Testing, Testing...1...2...1...2...

This week has been a relatively straightforward week (for a change). Wednesday was primarily spent testing each others websites and then fixing the problems, where as Thursday morning was spent doing 'task bombs' whilst Thursday afternoon was time for us to work on our presentations.

The user testing went better than I had imagined, most of my feedback was positive although I was quite worried that the aesthetics of my website received quite low marks. Luckily however, I had received feedback on why it didn't look as good as it could and I was able to rectify my website using this feedback.

I also used CSS for the first time this week, and to start with it was quite daunting. Perhaps if I had asked someone within the group who has prior knowledge of CSS for some help it may not have seemed so scary, but that would of been sensible.

CSS isn't as hard as I first imagined, I picked it up quite easily and manged to make my website better in the process of it. Although it is only a simple bit of CSS I have used, I am sure in later projects it will prove extremely valuable.

Thursday was a completely different day to Wednesday. I woke up feeling extremely sick, and tired (as I have much of the week), and was contemplating not coming into college. The knowledge that we would be likely receiving new tasks to do today though spurred me to come into college and battle through my ill feelings.

As I suspected we did receive tasks today. Not one, but two. The first task was to design a structure for a jazz newsletter and then in the second task to add the content. I was not best pleased with my final results of either project, although I was extremely close to the deadline on both occasions, and feeling ill wasn't helping my mindset too much to allow me to be more 'creative'. However, saying this, I don't think that they were my worst projects of the mini tasks so far.

Next week is half term, and that means that I can get some rest, relax, clear my head and catch up with some work that I have fallen behind on from being unwell most of the week. My presentation is still in it's very early stages and my handout sheet so far is non existent. Although I am slightly worried about being behind on my presentation, I know that over the next week I will be able to catch up and therefore worrying will only make it worse.

I have learnt a lot from user testing this week, and the next time user testing comes about I will know a lot better questions to ask and be able to receive even better results and feedback. My next goal once my presentation is out of the way (in between practicing) is to go through my collected data once more, and check that I have done everything that people have suggested (of which I believe is the correct thing to do).

Have a good week off everyone.

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.

Projects So Far...

Below are two images of the projects we created last Thursday. My newspaper design and my paint pot design. My B2B website can also be found at www.craig-allington.co.uk/b2b.

Paint Pot Design

Newspaper Article

Slides are the No1 Killer in the Tate Modern...

Even spending 2 hours on a train to London was going to be worth while as we were to visit the Tate Modern. And we did. Briefly. Arriving in London we walked to the Tate and saw signs exclaiming about strikes, of which we all took no notice of. We arrived at the Tate to find however that perhaps we should of paid attention to these signs. The Tate was closed.

Well, I exaggerate, the exhibitions were closed. The only thing open in the Tate were the slides and the gift shop. And let me tell you know, London is a long way to go just to visit some slides.

Don't get me wrong, the slides were fun. But as Steve said 'It's either one of those things that you get or you don't'. For me, the slides were no more than a little fun and a chance for me to show off my safety skills by donning the protective clothing they supplied.

2 slides, a trip to the gift shop, and one very expensive ball point pen later...we were back outside.

A few of the group decided to head off to the design museum, whilst the rest of us headed off to Leicester Square. Arriving here, we split into a couple of groups and set off on our on travels. Our first stop was to get some food...so we did. Or we tried.

After a very eventful lunch being attacked by pigeons we set off once more, in the direction of Oxford road. I feel this could perhaps of been a slight waste of our opportunity, being in London after all, as the majority of the time we were shopping in places we could of visited in Wakefield. Just bigger. And busier.

It did however give us a chance to 'bond' a bit more. And as usual, over a interactive quiz machine in pubs. At least we were learning. Upon leaving the pub, we decided to actually go somewhere worth while. Yet another mistake in our day.

Who knew it was so hard to find a tube station in London? It shouldn't be. Should it?

Almost an hour later, we abandoned the tube idea, and a few of us decided to go for a walk back to Leicester square. After another quick drink, it was again time to go 'exploring'. This was perhaps the best part of the day, as just around the corner from Leicester square, we realised that we were right next to Trafalgar square, with Nelson sitting upon his column in all his glory. The lights surrounding the fountains and the statues created a fantastic atmosphere, and was much better than the seedier part of London we had visited so much previously over the day.

Nothing else really relevant happened yesterday. We went for something to eat, a quick drink, and headed back on the train.

Thursday was a completely different matter however, as Chris' 'Task Bombs' came into play.

We were first told we had half an hour to recreate a newspaper article on Jonathan Gee. This I found relatively simple, although I only just scraped in the deadline a few minutes before (use all your time as Steve always says). I was quite annoyed to find that this task was only a tester however, and that our first real task would start....now.

Another relatively simple task at heart, create our own newspaper article using the same content we had previously been given. This was much harder than I first imagined however, and I quite struggled to come up with different designs. In the end I came up with a design I was relatively happy with, and was quite different I thought to a usual newspaper layout which is what I aimed for.

Our second task of the day was to create a design for a company's label to be used for a series of paints. We were told we could only use two colours, black and the colour of the paint, and that it was to be a purely typographical answer to the task.

At first again I was quite frightened at the thought of the task but in the end I was really impressed with my final outcome. Although I feel that perhaps I had not used my time as wisely as I could, I do feel that the pressure has helped me to create one of my best looking pieces of work yet. Though of course the marks will soon tell.

Next week will be a slightly nervous week for me, as we have to give a presentation about our time at The Design Mechanics. We are also been given yet more of Chris' 'Task Bombs' and this time they are going to be even harder.

All in all though it has been a really enjoyable week, and I think it has been just what was needed to get everyone back motivated in the course, as the mood seemed to be dipping a slight bit.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing about what everyone else got up to in London, and what they thought about it. And also I look forward to reading the many Clash or Jam (the band, not the condiment).

Have a good week. Pictures coming soon.

A Unique Opportunity

Much thanks to Steve and all at The Design Mechanics for giving me (and I'm sure the rest of the group) an opportunity to go to The Design Mechanics studio to see them at work. It was a fantastic experience.

Firstly, a quick apology to all of my peers who I am sure are all eager to hear about my experience at The Design Mechanics studio. I like to think that perhaps this late blog has increased the suspense somewhat. But before all that, there have been other things happening this week. Quite a lot in fact.

First of all, this week was the week that I got my feedback from Steve about the last two assignments. I was quite nervous about this feedback as my goal from the previous feedback was to improve on my grades, and I was worried that perhaps I would not have done and that this may affect my motivation on the course. This was amplified from the previous week of receiving our results with those dreaded words of ‘See Steve’.

When I went into Steve’s office I sat down and was shown my feedback. I was quite amazed with the fact that I had not only improved on my previous website planning assignment by ticking one merit box, but I had actually ticked two of the merit boxes. As well as this I had also ticked a merit box on the Image Manipulation assignment.

The worst thing about the feedback meeting was perhaps Steve telling me that he was disappointed with my lack of development work, as this was something he had picked up on in my previous feedback meeting. Although I felt I could have done more development work myself, it is always worse hearing it from the person who is marking your work, and next time I will do a lot more to achieve this target.

Also this week I have been using Dreamweaver for the first time. I am not finding it as difficult to use as I first imagined, but I am learning quite a few of the restrictions of Dreamweaver which I am hoping to remember for my next website so that I don’t have to make as many changes to my designs.

Now, the Design Mechanics.

As most of you were probably aware, myself, Craig and Ben weren’t in the classroom much on Thursday morning due to us preparing for our ‘presentation’ to Dave Panell. I’m quite glad that Steve gave us this chance to prepare as without it I feel that we would have just sat there in silence and not been able to participate as much. It was also in this time that we came up with some questions for Dave.

When we arrived I was firstly quite amazed as to how quiet it was in the agency. Where as Steve had told us that everyone is usually plugged into their ipods just getting on with their work, in reality no one had any music on what so ever and everyone was just getting on quietly with what they were doing. This may have been partially down to 7 complete strangers turning up and they were trying to impress us, or it may have been every day ways of working, I’m not entirely sure.

Once inside, we were taking to a room and were told about the company and the way it works. Once the talk was over it was time for us to ask questions, and I think everyone was quite nervous and thinking ‘I don’t want to be the first to ask’. Luckily however, Craig asked the first question and the rest of us soon followed.

Once this was over, Dave brought in Gemma and Oliver (from last years HND course) and we got to show them our work. Again there was a slight uneasy tension in the room with no one going up, but again everyone soon got into the swing of things. Everyone in the room seemed quite impressed with everyone’s work and luckily everyone got to show their work off (something which Steve had said there may not be time for).

Once we had all shown our work, it was once again question time for Gemma and Oliver. It was interesting to ask them questions about how they were finding the work, and the differences between it and the course etc. Overall, they seemed quite happy with the work they were doing and the only real major disagreement between themselves and Dave was over the use of Microsoft FrontPage for use of web design.

Perhaps the best part of the day was spending time with our ‘own’ designer. This was our chance to speak to the designers about their work and how they were finding it, what sort of projects they were doing at the time and what they had done etc. It was interesting to learn in this time that Dave had leant ‘my’ designer (also called Dave) a book on the graffiti artist Banksy (as can be seen on my ‘inspirational work page’) and I was unsure whether having the same interests as Dave (Panell) was a good thing or a bad thing. Steve later reassured me that this was most likely a good thing.

There is so much that I could go into on this blog about the events of Thursday afternoon. But if I were to go into everything then by the time you had finished reading this, the next meeting would have taken place. For this reason I am attempted to keep it relatively brief and all will be explained relatively soon in class with the help of Craig, Ben and Drew.

Once again however, I would just like to thank Steve, and all at The Design Mechanics for the unique opportunity of visiting the agency. Much appreciated.

Rock and Roll Queen

Coming from the AVCE at Wakefield College we were told to create a website to do with anything of our choosing. We were also told we could use either Notepad or FrontPage to create our site. Of course with these two amazing options to chose from, I chose FrontPage.

The site I created was on The Subways and I got an A grade for it. I'm hoping that if I can create a site like that with no real planning or use of any tables/cells AND using FrontPage, that I can create an even better site using Dreamweaver using the correct ways of going about it. Already I notice so many thing I could change about the site (Not centering my text for a start).

Time shall tell.

The Late Musketeer

Firstly, I would like to apologise to my fellow peers for arriving late on Wednesday morning. This could not be helped as it was due to a problem with the trains (mid journey) and I hope my late arrival did not disturb the lesson too much.

Anyway, on with the week...And what a week it's been.

When I finally arrived at college, I was greeted with a task of discussing our thoughts on the second semester, as I had missed most of the discussion I was unable to give me thoughts into the discussion but we were told we would carry on after break once we had our results. So off we went for our break...

After break we arrived in the room, and as promised the results from the previous semesters assignments were up on the wall. I glanced across at my grades and was pleased to see a 'Pass'. Relief passed over me as I thought I may have failed the assignment. I then looked at my 'Back to BASIC' assignment and saw the two worst word's I could have seen. Not even 'referral' could have been as bad as what I saw.

'See Steve...'

I had know idea what this meant, only that it was regarding the B2B assignment and was about my learning outcome 3.2. As it turned out it is just regarding the copyright of images in my assignment, of which I think I have just not made clear enough within my assignment, and may have 'hidden' them too much at the back. Hopefully I can show that the information is in the assignment and pass the first half of the assignment.

Once this was over, we were then given the second half of the assignment 'A5 - Builder' and Steve went through some of the basics of Dreamweaver. Although I have used Dreamweaver before, I decided to listen in to Steve's talk in case my basic knowledge of the software package was too limited. Most of what I was told, I already knew, but I am still glad that I listened in just in case.

We were also told on Wednesday that the deadline week would be 'slightly different' this time around and that 'all would be explained tomorrow'. The mind games continue.

On Thursday I was eager to find out what the new assignment was and what would be different about the deadline week. I downloaded the assignment from the Intranet and immediately saw what was different. Assesable presentations in the AM and a timed task in the PM.

Fantastic.

We were given a specific typographer to give our presentations on I was given Mr Helvetica himself - Max Miedinger.

Admitedly I had no idea who this man was before I started researching, and my first task (as Steve quite politely reminded me) is to work out how to pronounce his name correctly. And my next task will be to start making some sort of biography for him and his work. So far I have come up with a very weird and, in some way interesting website, Helveticafilm.com. No you are not mistaken, it is actually a film about the font Helvetica. Two of possibly the most random images ever can also be found on the site.



One can be seen at the Subtraction website.
The other is below.



As Chris said in lesson today - "Those people obviously have too much time on their hands"

A New Year, A New Semester...

A few months ago, we were asked to write our first blog entry about ourselves, our backgrounds, and our futures. Now that our first semester is over, it's time to see how far on to achieving my goal at the end of the two years.

The first semester has been, dare I say it, easier than I first imagined. This is not to say that the first semester has been easy, I think that I had just prepared myself for something a lot harder. I'm not planning on slacking off mind, as I know that the next semester, and the whole of the next year, will just get harder, more assignments, more to do, possibly less peers to keep up moral, who knows.

The class will already seem much emptier on a Wednesday, now that Chris has decided to drop down to the HNC. It will be interesting to see how this affects the minds of some people on the course, after Steve has mentioned about the 'domino effect' in previous years.

My main goal of the course is still to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job or a full degree, however where as a few months ago I was dead set on just a job, and not really considering a degree course, the news that Steve is applying for a third year at Thornes has made me think otherwise.

So far I seem to have learnt more on the course than my brother has in 3 years of university. All be it he is on an entirely different course to me, but from what I hear about his lectures and lessons (what little of them he has) not much learning seems to go on. Also, speaking to others doing similar courses at universities seem to be able to do very little work and turn up to very few lectures, and still manage to pull off a decent grade. It makes me wonder how employable they will be after their course, with or without a degree.

At the present time I am still trying to work out what I would like me end career to be. Up until know I have know that I would like to work in some kind of design or computing job (ignoring my journalism instincts for the time being), but have not sat down and worked out exactly what. This was probably something I should of done a long time ago, but I never really saw it as important. Working out what career path I wish to take at the end of the course will then help me decide on whether or not I need a full degree or not.

Whatever I decide to do at the end of the course, the first semester has helped me greatly. I have gained valuable experience in new software and theory, of which I can now put into practice in future assignments, to adapt and build upon my new found skills further. Because I have had very little experience working with web and graphic design, it is good to have more experienced members in the group and to use them as a sort of goal, and to try and improve my own work so that it is to their standards, and then try and improve further.

I think the next few months will be the most important yet, as we are using more advanced software (such as Dreamweaver) which we will be using quite a lot through out the rest of the course, and so getting used to it and learning it well will be my next key goal when returning to the second semester.

I look forward to seeing what new challenges the next semester brings up, and eagerly await my results from my previous assignment.

Like A Day Out In Legoland...

Before creating this blog I came up with many 'Lego' related titles - 'Brickin' It', 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster', 'Coming Together Piece by Piece', etc.

I decided to choose a completely different title, due to the fact that all are true. Like a steady progression as the day goes on.

Starting off the day 'Brickin' It' would have been my title of choice. Arriving at college with a very uneasy feeling in my stomach. I felt like I had so much work to do today, and with so little time to do it, my nerves were at an all time high. I soon realised that I had left my sketch book at home in the nervous rush to get my work ready that morning. Could the day get much worse?

Yes would quickly declare it's self to be the answer.

Just as I had started to settle into the work, and feel like I was getting somewhere, more problems arose costing not only money to correct, but yet more time. Aiding my nerves in their goal for freedom, the fire alarm. Bring on 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster'. The fire alarm brought back memories of our previous pre-deadline day, once again going off to stop us working, and getting on with our assignments. Not knowing exactly how much work was left to do on my assignment, every second outside seemed to drag on and on. Eventually however, we were allowed back inside...

Slowly but surely, a pile of pages with a large X marked on them began to grow next to the computer I was using. This cheered me up slightly as I knew my work was 'Coming Together Piece by Piece'. My assignment was beginning to take shape. A few stray nerves began to appear as my stock of plastic wallets slowly dwindled, for once however, luck was on my side, as I filled my plastic wallets without even a side to spare.

All that I'm now left with is my merit/distinction criteria sheet to create. This means that I can stroll peacefully into college tomorrow morning, and hand over my assignment happily in the knowledge that it is fully completed, and that hopefully nothing is wrong with it. We shall soon see after Christmas.

Christmas will be in no way a chance to relax however, there is still much to think about. Whether our assignments will pass? Whether we will still be on the course come next semester after the exam board have had their way? Whether we will get chosen to go see Dave Pannell for Industrial Liaison groups? And what will London throw our way?

Already 2007 is looking to be a very eventful year.

"I'll have a vowel please Carol" - Not that kind of countdown!

Christmas is usually a time of joy. Sadly not this year. With deadline day looming a mere 7 days away Christmas is the last thing on every ones minds as the countdown has really begun.

This week was the week I was dreading. The last feedback meetings of the semester. An hour long special to discuss the assignments in detail. This could only mean one thing. Corrections.

Of course corrections should be a good thing. After all, I would much rather receive my feedback before handing in the assignment than afterwards and failing for it. It's just so demotivating. One day hopefully I'll get lucky, and find out that I have very little to do. Today was not one of those days.

Although the work I had to do was minor alterations here and there, the repercussions of these changes meant that I had LOTS to do. Adding a reference here and there meant altering every reference, adding an extra line meant moving all my picture content, having the wrong font size meant changing every single number on my screen designs. That's corrections for you.

But life goes on, and I suppose in a way these little corrections are no worse than the num lock key on the keyboard not automatically turning on with the computer, and as Steve said 'If that's the worst thing in life at the moment, then you've got it good'. And in a way he's right. Without getting too political, there are many people in the world worse off than me, who am I to moan about changing work? That's what life is about after all.

With this attitude in mind, my goal for the next few days is to get all my corrections out of the way, and spend the majority of the weekend typing up my evaluations for both A3 and A4 assignments. Hopefully this will then give me enough time to be able to look over my work, and get others to read it through to make sure any spelling errors or grammatical errors are removed ready for a fully finished assignment for deadline day next week.

The weeks also been a much better improvement on the last few...well months. I've managed to get a lot more work done than I usually would get done, and I'm feeling the benefits. I'm not sure if it's the deadline looming over me that's caused 'panic work' or whether Steve's 'Extreme Time Management' has just hit home or what, but I definitely plan to keep it up.

Saxamaphone!

Below are my advertising banners for two different artists for a Wakefield Jazz club. Feedback welcomed.

Extreme Time Management

The week started with a free day to simply work. A lot of work had to be done, and a lot of work did get done. Before the start of the week I still had my feedback meeting changes to complete, and my digital screen designs to design. By the end of the day it was done, and 99% of my B2B assignment is now completed. Hurrah.

Then Thursday rolled around. For some reason I always say that I like Thursdays. I'm not sure why as there always seems to be something that happens that wasn't expected. This week 'Extreme Time Management'. Steve has always said it should take no more than 2 minutes to do a thumbnail, and if it takes longer, we're taking too long. OK a given, and I'll be the first to admit that I do fall behind on thumbnails and it can take me up to 5 minutes to do 1. So when Steve said, 'right, 2 minutes to do a thumbnail' for our banners, I was slightly worried, but non the less, I got it done.

'Right, 1 and a half minutes to do your next thumbnail...go'. Oh er. The pressure was slightly on now, only 1 and a half minutes? What possible thing can you do in...'1 minute for you next thumbnail...go'.

A minute? Surely we would need more than a minute for our thumbnails? Half as much as Steve's maximum time, and 5 times shorter than my usual rate. I was worried. But somehow I managed to pull it off and get my thumbnail, though slightly scribbly, done.

'A minute is obviously too long for some of you, 30 seconds, starting now'. I began thinking to myself 'You're taking the pi...' but realised this was using up valuble seconds, and I let scribbling commence.

Once the designs were done, Steve told us that it was 'Industry Standard' how we had been working, and I knew that my working speed had to improve. I thought back to Wednesday. I thought I'd got alot of work done. But had I? To be honest, I'm still not sure.

Over the coming week my time planning will be extremely strict, no cutting corners, no leaving things to last minute, 16 set hours - no messing. I can't afford to fall behind this late in the assignments. I've got a week to get both assignments up to submission standard, and I've still got quite a bit to go, especially on A4.

If I could do the whole week over, I'm sure that my A3 assignment would be finished, because now I know Steve's idea of 'An hours work', it's hugely different to my idea of 'An hours work' before hand. I picked up the pace largely on Thursday, but Wednesday now seems such a waste, despite me thinking I had done well. I feel quite sick thinking back to the time I must of wasted in previous weeks.

Never the less, it's one week until submission standard, and a mere 2 weeks until deadline day. The 12 days of deadline will soon be upon us.

The Ol' "Before and After" Thing (Updated)

Here's my first attempt at photo restoration through Photoshop.


Before




After



Updated Version

Mind Games, Photoshop, and Spotty Old Men?

After the 'joyous' presentation of last week, I wasn't much looking forward to college this week I'm sad to say. I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and was ill which didn't really help. College was the last place I wanted to be. So as Wednesday rolled around once again, and I dragged myself out of bed and onto the train I began wondering what Steve had planned for us this week. More presentations? Work? A new task? I remembered we were getting a Photoshop assignment on Thursday and I cheered up a bit.

When I arrived at college, Steve was standing with his usual suspect grin and my mind began to wonder. When James mentioned a 'surprise presentation' my own suspicions began to rise and suddenly getting as far away from college as quickly as possible was becoming a very appealing option. I asked Steve about presentations and he gave a very cryptic response.

Damn Steve's mind games.

For about half an hour I sat, quite nervous, about the prospect of another presentation. But luckily it turned out Steve was giving us a brief lecture on 'Type Glossary' and the rest of the day was free for us to get on with work. Once again relief set in as the extra time to do some work was greatly appreciated. I got quite a lot done, until a headache set in and I was unable to do much work for a while because of the pain.

Thursday was a completely different start. Once again I dragged myself out of bed, not because I didn't want to go to college, but just because I was comfy and warm. I got on the train and once more began thinking about the day ahead, thinking what we would be doing, how long we would get to do it, and how hard it would be. I think it's the earliest I've ever arrived at college.

Steve gave us a disk to pass round with our two tasks on and I loaded them onto the computer, I looked at the first task and immediately panic set in once more. I knew the image in front of me from my interview last year. The image Steve had shown me on last year's first years portfolio websites. A timed assignment. Luckily however Steve said we had two weeks to complete both tasks.The first task we were given was to restore an old black and white photograph of 3 old men sitting on a bench holding a trophy, that was, to put it simply, wrecked. Torn, burnt, bleached, bent, scratched. You name it, it had it.

Onto Photoshop then and out with the cloning tool and spot tool, trying to remove the deformities. Then Steve came to look at my work...

Attempt two it was. And I did the same things and once again Steve came over....

Attempt three went well. Though Steve has yet to come and look at it. Next week might be a completely statement. I'm quite pleased with my photo so far however, so hopefully Steve will be too.

In just a few week both assignments are due in, so the nerves are starting to hit, so over the next week I'm going to put as much work into both assignments as possible. Even thing's I think I've finished I'm going to go over and make sure they're right. The pressure of a referal is something I could really do without.

The main thing that stands out for me this week was that perhaps I didn't put enough effort into my contents as I could have. I didn't reference any books, in fact, I didn't even look in any books if I'm being honest, and I didn't cross reference everything that I looked at. I think that this was perhaps the 'bordem' factor that I talked about in a previous blog, but in future I will definately go back and recheck or even redo work if it is time consuming/boring, instead of finishing it and taking the 'That's It' attitude.

BASIC Principles

Below are my two 'thumbnail' ideas. Because they're 'thumbnails', they're nothing special, and are by no means finished or even correctly proportioned. But they do give a rough idea of what my final designs will look like. Any feedback on which is the preferential idea, why it is, or why it isn't, or even just what you like and dislike about each idea would be greatly received.

Option 1




Option 2

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

Dictionary Week

Blog
N: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log

This pretty much sums up most of my week. Researching the Internet for different terms and writing them out in my own words. I can't say it was hard, research is quite an easy task, but time consuming and frustrating are two words that I would definitely 'look up'. This was in aid of the Back to BASIC assignment that we are doing (where we have to create a website about computer terms and definitions). I've still not finished the task, but I still think that I'm on target with the assignment, which is a big weight off my mind.

The second lot of dictionary related lectures came on Thursday morning. Where we were given a lecture on different industry standard image compression formats. One of which was 'Dictionary Encoding'. At this point I'd just about had enough of dictionaries (no matter in what context they were) and could just tell it was to be a bad day.

Whilst the days are getting shorter, the days of college are getting longer, as on Wednesday we stayed right up until 6 o'clock. Although we were warned about this, I didn't realise just how much an extra hour of work could take out of you. I was exhausted. So much in fact that on Wednesday night I couldn't even face reading through my lecture notes for the day, and instead decided to leave them until the weekend where I could look at the weeks notes as a whole.

Wednesday also brought with it, talk about my blog from Dean. Who said that my blog does not contain enough pictures. This is something I will bear in mind for future blogs, and will not only try and spend the week finding images for my sketch book, but also perhaps for images to be placed on my blog as well.

Thursday brought yet more fun and excitement with it. Using Photoshop in college for the first time. I finally got my serial numbers through for my version of CS2 and Studio 8 but as of yet, have had no chance to install them. So using CS2 for the first time was to be the highlight of my week. Or so I thought. The task in the assignment was much like the computing terms task, in the way that it was time consuming and frustrating. I could even go as far as saying it was boring (although this is an opinion that will probably change after looking back on the assignment). Hopefully the assignment will improve once I start writing about the images, and getting back into the reason I joined the course, and not spending my time creating graphs and charts in Microsoft Excel.

Next week ought to be a good week, as I may get chance to start designing my screens for the Back to BASIC assignment, something of which I really enjoyed in the last assignment. Also next week, I will hopefully complete the image compression task, which means that we can then use Photoshop to complete the restoration task of the assignment - something that I have been looking forward to since before the start of the course.

I've still to get around to creating my own version of an inspirational art piece, although I have had some idea's of how to do them, and how to make it my own. Hopefully I'll get chance to do it sooner rather than later.

"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?'

Lessons Learnt

This week has been a bit of a disaster week for me. To start the week off, my USB we were given at the start of the year malfunctioned, and therefore I lost all my work, and then on Thursday, after re-doing some of the work, I manged to leave my USB at home. Typical. Despite all this however, I have quite enjoyed myself this week.

As I said in my last blog, I ordered a new book called 'Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers'. I avoided linking to the book at first as I didn't want to advertise a book for people to buy and it turn out to be completely rubbish. However, since receiving the book I have discovered that it is in fact a really good book to use. It is not a tutorial book as such, but more of a reference book that explains how you can do certain tasks within Photoshop if and when you come across them. The book may not be for everyone, as some things in the book may be too simple for the more advanced users of the software, but for anyone who has never used Photoshop, or would like a book to keep at hand in case they get stuck on the assignments then I would definitely recommend it.

Also this week I received my copies of Macromedia (Now Adobe) Studio 8, and Photoshop CS2. These are two software packages that we will be using over the course and thought that having the most up to date applications was probably for the best. I filled in my serial number applications and sent them off so I will hopefully get chance to get used to the new software before we have to use it for assignments.

A large proportion of this week has been spent finding inspirational artwork. All of the artwork that I have found so far is taken from CD covers from my favourite band - Muse. Because the A4 assignment involves discussing vector and bitmap graphics, I decided that it would be best to look into vector and bitmap graphics for my artwork this week. Funnily enough, I found a really good piece of vector art and once again, from Muse.

The image on the right shows the image that I found. It is the DVD cover of one of the bands latest singles called 'Supermassive Black Hole'. As part of my self study for the following week, I am going to try and find out what companies (or company) designs Muse's CD artwork as I would be interested in seeing other pieces of their design work, as apposed to Muse, as it may be a different style but still could be quite interesting and inspirational to me.

If I get time, I may also try and recreate a piece of my inspirational artwork to get me used to the new version of Photoshop and also as a way of getting used to bitmap and vector graphics (whichever piece I choose to recreate).

All in all it has been quite a busy week, we've learnt alot of new things of which I will need to go back over and read my notes again (although for some I have already done this) and just make sure that the information has stuck as it is all things that I am sure we will need for a very long time.

Hopefully by next week I will have my goals, target audience, delivery requirements, and competitive analysis done for the A3 assignemnent, and willl have started (or at least done research into) the compression report for the A4 assignment. I think if I can those things done then I will be on schedule for completing the assignment on time, and will probably start to enjoy the A3 assignment more too, as I can begin to start designing my pages once again. Also hopefully next week will bring better luck with USB's, although I have definately learnt my lesson now about backing up my work.

Pass go collect £200 2 more assignments

The first week back after half term, and straight back into assignments. We were given yet another TWO assignments this week. One similar to our previous assignment of which we have to create a web plan (although this time the website will be created) and one that is very Photoshop based. This it's self has already cost me £17 of my student loan as I have purchased an up to date book about Photoshop.

In general at the beginning of the week I was quite worried that having a further 2 assignments given to us (making it 3 in total) would cause me great stress and cause me to possibly panic with the amount of work load that we were given. These fears were also exaggerated by the revealing of our grades. Luckily however I passed both unit's of our assignments which has given me a new sense of motivation, not only to keep trying hard on the course, but to try even harder and hopefully get even higher grades on the next 2 assignments. Although I have yet to gain any feedback from my assignment I am looking forward to gaining criticism about my assignment so that I know what to change, and also to hear the positive things about the assignment so that I know what I did well in my previous assignment.

As well as this good news about my grades, I was also happy to find out that the amount of work we have to do for 2 assignments isn't as big as I thought it would be, although a lot of work will still obviously have to be done, it has again given me more confidence for the course, something which can only be a good thing I'm sure.

Next week is bound to be a hard slog of the assignment, as I'm sure it will start to sink in on me over the weekend just exactly what we have to do, although hopefully I shall give me time to get my head around any problems at the same time.

I also hope to get my feedback on my first assignment from Steve next week, which as I said, will hopefully give me further idea of what needs to be done for the A3 (Back to BASIC) assignment, and the book that I ordered will give me further insight into Photoshop (of which I can't gain on my own just by 'trial and error' methods of learning software) to help me not only for the A4 (Picture Perfect) assignment, but also over the next couple of years on the course.

Assignments Passed:
A2 - That's The Plan

Assignments Working On:
A1 - SketchBlog,
A3 - Back To BASIC,
A4 - Picture Perfect