ups and downs in life.

This album has a very strong connection with nature and culture, which is brought out with the use of a wide range of instruments. Forcing you into the depths of the jungle and to the settlements of Native Americans. The opens spaces leaving you in a silently hypnotic plane gradually building up to chaos.

The sounds will create emotions unique to each listener and will infuse you into a sense of relaxation and thought. The repetitive beat and tempo of the tracks make it perfect for ambient background music.

A though provoking end to the album created with the unresolved emotion encourages you to think deeper into meanings behind the journey and relate it to your own personal experiences.

This extremely well produced and engineered, experimental and easy listening album is perfect for anyone seeking a hybrid of tranquility and thought.

A6 Evaluation

2008-03-04T21:56:00.002Z

A6 Revert to Type
Evaluation

Time Planning
I feel it was much easier to manage my time for the timed tasks as it was only a very small part of the day. Perhaps it would benefit me to take this approach for other assignments; by compiling a weekly list of tasks, which need to be created in that particular week, and planning my time each day at a time. This will allow me to easily break down a task into smaller more manageable sections.

Typography
I am really enthusiastic with the knowledge I have gained regarding typography. I have found it a very interesting subject and have started to apply the things I have learnt into the work I have created since.

I never really knew how much ‘good’ typography affected not only the design industry but everything around us. When good typographical practice has been used there is an obvious strong point within the piece of work.

Typography is something, which is very rarely commented on and goes by un-noticed but when it is used incorrectly it becomes very obvious. From the very first lecture I have been noticing good typography in every day life.

My presentation on Roger Excoffon has enabled me to spend a significant amount of time researching different aspects of typography and has introduced me to several new typefaces.

Presentation
After much stress about the presentation I was relieved to when it was over. I didn’t think it went as bad as I imagined, but it was not perfect. After thinking I was going too fast I tried to add some information which wasn’t on the presentation slide, at which point I tripped up and paused for what felt an eternity. When I did recover I found it easier to continue with the presentation in a more confident way.

During my last presentation it was noted that I spoke much too quickly and finished much before my time allowance was up. Although on this occasion I did not need it, I had revised additional information, which has been added to my hand out to go onto in case I had time to spare.

I found it much easier to present in front of a small group rather than just one tutor. I think the size of the room has a large effect on how you treat the presentation. I like confined spaces, I feel large spaces have an intimidating effect on me.

I really enjoyed producing my presentation handout. I was able to design something which was a whole product and which can be seen in context, with the timed tasks the designs and layouts were only a very small piece of a whole range of designs – such as a newspaper.

Timed Tasks
Over the course of the assignment period it would seem the timed tasks have been getting slightly easier. I don’t think this is true; it could be seen as a justification of my learning curve. I have to say I am slightly disappointed that there were not more tasks like this. I feel they are an invaluable task to aid us in our development on the course also at the same time giving us somewhat of an insight into what the industry will be like.

Hokai
‘Hokai’ was an un-usual project to design for and was, in my opinion, the most difficult of the four preliminary tasks due to the scale of the design. I found it difficult to fit all the required information into the amount of space, which was available. I enjoyed working with only typographical elements and a single colour (plus black) It gave the design a very clean, pure appearance.

Jonathan Gee
By the time this task was set I had already produced 3 designs and was adjusted to the working pattern, which was needed. I felt I was able to use my time in a more efficient manner and was happy with the outcome. During the timed tasks Steve gave feedback, which was most useful. I believe the best way to lean is to make the mistakes and use feedback to learn from them.

If I could change one thing about the design, I would use a heavier typeface, perhaps a condensed typeface allowing me to use slightly larger text whilst still fitting the whole content in.

Vodafone
I decided to take the Vodafone design out of the submission, as it was very similar to the Jonathan Gee task. I deemed the Jonathan Gee article to be a stronger piece as it featured a more complex design having better ‘devices’ to display the information into a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Grid & Story
I was quite disappointed with the outcome of the last two timed tasks. I feel it has let the assignment down somewhat. Designing the grid was quite hard without knowing what the content was going to be. I don’t think the content fitted the grid I designed.

I one thing I overlooked was the gutter width. The gutter was set to 10mm, which looked fine before content was added. Perhaps as the text was justified the gutter size was emphasised by the very straight edge of the text.

Looking back on the task if I could change one thing – other than the gutter size – it would be the amount of columns I used. My grid had 3 columns, as I didn’t want it to look too crowded. When inserting the image I realised why it was good to have more columns. It gives you much more flexibility when fitting images and headlines into a confined space.

Goals
When collecting designs for my ‘A1’ sketchbooks I will use the knowledge and terminology I have gained in this assignment to evaluate and describe the work more accurately and fluently. I am taking particular care in identifying different uses of layout grids. This will enable me understand how layouts work and how I can implement similar grids into my own designs.

In future I need to be more diverse with the typefaces I select and appropriately match them to the designs I produce. I over the coming weeks I will collect and document different typefaces, which I feel, are strong in their design. This will enable me to use my sketchbook in a more involved role when designing.

Word count: 1057

Design Design Design

2008-02-26T16:48:00.004Z

General
Knowing the deadlines are just around the corner I am starting to feel really confident about the work I have been producing over the last few months. I feel I am still on target to get things completed on time and to a suitable standard.

A5
This week has given me a lot to think about with regards to my designs. I have some experimenting to do with my website to take it to yet another level. When I have changed the website, as always I will make another post letting you all know.

A6
Again the timed task, I feel they are getting easier. I don't think this is really happening. It must be the fact I am getting used to them and learning from my mistakes. Again I think there should be more tasks like this all year round. Personally I think it is the best way to learn and get better. Practice makes perfect!

During today's timed task I became quite ‘kerfuffled’ when it came to typing the content in. I did not realise how much text there was to time. I thought I wasn’t going to make it for the deadline. But I did.

Getting it done in the DTP early is very useful as I have been able to receive more useful advice from Steve. I think it is great having someone to teach us who cares, I have been on courses where its like clockwork, you go in do your work and the minimum is ok. It is so good for the tutors to want their students to produce something more than ok. The advise is so good and makes a massive impact on the design.

OK…. This had to come. Next week is going to be stressful but also I am really excited. I have a small idea of what to expect, but not exactly. I think the unknown adds to the enjoyment. Everyone knows if you enjoy something you are more likely to succeed!

Mini Major
I don’t quite know what to expect from the mini major project. But I’m looking forward to it. I think this is going to be a really interesting assignment to really get my teeth into. Go mad with my creativity. I once did a piece of art based on music it turned out to be a really good piece. I’m not sure about the unknown music part though. I don’t quite know what to expect at all. But I think I feel colour coming in massive quantities, god who knows I may even get my paint out again.

"preeeesentation"

2008-02-19T22:32:00.008Z

A5
This week has been a good week for A5. I have identified some minor changes which can be applied to give the website more impact. I am slowly working my way through these. I have applied some but I admit there are errors in some areas of the site which has been uploaded to the server. Please do not comment these things as I am aware of them and working my way through.
I have also changed the URL to where mywebsite is. You can get the most up-to-date version here.

A6
Finally a timed task! I am really starting to like the idea of these timed tasks. They are stressful towards the end but you get a great sign of achievement at the end of the mini task.

I would have liked to have done more of these tasks which make up A6, as the bigger the portfolio of these tasks become the easier it will be to accurately record and see progression.

Below are the tasks so far:

Presentation
Since the draft was in I have changed the layout of my hand out. Not so much a great change but enough to make it more attractive in a way I can easily manage the content in a more structured way. I have used A3 paper which is only ¾ in width folded into three.

This week I am going to have to think of a way to extend the amount of space I have within the leaflet. I am reluctant to make it the full width of an A3 as the shape is not very inspiring and would make it very wide.

The test-run of the presentation today, which went so much better than I thought it would. I did not trip up as much as I did when I was practicing it at home. And when I did I quickly gained it back.

I noticed (and so did Steve) that all through the presentation I was playing with the rivet on my jeans (just above my pocket).

A1
This week I am going to spend quite some time on my A1 assignment as I feel I am getting behind again. I am going to add some different layout ideas, photographs and some new typefaces I have seen.

Website feedback wanted!

2008-02-08T16:18:00.000Z

Hi all,

This is just an update to this week's journal entery.

I have 2 versions of my website uploaded. I'd be very greatful if you could give me some feedback on which version you prefer, and some general feeback.

Origional Version
http://garybenn.co.uk/A5

Tried to be very simple, unconfusing and slightly modern in appearence.

New version
http://garybenn.co.uk/A5/Brown

I have added colours to this version to make it appear more warm and welcoming. Also the soft gradient over the navigation in order to make the statement "Look this is a differant section this is the navigation".

There are several issues with the new version which I am aware of and will fix within the next day or so. These include:

Navigation gradient cut off on feedback form's thankyou page.
On some content pages where the next and previous page links are the background colour is still grey.
No accessability page
Bottom links (secondry navigation) not linked yet.

Also the Feedback Form has been connected to the CGI and works well!

Tick Tock

2008-02-05T16:41:00.000Z

What a very good morning I must say! It wasn't much of a surprise we were going to have a timed task first thing in the morning as there were certain hints floating around. I found the task very positive and a good start to the morning. It gave a great insight into how the industry will run. I think it would be a valuable experience to do a whole day of pressured tasks. It would identify our individual weakness and enable us to work on those problems before going into the industry (the deep end)A5Finishing the website to a satisfactory level I have begun changing the overall theme of the web site. At first I was very displeased with the idea of changing my web site from the original screen design. After a chat with Steve, I became slightly more comfortable with the idea, still displeased however.I guess it is just because of the vast amount of work I had to put into to the original design I felt as though I couldn't cope with the amount of work again in the time restraints I currently have. After I played around in Photoshop with a screenshot for a few hours, I could see a big change an improvement.

I have added a little colour which has added a slightly warmer and more welcoming feel to the design.At the end of yesterday I came up with a final design that I am happy with and will upload it for comments later this week.This weeks tasks are:complete the new styleHook up CGI Script

Almost there

2008-01-29T17:22:00.001Z

A6 – I now have more confidence in what I am doing on this assignment. I am somewhat confused by the lack of Timed tasks so far, after all the time is ticking and I cant wait to get going.

The presentation is now looking ok, with the recent addition of my latest two fonts, Antique Olive and Mistral. However I am having great difficulty in finding any useful information on my typographer. It seems that the whole internet is trying to sell me a type face and not give me any useful information.

A5 – I am really surprised at how fast the website has come along. Having finished the layout this week, inserting all of the content and images leaves just my feedback form and user testing to complete.

So far I am really pleased with the design (www.garybenn.co.uk/A5) so far it is pixel perfect (except where type is concerned), with only two changes, which are invisible (just changed how this have been created).

I am looking forward to having a good look at other people’s websites for the user testing. Although I am not looking forward to the feedback I receive. Whilst I know it will only help me, if it means I have to change something which doesn’t match my design it will really annoy me.

I didn’t go to the Design Mechanics today as I attended last time and gave someone else the opportunity. From what the people who did go they learnt a lot. I would have liked to have gone. It would have been really interesting to see how people in the actual industry are working.

Design is in the AIR......

2008-01-22T16:32:00.000Z

Well well well, Apple have done it again with their new product MacBook Air. I have always admired Apple's design skills for both product design, advertising and packing. I can certainly say I will be down to get on by the time they are released.

Today has been a very interesting day, slightly stressfull towards lunch but never the less an enjoyable day. Starting off with part two of the typography lecture. It was all very well knowing the things contained in the first lecture but the second was to clarify how to actually use certain typographical elements. This was a nice, easy, but interesting and useful start to the day.

Today's timed task, something I was not looking forward to, I actually really enjoyed. I think the downside of such a task is the lack of space within the room, when i'm working on design tasks such as this I like to have much more space to lay my work out in a logical order and enables me be messy.

Overall It tought me how serious things had and I think is the biggest inshigh I have had to a professional industrial environment.

I found it quite hard to contain my desires to embellish the design with pointless decoration. In the end I decided to go simple. With lots of space, after all that is what the real book cover did, (I saw it after the event - but they have more still white space - or rather yellow space). I think it worked quite well. I really enjoyed working with yellow, working with just one colour makes you (me) think more about its use. To me that shade of yellow is a nice happy colour which will create a shockingly harsh but eye-catching layout.

Knowing about how this Assignment is going to run at this moment I think I am going to enjoy it. I always find it is better to enjoy something you are doing, it makes you more productive and allows you to really open your mind onto the page and experiment slightly more with your thoughts/ideas.

I feel I am making great progress with A5! I have Completed the template and just experimenting with adding my content. I must say, so far, touch wood, it has gone through quite smoothly and without many drastic hick ups which surprised me slightly.

I think come next week I will be able to upload a preview for you all to have a look round. Which comes somewhat back to A1 and todays seminar session, Many of us are posting our work on the blog but arn't doing it soon enough. By the time feedback has been received it is too late to change anything. It really needs to be done before you commit yourselves to something which is why I'm going to post it so early! I'll let you all know in my next journal entry.

p.s. I do hope my "Apple is great paragraph" is not seen as an obvious plug that APPLE IS GREAT!!!!

Blogging from San Francisco

2008-01-15T16:36:00.000Z

This has been a strange week. Starting the semester off by having us start the talks for 45 minutes. It was not as easy as it may seem, with the start of semester not knowing quite what was coming there wasn’t anything that could really be spoken about without some pretty large hints as to a particular subject. So I was quite miffed as to why we were being made to do this. After some time the conversation did somewhat start off and felt slightly less awkward. However the majority of the questions raised were regarding the results we were about to get in only a few hours time.

Up until minutes AFTER the results were given I was still under the impression I had referred both units. You may well say that I always feel like that and prepare for the worse. This was different. I don't know why I had an enormous sense of failure hanging over me.

I was asked how I thought I had done, replying "I feel I did better on my a3 than a4. And would have said passed A3 and referred A4" Lying though my teeth of course as I knew in my heart I had referred both. To my shock I could not have been more wrong about the grades I received. Indeed I had correctly estimated my performance in comparison to the two assignments.

My grades are
A3 - Merit
A4 - Pass

I could not believe it. I was so shocked and it just goes to show that sometimes I do need to stand back somewhat and acknowledge my achievements as a good thing. I am very happy with the progression I have made on the course which seems to be still a relatively short amount of time.

I feel my goals for the next set of assignments is not to try to progress up to the next grade (distinction) but to improve the standard of my work and removing the minor errors from the level I am currently working at. This will still be a progression as there are a few errors which are popping up on a regular basis.

I also hope to gain at least one of the distinction criteria. Perhaps D1 which is based around the evaluation side of my work. I have never really been a huge fan of evaluations and seem to be quite a chore. This will probably be because I cannot think of anything "Useful" to talk about. I am happy with the evaluation produced for A3 and feel it is much improved on my past evaluations.

I feel that it will be much more of a natural curve to my progression to gradually gain the higher grades rather than jump straight up to the top. I feel if there is room top progress up to the next level it allows me to directly monitor my learning patterns and curves. It also enables me to iron out all of my mistakes.

A5
I am very much looking forward to the task of building the website in A5. I just want to get stuck in now and do it. I think I am going to hold back until at least next week before I start producing the website. I wish to use the time in the mean time to build on the knowledge I had previously gained and the information I received from Steve in this week's lecture where Dreamweaver is concerned.

A6
I am already slightly nervous about the presentations towards the latter of this assignment. I am however very much looking forward to the spontaneous and timed tasks with no warning. I feel this will help me with my time planning skills and really prove to me what can be done in a given time. It will also be an chance for a vague look at which the industry is like. Although a 24 hour work over would be good.

p.s. I have changed the font of my Journal to Georgia - I think it looks much nicer

Christmas "Break"

2008-01-08T14:52:00.001Z

Hi Everyone, I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas and a good new year!

My christmas was tainted as usual by illness that has sempt to have hit just about everyone in Yorkshire over the past few weeks. Unfortunately I started with it on Christmas day (evening). As I was just starting to think it was going over the new year, on Friday it came back just as bad. I have never felt that bad I was basically crawling upstairs to bed I was shaking with shivers that much. I think Im just Today has been a much better day and I think it is finally getting better.

I blame it on the break from college/work. Breaks are not good for the body. I have never really said or thought this but I cant wait until I'm back at work and college. Well not so much work.

I am now feeling quite nervous about going to college on Monday (assuming that is when we are getting our results). But I am always nervous for weeks on events like this.

Everyone knows my motto - think the worst then you cant fall far... I don't think it is so much of a comfort on this occasion, and I don't know why.

I think over easter I need an inspirational trip to some place nice, such as Paris, Rome or Milan. I know that statement came from nowhere but those kind of trips with me seem to be a little spontaneous with very little pre-planning. But foreign cities are very nice places and very influential. They have some strange effect on me that make me just think about my life and where I am, and also give me so many good creative vibes. I wish i had gone somewhere like that over christmas and I am so much regretting it.

I would love to go to New York, but I think that is a little out of my reach at the moment and extravagant even for me. I think id like to visit european cities before I go International. But who knows?

Semester one review

2007-12-21T12:19:00.001Z

With semester one out of the way I am taking a few days out ready to start semester two at my best. Looking back to when I set my original expectations at the start of the course, I feel I a m still on track to meet them.

Although some of the time it has been a rocky ride, I have throughly enjoyed my time on the course and feel I have learnt an enormous amount, more than on any other course.

Over the last 3 assignments I have enjoyed the design work and feel my design skills have increased. I now realize you don't need anything "fancy" to make something look good. Something simple and aligned and balanced will also give the same effect.

I have found the feedback I have received in both my Online Journal and in seminar groups vitally important my progression an learning curve. I am going to try and produce more work at earlier stages of the design process to receive feedback on. I feel this will enable me to produce work that is more sustainable and can be accurately documented.

Now I know some of the fundamentals and know how much detail can really be looked into on the design side of a project I am going to concentrate on the building side of the course. I have built websites before coding by hand; I will now look into using such software as Dreamweaver as I will be able to create something much more accurately and to a tighter time scale.

I am looking forward to learning about the more advanced features of InDesign and a more informed knowledge about typography.

In my initial statement I suggested I should at some point over the next year start trying to find some freelance work which would give me a more firm understanding of the industry. However with what I know now I don't feel I am ready to do anything this advanced and instead I will endeavor to design things in a range of mediums for my own pleasure which will enable to to become more confident and learn from my mistakes. I think this will put me in a better Position to start freelance work much later on in the course.

Things I need to work on in the next semester:

Time Planning
Design work to receive feedback
Dreamweaver
Typography skills
Personal design work

less than a week

2007-12-11T17:01:00.000Z

There is not much to talk about really this week. All I can say is it has been a very busy week. I have been franticly working on both of my assignments.

IN A3 I have all the screen designs done and finished and will be posted tonight for you to comment on.

I am slightly worried about A4 - I don't feel as though I have put in as much time as I should have. The emphasis has been mainly aimed at A3. I think this is because there is generally more work to do for A3. I am mainly happy with the work that is done so far but I just need to concentrate on the image compression essay which I feel is the weakest part of both assignments put together. I don't know why, it didn't seem to flow very well, both from my head to the keyboard or when being read back. Although the information I needed to know was there I just didn’t know how to put it into words and make it work.

I have quite allot to do over the next two days so I should imagine that it will be allot of coffee, cigarettes and late nights!

I have always felt I have worked better under the pressure of a deadline. It doesn't feel nice when it’s happening but I feel a great sense of relief when I look how much work has been done in such a short space of time.

Things to do for next week's deadline:

A3
# Read through and amend all written work
# Change hosting - errors have been identified.
# One or two remaining content terms
# One or Two remaining screenshots.
# EVALUATION

A4
# Look at second essay in more detail
# Receive feedback on second essay and amend accordingly
# Minor errors on Image restoration - nothing too drastic
# Upload all digital files
# EVALUATION

ED, EDD & EDDIE Jones

2007-12-04T17:06:00.001Z

Well this week has certainly been very stressful. Even though there was so much to do I still managed to get it more or less on the way. I would have found it impossible if I hadn’t worked all last night getting the rough information down on paper. I was up until 2 in the morning. If that wasn’t bad enough, my turmoil was not over there!

At 9am there was an hour of very intense idea generation exercises. Producing banners under very tight time restrictions. The times were ranging from between one minute per design and 15 seconds per design. I did find it useful however id would not choose to do it again at 9AM! It certainly got creative side going.

Today I have started the banner advertisements and I think I should get them finished this week as I have almost finished the first; which I consider to be the most “awkward” due to its shape and size. I just have some tweaks to make and then ill post it up here for you all to comment on.

Today it has been talked about more that there could be a possibility of a 24 hour assignment – meaning in the room for 24 hours solid. I think this would be a great idea and would show us how the industry really does have to work at times. We would also be able to see how people work under both pleasure and temptation to sleep. There is a poll for FIRST YEARS to post on if u wish!

Thank you for all your comments on my screen designs. They have been very useful and I have taken note and amended my work. I will post updates soon.

Until then, thank you and good night. (In true Trevor McDonald talk)

Update

2007-12-01T23:50:00.000Z

I have scrapped together another version of the design, this time in photoshop so it is a bit neater..... I have change the navigation.

The only thing that I am not sure about is the white space between the terminologies. How do everyone feel about that. If i want the images to be there it is how it will have to be.

please let me know what you think!
thanks
Gary

p.s. Im thinking of having half (5) of each subject on one page and then at the bottom a link to the next page with content from the same subject. eg: 5 hardware terms then a link to page 2, to get to the last 5 hardware terms. This will split the info up and give me more to work with regards to file size.

p.p.s. Content is not finalized yet. Please don't comment on that yet.

Screen Design Draft?

2007-11-30T23:04:00.001Z

Below is a scan of a layout idea for my A3 content pages. Ill have to make a final, digital screen design VERY shortly and I would like as much feedback as possible please.

Thanks,

Gary

Ill have to think about this title and edit later?

2007-11-27T23:15:00.001Z

This week has been very stressful so far. I think it has been a wake-up point for realization of how little time I have left to finish the assignments. Although three weeks may seem a lot, there is a lot to be completed for next Tuesday’s seminar group.

Things to do for next week:
• Web content
• Screen Design
• Site Structure
• Assets list
• Budget Statement

Yesterday I started on the content and I am now feeling more confident about it than I did at the start of the assignment. It takes along time, yes, more than expected. But it is quite easy to do. The longest thing about it is the research and trying damn hard to get it under the word limit.

I am quite concerned that I will mess this one up and I don’t know why. I think the main thing I’m worried about is A4. It doesn’t seem like an assignment. There has to be more to it than what I have done so far.

The exercise with the business cards has been very useful to get the design ideas out. I am going to try and put it into practice for A3. I think that will give me of a ground for development, as that was one of my downfalls of A2. It was like tunnel vision I did the development in only one area and didn’t develop anything else but my final idea. I had chosen my final design too early.

Over the course of the week I am going to post another enter and include some of my design work for A3 for comments. This post isn’t flowing very well and doesn’t seem to want to come out of my head.

Pixel By Pixel

2007-11-20T16:36:00.001Z

The image restoration has not been the most interesting task I have had to do so far; As you work on it becomes a very tedious task, doing the same thing over and over again multiplied by several millions. I think it would benefit to being a task which is worked on in relatively short bursts of no more than one hour at a time. I think this will give some resistance to the urge of rushing it to get it completed. It will also allow your eyes to have some rest as they are just constantly looking at the screen with a great deal of concentration.

On A3 I spent Monday trying to conduct a competitive analysis and couldn’t find the words to write. I just didn’t know where to start. As the afternoon went on it got harder and harder to focus. As soon as I got home I found it so much easier to complete, it was like having digital diarrhoea and the words just wouldn’t stop falling out of my fingers onto the keyboard. The word count for it was about 800 by the time I had finished it, there are still some aspects that I want to go back into and add more. And will do that over the course of the week.

There are a few things that need adjusting in my web plan, such as the goals, a little rewording is needed there and referencing more. On my last assignment I apparently made a mess of the Web hosting comparison therefore I need to build on this area and get it perfect. I did wait for this weeks seminar groups to get a little feedback on how is should approach it, I have taken some comments and if anyone else wants to make any feedback on how to conduct this section of the plan please feel free to leave any comments.

Well I do have to say, the coming of iPhone into my life – My dream date – I has changed the way I communicate, turn my alarm clock off in a morning and listen to “Dolly”! I have noticed for some reason I have been able to get myself out of bed, which I usually have a great deal of difficulty doing. The alarm sound is MUCH more annoying at 6am! The design by apple has always, in my opinion excelled on every product. And if anyone knows what company designs the packaging design for apple I would be very interested to know as I see as the best thing about any apple product.

Are we artists or are we designers?

2007-11-13T23:08:00.002Z

The Idea that design is separated from art has been mulled around the creative industry for quite some time. I feel that the areas are so close together to be segregated. It is in my opinion that they overlap seamlessly.

Design goes through a very similar development process to art, where as artists have to make design decisions every day.

I didn’t like this essay one bit. Usually I can get on with a piece of written work with no problem. For some reason this one “tripped me up”. I didn’t have a clue what to put. I kind of knew what I wanted to say, because as all of you know I am a very opinionated person and I will argue the toss about anything.

I feel more confident with the second one. The first one to me was slightly wishy-washy in that there is no right or wrong answer. With this one it is all based on facts, and figures which gives you something to talk about.

I found the colour space and compression lectures very interesting. At first it was difficult to get my head around, particularly the compression one. But I think I got there in the end and have learnt a lot from it! It will definitely come in useful for future assignments and indeed real life. This is where I complement Steve on giving such a good lecture; something that could be hard to understand is usually made simple by him.

Today, Steve asked us the question is the glass half full or half empty. Because of my negativity I would naturally answer with “Half Empty”. To me it says – why have half when you COULD have full. It is like the television advert about “or” and “and”, “or” makes you choose, why choose when you can have both, “and” says have both. It is the same principal. Why take substandard, you should have the maximum you can have!

Tonight I have been trying to work out the colour profiles in Photoshop. I have been trying to calibrate everything so my printer can produce near match printouts. I haven’t had much luck in that though, so if anyone can suggest anything that maybe of help. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Numb

2007-11-06T20:22:00.001Z

Monday, to me, had been one of the hardest days so far on the course. Firstly with the presentations which turned out slightly better than I had first anticipated. I under shot the time limit but I don’t think it is of grave consequence this time. And but then came the stress that had been locked away behind the thoughts of presentation – Grades.

Although I passed I wasn’t sure how to react. Many people in the group took the grading differently; some positively and some negatively. If I am being honest with myself, I am not entirely happy with the given grade. This is not however, disappointment for being awarded an “Entry level” grade. I never aimed or anticipated anything higher. I just feel somewhat emotionless about the subject, numb.

If I had been rewarded a higher grade for this assignment I would have been more displeased, as I see the pass as being a push in the right direction, a stepping stone. If I had received a distinction at this early stage, the only way I could go for assignments hereafter is down.

I would also have felt some guilt in that some other members of the group didn’t achieve the grade they were expecting or wanting. I think this is the primary reason for the groups overall mood and awkwardness. The way I see it and how I have always worked is to not think about the grade until it has been handed in and “finished”, I will try on every piece of work I do to fulfil every piece of the basic and extended criteria to the best of my ability.

It is once the assignment is handed in the anxiety will kick in. I don’t build myself up to trap myself in a false sense of comfort. I simply think the worst in everything. I know it is a bland way to look at life, as most people who know me at length, or indeed who have only spent a short period of time observing me, that I have a very negative look on life and everything around me. As I always like to say – “Life is just a build up to death”. It is not just some immature comment I thought up, it is a philosophy, which I don’t quite understand yet. I guess what I am trying to say is if you are confident you will receive a high grade - take a distinction for example; if the worst should happen then there is further to fall. In my case I prepare for the worst and I cannot be as upset or disappointed. This is not to be seen as I wont try; I just don’t get my hopes up too high.

Tuesday was a strange day; I found out that I had produced my first assignment in first person. I was shocked. From what I interpreted from Steve this is one of the biggest places where I slipped up. That kind of thing even though school always tripped me up; I don’t fully know the difference between the two parties. This was also mixed into something, which I have taken as a complement so I am easy about it. I guess this is one thing I shall endeavour not to be a repeating any time soon.

Today I have been in a state of confusion with the first essay. I would have been able to conquer the task in a matter of minutes if it was just an opinionated response to the statement. To me art is design, we design art. And I know I am going to get a list of comments which make me regret posting this but I have spent five years being educated in the field of art and there is not that much difference in my opinion. Look around us everything we see has been design and almost everything started as an artistic view or idea.

The thing which is causing me to trip up is the illustration and comparisons of The Designers Republic. After spending the afternoon researching I have not found anything with specific relevance.

I think today is the only time I have ever been “stumped” by a written assignment. Usually after a few hours I can get on track and have the fist draft completed. This one is different; it is tripping me up. I have never produced a illustrated essay in which has such an effect on the outcome of my future, if I am being honest with myself I don’t think I have ever known the real meaning on an illustrated essay.

Reading Week: Colour for the brain

2007-10-30T17:14:00.001Z

Scene as the domain needed for the course cannot contain anything other than college work I have purchased a new domain: GaryBenn.co.uk leaving me free to use GaryBenn.com for personal use.

This week has been quite stressful, I don’t know why but I think I miss college. I prefer the structure, there seems to be so much distraction while I’m trying to work at home.

When I emailed Steve for this week’s Reading Week task my stomach sank as I found out it was to prepare a presentation on s specific subject that I had very little knowledge about. I don’t know what makes me more nervous, the whole group doing basically the same presentation on a very similar subject or the fact that we are straight into it on Monday morning.

At first when I was doing my research I found it difficult to find any useful information, but today It seems to be easier to find. I think the night to think about the task had helped; it hasn’t however eased off any of my nerves.

When doing research I have found out a few astonishing facts that I would never have thought possible such as what colour has to do with suicide.

Through school I was quite heavily bullied and lost any self-confidence that I had. The thought of me standing in front of a group of people with their eyes on me for five minutes makes me want to flee the country to be honest. I don’t, however want this to be seen as an excuse or a moan, but I want to see it as a personal goal, my confidence can only get better and this is something that, if done regularly could help. It will also prepare me for the outside world.

I think it would have been a good idea to use Monday morning as a seminar session, both to get to know our new group and to let our colleagues see our presentations before we dive in and make fools of our self. There is still this thing in the back of my head that says its wrong. I don’t know why but it is always there! Like, still I am feeling very anxious about “That’s the Plan” there is something niggling at me in my head saying I have gone majorly wrong and have referred. Saying that though I was like that for months on my foundation art when my final grade was coming up; thankfully I passed that!

Things I included in my presentation include: the science behind colour, The culture behind colour, the culture involved in the colour green, Why the understanding of culture is vital for designers, Religion and culture, some facts around green, global warming.

Getting powerd up!

2007-10-23T23:40:00.001+01:00

Well, I wish I could say that this week has been relaxing, but it hasn't. I have been working most of the week. I had hoped to post this sooner but I have been suffering from the worst cold of my life so far.

I am feeling slightly more relaxed than I have been leading up to this week with all the assignment deadlines. But now hopefully I have had time to get it cleared out of my head and am ready for my next assignment(s). I have already printed "Back to Basics" and have started making some mental notes. One thing I am missing is my sketchbook! I think it keeps me in my comfort zone and somewhere just to jot down my thoughts.

Today I have just received my copy of CS3 Master Collection from AdobeOS X. I will be in manchester on Friday at 6pm for the uk launch. Which means by late friday night I should have all the most up to date software to get me going and hopefully be more creative through my next units.

That's the Plan

2007-10-21T18:54:00.002+01:00

Just like my sketchbook pages that are enclosed within a link to the right of this post, I have posted a PDF of my assignment scene as it has been handed in. I don't know if it is allowed but I'm sure Steve will tell me if it's not!

Just thought it is an opportunity for people to give me feedback on it, which will enable me to improve my future units.

So please have a scan through it and let me know if there is anything you feel needs to be commented on!

Thank you

Time to relax for a minute or TWO

2007-10-16T13:39:00.001+01:00

This week has been a much more relaxed than I thought it would have. I think this is because I tried not to be stressed as it just makes things worse. Most of the time you can solve a problem when you are calm and logical thinking about the task at hand.

I didn’t think I would ever be at a stage that I would be ready to have in by now. But here I am making one of my final reflections for this assignment three hours after submission. I have never known time go so fast. I go back to one of my previous entries, it is not finished, as I could work on it for another year if I could. Things like this can just be added to and added to, something PERFECT could be added to.

Next time I will look into Versioning.

I think that has been a helpful pulling point for me in this unit, throughout the assignment I repeatedly made “drafts” and then went back to complete them. At first I tried to complete as much as I could and then added more and more to it each time I revisited it.

I feel confident that I have fulfilled at least the pass criteria, but if the worst comes to the worst, I have to accept it. After all I am enrolled onto this course to learn not just to complete a series of tasks. There would be no point in actually doing a course on something that I am already perfect at.

Yesterday I was accidentally called into a feedback group with John to check on our work. Little did he know I WAS Gary. Perhaps at some point we should get the ball out again and get him to name us. Having been a mistake I realise what I have been missing out on. John gave me some very useful advice feedback. It would perhaps be useful to have similar sessions with John and in the future.

After the half term we will be swapping the seminar groups. I can understand the point of doing this. Taking us out of our comfort zones will help us to develop a working relationship with everyone in the group. It will also help us to develop our professional working skills ready for industry.

I am looking forward to the next two assignments. It will give me a challenge to produce better quality work but at the same time work under very strict time constraints in order to complete two assignments at once.

Evaluation

2007-10-15T11:39:00.002+01:00

Below is a draft of my evaluation. I have never been any good at evaluations. I would appreciate the some constructive criticism on it is possible.

Amended 15 October 2007 : 11:38

Evaluation
The main down side to my unit is the difficulty I have had with planning my time. It is certainly the first time I have had to plan my time in such an accurate way. I found it easier to produce a production schedule at the start of the project than I did for my detailed weekly time plan. I think there are two major reasons for my somewhat inaccurate time planning. One thing being, the un-expected lectures and tutorials that take place in college time. I believe it would have been beneficial to not just me but to colleagues to have a schedule for lectures and tutorials at the start of an assignment giving approximate times. The other discrepancies being un-documented work; when I have been working on something that leads unexpectedly into another area of study which isn’t included into my time plan it becomes in accurate. I will take this into account on future projects and include time unforeseen tasks.

I am happy with the final design of the web-plan as a whole, in particular the choice of colour. The colour scheme used was chosen to both fit in with accessibility (the use of web safe colours) and to match my target audience. I have tried to limit the amount of different colours used on the design to create a more professional and contemporary feel to the website. This project has given me the enthusiasm I need to continue producing similar work whilst boosting my confidence in designing for someone other than myself with a subject or target audience which I would not normally design for.

One thing that disappointed me during the design process was the impractical use of the font Edwardian Script ICT initially planned as a drop cap within the primary navigation. I planned to use Edwardian Script throughout the design to coincide with the calligraphy style writing of the time period that my subject lived in. There were several factors I had to think about before incorporating it into my final product such as the accessibility on the most valuable asset to the website – Navigation. One possible way to overcome this problem would have been to encode the font into an image file. This however would have bumped up my global file size, breaking my 50kb per page aims set out within the project goals.

If I had more time and was to produce this website I would animate the header with the use of a flash movie to create a gentle flow to the waves. I think this would add a little interest to the website and appeal to children within my target audience. Again my concern with doing so would be the size restrictions, making the global page size much larger than set out within my project goals.

Although the small seminar groups I was involved in were useful to receive more personal tutoring I would like to use that opportunity to receive more feedback on the actual design and development ideas.

I am now more enthusiastic about posting my work on my online learning journal. I think the feedback I will receive in the future will help me in the development of my work and take my work to another level.
I shall document feedback more accurately in my sketchbooks in order to produce more evident development of my work. In producing more design ideas from the feedback I receive in seminar groups will give me more flexibility and ground when choosing a final design.

Word Count: 585

Finished - NO!

2007-10-14T19:54:00.002+01:00

I think the false deadline is so useful! But then again would it not be good to have more of them - It gives me a push to get things done. I think for the next deadline I will take the time planning to another level and set myself multiple 'fake' deadlines.

If you think, is there really a point when you can say, right this assignment is finished. I think not! When is a painting finished? The way I see it is nothing is ever finished - It just ends consistent and balanced.

2007-10-14T13:00:00.002+01:00

Just Thought I would post up my screen design. Obviously it is too late to make any drastic changes but it will be useful to get feedback of which I can use when compiling my next screen design

Screen Res.

2007-10-11T11:27:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post, this site could be useful for people wanting to look at their websites at different sizes. You can use it to test your website without changing your screen resolution.
www.screen-resolution.com

Is the pressure on yet?

2007-10-11T11:26:00.001+01:00

Today I am going to take a little different approach to my journal entry than I have previously. I usually use it as a place to moan and groan about the work and my stress levels. But this week I am feeling so much better about my work. It is good to see it fully in the assignment template with all (Some of) the references included. It makes it look a lot more professional.

I have had a lot of time this week to really get going on it and I think It will pay off.

One week to deadline and I’m not stressed. I can’t believe it. I think this course has given me a reality check and forced me to wake up and do some work. A LOT MORE WORK – compared to my previous course last year.

Today was our fake deadline which I think helped a great deal and without it I think many people would refer on this unit. Some of the things that were brought up in it were valid and obvious once they had been pointed out. Even thought they were small – almost silly things they could still cost you your assignment.

I made quite a few notes in this session of things that I need to complete before the hand in. I think as a personal goal I am going to try and get everything done by Saturday evening, leaving me to read through it YET AGAIN on Sunday to check for more silly errors and identify weak points, in need of improvement.

Then hopefully unless Steve pops something up on Monday or in the weekly email that we haven’t done and needs to be done in addition to the work we have been working on, Monday should be stress free, allowing me to check through my evaluation draft and make amendments where necessary.

I think the only low point of the week was Monday morning. For 1.5 hours we had an exercise from Steve getting us to think up all the barriers in the way of electronic communication methods. This was brought on by people still not replying to emails. It has been hinted that if people don’t reply this week, it will happen again, so please reply – we need every last minute we can get to do our assignment!

The thing I am most worried about is the evaluation. I have never been any good with evaluations. But hopefully the things on my blog will be a help.

One week to go.

2007-10-02T16:48:00.005+01:00

This week has been significantly stress free, regardless of the fact that it only one week until the deadline. Well at least the first deadline. I feel slightly more confident that I am going to get this finished now. I think the more creative design side of things has taken the stress away. I can take the stress out on the design rather than my written work.

I have gotten well on with the screen design today having started last night in my self study. It took a little longer than I had expected as I was just learning how InDesign works. As usually I wanted to be different and use InDesign. But it works and I have it at home to continue working in my self study. I feel that it easier to pick up than PageMaker.

However nothing could have prepared me for the complete lack of knowledge of time scales when I got at college. I had originally budgeted for 2 hours for the completion of my first screen design. Before I knew it the day was almost over. I do feel I have made great progress on it though.
The problem I have with this sort of work is perfectionism. I need it perfect, in every way, shape or form - Millimetre perfect. But when you see the finished piece you can't help but notice the amount of precision and effort has gone into a design.

Tasks for next week:
All I really need to do now is pull things altogether, finish the odd bits and check through it for obvious errors.

I will be using this weeks self study time for:

Assets list
Contact form Screen Design
Budget Statement

Messy Messy Messy...

2007-09-27T23:17:00.001+01:00

Just as I am writing this, looking around the room thinking what to put and it appears that I am the most untidy people in the room; with paper all over spreading from my space to the front desk. Maybe this is synonymous of my organisational skills. I feel that is one of the main things I need to work on; it will help me a great deal with my time planning throughout the course and also in the real word. Sign of a creative spirit.

This week has not been one of the best weeks for me. The start of the week was quite a stressful start. I started on the critical analysis; to be honest it made me feel like I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

Tuesday was a little better, the morning started off with a tutorial on Page Maker. It is actually easier to master than I first imagined. As soon as you look at it you can see that it contains features that will aid in the assignment layout giving a much more professional appearance to almost every document. Now that I have a very basic understanding on how it works I am going to try use InDesign; I feel that it will be a good thing to explore both pieces of software to be ready for industry.

Towards the afternoon things took a U-turn – Steve wasn’t best pleased with us regarding out e-lecture. We were asked to review our journals to make them more accessible. Although the criteria were implemented, not many of us had actually documented it within our sketchbooks. At the time it seemed like he had over reacted kicking us all out of our small seminar sessions. But I realise that this was to get the point across. It was stupid of me not to actually document my processes as coming from the foundation art we were made to document EVERYTHING. We were told, if it wasn’t documented it wasn’t worth putting in and may as well be discarded; Which I can understand.

As a good point of the week, I think I have finally got the referencing to click

Accessible?

2007-09-24T23:17:00.001+01:00

Over the last few days I have been making a few changes to my online journal to it more accessible. I think I'm happier knowing that my information can be accessed by allot more people than before. After all without visitors what is the point in creating a website? I think the thing is you need to make the website open for as many people to access as you can. Even if this means loosing some of the more aesthetically pleasing parts of the design. So be it! As we keep getting told this is the user's website not our own. They want information - CONTENT IT KING.

I have tried to follow some of the guidelines set out on w3.org

If you have any problems with accessing my journal then please let me know via the comment feature or if you have any suggestions on how I could improve.

What is the task?

2007-09-18T16:35:00.002+01:00

The third week is almost up. This week I feel has been more productive. I have been using my time sheet more this week to check that I have been keeping on track. I think I am more or less up to date and using my time well. The deadline is getting closer by the minute, where does the time go.

High Points
This week I have been managing the time I use for research differently. As mentioned in my previous post I found it difficult to do large amounts of research all at once. Since then I have been completing research and breaking off to work into my sketchbook. I am happy with this approach as it also gives you a break as sometimes all that information fired at me all at once can confuse me. The creative designs in my sketchbook help me take my mind of this, giving me time to work out layouts and colour schemes.

Low Points
I wasn’t so impressed in the seminar group when I realised I had done my delivery requirements in a different way to what I was supposed to. Just when I thought it looked like it was getting there something else pops into my head that I have forgotten. I have also been checking through my work several days after I have written something and finding mistakes that should be un-miss able. I now realise why there I should be scheduling to finish a week before the deadline. I can use the extra week to check and double check for silly little mistakes, hopefully to make it “perfect” - what ever that is?

Self Study
In this week’s self study I am going to concentrate more on the creative side of the course allowing me to rest from all of the written work for a few days. I will also complete all the little areas that need working back into my written work.

Sketchbooks
I have also been taking scans of my sketchbook just in case anything dire happens to my original – not that I plan anything to happen to it. It also allows you to have a look at them to see how I’m getting on; feedback is appreciated.

Befuddlement

2007-09-11T17:16:00.001+01:00

This week has been surprisingly healthier than I had first imagined. It is always an anxious time when it comes to receiving my first assignment. When reading through the brief as a group discussion I was fearsome about the amount of work there was to do. This fear was toned down slightly after our first seminar group. I don’t know what it was I was worried about. I was kind of befuddled by it all. It has been years since I have conducted a professional assignment that contains so much written work. It wasn’t so much the amount of words that tripped me up so to speak, as from past experience I know that 2500 words was not a lot at all, but in actual fact I know I will struggle to refine it down and for it actually still make sense. After seeing an example assignment in the seminar group it really eased off the anxiety. I don’t know why, I suppose that it could be part of seeing what I am on the runway towards producing.

After 2 days of research I for some reason have feeling energy less, and faced with lack of motivation. I had expected to be research but not this much all at once I think it would be beneficial to me to spread it out over the week rather than do it all in one big chunk. This moves onto my time management skills; if I have feelings of lack of motivation then it would be weakness to continue. Instead I will work into my sketch book working with design ideas and visually stimulating sketches. I am not although oblivious to the advantages of research, and don’t think it is bad; I just need to focus on it and spread it out over greater periods of time.

From past courses I have been made to create almost a scrapbook style sketchbook which I am glad to see continue. Finding anything that could be remotely relevant and sticking it into the book and analyzing it. I feel this is a great way to produce motivation and to be used as a springboard to aim higher. It also gives you extra knowledge of what is going off in the world of design.

Things I need to my goals for next week:

More productive research
Finding more inspiration material for sketchbook
Improve on time management

Aspirations For The Future

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

Coming from an education in computing from a very early age, it wasn’t the most expected outcome for me to end up in the world of art and design. However I have always considered myself to be a creative personality. I went through 5 years of the art and design education both at school, home and college; Taking GCSE, A level and foundation diploma qualifications. Although I was working in the creative area I was not abolishing my keen understanding and learning enthusiasm for the more technical computing side.

After finishing my art and design foundation earlier this year, I decided it was time to get back in touch with my technical side; not completely swaying one way or the other, I wanted to find a career move that would integrate them both like brotherhood. Web design was the obvious choice for me. After all it was something I had been doing for a many years already as a causal hobby; creating personal websites for to keep in touch with friends and family. Also to give advise, tutorials and personal knowledge to others.

As I’m sure was the same for many people, I had expected to teach this kind of subject in later life. This idea unfortunately did not keep, but faltered quite fast. Taking the Interactive media HND, I feel will keep my options open. It is mainly based towards web design but the skills are transferable into any design career such as, Print design, and advertising. In the coming years I would like to be in a position where I could be self employed doing a mixture of things in the digital design industry producing both interactive and in a print based medium. In the modern world we live in it is vital to be flexible and have transferable skills. This will enable any company to have power over more areas of design industry.

I am going to achieve my goals by using the Interactive Media course to the best of by ability; to get the most out of it I will take several approaches. Aside from my college studies I intend to continue designing and developing websites as a personal hobby. This will enable me to understand and gain experience with industry standard software packages and expand on the knowledge of which I have obtained from attending college and personal study sessions.

When I reach the second year of the course, it could be wise to find some part time work in the design industry, giving me an insight into the running of the digital world. I think this will be beneficial and a great opportunity to find out which route would be best suited to myself. As I aspire to be self employed in this industry I think it would also be advantageous for me to find some freelance work during the course to give me a clear insight into the fundamentals of business in this sector. To start with it would be more appropriate for me to start offering my services to small independent companies or persons for a very low fee if not free of charge until I have built means of an understanding and reputation on how to conduct myself towards projects and clients.