Running on a Low Tank!!!!

Monday morning a rather different start then our usual morning lecture. Steve approached us with an on the spot task to create approximately 15 business card sketch ideas in our personal designers tool. He then gave us a 15 minute period in which we were to create a chosen business card idea in either PageMaker or InDesign. With a 15 minute time limit I set of to create a fairly simple design out of the ones created. At the end and after gaining feedback I realised that I wasn’t in the right lines of the task as I added extra information such as name tag before the actual representative’s name. For example: Name: Walter M. Wainwright.

After the sudden realisation of the sort of work needed in the design industry (I think, or is the design industry a lot more productive and demanding?) we began with a lecture about 4 principle of design. In this we covered:
- Proximity, which is using related elements in the same location.
- Alignment, which is basically the placement of an element.
- Repetition, which is a strong form of consistency.
- And Contrast, which is what, attracts the eyes of the viewer.

After the lecture we moved on to our current assignment work for a Monday which is A3. During the time in college I began researching the information in which to use in the script of the website build. Although it’s not yet complete, I gained a very good start in which to inform a target audience of 50+ (Silver Surfers).

During the long extended work criteria on Monday night I gained a very valuable lesson. This lesson is to work on feedback as soon as you receive it and get it out of the way as soon as possible. Failure to do so will result in the lack of sleep.

Tuesday and a very tired ‘JB’. We began the day with the same task as Monday morning but instead of 15 designs we had to create number of 5 complete with annotations. Knowing the results of Monday and from the feedback gained, I set out to create a suitable business card complete with proximity, Alignment, Repetition and Contrast. As a result of this task I received pretty bad feedback just the same as before. Apparently the text regarding the information about the location of the business and the representative, proposing the card, was too small. Perhaps something I need to work on in the near future.

After the Sudden repeat of a design industry on the spot task we began to work on our image restoration which I think is going rather well if I do say so my self (an image of my progress is located below).

In our seminar groups we had a discussion about our progress in the assignment so far and the tasks needed to be completed for this particular weekly event. For this we needed to have a major amount of our image restoration complete in order for checking and the image compression discussion. So far as I know the image restoration needs to be altered slightly in order for the really small detail to be visible to the human eye. A note from Steve, says that if I can’t gain the right tone for the restored image I will need to start it again and place the restoration elements in a separate layer in Photoshop rather then restoring the actual image. From working on the image after seminar I believe it is completed to a satisfactory level of appreciation (in my view).

Also today (Tuesday) we gained our presentation feedback which we produced on the 1st day back from reading week. As it turns out I am a nervous motor mouth with an obsession for comfort. Due to a sudden print of the hand out after entering the room it appears I was also disorganised.

Task to complete over the week:

- 15 web plan thumbnails and a chosen design in full size (in Sketchbook).
- A digital version of the web plan.
- A completed script.
- 8 comment (something Steve says I need to do for missing out on last week’s deadline).
- And any restoration feedback gained from you guys (If people comment and be truthful).

The Excitment of Manipulation!!!

1st things first, I must remember to complete all tasks asked of by Steve for the date set. On Monday morning of this week I was yet again told to leave the room as I failed to copy last Mondays lecture out of a fellow students note book. This resulted in me missing out on Monday mornings lecture, which I am required to gain for next week. The task I was required to do during lecture time was to take notes of last weeks lecture in which Michelle gracefully gave us her note book to carry out the task from. Thanks Michelle.

After the task of copying last weeks lecture, we came back to gain a lecture on Type faces. This explained various styles of font and an outline of typography. Back to work after dinner I set out to complete my delivery requirements and competitive analysis. The chosen sites I used for analysing were www.comptechdoc.org/basic/basictut/ and www.geekgirls.com/menu_basic_computing.htm, which were very helpful in understanding the requirement needed to complete the task.

Tuesday. What a day. We started out with a lecture about image manipulation and how to restore an image back to its former glory. In this lecture we talked about the various tools in Photoshop that are required much use in order to complete the task of restoring an old image received from Steve’s own personal collection. Before lunch we were allowed to have a little mess around with the image in Photoshop to get a better understanding of what is required from us.

After returning from lunch it was straight back to work for the 1st years. With the intention of professionally restoring the image, I set out on a mission which has been quite enjoyable. So far I have restored the back ground of the image, the leg on the right, the top right hand corner, the fold cease on the left person, and a few out of place pixels on the person on the left of the image. My intention now is to complete the restoration of the image and import colour in order for Steve to place his opinion on it next week.

During the time of restoration my seminar group had its weekly discussion with Steve on order to talk about our project goals, target audience, delivery requirements and competitive analysis. During this time we talked about whether our goals are measurable, technologies to be used in the delivery requirements, and a brief discussion about the website’s visited for analysis.

Tasks to be completed for next week:

- Complete image manipulation task complete with colour.
- Copy out Mondays lecture into my sketchbook
- Stick to my time planning.
- Insert at least 4 comments on to other student's journal entries

Monkey Pictures!!!

What fun we had :D

Monkey Madness!!!!

What a week! Monday for a start was pretty mental, as the previous week I had a dare from Steve to for fill. So with the first college day amongst us I began my journey to Wakefield College wearing a ‘Gorilla Suit’ (or at least half of it). The head, hands and feet were additions in which to put on when I entered the building as I chose not to risk getting arrested on the way in. Now that would have really upset Steve. Any ways don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, that’s all I have to say about it. The amount of laughter seen at my expense and the fun I had in Thorne’s park at lunch time was amazing. Above in a separate journal entry are a few of the pictures taken.

Any way, back to the point of this entry. During Monday we talked about the new web plan that was upon us in the new assignment (A3 – Back to Basics). During this discussion (or shall I say lecture) we talked about what was expected of us in this assignment. A new added feature of creating the entire content of the website is going to challenging as we have a basic amount of words we are able to place in the website. The limit was around 2000 words in which to talk about 40 basic computer elements in which to describe to the ‘Silver Surfers’ (members of the community/50 +/interested in accessing the internet). Other tasks during this session were to produce the measurable goals for this project. As it stands I currently have 6 goals which all appear to be pretty measurable.

Tuesday (today) was a day of confusion in the way of trying to understand a lot about colour and the various types of libraries there were in the world we see today. At 1st I thought that there was only one way of viewing a colour library and that was understood because of a previous showing of the pantone colour booklet from Steve. It also turns out that I now also know the answer to a question that puzzled me as a child, when I sat really close in front of the television set. I always used to wonder why there lots of colours shown when sat too close to the TV (I’m sure some of you also did the same thing as a child and wondered why the reason was). Now from the presentation Steve showed us I understood that the RGB colour scheme is the reason for this and that it’s red, green and blue overlapping helps out with creating the other colours viewed other then just seeing the ones mentioned.

In the second part of Tuesday, we had another presentation about image compression and that various technologies which assist in this. We also got to play around with a few images in Photoshop to test the outcomes of each compression method, in which for a photograph, JPEG format won. For graphics PNG was the better in this particular case.

Task to complete for this week:

- Work on the referral in order to achieve a pass grade on A2.
- Follow times sheets accurately.
- Look out for an email from Steve and reply with in the 48 hour deadline.
- Comment on at least 4 other journal entries before midnight Friday.
- Complete the discussion on image compression.


Needs:
- Lots of comments about Gorilla Monday!!!

Dissapointment and Happy Thoughts!!!

Monday the 5th of November. Today we received our grades for the first assignment and it appears that I have referred. All though it is not yet known as to why the referral was given, I am willing to carry on giving my all in order to get on with the course and preferably replace the referral with a pass grade. Among the class in our seminar group we have covered a great deal in how we are going to move on knowing our current grades. As a summary of this and from each answer given by the class, I feel that its is right to say that everyone who gained a referral seemed to be some what disappointed and are willing to give it there all in order to achieve that pass grade.

Remember people, this is part of learning so hang in there. I referred this assignment also but I’m not letting it get to me the slightest bit because I have referred a number of assignments in the past, I have recovered and learnt from my experience.

On another note we each had a presentation to show to Steve about a colour. As explained in last week’s journal entry, I was given the colour purple. In my opinion the presentation went really well considering I accidentally skipped a slide (I think). The presentation did seem to go by quite rapidly considering the time taken for most students to disappear and then reappear at the canteen doors. But I guess that could be the suspense and excitement I was feeling at that moment, which suddenly made me fly through it.


Tuesday the 6th of November. This morning consisted of the usual from Steve, but instead of the original heart bursting outbreaks of reluctant disappointment. The lecture was finally something other then a disciplinary about emails. Instead we talked about whether it is possible to distinguish the differences between an artist and a designer. This presentation leads to a very good discussion that should prove quite useful in the upcoming. The main question to relate to is, are you a designer or an artist, and why?

This afternoon the class has been researching hard to gain information about the Design Republic. This is a task emitted in A4 that requires us to discuss (evaluate) the designs created by the design republic and how they work as a company, yet again leading on to what I see my self as (artist or designer).

Finally in our seminar groups we discussed the upcoming assignments to fill in any miss-judgment about what we are expected to do. This took exactly 1 hour in which we talked about how everyone is expecting me to come in to college dressed in my Halloween costume on the upcoming Monday. We talked about the past assignment in which we have jus completed and we were given a talk in which to complete for the upcoming Monday. This was to discuss with my seminar group 12 software applications that could be included on the website we are now planning. This needs to include at least 3 OS’s.


Task to complete for next week…

- Complete the discussion about the Design Republic and figure out what I see my self as (Designer or Artist).
- Gain a constant reminder about wearing my gorilla suit in to college next Monday.
- Keep up to date with my time planning.
- Complete seminar task.


P.S. What do you see you're self as, a Designer or an Artist???