Drew, Interactive Media Student.

Summative Blog Entry

2008-05-13T12:01:00.001+01:00

When I look back to September 2006 at my first blog entry it doesn't actually seem that long ago. I can still remember sitting in class writing the entry and bizarrely it was in the seat in which I now sit in class, right next to the door.

Although it seems not so long ago in terms of time when I think about how far I have come since I started the course it seems like such a wider expanse of time.

When I came to college I had been graduated with an Illustration degree for a year and had been unable to break into the design industry with this qualification. I understood back then that the range of skills required to get into the industry needed to be wider than those which I had obtained.

On applying for the course I saw it as an opportunity to gain those skills, I wanted to improve my skills as a graphic designer, learn web design and improve my typography skills.

I feel that at the end of the course now I have fulfilled these goals and have achieved more skills than this on top.

My understanding of what web design was going to be about was quite naive, I don't think at the outset of the course I appreciated how much there was to learn and the different ways in which web design could be approached. Even now I understand that I still have so much to learn and that I have the basic skills on which I now must develop a greater understanding.

One area that I have made a steady progression with is CSS, each time I implemented CSS I felt that I had mastered it only to find on the next project that I hadn't and needed to learn more. On completion of the course I am at the stage where I am happy with using CSS and feel my understanding of it is at a professional level.

I feel that I have achieved this level on a steady learning curve by regular implementation of it throughout the course.

At his point in time I am able to write much of this code without reference and I am pleased with this achievement.

Something that has been a constant battle for me on the course has been my time management. The reason I feel I have struggled with this is that I came from an educational institution where our time was not monitored and so I found it hard to adapt to this way of working and making strict regular breaks in work to make a record of what I had done. I am not sure if this is something I will ever be comfortable doing but I have definitely seen the benefit of the planning of my time.

These two issues are things that I raised with my blog entry from the beginning of the second year. A goal of mine for the second year of the course to achieve an average grade of a Merit, I identified that to do this I would need to improve my time planning.

Without having received all of My grades yet I am unsure whether I have met this goal but I do feel that since the first year I made a big improvement with my time planning and this could be seen in the quality of my work.

Another goal set for myself in the second year was to improve my understanding of CSS and as I have mentioned I feel that this has been achieved through regular emphasis on the learning if it.
I stated that at the end of the course I would be looking to enter a job in the industry immediately and my position on this has not altered. I wish to seek employment in a Graphic Design role as soon as I can and ideally it would be a role that required me to do both Print and Web design as I enjoy both.

I am now applying for Design Jobs within the West Yorkshire region and hope to find a job in the industry. My ultimate goal for the future would be to work my way up in a design company to the level of lead designer and having gained experience within a large design company I would one day consider running my own company.

At the moment I would not like to work freelance as I do not feel confident yet to do this without having first gained some industry experience. In addition I feel that working within somebody else’s company would teach me a lot about how I could run my own company.

At an overall look at what my objectives were on starting the course and where I am now I feel that this has been a success. I feel that I have achieved what I came here to do and feel confident that I will be able to work in the industry. I have been tested along the way but I am proud of my portfolio of work and the knowledge that I now possess about Interactive Media.

Summative Blog Entry

2008-05-13T10:11:00.003+01:00

CD3

2008-05-03T14:15:00.002+01:00

1. Feel Good Time - Pink Featuring William Orbit
2. Black Betty - Ram Jam
3. More Than a Feeling - Boston
4. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
5. Strict Machine - Goldfrapp
6. Platinum Blonde Life - No Doubt
7. We Love Your Apathy - Skunk Anansie
8. Supervixen - Garbage
9. Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
10. Mouthwash - Kate Nash
11. Love Shack - B52's
12. 4 Minutes - Madonna (feat. Justin Timberlake)
13. Since You've Been Gone - Rainbow
14. Rain - Madonna

SDV3

2008-02-27T16:14:00.003Z

Screen design for home page version 3

Screen design for portfolio page version 3

Screen design for contact page version 3

Portfolio Screen Design V2

2008-02-20T19:25:00.004Z

Here is version two of my screen designs for my portfoilio. I have taken into consideration the points raised with the last version and made changes.

Please let me know what you think.

CD 2

2008-02-18T23:51:00.001Z

1. Ready To Go (U.S. Mix) – Republica (First Album Track)
2. Teenage Dirtbag - Girls Aloud (Cover Version Track)
3. At Last - Etta James (World Music Track)
4. Gimme More - Britney Spears (Pop Music Track)
5. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Mozart (Classical Track)
6. You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi (Rock Track)
7. Lucky Star – Madonna (Personal Choice)
8. 99 Problems - Jay-Z (Rap Track)
9. Prologue (Little Shop of Horrors) - Little Shop of Horrors (Musical Track)
10. Hey Scenesters! - The Cribs (Local Track)
11. Girl - Robots In Disguise (Electro Track)
12. Pumpkin Soup - Kate Nash (Most Recent Album Track)

Screen Designs Version 1

2008-02-14T23:39:00.005Z

Here are my first screen designs for my portfolio. Please give me any advise that you have to offer in terms of layout or design. Any ideas of what I do with the design in terms of Flash or other technologies would be appreciated.

Competitive Analysis Portfolio

2008-02-06T17:10:00.001Z

Professional- http://www.outofthetrees.co.uk/index.php

This site belongs to ‘Out of the Trees’ which is a collective of freelance designers.

This site starts out with a standard home page that fills the screen. It has a brief description of what they can offer and an image and testimonial of previous clients which randomises each time you visit.

My first thought is that the page, although provided all the necessary information looks to spread out and that the content is too weighted to the left with a large gap in the lower right. This is subject however to the site having a variable width and when I reduced the size of my window the site actually looked much more appealing. I can understand the benefits of a variable width but personally I would want to ensure that my design was being viewed at its best by the majority. As far as I am aware most people wouldn’t be viewing this on an 800px width screen.

The main section of the site is the portfolio section where you can view examples of their work. I think they have got the navigation of this site spot on. The number of examples they have put on is not too many to put you off looking through and is enough to provide you with a decent choice to sample.

The way in which they have laid this out is to provide a snippet of each image in a small square. The squares are animated and enlarge once hovered over and by clicking you are taken to another page.

The page then provides further details about that brief and you can view the image in its entirety by clicking on its file name. The image opens in Lightbox. I like the fact that they have used Lightbox as I think this is an effective way to display work as it doesn’t mean navigating away from a page. I personally feel that keeping the amount of navigation low is priority and that by doing this you keep your viewer happy. I dislike it when I go onto a site and I have to hit back ten times to go back to my search results or a previous page. It would be something I will keep in mind on my own site to keep this to a minimum; I think a good way of doing this is to have links open in new windows as theses can be closed once the page has been viewed. I think that using Lightbox is something I will also want to incorporate into my own site as this will also mean that viewers won’t have to navigate far from my homepage.

Overall I think this site is successful; it has a tasteful colour scheme, simple navigation and good content. The only downside is that I think that should have tried to keep the number of page transitions lower once looking at the portfolio. Once in the Portfolio and having clicked on the image I want to view I think it is unnecessary to have to find a further link and click that to finally view the image. I think it would be much smoother viewing to have it instantly pop up. Obviously they have written content to accompany their images which is why they have done this but I am sure that another arrangement could have taken place so that if you wanted to read further you could then navigate to that information.

Student- http://cleanandeasydesign.co.uk/index.html

Clean and Easy Design is the portfolio site of Paul Mackenzie who is a current student at Leeds Met University.

Firstly I like the look of this site, the colour scheme reminds me of my own ‘Grass Roots’ page. The layout and style remind me of www.adobe.com with the use of the drop shadow and at the bottom of the page there are some icons that show what he is proficient in which are not unlike Adobes own.

Despite the similarities I think this is a strong design for a portfolio, the separated sections break up the content which makes it appear more interesting and less of a chore. What I do feel is that it is almost twice as long as it should be for a home page. Personally I think that a home page should be a brief introduction to the site on which no scrolling should be required.

Once you click on the Portfolio section the site maintains its overall look and you move seamlessly to the portfolio section. My main concern would be that all the content is off screen but this isn’t a great concern.

One thing I did notice is the spelling mistake of the word University and also that he has pointed us to the left of the portfolio page to see contact details even though this is actually found on the right.

Other than a few minor errors such as this I feel this is a really strong site in itself although the work it is promoting isn’t as strong. The best piece on the site is the site promoting the villa which has taken a possibly dull site and make it look contemporary and fresh.

http://www.holidaycyprusvilla.co.uk/ what I would say about this though is that to view this site, by default, you have to do it within the same window which means if you want to have a good look around going back and forth through pages you are not getting back to his home page in a hurry, this unfortunately happened to me.

Overall I think this site is really strong and I even had a look at the CSS to see how he has set his navigation to show the selected page which as it turns out is just going a .selected version of your navigation. This site has definitely given me some food for thought.

Delivery Requirements Portfolio

2008-01-30T16:12:00.000Z

Initially I would need access to a computer with the usual set up; keyboard, mouse etc. The systems I would use to make the website would be Dreamweaver 8, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 and Flash CS3, the reason for the use of each of these versions is due to them being the versions that I own. Also I would need access to an internet connection to upload the site via FTP; I would do this from my local computer, on which I would design the website.

The first technology that I’ll be using to produce the site will be XHTML 1.0 Strict. I will be using this to produce the basic documents which hold my content; I have chosen to use Strict to show a better understanding of the mark-up.

The content will be styled by CSS, I will be using CSS to enable me to keep file sizes small and make coding faster. In addition CSS should provide a better result for my portfolio in search engines and help me to adhere to the W3C guidelines 1.0. The version of CSS I will use is CSS 1 and widely implemented features of 2 as they are the most widely supported version in current browsers.

When I am using Flash to produce elements of my web page I will be using Flash CS3. Should the elements produced contain actionscript it will be implemented in Actionscript 3.0 as this is the latest version of the language which is supported in Flash Player 9.

PHP 5 will be used if I am to use a form element on my portfolio and also if I want to password protect sections of the site. I am using this version of PHP as this is the latest version that is supported by my web host. I will also use PHP to enable people to contact me in on a form page.

Target Audience for my Portfolio

2008-01-23T17:07:00.000Z

Target Audience 1

Audrey is a 40 year old female member of the board of examiners for BTEC, her pay is based on a per visit basis and would receive £100 for one of these visits. Audrey also works part time with computers on a day to day basis, within her working hours she would mainly use it for email and word processing. Her online experience is somewhere between newbie and experienced as she has little time outside of her working life to use a computer as she is married with two children to whom she devotes most of her free time. Her online activity would range between 4-6 hrs per week. Her connectivity is through her works computer and occasionally her home computer to check emails both of which use a modem connection. She has an 8mb broadband connection, internet explorer 7 and a 17” monitor. The types of sites visited are Amazon, Yahoo Mail, Ebay, Tesco online and Wikipedia. Online purchases are very rare and would only be one every two months.

Target Audience 2

Seymour is a 35 year old male who is Lead Designer within a medium sized design company based in London. Seymour earns £50k per annum and works in an open plan office with his team of designers. Seymour lives with her long term fiancé in a flat on the outskirts of London and commutes to work on the train. He takes an active interest in technology and the creative arts but also takes an interest in football and socialising with friends. At work Seymour uses a desktop Mac to do various design jobs but also has a Laptop provided by the company for which he uses email and the internet outside of working hours. His internet access is through Firefox and uses an 8mb modem connection. Seymour uses the internet to access email, browse competitors, carry out research and shop online. Sites visited are Corbis, Yahoo, Itunes, Play, Amazon, ASOS and Halifax. Online purchases would be between 1 and 2 per week. Seymour accesses the internet regularly for up to 5 hrs per day and is very savvy with internet use.

Target Audience 3

Matthew is a 30 yr old male Dentist who owns his own apartment in Spain. Matthew, outside of his own use of his apartment, lets it out to people who wish to book their own flight and accommodation for their holidays. The site is the primary and only source of the apartments advertising and is in need of a redesign as it lacks in a professional and aesthetically pleasing appearance. Matthew uses the internet to bank online and uses email but doesn’t have very much use of it outside of this. He uses a desktop PC from home with a 20” widescreen that has a 2mb broadband connection and uses Internet Explorer 7. His online activity ranges between one and two hours per day and he is experienced within his use. He enjoys time with friends in his spare time and is currently in a long term relationship.

Refined Goals

2008-01-22T21:48:00.000Z

1. To design a site that meets the requirements of W3C guidelines 1.0

2. To create a website in XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.1 that validates at http://validator.w3.org/.

3. To incorporate original content in the design of the webpage.

4. To produce a website that is appropriate and aesthetically pleasing to the target market.

These are my refined goals. I have made amendments in response to comments and suggestions received, and removed original goal no.2 as it was felt that this was a prerequisite. I feel the only goal now that should need further clarification is goal 4. In this goal I still intend to gain feedback during the interview process, if I apply for a job and receive an interview then I will consider my portfolio a success in respect of this goal. However when asked at the end of the interview if there are any other questions I will use this as an opportunity to gain feedback on my work and portfolio, but as I am at an interview in the first place I would assume I had achieved this goal anyway. If I was not offered an interview or did not hear from a company after an application I would use this as a reason to contact the employer via phone or email and ask for their observations and feedback. This would all take place after the course finishes which, I understood, is an acceptable time for these goals to be measured as this is the final project and we are looking to produce something that will aid us in looking for employment.

Goals For My Portfolio

2008-01-16T16:23:00.000Z

1. To design a site that meets with the W3C guidelines for accessibility.

The site I produce needs to be compliant with these standards so that it is professional and to a standard of employability. By incorporating these standards it will show awareness to prospective employers but also make the site accessible to the largest possible audience. Things to consider would be alt tags and ensuring there were no broken links. This could be tested with users tests.

2. To design a website that has a consistent layout.

The website would need to be consistent in layout so that when users are navigating the pages they are confident that they have not navigated away from the home site and gone to a new site. Feedback for this goal could be gained from user testing.

3. To create a website in XHTML 1.0 transitional.

I will be using this technology as it is what I have produced work in previously and am confident in using. This goal will be easily measured by using the validating service provided on the W3C site.

4. To incorporate some original content in the design of the page.

With this goal I mean to say that I will be creating a portfolio that is itself a piece of design work and I plan to create original pieces of design to further show my potential as an employee. This would be easily measured as I would provide the sketchbook work to back up my design process.

5. To produce a web page that is appropriate and aesthetically pleasing to the target market.

I need to ensure that the design is pleasing to the target market as they primarily will be prospective employers and course tutors. The importance of this goal is that it will contribute to my employability. This would be measured by gaining feedback from prospective employers; I would do this by asking for feedback when going through the interview process if the feedback wasn’t offered freely.

Semester Three Nearly Over

2007-12-12T14:53:00.000Z

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

2007-12-05T17:15:00.000Z

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.

Neon!

2007-11-26T22:50:00.000Z

Thought this was really useful...

I wanted to create a neon sign effect for our current project and was looking for a font to do this but this is so much more effective. Also it is really simple.

Find the tutorial here... http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/cb/neon-sign.html

Track List

2007-11-26T22:42:00.000Z

Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse, Back To Black
I Know It - Madonna, The First Album
Footloose - Kenny Loggins, Foot Loose Soundtrack
Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis, Costello Music
Good Stuff - Kelis, Kaleidoscope
What You Waiting For ? - Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby
Standing In The Way Of Control - The Gossip, Standing In The Way Of Control
Celebrity Skin - Hole, Celebrity Skin
My Sharona - The Knack, Reality Bites Soundtrack
The Great Escape - We Are Scientists, With Love And Squalor
Cheap Honesty - Skunk Anansie, Post Orgasmic Chill
New - No Doubt, The Singles 1992-2003
Superfreak - Rick James
Filthy/Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters
Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club, Fantastic Playroom
Easy Lover - Phil Collins, Hits
Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders, The Singles
In The Waiting Line - Zero 7, Garden State Soundtrack

Do You Love Blite?

2007-11-14T19:53:00.000Z

My favourite colour combination would have to be Blue and White. Firstly this would be because my favourite colour is blue; blue is a calm and relaxing colour at the same time as being vibrant. In addition white is a clean colour, white compliments any colour that accompanies it which is often why it is used for background as not to take anything away from whatever is being displayed.

The most recent, and probably most famous, advocate of Blite is Apple. They have based a renaissance of their company on this with the famous apple logo in blue laid on a white background.
(Pic http://www.floridaventureblog.com)

The mood that this colour combination creates is one that is cool and refreshing, not only this; it also looks modish and tasteful. Although this combination has these connotations there are examples of where Blite looks classic and refined this can been seen in the popular Willow Pattern design.

(http://library.thinkquest.org/)

I believe the combinations main attraction is its fresh and peaceful ambience. This could be due to the association it has with the sky which conjures up thoughts of floating clouds rolling over scenic views.

(http://thor.info.uaic.ro/~busaco/photos/good-bye-blue-sky/index.html)

This colour combination is also well known as the colours for the Scottish Flag and so it has history routed there. We all saw Mel Gibson with his face painted white and Blue in Braveheart.

(www.mod.uk/.../Health/Scotland.htm)

And so I would have to advise that if you were looking for a colour combination to boost your sales, improve your product image or just add a touch of class then you should pick the combination of Blue and White = Blite a proven winning combination.

A Visit to YSP

2007-11-07T17:05:00.000Z

Today was our return to college and, after the morning was spent doing presentations, we all went on a group trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Bretton.

The Park spans over a large piece of land and is surrounded by farm land which means crossing many sheep or cow filled fields and ensuring you close lots of gates. When we first arrived the group decided to split so I went exploring with Ben and Rich.

As we hadn’t passed anywhere to pick up a map we just set off to explore taking photos of statues as we went. The route we chose started off a bit sparse and we only came across a few statues before we had crossed the Dam Head Bridge.

Once we had crossed the bridge we noticed a sign for the Longside Gallery which we thought would be worth viewing. So we began along the ‘Route to Longside’. Unfortunately for us we hadn’t realised how long this would take and it ate up a lot of our time getting there. We did venture off track a few times as there were side tracks that were slightly misleading; however this was due to Rich’s internal compass rather than my own.

Even though I complained a lot along this long path we did come across two pieces that were hidden gems that we all thought were great. There was a sculpture at the beginning of the route which was an iron girder that had been twisted into the shape of a barrel. The second thing that we came across was Winter/Hölbelt – Basket #7.Oxley Bank, this was great as we could go inside it and look at the view across the whole park. The building was made up of sheets of metal that had square holes in so the wind would sweep through the building whilst you were inside. I felt this was one of the better sculptures as it was more of a physical experience.

Once we finally reached the Longside Gallery we notice it was home to an exhibition of work by Andy Goldworthy. If I am honest I didn’t like this exhibition as I couldn’t see what point was being made by the work. The pieces were a set that consisted of a piece of canvas or other material being placed on the ground with an spherical stone placed in the centre, it had then been trampled on by sheep leaving hoof marks left in mud and faeces. I was not a fan.

Also in this gallery though there were some interesting works produced by Tony Ziegler who had made large objects from card and paper. This was to explore the relationship between the computer generated and the handmade. This was my favourite work that we saw today.

In addition to this exhibition we saw more work by Andy Goldsworthy at the Underground Gallery. This was much more impressive work which was thought provoking; when we saw the Leaf Stalk Room we were all taken aback by it contemplating the amount of time that must have gone into producing it.

Overall it was a valuable experience visiting the park and the time flew by. I felt that the work we viewed in some cases was inspiring but in others I was a little confused by it but then I believe this is the nature of art to either love it or hate it. We have discussed as a group; is sculpture art? Personally I would say it is I think there are many grey areas between art and design but I feel that sculpture is a method or expressing a thought or feeling or provoking these in the audience which for me settles sculpture firmly in the side of art.

Three Personal Tracks of Mine

2007-10-26T18:30:00.000+01:00

This is a pre-emptive blog entry for the coming Wednesday as I am going away with my family so won’t be here to make the entry, if I get chance I will be checking back over the course of the week to offer comments but if not I will be adding them when I return.

When I was selecting my track list for our creative sessions at college I tried to keep in mind that it needed to be eclectic and so I have picked songs that range from my childhood through to current date.

The three songs I have chosen to mention are those that I feel I have the most to talk about. In most cases my favourite songs are so because they remind me of a certain person, time or place and sometimes it’s because of a scene in a movie. These are the type of tracks that will make up the rest of the list.

The first track I have chosen to talk about is ‘I Know It’ by Madonna. Madonna has always been someone who’s music I have enjoyed since I was very young and I have grown up listening to it. This track is taken from her first album and is one that I have listened to more than any others lately. She has always been an artist who has changed as I’m sure everyone is familiar. Honestly I would say I’m not a very big fan of her last two albums and do prefer her very pop friendly earlier work in the eighties and nineties. I think Madonna is someone who is often controversial though in the past it seemed more purposeful as she actually had a point to make. In her earlier career some of the stunts she pulled were much more thought provoking such as the Pepsi campaign where she got Pepsi to advertise their drink with pictures of burning crosses, which obviously outraged the Church. Madonna is sometimes referred to as ‘Madge’ this is short for ‘Her Majesty’ she was named so after a certain Magazine labelled her ‘Our Leader’.

The second track I am going to talk about is ‘Good Stuff’ by Kelis a song that was a favourite of mine when I was in my late teens. This track is taken from Kelis’ Debut album ‘Kaleidoscope’ and it is an album on which I like every track which is quite a rare thing to find. This album was produced by the Neptune’s who also were a performing collective known as N.E.R.D. The Neptunes are still producing; however they are no longer making records as N.E.R.D. People may be more familiar with one member of the group Pharrel Williams who can sometimes be seen bobbing around Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears or Gwen Stefani videos, as he has been one of the most popular producers and guest vocalists in pop of recent years, and is the person who wrote this track. This is one of the first examples of their music going mainstream and I was a fan of a lot of the music they went on to produce. Kelis unfortunately didn’t continue with the recognition that she had achieved with this album.

The last track that I am going to discuss is ‘Tears Dry on Their Own’ by Amy Winehouse. This is from her album Back to Black which is one of my favourite albums of late. I liked this track before it was released as a single but I like it even more now that I’ve seen the music video, this is something that usually happens with me, a good video can make a song seem better I think. The video is one that has been produced by David La Chapelle, someone that I have mentioned in a previous blog as a hero of mine and I think it fits with Amy’s personality perfectly. Amy Winehouse was somebody that I noticed a good few years ago on TV but not so much as an artist but as a ‘talking head’ who always had an outrageously funny opinion on something. Unfortunately she is known these days more for her celebrity than her music, although her music is critically acclaimed.

The Year So Far

2007-10-24T16:28:00.000+01:00

On returning to college this year I was a bit nervous having had my first encounter with CSS. Not only this, but over the summer we had been given a project to where we had no guidance in the form of class lectures.

This was a real test and in some areas of the project I was pleased with the work that I produced, however in others there were a few issues that needed ironing out afterwards. This did have a knock on effect on the following few weeks in which I had to combine my current work load with amending some errors in previous work.

I feel I coped with this well; one benefit I felt from this was that I feel it strengthened my knowledge of CSS going back and reworking the page I had already produced. However in the future I do not intend to have this happen again and I have strived very hard in the A9 Box Clever project to make sure that I get this correct first time round.

What I worked on this semester was to make a time plan each week and even if I didn’t stick to it rigorously I made a concerted effort to complete the tasks I had set myself for that particular week.

This has been something that has previously affected my work greatly and something I have never managed to get quite right. However in the project A9 Box Clever I feel I have achieved my goal and have never had so much sleep the night before deadline.

On this project I feel that I have not only made leaps of progression with my time planning but also with my written work. This is the first time I have sat in class with a different group of people; it has really helped sharing methods of working. I have made an effort to note in my written work all my references at the time of writing so it is not such an effort to do at a later date. This is a time saving method and probably something you might do naturally, unfortunately it is something that has only just become apparent to me but is definitely the way in which I will work in the future. In addition to this the learning journal exercise in which we had to produce condensed written work helped me to produce a more concise essay helping me identify terms such as ‘I think’ in written work as unnecessary.

The area in which I am most proud of myself is the knowledge I have picked up on the subject of CSS. Combined with the research into its history and its future my practical ability has been enhanced.

Although I have learnt so much I know I still have much more to learn. The page I completed for this assignment can be seen at –

www.drewellis.co.uk/shuffle_page.html

I am very pleased with the look of the page and I like the design, I did want to include some more design elements but unfortunately an image I added was causing layout problems. This is hopefully something I will come to understand at a later time.

The reason I left it out was that I had got my design work finished earlier than expected and so I wanted to see if I could improve on the design and tried to add it in after. This is something that obviously isn’t as simple as drag and drop and it didn’t work out.

My knowledge on CSS became apparent when I was asked to produce a site in CSS as part of a job interview I had. I was given two evenings in which to make the site and ended up spending about seven hours on it as to get it handed in on time. I had to sacrifice time which I would usually spend on design to ensure I got the technical side of things correct.

I have uploaded it to www.drewellis.co.uk/yorkshire_water.html

Please take a look and feel free to offer comments. My ability to produce this in such a short period of time has given me a confidence boost and, though at this point in time I have not heard whether I have got this position, I feel that I gained something by going for it even if it doesn’t work out.

The thing to learn from this semester so far would be; my time planning is more important than I give it credit for and has an effect on the quality of the work I produce. What helped me with my time planning was being provided with a schedule the college sessions, in being given this information I was able to see more clearly what I should have finished and by when.

Also I need to make sure that the way in which I complete tasks is the most efficient way of doing things by comparing with peers.

Overall I feel that this has been a fast paced and informative half semester and I look forward to getting back and developing further. In addition the next project looks to be a very interesting one which should test all of us and our creative abilities.

Interview Part Two

2007-10-10T19:29:00.000+01:00

Describe yourself in 3 words

Colourful, Artistic, Driven

How would you measure the effectiveness of Interactive Media products?

I would measure the effectiveness by conducting user tests and gaining feedback. I would have the product tested with its target audience to gain feedback. In addition if it were a website I was testing I would test it in several different browsers to ensure that it was performing correctly in each of them.

How would you handle criticism?

I am not unfamiliar with receiving criticism; in my educational experiences I have studied in artistic subjects where I have had to be involved in many group critiques and so I am used to receiving opinions of others on my work both good and bad. Also I am aware that when somebody gives their opinion they are offering you a chance to improve your work and so it is meant as a positive thing. I would not take criticism negatively due to these factors.

Describe a difficult problem you have encountered and how you have solved it?

Whilst studying interactive media I have been faced with problems on various occasions when it has come to self study. One of these occasions would be when I had to make my first ever website, I had no previous knowledge and I was finding this very difficult. I overcame this by making numerous attempts at my website and each time I made a mistake I would start over instead of looking for a quick fix. I found that in doing this I was able to learn the subject in depth and it also ensured that the final product performed perfectly. I found this was time consuming but in the end very rewarding.

Describe how you fit into a team.

As I am quite a driven, decisive, diplomatic person I would say that firstly I’d contend to be the leader in a team or group of people. However if I am not the most suitable person for that role then I am a very good team player and am always willing to play a supporting role.

Do you have any other questions?

Will there be much opportunity for promotion within the company?

Do you have any bonus or incentive schemes?

What was the reason for the position becoming available? Is the company growing?

Interactive Media Position - Revisited

2007-10-07T22:06:00.000+01:00

I found the previous exercise very useful as it has refreshed my memory on the things that I need to consider when looking for employment.

Writing about my strengths and weaknesses gave me chance to take a step back and analyse myself and the way I work. Personally I dislike writing about myself in this way knowing that it will be read by everybody as I don’t like to come across too self confident but it isn’t an occasion to be modest when applying for a job, you have to be ruthless.

Given that I had these feelings I still feel I did the task justice. I felt that the best way to address the weakness point was to put a positive spin on it also as not to talk the employer out of employing me.

When it came to writing about my hero I decided to go with one of heroes in the design world as I am not very familiar with people in the web design industry so this has highlighted for me that this is something that maybe I should brush up my knowledge on. This was backed up when I had to mention a new technology that I was excited about. My knowledge on this area was limited and so I had to mention CSS3 as this was something we had recently learnt in class.

Going forward I will have to extend my knowledge, hopefully this is something that would happen naturally anyway as I continue to be involved in the industry.

Overall though I feel that I completed the task with success and am pleased with the response that I gave.

Interactive Media Position

2007-10-03T17:30:00.000+01:00

Job Title: TRAINEE WEB DESIGNER

Location
BURTON-ON-TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE

Hours
MON-FRI, 9-5

Wage
13000 - 15000

Work Pattern
Days

Employer
Devmac Systems Ltd

Closing Date
12/10/2007

Pension
No details held

Duration
PERMANENT ONLY

Link:http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/Internet/viewVacancy.do?selectedVacancy=75&ref=BTR/7204

Why do I want this job?

I want this job as I am keen to join a design company and work in a position in web design. This position offers me the opportunity to implement the skills I have recently acquired but also provides the chance to further develop my skills. I am a creative individual and so a position such as this would give me an outlet to be creative in a beneficial way.

Greatest Strength

My greatest strength is my creative skills. I am able to develop and produce work that is of a high standard and that is commercial. I am able to adapt to any brief and produce work to the best standard and offer the most suitable solution. My work is fashionable and I am aware of the current trends in popular culture which means my work always appears to be modern however I am also able to work to briefs and provide designs that look corporate or whatever else is required. In addition to this I am a fast learner who is capable of picking up new skills quickly.

Greatest Weakness

A weakness of mine is that I am a perfectionist when it comes to my design work and can sometimes spend too much time on the creative elements of my work which means that other areas can suffer.

Where will I be in 5 years?

In five years time I plan to be working for a design company in the area of graphic/web design. I plan to be at least at a medium level of employment at this time. The company would be one that had major clients and would have a good reputation in the design industry.

What current Interactive Media innovation excites me most?

Currently I am most excited about CSS level 3 as it promises to provide solutions to current issues experienced with level 1 and 2.1. CSS3 will allow web designers to be more creative in their approach to web design as there won’t be as many things to hinder them. In addition it offers support for more devices.

Who is your Hero/Heroine?

A hero of mine would be David La Chapelle as I feel that his work is very inspiring and a great mark of popular culture. David La Chapelle has provided covers for Rolling Stone and produced music videos for various Music Artists. I feel that he leads the way in creativity and I am a big fan of his work.

Design Mechanics Talk

2007-09-26T17:40:00.000+01:00

Dave Pannell (Director) advised when applying for a job the following should be considered; that work must be commercial and appropriate to the company plus a good knowledge of the company is required. Also I found it reassuring hearing the opinion of somebody in the design industry who could advise me how to submit an application. This was to submit a CV digitally and electronically and this should be followed up with a phone call, failure to do this meant they would not be contacted. In addition a strong portfolio was considered above a qualification.

In The Deep End

2007-09-19T17:29:00.000+01:00

Whilst away from college for the summer it felt as if I had been away forever, I had forgotten about college and was relaxing. Now that I am back it feels as though I have never been away.

I feel that I have settled back in well and I am pleased to be back even though a few friendly faces are missing.

I can definitely feel a difference between this year and last in terms of work. Last year we seemed to have longer to ease ourselves into the course but this year we have dug straight into our first project. It feels a bit like jumping in at the deep end. Having said that we have already been taught to swim…

The current project we are undertaking requires us to implement CSS in a design. I have been excited to learn CSS from the start of the course. Now that I am actually learning it I can’t believe how fast we seem to be progressing.

Over the summer I looked into CSS (as required) and I have to admit I found myself doubting my ability to finish the course. Now that I am having lectures on it I feel as though I understand it and that I am learning, I think were I asked to do the summer project again now I would have half as much trouble as I did have.

By way of teaching us CSS we have been having lectures in class which are usually followed with a practical exercise in which we are asked to use the information provided.

I feel this is a great way to learn as it can often be difficult to grasp something when information is provided verbally. When we are able to transfer this information to a practical session it provides a way to experiment and this can often help me to come up with questions that hadn’t previously occurred to me.

The project we are undertaking is to edit an html document using an external CSS document. We are to provide a style for the document using one of seven possible themes.

Pencil and Paper
Graffiti
Newspapers
Industrial
1950's
Black & White
Fruit

Immediately I was drawn to 1950’s as this initially conjured up the most visual responses in my mind but to acquire the best grade and achieve the best results I know that I have to explore all avenues thoroughly. Doing a few brainstorms provided me with some great responses to four of the categories but the ones I will be taking forward are the 1950’s and Black and White.

My main idea for 1950’s would be to do a design based on Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ and my idea I will develop for Black and White will be a design based on Punk Rock.

I have shown my ideas to my peers and have feedback; the feedback received was that my ideas for the Black and White design were the strongest.

The implantation of CSS in a web page only forms part of the current task we must undertake; in addition we are required to write two essays about CSS.

The first essay was to write about the effect of software and hardware on the use of CSS. I have nearly completed this task now and it has made me see the benefits of using CSS and why it is so popular with companies who are seeking new employees.

Having almost completed this section of the project at such an early stage is a refreshing change for me, I have already put the written work into the template which for me is usually something that is at the bottom of the ‘to do’ list. I can now definitely see the benefit of getting this done sooner rather than later and although I have been nudged in this direction it will definitely be something I will ensure I do in the future.

Another benefit I have had from getting my written work completed at this stage is that I have been able to ask John to read through it. In doing this he has provided me with alteration to make which will benefit my written work, this isn’t something I have done in the past.

Now that I have got this done (with a few changes to make) I can look to correct a few mistakes I have made on my summer assignment. I realise that had I worked in a more structure way, as I am in this project, some of these errors would not have occurred.
Overall I feel that this semester is off to a good start, obviously the written work isn’t exactly excited but I can see the information is relevant. I am looking forward to designing my CSS page for the CSS Beauty ‘competition’, I do think it would have been exciting if the competition had been running and I would have like to have entered a design.

What my study means now and in the future.

2007-09-12T17:29:00.000+01:00

Personal Development Planning

I have developed my skills, on the course, in this area. The skills I have picked up are being able to self evaluate and also to plan for what I want to achieve in the future.

I think in my future career this will translate to my workplace when I have a performance review. Also I will be able to set myself goals for my career and plan out what I hope to achieve.

It has also developed my skills in terms of being able to write about myself, this will translate very well when it comes to me writing my CV to apply for jobs.

Attending Lectures, Seminars, Tutorials etc

When attending lectures and tutorials at college I have been able to develop my listening skills, not only this but I have also furthered my ability to take notes whilst listening.

I can see that in my future career these will be valuable skills as an employee I would be expected to take notes of a brief when it is first given so that I don’t have to get my employer to repeat themselves.

In addition I have learnt to take criticism through peer and tutor review. This is definitely something I would have to get used to when working with a client as I cannot afford to take things personally when a client doesn’t like my work.

Seminars, Group Work, Team Projects

When working in groups I have learnt to communicate and compromise with my peers. I have developed my skills in listening and debating which has also helped to further my confidence to speak up and argue my opinion when I feel that a wrong decision has been made.

As an employee these skills will be very valuable, being able to speak up and voice your opinion is an asset and an employer would favour this type of person over somebody who didn’t contribute.

Oral Presentation

Oral Presentation to a group is something that requires you to have confidence and clarity when talking in front of a group of people. I feel that I have picked up some pointers here and have definitely improved in this area. I have been in this situation three times since I joined the course and it is no longer an alien concept to me. I have presented to my tutors once the class once and also a combination of tutors, peers and prospective employees. It wouldn’t worry me if I were told I needed to do it again thanks to this experience.

I can see this will be valuable in the future; if I needed to present work to clients or if it was used as a tool by an employer in an interview process.

Writing essays and other forms of academic writing

In this area I have managed to develop my grasp of English in terms of spelling and grammar. In addition I have learnt how to present my work in referenced format and in a structure that is easily read.

In the future I can see that this will transfer as I will, in any employment, be required to write. Specifically in terms of web design I would be required to write web content. The practice I have received at writing will no doubt have improved and help me to write more fluidly so that my content isn’t dull and difficult to follow.

Maths and Statistics

Maths and Statistics have been employed when carrying out research and I have had to display my findings in the form of a chart. The program I have used in this instance has been Microsoft Excel.

In the future this is a skill I will be able to use on my CV as I think employers would consider this to be a valuable skill to have.

Observation

I have used observation skills on the course when I have had to complete things such as competitive analyses. In this respect of this I have learnt to look at things thoroughly at the minor details and also to analyse things more.

Another example of this is when I have been asked to review websites created by peers but also myself.

The skills of observation and analysis will be of great use in my future career as a web designer as I will have to write in code and these skills would come into play when trying to find errors.

Research

On many occasions, in all projects, I have been required to carry out research. This is a skill that has developed and I realise that I have developed in this area. I know it is important to check multiple sources to check I have the correct information.

In my future career I will be able to use this skill when I am looking for employment as it is important to know about the company for which you are seeking employment from.

Also whilst in employment I will be able to use this skill as a designer when I have to generate ideas, it will help me to find inspiration. In addition to this I would be able to corroborate any written content I have produced by checking it against multiple sources.

Exams and Revision

Although on this course we do not have to complete any exams we do have to submit a project to a strict deadline. This is a similar type of learning curve as to when studying for an exam and each has a final deadline for which the work must be completed.

In this respect I feel that on the course I have learnt to plan my time and I am learning that this is something I must strive to improve.

Also in term of revision this can be likened to our self study, this is something that requires self discipline. This is another area for me where I am striving to improve.

I know that in the future I will need to apply myself if I want to progress in the industry, in a large company I may be required to work out of hours or if I were freelance it could be required of me to be contactable out of hours.

From A to B

2007-09-05T18:37:00.000+01:00

A. As I embark on a new semester at college I will now start to look at my plans for the next 6 months and what I hope to achieve.

First of all I would hope that in this semester I can achieve an average grade of a merit, at least. This would be a great achievement for me as in the first year I achieved only pass grades.

To gain a merit grade for the first project would be my first goal; from there I can hope to again achieve more merit grades or continue on the road of improvement and achieve a distinction grade.

I hope to improve my grades by applying more emphasis on my time planning. Where I feel I have lost marks in the past is either my actual time planning or as a result of bad time planning. What I propose to do to counteract this is to make a more specific plan from the outset in addition to making my usual daily plan that is produced week by week. By monitoring this I hope to achieve better results in all aspects of the project.

Also with my improved time planning I will produce a checklist of submission criteria which I will then be able to mark off as I progress which will help me see the steps I am making towards completion of each project.

By making these changes I hope that my grades will improve.

Aside from my grades I also hope to become proficient in using CSS, this is the programming language I have looked forward to learning the most. This is because I have often looked at jobs roles that are available in the current market and most wed design roles require applicants to be able to use the language.

I feel that if I am to be a success when I leave this course to achieve this goal is a must.

In addition to learning CSS I am also looking forward to learning Flash as I am already familiar with using vector art, I think this is a skill that I can transfer across to this program and produce some great work.

B. In the future, 2-3 years time, I hope that I am working in a company that offers Graphic and web design services. I hope that I am in a role within a company in which I get to use both of these skills.

My plan when I finish this course is to look for employment straight away, had I not already completed a Degree qualification in Illustration I would have considered topping up my qualification or doing some further study.

However with my past experience I now feel more than ready to enter the world of work in the design industry. I hope to achieve this by a professional portfolio site and lots of enthusiasm.

My Reflection- something I never get tired of.

2007-05-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

First of all it is quite fair to say that I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. It doesn’t seem like long ago at all that I was sat writing my statement explaining what I wanted to achieve on the course.

When I first started the course this year I wasn’t sure what to expect, previously my experience of education has been from a very artistic point of view and so this was completely new territory for me.

What I soon discovered was that I was required to be much stricter with my learning and evidence of learning; this has been one of the most difficult habits to break. I can see looking back that I have been allowed to get into some lazy habits on the courses that I have completed in the past.

I feel now I have broken the habit and in this past project I’ve really seen the benefit.

When I chose to study on this course my intention was to learn some graphic design skills for print also improve my typographic skills and most importantly, for me, become proficient with web design.

Going right back to the beginning our first project was to produce a web plan and come up with our first idea for a website. The idea was to pick a famous person from a list of ‘Great Britons’ and then come up with a design for a site based on them.

My decision came down to Picking Guy Fawkes or Queen Victoria, my decision was based on these two people as I felt that I could come up with the most creative response for their personas.

In the end my decision was to go with Queen Victoria, I feel this was a good decision as I was very pleased with the end result.

What I felt I learnt on this project was mostly about the course and how we were expected to produce and present our work. In addition we also did research into existing websites and so this gave us an idea of what we should design.

A lot of theory on web design and graphic design was given to us also at the beginning of the course and so it was good to put this into practice in producing these design layouts. I learnt about using Photoshop in a new way as a tool for producing measurement correct images and resizing images.

This was new to me as I have only used it before for illustration, looking back I can see that my file sizes were really quite large.

The following project was one in which we would again produce a wed plan and web design, but in this instance we would be designing with the intention to actually build the site.

This was a very exciting prospect for me as this was what I had signed up for. I really couldn’t wait to get my first website under my belt.

I suppose a lot of the excitement had a lot to do with an underlying worry that I wouldn’t be capable of actually doing web design and so it was important to me that I got this out of the way.

Whilst completing this second project we had more theory given to us about colour and other design principles. I always appreciated learning these subjects as I feel they contribute a lot to successful design.

Once this project had come to and end we submitted a web plan and our screen designs as we had in the first project, which had been almost like a dry run, we now were going to produce the finished product.

This was the screen design I submitted and I was very pleased with it. The way in which I approached the design was to come up with them. The project had been to produce a web site that was to teach a computer novice the basics of computers and what all the jargon meant.

I felt that if I didn’t come up with an artistic response to the brief then I would end up with a rather dull page. I came up with the idea of grass roots and the idea just flowed on from there.

The response I came up with gave me a boost as I felt that it showed my potential as a graphic designer to create something quite attractive when presented with, what would seem, an uninteresting subject matter.

It was after the Christmas/ New Year break that we returned to college to start production of our websites. I think everyone was itching to get on with this, even the people who had previous experience of making websites.

We were given a lecture on how to use Dreamweaver, as we have been with all the programmes we have been required to use, and this was really useful to learn some of the basic layout and the commands.

We were then set free and asked to produce the site, some people tackled the site head on, I myself wanted to learn a bit more and so completed the tutorial that was built into Dreamweaver.

I felt now I had enough knowledge to crack on and I think the best way to learn is by doing. Often the best way to learn is just to get stuck in, its like when you get lost in the car and then find your way again, you never forget the route afterwards.

Progress was quite slow at first as I made a few attempt to make my basic page layout, all of them failed, about five of them. When I finally built a perfect version of my page and realised how I had done it, it all seemed pretty easy. The way in which I built the site was to think of it in terms of building blocks, to piece it together like a big jigsaw, this realisation I think will help me with design in the future.

One consideration of this though is that this is a principle of building in tables and cells. I know next year we will be learning CSS which may be completely different.

The website all went well and the design I came up with was this http://www.drewellis.co.uk/

I got some really good feedback about my completed design and this has really restored confidence in me and my abilities in design.

During this term I had the opportunity with some of my peers to visit ‘The Design Mechanics’ which was a great experience, I enjoyed going into a design studio and seeing how it functioned. I think this is such a benefit to have seen as it removes the mystery element, it gives you an idea of where your path is leading.

This experience was backed up by visits from past students of the course who have come in to talk about their places of work.

This brings me up to date and to talk about the final project which we are just about to submit.

On receiving the brief I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that we weren’t going to be immediately building another website, for the HNC. I had been looking forward to using Flash as I know a little of this program and that it is used to make animations which I think I would be quite good at.

However I then realised that this would give me opportunity to improve my Graphic design skills, the brief asked us to produce a CD album cover and logo for a record company.

Right at the very beginning of the course I said I wanted more experience of design work for print, its also something I had reiterated to Dean recently too.

So I was happy to forgo the web designing, although at one stage I was about to accept the challenge of doing the full HND brief and produce a website too, I am extremely happy that I didn’t.

I think it took a while but I finally started to use my sketchbook more extensively to do more development work, the benefit of this is clear in my design work.

(Disclaimer- Not all the fonts are the finished versions)

I feel I have definitely learnt a lot this year and can’t wait to get more information and develop further in the second year. I think for the first time that I have found my calling, even though it took me while to stumble and fall on top of it whilst I was doing something completely different.

Now that I have met some of the goals I had laid out for myself at the beginning of the year I can look forward to achieving the rest of them and furthering the skills I have now developed.

In the second year of the course I hope to achieve the following:

To make a website constructed using CSS.
To not get any referrals.
I want to make a portfolio site with all my work on it.
To make a website that makes use of Macromedia Flash.
To gain Merit and Distinction grades.

If I can achieve these four goals then I would would be very happy with myself and feel that I had made progress on the where I stand now.

Almost Done

2007-05-02T21:00:00.000+01:00

This week at college we were having a get on with it week, I always appreciate these when it is getting close to deadlines.

I was pleased with the progress that I had made in my personal study and had a design that I thought was almost finished when I turned up for class. I showed it to a few of my peers who were sat near by and they all said they liked the design.

As always my development came in when I needed to chose an appropriate font to use. I think this is usually the area of my design that I find most difficult to get right.

the design I have now developed and finished for pages 1 and 4 of the CD booklet is shown below.

Personally I am quite pleased with the design, my natural response to the brief would have been to produce a design that was a vector illustration. having been given a brief that required me to work in photoshop I have been forced to tackle it from a different angle and although I feel like I could continue making improvements I like the design I have come up with and feel I have made some progress with techniques used in Photoshop.

The design itself I feel also speaks volumes for my progress as a designer as the design itself is not something that is to my personal taste, the design I posted on my earlier blog which looks a bit more 'trendy' was a design I felt more comfortable with.

Whilst completing my final CD cover I realised, with the help of my peers, that I needed a more sophisticated star shape for my 'black dust'. Obviously I searched google for some free brushes and I found some good ones at the following link- http://graphicssoft.about.com/, which has further links to more free Photoshop goodies, check it out.

In addition to finishing my CD cover I have now also managed to finish my logo design which can be seen below.

After being asked to work with this design out of the four I had developed was also taking me out of my comfort area as again I was asked to produce something that wasn't to my personal taste.

I think the final result shows what some good development work can do for an idea. I feel like I have really accomplished something with this logo.

please let me know what you think of it.

Back In Action

2007-04-27T15:40:00.000+01:00

So it was our first week back to college after our extended Easter break. I was looking forward to getting back although I did miss having that mid week lie in that I have been treated to over the past 3 weeks.

I was really pleased with myself because I had reached the target I had set myself with regards to what work I had planned to get finished, I think this is a first, and so I was really pleased with myself.

However when I got to class it soon dawned on me that I hadn’t been as organised as I had thought because I hadn’t produced my time plan. Luckily I had sprung out of bed early so I had chance to quickly get this done, although the official line is that I had already produced it the day before.

The day started off with a chat amongst the group which acted as a bit of a brief to the last stretch of the term and the year. This was a really good thing to do I feel as it gave everyone the opportunity to ask any questions they had and clear up any loose ends.

After break we then had a lecture on preparing artwork for print, this was a really useful subject to have a lecture on, not only because it is relevant to the project but the subject is definitely going to be cropping up in anyone’s life later on who plans on getting into design, so definitely one to remember.

I was really pleased with the information that was provided as it backed up some of the knowledge I already had and provided a little extra.

In the afternoon we were then able to continue work on our projects, this was a relief as the deadline is fast approaching.

However I do feel that I am on track to complete this one on time I think that I will need to spend some time this weekend going through the brief and make sure I have everything done right.

Overall its been a good week, glad to be back in the action.

Coffee Break

2007-04-20T20:21:00.000+01:00

It’s been a hectic week but I’ve managed to keep on top of things. It’s been hard adjusting back into doing 16 hours worth of work this week and although the week only began on Wednesday it feels like the break never happened in a way.

This isn’t meant in a bad way it’s just that I feel as if I slip back into the work quite easily.

I have really enjoyed taking the time off over the past few weeks, though having a look at some of the blogs I can see that not everyone has been relaxing as much as I have and I feel now that maybe I should have been working more over the break.

Although I feel as though I could have done more over the break, the work I have done I am happy with. I feel that I have done some good development work in my sketchbook and have now started producing some mock up digital images that I can bring into class when we return.

The aim of this was so that when we return I will hopefully have decided on three or four designs which I can show to my peers and then develop the final one.

In addition to getting to this stage with my CD cover I also aim to have my final logo produced; this is part of the remainder of my week now.

Over the weekend I hope to get two or three more design mocked up and then finish my logo.

The first design I have mocked up is below, please feel free to offer any advice. As I say this is a mock up so it isn’t measured in an way I was just having a play around.

Personally I am really pleased with the design and also the way to which I have come to work now, I feel I have made a big step in the right direction when it comes to time planning. I am really feeling the benefit.

24 years old.

2007-04-07T18:36:00.000+01:00

The holidays are going very nicely, I’m enjoying have some time off with the bank holidays.

I have continued to work on my logo over the past week, as I had planned on my time plan.

However this is the first time that I have broken my time planning down as much as I have and I have found that it has taken longer to do each job than I originally thought. Obviously this was as evident before as it is now as before I was just considering tasks on a larger scale.

I had planned that I would have started doing my initial ideas for the CD cover in that week too but ran out of time so I will endeavour to do it this week.

For now though I am planning to enjoy the rest of this bank holiday weekend, I have been celebrating since leaving work on Thursday and don’t plan to stop until Tuesday as not only is it Easter tomorrow but it is also my Birthday.

Hopefully I will manage to fit some work in somewhere.

More Logo Related Japes.

2007-03-30T12:59:00.000+01:00

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.

Going Logo

2007-03-23T15:51:00.000Z

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.

Dusty

2007-03-16T13:22:00.000Z

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 *

Over The Moon

2007-03-09T11:36:00.000Z

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.

Back to Back to Basic

2007-03-01T12:14:00.000Z

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.

Drew Says Relax

2007-02-26T14:10:00.000Z

First of all I’ll just say sorry to fans of my work for this late entry, I’ve been off track with it being half term.

There isn’t very much to report I’m afraid, the half term meant that I had Wednesday free as I wasn’t attending college but the rest of the week I was working so it wasn’t exactly a major holiday for me. (Drew complains that he has a job… again)

This is a busy time of year for birthdays for me so I have felt like a bit of a factory producing birthday cards for my friends. I can never decided if its because I like the praise I get on having made a card, an opportunity to steal the limelight, or if I’m just too cheap to pay £2 to buy a card. Either way I enjoy drawing so it’s a good thing.

I haven’t had much to do with website design; I did have a look at the website for my dads company which he has been asking my opinion on. I don’t think I’m quite at this level yet http://www.teigreens.com/ Grass Roots Computing is slightly less in your face without all the flashy bits.

I generally, on Wed, did some relaxing and started playing around with my site, beginning to make the changes that were outlined in my user feedback tests.

Speed Data... ing

2007-02-16T16:01:00.000Z

This week at college was our user test for our website so far. I thought that I was going to struggle to get this done on time and even thought there was a possibility at one point that I wouldn’t have all my pages done.

However with a good long session on Tuesday and some MSN help from Dreamweaver Dr Dean I managed to get it done.

I was quite nervous about showing it to everyone as I have spent too long looking at it and playing around with the site. It has got to the point now where I find it hard to be objective.

The way in which were to assess each others site was to produce a questionnaire and have it ready for Wed, we would then leave a stack at our computer where we would open up our web page.

This was a task in itself I hadn’t successfully been able to upload my site to the web and so I had to show my site off the USB stick. This was a bit of a disappointment as I think everyone else was running theirs from the web.

So we all stood up and moved to the computer to our right, looked over the site and completed a questionnaire, very much like speed dating.

We then got to read through our questionnaires and collate all the information we had gathered.

I was pleased to find that my peers had liked my site and felt it was of a good standard, this was really reassuring.

Some of the concerns I had had about the site were whether I should have an image for each category on the site and the way in which I had laid out the information. On my site I have mixed in the images and text together. I could see most people had formatted there site to have images on a column on the left and all the images parallel on an equally sized column on the right. This was a way I felt, when building my webpage, that I should have done it too.

The feed back I received was mixed and six people commented that I should have formatted my site in this way and six people commented that it should stay the same. The was the main point that was raised with my sight and one that I will consider.

In the afternoon we then got on with our assignments and making any changes.

Overall I came away from the session very happy with the work I have produced and I’m looking forward now to my week off.

My site has made it onto the internet now so check it out in case you didn’t get enough before. www.drewellis.co.uk

Don't chat about what you don't know!

2007-02-09T14:21:00.000Z

This week had a different feel to for me. During the week I had received an email from Steve saying that the group who had attended the Design Mechanics were to give a presentation first thing on Wednesday.

At the time of the visit we were told this would be the case, but to be honest, I’d forgotten.

This resulted in many emails going backwards and forwards between the four of us; Ben, Craig A, Craig B and me.

Eventually we decided on a format and who would discuss which points. We never got chance to rehearse our presentation so I was quite pleased when it all went quite well. Apart from a few of us stepping on each others toes regarding our subject matter… sorry Craig B. It seemed much easier talking about a subject that was of my own experience.

So that went well and we got quite a good response from the rest of the group. This made me feel great that I hadn’t been too nervous and much more confident in my presentation skills.

We then had a task in our groups to talk about what questions we will have on our user test questionnaires.

The 3 Amigos (me and the HNC group) decided it was best practice to ask open ended questions that began with; How, Where, When, Who, What or Why.

It became quite a hot topic for debate when it came to the big reveal and everyone was putting there proposed questions on the big screen. It turns out that we should aim for a medium of Qualitative and Quantative questions. I felt that this was great that as a great we were able to have a discussion like this without it getting petty and immature.

Following this we were then given a lecture on how to build a Form page on Dreamweaver. This was really interesting and Steve made it look quite simple and straight forward, later blog entries may reveal that I have changed my opinion so don’t hold me to it.

In the afternoon, after lunch, we worked on our projects. I always appreciate this opportunity as it gives us chance to see where everyone is up to and get advise and opinions from each other.

I this week got some help from Dean as usual but also Ben and Craig A lent a hand. I ironed out some problems I was having and I now have my home page finished so please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

www.drewellis.co.uk/index5.html

That concludes this weeks broadcast presentation.

Capital Drew

2007-02-02T14:53:00.000Z

This week was the week we made our group trip down south to London. I had been really looking forward to the trip as I really enjoy London as a city getting around on the underground all the big landmarks and places to go and things to do.

Unfortunately the reason that we were going; to visit the Tate Modern, was not a success as when we arrived we found that the exhibitions were all closed. This was a big disappointment for everyone.

The exhibitions that were on looked really interesting which was like a double blow as I have visited the gallery twice before and the exhibitions had never been oh as much interest as these.

However we had the opportunity to go on the big slide which was great fun, I’m not sure I would call that art but then we are all entitled to our own opinion. What I would suggest is that the artist try to make the ride a little bit smoother, I felt like I’d been gone down a flight of stairs rather than a slide.

In the afternoon we did our own thing so being the expert on London, having visited twice in the past two years, I set off with most of the class in behind and took us round So Ho and then with a happy accident to Oxford Street. Once there I was straight into the shops so most of the others hit the pubs.

Later on after the shopping we met in the pub and decided we would try and go to Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden but after a long walk round the block trying to find the tube we decided to split up as there wasn’t much time. Again we found ourselves in Covent Garden which was lucky.

Overall I did really enjoy the trip unfortunately though I didn’t get much culture or shopping but then you can’t have everything. At least it was a good bonding experience for the group.

Pockets Deap, Mountain High

2007-01-25T19:21:00.000Z

This week we were given the chance to get on with our projects, for those of us who felt ready. I personally didn’t know where to start so I did the Dreamweaver tutorial so I could get to learn my way around the workspace a bit better.

I found the tutorial really useful, it did go back and cover the areas that Steve had taught us last week regarding setting up folders etc, but then went a bit further forward and gave help on setting up the design.

After finishing the tutorial I was feeling much more confident about building my own site and it had even taught me some basic CSS which I fell capable of using.

My problem now is that I have designed a website in a way that I thought would be easy to construct but now I find that I want to redesign elements of it having a better knowledge of how a webpage can be constructed. We’ll have to see what happens.

This week was slightly different than usual as Steve had arranged a trip to a design company in Huddersfield. We had been told about the trip towards the end of the first semester and I was keen to go on the trip from the start, unfortunately the offer was only open to four students.

As I was very keen to go on the trip I had asked to go almost immediately and so I was pleased this week to receive my official email invitation to the exclusive gathering. The final four, after the televised auditions with a text vote was Ben, Craig A, Craig B and I.

The business we went to visit is called The Design Mechanics and their website is www.thedesignmechanics.co.uk they are a design company with a new outlook on how to offer a design service.

After the journey by car to what seemed like the top of a mountain, for me and humble car, we arrived at a business estate that was made up of a few small companies. To describe its appearance would make it sound less than it is, but basically it was a group of static porter cabins that were fixed into place with a nice bit of garden in front.

First of all we met Dave Pannel and the Head Designer Paul, we were given an introduction to the company and it was explained how they work. It was interesting to hear that they have what is like an application form which is filled out by one of their sales reps and the customer, this is then presented to a designer who will use this ‘Fact Find’ to produce the necessary design work.

This seems quite a novel way for a design company to work as the designer never meets the customer, they explained this was almost the essence of their business and that cutting out the middle of the design process enables them to keep man hours on projects to a minimum which means they can offer such good prices.

After the talk on the business we were all invited to show examples of our work, Craig B jumped up first, reliable as ever, I thought I was going to have to get up. I went up second, it took me about 5 mins just to get my USB stick out of my pocket amongst lip salve and keys.

I was pleased with the presentation I did as personally I feel I stayed relaxed and entertaining and felt they liked the work I had shown them.

After all presentations were given we then got to go and sit with one of the designers, they were all relatively new, having started the job in September. The work they were producing was of a good standard and I was really impressed with the whole business.

I would recommend any of my classmates to jump at the chance to go if it is offered again, there was so much information we were given today that I’m sure I could carry on writing for a while.

Overall I am really grateful for the opportunity to go to the business and it has made me feel much more hungry and passionate to achieve my goal to get into the design industry. It has also made me feel that I am not a million miles away anymore. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Living The Dream... weaver.

2007-01-19T19:49:00.000Z

It was great to be back in college this week, as I mentioned previously I have been looking forward to getting to grips with Dreamweaver and having a dabble on the internet.

I have uploaded an initial index page on my website which is http://www.drewellis.co.uk/ and I will be having a further look at it and putting some more info on it over the weekend.

It was a really tense morning in class on Wed as it was time to get our marks on the Back to Basics assignment. The morning was spent discussing how we felt about the past semester before knowing our grade; this revealed that most people were pleased to have come so far and to have a quarter of the course under their belt.

Personally I couldn’t believe it when I realised I had done a quarter of the course now.

After break the results were up and I was pleased to see that I had passed on the assignment in one respect but then I realised that there was a referral on a couple of sections in my research. I was very disappointed with myself as I had tried really hard to get it right first time.

So I was a bit anxious after finding out I had some changes to make to find out what these changes were. After I was told I was quite relieved as it really was a case of printing off some work that I had done but forgotten to submit and also making an adjustment to a paragraph in my written work.

In the afternoon we learnt the basics of starting a website on Dreamweaver, this was interesting and I was pleased to find that we moved through it at a good pace. I have found that in the past when learning to use computer software not everyone has been quite at home on a computer so you could feel the benefit of being in a group of people who all can keep up.

I am now going to get on with making a more substantial index page to have temporarily.

Re-evaluating The Situation

2007-01-13T00:34:00.000Z

Looking back at the formative statement I produced at the beginning of this course I can see that I was as determined to succeed as I am now.

At that point I was not so sure what was ahead of me on this course and I can see that I was excited and eager to learn. Now that I am at a half way point through my first year I can say that the course so far has lived up to my expectations and even surpassed them.

I think when I set out on his course I thought that the work load might be a little lighter than it actually was, I didn’t realise how much of my own time was going to be needed to succeed with a pass never mind anything of a higher grade.

Having completed now this beginning section of the HNC I feel that I can continue to learn and progress on this course and that if I do I will achieve the goal I set myself, to complete the course and to have a good digital portfolio.

There has been some times when I doubted my ability, I know that the referral I received after submitting the first assignment was a big let down for me as I the reason I failed was just a few glitches that needed sorting out and had I just planned my time a bit more carefully I know that I could have identified these problems before hand.

The highlights of the course for me have been the lectures, I especially enjoyed the work we have done on layout with the business cards which was a really enjoyable task and also the colour wheel lecture was very enlightening. These are very valuable aspects of design to know and remember I think and I am glad to have covered them so early in the course.

Another highlight is the other people in the class I think that everyone is really friendly and helpful and I feel comfortable enough to talk to anyone and ask for their help or opinion on my work.

Getting feedback has been something that has proven really useful this semester, getting the feedback and ideas of my peers has helped my work to progress and evolve. I think is most evident with the Queen Victoria designs I produced. The original design I produced was supposed to look slick and fashionable but give a nod to the ornate, patterned designs of the Victorian age, unfortunately my first attempt at this looked slightly too period and not at all modern. After feedback I gained from my peers and tutors I feel the final design achieved the look I was aiming for and I was very happy with this.

When I then moved onto my second project I had identified that creating my designs was very much aided by having had a theme to inspire things. I felt this helped give continuity throughout the design of the page when it came to designing the buttons and banner etc. this meant that when I was coming up with ideas for my second screen design I thought it would be important to try to come up with a theme again so that my design would have a strong theme running throughout the website.

The problem that I have faced on both projects is my time planning which is something I am still looking to improve upon in the upcoming semester. I think the main problem with this side of my work is that I tend to get caught up in the design of my work and so my theory and written work can suffer from this. A way I tried to combat this with the second project, A3, was to make sure that most of my written work was completed before I would allow myself to get on with any of the final design work. Although this did help me get all the design work finished to a good standard ahead of schedule, it did lead to me having less time that I realised to put all my work into the template once the final designs were finished. Obviously this task took about five times longer than I had expected it too without mentioning the unforeseen problems I encountered with my printer.

Overall I feel that the first semester has been a success though I am very anxious about what grade I will receive for the project A3 on my return. All that I can do is stay focused and positive and keep aiming for my goal.

I am very keyed up about getting back and making my first website as I have mentioned before. I recently registered my domain name drewellis.co.uk which was really exciting for me, how sad, but I can’t wait to have a website that I have made from scratch on the internet it will be a big achievement for me. I know that if I can produce one to a good standard, like that I have designed in my plan, I will be impressed.

A Right Mug

2007-01-05T10:42:00.000Z

I’m not really sure what to talk about in this blog entry; I have to say I haven’t really done much of relevance over the past few weeks. I really have taken the opportunity to catch up on some sleep with all the bank holidays and my Wednesdays off, it’s been amazing!

It’s only in hindsight that you realise you have missed a bit of an opportunity at Christmas, when I was in Waterstones the other day I came across a really useful and obviously expensive book, about graphic design, if only I had thought to mention to Santa to bring me it, rather than the many mugs I seem to have received, I don’t even drink hot beverages!

As I don’t as yet have much to say on the subject of web design I thought I would post a bit more of my illustration work that I have done in the past.

It’s been a busy Christmas explaining to all the relatives what I am up to at the moment, telling them all about my web design course. It just makes you realise at those times how much you actually want to succeed. Also it made me realise how much more knowledgeable I am on the subject than my aunty.

So at the moment I’m felling very relaxed but I’m excited about getting back to college and getting on with making my first website.

You Can't Kill Time

2006-12-28T13:33:00.000Z

I thought I would use this blog entry to look back and reflect and the first part of this year.

Firstly I can’t believe how much I have learned in the year so far, I didn’t imagine that I could have learnt so much and yet for it to feel like natural progression.

Looking back at my blog entries I can see that I have been quite stressed out in regards to keeping up with the work load, I know this is due to working a 34 hrs outside of college. The problem with this has been I never feel much like sitting down to my work after a hard day at the grind.

I know that I can continue to improve and work hard and I’m looking forward to the new term when there is promise of learning to use Dreamweaver.

The one area that I think will need to be addressed for me is time planning. I think that this has been my only downfall in the past semester. The problem is that if you get your time planning wrong it has a domino effect on everything else.

Something that I am very happy with is the design work that I have done. I believe that the ideas I have produced have been to a good standard and are better than a lot of examples that can be found on the internet already.

In the upcoming semester I am going to be looking at my time planning and hoping to finally get this right, I know that this will mean making some sacrifices in other areas of my life.

Overall I have really enjoyed the first semester and I always look forward to coming into college on Wednesdays, I just need to now manage my time instead of killing it.

When Life Hands You A Lemon...

2006-12-23T16:12:00.000Z

I have to say it is a relief to have this assignment out of the way now and handed in; I am looking forward to having some time to relax over Christmas and having a few festive drinks.

Unfortunately, this week, my Grandma passed away on Monday night which was obviously an upsetting time and I attended her funeral yesterday. It hasn’t been a very good few weeks.

So back to topic at hand, I am pleased with the final designs I made for the web site and that I was able to get all the work I on time. I was cutting it fine though, I hadn’t factored in that my printer alignment was off and everything was printing with the wrong margins. I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to solve it and I almost threw it out of my window. So it was a last minute printing session on Thursday morning in college to meet the deadline.

This is something I will need to consider in the future as if I had finished sooner I could have had time to print all the work of at a more relaxed time, though personal issues did mean that my time planning this week was a little of mark.

Here are the final designs that I have submitted.

Hopefully now I can sleep at night, as long as I don’t dwell on what mark I might get too much.

Stereo Typical!

2006-12-15T00:39:00.000Z

This week at college was another week to just crack on with our work, which I believe was what everybody needed it to be.

It was good to come in and have something to occupy my mind having just woken up to find my car had been broken into and my stereo stolen, at least somebody will be getting a new(ish) stereo for Christmas. Personally I find shopping at Argos easier.

The position I found myself in regarding work was that I had produced all my written work and put it into the template and that I had left the design work to the end. This was intentional as a falling point in the last project was that I spent too much time playing with my design and left putting my written work in the template to the last minute. A mistake I won’t make again.

Having the written work finished a week in advanced helped me identify a few changes I need to make. Also Dean pointed out the word count to me and I myself had written just short of 5000 words. Although I was pleased to have exceeded the word count it will now be a task to edit the words down choosing which to leave out.

Next time I will make sure I am aware of the limitations on words so that this, hopefully, will not be a problem.

I have gotten the feedback page finished and I am now putting the finishing touches to my homepage, let me know what you think of the design.

I expect that this won’t be the final appearance as at the moment I am not completely happy with the design myself.

Am pleased with the stage I am at currently as I feel much more relaxed than I did at this point in the last project, especially as the only work remaining is the design work, which is my favourite part.

This is a method of working I shall maintain, to get the more dull and/or monotonous work done first so that I can work towards doing the more exciting work.

Do Not Pass Go

2006-12-08T00:00:00.000Z

Well nothing really eventful this week, just a good old get on with it session on Wednesday. This of course is not a bad thing as there is more work to do than I have time to do it in so the session was much appreciated.

I was able to use the day to get some extra feedback on my design ideas, just to make sure I was going down the right root with my design.

Although my retro idea was equally popular I decided to stick with Grass Roots as it fits in more with my vector line art design style. Also the use of green will be relaxing for those vexed computer novices.

Not only was it useful to get this feedback but it gave me opportunity to talk to some of the class that I hadn’t spoken to that much before.

As always I had been under the impression that I would be behind my peers, so it was a comfort to know that we were all at similar stages.

Not the only comforting event of the day though, as I resubmitted my newfangled A2 project which had been transformed and is now quicker, faster, stronger, smarter, better. After submitting it in the morning I was so happy to see a pass next to my name on my way back into class later in the day. Hopefully my plan to submit a shrubbery will get me passed this time.

A lesson has truly been learnt, I will always complete ahead of schedule now so I can iron out these problems in the final week.

I do not intend to get a referral again, not that I ever did. I can now look forward to getting my work well on the way to completion this week, which I am quietly confident I can achieve, providing there are no unforeseen circumstances.

Sans Common Sense

2006-11-30T23:29:00.000Z

Wednesday’s session began with a talk about typography, after an immediate pretend that we were going to do a ten minute presentation. So, with a quick sigh of relief and a nervous laugh out of the way, I was quite pleased with the lecture subject.

It has been a problem of mine in the past using text in my work, I have been a student of illustration and art but never graphics since GCSE and yet my work has always been of a graphic style and so the lecture was a great help.

The lecture covered the basics of typography and broke the different fonts into categories, the most memorable thing, and valuable, was that I learnt that sans meant without, in French, which clears up the problem I had when remembering which serif and sans serif fonts were.

Going ahead from the lecture I will make sure that I consider my fonts more carefully, it was valuable to learn of the research regarding which font is most easily read on screen; sans serif. This is something I can definitely make use of with immediate effect.

Following from the lecture we were given the rest of the day to work on our projects. Steve made a point that he expected us all to have our web content finished by Thursday; I had assumed that I was behind most people on this account but as it turned out I was ahead of quite a few people, having already produced over half of my content.

I gave myself a pat on the back to congratulate myself, this is something I will make a big effort to achieve in future as the feeling that I am ahead of the deadlines is such a relief. I will definitely be trying to maintain my position ahead of the game going on from this point, all I have to do now is pick myself up from the last race where I died on my… posterior.

Later in the afternoon I got chance to have a talk with Diane, this was really useful; I finally understood something that I previously had misinterpreted about screen display 800 x 600, that this is resolution not actual size, another blonde moment.

During the afternoon I got chance to use my peers as a sounding board for my creative ideas, I decided on a garden theme website that I will call grassroots.co.uk which I am quite excited about.

In addition Diane looked through my written work with me and gave me some pointers to improve it. I have to say this was invaluable as I am quite a plain talker and I think this sometimes translates to my written work, when writing I often assume people will know how and why I have gotten to my conclusion or way of thinking, which is not a good way of writing. Diane pointed out some really useful changes that I could make to uplift the work I had already produced.

After talking to Diane I got a good understanding of what I need to do to improve my written work and I am going to make the changes and in the future I plan to use more detail and make note of where I am getting my information from.

Overall it was a very productive day and I left the class full of beans, which I will now use in my garden, grow a beanstalk and put on my website.

Turning A New Page And Burning The Old

2006-11-23T00:01:00.000Z

Today in class was a bit of a shocker, I sat down and looked up at the board to see the lecture title, and it was a lecture on presentation. Following the theme of the previous weeks I immediately assumed it would be how we present our work. I soon found out that in actual fact we would be learning how to give a successful speech and present our work to an audience.

This seemed to me to be slightly irrelevant at this point in the course as it seemed the purpose was to prepare us for the final part of the course where we will have to present our digital portfolio; however, this isn’t at all how I felt by the end of the day.

After the lecture ended we were then told we were going to be making a presentation today, total shocker, I was not prepared for that one. My thoughts were mainly that I was not ready to stand in front of the whole class and deliver a speech. After the task was elaborated on, we were told we would be given a colour to research and work in pairs to prepare for the task, this was a relief to have some support, I don’t think I could have volunteered to work by myself like Craig did.

I think this was due to the fact that I did not know what was expected, but having now gone through this process I am more confident in my own ability. I hope that in the future with more practice I will not be afraid to do the same.

I was given the colour orange and Ben as a partner, I thought what a better way to highlight we had worn the same outfit today. Clothing issues aside, I was happy to work with Ben as I know he works hard and that we get on.

Working with Ben was very productive; our combined insecurity that we weren’t doing enough work seemed to propel us to produce far too much content. This wasn’t something we realised until it came to rehearsing our presentation. We had to get through the presentation in two – three minutes, my first attempt lasted about 5 minutes and I hadn’t covered all the information we gathered, I thought crikey what a fine mess Ben’s research, and my fancy pants PowerPoint jiggery pokery, has gotten us into.

After much practice and what felt like a history lesson, we had the speech down to a respectable two minutes thirty seconds. This was very relieving; I had felt at a bit of a loss when we first discovered that we’d gone too in depth.

In the future I will now consider the length of the presentation much more, producing ten slides for a three minute presentation is more the double what is required.

I did enjoy making the presentation and using PowerPoint, a programme I have not used before, I do feel I got to grips with the basics of it quite quickly though.

Overall the presentation was a success, and I feel it was a really useful thing to do. I did not expect to have gotten so nervous stood up in front of two people though; as I am know for being quite an attention seeker. This is definitely something I can learn to improve, just by taking deeper breaths during the presentation. The positives were that the content we produced seemed to go down a storm and that nothing was mentioned about my body language, so I’d just like to thank my Mom and Dad and everyone at Interactive Media for being so supportive. I do feel that I could have used the time more effectively working on my project today, so I will now have to take a look at my time plan and move a few things around.

On a different note, it would seem that it is time to turn over a new leaf, after receiving an email about the content of the blogs last week I did feel that some of the points raised could be applicable to my own blog.

After a discussion about the blogs with my feedback group it was touched upon that there is room for improvement. To be honest I was slightly surprised at the time, but looking back at my entries, I can see that I tend not to dwell on one subject for very long with little evaluation. However I am always willing to step up and take criticism on the chin so feel free let me know if this ones up to scratch if you manage to wade through it.

I now intend to use the evaluation system that was given to us in our first project to try and improve my blog. I shall try to delve deep into my psyche, which is about an inch deep and a mile wide, and I hope that I can then produce something of the standard that is expected or even improve on it. If I can do this, then hopefully, it will carry through everything that I do and this can only lead to success.

Wheely Confused

2006-11-17T18:37:00.000Z

This week we carried on with the theme of design principles. Following last weeks lecture about layout, this week, we looked at colour schemes.

I found this lecture extremely valuable as the wrong colour scheme can make your work look completely amateurish no matter how long you have spent on all the other element of its design.

The way in which we approached the subject was to use the colour wheel, a principle that was deduced by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666 no less. It was quite surprising to learn that a design principle was discovered by someone of the science world.

We were advised that to make good use of colour in our work we should use a principle called ‘Colour Harmony’ the pr-defined colour harmonies or colour schemes we were told about were:

Analogous
Complementary
Split – Complementary
Near Complementary
Triadic ( I thought this was a type of Chinese gangster)
Tetradic
Polychromatic
Monochromatic
Neutral Colours
Discordant

Looking back at my work previous to the lecture I can see much of it falls into the last colour scheme, Polychromatic, which means that the colours have no discernable pattern. I think in the future I will now make sure that I consider the colours I use much more rather than randomly picking some ‘nice’ colours.

In the afternoon we were given the time to work on our projects which is always good news. I got the chance to catch up with the research I hadn’t finished in my personal study time. I had thought we were having a lecture from 11am to 4pm but it turned out I had just misunderstood that this was the position of the warm colours on the colour wheel.

C.R.A.P.

2006-11-10T15:00:00.000Z

I found this week at college really enlightening regarding how I approach design. We were given a lecture on designing a business card which, at first, seems like a straight forward and simple task.

As I later discovered this was not the case, and there were more things to consider than I had expected.

The lecture was broken down in to smaller sections and the next section wasn’t revealed until the previous was completed, this gave the task an added element of fun, in addition it allowed us to concentrate on the task at hand and not concern ourselves with the end product.

What I learned from this task today is that when given a rectangle in which to produce a design I fill it right up to the edge, which is not necessarily a good thing. What I will concentrate on in future is using negative space as an element of my design. The basic principles we learnt were 1. Contrast 2. Repetition 3. Allignment and 4. Proximity

In the afternoon I used the time we were given to work on our projects to look in the college library and read some books. I am glad that I did this as I came across a book called ‘don’t make me think’ I immediately thought this sounds like my kind of book, and as it turned out, it was.

The book makes some really useful points and basically talks a lot of common sense and although I only got through the first chapter it is a book I plan to finish. I has some really useful tips, and points out in a really simple way the pit falls of designing a website, it really brings home how important usability is.

Dethroned!

2006-11-02T15:04:00.000Z

I have really enjoyed the time off and having my free time to myself but I do look forward to progressing and learning new skills. I can’t deny this first day back after half term was a total stress.

The day started out with the anxiety of awaiting my mark, I kept reassuring myself I had passed and done well, though I did have a creeping feeling that I had missed something out of my project, which would result in a fail. Anyway after break my worst thoughts were confirmed and I had been given a referral due to lack of referencing my printed resources, for my research, in the written work I submitted.

This wasn't confirmed to me till late afternoon so I managed to work off a few hundred calories that morning stressing myself out. I also bugged a few of my class mates thinking of the possible reasons for why I had a referral over dinner.

Once I found out the reason of my referral I was much happier than before, I was as happy as you can be when you have a referral on your first project, and so I was now all set to get on with the new brief.

I’m really looking forward to this new brief as it’s a much bulkier assignment, but also we are eventually going to be building the website which is a very exciting prospect. The new project is to design a website for people who have little understanding of computer systems etc. which is a great way of expanding our own understanding as we are to create to the content for the site ourselves.

Being one of the lesser technology buffs in the class I feel I am going to benefit from researching these topics, however I think this is going to be a much taller order.

Overall a stressful day.

Relaxing is the trend, & everyone's in style (bar me)

2006-10-30T23:51:00.000Z

The half term has been great to have some time to do some of the things I enjoy and rest in my spare time. I have been working for the most part during half term but even the fact that all the kids were off school meant I could glide to work each morning, which in turn meant I could roll out of bed last minute before making my way to work.

I thought on occasion about what grade I may have gotten for my first project, I have tried to push it from my mind as I do tend to obsess and stress when it comes to things out of my control.

In my spare time I have done some drawing which is something I always like to do to relax and kill some time. I have produced this picture my using hand drawing, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

I thought as I didn’t have too much to say that was relevant to the course I would use this opportunity to post some of the work I have produced in the past so here is a couple of my Illustrations from my degree course.

On the whole I have had a good half term, and I have used the opportunity to burn the candle at both ends, not too unlike the rest of the time.

Queen Victorious

2006-10-24T23:52:00.000+01:00

I handed in my first project on time, I am victorious. I thought I would never get all the work done but the day came and with a slight bit of panic and last minute work marathon I got the work in on time.

It has been an enjoyable project and a good learning curve when I think of what I have learnt so far I am impressed, it did not seem at all laborious at any point.

Not only am I pleased with how the course is going and what I have learnt so far but in addition I am very pleased with the designs that I produced.

The only worry I have now is whether or not I pass, I am slightly worried that I have spent too much time playing with my design and that the intension was to spend the bulk of the time on the planning side.

Overall very relieved and completely satisfied… for now.

The End is Nigh

2006-10-12T13:26:00.000+01:00

11/10/06 – Today was a really useful day in college, I felt a real benefit from the lectures and the feedback I gained.

The day began with a lecture from course tutor John about how to use Blogger in addition to the benefits of using Blogger. This turned out to be a valuable exercise as it cleared up a few questions that I had that were so far unanswered. I also learned how to spell peer when referring to a person who is equal to another in abilities, qualifications, age, background, and social status.

Later in the day we were given further opportunity to work on our projects which was a relief. I had been trying to access the student intranet from home but without success, it turned out I was using the wrong password and login ID. At first opportunity I got the essay template so I could format my written work correctly.

Formatting the work helped me gain a better understanding of PageMaker and I even taught myself how to set up a font style, which I was quite impressed with, that allowed me to use bullet points.

I feel my understanding of PageMaker is growing and I am really enjoying the production side of the work.

The final part of the afternoon was spent with Diane, a recent addition to the staff and former student of the course, talking to her was a really useful experience and I gained some good tips on how to improve my design. Diane was able to highlight the areas that needed improvement that I knew existed but couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Overall a successful day, I am really excited about the work I am producing.

Down to Business

2006-10-09T13:17:00.000+01:00

06/10/06- It was a good day spent hard at work this week. Arriving at class we were told we could get on with our projects which I found to be really useful. It was a great help to be able to get on with my project and ask my piers their opinion on it and also give my opinion about theirs.

The bonus of doing this is not only can your work progress faster but in addition it gives you opportunity to see what other people are doing. Being able to compare my work helped me relieve worries that I was falling behind, my regular worry.

In the afternoon we were then given a talk by one of the students that completed the course last year and who, has now, joined the faculty. Not only was this interesting to see the work but it also gave confirmation that there is work out there for us aspiring web designers.

Finally we were given further time to work on our projects and I had my feedback session with Dean (fellow HNC student) and Steve (course tutor).

Overall a good week, I had kept on top of the workload and fell confident I can get my work finished before the deadline… we’ll see.

Adobe Pagemaker

2006-09-27T20:14:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-27T00:03:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-17T19:03:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-17T18:18:00.000+01:00

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.