Drew, Interactive Media Student.

Friday, March 30, 2007

More Logo Related Japes.

Wednesday at college was a productive day. I kind of have mixed feelings about it though.

The day started off with us submitting our time plans, unfortunately my understanding was that we were submitting our completed time plans from the previous week and so I quickly had to produce one for this coming week.

Once the lesson began we knew that we were to present our logo designs that we had produced over the past week.

As I was the only one who slipped the net last week it was my good fortune to present my logos first, it was a bit tricky as I always think that you can get an idea of how to present your work from those who have gone before you, I had no fear of standing up and showing my ideas though and so I feel this was a real positive.

In my previous courses I have had experience of crits and so I am used to receiving constructive criticism.

What I found from showing my ideas is that people actually thought that my fourth idea was the best. This idea actually came third on my personal preferences and so I wasn’t completely happy with this outcome.

I then spent the day further developing the idea and made some real progress some interesting results came from playing around with the idea and some happy accidents occurred.

I found that by moving the shapes of my design so that they overlapped I had actually created the letters AW.


I am going to carry on developing the idea now until I have come up with a version that I am satisfied with. I think that I will be able to come up with a logo that I feel is the best standard but not one that personally is my taste, if I can do this then I will be satisfied with my ability as a designer that I am able to detach myself from my work, as I have done with this project.

Here is the latest version of my logo with the first version also please let me know of any improvements that you think I could make.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Going Logo

Logos were still the topic of conversation this week at college. When we first arrived in class we were given a brief recap on the main points raised in our lecture from last week.

After the recap we then took it in turns to go up to the board and show a logo that we have found whilst compiling our research.

People showed some interesting logos, I didn’t get to show one unfortunately as it was time for a break. Not that I’m complaining.

We were also given our CD of our chosen band or group, I was given my Black Dust CD, I didn’t get to listen to it till after dinner as I had to get my headphones from my car.

The CD was a bit of a relief after hearing the one that Rich got, his was a bit of a trance CD and I don’t think I would have lasted 5 minutes with that one, mine was a nice easy listening CD and I had a quite enjoyable time listening to it and working on my designs. I felt this was a relief and I am pleased that although it is not at all my taste in music that I will be able to listen to it in order to get a job done.

When we first came back from lunch we all had a group discussion on our time planning and the importance of getting this right, we all came up with a way of recording this that suited everyone. I am quite pleased that we got this sorted out as this is an area of my work which has suffered in the past.

I have now got to a stage where I have come up with quite a few different logo designs that I am quite pleased with, this is the first time I feel I have done justice to this stage of the design process. Looking at what I have produced this time I can see this amount of early development was lacking in previous projects. In the past I seem to have gone straight to the PC and played around with my design on screen which has meant all development of the final design has been lost along the way, this is due to not saving my progress.

When I take these initial ideas to the computer this time I will try my best to record this progress to put in my sketchbook.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Dusty

This week in college we were having another talk from a previous student, the talk was given by Marc Bowers.

Marc was really interesting to listen to, I feel that we got a really good idea of the way his office works and the work that he produces. He wasn't as confident stood up in front of us all as Jonny was but after a few minutes he warmed up and it all went really well.

Jonny seemed to have more freedom with his work from what I understood from his presentation, whereas in Marc's job role it seemed that he was restricted to laying his designs out inside a predesigned template.

Never the less it seems that Marc has done really well for himself and it always makes me aspirational meeting these ex students about where I might end up when I finish the course.

I class this week we were starting our new project and so we did quite a bit of theory work in the morning before Marc's talk and then some more later in the afternoon.

I had forgotten that we did this element as I think we have been doing quite alot of practical lately, when we started looking at slides and taking notes I was like... 'oh yeah' but then I don't remember much of what I did ten minutes ago.

It was really interesting to learn the theory of designing a good logo and I could immediately see that there is more to consider than just making it look 'pretty'. This is something I have done in the past not taking into consideration the different ways a logo will be reproduced.

Even looking at the logo I designed for Back to Basics, my Grass Roots logo, I can see now that it doesn't fill as much of the space surrounding in as it should meaning it doesn't have good presence and also the details of it are quite fine and so would be lost if it were reduced.

However I do think it was a success in that it would have a strong silhouette.

In the late afternoon we had to pick what song we were going to use for the new project, my choices seemed to have a magician theme; 1. Black Dust 2. Magic Diner 3. Solitaire

I am pleased to say that I have got my first choice, I just have to wait and see what the music will be like now.

I am looking forward to this project as it is, for HNC, a print based project and it will give me good opertunity to learn the rule of graphic design and using templates to place design elements. In my previous experience I have always just estimated my placement of objects by eye so I think this is going to be really valuable for me.

Very good week, gold star *

Friday, March 09, 2007

Over The Moon

It was the big day this week, we were handing in our first website. I had been so nervous over the past week making sure that I was going to get everything done and so to calm myself down I booked Tuesday off work to make sure I had a full day to myself to prepare the assignment.

I am really pleased that I did this as this was the most relaxed deadline I have had yet, all my previous hand ins on the course have been rather rushed. I do feel like I have finally triumphed with my time planning.

When I went in on Wednesday morning many of the class were already there and I was early, everyone was ready to get on with their work and we all started working before 9.

It felt really great to be able to put the finishing touches to my work on the morning and then after break take the time to just check through it all for those little mistakes that creep through. I felt really confident that everything was to the best standard of which I was capable and so I was ready for the submission at 12 o’clock.

Submitting at 12 made me feel like I had really achieved something as I had expected the whole class to have been submitting their work at 12 too and this was one of the factors that spurred me on to make sure that I would be ready at this time too.

I am really pleased with my website that I have submitted and the feedback I have had from everybody has been great.

Even when I show my friends they often comment that it looks professional in quite a surprised tone of voice, which is a bit of a backhanded compliment, but a compliment never the less.

I am really excited now about furthering my skills and making my next website, I think I will aim a bit higher and try something more complicated next time. If I shoot for the moon and miss at least I will land among the stars.

Overall I couldn’t be happier and I just hope that I have achieved all that was required.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Back to Back to Basic

On returning to college this week after our half term break we were all pleased to see that we had a new carpet, I personally didn’t notice but it was brought to my attention and it was very nice.

It had been good to have time off but also I was glad to be back as we are approaching the deadline now and I am looking forward to having my first website handed in and graded.

It is hard to believe that 3 months ago I wouldn’t have had the first clue as to how to how to produce and build a website, so it’s quite exciting now to be at the stage where my first one is finished.

I feel really eager to go on now and produce my next sight and I’m excited to hear what the new project might be.

This is the first time that we will hand in a project and then receive our new brief the following week so I think it will feel quite irregular as we usually take a break between briefs because of holidays. I feel that this won’t have any negative effect though as I have been used to this way of working in the past on my previous courses.

On Wednesday we were also given a talk by a previous student Johnny who has now found himself a very reputable job within a design company. The company produce sights for large corporations such as Morrison’s and the BBC.

It was really interesting to hear how Johnny works within the company and his experience he had trying to find himself the job in the first place.

The company seemed to contrast with ‘The Design Mechanics’ quite a lot. The contrast mainly was due to the design mechanics would have large numbers of clients with quick turn around and low prices. In this instance it seemed that they would take much more time over each website ensuring it was well worth the expense that a company would pay for it.

One of the surprises was to hear how much they would pay for a third party company to carry out user tests.

I have to say after this talk it made me want to aim for the highest I possibly can and I was in admiration of the position that Johnny had achieved.

After lunch we worked on our websites and Johnny stayed around for us to ask him for his help, which was useful.

Also Steve brought in a prospective student for next years HNC who I had a really good chat with and she seemed really nice.

Overall it was a good day.