Rebecca Bradley Interactive media

Screen designs

2009-03-10T20:50:00.006Z

After doing a range of sketches in my sketch book I came up with a number of different designs, I then picked designs that I thought would be ideal for my portfolio. I then designed them using Indesign. These are 3 of my designs, I have used various designs so that I would be able to receive feedback on these.

Please feel free to leave any suggestions and feedback on my designs.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Competitive analysis

2009-03-03T22:00:00.003Z

Student Portfolio
www.rachaelnelsondesign.co.uk

The website has a simplistic design, there are three main colours that have been used these are white, grey and green. This provides a good contrast for people who are viewing the website. The same layout has been used through out the website to keep consistency.

The main emphasis of the website is on the banner, even though the banner adds a graphical feature, I think this could have been a bit smaller as this would make the banner fit in with the overall look of the website more. The main features such as the links could have been made to stand out more so that when users are using the website they can navigate around the site more easily.

The homepage has a welcome page which is also been used to show recent work and news updates. I like the way the text has been broken down so that there isn’t loads of writing to scroll through.

The about me page has information about the designer. On this page she has also added recent work and news updates again, I think that maybe this doesn’t need to be on every page and could also be categorized so that this fits in with the portfolio page.

Her portfolio page has a number of different websites that she has designed, I like the way that the websites have been designed has it makes it easy to view her work. But I think may be she could have had less writing on the page so that more websites she has designed could have been added to the page.

The contact page has a simple contact from to leave information so that you aren’t having to fill in boxes of information.

Professional Portfolio
www.mark-till-online.co.uk

The website is well structured, there are there main colours that have been used these are white, grey and green. The website has a clean look and is well laid out keeping his portfolio simple with only having a few pages. The same layout has been used through out the website to keep consistency.

The homepage has all of the main information for the website. On each of the pages there is a moving image which allows you to click on it so that you are able to view his work. I like this feature as it allows you to view his work from any page that you are on. The text is well set out making the main text bold so that you know what the website offers.

The portfolio page has images and text to explain what the website is about. I think that the images are at a good size so that these are easy to view so that you no exactly what the website is about. On some of the paragraphs there is to much spacing between them, if they were more together it may make it a little bit easier to read.

The contact page has a contact form which has a few boxes to leave any details.

Delivery Requirements

2009-02-24T18:47:00.001Z

To design my website I will need a range of Software and Technologies:

Macromedia Dreamweaver CS3
I will use this software for the actual build of my website. It will also be used to create my XHTML and CSS.

Adobe Photoshop CS3
I will use Photoshop for any graphical work I design for my portfolio. I will also use this for image optimisation and file sizes.

Adobe Flash CS3
As this is a new skill I am learning, I will try to use Flash to produce elements of my website

XHTML 1.0 Strict
I will use Extensible HyperText Markup Language version 1.0 Strict. I will use this to produce a document to structure the content for my portfolio. This will also enable me to mark up elements for my website. I will ensure that my website site is validated and also well structured.

CSS 2.1
I will use Cascading Style Sheets version 2.1 this will be used to give style and layout to my website. I will ensure that my website is well structured so that it will be easier to validate and maintain my website.

FTP
I will use an FTP so that I am able to upload my website and any other files from my local computer to the internet this will allow people to view my website.

PHP
I will use PHP to design a contact form for my website this will be used for people to contact me.

Target Audience

2009-02-10T21:04:00.002Z

Primary Target Audience – Educationalists

Chloe is a 30 year old women, who works Full time for the BTEC Exam Board. In her working hours she normally uses her works laptop which is Microsoft Windows XP, where she accesses the internet mainly to check her emails and also word processing. She only has basic computer knowledge as she mainly users her computer in working hours. She occasionally uses her home computer in her personal time for accessing the internet to mainly shop online. Her use of the internet would be between 3 – 6 hours per week. Her connectivity is through her computer where she has 4MB broadband connection and uses Internet Explorer version 7. The types of sites she would normally visit are Amazon, Ebay and Google Mail.

Secondary Target Audience – Potential Employers

Tim is a 40 year old man, who is a full time lead designer for a company in Leeds. In his working hours he normally uses his computer which is Windows Vista to do a range of design jobs, also to access the internet and his emails. He has a wide range of computer knowledge were he is interested in learning more about different technologies. In his personal time he uses his computer to do design jobs from home, to access the internet and to check his emails. His connectivity is through his home computer were he has 8MB broadband connection and uses Firefox version 3.0.6. The types of websites he would normally visit are Amazon, Book Depositary and Corbis.

Tertiary Target Audience – Clients

Amy is a 24 year old women, who is a full time makeup artist. The website is used mainly for advertising her business and needs a redesign as the website needs modernising to entice new customers. She uses her laptop which is Windows XP for her business and also for her personal time, as she likes to keep records of her clients appointment information. She also uses the internet to shop online for new products and to check her emails. Her internet connectivity is 4MB broadband connection and uses Internet Explorer version 7. The types of websites she would visit are Amazon, Dior and ASOS.

Project Goals

2009-02-03T18:58:00.001Z

1. I will design my website to W3C accessibility guidelines 1.0 Level A

The website I produce needs to be compliant to these accessibility guidelines as it will make my website accessible to a wider audience. This will make users who use my portfolio be able to use it with ease. This could be measured by usability testing my website.

2. I will make my website easy to update and flexible

Making my website consistent will allow me to update the pages to suit different situations such as presentations and job interviews. I will make the layouts of my pages easy to adapt keeping them simple. This will also allow users to navigate around the website easily. This could be also measured by testing my website on a number of users.

3. I will make sure my web pages are no more then 3 clicks away

I will make sure that my content is no more them 3 clicks away this will make the navigation of my site easy to use and will be suitable for adapting my webpages.

4. I will use a variety of technologies

I will use arrange of technologies that I have learnt on the course and implement these in to my website such as XHTML, CSS and Flash. This will help show employers that I have learnt different skills thought out the course.

Final Semester and Flash

2009-01-21T13:59:00.001Z

It’s the final semester at college and I am really looking forward to the last assignments we have to learn but also scared at the same time as there isn’t many weeks left at college. I feel that in the last semester I really need to get out of it every thing I can, so that if I do choose to work in this industry I will feel ready to go in to employment. Even though I have learnt so much on the course so far at the moment I don’t really feel like I would be ready to go in to employment, as there is so much more that I need to learn about. But there are still enough weeks at college to improve my skills. Hopefully the new assignments will give me the knowledge that I will need to learn to improve on my skills that I have learnt on the course so far.

I am looking forward to the new assignment which is the Self Managed Learning Plan. I have chosen to learn about Flash and Action script something that I have always been interested in learning. When it came to picking which subject I wanted to learn I felt that choosing Flash would best suit me, as from researching different job advertisements the adverts that I chose you needed to have knowledge of Flash. I feel that learning Flash will also improve my design skills as there is lots of creative work to do when learning Flash which will help me to make improvements to my design skills. To complete this assignment I have researched lots websites to find out what materials I could use to achieve my goals for this assignment. I will use a wide range of resources like books and the internet which will allow me to start from the begin learning the basics of Flash.

We also need to make a portfolio of the work we have produced on the course. This is something that I will be starting to get ready as I will need to choose which work will need to go onto the website. I will then need to build my portfolio which I will use the skills that I have learnt from other assignment such as XHTML and CSS will help me to do my website.
In this assignment we also have to do a 45 minuet presentation about are portfolio which will show my journey through the 2 years on the course. I am really nervous about this presentation as I am not really that confident when it comes to presenting presentations. Even though I have gained more confidence from doing other presentation on the course. I still don’t really feel that confident at doing a presentation in front of quit a few people. I will need to make sure that I manage my time so that I will have plenty of time to prepare and practice the presentation so that I know exactly what I am doing.

Flash Resources

2009-01-13T22:29:00.007Z

10 Flash Resources

Flash 5 f/x and design

Contains lots of fundamental elements of Flash.

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional How-Tos:100 Essential Techniques

Arange of essential elements to Flash.

http://www.entheosweb.com/Flash/default.asp

Tutorials for basic Flash and Actionscript resources.

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

Arange of different Flash techniques and elements.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/

Has arange of different tutorials and tips.

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash/index.htm

Arange of Flash tutorials and effects.

http://www.actionscript.org/

Arange of basic to advanced Actionscript.

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

Arange of Flash and Actionscript tutorials.

http://www.flashperfection.com/

A wide range of lastest Flash tutorials.

http://tutorialoutpost.com/tutorials/flash

Arange of simple Flash tutorials.

Why I would like to learn about Flash for the Self Managed Learning Plan

2008-12-10T17:22:00.001Z

For the self managed learning plan I would like to study Flash with Action Script. As I feel from researching other job advertisements in a wide range of areas, this is a skill that is most likely required for jobs in the web and graphic design industry. This is one of the job adverts that I found when we were searching for jobs that would best suit are needs when leaving college. Flash is one thing that is essential to achieve a job like this one and would also make me more employable. http://www.reed.co.uk/job-details/Leeds/Junior-Web-Designer/?JobID=17013435&&set=5&jr=17013435&lit=2

As I don’t know any thing about Flash I feel that this would be a good opportunity to learn something new and develop my design skills. Flash is something that I have always wanted to learn about but haven’t yet got the chance too. I feel that to improve my design skills Flash would be the perfect opportunity to do this and also I would learn about design, animation and creating videos using Flash and action script. After researching different websites about Flash and action script, I feel that this is a skill that would benefit me as it would improve my graphic skills, this is a skill that I would like to improve. I feel that this would give me better knowledge of Flash but would also help me to learn more about graphic design.
This assignment will give me the opportunity to manage a learning plan my self and would give me the opportunity to improve at managing my time when studying assignments.

The second year so far

2008-12-03T17:28:00.001Z

This year I knew that I would have to put a lot more effort in to college work then I had done last year, even though I did try my best I felt like I could have probably done alot better then I had.

I feel that I have already improved with my work so far, such as doing the presentation last week. My skills have already improved in this area, and I feel proud of what I produced that day, as I have realised that I can actually do it. I have started this year positive and hope that I can carry on doing this as this will be reflected in the work I produce.

Summer assignment
The summer assignment gave us the opportunity to still do college work so we wouldn’t get out of the habit of not doing any work. I thought that the work we had to do for each piece of the assignment was different which made the assignment more interesting. If I felt I wasn’t getting far on one particular essay I was able to move on to another.

Even though I tried to plan the assignment so that I would have enough time to complete this, I also allowed myself to have a rest from all of the college work. I felt that I could have managed it better as I always felt like there was work always left to do, if I was to do the assignment again this is something that I would do better.

CSS assignment
When I started this assignment I only had basic knowledge of XHTML and CSS from a previous assignment that I had done. I knew that this wasn’t going to be one of my strong points, so I knew I would have to learn more about this subject.

I found writing the essay quite interesting because I didn’t know that much about XHTML and CSS so this helped me to get better knowledge of this. Even though I didn’t pass the exam I still feel that I have learnt loads from even attempting it. My main problem with the exam is that I didn’t know much about XHTML but having the chance to do the exam again this will help me to understand it better.

Team assignment
I have really enjoyed the team assignment as it has given us the chance to work as part of the team. I have enjoyed my role as Project Assistant as I have experienced working with clients, the progression of the project and usability testing. The assignment has also given me a better understanding of what it is like to work in the design industry.

A12 assignment
With only just starting this assignment I don’t really know what to expect so far. But the work I have done already I have enjoyed as it has given me a chance to do different designs, instead of having to use the computer to design every thing.

Soft Skills

2008-11-05T17:29:00.001Z

Throughout out this course I have learnt many skills which I can use and continue to develop.

Presentation skills will help you to be more confident at presenting information. I have never really been that confident when delivering presentations but I feel by already presenting a few presentations I feel that I have gained more confidence. By practicing this skill will only mean that you will become more confident at presenting presentations.

Teamwork is important as it will help you to be able to communicate with other people better and helps you to work well in a team. Having this skill will benefit you when employed as depending what job you go for you will most likely have to work as part of a team. I have developed this skill at college by being involved in different seminar groups and also the team assignment that we are currently doing.

Having written work skills is important and is something that you can develop more, this will help when structuring essays and will improve grammar and spelling skills. This is a skill that can be developed more by making sure that I structure my essays and make sure to check my spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Time management skills will helps you to be more employable making sure that you are on time at your interview will show the employer that you are reliable. I have developed this skill by making sure that assignments are handed in on time. Also I have used weekly time sheets so that I know what work needs to be done.

Communication skills are something that is needed every day this skill can also be improved by presenting presentations and also working in a team. Having this skill will help when been employed as I will be working with clients.

Searching for a job

2008-10-08T21:58:00.003+01:00

Job advertisement - http://www.reed.co.uk/job-details/Leeds/Junior-Web-Designer/?JobID=17013435&&set=5&jr=17013435&lit=2

The job advertisement that I have found is a Junior Web Designer in the media, digital and creative web design sector. The role of the job will be to work with clients to produce interactive online sites, bring new designs to the company and provide specialist advice and knowledge to the client. The skills required are Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash is essential with some knowledge of HTML and CSS.

The job advertisement is a job that I feel would best suit the skills that I have learnt on the course, as I have not had much experience in the graphic and web design industry. The best option would be for me to gain more experience by working as a junior web designer and then progressing on to a more experienced role. The location of the job is based in Leeds this is somewhere I would like to work as there are more opportunities for work in this area.

Being a junior web designer would mean that I would gain experience in different parts of working for a design company such as designing interactive media products and also working with the client. This is something that I think would help with progressing on to a
higher position within the Company.

The skills that are required for this job I will have learnt at college such as Photoshop and Illustrator skills. I would need to learn how to use Flash as this is an essential skill that is required for the job. I feel that this is something that I would like to learn about as it will make me more employable when applying for a job as most of the job advertisements are wanting to employ people who have learnt Flash. I will also have skills in HTML and CSS.

Aspirations for the second year of the course

2008-10-07T19:13:00.002+01:00

Over the past year I have learnt and developed a greater knowledge of graphic and web design. I have decided to enrol on the second year of this course, hoping to gain more experience in design and different technologies, expanding on the knowledge I have already gained in the first year.

My hopes and aspirations for the course this year is to continue to develop my knowledge of graphic and web design and gain a greater understanding of the industry. I will also be looking forward to learning more about the technical side of things such as XHTML and CSS where I now only have basic knowledge, this will help me further my skills and apply these to other web sites I design. I very much hope that I will be able to achieve this to further my skills and give me more opportunities for employment.

I am also looking forward to the self managed learning plan, where I will be negotiating and designing a learning plan, where I will learn about new skills such as Flash, PHP and other software skills, to prepare me for the time I apply for employment so I will be able to demonstrate a greater understanding than I currently have and the ability to show this in my work.

After the completion of the second year of the course I will either be looking to go into employment or look to enrol on a top up degree course, this will enable me to have more chance I believe to gain a job in this industry should I decide to do so.

I believe that I am determined and focused to complete the second year more than ever to the best of my ability to achieve a greater understanding and able to show this in my work presented.

First year evaluation

2008-05-13T18:36:00.001+01:00

This year has been a big learning curve for me, I feel that I’ve learnt such a lot in just a year. I feel from all of the assignments that I have done, I’ve been able to learn new skills and Implement then in to each assignment.

A1 Sketchblog
The good points to the Sketchblog assignment was that it gave me the chance to develop lots of new skills. Where we had to collect inspiration and develop Blog and sketch book skills. My favourite part of the assignment was collecting inspiration has it gave me the chance to look at different pieces of designs and was able to write my views about them. I feel this gave me a better idea of the things I do and don’t like about design pieces. I was able to use the inspiration for ideas on the other assignments and feel that I gained lots from this.

The Blog was there to write about what I had done the days I was at college and was able to write my targets for the week. This will enable me to look back at other Blog entries to see how far I have come on the course. I feel that the sketch book helped me to write notes down from presentations, which helped for looking back at them so that I was able to produce the work for the assignments.

A2 That’s the plan
This assignment was the first assignment on the HND Interactive Media course. I was nervous of what to expect as it was the first assignment. When I first looked at the assignment sheet it was structured a lot different from the previous ICT course that I was on. When we had gone through the assignment sheet I was worried about not being able to achieve a good standard of work as the tasks where a lot different to anything that I had ever done before.

In this assignment we had to design a web plan, where we had to choose a famous person to design a web site about. I didn’t know how much detail you needed to go into to make a well structured web site. This learnt me a lot about how a web site should be designed and that to get a well structured web site you shouldn’t just look at the designing aspect of it, you should also think about what the target audience would want to see on a web site. I also learnt about new software applications which allowed me to create my written and design work in Pagemaker and Indesign I thought I picked the software up quite quickly, but it also restricted me to do the work I wanted to do, as I still was unsure how to work all of the tools. But I thought that my written and design work was a good attempt for my first assignment, but I knew that when I had to do another assignment I would use my production and weekly time sheets better to structure my tasks.

A3 Back to basics
This was my second assignment and I knew that I would be able to improve on the things that I didn’t do too well on in the first assignment. I feel that because I had the chance to make the A2 assignment up to a better standard I would always have that to look back on so that I wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. We had to produce a web plan for silver surfers, I knew that in this web plan I had to get every thing correct as I knew that I would eventually be making the web site. This gave me more determination to make sure that I had a better structured web plan. I feel that because I had done lots of research into the target audience I was able to design a web site for them to easily navigate. When it came to designing ideas for the web site, I knew that I couldn’t design a web site that would be too difficult to make. So my web site wasn’t has well as a design as I would have liked it to be, but I was pleased with the design I came up with.

A4 Image rights
This assignment allowed us to get more creative by looking at image restoration and by doing this we had to learn the software Photoshop. At first I didn’t really like Photoshop as I thought the tools weren’t as easy to use as other software. We also had to write an essay about the difference between art and designers, I was happy with the essay I wrote as I made sure that I had planned out the points I wanted to make before I actually wrote the essay.

I felt like on the image restoration task I could have done a lot better then I had done, though I tried hard to restore the image, I felt I didn’t really know too much about the different tools in Photoshop I wasn’t able to create a good enough restored image. I knew that my goal would be to learn more about Photoshop and feel that I could have benefited more if I had done tutorials in this assignment, then leaving it until more in to the year.

A5 Builder
This assignment gave me the first chance to build a web site from the web plan that I had designed in A3. I feel that this assignment learnt me a lot about how to design a web site. I feel that I gained the most from this assignment as it learnt me new web design skills. I feel that my web site wasn’t the best designed but was pleased that I was able to achieve all of the project goals that I had set in the web plan. Even though I had to change my design idea a bit, I feel that I also gained more from this as I was able to look more into other aspects of it such as CSS as I have never used it before and feel from just the bit of CSS I had done in the assignment learnt me more about creating a web site using code.

A6 Revert to type
This assignment we had to produce a presentation on our chosen typographer which was Erik Spikermann, I feel that I put lots of effort in to researching my typographer and feel that the presentation was well structured. This was one of my less enjoyable tasks as Im not very good at presentations, but felt like I’ve gained a bit more confidence from doing the presentation.

Also in this assignment we did timed tasks, I was unsure at first if I was going to like doing the timed tasks, but I really enjoyed them as it gave me a better understanding of what it is like in a studio environment. I was pleased with the work I produced in the amount of time we had in the tasks. I feel that from doing this assignment my design work as improved which I was able to use these skills in the A7 assignment.

A7 Wailing whales
In this assignment I was able to put all of the design skills that I have learnt throughout the assignment into the end assignment of the year. I feel that I preformed really well in this assignment as I had made sure that I had planned every task so that I knew exactly what I needed to do for that week. I feel that I have gained a lot from structuring our seminar meetings so that we were able to get a clearer understanding of what it is going to be like next year when we have to plan most of our seminar meetings.

I really enjoyed the Cd art work task as it allowed me to improve my Photoshop skills. I feel that from doing tutorials I have gained lots more skills and I am pleased that I was able to improve at using the software. I feel that the design work I have done shows the effort that I have put in with doing the tutorials.

My aims for the course
Over all I feel that I have improved on my designing skills, making sure that my designs don’t change as much as they have done over some of the assignments. Doing more tutorials so that I am able to produce the designs, instead of having to change them because I am unable to produce them.

I would like to learn more about CSS as I haven’t done as much this year, but feel that I would benefit from this as it would give me a better understanding of coding.

I would also like to be able to learn more about building web sites and how I can improve on the skills that I already have, so that I can combine all of my design, web site and coding skills in to one.

Study day

2008-05-06T16:23:00.007+01:00

Today has been a study day and its been a very productive day. I started off the day by thinking of what I could do for the Cd case even though I had lots of ideas and had picked my final design I still wasn't sure if I liked it or not. So instead of changing the whole design I decided that Id do some tutorials to see what effects I could add to the images. I have only done a few tutorials before so I thought it would be a great idea to help me get use to Photoshop as I'm not very good at using this software. So I looked through some of the tutorials and found some great ones that would fit in to my design for the Cd case. As I started the tutorial I thought that it would be hard to follow the tutorial step by step, but it actually explained it very well so it was easy to create the effect. I did a few practices of the tutorial to make sure that I got the effect exactly how I wanted it before I did the final one.

After this I started to put my Cd case together making sure that the whole Cd case looked as one. I also looked at different types of typography which would fit in with the design. I haven't yet chosen one that I like but there is quit a few that would look good on the design.
I also made a check list of what I need to get finished for this week, making sure that I hadn't missed any thing off the list. I also made a list of what I wanted to put on my evaluation so that when I came to write it Id know exactly how I wanted to evaluate my performance and my products that Id designed.

So this week I'm going to made sure that the Cd cover is completed, also looking at different tutorials to make the Cd case better, then I can fill in the rest of the pre-flight document in, make sure Ive wrote my evaluation and the logo is completed.

A better understanding of what is needed for A7

2008-04-29T16:15:00.005+01:00

On Monday we started off the day by talking about the A7 assignment and what is needs to be included for it. I thought this was helpful as it gave me a better understanding of what is needed in the assignment.

We also had a presentation on the "Artwork for print" I made sure that I took some more notes down on this as I missed the presentation the other week when I was off college. It gave me a better understanding off the different file formats and what they need to be used for.

After this I then started to research the pre-flight document I found quit a few web sites about the different documents, so I decided to write down different questions that could be used on the document. In are group we then came up with some of the questions that could be asked and then started to make the document I found it really use full having different documents to look at as it gave me a better understanding of what questions are the best to use.

I also had some more feedback for my A5, after Steve looked at this there was a few things that needed to be changed. But I was happy that I got most of the work for the site done last week so that I only needed to do a few changes to the site.

Today I finished off a few changes that I needed to do to the pre-flight document, making sure that the questions where in the right place and putting boxes and tick boxes next to the questions that needed them. So that when I have finished my Cd cover I will be able to fill in the boxes that need filling in.

After this I had a look at my Cd work and had a look at changing the pictures and seeing where the text could go. I still have quit alot of work to do on the Cd but I am going to design some more Cd packages in my sketch book to see what else I could do to the picture using Photoshop.

In the afternoon we then had are group meeting, we had to put are Cd work and Logo on the board so that every one else could have a look at the work. We then had to talk about what we had done to them, I got some feed back from the group like making a few changes to my logo and changing the font on the Cd work. So I will make sure that I have looked at different fonts to see which one works the best with the Cd work I have chosen.

So this week I am going to make sure that I know what pictures, fonts and graphic effects I am going to use on the Cd work, make sure that the pre-flight document has the right questions and that it has more of a design to it and make sure that the logo is completed.

Making changes to A5

2008-04-22T16:17:00.007+01:00

On Monday I was ill so I had to take the day off college, but I made sure that I did some of the design work for the CD cover in my sketch book. So that I wouldn't get behind with the work that I needed to do.

Today was a day to just get on with are work I started off by designing some more Cd covers and looking at the ideas that I had done on the computer last week to see if there was any other ways that I could change the designs. I made sure that I had catched up on any notes that I needed to do so that I new what I needed to do for the print work.
I also looked at some pre-flight document sites to see if I could get any ideas for what I could include on mine. I found a few ideas for this but there wasn't that many that where very good. So I need to research more sites so that I will be able to get ideas of what to include on the
pre-flight document.

In are group meeting this week we talked about are logo and Cd designs looking at what ideas we had got. We talked about A1 and what work needed to be done for this talking about different types of inspiration that we could include in the assignment. We also talked about the pre-flight document to see what could be included on it.

After this I designed a few more CD covers in my sketch book but I still need to do lots more to see which will work better with my CD, Ive got a few designs that I could use but its just getting the right images that will work on the Cd cover. I also had my feed back for the A5 assignment, I need to change some of the arrangement of the text and I also need to make sure that some of the images are at a better quality. I thought that I would have lots more work to do on my site but I just need to make sure that I mange the work for this assignment and the A7 assignment.

So this week I will make sure that I have designed more Cd covers to see which design works the best, research more for the pre-flight document, collect more inspiration for my sketch book and make some changers to my web site. I will make sure that I have completed my logo.

Design work

2008-04-15T16:20:00.005+01:00

On Monday we had the chance to just get on with the assignment work. I started to design some Cd cases in my sketch book, first of all I started to research different Cd covers on the internet, I found lots of different designs that I am going to put in my sketch book. I came up with 5 ideas but I still need to design lots more. I came up with these ideas by looking at the work that I had done for the Emit work in the reading week.

I then picked some of my favourite designs and then started to redraw the Cd cases and then thought about the different colour ideas.

I then had my feed back from the typography assignment there isn't really that much to do on the assignment, I thought that I would have to do my presentation again but it was good news and I didn't have to do it again. I have to do 2 of my timed tasks again which was the paint tube and the all that jazz news paper page. Which I only really need to change the design a little bit, make sure the picture fits the page better and change the fonts.

Today I started off the day by researching more and also finishing off the designs that I had done this week. In the afternoon we then had are group meeting we then had to redo are production schedule as we had not done the work that needed to be completed for that day as we miss judged the time that needed to go in to each task. So we had to redo it so that we was on time with the work that we had already done. We also talked about are logo designs which I had to choose from the 2 designs that I had developed more. We also looked at are Cd covers that we had designed and talked about are music.

This week I am going to change the timed task work that I had done, design more Cd covers and finish off my final logo design.

Designing more logos

2008-04-08T16:28:00.005+01:00

On Monday we started off the day by having a presentation on the the software Freehand. I have never used the software before so I thought this was useful as it gave me a better understanding of the software. After this we went on to finishing off are logo designs. I made sure that I had 5 of my best designs in different colours so that they would be completed for the group meeting on Tuesday.

Today I started to design my logos in Freehand so that I would be able to see which of these designs would work better on the computer. I found Freehand easy to use to design my logos which I also used the notes that I made in my sketch book. I also looked at different colour ideas that would work with the different logo designs.

In the afternoon we had are group meeting, Steve looked at are logo designs and told us what the best design would be for us to use. He told me to create 2 of the logo designs and see if there is any other ways that the designs could be created also looking at the arrangement and the colour of the logos.
After the group meeting I then had a look at different CD cover designs to get inspiration to put in my sketch book. So this week I am going to design the logo designs making sure that I have a final logo and also will design the final logo. I am going to start to design different CD cover designs making sure that I get lots of different designs and also making sure that I have collected more inspiration for my sketch book.

Designing logos

2008-04-01T15:48:00.032+01:00

On Monday we was given are new assignment A7 I picked assignment 1 to do. Which we have to redesign a logo, CD case and create a pre-flight document for the record label Emit. I think that I am going to enjoy this assignment as there is different creative parts to the assignment and the work that we had done in the reading week will help me be able to create the work and use as inspiration.

After we was given are assignment we then had a presentation on logo designs. I think that this presentation was interesting as it gave us a chance to see lots of different logos and see why these where designed. We also had a presentation from Jonny Haynes who works for the company Technophobia. I thought this was use full having some one come in to talk to us about the industry as it gave us an idea of what its like to be in the industry. After this I then started to design my logos for "Emit" in my sketch book. I did quite a lot of different designs also looking at the Emit work that I had done and also looking at different logos that I had in my sketch book for inspiration. I thought this was good as I was able to see what would and wouldn't work for this type of design.

Today we had a presentation on logo case studies where we learnt about the CND logo and then in are groups we had to redesign the logo. We started off by creating different logo ideas in are sketch book and then comparing the different designs that we had. We then picked are favourite design where we had kept the same design idea but making it have a more modern look. We also did a presentation on what we had done to the logo to the rest of the class.

We then went on to designing are logo's for Emit and then I created my favourite ones in colour. This week I am going to make sure that I have done more logos and try to design the final logo on the computer for next week.

Reading week

2008-03-11T17:38:00.018Z

The weeks tasks so far have been enjoyable, first of all Monday morning I emailed Steve for the days task. The first task was to find logos on major company’s and annotate them. I found this quite easy as there are lots of different company’s out there which vary in their designs, so I found lots of inspiring logo designs.

The second task was to listen to our Cd which mine was “Slim”, I listened to it a few time before starting the first task which was to create spider diagrams of what the music suggested to me. At first I didn't really like the Album as it came across as dark and depressing, so I broke down my spider diagrams in to scenery, key words, emotions, genre and musical instruments so that I was able to implement ideas into different categories. After this, the fourth task was to create a positive review on our Cd encouraging people to buy it. I then did some research on the artist so that I was able to find more ideas and reviews of the Cd so that I could add this to my spider diagram. I then wrote from my ideas my Cd review. I didn't think that I would be able to write a review for the Cd as I haven’t done one before, but when I started the task I then began to enjoy it and come up with a well written review. Today I emailed Steve again to ask for today's tasks. My first task was to create mood boards that related to my music using the spider diagrams that I created yesterday. First of all I listened to my Cd again before starting the task. I really enjoyed this task as it allowed me to get creative. First of all I broke down different categories for my spider diagrams so that I was able to create 4 different individual mood boards. After this I then looked through magazines and the Internet for things that I could put on the mood board. I found loads of good pictures which fitted well with the category of each board.

The second task was to collect more logos of record company’s that represented my Cd. I didn’t think that they would be lots of logos on this type of music but I found lots on my Genre of music and also added a few different record labels to give variation.

The third task was to create spider diagrams and mood boards about the word “Emit”. I researched what the company was about before starting my spider diagrams. There wasn’t much information on “Emit” but I found enough out to create my spider diagrams. I then moved on to create the mood boards from my spider diagrams. There where lots of pictures on the emit site which I added in to my mood boards which I created 3 mood boards.

So overall all I feel that this as been a really productive week so far and feel that I have learnt a lot.

Slim the review

2008-03-10T17:44:00.002Z

The artist Slim released her album “Slim 0097” in 1997 by the label Emit. Slim is a unique, inspiring musician who brings originality in to her music. The singer performs a number of different genres, which is influenced by a multiple of sounds such as Jungle, R & B, Soul, Jazz and Pop. The female singer has a soft vocal tone to her music which attracts our attention, also giving a dramatic feel when there are other instruments accompanying her music. Her wide range of instruments such as piano, drums and guitar give a sophisticated feel to the melody which explores a cultural instrumental sound.

Her music is expressive making sure that she has used the same amount of vocal and instruments incorporated in to her melodies. She has also based her musical sound on an African feel to the music, which gives an outstanding style.

Slim is one of the must have albums as she has created sophisticated style in her music which makes her album suitable for people who want easy listening melody’s. She explores different genres in her music which some sound tracks are up tempo, but also could be used as background music as the songs in the album flow together easily.

A6 Evaluation

2008-03-04T21:21:00.002Z

Over all I feel that this assignment has been productive, there has been good and bad points to the assignment. I have learnt a great deal about typography and how a design studio is run by having different time tasks.

I have enjoyed learning about typography something that I didn’t really know much about before I started this assignment. I was given a typographer to research, which was Erik Spikermann. I have done lots of research on my chosen typographer and feel that I know more about typography from doing this task. I then produced a presentation about Erik Spikermann which I found quit easy to put together, I felt that I did the right amount of research to produce the final presentation with the information that I had found, and from the presentations that we had in the lesson really helped. I then had to perform my final presentation. I felt that I could have done better at the presentation if it wasn’t for nerves, but overall I think I did quit well as I haven’t really done that many presentations before.

Over all I didn’t think that I would enjoy the timed tasks as much as I did and feel that I have really benefited from having the opportunity to experience what a studio environment is like. I made sure that before we started this part of the assignment I had researched Indesign so that when it came to the timed tasks I knew exactly how to work the different tools in this software and feel that I benefited for this as I had taken screen shots in my sketch book so that I was able to look back at these for help if I needed it. I liked the way that none of the timed tasks were the same which meant that I was able to improve my design skills and also learning more about the design industry.

The first task was Hokai, In this task we had to produce packaging for a paint tube. I feel that my performance wasn’t as good as the other timed task because for some reason I couldn't’t get the measurements correct as the aliments on the page wasn’t to the correct size. But when I worked out what was wrong with the layout I was then able to produce a more standard piece of work. It was also a challenge to make all of the information fit in a small amount of space. We were given the information but needed to work the design around the information so that it would all fit on the page.

The second task was Vodafone, we had to design an advertisement for the phone company. We were given the information that needed to go on the page, but we had to work out which would be the best size layout to fit the logo and information on to. I liked the task as there was more to think about then just being given the size of the page, we had to decide which would be the best design solution. Even though I didn’t think this was one of my best designs I still feel that you could see a big improvement from the other timed tasks that I did before this one.

The third timed task was Johnathan Gee, we had to produce a news paper article making columns so that the title, information and logo would fit to the structure of the columns. I feel that this was one of my best design tasks as it was a lot different to the other task that we had done. There was more to it then just designing one product I had to think about where the title, main text and the picture would go, I had to split it up into smaller design tasks. I feel that the presentation that we had before really helped me structure my work as I don’t think I would have been able to produce as good a design as I did for this task.

The fourth timed task was Grid, we had to produce a template of a newspaper article, we had to structure the page so that we used columns and grids. I thought that this task was one of the hardest because we had to make sure that we had used measurements which where exact, so that when we came to designing our structure in Indesign we knew exactly how the page should look. I felt that this tasks wasn’t the most existing of the tasks as there was no information or graphics to be placed on to the design. We had to make sure that boxes where placed where the columns and grids where going and placing measurements on to the design. So that it would make it easier to produce the next design task.

The fifth task was story, this followed on from the grid task where we designed a structure for a newspaper article. I enjoyed this task as we was able to produce a graphical title, implement the given information and choose our own heading. This was more of a task where it was the chance to structure the design as we wanted. I feel that I had really improved from the first design that I had done and feel that this was my best design out of them all and also feel that this was the most enjoyable.

I feel that in this assignment you can really see the improvements that I have made form the other assignments and feel that I have really improved in my design skills, however there is still lots more that I need to learn. But feel that learning about typography will benefit me when I have to design any other web sites, as I will know more about which fonts go best with different typefaces and what fonts should be used where. I also feel that the timed tasks will help me be able to plan my work better as we had a strict amount of time to produce these tasks and feel that I now can implement this in to the other assignments.

Design task

2008-02-26T16:30:00.006Z

On Monday it was another chance to finish off any changes for A5, so I just made changes to my site and made sure that I had made screen shots of the changes so that I was able to put them in to my sketch book. I also made a list of the things that I needed to do before the hand in date.

Today we had another timed task which was to create a newspaper page. We had 2 hours to design and create the finished design. I started off by making simple design ideas and then choose 2 off the best designs and added measurements to them so that it was easier when I designed it in Indesign. When I had finished the design I then started to design it on to the computer, we had to make sure the page was A5 which was quit small. I started off by typing the information as there was quit a lot of information to fit on a page. After that I added the title and picture so that I would know how much room I had to change the layout of the text. When I had finished this I then showed Steve the design to get feedback which was to change the text so that it fit on the page better.
In the afternoon we had the chance to finish off are presentations and finish off any thing else we had to do for A6, which I checked if there was any spelling mistake's. In the group meeting this week we went over what needed to be in are assignments and how they should be set out.

This week I am going to make sure that I have completed the presentation before I start to practice the presentation. Then I will finish any changes to my site making sure that its complete.

Another task

2008-02-19T16:00:00.004Z

On Monday we started off the day by testing every ones site by filling in there questionnaire. I thought this was very useful to get feed back on my site as there were still things that needed improving. After we had finished this I then read the comments to see what changes I could implement in to my site. I then spent the day changing some of my site, but there are still a few things that need to be changed to suit my target audience more. I will also be putting the information in to graphs so that I am able to compare the results which will help me to make more changes to the site.

Today we had a presentation on newspaper devices, I thought this was really useful as we will be able to use what we have learnt from this and use it in any other work we do. After this we then had a timed task to do which was to make an advertisement, so the presentation that we had in the morning really helped with the structure I set my work out as. I started off by designing some designs for the advert in my sketch book and then got some feed back from Steve. Then when I was happy with the way my design looked I then went and designed it in Indesign. There was quit a lot of information that needed to be fit on the design, so I started off by adding the text and making sure that all the spellings where correct before I added any design on to the advert. I wanted to keep the design simple so that I got the message across of what the advert was actually about. When I had finished this I then showed Steve the design to see if there was any improvements that I could make, which was just to move the text down a little bit making more space for the text. I then handed my work in which I still had a bit of time left but I was glad that I got my design done on time.

In the afternoon we had the chance to finish off the presentation we had made for A6 which I didn't really have much to do, only to add more information on to my hand out. In are group meeting this week we had to practice are presentation. But I was unable to practice the presentation in front of are group as I got to nervous and didn't feel confident enough to present my presentation, which was a shame as I would have been able to get more feed back from the group. So Steve suggested that I just did the presentation in front of him this time. Which I did get good feed back from, only the changers that I really need to make are to add a bit more in about the different fonts. So after this Vicky suggested that we practised the presentations so that we was able to gain more confidence.
So this week I am going to practice my presentation more and also finish of my site.

Starting the image restoration again

2008-02-05T16:27:00.001Z

On Monday we had the chance to finish off designing our sites. Ive started my site a few times as I have had problems with the boarder around the page so I decided that I would have to change the design of my site abit, so I am going to make any changes I do in my sketch book and show screen shots of the colour changes and layout of the site.
I made sure that I had completed the questionnaire for the testing of the site and the presentation handout was ready for the group meeting.

Today we started off the day with a timed task which I wasn't really expecting. We had to design the packaging for a paint company. We had to pick a colour of are choose so I picked red. The layout for the design was very small and there was quit a bit of information to add to the packaging we had to add on the design the English, Spanish and French version of the colour. So we had to research this on the Internet to find out the names. I made sure that when planning the task that I had enough time so that I would be able to get the work in on time. I started off by making about 9 different designs so that I would be able to pick from a range of designs. I made sure that the design was quit simple as there wasn't a lot of space to design a lot on the packaging. When it came to designing the packaging on the computer I found it a bit hard to set the page out as it wasn't to scale, so I designed it the best I could. Then when I showed Steve he realised it wasn't to size so he had a look at it for me and the problem was soon fixed.

This afternoon it has been feed back for A4 I have to restarted the image Restoration I was show some more tools in Photoshop which will make the whole image look alot neater.
In are group meeting to day we have been looking at the questions for the testing which I found improvements which I will implement on mine. We also looked at are handouts which I will add more information about the typography of the fonts.
So this week I am going to make sure that the site is completed making sure that every thing is in the right order. I will also be practicing my presentation so that I feel more confident enough for when we have to do are presentation and also I will start the image restoration.