Updated Trexi Header Design

I've taken the feedback I've been give on my original Trexi design and made some changes seen below.

If anyone would like to give me any more feedback on my updated design then that would be great.



I'm still not sure about the logo where it is at present. I might change it back and put it somewhere else. I'm still not sure about the PI logo either, I think perhaps I'm trying too hard to use the font I've used but again feedback on any of these things would be appreciated.

Trexi Website - Header Design

I've just spent a little while trying to make a header for my Trexi site. I've tried to keep with the theme of the 'police tape' style design of my trexi it's self and came up with this:

It's by no means finished, but the basic idea is there. I was just wondering if anyone has any initial feedback before I get too far into the design. I realise it could be quite difficult to comment on the design without seeing how it will fit in with the rest of the site but I will hopefully be uploading that soon.

EDIT - Work in progress site now uploaded

Evaluation of the Last Semester

This past semester has been somewhat...different.

To begin the semester was our CSS beauty assignment. This required us to not only learn CSS but also learn about the history of it too. I found this one of the most difficult assignments to date mainly down to the fact that I had never used CSS before, only once previously for our summer assignment. Although I found the assignment very difficult I also found it to be very enjoyable as CSS is a very valuable tool to use in making websites.

At the same time as this assignment was going on we were also given our team project assignment. This is perhaps one of the strangest assignments we have had as we were not really given a brief. This is because we were expected to go out and find our own client and build a commercial website for them. Although the assignment is a huge task, and one that we couldn't afford to do wrong it has been the best assignment to date. Along with Craig and Mirhad I think we had a fantastic group and all gelled well together to get the tasks done. Throughout this assignment I have also learnt a lot more than I first thought I would have. Before starting this assignment I had never used PHP before or a content management system but I now feel relatively confident with both and hope to use them both again soon in future projects.

This assignment has also given us the chance to work in a more 'industry standard' way. We set ourselves the task of building a website in a day which, although ended up being planned quite late (for reasons outside our control) went exceptionally well and I was very pleased as to how it turned out. In the end we completed the site (or as much as we could have done at the time) in the allotted time and I'm exceptionally proud of what we did. If anyone get's the chance to do this sort of thing (1st years spring to mind straight away) then do take it, it will be one of the closest experiences you will get to 'the real world' in an educational enviroment you can get.

Our latest assignment (A12 - Culture Vulture) has got to be the strangest assignment to date though as it has involved a backwards design process. This basically meant that we had to design for a product which was unknown to us at the time. I really struggled with this assignment right from the word go as not only did I completely mess up my presentation but also I struggled to 'let myself go' and be diverse in the creation of my ideas. As the weeks progressed I felt that I managed to be a bit more creative but I still feel like I could have done more.

One of the highlights of the A12 assignment has being the creation of our own compilation CD's, though trying to make them as diverse as possible was quite a challenge. It made a change to listen to music that we would not normally have listened to, and although I didn't like all of it, I think it served it's purpose of inspiring me and influencing me in ways I perhaps would not have been otherwise.

At present I am in the process of making my trexi designs digital which is a huge task in it's self and I am feeling quite nervous towards the looming deadline as I still have a lot of work left to do (for both assignments). I still have to complete the digitisation of my designs, complete my website to upload them to, create a collectors card and write an evaluation - plus everything else for A11.

Once the deadline is over I will be happy to have a few weeks off and enjoy the Christmas break, clear my mind and be ready to come back to work ready for the final semester.

The new semester will definitely be the hardest yet, with 3 huge projects to undertake including learning a new piece of software, creating my own portfolio and partaking in the dreaded presentations. But the end is almost in sight and it's no time to let my standards slip, as Steve has said many a time now, do we want to go out with a whimper or a bang, and I definitely want to go out with a bang.

Trexi Designs

Below are 2 of my 3 trexi designs. My 3rd idea isn't as strong as these 2 (though I will be uploading it soon) but any feedback on these 2 for the moment would be appreciated.

This first idea uses the idea of some sort of tape surrounding my figurine. The yellow tape will contain some sort of text, though at the moment I've not decided on what.



For this idea I tried to keep away from my trexi being a character and used my design of 'spilt coffee'. From initial feedback it has been noted it looks more like a cow than spilt coffee and to recreate the idea of coffee on a computer could be a challenge but it is not a reason not to try.


As I said, 3rd idea to come shortly. Watch this space.

Comparison of BTEC and Skillset Standards

After spending the past few weeks looking at the National Occupational Standards it is clear that the differences between the 'industry professionals' and BTEC's standards are vast.

Before making any sort of comparison I feel it is important to firstly look at who is writing the Skillset standards. The majority of contributors are part of large companies (e.g Sky and Channel 4) and so perhaps their view of the industry and it's needs are somewhat distorted.

This is perhaps most obviously seen in IM11 which doesn't state 'designer' as a job role which would require you to know about copyright laws and intellectual property rights. This is most likely down to the fact that these big companies have huge in house design teams where as smaller companies with much smaller design teams can't afford to have so many different roles. A scenario which me are much more likely to face.

However BTEC are not perfect in their standards either, not by a long way. Due to the large amount of time since it's last update the BTEC syllabus is very outdated and in such a fast moving industry where the only real way to keep 'up to date' on goings on in is by using the Internet, a syllabus last updated 2 years ago (and most likely very minor changes at that) much of it is very, very dated.

The BTEC syllabus is also very long - 198 pages - which could be easily condensed. The reason that the BTEC syllabus is so long in comparison to the Skillset standards is mainly down to the fact that BTEC is purely academic and so means that certain goals and time frames should be set.

This brings up the question as to why Skillset does not include such measures in it's syllabus. This is Skillset's major let down, the fact that although they state what we are expected to know (or at least have an awareness of) they do not say as to what exact level (goals) or when we are expected to have learnt it by (time frames).

If Skillset were to implement these measures, especially some more specific goals, then it would give an even greater advantage to both educators and students than it currently does.

The big thing that needs to be looked at in both syllabuses (or syllabi dependent on your point of view) is the actual content that we 'must' learn. Obviously the Skillset standards are much less compulsory than BTEC's but never the less should be taken into consideration by educational institutes.

When comparing the two, the thing that jumps out at me the most is the technical aspect of the industry. BTEC offer very little in terms of technical units. Even learning something as valuable (and industry standard no matter where you work - almost) as CSS isn't compulsory so I suppose that a distinct lack of PHP, MySQL and databases is nothing to be shocked at.

Skillset on the other hand have a whole unit dedicated to coding scripts to 'provide functionality to interactive media products'.

BTEC of course faces a problem of it's own. Having to maintain an academic element to it's syllabus BTEC has to divide it's units between academic units as well as personal development work. This means that a lot of the units that Skillset recommend are unable to be implemented into the BTEC syllabus due to time been taken up by essays and such.

In an ideal world Skillset and BTEC would get together and come up with some sort of syllabus which took points from both syllabuses (again or syllabi) and made an academic/industry relevant one. But I can't see that day ever happening.

As it is, it is down to us (as students) to look at the skillset syllabus, decide what is relevent, and try and learn some of it ourselves in our own time instead of expecting everything to be given straight to us.

CD Tracklisting

For all those wondering 'Who' or perhaps in some cases 'what' was that, my CD track listing from Wednesday was as follows (where possible I've added links to the iTunes store):

Let's Get Ready To Rhumble - PJ and Duncan
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M
War - Edwin Starr
Fixing A Hole - The Fray (Radio 2 - Sgt.Peppers 40th Anniversary)
The Worst Out Of You - The Freaks Union (First album unavailable on iTunes)
My Girl - The Temptations
Tendency - Battle
Eleanor Rigby - Thrice
Frontin' - Jamie Cullum
With A Medium Into Trance (Dropout Mix) - Pete Namlook and Pascal FEOS
Empty Rooms - Gary Moore
Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies - The Ataris
Eanie Meanie - Jim Noir (It was used for the Adidas adverts not so long back too)
Lighthouse Keeper - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden
Feeling Good - Muse

I hope everyone enjoyed at least some of it, and hopefully someone found some new music to like (even if it was 'mainstream' according to Craig)

Why Blue-Green Is The Best Colour Combination

Blue and green are very natural colours. Green is of course the colour of plants and blue is of course the colour of the sky. If you look at a picture of the globe from space the most predominant colours you will see are also blue and green. Both colours are all around us and by using these colours in design it gives a much more natural look to your product be it a website or printed piece of work.

The blue-green combo is a valuable colour combination to use, and to ignore it would be a foolish mistake.

Of course if my word, and the powers of nature aren't enough to swing things for you, perhaps some industry professionals may change your mind. In a book published by Jakob Nielsen entitled 'Designing Web Usability' the front page of the book uses a blue and green colour scheme (see below)





As well as this Microsoft also use blue and green quite a lot in their programs. For starters the task bar on a XP PC has a green start button and the rest of the taskbar is blue. As well as this Windows Live messenger uses a blue 'buddy' and a green 'buddy'.



So with so many big companies using the blue-green combo, and with nature adopting it's own colour combination of the two, to turn down the use of blue and green seems quite a stupid thing to do,

It is the definative colour combination.

The Designers Republic Job Vacancy

Third post in a week, just like old times.

Anyway, The Designers Republic has a job vacancy going:

I thought after our previous blogs regarding interviews and such I thought it may be interesting to see what a 'real' design company would ask for, just for applying. Besides the basic criteria (3-5 years experience, etc.) the thing that stands out most to me is the 'Your 10 of favourite things - and why'.

Obviously this is just a way of assessing your personality and perhaps in some ways creativity but it got me thinking what sort of things they would be looking for.

So the question is, if you were applying for this job, what would you put as your 10 favourite things...and why?

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Photos

Below are some of the photos I took from the sculpture park. I've not had time to resize them properly so apologies for the large file sizes. Most are around 2MB so beware when viewing the large images.



This turned out to be on of my favourite photo of the day. It was taken inside 'The Basket' and although by accident I really like how the grid is sharp and in focus yet the background behind it is blurred and fuzzy.







This was a picture of the famous 'skyspace' which I (ahem) 'love so much'. I actually quite like this image as it captures the clouds nicely in the window of light shining through. I think if I used this picture as a basis of a design then I would probably come up with quite a good design from it as the potential is endless. My first inital thought was some sort of CD cover.






And finally we have our famous shadow puppets photo. This was taken with Craig, myself and Scott all adopting random positions and taking photos of the results. Although I think Scott has some better pictures this was one of my favourites from my camera. The shadow on the right I actually think could be one of the sculptures but who knows.

I will upload more photos soon and host them from my website, link to follow shortly.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visit

Today we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and once again I began to wonder if we were artists or designers. Visiting a sculpture park seemed to suggest we were in fact 'artists' but my complete lack of understanding of any of the 'art' or sculptures at the park proved the fact I was a obviously a designer (or perhaps maybe just a very bad artist).

Walking for 2.5KM to visit a gallery with various pieces of work called 'sheep shit snowball' (literally) seemed to me to be a waste of time, and as the main galleries wouldn't allow for photographs to be taken inside them we decided to take our own pictures on the long trek back. I'll upload them soon.

After spending a just over an hour in the park our creative side began to come out however and we tried to create some of our own 'artwork'. This began simply with Craig and Scott kicking leaves to create lines in them showing the grass beneath. Though this sounds nothing special, neither does a wooden hut or a sculpture of a man when that is all that's said about it.

We then got the idea to create our own 'leaf angel' and as no one wanted to get dirty I decided to be the one to do it. Although it didn't turn out as well as planned, the idea was definitely there. Scott and Craig took some photos of it so hopefully they will post some on their blogs or send them to me to upload.

We then began messing around with our cameras, burying them in leaves, setting the timer and throwing them between us and spinning them around again whilst on timer. These pictures created some quite unique shots which do actually look quite good and could possibly be used for various design pieces (hopefully over the next few weeks)

We also began using our shadows to create pictures including us standing behind each other to make it just look like one person, and us basically being stupid sticking our arms out in weird ways and taking photos. Again these worked out quite well and again hopefully Craig and Scott will upload some of their pictures soon, as will I.

In the end I was thoroughly enjoying myself in the park, more so than on any of my previous visits, and was quite disappointed that we had to be back at college and would of happily continued to spend time in the park just being creative. As Scott quite rightly said 'It sometimes takes hours to be creative, it can take just a simple thing to set you off.

Oh, and I still don't understand the big fuss about the sky space sculpture - after my third time of viewing it.

3 Tracks From Inspirational CD

This week I have continued my 'self learning' journey, this time however regarding my musical tastes. Never before did I realise how much 'emo' style music I actually own, although not all of it typical shouting and yelling, it is 'emo' none the less. This has caused quite a deal of difficulty trying to make a 'diverse' CD to inspire me and the rest of the group in college. Saying this however I think the CD track listing I created is relatively diverse, and I kept the amount of heavy metal down to a minimum.


Below is a couple of the tracks I have chosen, and why. The process of choosing 3 songs from the CD was just as difficult as choosing the songs for the CD it's self. In the end I went for 3 at random...


The first track I chose was Showbiz - Muse. There was always going to be a Muse song on my CD, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to most people. In this case however I decided to opt for 2 Muse songs, the second being . I chose these two songs as a contrasting point.


Showbiz is a very old Muse track, from their very first album, Showbiz. It starts of very slow and gradually brings in more instruments, a faster pace, and a much more heavier sound.


Invincible on the other hand is from their newest album, Black Holes & Revelations. It is completely opposite to Showbiz as it starts of very slowly, and continues the pace throughout the song. It also relies a lot less on heavy guitar riffs for a much softer sound.


And the third song is Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies - The Ataris. This song is a very descriptive song, and creates all sorts of different images in your mind just by listening to the track. As the idea of the CD's is to inspire us, I thought that this was quite a good thing to have on a track, though whether the images it creates are relevant I do not know.

*End Note* Thinking of a descriptive title is actual harder than thinking of a 'clever' title. Especially when I had the perfect one too...

All Your Sheep Belong To Us...

With the mass telling off we received last week regarding our communication skills we were then told we had to conform to the following WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Guidelines - 1.1, 2.2, 4.2, 13.1, 14.1 and 14.3.

I thought I was hitting most of these guidelines, perhaps 1.1 needed a little work, and 14.1 is a mine field, but on the whole I was relatively happy with my 'learning journal'. I spell check it before posting, have the date and time set up for posts, have added a list to the first years journals, and have meaningful titles.... Or do I?

As Craig mentioned in my previous post my idea of a 'meaningful title' is perhaps different to the user. Using my previous post as an example, my title of "Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking" tells the user nothing about what is to come in the blog, and to the average Joe reading my blog will cause little or no interest in them. Although I know what I was getting at, perhaps no one else really did.

Take the title of this blog for instance, to the average Joe this title will have as much meaning to this post as any of my other titles, yet to me it has a lot less meaning. I guess the point I'm trying to get at is that one of the main aims of our 'learning journals' is to provide evidence for our PDP unit which in turn is to show our understanding of the industry, jobs, etc. This being said, I need to start thinking about the end user a lot more and how everything I do, even minute things such as blog post titles, may affect them.

You know, it's amazing how much you learn when it's meant to be your week off...

"Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking"

Already half way through the first term of the second year and it seems like only yesterday I was struggling to remember every one's names and resorted to 'Dave'. It's hard to believe it's been 7 weeks.

Coming back to the second year I knew it was going to be hard, the work level had increased, the requirements to pass assignments had increased and the tight nit group had dramatically decreased. Sitting back in the classroom for the first time, I was nervous about what to expect. The John started discussing the new assignment. At first I was shocked, perhaps expecting something similar to the first year where we were gently eased into an assignment, then I realised I was being stupid and began to hurriedly take down notes about CSS, web standards, and all the other geeky elements to web design programming brings.

After a day of lectures regarding what to me at the time was pure gibberish I knew Steve was right when he had previously said the second year would be much, much harder. Much harder than I had expected in fact.

My thoughts then turned to the assignment we would be receiving the following day, our team assignment. This assignment perhaps filled me with the most fear as I had absolutely no idea what to expect. It wasn't an assignment that was easily researchable, especially when I had no idea of what role within the team I would be taking on. Almost as soon as these fears came they went however as I realised just how good a team we had, and still do have.

Due to the nature of the assignment we have been given, and the fact I was appointed developer of our team task, most of the work I have had to do has been very programming related. Although I don't mind coding too much, it is one of the areas I have less experience in and so I have had to work very hard to keep up with some other members of the group.

Attempting to learn PHP has been one of my biggest tasks I have had to undertake over the past 2 months and at the same time the most enjoyable. Learning PHP in such a small time was a huge task to undertake, especially with no real tuition or lectures to guide me and for this reason as a group we chose to abandon creating our own CMS for our team project and to use a pre-developed system. When this was first decided I was slightly frustrated, not because I thought all my time and effort had been wasted, but because I didn't want to take the easy way out. After speaking to Steve afterwards however, he too agreed that we had made a good decision in using a pre-developed system which made me feel a bit better.

Learning CSS has also being a enjoyable and difficult task, though as John said at the beginning of the year, it just needs to 'click' and I think for me it has. Although I'll be the first to admit my CSS design for the assignment perhaps wasn't the best in the class, I'm proud with how far I have come from the summer assignment which was very basic and unimaginative.

All in all I think the past 2 months has being the best 2 months of the course so far, despite my initial worries. I'm looking forward to what the next 2 months bring and also the rest of the course. We've still got lots to do, including the completion of a team project for a live client (one of my favourite assignments to date) as well as yet more presentations to practice etc.

My goal for the next set of assignment hand ins is to get a merit (at least) and so it will be interesting to see what comes of them. Now, off to read up on usability testing...

Second Time Lucky

After my abysmal attempt in my first set of interview questions I decided to take a different approach. Instead of sitting and thinking about my answers I decided to think how I would react if I was asked a question I hadn't prepared for and answered from the top of my head.

I think in some ways this worked well, I answered much better than in my previous interview questions but perhaps this was because I had a preset question and answer list in my mind which I answered from. Perhaps by using this preset list it didn't give me a chance to get my personality across which is something that employers are often looking for.

Although I feel that this set of questions was much better than my previous, I don't feel like either is perfect and a lot of work would still have to be done. Of course hopefully my portfolio would be enough to put me through though it would be wrong to rely solely on this.

Second Interview Call Backs

Describe yourself in three words.
Enthusiastic, passionate, creative

How would you measure the effectiveness of your Interactive Media products?
I currently use an analysis tool called 'Google Analytics' to monitor my portfolio and online learning journal sites. It gives me a break down of who is accessing my website, where from, and other vital pieces of information such as browsers used etc.

By using this free tool it shows whether people are looking at my site and if they are coming back, personally I think that if users are repeat visiting my site then it is being effective. It also allows me to set measurable goals which are then recorded on the stats page again showing if it has been 'effective'.

How do you handle criticism?
Upon receiving criticism I first try and take any positives out of it and remember them for later as more often than not when receiving criticism you are giving positive feedback too. I then look at the negatives and try and see why others may think this and if on closer inspection of my work I can too see it. If I can't see the problem I then ask for more specific feedback on the negative points and ask what would make it better so that I can make the current work better and also again remember for a later date.

Explain when you have had a difficult problem and how you solved it.
The most recent problem I have faced is when trying to learn CSS on my course. I have had very little knowledge of it in the past and so could see I was going to struggle to learn it. For this reason I decided to take upon myself to learn CSS in my own time outside of college and as I knew CSS would have to be learnt, try and learn a few of the basics before I had to implement it. I used various sources to learn CSS including books, magazines and websites. I then practiced making a few basic CSS sites so I could get a hang of coding with it instead of just reading example code.1

Describe how you fit into a team.
I think personally I fit in to a team relatively easily. I am able to get on with people easily and have no problems joining a new group of people and begin getting on with them quickly. At the same time however I am able to distance myself from a group environment when the time calls to do individual work and don't have to rely on colleagues.

Are there any questions?
Will there be any opportunities for promotion?

'Don't Call Us....We'll Call You'

After last weeks 'Online Journal Entry' it is clear that if I were ever to apply for a real job I would be turned away almost immediately. Admittedly I did mistake the entry last week to be applying for a job via a letter not interview questions but it still doesn't account for the frankly abysmal answers I gave.

This may seem over critical but in my opinion is a honest response and would not like to hire myself after those answers.

Take my first question response for example. Although I have mentioned the job contains 'skills I have learnt on the course' I do not give examples as to what skills I have learnt and any other skills which I have learnt which may also aid me in the work.

Perhaps my worst answer however is the 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?' question. As Steve quite rightly mentioned in class, I have not shown loyalty to the business, although this was my intention. After hearing this question before I know it is important to show that you want to be with the company in the long run, even if this is not the truth, and by saying I wanted to be lead designer I was hoping to show both loyalty and ambition. However instead of saying 'I would like to be lead designer at your company', instead I said 'with a company', showing no loyalty at all.

If/when we do any more tasks like this, and definitely when I enter a real interview situation, I will think a lot harder about the answers I am giving and the way in which I am phrasing them.

Junior Web Developer

Company - Netstep Corporate Communications Ltd
Salary - £18000
Job Type - Permanent
Location - Yorkshire
Reference - NET14

Contact - Carla Marshall
Address - The Spire, Leeds Road, Lightcliffe, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 8NU
Telephone - 01422 200308
Fax - 01422 200306

Found at - CreativeMatch.co.uk

Why Do You Want the Job?
After just completing 2 years on a HND Interactive Media course, I am now ready to begin work in the web design industry. The above job contains aspects of all the skills which I have learnt over the past 2 years and will give my a chance to further improve on my skills.

What's Your Greatest Strength?
In my opinion my greatest strength would be my ability to learn new things quickly. Whilst studying for my HND, I spent a lot of time learning new technologies on my own initiative, some of which were not taught on the course (such as PHP and MySQL).

What's Your Greatest Weakness?
My greatest weakness however would have to be my tendency to want to jump straight in to creating a website before I design it properly. However, in the industry I know that time is money and I would not have much 'design' time and so being able to design 'on the fly' could also be seen as a strength.

What Do You See Yourself Doing In 5 Years Time?
In five years time I hope to of progressed in my career and be, or at least be working my way towards being, a lead designer of a company. I feel that after 2 years of intense study followed by a numerous years of industry experience will provide me with enough advanced skills and knowledge to allow me to do this.

What Current Interactive Media Innovation Excites You The Most?
The current Interactive Media innovation which excites me the most at present is CSS, there is so much that can be done with it and the benefits of it are almost endless. I have only being studying CSS for a year but have made great strides in my ability to implement it in a effective manner and hope that this can only continue to improve.

Who Is Your Hero?
My 'hero' would have to be a graffiti artist called Banksy. Most 'graffiti artists' are just kids with spray cans writing their names on walls, but Banksy moves away from this and creates pieces of art work. His designs are both abstract but appealing at the same time, and a lot of the time he uses his 'art' to great effect when trying to get messages across, be this political, environmental, etc.

Key Points from the Design Mechanics Presentation

An online portfolio should include evidence of both commercial print and web work as employers look more at skills than qualifications. Approaches to potential employers should include a written CV, both posted and emailed and followed up by a phone call to confirm receipt. Good design practice involves preparing my self mentally for knock backs from clients and design for them and not my self. This is helped by gathering detailed information from the client brief which allows for accurate designs first time.

Breaking News! Feedback needed

This week I've being trying to create a design for my CSS Beauty site, and decided some feedback might be useful. I realise it's perhaps a little late to be asking for feedback (they day before the lesson) but I've being trying to get it as completed as possible.

This isn't to say it is completed. There's still alot I need to do, and creating it all in InDesign when I've never used it before has proved quite a challenge, but the basic principles are there.

CSS Beauty Screen Design (PDF - 112KB)

Obviously I have gone for a newspaper theme, which at the moment is also black and white, but I might add some picture and colour in to it somewhere to brighten it up a bit more.

The empty box at the bottom will contain the 'About' bit and the rest of the footer information.

"We Still Blog The Old Way"

After the past few weeks of 'themed' blogs I am glad to finally get the chance to write a weekly evaluative blog like in the first year.

The first week kicked off with a slightly strange start as the first 'day' back at college after the holidays was to give a presentation to the first years. A voluntary presentation? What was I thinking. Luckily however it all seemed to go ok, despite me both forgetting a drink and being asked some very in depth and intelligent questions. Of course there was also no getting away from the question - Mac or PC?

However with this presentation out of the way, it was time to concentrate on the second year and the upcoming CSS and professional projects. Thursday was a very hard day as unlike the first year we weren't gently eased into the work load. Instead, as soon as we had received our new student ID cards, we were straight into a lecture regarding our first assignment.

The 'Box Clever' assignment sounds quite fun. It is very similar to the CSS Zen Garden website where we have to create our own style sheets for a given HTML 'template'. Although my knowledge of CSS is very limited, I am hoping that this assignment will advance my skills dramatically but at the same time it is quite a creative assignment which is always a good thing.

The big assignment of the year so far is the 'On the Job' assignment. Although techincally the iMe assignment is the longest, I feel that this assignment will be the most beneficial and make us work the hardest.

This has shown already, as only three weeks in to the second year and already I have being investigating setting up my own content management system and attempting to get my head around PHP and MySQL. This caused mass headaches for the first week but I now seem to be getting the hang of it, and with the help of Craig's books he has lent me will hopefully improve even further.

Regarding the assignment, tomorrow is our first meeting with the client and I am the 'official' minute taker of our 'company' which requires me to get dressed up. Laughs all round tomorrow then.

So far this year, one thing that I think has improved already is my time planning skills. I have managed to do my time plans at the beginning of each week, and keep them up to date throughout. This will be a massive help not only for me to plan the assignments better, but will also hopefully help in me achieving higher grades.

My aims for the next week are to:
Complete my designs for the Box Clever assignment

• Learn some more CSS
• Learn some more PHP/MySQL
• Complete any other tasks given by Craig B for the On the Job assignment
• Learn to speak in a less 'conversational manner' and a more 'academic manner'...maybe

If I can complete all these by next week then I will still be on track with my 'master time plan' for the assignments.

So Many Skills, So Little Time.

Over the past year we have learnt many things, all of which are linked to the industry. There have been times when I, and probably some others, may have felt that what we were learning at the time had no real point, but in the end it always makes sense.

Personal development planning is one of these such examples. On first glance PDP's sound a little too academic but the more I think about them the more sense it seems to make. The skills I have learnt from doing PDP exercises are vast. When I first started the course my knowledge of web design was very limited, and I had no real experience in any of the software we would be learning. This soon changed though as I soon grasped the concept of the software and learnt the many features of the various ones.

This is perhaps the most obvious task we have being given that is linked directly to the industry as with no knowledge of Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc. then no employer would even consider hiring us. Now however, I feel I am well on the way to gaining the valuable skills needed to gain an employer at the end of the course.

Attending lectures and tutorials is another 'how does that help' topic at first glance. Although not as obvious as PDP the skills which we learn in lectures are greatly needed. Participation in group discussions is something that will be yet another valuable trait in the industry, as talking in groups with people and getting ideas/views across will be something I will be likely to do almost every day.

So far on the course we have had little time at present to participate in 'group projects'. Although we have had our feedback meetings and a few small group projects no big projects have been completed. We are currently taking part in a group project however which is making use of our communication skills, attention to detail, time planning and most importantly negotiational skills.

With the industry we are aiming to work in, one skill I will need to have perfect is our oral presentation skills. Speaking to clients and pitching for work will be a must if we are to survive in the competitive market of web design and so far the course is teaching us this skill well.

Group projects are probably one of the most obvious skills related to the industry that we will learn on the course, as working with people in a group environment will again be most likely on a daily basis.

Already we have had numerous presentations in both individual and group scenarios, and there are still many more of them to come. Before starting the course I had not done many presentations before and I feel that from being on the course my presentational skills have greatly improved.

Writing essays and other forms of academic writing is something that I have had to do throughout my educational life. However because I aspired to be a journalist at one point in my career my written work can sometimes reflect this a bit too much and I can tend to 'waffle' on. Because in the industry time will be essential I will not have time to do this and since starting the course I think that my written work has improved when I need it to and is more formal.

In this industry observation is everything. If you walk around with your eyes shut then you will get nowhere. The course has taught me so much about looking at designs that I know struggle to just see something and not analysis it. This will be a huge help in the industry as it allows me to easily take inspiration from designs and store it in my mind for future reference when needed.

Research is something that has been done for almost every assignment that we have completed. It is the backbone to the course almost as finding out about what we are about to undertake is a must. Although time will be a factor again in the industry and research may not be taken for individual projects, we will probably research into the industry in our spare time to keep up to date with the latest technologies and such, especially if we go in to the freelance sector.

We have had very little in the way of 'exams' on the course which meant we had no real 'revision' to do. However, when it has come to writing essays we have had to review our notes that we have taken in lessons and put them into our own words. This will again be a much needed skill in the industry as reviewing notes we have taken from client meetings and such will be something that again will be done regularly.

The things that I really need to improve on to do well in the industry is my presentational skills and my written skills. Although both have greatly improved since I started the course I still find it hard to distance myself from my journalistic traits and to present confidently.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

The second year officially started today and with it many changes. The first being having 5 less people in the group, the second being our 'blogs now being called 'Online Learning Journals' and being 'themed'. Lucky for me then that the first week's theme is on targets both the next 6 months and the next few years.

The next 6 months or so is easy enough. Come February time we will be onto our 5th assignment of the year, with 3 handed in. Looking back to a previous blog I set my self 4 main goals for the year as a whole.

• Get onto the second year

• Get at least a pass on every assignment first time

• Obtain at least 4 merits on assignments

• Improve on my design process (Design more than 6/7 thumbnails)

Now, one of those is already met, so that only leaves me with three to go. Improving on my design process will be the easiest goal for me to meet, as it is something I can do on every single assignment (starting now) and is something I will really concentrate on this year. Getting a pass on every assignment first time will hopefully be relatively easy too (so far so good anyway) but meeting my goal of 4 merits will be the most difficult. Out of the assignments we will have done in 6 months I will hopefully have gained 3 out of 3 merits for them. If I complete this goal then that means I am well on track to get at least 4 merits this year, if not 5.

With Steve's new Merit/Distinction criteria sheets this should be even better, as first impressions seem to be that they are a lot better than last year, and on the whole a lot more obvious as to what we have to do to achieve the higher marks.

This of course then leads me onto my mid-range targets. In 2 or 3 years time, what do I want to be doing. Now I have never made any attempt to hide the fact that my career prospects are all over the place, and even after completing the first year and getting onto the second year I am still unclear about what I really want to be doing. For this reason this is perhaps one of the hardest 'Online Learning Journals' I have had to do so far, and probably will have to do. I have learnt so many skills in such a little time on the course that by the end of this year I will hopefully have enough skills to be able to go into whatever career path I choose.

Perhaps the most worrying thing is that if the second year goes anywhere near as quick as the first year then my time to decide is quickly running out. The best response I can give is that if I do decide to go into teaching (or any other random career that comes into my head) then no doubt in two years I will still be studying (be it for another HE level course or to get a top up to a full degree), if I decide to go into the web design career route then hopefully in two years I will be in the industry working. Who knows...

Like with real targets the wind affects the direction the arrow travels in, and at this moment in time the arrow is still being blown in different directions whilst traveling towards it's final point.

Take A Shot

Just a quick blog regarding testing of websites. For the last assignment I used the BrowserCam website. It was a really useful website that gave you screenshots of your website in all different browsers, sizes, etc. The problem with this website was that it costs money to sign up for it (though you do get a free trial).

Today however, whilst using StumbleUpon I came across BrowserShots, it's basically the same principal as BrowserCam - but free. Now it does take absolutely ages to get your screenshots, so don't use it if your in a hurry, but if your testing can wait and there's other things you can be getting on with in the mean time it's a cheap way to get screenshots (especially if you don't have a Mac/PC or the browsers you need).

Because it takes so long I've yet to see the images to see how good they are, but I will try and update the blog with some examples ASAP. If anyone else has any similar sites then feel free to leave me a comment and I'll make a list of them.

No Blog Title.

As it is the holidays, and my assignment is now finished I decided to take this time to write a less academic blog but which got me thinking about my previous CD artwork assignment and how I tried, and quite possibly failed, to be different.

Now, being fortunate (working for a street team) I have had the chance to meet one of my favourite bands (Hard-Fi) on numerous occasions throughout their careers and they are as a normal indie band who have been around a few years now and have got relatively successful on the indie scene as any other band in the genre.

Their debut album (Stars of CCTV) featured (as can be seen) a very simple cover. The CCTV camera reflected both the album name as well as accompanying some of the inner artwork (images from CCTV cameras). The impact that this cover had on people was immense. On numerous occasions I remember people seeing a CCTV warning sign placed somewhere and them shouting 'Hard-Fi'. Now yes this may be a little sad of people to do, but it worked. People remembered the artwork, the band and the album because of one simple picture.
This was perhaps helped by the promotion of the album with various stickers, posters, etc. all depicting the same image.

Anyone who has seen the infamous 'Embrace sticker pic' will no doubt realise what I mean.

As I said before, this album (and it's artwork) has made the band relatively successful, and with any successful debut album comes the rather dreaded and difficult second album. The 'make or break' album. This of course then includes the rather dreaded and difficult second album artwork.

With the thought of a new indie album coming out, the mind automatically springs to a moody looking band standing in front of a wall strewn with graffiti. But not Hard-Fi. No. They want to be 'different'.

With the new artwork they've tried to be clever, but have just come across as being pretentious. As one of my friends put it:

'This particular album art reminds me a little of the t-shirts currently on sale in TopShop, you know the ones "save the rave" etc. except with slogans such as "Make music, not bombs". Fair do's, you should make music and not bombs, but wearing a t-shirt made in China, that you bought from a high street chain store, printed in neon colours just makes you look like a prat instead of someone who is actually concerned about war.'

Personally I think that the whole idea of the album artwork looks like they are trying just too hard, and that the whole design will backfire on them. Yes the Beatles may have gotten away with it for their 'White Album' but they did this with Sgt. Pepper behind them. Not a CCTV camera.

From speaking to others about this topic they say it has actually deterred them from buying the album, despite them being fans of the band. Amazing how a CD cover can change peoples minds in such ways.

So this brings me back to my original point of the blog. My design for CD artwork and how I tried to be different.

With very little knowledge of who I was making the CD for, I went ahead and created some album art which was different to other electro/trance CD artwork I have seen. But was that the right choice? Did Pete Namlook and Pascal FEOS have enough credibility to break from the loop and do something different? Or would this have alienated both old, and new fans?

It is just another thing to add to the ever growing list of things to consider when designing something.

It's just a bit of Monkey Business

For the assignment we were asked to do a series of tasks including looking into copyright legislation, come up with our idea of a good team roles combination, create a valid CSS/XHTML website, note the differences between various browsers, and create an executive business summary for our own freelance web design company.

This assignment was a relatively simple one once it got going, though there was a lot of research to be done prior to starting. The majority of this research came into play when researching for CSS web design as this is something I had no prior experience in at all. Other parts of the research, such as the copyright legislation I had some prior knowledge in. Even the business summary I had some knowledge of from my GCSE Business lessons.

Though it is quite easy to say that the assignment was simple looking back on it, I have had quite a stressful time trying to do parts of it, sometimes staying up until midnight trying to figure out what I was missing, or where I was going wrong – again mainly with the CSS website.

One of the most beneficial parts of the assignment would have to be the team roles part of the assignment. I think trying to work out just what members would be needed in a team and especially what documents would be required will help immensely in the group assignment next year, and it will be interesting to see just what other members of my group have come up with in respect to their ideal ‘team roles’ scenario.

The business summary was also a vital learning experience for me, as if I were to go into freelancing, then I would need to know about business summaries to even get my business off the ground.

I think however that as a whole the CSS website design will be the most beneficial, as this will be one of the most used aspects of the assignment over not only the coming months, but hopefully the coming years too, whether I go into freelancing or into a job as a designer with an agency. By learning some basic CSS now, it will also hopefully make learning some extra CSS knowledge next year easier and allow for even bigger and better things to be built. With the assignment being quite long, it has also given me time to experiment with CSS, and although the design is a little bland, I am happy with what I managed to achieve.

Saying this, I did try to implement a Google Map into the website showing where the school was for visitors, but I struggled to get it working which is a shame, as the map is sometimes quite a useful tool to have on websites, especially when users can get directions from their own homes to the school.

Still, perhaps I should have tried to take my time more with learning CSS and learnt to crawl before I learnt to run, but this is a case of learning from my mistake and I will try not to be too down about it.

"An End Has A Start"

Since my last blog I have made a huge start on the assignment. Not only is my website finished (I think), so is my copyright essay, team roles essay, and 99% of my executive summary. My time plans are really filling up, and I have highlighted everything that still needs to be done in red so I know what is left to do. I'm glad to say that the majority of my time planning sheet isn't red which is a huge relief with me going away for almost 2 weeks on Tuesday.

The assignment has been much easier than I imagined which was a relief, though I have still struggled quite a lot with the executive summary side of things. I have even found myself pulling out my old GCSE business books for help on things. (Who knew being forced to keep old school books in case 'they ever come in handy again' was actually true?)

In fact the hardest part of the assignment has been the time planning aspect and more importantly for me, trying to stick to scheduled dates (something I have not done for the past year, and was commented on in the last assignment)

All that is really left to do is to finish my financial forecast, record the differences in my website in the various browsers (which I already have the screenshots of) and to write the results down. Add onto that referencing the assignment, evaluating it and checking it through and it will be done and dusted.

The end is once again definitely in sight for me, and it will be a relief when it's all over so I can enjoy a few weeks of free time before it starts all over again.

Website's Need a Good Stretch From Time to Time

This week I made a start on my website for the new assignment. I went out and took some pictures of various 'interesting objects' around my house, and have decided to make my website on my local high school.

Because I have never made a website solely in CSS before, I decided it was best to look into it somewhat. I looked through a few magazines I had previously bought and took a few ideas, and also looked at the website and found a few articles on CSS design.

One of the most interesting articles was an article about liquid websites that can adapt to fit the screen size. Although this is possibly a little ambitious for my first CSS website, I have decided to take the risk and attempt to create a 'liquid' or 'elastic' website. To do this I have also looked into a few other articles including an article on elastic design and an article about measuring in em's.

I have also so far completed my 'team roles' section of the website, and have gathered a few images for the first task. I still have a long way to go with the assignment, and a lot of work to do in the next few days if I am to keep on a sort of target.

One of the most difficult parts of the assignment so far is the time planning, I have attempted to create a basic outline of what I plan to do in my 120 hours, but without having set hours to the assignments as usual I am finding it rather difficult. I may try and do 32 hours a week to try and keep on top of the assignment and also so I can plan it out better like a normal college week, but with holidays coming up this could be quite difficult too.

I may use some of my 'free time' for the week to try an experiment with various ways of time keeping and see what suits me best for this assignment.

Olympic Logo a No Go?

THIS is the new £400,000 Olympic logo for the 2012 Olympics in London, and less than a week after it was unveiled it is already under strict criticism from what seems to be the entire nation.

Almost half a million pounds was spent designing and creating it and it's difficult to see what exactly this money went on. Obviously not on gaining user feedback that's for sure. And with the recent revelation that the logo is actually dangerous to people with epilepsy and migraine sufferers, obviously not basic health and safety checks either.

But regardless of the costs, is the logo really that bad? In a recent television survey, they found 85% of people disliked the new Olympic logo, which leaves only a minor 15% who actually like it, or at the very least don't dislike it. In my personal opinion I dislike the logo immensely but from a design point of view is it any good?

Well, for a start it is obviously a very distinct shape unlike any other logo I have seen before, and it is quite memorable too being shaped as the 20-12 letters. It can be used in both colour and in black and white format, and uses it's space wisely. In fact the only one of the 4 logo design principles the logo doesn't meet is that if it were to be used at too small a size the word London, and the rings may become distorted and be hard to read/see. But 3/4 isn't bad.

This is a point of which I think must be remembered, that no matter how many of the 4 design principle boxes you tick, no matter how much time, money or effort you put into designing a logo, you must do the basics things such as researching your audience, or you too will end up with something similar to the London 2012 Olympic one.

Online Petition - Change the London 2012 Olympic Logo

"The Fake Sound of Progress"

Only a few weeks into the holidays and already I feel as if I am behind. With a new assignment to be done, a client to find, and almost a 2 week handicap on the deadline I can't help but think I should at least have started the assignment.

The truth is however, I haven't even looked at it since we left.

At the moment I am taking the attitude of 'it's a holiday' but that isn't going to pass me the assingment. My real holiday is just before we return, and the deadline falls smack bang in the middle of it, so why am I wasting my time that could be so crucial in just a few months time?

I need to make a big start on the new assignment, and fast. My goal is that this blog will be my motivation to start, something that I can look back on and remind me self that the work has to be done and that the first year may be finished, but the course isn't.

Also, for anyone who didn't get the eMail I sent round, the following is an eMail Richard Stelmach sent me with some links for the new assignment:

First you will need Firefox and also the "web developers toolbar". This allows you to disable style sheets which helps when using CSS.

http://www.csszengarden.com/ - Good CSS examples.

http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html - this one has different layouts and tells you how to do them, it's a really good one to use.

http://www.intensivstation.ch/templates/ - same kind of thing as the last one, also useful.They're a pretty good starting point.

I'd also recommend finding a good book to use also. Remember to work in Code view when using
CSS/XHTML in Dreamweaver.

Time Has Told...

On September 14th 2006 my first blog was written, titled 'Who Am I, and How Did I Get Here?'. In it I wrote about myself, and my previous experiences and I also wrote one key paragraph:

"This now brings me to my reason for writing this. It is not so that in 50 years, when I’m old and grey, I can see what I was like as a child, but hopefully, so that in 2 years, I can look back at the end of my course at Wakefield and see what I gained from the course, and if it is what I expected."

Well now I am almost half way through the course, and already so much has changed.

A day after writing my very first blog I wrote a second blog about my first week on the course. In this blog I spoke about already having 2 assignments, the first been the Sketchblog assignment, the second been the 'Great Briton' assignment.

Once again this blog had key points to it, most notably the paragraph about the sketchblog assignment. In it, I write about the sketchblog assignment been down to 'habit' and remembering to write my blog and stick things in my sketchbook. I then write that if I remember to make my sketchbook the first point of call for all work 'I can't really go wrong' and that 'only time will tell'.

Famous last words.

I've found the blog a very enjoyable thing to do, I think this is obvious by the fact that I sometimes can do 2, maybe even 3 blogs a week. Sometimes I have written blogs and not published them for their relevance to the course was limited. Perhaps this was a mistake to make? Perhaps I should have made a more personal blog to voice my less relevant points? I have since learnt from these mistakes and can rectify them in the second year.

The sketchbook on the other hand was a completely different story. From the word go I didn't do as well as I could have done. I got a few images I liked and stuck them in, I took notes, I drew designs, but none of this was good enough.

Adding colour, getting more inspirational art, two very simple things, and yet both I failed to do until the last few weeks of the course. At this moment in time I sit still unsure whether the amount of work I have put into my sketchbook assignment the past few weeks is enough for me to pass it. I hope it is, but if it's not, there is no one else to blame but myself.

The Great Briton assignment was much better, and as the 'first' assignment, another very enjoyable experience.

I think my main problem with this assignment was that I spent too much time researching, and not enough time designing. Spending hours trying to find a copy of John Peel's book, which would most likely of had very little useful information in it was possibly the biggest waste of time. If we were actually making the website and putting content into it I'm sure it would have been very good, but just for a website plan? Useless.

Three weeks into the course and yet more famous last words - 'If I'm going to mess something up I think I’d rather mess up at the beginning of the course than half way through'. My own thoughts and yet I didn't even take them into consideration with the sketchbook assignment.

One major fear factor of the course for me when we started was having to learn new software. I had some basic experience in Photoshop, some experience using 'The F Word' and that was about that. Dreamweaver, Flash, Freehand were all new to me, and I'd never even heard of Pagemaker.

However, as young and naive as I was, and in some respects still am, I think that the technical side of the course has been relatively 'simple'. As was discussed this morning, the amount that we have to use some applications barely scratches the surface of what can be done. This is no fault of Steve's of course, to fully learn an application could take months (at least!).

With the limited time we have had in class to learn pieces of software, spending time at home learning them has been one of the most important items of self study I have done over the past year. Without knowing the software, how are we supposed to get anything else done? This I feel has benefited me greatly, probably most in Pagemaker than any other program.

In my own opinion this is shown in the 'Picture This' assignment more so than any other. I know I keep ranting on about it but the 'task bombs' as they were nicknamed produced some of my best work to date. This surprised me immensely as it was the first time that I had been forced to create something in such strict, mini time scales.

The Picture This assignment was not all fun and games however, in fact the majority of the assignment was hard, exhausting work. Probably the hardest part of the assignment was the presentation aspect of it.

Many people, including myself, have had limited or no experience of giving presentations and so this was a very nerve racking thing. The fact that we were being assessed on it made it even more nerve racking personally because I knew that if I really messed it up that I could fail the assignment and then possibly the course. This sense of unease also ran into the final 'test' of the assignment which was a lot more formal than the previous timed assignments we had been doing.

Luckily however, this was not the case with our Back to BASIC assignment, as this was much more laid back and less time restrictive than the Picture This assignment. This was quite a boring assignment as a whole as it was pretty much identical to the previous Great Briton assignment we had done, just with a different subject.

There were a few minor differences in the assignment though, the major difference was the knowledge that we would actually be making the website and so we had to find/create all of our own content for it. This was our first glimpse at not only creating a working website, but also into copyright laws and just what we could and couldn't do to obtain images. Google images was immediately ruled out of the question which left people with the challenge of finding images.

Finding copyright free images was a lot harder than I imagined because I had no experience in it before. I got most images from Wikipedia for the majority of the assignment, and it was only late on that I found out about the free image site SXC.

I think this is something that has plagued me throughout the year when it comes to images. Been somewhat tight when it comes to money, I have wished not to spend money on images that we may use just once or twice. I have since come to realise however that this is a very negative attitude to take and that if buying an image is the difference between pass and merit, merit distinction or worse pass and fail, then I should not dismiss it as easily and just pay £1, or even less to download it.

This was a fact I wish I had once again learnt a lot sooner than I did, as once again in A7 it has caused me no end of troubles. At first in the assignment it relatively easy to find the images I want, I collected the images from SXC in the correct resolution and I thought that was that, and on I got with the assignment. It is only recently that it has become clear that one of the images I downloaded was copyrighted and so I couldn't use it. If I had bought an image then the likely hood of it being copyrighted would decrease, but at the same time there is no point just buying an image for the sake of it.

The Fax of Life assignment has probably been one of the most interesting to do, and a big jump up in the amount of work we have had to do. With so much work to think about at the start of the assignment I was worried about making the deadline, but with good time management I have managed to complete nearly all of the assignment already, with a few days still to go so hopefully I won't be leaving everything until last minute.

Looking right back to my original blog, a lot has changed in well under a year. I am now more technically able than I was back in September. After all, although I mention about having self taught skills, these in no way compare to the level of proficiency that I have learnt in my first year of the course. I am also really enjoying the course, something which Steve always says is not his plan but a subsidiary of the course and I think this is really helping motivate me to get my work done and try and do the best I can.

With the first year almost over, the second year will be my chance to try and make another huge step up. In the next year my main goals are to:

• Get onto the second year
• Get at least a pass on every assignment first time
• Obtain at least 4 merits on assignments
• Improve on my design process (Design more than 6/7 thumbnails)

If I can do all these things I will be extremely happy, especially with obtaining 4 merits. Hopefully I will be able to do better than 4 merits but to start with I don't want to concentrate too much on merit criteria and end up failing the assignment for not meeting the pass criteria.

The End Is In Sight...

This week has focused mainly on copyright, and with KFC suing a local restaurant over the use of it's trademark of 'family feast' in the news yesterday, it just proves how seriously the little details should be taken.

This is a lesson I have learnt this week, and something I wish I had learnt a lot sooner. My image that I used for my CD cover was removed from the SXC website due to copyright infringement and so had to spend many hours this week looking for a new image to use on my CD designs. Not only did this completely mess up my time plans, but I was also worried that it would throw me completely out by having to change my designs to incorporate the new image.

Luckily for me however, I found an identical image to the one I already had on Wikipedia and was safe, but that doesn't mean that I will be so lucky next time - if there is a next time.

Looking on various other sites I have found out that the image actually costs to download it (and at some quite hefty prices) which I should have realised that it was suspicious that I could download it for free, but sadly this sort of research I didn't think about, and should do in future.

The image I have is still a free image, but has been given copyright free status by NASA (the originators of the image) so I am quite certain that this time I should have no problems with the image.

Also this week we had yet another talk, this time from Richard Stelmach of Empiredirect.co.uk. This was yet another interesting talk from another designer and was useful that he talked about image rights and copyright of them.

It was also interesting to hear about how the site has been created using CSS to work at all screen sizes, something which I may research into over the summer break once the FAX assignment is out of the way.

In other news, the results of the 'Album VS Artist' debate are in, and it appears that with a land slide that 'artist' has won. This didn't really shock me but what did shock me was that people who don't comment much on blogs and use the excuse 'there's nothing to comment on' missed a valuable opportunity to comment and to boost their sketchblog grades. So thank you to everyone who did comment.

Even though the poll said that artist is generally bigger, I did agree with Scott's comment regarding the difference between this music, and mainstream music. This is a similar point to the one I have been making throughout the assignment with my designs, and trying to make them different to the usual electro/trance records you see every day in the shops. For this reason I have opted to keep my designs the way they are, with the album title more predominant than the artist.

Finally, my Ambient World website is complete. Please feel free to look at it and comment on anything that needs changing (if anything)