James Sheriff

The Results Are In...

2007-06-13T15:10:00.000+01:00

Well I received my results this morning and I'm glad to say that I have made it on to the next year. Which is excellent! Good luck to everyone else who also got through.

The main reason I am posting though, is to quash some of the rumours that have been going round. I'm not leaving the course, I will be there next year. I think my last blog title 'So Long, Fairwell...' may have given the wrong impression to people.

So you all next year.

So Long, Fairwell...

2007-05-15T10:16:00.001+01:00

Well a year (academically) is over and looking back, it has been quite a journey. Looking back at my first blog post, the formative statement, I can see how my perceptions have changed over the last few months. When I started the course the only reason I wanted to do it was to get a qualification so it would make it easier for me to get a job. Deep down I think I may have thought that I knew it all, but it has been proven to me time and time again that I really haven't scratched the surface of web design. It's such a fast and evolving industry that you can never really know it all and that's what makes it exciting.

The first project, That's the Plan, was to create a website plan, including screen designs for a great Briton. This was a task that I had never really carried out before but the more work I did on it, the more I could see how useful it is for web designers. I think of it is a self written brief. I enjoyed this assignment and produced some great screen designs for the plan.

Back to Basics followed in the footsteps of That's The Plan. This time though content had to be written for the site. The content part of the assignment was rather large and I underestimated how much work there was generating the content. The assignment after this, Builder, got us to produce a website from the Back to Basics website plan. I found this assignment enjoyable but I did seem to slip in the last few weeks and make some errors that made me not get the grades I could have got.

Picture This was an assignment that involved many smaller projects. The creative side of the assignment was quite interesting while the image compression report showed me that image compression is not as simple as it seems. Some images compress better in GIF than in JPG and vice versa.

The written assignments featured in Picture This I found interesting. Studying the work of Designers Republic and comparing two pieces of work from vector and bitmap forms helped me learn what the differences are between the two.

Another element of Picture This was to create web banners for a Jazz Club. I think that I created some quite good work for this task which can be seen on my blog.

Revert to Type was a project that I very much enjoyed. I've always been a fan of typography since studying it slightly at college. This assignment also contained the much feared (at the time) timed assignments. It was good to do the timed assignments, it was a challenge but it was extremely fun at the same time. I think during those timed assignments, I produced some of my best pieces of work. There was one task, the paint tube design, that just didn't work out for me and I think that is one of my weakest pieces.

The typography unit also featured a presentation in which I had to present my findings about Neville Brody to Steve. I didn't find the fact of presenting difficult unlike a few others, but doing the research was quite difficult. My only fear when doing a presentation is the question part where people could just ask you anything.

Fax of Life was the final major big project. I had to create a corporate identity, create stationery, design and code an online style guide, produce packaging for CD release and make a pre-flight document.

At the beginning, the pressure was on to get all the work that had been set done. At times I didn't think the time I was given was long enough but this seems to be the smoothest project I've ever done. Everything has just flowed together this time. There has been no pressure this time and I think it has helped me produce some good work.

And of course, the year long assignment of the Sketchblog. This has been the big one, 3 sketchbooks and 45 blog posts later and it starts to get worrying. This would be a big assignment to fail really but I think I should have done OK.

I think I have learnt quite a lot over the last year. I think my biggest lesson was learning that it's always best to start off on paper before even sitting at a computer. This lesson really saved my skin in the Fax of Life assignment. I decided on an idea for my CD packaging but when I produced it digitally, I just couldn't get the dark, spooky and mysterious image that I was trying to get across. So I went to a previous idea and that really worked.

I've also learnt myself a few things in self study. This year I produced my first CSS & XHTML site at college and this has helped me out in the workplace as well. I only make sites using CSS & XHTML now and it's a good thing as it is becoming more important to have these skills as a web designer.

I think my creative work has got better over the year but only marginally. I think the big advances have been in things like time planning and using software. This time last year, I'd never used InDesign or PageMaker but now I feel totally confident when using either. Photoshop was another tool that I have learnt more about and I have started using it more at work. I think by next year, I would like to have a higher level of skill in Photoshop as I think I have only mastered the basics.

In the next year I would also like to improve my time planning skills so I can manage work more effectively. I would also like to collect more inspirational work in my sketchbooks as I think this is something I may have neglected slightly this year.

While at college, I also went to work for a start up web design firm and I think with what I've learnt at college and what I learnt at the company has helped me transfer skills both ways. This is something I hope to build on over the summer.

Outside of college I bought a digital SLR and I'm hoping to get my camera out more instead of just sourcing stock photography, yet another skill to add to my creative bag.

Looking back, it has been a good year and I hope the next one is just as enjoyable and knowledgeable.

Next year I plan on making some goals. These are goals that I hope I will be able to achieve in and outside of college.

• I hope to develop my skills in working in a team environment.
• To have a lot better understanding of CSS and XHTML than I currently do.
• To improve my time planning and keeping skills to get me the higher marks in assignments.
• Outside of college I would also like to develop my photography skills so I can bring this into my professional and college work.

CD Artwork...

2007-05-08T15:36:00.000+01:00

Here is my final design for my CD artwork. As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't happy with the badge idea so I've gone with the first idea that I had which was to take some photos of a rather spooky coking plant near where I live. The photo used in the middle pages of the book was taken on a very cold night at the top of Sandal Castle, Wakefield.

Booklet pages 4 & 1

Booklet pages 2 & 3

CD Inlay [outer]

Comments would be much appreciated.

The Penultimate Blog Post...

2007-05-03T16:04:00.000+01:00

Well it was kind of weird when Steve said get on with your penultimate post, and it made me think that there isn't really much time left for this project, or the first year.

On the brightside, I have practically finished my style guide and the corporate ID and I am quite happy with what I have done. I think it does communicate the correct image for Ambient World and it shows its electronic side whilst also being quite vibrant and fresh.

I've explored an idea of a badge similar to the CIA's for my album artwork but I just can't seem to get it right and it's not really going the way I wanted it to. The album is called S.H.A.D.O and its by the Higher Intelligence Agency so you can see where I got the CIA badge theme from. But the badge just doesn't fit in with the music visually. It needs to be a lot darker, spookier and more mysterious. I may go back to one of my other ideas and try and develop that further. I really want to get my camera involved for my cover though so I hope some of photography skills will be displayed when I hand in my final piece.

I've got some ideas of what I would like to do photography-wise. My album title gives me ideas to do something to do with cameras or CCTV due to its dark and mysterious nature. I'm going to do the photography over the weekend so I can get my cover nailed and then get the pre flight document done ready for submission standard.

At the moment there seems to be a lot of work to be done and little time to do it, but I think it's this pressure that sometimes (or all the time in some peoples case) gets you motivated to do the best work you can.

Getting Back Into It...

2007-04-26T16:09:00.000+01:00

Now I'm back into the college way of things I can honestly say that my enthusiasm has increased quite a bit. I noticed it had started to slope off at the end of the last assignment and still felt the same well into the holidays but now its changed. I really can't explain why I did lose it in the first place but I'm certainly glad its come back to me. I think without it then I would have been in trouble.

My biggest concern over the holidays was the style guide. I think I may have underestimated how big it was, but today I have managed to get quite a bit done on it. I will get it up tomorrow for everyone to have a look at so they can tell me what they think. In my feedback group it knocked everyone speechless! I don't know if this was a good or a bad thing.

Another thing worrying me is the pre-flight document. I also reckon that this may be a task which I may underestimate. Having a look at some of the online checklists did scare me a bit but I think if I give it enough time it should be plain sailing.

All my stationery now has a consistent look and feel why I am happy about. At first I did my letter head then went on to designing other pieces such as business cards and found that the original one didn't really transfer well so I decided to use my business card idea and make everything else tie in with it.

Easter...

2007-04-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

Well Easter is over. I can honestly say that my three weeks didn't really pan out the way that I wanted. I really wanted to concentrate on the project over the entire holiday but it hasn't really worked out that way. I had tonsillitus and an increased temperature over the holidays which made me bed ridden for the best part of a week and half. I also missed out on all the good Easter weekend activities.

On the plus side, I think the break has helped me to just step back and over look everything that I have done and everything that I need to do.

I got the HTML Dog book on the recommendation of Steve and Jonny and I 've found it informative the times that I have used it. I use it more as a reference tool rather than reading through it. It does teach you how to do everything the 'proper' way and not hacking and cheating your way through CSS.

Over the holidays I also bought a new digital camera, a Canon 400D so I hope I can bring some of my photography work into my college work instead of relying on royalty free image sites all the time.

I've done my letter heads and business cards and at the moment I just can't decide between these two letterheads...

The background image one & logo sidebar one.

I think the logo sidebar one may be a bit too distracting when actual used as a letter.

Getting The Grades...

2007-03-29T16:13:00.001+01:00

The grades have finally been dished out for the last assignment and I can say that I am quite happy with the merit grade I received for my Revert to Type work. The other assignment however, I only got a pass. Nothing major. The reason I got it however was the fact that my time planning wasn't really up to the standard required. After having a 1-on-1 with John, I can now see the benefits and how it can help improve future projects if it's carried out correctly.

The second reason was also the effort; I think I just let it slide too much near the end for some reason. Maybe it was lack of determination or motivation? I can't really put my finger on what it was but I only have myself to blame. Next time I will try not to let this slip in effort happen again. I also feel that my sketchbook was not really strong enough. Every time I read something whether on the internet, in a book or magazine, I should jot it down in my sketchbook in order to evidence my learning.

My logos are also coming on along nicely. I've stuck with the graphic EQ logo as it had the most interest. I got the idea when I was in the car one day thinking about how many times my mate changes the EQ setting of his CD player when he's driving around in his car. It makes me think how random ideas can just turn into pieces of artwork. It also makes me think that he may crash one day!

I also got a book out of the library called Letterhead & Logo Design 9. It features quite a few examples of work from all over the world. I also wondered how come I'd never seen this book before in the library.

I've decided on a nice clean layout for my online style guide. I did this so it wouldn't distract the user from the information being displayed. Another objective I set myself was to make it easy and fast to use. Having the entire navigation at the top of the page should h opefully make it quick for people to navigate to specific sections.

I may incorporate a nav bar at the bottom of the page to save people scrolling to the top of the page to navigate.

As I mentioned before, I had a 1-on-1 with John on Tuesday and we went through time planning mainly. He also set me the task of finding out how many hours a week I spend doing things. For example sleeping, eating, driving, sleeping, reading, the list goes on. It will be interesting to see what the results will be. I had a 'guesstimate' but I don't think it's going to be right. I can see it being one of those exercises that shock you when you record how many hours you spend a week sat doing nothing.

Return Of The Book Club...

2007-03-26T12:44:00.000+01:00

This weekend, I finally got a book that I've been wanting to get since the London trip. After looking around the very inspirational Alan Fletcher exhibit, I decided to get a book that took him nearly 15 years to write and finish. I can see why when looking through, at a mere 690 pages its quite a read. The Art of Looking Sideways is probably one of the weirdest yet good books I've ever looked at. If you're expecting to see lots of Fletchers vast portfolio then you'd be wrong.

The book is filled to the brim with little stories and anecdotes about things such as ideas, dreams, colour and so on. It can seem totally random at times and the book doesn't have any style consistency to it at all really, but I think that's one of the things that make it an interesting read. You'll find yourself turning the book upside down, at an angle, on its side and any other combination just to read.

I would recommend it to anyone to be honest, it makes you think about design more in a much broader sense.

Vector Fun...

2007-03-22T16:35:00.000Z

It's been a day of vector drawing for me and I've finally got what Freehand is all about. Working with vectors is certainly a lot different to working with bitmaps and stuff. Everything is still totally editable and allows you to change minor things.

It certainly makes a change from working in Photoshop although there were a few annoying things that happened. When moving objects around with the arrow keys, every movement is recorded so if you hold it down for a second or two, it records about 20 movements. This isn't normally a problem but when you forget to select every point in the image, then move it, it distorts it. Then you go to hit Ctrl + Z and it just goes back through each movement. I had to start again due to that. It's more operator error I suppose than computer error.

I'm quite happy with the way my logos are going at the moment, having 4 ready for next weeks presentation should be no problem. I'm quite enjoying designing the logos, it's quite challenging at times. Making sure the golden ratio of logo design is present along with if it looks good painted on the head of a pin. Exploring different ideas with each logo is also good, just slightly changing an element can have a massive effect overall.

A thing that increasingly gets more worrying as time goes on is the Sketchblog task. Is it too far to claw back now? It's something that I am trying to improve and I came across a website which shows the progression of an idea into an actual piece of work. It was something I found interesting and it would be interesting to look back in my own sketchbook to see how I actually got there.

Starting Again...

2007-03-15T16:20:00.000Z

The previous assignment is in and the new one has begun.

This is the last and final project of year one so it has to be a good one. I am quite pleased with the assignment as it mixes elements of print and web design. When looking through the 7 paged assignment, it didn't seem that bad to be honest and I thought it would give me plenty of time to play around with the design.

Once I had created my 'master plan' for the next 10 weeks, it dawned that this task to me is huge. Very big indeed, a logo needs to be produced, once that's done it has to be put on letter heads, business cards, press release forms and email signatures. After that I need to design a front cover for a CD, a four page book and a back cover. A pre flight document then has to be created to hand in to a printer. This then needs to be followed up with a style guide, done as a website.

From what some people have said, they think there isn't much to do but I can see the monumental amount of work that will go into this one. I can say that I am looking forward to the whole creative side of things and simply can't wait to start knocking out some logos and letter heads.

The style guide is going to be quite a meaty part of the project. I had a quick Google and found Apple Computer's writing style guide which is a shocking 200 page long document explaining how to not use the word 'abort' for some reason. This is obviously a different style guide from what we will be producing but it still shares elements.

The CD cover should also be a challenge, it's something I've never really done before so this is something that will be quite an eye opener.

Overall, I'm looking forward to it all, it's a chance to really prove myself.

Marc Bowers also came in this week and gave an insight into his role at Real Radio. It was good to hear how Real Radio also use the internet as a marketing medium even though they are a radio station. It was very interesting. Thanks for coming in Marc.

Maybe more and more companies are going to start hiring web designers to boost business online instead of just out sourcing things. I know Auto Trader do something similar with used car dealers, they pay so much each month and Auto Trader will set the dealer a website up and charge maintenance. Looking at the Auto Trader designed dealer websites you can see that not a lot of money or time went into them and some simply look terrible.

It sometimes does my head in how people can churn out rubbish websites and get paid quite handsomely for it. It makes me wonder if I just try too hard sometimes to get things right when I could just use a Dreamweaver template. But I think that's what separates designers from these other so called designers.

I am also quite eager to find out what grades I've got for the last assignments. This is the first time we've started an assignment without a convenient break for Steve to mark them in. Hopefully I won't refer.

The War is Over and the Battle is Won...

2007-03-08T16:38:00.000Z

This unit seems like it's been going on that long now that I've forgot whats been happening at the start! The timed tasks, the presentation, the final timed piece. It seems like I've gone through a lot of work over the past eight week.

When I've been looking through the previous timed assignments, I can see that I have clearly improved since the first one. The quality just seems to have got better and better as the more I go on. It does prove that practice makes perfect. When asked to decide which piece of work that I wanted to drop, I immediately went with the paint tube one. I just wasn't happy at all with what I produced for that task. I couldn't get anything the way I wanted it to and struggled with the small scale. Designing for something small is a very hard task. You have to get everything readable which is hard to do when the entire label is only an inch or so. This is a problem that you are meant to solve as a designer but I just couldn't do it in the alloted time.

The presentation was finally performed today. To be honest, I was rather worried about the whole ordeal. I started doubting myself. Have I done enough research? What if... etc etc etc. When I arrived at the room and Steve shouted me, I felt a bit calmer, as soon as he said "It's warm isn't?" I felt a lot more relaxed. I think I was expecting Steve to be quite hard faced during the presentation for some reason. Luckily, I had been revising typography before I went into the presentation and I could answer most questions about counters, apexes, cross strokes and ligatures without stumbling too much.

The last timed task which was done on Typographical elements went better than I expected. I did feel that half way through that I really hadn't got much done but as soon as the pressure built up I kept on going. I couldn't get my grid right for my layout, I could have quite easily spent 2 hours doing that. Once it was done though, I stormed through the other pages. I managed to get four complete pages done at the end.

Time planning was different this time around, the only thing we could really plan was our presentation research. The timed tasks were completely random so a couple of minutes needed to be spent during the start. This is something I did on some tasks and not on others. I wish I had done it on them all because I know that I may have spent way too much time on a task that should only take a few minutes.

This was definetly one of my favourite units so far of the course, I feel that I have been a fan of typography for a while now without really knowing it but I feel that I'm a fully fledged fan.

I can honestly say though that I am quite relieved it's all over. I did enjoy the unit, especially the timed tasks. I would maybe like to do a similar sort of unit that involves timed tasks again but hopefully one without a presentation at the end.

Dry Run...

2007-03-05T10:40:00.000Z

Well this week was different due to having Thursday split into massive presentation practice sessions. Me, Jamie and Craig went through our presentations and it allowed me to look at what other people were doing and also Steve thought about each of our presentations.

I went through mine and finished it on 3 minutes and 40 seconds, leaving over a minute for questions. This was something I was scared of doing as I thought I would have gone over the 5 minutes due to having 13 slides!

Another aspect of the presentation is dealing with tricky questions. Steve threw one in at the end of my presentation and asked "What's Neville Brody's middle name?" I recalled that I had never seen it anywhere and simply said he didn't have one. Handling tricky questions is also important.

On the website front, I have finished it and it validates as XHTML Transitional. Fortunatly I didn't have as much as Craig did at getting there! I've also started writing my evaluation for that assignment and I can think of quite a bit to put in it.

The talk which we had from Jonny Haynes was also very interesting and gave an insight into the company he works for. He also gave me plenty of links to useful websites such as http://www.alvit.de/handbook/ If you read this Jonny, thanks for coming in! It was very interesting.

I am looking forward to the new assignment as it will be something new and fresh to do.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words...

2007-02-25T20:50:00.000Z

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I have added the pictures to my site. It didn't have them during testing so all you got were placeholders. Take a look. Comments appreciated.

Mid Holiday...

2007-02-24T11:40:00.000Z

It has certainly been a busy week for me and I seem to be more behind than I initially thought at the beginning of the week. Presentations are only around the corner and it seems to have caught up very fast.

I have been enjoying doing the presentations though. The research is interesting and doing all the little typographical alignments in InDesign is good fun. I'm glad that we are able to have a practice on Thursday as this is going to point out any massive errors before the big day.

Timing is something I'm having problems with when designing slides and writing cue cards. It's hard to get right without actually saying it out loud and timing it. I was once told in Media at college that a newsreaders pace is generally around 3 words per second. So that can be upto 180 words a minute.

I've found looking back at my notes in my previous sketchbook to be very helpful with the presentations. All those tips and tricks that Steve mentioned in a lecture are all there and ready to look back at. It made me realise that your sketchbook really is a valuable tool and I've also started to use one for freelance work, that one is rather bare though at the minute!

User Testing

2007-02-15T16:32:00.000Z

This week was certainly different. The user testing session was quite intense but allowed people to comment on what I had achieved so far. After looking through what people had written and commented I found that maybe the questions I asked were not good enough. Three out of the twelve questions were answered with simple yes or no answers which left me with not much feedback. Quite disappointing really as I missed out on some valuable testing time. The results however, look good on paper and make me look like I'm doing nothing wrong.

The feedback I did gather however has helped me improve things that were wrong with the site. For example people commented that the navigation needs spacing out more and so on.

This weeks task bombs were also something I enjoyed. The first one involved a grid layout and masthead design. I knew that there would a task which would involve filling it with content and there was, straight after. I enjoy these tasks very much and it should hopefully give us a taste of what it will be like in the workplace. I managed to get both these tasks done with a few minutes to spare this week. In the past I have been at the last minute or so and the pressure does set in.

I'm also doing well on my presentation, something I haven't mentioned much in my blog. I find it hard to concentrate on just typography, especially since Brody has done a lot of graphic design work. Also his fonts are not the best to use for body text and can only be described as display fonts.

Gardener...

2007-02-08T16:00:00.000Z

Well I can see this being an interesting post this week from everyone. Being asked to pigeon hole yourself into one of nine categories is a hard task. But from looking at the list I would say I was something between a plant and a coordinator, hence the blog title.

If I had to take a specific role I would say that I'd most enjoy being a plant. Being creative and part of the design process would be my goal. I think that a coordinator would be someone that would be ideal in a project manager position but being in that position means you don't really get your hands dirty in the design process. This is something I would greatly miss.

I think the project manager has to have the respect of the group and this respect could be earned through their design work. This is like a double edged sword - you don't want someone who has a natural flair for design being the project manager as it is wasted talent for the team.

I can say that I am looking forward to working in a team in the second year and I can imagine that it will be a good change from working by yourself all the time. I can also see it as being quite a challenge. There's nothing more frustrating than people who don't pull their weight in a team. So I hope that I get put with people who are hard working.

I've worked in teams before. Well in a fashion. I've done commercial projects where I've had to work with people who specialize in things such as programming and coding. I was sort of the project manager for the project but I feel that I didn't have the power that I deserved. The budget and payment for the project was taken care of by my manager and the programmer was set on by him as well. It just made me feel like I wasn't in total control of the whole thing.

At first it wasn't bad working with the guy. He knew his stuff, had an impressive portfolio and talked the talk. At times though, there would be problems, and contacting the guy was a nightmare. It seemed that once the project was completed then it was 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Overall it was still a team experience and I am looking forward to doing this in the second year. I hope I am in a team with a (I use this term loosly) senior member as I think their experience will greatly improve the team dynamic.

Design Centre North...

2007-02-04T16:41:00.000Z

I went to Design Centre North (in Barnsley) on Friday and had a quick scoot around. The current exhibit is Housey Housey which showcases plans for housing.

The next exhibit is going to be Design Mart which is meant to be the best designs of the up and coming talent and was also shown at the Design Museum in London.

http://www.designcentrenorth.com/

Blown To Bits...

2007-02-01T21:07:00.000Z

I think this week has been so monumental that it deserves a blog post for each day. It was the morning after the night before. After interrogating Steve on the train on the way to London and on the way back he told me that there would be no Task Bombing on Thursday.

Imagine my surprise when I came back from break and was faced with a timed assignment. The task was to create a copy of a design on the projector. It was more of a test of competency in PageMaker/InDesign than a design exercise. A warm up. It was testing to me at the start and I managed to figure out how to do things that I've never tried to do in InDesign before. I was only whiskers away from handing the piece in but just missed out on the time limit. Thankfully, that was only a warm up.

The second piece I enjoyed doing the most. It allowed me to get creative. I also think that my development work was an improvement on past projects with rough thumbnails going through to printed cock ups then the final piece.

Just when I thought it was all over, after dinner the big one came along. It had a brief this time. A properly designed one by Steve. This worried me a bit as the first two didn't. The paint tube packaging started off good for me. I got some ideas together in my sketchbook then started to design the label in InDesign. I got to the point where I was happy with the design, the colour, the positioning of everything. I then printed it out and found it to be totally unreadable due to it being so small. I had to change the fonts round and make everything bigger. It got to the point where I only had a minute left and I just managed to get it in. I was a bit disapointed that I'd made such a glaring mistake and not tested it by printing it out earlier. You learn from your mistakes though so I will know next time.

London...

2007-02-01T16:37:00.000Z

I think this week has been so monumental that it deserves a blog post for each day. I'll start with London. It was certainly an experience even though I have been before. Arriving at the Tate Modern to find that it was closed was a bit of a let down. But then again I've been before and I'm not really an arty person to be honest. I did have a mill around though and had a look at the giant slides. Probably the best thing I did there was look in the book shop. I couldn't believe how many different kinds of books about design there was. There was even books about graffiti on freight trains. Quite a niche market to target a book at.

After that, me, Scott and Craig decided to do one and go on a mission to the Design Museum. I was a bit apprehensive about going. I'd been before and didn't enjoy it. We aimlessly wandered around the streets of London and Scott would occassionally ask someone where to go. We finally got there and went straight into the Alan Fletcher exhibit - and no it wasn't that bloke off Neighbours. If you've never heard of Fletcher before (I hadn't) he was quite a successful graphic designer in his time. Some of his most famous work was the logo for Reuters News Network, Pirelli Tires and an album cover for Yes. I feel I really benefitted from this trip to the Design Museum as Fletchers work was quite varied. He was a typographer, artist, sculptor as well as a graphic designer. He designed quite a few letter heads and business cards for various companies along with brochures, posters and calendars. He also wrote a graphic design book titled called 'The Art Of Looking Sideways' and it took him 18 years to finish.

I'm glad that I did visit the Design Museum this time around and I throughly enjoyed it. It's even given me a hunger to go and visit other design exhibits as it is certainly good inspiration for when you have to design something.

After that, we spent a good half an hour looking in the Design Museum shop at books that were ultra desirable yet very expensive. Once we had finished browsing it had become apparent to us all that maybe we hadn't planned our time very well. We had two hours left before having to meet in Leceister Square which meant we couldn't go visit the computer game exhibit at the Science Museum.

I enjoyed the trip very much even though we only got to squeeze one gallery/museum in this time but hopefully Steve will take us again sometime?

Strict and Transitional...

2007-01-25T13:50:00.000Z

As Craig will know (and be sick of hearing about) I made my first webpage on Wednesday using only HTML and CSS. No tables or anything. This is the first time I've done this and I'm quite chuffed with myself. The pages even validate as Strict and Transitional XHTML. Some of you may not know what that means but I don't much really either! My CSS also validates as well. The reason I have done it this way is not to show off or anything, but to push myself that little bit further. It's also a goal that I need to follow as well from Back to Basics.

You can view my first page here. It's only the first page so the links point to pages that don't exist. It's a very much 'work-in-progress' at the moment so go easy with the criticism. I would like to know peoples views on the text size of the white text in the menu bar. It looks a bit small when looking at home on my Mac but I would like to know what all you PC users think. Also if anyone has (the dreaded) IE 7 installed, please let me know if it looks OK in that browser.

I was relieved today to find out that there was not a 'task-bomb' waiting to be detonated when we got in. I do look forward to the challege but as Scott said, 'I prefer to have an inkling of what the topic is...' which I totally agree with. Maybe one TB® (task-bomb) is to create a newspaper front page. This is from what Steve said earlier today about remembering what we were being told about the elements. Now I've said that then it probably won't.

The typeography task is something that I am enjoying and it's a part of design that I favour over most. I wouldn't say that I am someone with the patience to create an entire font from scratch though but I do like the idea of creating layouts with just type. I am also grateful to get Neville Brody as my topic for the presentation as he has done quite alot of work in the typeography side of things and it seems that people studying other designers seem to keep coming across Brody in connection with FUSE and so on.

Goal...

2007-01-25T13:00:00.000Z

• Adhere to the Plain English Campaigns guidelines for making writing readable to the masses.
• Use CSS version 2.1 complient coding for layout and text formatting.
• Contsruct pages that can be validated as XHTML 1.0 Transitional to improve accessibility.
• Construct pages smaller than 50kb.

I thought I would post my assignment goals for the Builder project here so I can try and make sure that I meet them. Hopefully the first was met in the content phase of the last assignment. I have used CSS for text formatting and also layout. Pages have been constructed in XHTML 1.0 Transitional and validate, they also validate in Strict. My pages are also below the 50kb limit so far but I've only done one.

Hopefully I'm on track to meet all my goals but with only page done, it's hard to say if I will.

False Start...

2007-01-18T21:28:00.000Z

This week has been a bad start for me. I couldn’t make it in due to the illness given. I was pretty disappointed as I was really looking forward to getting back. Yes, you read that right. I was looking forward to getting back. I could finally start my assignments, which would give me something to do when not at college.

I have had chance to look over the assignments though and I’m really looking forward to next Wednesday.

The Builder project is something that I can really see myself excelling at. Hopefully. Having experience in designing websites should hopefully give me an advantage. It may allow me to help other people that are struggling.

Looking over the Revert to Type project it looks like the one that is scariest this time. Having work just sprung upon you when you least expect it is going to be quite challenging and hopefully quite fun as well.

Having to do a presentation is something that I can see scaring some people again this time. Hopefully I will do as well as last time. Five minutes doesn’t seem a long time on paper but I can imagine it to be a lifetime stood in front of an audience. I’m glad I have got Neville Brody as he was probably one of the only few that I had heard of before. I was surprised to see that David Carson was not included on the list.

Overall I’m looking forward to get back into it and get back into college life.

Looking Ahead...

2006-12-31T01:24:00.000Z

Well Christmas is over and I'm well into the New Year. From the Thursday we broke up from college I've been a busy boy. I had to coordinate a Christmas Message from the Arctic Monkeys which happened via video at YouTube.

Since that has happened though I've been doing nothing much really. Infact, I'm quite bored at the minute and I can't wait to go back to college to start on the new projects. With so much time off though it allows me to start somethings early such as time planning and also having a go at starting to make my website. This should then give me a head start and stop me from getting that feeling of being behind again like I had in other projects.

(Happy Christmas) War Is Over...

2006-12-21T11:21:00.000Z

Looking back over the year it has been something of a rollercoaster ride. Already half way through the year and it seems like only a second ago when I started the course.

Having done three major assignments was something that has come very quickly as well. I'm glad the way it has gone though. When starting the course I expected it to be a lot of theory and practical work before starting any sort of assignments. Instead we were thrust straight into it and I can see this as being good in the long run.

The first project, a website plan, was good and I could really see this being something that will help me out in my career. This is something I had started doing myself in a freelance position but not in as much detail or the same way.

Doing the second website plan also showed me the fact that doing something again from scratch usually yields better work. I hope it's better work anyway.

The high points of the course so far has the fellow students, who all seem to get along. The lectures have also been very informative. Another high point was the banner designs for me. I found them rather calming during the madness that was the Back to Basics assignment.

Some low points were, having to do the image compression report. I found the gathering of data a bit repetitive but looking back it was only one afternoon of work and once it was done, it was done. Not really a low point then.

Well looking back over the last semester at Wakefield College it has certainly been a highlight in my academic life. This is the first time from leaving school where I have felt totally involved with the learning. At college and university it seemed distant at times, that you were not fully part of the plan. Almost like being in a cattle market where the colleges and universities seem to be more interested in pound signs instead of education.

Anyway, enough bitching about universities for this post. The last semester has certainly been an eye opener for me. Being already a self-described ‘freelance webdesigner’ I’ve found much of the course very informative. I thought I knew quite a bit about web design – and I still do now but I feel I have learnt a lot. I can see this helping immensely in my career as a web designer.

Jingle Bells...

2006-12-14T16:12:00.001Z

This has been a very, very busy week for me at college and work. With deadlines looming on both projects and work the pressure is really starting to build. At work, the ticket pre-sales are all going wrong which just adds more stress to the situation. Today I've mostly felt sick to my stomach with all whats going off. This must be what pressure feels like!

I feel that I'm not behind but on the other hand I feel that I have lots and lots to do before next week. Looking back through my work I'm seeing glaring errors where I have missed references out and have to go back and change all the other references.

Getting my screen designs has took a great weight off my mind as last time I found this to be one of the most fiddly and time consuming parts. Getting all the measurements in correctly and making sure everything is noted certainly does make the time fly by.

Hopefully my screen designs will please and hopefully someone will offer some constructive criticism on them.

Looking back over the project I wish I had have planned things better. Not nessecarily the time but rather the work. I think next time I'm going to get one thing completely done before moving on the next as this often leaves me with semi completed bits of work that may only need a few tweaks - but takes hours when you have to do on a lot of things.

Having two projects means having better time planning also. Sometimes I think one project takes a backseat while you pour your heart into another. This obviously leaves one suffering which isn't a good thing. This is something I need to consider next. The first project wasn't as bad as the sketchblog assignment went hand in hand with the rest of the work.

Overall, a very stressful week. This has certainly make my heart pound a bit and I will be glad when its Christmas, and it's all over. I can't wait to see Father Christmas either.

Menu Design...

2006-12-13T20:37:00.000Z

Well I seem to be blogging more than ever and this must be the 5th post this week! Anyway, I have done a screen design which features a rather strange menu bar at the top and I would like to know what you all think?

Unfortunately its a screenshot due to PageMakers inability to export it in any other format. I seem to have got on top of a lot of things tonight that were grinding away in the back of my mind and I feel a lot better about it now. Roll on tomorrow.

Screen Designs...

2006-12-12T15:14:00.000Z

Here is one of my pages for my screen designs. What does everyone think?

Had a rather busy week and I can really feel the pressure now. Especially due to my work commitments that have also been rather busy.

Hopefully I'll get through it OK!

Square...

2006-12-07T20:38:00.000Z

These are my square adverts. They're both very similar apart from the contrasting white background on the first image. I've hand tinted the jewelry on both images so it is consistant between the other adverts. Again, comments appreciated.

Sky Scrapers...

2006-12-07T20:25:00.002Z

Here are my skyscrapers that I have done so far. I've tried two approaches. The first image uses a black and white photo of Tina May and the lips and eyes have been hand tinted to make them stand out.

The second image is the same but with a colour photo used. The lips and eyes are hand tinted.

Comments would be appreciated.

Thirty Seconds Is Obviously Too Long...

2006-12-07T20:00:00.000Z

...Was something I was expecting Steve to say after todays timed thumbnails. Drawing thumbnail after thumbnail against the clock was certainly eye opening this morning. Getting all those ideas down in the time limit was challenging but I managed to keep up. Although I did keep up, I thought that the ideas I were getting down were not the best of quality. I think exercises like this do help you improve becuase when I get to the work place exmployers will expect us to be creative on demand. If they say jump you will answer 'how high?'.

I have enjoyed the banner design task and I find it quite relaxing to do in the run up to deadline week. I feel it gives a much needed breather. It's all good practice and it's another one of those things that make Steve smile when we're all trying to find out what the day will have in store.

In Back to Basics I feel massively behind in the project for some reason. I know for a fact that I'm in front of some people and I'm putting the work in at home - but I can't seem to shake the feeling. It's maybe due to not having everything in PageMaker yet. Well I have, but not fully referenced. This is something I'm going to get done over the weekend along with my screen designs and image sourcing and photo restoration and... The list goes on. Hopefully I will get on top of it this week. Next time I think I'm going to plan my project so that I do alot more work to do in the first weeks so I'm not "towin mi bag art".

In the feedback groups I was told by Steve that I would have to start my restoration project again. I was a bit disapointed but I could see the errors of my ways and I believe the second go will be a lot quicker than the first attempt. Hopefully if I get my banners out of the way it will give me more time to get the photo done.

Book Club...

2006-12-02T14:41:00.000Z

I finally got around to ordering the Color Index book over the weekend and while looking for it I came accross a box set of books by Jim Krause. It included the Color Index along with Ideas Index and Layout Index.

I ordered the lot and I've found them all to be quite useful. Although I do feel that the layouts for websites do seem a bit dated, but they still offer inspiration. Maybe next time I should check the year of publishing before I commit to buying something design orientated as I should imagine books like this quickly go out of fashion (yes I know that good design never goes out of fashion). It does feature layout for print and advertising also and I can see it something that will come in handy when we have to do our banner designs.

The ideas book is also quite interesting and one that I would definetly recommend to people who suffer from 'designers block' from time to time. It lists things to try out in order to create certain effects or moods. It lists things to try out and while not telling you exactly what to do - which I think is a good thing - it does give your brain a kick start and makes you think out of the box a little.

Another book I bought due to its interesting title was How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul. It's aimed primarily at graphic designers but I believe that a lot of points transfer accross. It features a chapter purely about clients and how to please them. Maybe worth a read to find out how to please our biggest client... Steve!

Attack Of The Cloning... Tool...

2006-11-30T16:44:00.000Z

This week has been different from others. It's had a more relaxed vibe which was kind of weird. Wednesday started off with a lecture on typography which I enjoyed. After all type is an essential part of design normally as it communicates with the audience.

Although I had done about type before I still found it quite interesting, I remember studying David Carson at college who was famous for his typographic pieces. I like the different uses of type and how they really effect design. I am a serif type fan at the moment as you can see from my blog but using the right font for the right job is the key.

I started my content on the Wednesday much to Steve's disapproval, this was something I hadn't really started but I had done other things such as my budget statement and also started on my designs. At this point I felt like I was falling behind even though I really wasn't. I got the terms done in my sketchbook but didn't get them all down in the Word processor much again to Steve's disappointment when handed in. I can understand this though as the content is a major part of the unit and if it's just pushed to one side and done at the last minute then it will suffer. I don't think I realised how important the actual content is to this unit. Next time I need to get content done as a priority instead of focusing on the website plan itself.

The Photoshop project was an anti climax for me to be honest. I liked the idea at first but after doing an entire day on one document I kind of got sick and tired of the three men posing with their trophy. It makes me feel frustrated as it takes ages to get all the specs out and I just want to have a go at colouring them in and getting it done. I found it quite time consuming and it is certainly a skill I need to practice. I should imagine that you do get quicker the more you do it as last years, second years did it in two hours to a quite decent standard. Then again Photoshop is not my strong point. I have used it before but not to do image restoration.

Another keypoint this week was the talk of personal study and how long people spend doing it. I can say honestly that I do quite a bit at home and it's something I seem to do all the time, even if it's not hardcore work. Even if it's just looking at the latest fancy website or looking through the latest issue of .net. Then again I wouldn't say it was 16 hours of work a week, maybe an hour and half a day or something.

Overall, a good week. With the start of more creative work I'm really starting to enjoy the course a lot more. It's starting to feel more about the design now as opposed to the theory and I'm liking the challenge. The banner design project is something I'm going to look forward to as it will again, allow me to get creative.

A Quick Post...

2006-11-26T13:56:00.000Z

Here is the Purple handout if anyone can't bear to wait while we're back in on Wednesday.

Saved as a PDF so it's only a small file.

I've also been tweaking my blog by adding a header image and also making the blogger toolbar invisible when not in use. It is still there though and when you hover over it, it will appear again.

To do it, all you have to do is edit your template and input this code after /* Use this with templates...*/ so it looks like this...

/* Use this with templates/template-twocol.html */

#navbar-iframe{opacity:0.0;filter:alpha(Opacity=0)}
#navbar-iframe:hover{opacity:1.0;filter:alpha(Opacity=100, FinishedOpacity=100)}

Then hopefully it should work like mine does. The second line of the CSS tells the browser to make the navbar iFrame go invisible, the second line makes the bar come back when on hover. You can actually delete the second line and it will remain invisible at all times. I do find it handy though so I've decided to keep it.

Purple Monkey Dishwasher...

2006-11-24T21:57:00.001Z

Maybe not the best blog title to describe the week but it does contain the word purple.

This was the week that really set the men from the boys. I got in college for the usual time, sat down, talked to Steve and so on. Then when 9 o'clock struck, Steve turned on the projector to reveal todays topic... Presentations. Now to me, I thought it was a bit odd why Steve had not had the projector on. He usually does on a morning so maybe he was trying to surprise us a bit?

After taking all the notes down and so on, it never occurred to me that Steves usual method of testing what we learnt is to make us do it. It was a total surprise. Especially when the topic was revealed. Purple. What can be said about purple and how can you make it last 3 minutes in a presentation? By this time though, all that was going through my mind was dread. I hated getting up in front of people and talking. I can honestly say that it's one of the only things that makes me shake in my boots.

I remember having to do them at work and at university and there's nothing worse than the deafening silence of when you forget what to say in front of a room full of quiet people, hanging on to your every word.

Being honest, I really wasn't looking forward to this task. I really couldn't be bothered with having to go through all this on a Wednesday. When I started working, my enthusiasm came through and I started to enjoy the creative side to it such as the slides and the handout. I'm glad that I got to flex my creative muscle whilst doing this, something which I feel a lot of students missed out on.

Luckily we did get to pair up to do the research. I was put with Dean, a self described mature student. I speak to Dean quite a lot in the group and find what he says to be usually quite interesting. Working with Dean was brilliant due to the fact that Dean (I hope you don't mind me saying this) is from a different generation to what I am and he comes up with ideas that I would have never dreamt of. I should imagine that I hopefully think of things that he tends not to as well.

Me and Dean decided not to use any words at all on the slides apart from the title and I would love to know what everyone thinks of this. If I would have been doing the same thing on my own I would have gone with a more text based look but it does prove that in any situation, two heads are better than one.

I think we did work together really well and I think it's something that, hopefully, Steve and Diane would have noticed.

When the preparation was done, we were all sent out of the room to practice. This was something I was a bit worried about. There wasn't really anywhere in the college where you could practice in private without anyone looking. The library was too quiet and the canteen was too noisy. We did end up in the canteen though in the end and I felt a bit nervous when having to practice in front of Dean. I thought if I get nervous when practicing in front of Dean then I'm going to be a wreck when I'm up in front of Steve and Diane. The more I practiced though the easier it became. Dean thought I was a natural although I didn't think so myself. I also had the gung ho attitude that I was going to 'wing it' to give it a more conversational approach much to Deans amusement.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I was finally given the the nod to go up and do my thing. Surprisingly I wasn't scared, or that nervous to be honest. I felt quite calm about the whole thing. Maybe it was the stimulation of the purple kicking in or something but the nervousness was still there.

Once I'd got the slides sorted, I started - much to Steve and Diane's shock. I was told that I was quite good at projecting my voice. Maybe this was a way of saying I was shouting, although I don't think it was. Once I started talking though, it became easier until when I went to click next slide on the computer and an error came up. I must say, it threw me quite a bit and made me feel quite panicky. Once I got rid of it though I was back on track. I think the next time I do a presentation, if possible, I would run through the slides on the projector before hand just to see if everything worked as it should.

When in full flow again "Stop!" was shouted. I had gone over my three minutes. This was something I didn't even think about when I started at all. I was at the very last hurdle. I was gutted to be honest because I thought that I would have to do it again. Diane did ask Steve if I continued so I did, and finished the presentation.

Much to my relief, I was told that I was fine and it was like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I feel though that I read a little too much from the cue cards and lost some all important eye contact. I wanted to go for a more conversational approach and I feel that the next time I do a presentation that I should do it with keywords instead of key sentences as I found it too distracting.

Practice, practice and practice are the only ways to improve my presentational skills. I think a full blown rehearsal stood in front of a projector would be better for the next time. Sitting in a noisy canteen with constant distractions isn't the best way to learn.

Overall, a very good task. Something I believe that we all will need in the workplace. Communicating ideas is something a lot of people forget about when signing up to a creative course, I know I certainly did, but I think that whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Am I Doing It Right...?

2006-11-19T19:09:00.000Z

Due to Steve's latest email, it's made me take a look at my blog and think if I'm using it right.

I know from previous experience that I have trouble writing in an evaluative way. It was mentioned by Steve when I had my feedback meeting for my project. It's something I keep trying to improve and since it was mentioned, I hope that I have improved.

I have been using the cycle from my sketchbook and it does help. I often forget to mention how to do things better the next time and so on.

When Steve sends out these emails to us all, it makes me feel guilty. I'm sure it does to others. "Is it me he's talking about?" type of questions pop into your head. After all, some peoples blogs must be spot on, but I'm sure they get slightly worried as well.

It would be nice to have some formal sort of feedback with Steve regarding our blogging and also sketchbooks just to check that we're on track as the assignment spans such a long time.

Compressed Colour...

2006-11-16T16:47:00.000Z

This week we had another lecture on colour. This lecture focused on the colour wheel introduced by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666 and at the start I thought that this was going to be a bit dull as I can remember doing all this at school. It started out like I was at school but it went into it with a lot more detail which I found useful. I can see this really making a difference as when you get stuck picking a colour, it may help you pick one that complements or contrasts with it.

The image compression lecture was useful and it was good to learn how the different image compressions worked. To me it seems so primitive how images work as each pixel is represented by a colour but I know that without this that image quality would be very poor.

The compression report is something that I'm really not enjoying at the moment and I find it quite boring to be honest. Although I see the helpful side to it I think we could have done something more constructive with image compression. Saying that, I am through the worst of it and I have all the data set out in a spreadsheet so I all I have to do is write the evaluation about my findings which I find a lot more interesting than compressing images all afternoon.

Overall I think this week has been good, even though I had the compression report. I would have liked to have done a bit more work at home before coming back but it was my birthday over the weekend and found it a bit difficult to fit it all in. I will hopefully catch up over this weekend and get some much needed inspiration and work put into my sketchbook.

Theory...

2006-11-09T16:24:00.000Z

This week has had alot of theory. We've had the C.R.A.P. (contrast, repitition, alignment and proximity) and colour space lectures along with a talk on image formats. I have enjoyed it this week and found the lectures to be quite informative. It feels like we're really starting to get into the industry side of things I can see this as being actually quite useful in the big daunting workplace.

I found the lecture on image formats to be quite easy but there were somethings such as bit depth which I'd never really heard of. I also learnt that DPI (dots per inch) reffered to pixels per linear inch and not square inch which was what I always thought but then thinking about it seems so obvious.

The exercise on Wednesday morning where we had to create 12 business card designs in half an hour was good. I liked the fact we were given the brief to do that in such a short amount of time and it really makes you aware of what you can do when you put your mind to it. It was also a chance to show creativity and it was good seeing what other people had done. I'm always interested in what other people do as I believe it helps you to understand them more in some way. It gives you clues about certain personality traits that you wouldn't normally find out by just talking to them. I'm also nosey so this is probably the underlying reason!

This week I also started the TDR assignment and found that I went off tangent at times reading about Damien Hirst and his 'Mother and Child Divided' art piece. I also found myself distracted with the age old debate of design vs. art and I can only conclude that there is simply no right or wrong answer to this, it's just a test to see if we can write a valid and balanced argument of the topic. After all, as a web designer, should I be more biased towards design, or simply provide a balanced argument?

I'm starting to look at the TDR in a different way than before, I used to sort of like the things that they did but I'm getting a bit tired of the style of work they produce. It seems a bit dated to me now and they're lack of new work on their website leads me to believe that they're maybe trying something new. For example, the Supergrass album cover is a very minimalist design compared to their more usual 'busy' style.

Brand New...

2006-11-06T17:18:00.000Z

Well it's brand new assignment time. It's a great sigh of relief because if I'm starting the next ones, it means I can finally put A2 to bed. That's one assignment done.

I was eager to find out how I had done in my assignment and stayed behind on Wednesday to get the low down from Steve. I was happy with the pass grade but there were some things I wasn't happy about. For a start I didn't manage to meet any of the criteria for the merit sections but managed to get 1 in the distinction area.

I should have been happy with that but to me it's like a false economy. It teaches me that next time I will have to aim on getting everything upto scratch.

Steve also mentioned that my evaluative writing is not upto scratch which is a totally fair comment. I find it hard to write evaluations without falling in the trap of being too descriptive rather than evaluative.

Planning is also something I need to improve for the new assignments. I've decided to go about it a different way this time. Using Google calendar, I will post my time planning on my blog as it should help me keep track wherever I am.

Hopefully this will help me to plan better and hopefully encourage it more.

The 'Picture This' assignment is something I am looking forward to as it incorporates writing as well as creative work.

I'm feeling positive about the work that's coming up over the next few weeks.

The Break...

2006-10-28T22:09:00.000+01:00

Well I have enjoyed my week off, got round to doing loads of stuff that I have been wanting to do for some time.

This weeks gave me chance to think about the work we've done over the last few months. From what all my other mates at university and colleges have said, I seem to have done alot more work than they have.

Some of them haven't fully settled in yet and are still on the nice easy induction that they have for their course. Yet I have handed in an assignment that will effect my overall grade.

Looking back at the last term, it has been different from the 1st half term/semester than I've had at other universities and colleges.

Having to learn software just so we can hand an assignment in is also something I've never done before. Most submissions I've done before have just been handed in printed from a word processor such as Microsoft Word. Although I'm not complaining about this, I found PageMaker to be a good piece of software.

Getting my written work done seemed to take a lot longer than I thought it would and I put a lot of time into getting the layout, references and images right. Putting references into the PageMaker document was tedious if you wanted to add one before one that was already there, as you would need to change all the numbering all way through. It does give it that edge though when you look back through it. It makes you feel like you've handed in much more than an assignment.

Time planning is also something I've had a problem with. I find it extremely hard to plan things. For a start, I never know when I will be doing college work outside of college. The other thing is, I haven't got a clue how long certain things would take.

For example Craig mentions in his blog how it took him a lot longer than expected just to design some labels for his work. This is something I will have to improve on for the next project. Maybe I could use a different method or something?

The lectures provided by Steve and other staff such as John and Helen have always been relevant to the course, something that is not always done on other courses.

I'm glad its been a sort of 'hit-the-ground-running' instead of being gently eased in as it stops you from becoming lazy in the first part of the course.

I feel sorry for my mates for when it comes to submission time as they've been eased in that gently that it will come as a real shock to them.

Zero Hour...

2006-10-19T15:25:00.000+01:00

Well this is it. The assignment was handed in at 10:21 am Thursday morning. Everything was hopefully up to scratch for Steve. I believe I got everything done that needed doing and that I will at least pass!

The night before the Wednesday, I was worried that I wouldn't get everything done. It seemed like I had lots to do but I couldn't start for some reason. On the Wednesday I had a puncture on my car and had to change that, luckily I wasn't late. Once there, I managed to get everything finished that I could in the lesson, I finished my Evaluation, printed my work out, and managed to get both labels done. This took a big weight off my shoulders, all that was left for me to do was to put it all into my folder.

Overall I think the project went well but its just the suspense now of what grade I get. This is something I will try not to worry too much about but it would be nice for Steve to email us all with the grades (wink wink).

Unfortunatly I couldn't meet up for a drink as the new Arctic Monkeys site went live the night before and the teething problems had to be fixed - and some still need to be fixed for that matter.

I'm glad that I've got two major projects out the way now as its a great feeling to relax for half term and just generally chill out.

The Calm Before The Deadline...

2006-10-12T16:21:00.000+01:00

It's come to the crunch time now and the week ahead is going to be busy. With the assignment looming next week, this weeks work has been a bit more exciting and trying to get everything done has been a bit hectic. It's been a quite easy week though due to the fact that all I have seem to do is collate all work such as designs and written work into PageMaker.

Although easy, it has still been time consuming getting all the references and images lined up in PageMaker and so on. I think it's good to have a 'calm before the storm' just before the project because it doesn't stress you out becuase really all the work is done and you're just tying it all together. Whether I feel the same this time next week will be a different story but I'm quietly confident that I should get it all done and pass it first time (hopefully, fingers crossed, touch wood, etc...)

Over the weekend I do hope to get it all finished and get a bit more work put into my competitive analysis to go a bit more indepth. I also need to get my labels and folder label done so I can get all my work together.

Doing Well...

2006-10-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

This week I've been mostly doing my designs in PageMaker which was quite difficult to start with. This is due to the fact that I missed out on last weeks lecture on it. At first I just stared at the screen and thought how awful it was, where was all the tools? How come no matter how high resolution my graphics they still looked shocking? I wasted a good hour trying different formats and messing around until Steve stated that all images looked like this is PageMaker - how annoying! After looking at it for a bit and figuring it out, it all started to make sense though. I even started to enjoy it. After all it's pretty simple once it all clicks.

A highlight of the week though was Steve saying that my final site design was 'not shoddy at all' which is the highest compliment that you get from Steve* which is quite an honour.

My site map design also caused a stir in the weekly group critique. It was said that it may be 'too complicated' by Craig and that it needs some sort of 'user testing' according to Rob. If anyone has any comments i.e. regarding it being too complicated then please leave them.

My budget statement was near enough cock-on as well with regards to costings and estimates.

This week has gone a lot better than last week and even though having a slow start with PageMaker I have marched on and got quite a bit of work done.

* = According to Steve.

Half a Week and PageMaker...

2006-09-28T16:19:00.000+01:00

A rather uneventful week for me. I missed Wednesday due to being ill which left me behind in the group. By the sounds of it, I missed out on a lecture about PageMaker, the programme I will be using to present my assignment. I am now behind in the design process but I hope to catch up over the weekend and create some stunning designs which I’m looking forward to.

Thursday morning we again had Helen Rivron, to give a lecture on how to take notes in lectures. I really didn’t find this necessary on our course but extra support is always welcomed I suppose.
Steve also made us aware of the fact that we need evidence of constructive criticism from himself as well as my peers. This is something I hadn’t really thought about before but I’m glad he’s brought it up – after all, I do want a good grade.

Overall, I can honestly say this week hasn’t been a good one for me. I now need to catch up in order to be at a level field with everyone else. Being ill doesn’t help when you’re only at college 2 days a week. Being ill 1 day is missing half a week.

That's the Plan...

2006-09-21T16:16:00.000+01:00

I’ve had a very productive week so far. I’ve managed to get the opening statement, delivery requirements, and competitive analysis started in the That’sthePlanA2 assignment. A good start and I’m glad I’m getting through it. Normally on other courses it takes ages to get that starting point but I seem to have got it straight away on this assignment. I’ve found the competitive analysis of other John Peel sites quite difficult as many feature session tapes or music that Peel would have liked but not much content. Next time maybe I should pick somebody more famous!

Steve also gave us a lecture in ‘Reflective Evaluation’ which should hopefully make me write my blog much better than last week.

Also this week we had Helen Rivron come in and give us a lecture on reading more effectively. Although I didn’t find this really necessary - I did get some tips on reading more effectively.

Planning is something I found difficulty with. I find it hard to allocate time and dates for when work should be done but rather to make a ‘to do’ list. This then helps me when I decide to do work at home; I just look at my list and see what needs to be done. A much better way for me to keep myself organised.

The First Week...

2006-09-17T18:24:00.000+01:00

My 1st week on the HND Interactive Media course at Wakefield College has been very good so far. The assignments seem to be very well structured and set out. Also the That’s The Plan (A2) assignment is for a website plan which is what professional website designers would do before building a site. This gives the course a worthwhile feeling to me and unlike any other I’ve done before where it has been so generalised. In the assignment I have to choose a Great Briton to do the website plan about. For this I have chosen past Radio 1 DJ, John Peel.

Another assignment set in the first week was A1: SketchBlog. This assignment was set for us to monitor our work and provide evidence at the end of our assignments. The Sketch part of the title is for our sketchbook where we should jot down ideas, take notes and annotate ideas. The blog part is a weblog which we use to evaluate our work on a regular basis and also blog ideas.

I am enjoying the assignments at the moment, especially the website planning as I can see this being a big help to me academically and also professionally in my current work as a website designer. The SketchBlog task will also teach me to constantly evaluate my work to see if targets are being met and everything is on track.

Overall the course is going well and I am enjoying the lectures so far and I hope it continues throughout the course.

Formative Statement

2006-09-17T14:06:00.001+01:00

After finishing school in 2002 I decided to go on to further education as my main goal at that age was to go to university. At that point I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to do at university apart from it had to be something media or design orientated. This is reflected in my eclectic choice of subjects at college; A-levels in Media and Photography along with AS-levels in Graphic Design, Business and I.C.T. Once I had finished college and got my desired results, I enrolled at Huddersfield University to study Advertising, Media & Design Management. The course really wasn’t something I was hoping for. The lectures didn’t seem very structured and I seemed to learn very little during the course. With a feeling like I’ve just wasted a year of my life, I decided that in the new academic year, I would change to Multimedia. I thought that this would be the one but after time, I again found that it wasn’t really the course for me.

After dropping out of university, I decided to focus on a career in web design. At this time I was working for the Arctic Monkeys who were getting quite successful and that their mass exposure may help me a get a job. Unfortunately it didn’t and decided that a formal qualification would help immensely in my career path.

Now I’ve started at Wakefield College, I’m really enjoying the HND Interactive Media course and I’ve learnt more in the first week than I did in two years of university. The lectures are very web orientated unlike the other courses I have attended. I plan on putting all my efforts into this course to get the best possible results I can get.

Once I’ve finished the course, it would be nice to make my qualification into a degree to give it a bit more weight in the workplace and hopefully securing me a nice job in the Interactive Media industry.