Tuesday 25 December 2007

Merry Christmas!

After a full day of unwrapping presents, eating, unwrapping more presents and eating some more. I thought I would come online to say...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you all had a great day!

Friday 21 December 2007

1/4 of the way...

This first semester has gone surprisingly fast, so fast I can hardly believe it’s already December with Christmas just around the corner. Even though I started the course two weeks after the rest of the class, I feel part of the group and I’ve made friends with everyone – something which I initially thought would be hard as I’d been out of college education for a couple of years now.

At the beginning of the course, I had a limited amount of knowledge regarding the design process. Apart from knowing how to use some of the software at a basic level, the rest of the process was new to me. Even though I had already built a few websites, I now realise how badly they were put together with the amount of knowledge I’ve learnt in such a short time on the course.

There are certain aspects of the course that I didn’t expect; I knew that there was a requirement of a sketchbook, but I simply thought that this was just for drawing our ideas and designs. I didn’t quite expect the major impact the sketchbook would have on assignments and my research. At first, I found it quite difficult to use and didn’t quite grasp the need for it but as the course as progressed, I’ve found myself using it more and more. This was also the same with the blog, although I’ve wrote blogs in the past they were on a more personal level. Writing a blog about one particular subject seemed ‘weird’ to me but something I settled into pretty quickly.

The level of work involved is much much more than I originally anticipated. The huge step up from FE to HE is certainly something I felt in the first few weeks on the course, but I’ve enjoyed the challenge and passing the first two units helped to confirm that this was the right course for me.

Overall, I’ve found this course really enjoyable. I enjoy going to college each week learning about something I have a real interest in and doing work that serves a purpose, rather than doing it for the sake of ticking it off a syllabus list. Hopefully this will continue during the remaining 3 semesters and provide me with extensive knowledge of the design industry reading for employment.

Main Goals

- Short Term
By the end of semester two, I hope to have achieved at least 1 distinction in my work. By pushing myself to achieve the highest grades, I will reach my full potential and prepare myself more for what’s ahead on the second year. By continuing to ‘mess about’ with the software associated with design and desktop publishing software, I’ll become familiar with the layouts and menus so that I can find my way around them with ease.

- Medium Term
By the end of the two years of the HND course, I’m hoping to have gain enough knowledge and awareness of design to gain employment AND to continue onto the third year. I’m hoping to be able to find myself a job that will allow me to continue onto the third year of the course. Hopefully an employer will allow me the one day off a week to attend college. Fingers crossed!

- Long Term
After completing the third year and gaining myself a year’s worth of experience in a design job (if all goes to plan!). I’ll be able to take my experience and qualification forward with me to get myself a design job more suited to my needs. For this, I’ll be able to build myself a portfolio of the three years on my Interactive Media course to aid me at interview with prospective employers.

In summary:
  • A short term goal of achieving my best potential on assignments will aid me in the second year of the course. Once I reach the higher grades, I can use these as a benchmark for future assignments and gain my full potential.
  • By completing the two years, I will be prepared for employment AND to move onto the third degree year. By finding myself an employer willing to let me have the one day off a week for college, I’ll gain design experience while learning, therefore beating the catch 22 situation most design students experience.
  • Once I’ve achieved enough experience in my junior role with a design agency, I can use my qualification and my experience to move myself forward in the design industry – maybe achieving myself a more senior position.

Thanks for reading.
Sue

Tuesday 11 December 2007

7 days and counting...

With a week to go until both A3 and A4 deadlines, my work is steadily coming to a position where I can finally finish it off. After a few late nights/early mornings I can certainly feel the pressure of getting them both in on time and to a standard that I am happy with. The pressure is something that seems to spur me on though, the more pressure there is the more I thrive under the conditions set and produce, in my opinion, my best work.

A3 - Back to BASIC
This assignment has come a long way in the past week, after deciding that my screen designs were reaching the potential that they could reach, I decided on a last minute 'revamp' to make good use of the feedback that I had been given. I've really enjoyed doing this assignment, knowing that I'm going to build this website after Christmas has provided me with a challenge, once again, something that I am thriving off.

Below is my final final design, feel free to comment:

Developed Screen Design

A4 - Image Rights
This assignment has provided me with some experience in a software package that I've not used too much in the past before. Adobe Photoshop is a program that I've used for simple images, but never for anything as complex as image restoration before. The two essays have provided me with an insight back into the days of high school (as this is the last time I wrote an essay), discussing something that I have an interest in made the essays more enjoyable and provided me with the motivation to get them completed.

The whole class have really pulled together these past two weeks, providing one another with formative feedback and support through the designing process of both assignments. Something which we saw happen during the last two weeks of the previous assignment.

To get my assignment completed for next week, I have a few things on each assignment to complete before monday, preferably.

  • Evaluate both assignments, provide a bullet pointed action plan stating what I would do next time to improve on my skills.
  • Write up merit/distinction criteria for both assignments.
  • When handing the assignment in, don't forget to include the production schedule!!!!!

This time next week I'll be posting on my relief that they're handed in (fingers crossed) and that I can look forward to spending the Christmas holidays with my family.

Thanks for reading.
Sue

Saturday 8 December 2007

Final Screen Design

Final Screen DesignWell, here's my final design developed from the initial screen designs posted last week. As you can see, I've incorporated the colour scheme from design 1 with the layout of design 2 as suggested by the feedback I received.

Please feel free to leave further feedback about this design, there's still things I need to complete before it is totally finished and I'm still undecided on font sizes. If you have any advice, then please, share!

Thanks for reading.
Sue

Tuesday 4 December 2007

IAB - It's the way to be!

Tina May - Medium Rectangle BannerDue to personal reasons, I was unable to come to College yesterday, so my time was spent working from home on my A3 assignment. Surprisingly, I got more done at home than I initially thought I would. After collecting most of my images from open source websites, like SXC, I began to compile them into my assets list (which for this website is going to be huge!).

Saturday Night, I posted my rough sketches of my screen designs on my journal and the college forum, since then I've received feedback from my classmates and will put all their comments into consideration when I develop my final screen design this week. I'm pleased to say that the full content (images and writing) is out of the way and I can now concentrate on getting the assets list completed, site structure and budget statement. Christine Tobin - Wide Skyscraper Banner

Today, the class faced a rather intense morning of banner work. During a half hour session, we had to design banners for a series of photographs with information provided. Each time we moved onto a new photograph, the time limit (in which we had to come up with four designs) reduced. Thus recreating that design environment again, like last week. Once again, I enjoyed the task set before me and went with the flow of the exercise. As you can see, two of my designs I've completed so far, I'm not sure if these two are going to be my final two yet, but please feel free to leave any feedback!

Next week, I'd preferably like to have my A3 assignment fully completed with the spare week to proof read and amend ready for hand in day. Finishing my assignment for next week will also mean I'll have more time for the banner task in the final week and to bring the whole of my A4 assignment together for hand in on the same day.

So for next week I need to:

  • Complete the assets list, viewing my notes in sketchbook on copyright notice on my images.
  • Draw up my screen designs, main page and feedback form.
  • Draw up the site structure diagram WITH css and template attached.
  • Complete budget statement showing charges for a year.

Thanks for reading.
Sue

Saturday 1 December 2007

A3 - Screen Designs

As mentioned in my previous post, here are my screen designs for Back to BASIC.
(There will eventually be five, so please bear with me. These will be posted online very very shortly!
Sorry for the 'wonkiness' of some of them!)

Screen Design 1[Screen Design 1]

Screen Design 2[Screen Design 2]


Screen Design 3[Screen Design 3]

Screen Design 4[Screen Design 4]

Please feel free to leave any formative feedback.

Thanks,
Sue.