The End of Term 1!!!

Through out the term the course has shown all aspects that are possibly part of the design industry. These are emotional feelings towards work/own designs, friendliness of co-workers (students), a better understanding of the performance needed, more experience in various programs and the frustration it can all lead up to.

Over all this is by far the best, friendliest, and hardest working environment I have ever faced up to this present time. The over all amount of work needed to complete each assignment is outstanding compared to previous courses and can only be described as a good thing, and often known as a challenge.

Through out the last 4 months I have seen all the different types of moods shown by each of the students. Some moods were good and the others bad. But the main thing is that we have all stood aside each other in this difficult and nauseating time.

On a personal level I would like to thank Steve and John for the guidance and valuable experiences this term. And I would also like to thank all the students that have made this time more valuable then I could ever imagine.

From the completion of the latest assignments I can honestly say I have learnt a great deal, even though some of the work seemed as though we were replaying previous tasks from A2. The more informative part of the assignment this time round was the content of the WebPages, as this was something newly added, that is a differentiated asset from A2.

A4 so far is by far the most enjoyable assignment during the 1st term at the HND class. This is due to the designing part, as most of the other assignments were mainly written. Completing the image restoration gave me an immense boost in the Photoshop application, by its demonstration of the tools hosted. Through out the restoration I became very aware of a lot of tools and task that could be created in and by this advance piece of software.

A bright idea produced by Steve was to issue us with a time limited task in creating banners at a professional level. This allowed me (and I’m sure others) to produce a mass number of designs in the time allocated. The completion of these designs were very satisfying, mostly looking back at the ‘Tina May’ banner I created. In my eyes this appeared to me to be by far the best design work I have ever completed.

Looking back towards the 1st journal entry I produced in September, it appears that my knowledge and evaluative experience had greatly increased in terms of wording and productivity. This is to my knowledge a key asset to becoming a progressing designer.

After the full term break we will be progressing onto the build of the A3 web plan. This is in my opinion a very good task to begin as creating a website in Dreamweaver is something to complete that I finally have experience with. Through out the build I have a number of goals that I aim to stand by. In the result of not sticking with these goals, it will only show a state of failure in which I will have shown signs of underestimation. So now I will leave a list of the goals I am planning to stick by and improve during the next term and towards the end of the completing year.

- Improve my workings in the assignment template.
- Show more creativity with progressing ideas.
- Use my current knowledge and progress further.
- Carry on planning my time efficiently and effectively.
- Become more responsive towards email replying and journal commenting.
- And to keep on producing a good standard of evaluating journal entries.


P.S Merry Crimbo every one :D

A Brighter Reality!!!

This week has seemed very satisfying and rewarding in both the work load, and the gains of new experience. I speak of this as the A3 assignment is nearly to a complete state (excluding a few images, the assets list, some references and a few amendments pointed out in seminar). Another thing that has lifted the feeling this week is the amount of image feedback in the permission state of the assets. My images have come from a number of sources, complete with licensing and permission. 1 of the website I gained feed back from was IBM. This may not have been an email of permission, but it did appoint me to 1 of its website pages in which contained a permission of use form. Very satisfying is the feeling when gaining feedback from a professional company. Another site I gained feed back from was http://www.webcreationuk.com/. This was in relation to a price of a professionally made website sold in the industry. This information was needed in order to gain a general knowledge of what price could be included in the price list of A3.

A4 hasn’t been worked on a great deal this last week as I’ve been concentrating mainly on A3. At the state of its current form, it only really needs a few amendments, a little feedback and an evaluation, not forgetting to actually place it all in to ‘InDesign’ also. Today I’ve mainly been working on the banner creations for A4. During the time spent on this I believe I’ve learnt a great deal more in Photoshop and the general layouts of a banner in forms of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

A downside to today was that I accidentally over slept, which made me late for class. As a result to not having Steve’s number saved in my phone book, I was unable to get in touch with him to let him know I was going to be late. This meant I spent the morning part of class self studying in the library (not the greatest thing in the world I might add). From this unforeseen misfortune, I have only managed to gain the number in which will prevent me from been sent out of class in the event of this ever happening again in future (thanks Michelle).

Now that this week has been talked about here are a few tasks I am required to do this week in self study:

- Amend errors in A3
- Complete referencing
- Gain remainder of pictures needed and complete assets list
- Gain feedback for the banner creations when amended
- Comment on 6 other students journal entries
- And ensure A4 is inserted into InDesign complete with referencing

Banner Progress!!!

Here are the results of further feedback comments. Michelle, im affraid your previous comment was not able to be ammended as the image of Jonathon Gee is how you see it. There is no more image above the hair line that is seen. Please take time in commenting on these designs....

Thanks.

Screen Design Update.!!!

More comments are needed people, Ive made it more digital. Now what do you think???

Changed and uploaded. What do you think now Suzanne???

Banner Ideas!!!

Feed back please. It will be most helpful. And yes people, they are both under the 20k limit...

Harsh Reality!!!

As a result of completely failing assignment A2, it has come aware that play time is over. This course has already lost too many students and I don’t intend for me to be the next disappointing asset in the journey to becoming a designer. Early this week we leant that one of out fellow students had a change of heart about his path in life. This led to an upsetting moment where Tom Wealthy decided to leave this career path in order to pursuit another. Some may feel disappointed, some may feel lost for words, but I feel it is best to just be happy with the decision made by Tom. Cya later buddy, Good luck.

From failing the assignment, that’s The Plan, I can only gain a better understanding of what needed to be included in an assignment for future references. From this unfortunate event, I now plan to improve a great deal in order to pass A3 with flying colours. Been on this course means a lot to me and it would be a great loss if I were not able to complete it for what ever reason.

A3- Up to press I believe I’m on the merge of improving my self as we have 2 weeks in order for me to complete the assets list, budget statement, evaluation and the design feedback. This may seem like a lot to some people but it is as simple as it comes. This could be completed with college time alone provided I knuckle down to the task. But this is something I’m not going to do, as I plan to take full advantage of my home study time, which will give me a lot of progress in this assignment. After completing what I have to do I can only brush up on what I have done in order to get that mark I am aiming for.

A4- The last task as I noticed began to bring out the creative flare in most people. This was the image restoration task. Up to press I have completed it except for one minor fault. It seems to look a little grainy (stated by Andrew Whelan) when up close. So far in my recent attempts it has proved useless in getting this right. I’ve played with just about every setting I can think of and nothing seems to work. Any advice or tips will be a great help on that one, Thanks.

Today we started the banner task. In this task we are required to create a Skyscraper and a Medium Rectangle banner. The theme in which to create these 2 styles of banners we’re given to us by Steve in the form of 5 photographic images. With these images we are required to only use 2, and incorporate them in to the design, being careful not to damage or change any part of the actual image.

The tasks to complete for this weeks home study are:

- Read and comment on at least 4 other students’ journal entries.
- Complete the assets list.
- Design feedback (Images are below if any one wants to leave a comment).
- Budget Statement.
- And the 2 banners.

Web Template-A3!!!

This is what ive come up with from sketchbook feedback. The sketch is to illustrate simpleness. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.














After a few changes from a fellow students feedback I came up with this. Any more takers???