Where Am I, and How Did I Get Here? - Part 2

The first thing we were ever asked to do on the course was to write a blog. This blog was entitled Where Am I, and How Did I Get Here?. This blog outlined where we were in our skills and most importantly where we wanted to be in 2 years time. That 2 years is now almost up and now is the time to look back at this initial blog and reflect on where we are now and how we got here from that moment 2 years ago. In this initial blog I wrote

"My main reason for joining the course is to have fun and enjoy it, but I am also hoping to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job, or a full degree at university."

Throughout the course I have had nothing but fun and it has being very enjoyable but more important about this statement was I was hoping to use the course as a stepping stone and the course has allowed me to do this.

In the past few weeks I have managed to gain a job working as an ICT technician for a local school. Although this job is not strictly design based I feel that without the course I would not have being able to get it.

This is because the job requires a very mixed and broad knowledge of IT skills. These skills include web design and programming skills (such as PHP and Javascript) but also the transferable skills which we have learnt throughout the course such as time management and team skills.

These skills I feel are as important, if not more so than the core skills I learnt on the course. This is because the transferable skills I have learnt can be applied to almost any job situation in one way or another, where as obviously the core skills I learnt are specific to certain jobs.

I also wrote in my initial blog

"Presently, all the skills I have learnt about web design, graphic design, etc. have been self taught skills. Something of which I am sure a lot of employers could do without. For this reason, I hope that from the course, I will gain the necessary experience and qualifications to further my career and advance to the next step."

As I have already said, I have learnt skills on this course which have aided me to getting a job which is a testament to the course.

One of the biggest choices I have had to make on the course however was whether to attend a third year at university or not. My reasoning for not doing this option and getting a job is because I feel the course has taught me as much (and more) as I would learn in a third year at university.

Speaking to friends who are at/have being to university in the past it sounds like they are throwing a lot of money away to learn absolutely nothing and so I decided that I would rather put the skills I have learnt so far to work. As they say, you don't really begin to learn properly until you're out there doing it.

Finally one of the last things I said in my initial blog was

"Now, I’m no stranger to hard work, but I know that to get to where I want to be in 2 years will take a lot of hard work, probably a lot more than I’ve experienced before. But at the end of it, when I’ve gotten the right qualifications to get the job I want, I’ll be able to look back, and know it was all worth it."

There is no doubt in my mind that the past 2 years have being the most testing of my educational life so far but as I said in my initial blog I was expecting it. I can definitely say that the past 2 years was worth it too and would recommend the course to anyone who was even considering getting into the industry.

Compilation Tracklist Version 2

1. First Album - Machine gun - Sum 41
2. Cover version - Gold digger - The Automatic
3. World/Traditional/Folk - Fields of Athenry (Live) - Charlie and the bhoys
4. Pop - Five Megamix - Five
5. Classical/Opera - Por ti sere - Paul Potts
6. Rock - Pledge of allegiance - Louis XIV
7. Personal choice - Patience - Ruarri Joseph
   
8. Rap/Hip-hop/Electro - We are rockstars - Does it offend you, yeah?
9. TV/Movie/Musical - Hundred mile high city - Ocean colour scene
10. Local - Save me (Live at Leeds) - Embrace
11. Dance/Electronica - Breathe out - Pete Namlook and Pascal FEOS
12. Last album - Sea legs - The Shins

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)

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.

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...

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.

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 Biggest Question Since 'Art Vs Design' - 'Album or Artist'

As last week this is blog deux. See below for this weeks main blog.

Anyway, in feedback groups today with Steve the question was posed, 'Album or Arist' which is more important. 2 of us said album, 2 of us said artist. I have since asked 2 more people and one said artist one said album.

So I now put the question out to fellow HND/HNCers. Which is more important on a album. The name of the album, or the name of the artist?

Answers on a postcard please (or just comment with 'Album' or 'Artist')

Results in next weeks blog.

Phi (Phee)- "It's a magic number"

2 blogs in one day. Lucky lucky people.

For all of those that missed the conversation earlier today, there is a magic number called 'Phi' pronounced 'phee' () and is actually 1.618 (to 3DP). The actual formula to work out Phi is (5 + 1)/2 apparently, but basically it is a ratio of 1:1.618, well inside the 1:1 - 1:2 ratio that we were given in yesterdays lecture. There is also another version of Phi called Phi-1 or phi (small P) which is 0.618, but this doesn't fall into the ratio scale.

According to the 'Design Basics Index' book by Jim Krause (ISBN 0-7153-2053-X):

"A measurement, divided by Phi, produces the larger of its two Golden Sections - an aesthetically pleasing relationship that has long been favored by artists, architects and the forces of nature itself, i.e the spiral within a nautilus shell."

Phi is also closely linked to the Fibonacci Sequence (adding the previous 2 numbers together) because as you rise up the Fibonacci Sequence, the ratio between the numbers gets closer to Phi.
The book itself navigation (splitting the pages into sections and then sub sections) also uses this Golden Ratio. Also in the book is an exercise, which will allow you to create your own vector based 'golden ruler' which can be scaled up and down and will always show you the Golden Sections, and could well come in handy for the new assignment.

More information about Phi can be found in the above book on pages 34-35 although there are also a few links below explaining a little more about it, and in more detail about it's connections with the Fibonacci Sequence. Do be careful however, some parts do get a bit technical and mathematical.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoldenRatio.html
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/phi.html
http://www.championtrees.org/yarrow/phi/phi1.htm

It really does seem as if Phi will be a huge help in the new assignment, and I hope this information has helped everyone in some way and that you can then further my information with some further research of your own.

See you all next week.

Keeping My Options Open...

For anyone who watched Life on Mars (BBC3) last week or for anyone who watches it this coming Tuesday (BBC1), you will understand what I mean when I say it inspired this weeks blog entry. I do apologise for it's length.

Options are something we are all given in life, chances are on a every day basis.

What do I have to drink? What do I get for my dinner? When do I go to bed? Choices are everywhere. One of the most important choices we have made so far is 'Do I attend university and if so which course do I attend'.

But choices have outcomes. After all, it is because of the above choice that I am writing this blog. But how do we decide on a choice? Think long and hard about it? Gut reactions? Listening to other people?

With the end of the first year of the course in sight, it's time to start thinking ahead. Not only ahead to the second year, but also alot further than that. It's time to start thinking about our careers.

With Jonny Haynes visiting us this week, it was time to get a much needed view of another design agency as apposed to the Design Mechnaics. As I mentioned last week, it is much like gathering information from more than one source for research. Jonny gave us a very informative presentation about Technophobia and about the sort of work he does. It was all very impressive and was a mile away from the sort of thing that happened at TDM.

Also this week was presentations, I was quite pleased with my presentation. I missed a few things out thinking I was going to go over time, but was actually under by around 30 seconds (before asking for any questions). An extra slide needs to be added and I think I will all be finished.

These two events this week further sparked my thoughts on my career. More so than others when after practicing our presentations and we were talking about random questions that Steve asked us when he said 'you prepare for questions such as "where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" or...'

It's at that point that it hit me. I am still unsure about my future career plans. Freelance? Design agency? Back to my journalism roots? I then had to ask myself how I would decide. I thought back to why I decided to join this course. Gut instinct. And it has not proved me wrong so far.

For this reason today I took on a whole new career path option, something which I have been contemplating since starting the course but have never really mentioned it to many people. Teaching. I visited my old school and have asked if I can sit in on a few ICT lessons one week to get a feel for it (much like visiting TDM, and Jonny Haynes visit). I'm not closing the door on web design or for that matter journalism, and no matter what I decide upon I will complete the course.

Finding My Place...

Almost at the end of the first year is not when I thought that I would be asked to decide where I 'fit in' to a team with my peers. However that is exactly what we have been asked to do this week, using the Belbin website and the Belbin team roles summary table.

Resource Investigator seems to fit me quite well. On my previous course, we had to work as a group to create a website for a given client and one of my main responsibilities was to liaise with the client, keeping in constant contact with them (and others in the company, although with less input into the project). I also feel that perhaps my enthusiasm for the project did dwindle slightly as the project went on as I was not in contact with as many people as I would liked to have been.

In the group that I was in on my previous course, it was only a group of 3. This consisted of a Project Manager, an admin (builder) and a P.A. In the group I was the P.A to start with, but it soon became obvious that the PM wasn't pulling his weight in the group. I think that this is the biggest key to a successful group (I.e. everyone does what they're supposed to do, and pulls their weight). Without this, everyone will become demotivated extremely quickly and the work will suffer as a result.

To get around this problem in my last group, we shifted the roles around a bit, and sat down as a group to discuss our progress and what we could do to get back on track. In the end we gave our 'slacker' a choice. Do the work or your out.

Although I feel this way of motivation is a little strict, and perhaps not the best way of motivating someone, sometimes you have to take the attitude of 'do what you need to do to get things done'. And it worked.

To be in a successful team next year, the first person I think that would be needed for the group would be a 'project manager' or a 'coordinator' on the Belbin site. This senior figure would be the guiding light for the rest of the group, and would allow everyone to get through the project with minimal fuss. Although I have had experience as 'project manager' before, I feel that perhaps other people within the group could be better suited for this position, though if no one felt up to this amount of responsibility, I would offer to take on this role.

The second team member I would like within my group would be a plant. This person would be the centre of the groups creativity and would really help get the initial ideas off the ground so that they can be adapted and built upon as quickly as possible ready for the client to see and for work to be started.

Lastly in my group, I think that a 'Completer Finisher' would be well suited. I think not only would this person be useful throughout projects finding little errors as you go along (instead of having a domino effect going on) but I also think that they would be useful particularly at the end of the project, to really fine tune any things that need to be changed that others may miss.

I think that perhaps a 'team worker' would be one person I would least like in my group next year. I think that perhaps a 'team worker' is a sort of get out clause and that by having a team builder in the group could affect the time management of the project as decisions would be difficult to make. However, saying this, if a team worker were in my group, I think that once the project was up and going with most of the problems and decisions worked out, that a team worker could be quite useful as part of the team.

Because of the pros and cons of all the team roles it is difficult to create an 'ideal' team summary, and there are many external factors that can affect how the team cooperates.

If there were an 'ideal' team, then it would consist of team members with various pros (and unavoidably cons) from a few sections of Belbin's 'team roles summary table'.

As well as these factors, next year I will also be hoping to use some of the skills I learnt from my previous course and also learn from my mistakes too. I feel I know now the signs of when someone is slacking off long before I did previously, and therefore will be able to stop the same problems we had before sooner rather than later, when it is easier to steer someone back on track.

I look forward to seeing who I will be working with next year, although I don't feel that there is anyone who I would dislike working with.

Simply Red - Oh Only If It Were...

Red - In some places red symbolises love, Christmas, religion, importance, victory and good luck. So why is it to me that red symbolises anger, hate, and resent?

Well up until yesterday it didn't, I was happily swanning along in the positive side of red as I arrived at college wearing a blue t-shirt (trusting, calm, relaxed)*. I sat down red-y for a presentation from Steve, sketchbook and pen in hand.

The title of the presentation appeared on the screen, slowly fading into view. 'PRESENTATIONS'. I wrote it down. I could feel a few nervous stares in the room. The lecture began with Steve explaining about presentations, what to do in presentations, how to stand etc. This was all well and fine, I merely assumed Steve had no relevant presentation to give us, and so was giving us this one to get it out of the way. Looking back I realise that this was the biggest mistake I've made on the course yet.

Once the presentation had finished, Scott asked a simple question about when we would be having our first presentation. Steve's smile said it all and the nerves began to rise. But presentation's don't bother me. Do they?

Steve told the group that we would be pairing up to do a presentation on a colour. In mine and Gem's case, this was red. He then went on to say that we would be giving our presentations at 2pm, that very day! We immediately started work. I found myself asking questions such as, 'what do I know about red?', 'Didn't I read something about it that one time?', I made a note to myself, anything that could ever possibly be related to anything on this course, ever, to write it down for future reference. It wasn't the first time I'd worked with Gem, but it was the first time we had really worked together on a proper task (I.e. not just induction week). It was good working with her as we could both help each other out on our tasks (I felt sorry for Craig who had volunteered to do it on his own).

After dinner, we were given just a few minutes to print things off and head off to rehearse. We went to Gem's car and went through the presentation, trying to help each other out where we could. Gem seemed really nervous at the thought of the presentation, and kept getting things wrong, so I let her rehearse quite a lot, as I thought I would be fine. Another stupid mistake. After just an hours practice, we headed off to the rendezvous (A.k.a Refectory) and sat waiting.

Gem was first up so I gave her my USB and she went off, coming back down only minutes later to tell me the work wasn't on the USB. I panicked. I ran to the library and saved the PowerPoint presentation onto the USB and gave it back to her. Running caused my blood to pump faster around my body and didn't really help my nerves.

Nerves, what nerves? I'm not nervous.

We sat in the refectory for quite a while, all the time thinking about the presentation we had to give. But I'd done a few before, I'd be fine, wouldn't I? That's what I was still telling my self non the less.

After a while I realised I had no fact sheets to give to Steve and Diane (the 'Audience' for the presentation) so once again I ran to the library. I printed out the fact sheets, which didn't come out of the printer. Panic hit me once again! At this point Marc came out and said 'I got to choose who goes next, your in'. I saw red.

The librarian was ringing IT support at this point to find out where my missing fact sheet had gone. I heard the printer kick into action. It was my work. Relief.

I took a few deep breaths and walked to the room, my nerves building slightly. Steve had said this was a good thing however, so I dismissed it. I entered the room not knowing what to expect and loaded up the presentation. Already my mouth was dry. I tried to give the presentation the best I could, all the time worrying what I could be doing wrong. It turned out I did a lot wrong, as before I could even finish the presentation I heard Steve's voice. 'Stop.' My nerves soared at this point, not knowing why Steve had stopped me. In the end it turned out I had simply ran over the allotted time limit. My nerves of which I had being denying all this time were clearly obvious of which Steve pointed out, and I had done a lot of subconscious things which I had tried my hardest to resist doing.

After leaving the room I walked slowly back down to the canteen. I was happy to be back in a sort of 'comfort zone' of the day, alongside people who I knew would not be judging me on what I was about to do or say.

For one of the first times over the course I sat with Gem, Rich, Ben and Drew. I don't know why, perhaps as I'd being working with Gem a lot of the day? Perhaps I was disorientated after the presentation? I'm still not sure. I felt more relaxed at least. This was a good thing.

Once the day had ended, and I had got home, the presentation ran over and over in my mind. I thought long and hard about the next presentation. What would I do? Would I even turn up? What if Steve sprung another surprise presentation on us? I realised that the only thing I could do was to take it as it comes. If it's a surprise or not there is one major thing I would do differently.

Rehearse more.

I feel this is the one thing that me let down in the presentation, and the worst thing is knowing that it was all my own fault. No one else told me not to rehearse more. In fact Gem actually suggested I do, but I turned her offer down being my usual self. Hopefully the next presentation will be better, hopefully there won't be any more presentations. But then that wouldn't be the real world, and after all that's what Steve is getting us ready for. Yesterday was a presentation in front of 2 people. It could of been dozens, or thousands. The more I think about it, I thank god for Steve's surprise presentation.


*Dyer, (2006), Blue - Psychological and Cultural Significance

"No Questions....apart from one...Deal, Or No Deal"

Sadly I'm not Noel Edmonds, and I don't have £250k to give away for opening a box, but I have been posed by another question. The 'Art VS Design' question once more. And as usual once more when I start trying to do an assignment I get sidetracked easily by MSN, music and random links I've been sent in e-mails. This was also a problem I had in the first assignment.

So I decided to do something about it.

I turned off the TV, the music, MSN, and closed my e-mail inbox. I was ready to work. Or was I? I began trying to start the assignment once more but my head just wasn't in the right place. So I decided that scouring the internetfor inspirational art might help me get started. It is then I found ISketch.

I've been on it for about half an hour now and it's really good. Basically it's like an online version of Pictionary. Although it may seem like a time waster at first, it really opens up your mind to be a bit more creative (and using what is basically an online version of paint with even less tools takes alot of creativity) and has really helped me get started on my assignment. I'm not sure if Steve will agree with me on this, but I'd definately check it out if your stuck getting started and don't want to get too sidetracked.

And in the end, I guess we're possed with another question. 'Time Waster or Creative Process?'

Where Am I, and How Did I Get Here?

I’ve come from a life that has always been very computer orientated. From a very young age I was always into gadgets, new toys I could play with. The computer was always my favourite however, and for that reason I began to explore it for more than just playing games. I began experimenting. Now, experimenting is not always a good thing. Many a time a new, ‘experimental’ recipe someone thought would be good has resulted in take away food from the local Chinese. But with the PC it worked. I found numerous ways to have fun on the computer, one of the first was using MS paint, a very basic design package, but over the years I began using more and more advanced packages. I moved onto Photoshop and FrontPage, and within no time at all had soon created my first website using my own ideas and designs.

I was hooked.

For this reason, I took up an ICT course at Wakefield College after leaving compulsory education. The course gave me an insight into various ICT units, but it was the second year I was really looking forward to. The web design units. Finally, a chance to get my passion recognised for something, instead of it floundering around, unnoticed on the internet, or sitting hidden deep on my hard drive for no one to see. At this stage I was having doubts about web designing for a living, and instead was thinking about taking up Journalism (another of my passions). For this reason I decided it was best to apply for both on my UCAS application. After doing website design at college, and having an interview for web design at Wakefield, I had made my choice - Web Design.

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.

My main reason for joining the course is to have fun and enjoy it, but I am also hoping to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job, or a full degree at university. Presently, all the skills I have learnt about web design, graphic design, etc. have been self taught skills. Something of which I am sure a lot of employers could do without. For this reason, I hope that from the course, I will gain the necessary experience and qualifications to further my career and advance to the next step.

Now, I’m no stranger to hard work, but I know that to get to where I want to be in 2 years will take a lot of hard work, probably a lot more than I’ve experienced before. But at the end of it, when I’ve gotten the right qualifications to get the job I want, I’ll be able to look back, and know it was all worth it.