Semester Three Nearly Over

As semester three draws to a close I am starting to feel ready for the world of work in the design industry.

Since we have started back we have undertaken various tasks which have helped to boost my confidence and strengthen my knowledge and abilities. Our first task was to produce and present a presentation of a Design Icon of the 20th or 21st Century. For this I chose the mini which I personally thought would be a great choice as it is something of a national treasure and has cult status.

The presentation I produced I was very happy with but unfortunately I practised this on my own and when it came to doing the presentation to somebody else I realised that saying the words to myself in my head was quicker than saying them aloud. What this underestimation resulted in was an overlap on the time allotted to me. I have now to do this presentation again which isn’t great news but I will chose to see it as an opportunity to improve…

What I will do this time to ensure this doesn’t happen again is rope in an unfortunate soul to listen to me practise my presentation. By doing this I will be able to gage accurately the time it will take. Also a problem I had last time was that I was referring to my notes too much so I will concentrate on learning the speech by heart this time also.

Overall this aspect of the semester was interesting, especially seeing what people chose as their icons.

Once the presentations were over we started the next aspect of the project which was in essence to come up with a product packaging without knowing the product until we had completed the design.

The purpose of this reverse design project was to help us tap into our inner creativity. Being creative is not always something I suffer from but I have still found this to be a really helpful exercise.

To help get our juices flowing, so that we could express ourselves, we all produced a CD of music that we felt would help us get into the groove. I really enjoyed doing this as it gave us an insight into each others tastes in music which I always think has a good reflection of a person’s character. The music brought about a nice change to the atmosphere in class which was one that was more relaxed, a relaxed atmosphere is something I definitely feel is required to be creative.

Initially I did find it hard to start; this was because we had absolutely no indication of where our design was to end up. This caused me a slight sensation of being lost because I could have drawn anything in the world and didn’t know which thing to draw first. In addition to feeling lost though this did add an element of excitement and it pushed all of us to come up with as many ideas as we could so that we could have a decent selection at the end of the process.

I was very pleased with the sketchbook work that I produced on this project and felt that having been very thorough with this part of the project enabled me to select the most appropriate theme/design for the resulting brief. The only thing that I might do different is to get off the starting block a bit quicker. Something that I always feel hinders me is that I tend to spend too much time perfecting one little drawing as I like to make each drawing look perfect. In addition to this I can stand my sketchbook not being sequential or when my ideas are mixed between pages. I tried to let go of this on this project and my sketchbook doesn’t appear to be in any kind of order and my ideas are spread all over. I think letting go of this has helped my creative process as often I won’t progress an idea because I have started another idea in the following page and so to progress the idea would mean that they were mixed together, this stresses me out because I like things to be consecutive.

The product we were finally given was the M5 Coke Bottle. This is a project that has been done by students in previous years and when I had seen their work for it I had been desperate to have a go so naturally I was very pleased by this.

I feel that my natural style of working was obviously well suited to this as I am somebody who likes to work with Vector art anyway and this was the brief. Students who had chosen the alternative option had been given the chance to design a vinyl toy. Although this looks really interesting I am so pleased I chose the Coke Bottle as I am much more interested in commercial design.

On this project I drew inspiration from various sources and looked to magazine cover design, T-shirt design and various Illustrators, I think it is important to look for inspiration in other peoples work in the design process.

There have been some interesting methods suggested along the term like the time the class all added a scribble each to a big sheet of paper. When the piece started going round I thought ‘this could end up looking really interesting’ unfortunately it looked like a child’s drawing.

Overall it has been a great second half to the semester which has flown by. I am looking forward to finishing my design and posting it on my website I only wish we were getting the opportunity to submit them to Coca-Cola.

Here is a copy of my design so far, feedback is welcome.

Skillset vs. BTEC

I am going to be comparing and contrasting the guidelines provided by BTEC and Skillset with the intention of deciding which I find to be most reliable, preferable and relevant.

Skillset is ‘The Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries’ and are funded by the Industry and Government. The purpose of their existence is to monitor the UK audio visual industry to ensure that it remains competitive which means making sure the right people have the correct skills for the right job.
(http://www.skillset.org/skillset/)

BTEC is part of Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body of qualifications, and it is their job to help people achieve qualifications in the field they choose to study. Edexcel work with Schools, Colleges, Universities and Employers and deliver qualifications around the world.
(http://www.edexcel.org.uk/about/)

Already we can see a contrast here; the two sets of guidelines are being provided with different target markets although they both have a common goal. It would appear that Skillset is concentrating on ensuring people have the right training to secure a job in their chosen field whereas BTEC are concentrating on getting Students qualified. In my current position as a student this is almost a conflict of interests. To ensure I am meeting the requirements of my course I need to stick to the guidelines of my examining body, however, to ensure my success and transition into the world of employment I also need to be aware of the guidelines of the Industry.

Looking at the Guidelines of BTEC I can see that they were last revised in March 2005. Although these revisions are not so long ago they appear to be revisions relating to the actual qualification rather than the skills required to achieve the qualification, this is something I fear is not regularly checked against what is happening in industry. The guidelines, however, are only a guide and seem to be quite none specific with what we must learn e.g. in regards to a specific programming language. It becomes more apparent to me now that the learning outcomes that we are provided in class are an interpretation of these guidelines and have been moulded to best suite our needs and goals.

The last Revision of the Skillset guidelines was actually done in November this year and the one that predates that was done in May 2005. The one from May seems to be very aware of Industry requirements, which isn’t a surprise given those who are involved in its existence. Based on these revision dates it would be the Skillset guidelines again that I would lean towards rather than BTEC as they are current.

When I have looked for employment in the industry I have always noticed THE list of programs with which a suitable employee must be familiar such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash and an ability to use CSS, this rarely differs. This is where the Skillset guidelines have another success as they seem to mention programs from this list as the ones needed to achieve your goals.

When I looked at BTEC for the list of Authoring tools they suggested Macromedia Director, Macromedia Authorware, Asymetrics Toolbook, mTropolis, I had to do a bit of research to see what these programs were as they are not programs I am familiar with, this could just be ignorance on my part but they are not programs that I have come across in my education or heard mentioned or even been referred to by peers or colleagues. Due to my own experience again I would be more inclined to trust the Skillset Guidelines as they match with what the industry requires of its employees.

A plus point for the BTEC guidelines would have to be that they are more in depth, this is due to the fact they offer more guidance on what should be submitted, links and also support materials. This approach suits me better as a student as it offers more support in terms of learning.

Contrasting this is the Skillset guidelines which are streamlined in comparison focusing mainly on the skills that the individual should have. One thing to point out would be that the Skillset guidelines quote specific job roles relating to specific learning outcomes this is a trick I think BTEC have missed as this helps you understand as a student where you can apply the skills you are learning (if it isn’t something you were already aware of).

In this instance I would sit somewhere in the middle edging slightly toward BTEC, it does appear that BTEC have provided four times the amount of content based on the amount of pages however when you consider the way the information is laid out you could probably realise that Skillset have been more economical with space.

Overall it is clear to see that I favour the guidelines provided by Skillset, the main point that seems to arise for me is relevance and although BTEC are my examining body in my current position I don’t feel that the guidelines offer an insight into the specific industry I am wanting to gain employment in. Skillset, for me, provides this insight and specific examples of where I can apply the skills that I am learning. In addition I can see the merits of both sets of guidelines and I would say that in my current position it is important to be aware of both of these. One provides insite into what I need to be achieving to pass the course and the other sets a goal for what what comes after I have passed the course.