Adobe Pagemaker

27/09/2006- After a week that flew by I went back to class today nervous, as usual, that I might not have done enough work. As always my fears were quashed as it turned out I had kept up to speed with everybody, thank god.

Today we were given a lecture on layout and how to design a grid to help us achieve a professional design, to teach us the basics of this we used a program called 'Adobe PageMaker'. I really enjoyed the lesson today as it was the first time we got onto to a computer and got to experiment with design, but in addition I feel I have picked up some very useful knowledge. Before we started the course it had been one of my objectives to learn about structured layout as, in the past, all my work has been done by eye and in fear of a ruler, so today was a definite bonus for me.

In the afternoon we got together in our discussion groups and talked about; what we had done so far, what we were going to do next and offered each other advice. I have been paired with Dean, a member of the class who is also doing the HNC version of the course, and I find it very beneficial to compare our work as we seem to tackle the project from different angles.

Overall today has been great and I came away from class feeling motivated.

Web Hosting

20/09/06- I had been slightly troubled in the lead up to this class, as it had been one of my weekly objectives to research web hosting. After looking at several sites I came to the conclusion that I was totally lost, they were talking about e-mail accounts and FTP. This all seemed foreign to me I could understand if I were offered one email account but some packages included up to 30. After attending class on Wednesday my worries were soon alleviated, we were given a lecture and things like FTP (File Transfer Protocol) were explained to us we learnt more in depth about what we would require regarding web space as the amounts of space on offer ranged from 100MB to unlimited amounts. After the lecture we were given time to work on our projects which is always useful, this was later followed by a lecture on reflective evaluation. We were given tips on evaluating ourselves, this I feel will be useful, as a major part of learning is looking back at where you have gone wrong and then learning from it in the future. Overall I left class on Wednesday feeling very much enlightened and very relieved, I felt ready to get going with web design and quite certain that a qualification in web design was not far out of reach.

Great Britons

Wednesday 13/09/06 was the first day of study on my new course in Interactive Media. It was a day of receiving lots of information and my first project brief. Initially we discussed 'what makes a good website?' to which we came up with more answers than I could have imagined, I felt that a quick loading time was one for the top of the list. After this discussion we delved into the topic a little deeper and discussed in full the definitive list, writing the notes for which resulted in writer’s cramp for most. The first project is titled 'Great Britons' for this we are to choose one of many people who are considered to be in the top 100 greatest Britons and then design a website about that person, the outcome is for us to learn how to plan the making of a website and for us to consider all aspects of design.

My Intentions

My career in design began in high school where I chose to study Art and also Design Technology, the subjects where I obtained my highest grades. I had always been interested in drawing from a young age and so this was a natural choice for me to make. Following high school I progressed to Pontefract NEW College where I studied Arts and Crafts, Media Studies and Technology. It was at this point I had decided that a career in the creative industry was something I wanted, as I had picked three very creative subjects. After completing my A levels the next stop was to discover which area of design I belonged to and so I came to Wakefield College to study in Art Foundation, on completion of the course I had decided that I was to study Illustration and so applied to University and was accepted at the University of Central Lancashire. On reaching the third year of University my work had developed and I had started to produce my work in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and had a look of fashion Illustration, a sleek and vibrant style similar to that found in magazines and advertisements. Having finished my three year degree obtaining BA Honours 2:2 I felt I was ready to join the design industry and set about applying to companies for positions in design. What I soon discovered was that the positions available required a wider range of program knowledge than I had obtained so far. Though I was slightly downhearted I remained determined and applied to Wakefield College to study Web Design, where I now hope to find the necessary skills to forward my career. I hope to learn a wide range of skills on the course and to further develop my existing skills the desired objective is to then find a job in a design company or department. I believe I can achieve this goal if I stay focused and complete this course with a good digital portfolio.