Friday 30.01.09

I found today very helpful as an ideas generation.. Dan had this presentation and exercise which I found helped clarify how to go about starting this unit, and what I want to achieve. It started off by writing down what I want to do after this unit, what I want to do in the future, what category do I like/ done well in, in the past. This defiantly helped me to narrow my search.

Thoughts:

- website?

- publications?

I am also thinking about a rebrand as there will be a large amount of outcomes I could produce to expand my portfolio with. Although it will have to be something I am interested in as this will last for 3 weeks.

I will now expand on what happened today, might think about the approach a bit more, at the moment I would be more interested in a typographic approach.

Professional project!!

Its here! I am quite nervous about starting this unit as it will result in a large proportion on my overall grade. I am however excited about carrying out the work over the next few weeks.

- I first need to come up with an idea which will sustain me over the next 12 weeks. Although this is quite daunting I have around 3 weeks to come up with my final learning proposal. I am not to sure how to go about starting this unit is it is critical that I start with a solid idea. Anyway I’ll think about this tonight and start ideas generation tomorrow. 

Hand in - Screen Based Communication 2 - Evaluation

I found this unit really exciting as I was learning how to create a website and I had never made one before. I designed a few pages for a furniture company in photoshop when I was on my work placement last year, and at the time I really wanted to see it function. I was also excited about create my own online portfolio as this could to help promote myself in the industry. I felt that I was a lot more motivated on this unit and I was putting in a lot more effort and I hope that my mark reflects that I have tried to push myself a lot more and I think that my website reflects this.

 

I am extremely happy with how my final website looked. I feel that I have worked really hard on this project and I think that my work reflects this (hopefully my mark will to), portrays me well as a graphic designer.

 

The main things I wanted my website to portray were: easy to navigate round – user friendly.

 

Also I did not want my final website design to overpower my work as the point of it is to show off my work. I think that I achieved this through using a neutral background colour, Type that complements the design. I was happy that I included animation in the website as I think it made the pages more interesting for the viewer, I did however not want to over use animation as this would only frustrate the browser, I think used a nice amount. 

 

Right now I cant see any improvements I would make to it, this it probably due to my time management as I made sure I was not rushing any stage of this unit. I left pleasant of time to make sure I am very happy and I am very proud of my website and think it’s to a high standard.

 

Possibly Live Brief Reply

Hi Alistair
I am not sure if your going to be able to assist with the web projects I
need done as our website is asp. However I also need someone to loop a DVD
for me urgently to be completed on Monday, tomorrow, as I am off to a trade
show on the Tues with the film. Are you able to assist with this or have
any contacts that may be able to help?
Thanks
Gemma

  
This was ok as I probably would not be able to meet the turn around on it as I would need to do some online tutorials etc as I haven’t used. asp before. 
  
I was quite surprised that she was asking for me to loop a dvd as it can be done in idvd or pretty much any burning software, as she needed it for the next day I responded letting he know that I was more than capable of doing that although I wouldn’t include it as a live brief!:
  
“Yeh Im not that familiar with asp. although looping the film is defiantly something I could help you with. I’ve done it before and it is fairly straight forward, ill be available to do it tomorrow if you still need someone to do it, please let me know.”   
  
I was not surprised when she didn’t get back to me, she probably found out how easy it was
      

Possible Live Brief - Technical Sport Product

 

I want to try carryout a ‘live brief’ before I start my professional project as I think that this will be a extremely important and busy time; I want to spend as much time as possible on that unit as I will also have Anna’s essay at that time as well.

 

While I was searching for a part time job on the internet I came across an advert for a company that needed a designer to edit some of there existing website and also to upload some video. The advert said that it is in ‘CMS’, this required me to carry out some research. I found that its more common with users with little/no knowledge of programming languages to create/manage content, Its primarily a site maintenance. I felt that with online tutorials and after a discussion with kitt and also briefly with Neil I could attempt this however I felt that it was important to be honest when I contact them and I got in touch:

 

“I am a student currently studying graphic design in Bournemouth, I have got an ‘abc’ qualification in Dreamweaver (website software using HTML) and have recently created another website in flash (website software using CSS) and I would love the opportunity to further my professional practice and expand my portfolio within web design. I am confident that I have the skills to create what you are looking for and would enjoy the experience.”

 

Final Critique

Today we had our final critique, I was looking forward to this as my website has come along way since the last critique, and I have change quite a few small things (but important). Also my website is now fully functional with animation and I have also started my gallery (doesn’t direct the viewer away from my page like lightbox does).

This is the main feedback from the crit:

-Much nicer and its developed a lot since the last crit.

-As the thumbnails (buttons) in my gallery are all landscape; try lining them along the bottom of the page.

-Contact page: don’t really need to state ‘Address, email’ etc as its quite obvious what they are.

I found that this crit has helped me to improve some of the visual elements, I found the comment on about moving the thumbnail practically helpful.  

Competition Brief Tutorial with Cattel

Today Ben, Rob, Chris (recently joined our group) and I had a tutorial with Catel and we showed her the work we had done which was mainly ideas and a couple of different concepts. She liked our ideas but recommended that we start visualizing them.

 

She preferred another idea of ours which was using splashing colour, collages of images people in the age range enjoy doing; this bursting with movement/ liveliness.

 

Our next stage is to think about things that we like doing (active) and other students enjoy, and look at incorporating them in our designs. 

Critique - Presentation of Ideas

 

Over the Christmas holidays I refined the drawings/ layouts and I have drawn them up to scale on screen to give me a better visual idea of what they will look like how the site will function etc.

Also I have decided on what software I will use, id been favoring flash but a few things made up my mind… I’m using a non ‘website’ font which I don’t want to comprise and also as my website is quite simple I was thinking about incorporating some light animation.

Yesterday I copied my homepage designs into Flash, and then I was working on developing a few animation ideas I had; I wanted to get some on screen so that I would be able to get some helpful feedback in today’s crit.

Today we had our critique - Presentation of ideas. This crit was very helpful. Feedback:

-Linking to a blog could deter a browser/ potential client as it could show negatives!

-The gallery should be the first link as it’s the most important section on a portfolio page.

Change:

-Wording ‘Portfolio’ sounds better than ‘gallery’.

-Liked the idea of the animation I showed, it would bring more to the site.

-Home button looks a bit condensed.

-Enlarge buttons slightly.

I found this crit to be extremely helpful as it gave me reassurance with the main style as people felt that was good. It also brought up a few little sections on the site to change. I also found it helpful to project it onto a big screen thought he projector as the kerning/leading became more obvious. 

Guest - Cattel

Today I had a guest lecture come in and talk to us about her work and, working in the professional environment. Although she is an illustrator and I plan to go into a graphic design I still found her presentation very helpful, These are some of the key points I noted from her slides: 

 

How to set up an illustration business (although the same sort of rule apply for graphic design.)

 

1. Define your market

2. Research potential clients

3. Address the right person

4. Self promotion

 

When sending work to art directors make sure the images are larger than A4 make your work original. Include feedback sheet when you sent your work, make it quite quick/ easy to fill out.

 

- www.illustrationmundo.com

 

-Once commissioned create a contract between you and the client clearly stating: an agreed fee and copyright

 

-Pricing: Don’t have a set hourly fee, ask clients how big there budget is first or how often the peace will be used …..make sure you set a agreed deadline to get paid e.g. within 30 days.