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)

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.

The Holy Grail (Sort of...)

With less than 2 weeks to go before the final deadline of the year, the class has had a serious feel to it this week. The usual banter had subsided and all faces were fixed at the screens, with the work load slowly reducing, and the the time quickly running out.

Perhaps this is just me, but the room was definitely a lot quieter this week.

This time last week I was nervous about failing my sketchblog assignment, and the amount of work I had still to complete was massive. Today however, I sit here a lot more relaxed about both assignments.

First of all, the thought of failing my sketchbook assignment spurred me on to spend a good few hours looking for images for my sketchbook. I may have only come up with a few, but in this time I found not only individual images, but groups of images that are closely linked with ideas, but to look at them separately are wide apart. These images also included ideas for my portfolio website, which I am hoping to pursue designing and completing once again in the summer.

The main amount of work came from the Fax assignment however. A few days ago I had no finished CD cover, no designed inlay or pages 2/3 of my booklet, I had no CD label created, no preflight checklist written and hadn't even thought about creating my CO-ID (though at least the majority of this was already designed). I decided that this would be the week to get it done, whether it meant crossing the 32 hour study time or not, it was required.

In one week alone I have managed to create the whole of my CD content (including the preflight docs) as well as create my business cards and both letterhead and continuation sheet (though admittedly there is not much difference between them). Not only this but it I personally don't think that the work looks like it has been rushed (it hasn't), in fact I think the complete opposite and think that it is perhaps some of my best work to date. My thoughts go back to the Picture This assignments mini deadlines, and the amount of work we got done in such little time. This was also confirmed with Steve saying on two occasions, 'It doesn't look too bad', a sort of holy grail in Steve comments.

Another comment of sorts, which I am pleased to hear from Steve just a few minutes ago is that if I keep up the work I am doing with my sketchbook assignment that I can actually pass it. This is a much welcomed relief, but is not an excuse to let my workload slip, and I plan to do as much, if not more sketchbook work this week.

I have just a few minor tweaks to make to my CD designs, before I will upload them (along with my CO-ID content) for your viewing pleasure.

Watch this space.

The Hidden Goals

*Note* - This is not my main weekly blog, more of an interim blog. For my main weekly blog, please see below.

With the assignment deadline only a few weeks away, today I began to think about the website its self. Although I already have a working progress site, it is so far just something that I have designed and created without caring about usability and other vital issues.

With my previous assignments website, I created as part of my goals for the site, to conform to Accessibility guidelines 1.1, 2.1, 5.1 and 6.1, or to be more specific, 'Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element', 'Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour', 'For data tables, identify row and column headers' and finally to 'Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets'.

I succeeded in all four of these goals which was a good thing, but I still feel I can do better. For this reason when I have completed the CO-ID of the website, I plan to implement the same guidelines, as well as try and add a few others in too.

Something I have already considered when creating the website was the colour scheme. Although I tried to choose a sort of ambient colour, I also tried to take into account the way in which people would see the colours. I found out that some of the hardest colours for people with colour blindness to see are red's and greens, and so tried to stay away from this. I also found out that blues and yellows can cause problems for people with colour blindness, but this is not as bad as red-green colour blindness as it is just the shade of the colour that is different, not actually the colour its self.

Doing this also brings to mind the lecture yesterday about the second year, where we were told that 'if an opportunity doesn't arrise to meet learning outcomes, make an opportunity'. This I feel has already started with this assignment, as although we were not told to actually create goals for our websites, in a way we all still have to create goals, even if we are not writing them down in the same way as we have been doing.

One small step to failure, One giant leap to fix it.

The first week back from the holidays and once again back into the reality of the ever approaching deadline.

Steve wanted to pre-assess sketchbooks this week, and with the knowledge I was already failing my sketchbook assignment, I decided to leave it until almost last to go see him about it. I have actually got more evidence for the assignment than I first thought, and perhaps I'm not failing as badly as I first thought, but the reality is I am failing it at present and I do still have a lot of work to do to fix it.

The main lesson of which I learnt from this is that I must take screenshots to evidence my work. This is a point of which I keep forgetting to do and will need to keep reminding myself of more in the future.

My other main tasks for the week has been mainly trying to come up with ideas for my CD cover artwork. The title of my CD is Hearts of Space and so the obvious heart theme comes into a lot of my ideas. I also took the approach of a sort of plasma electric ball to start with as I thought this reflected the techno/electro music on the CD.

However, I was thwarted when I applied the gamut warning mask to my design as it shaded nearly almost my whole design into grey.

Back to the drawing board.

Another idea I had created was to take a character card from a deck of playing cards (such as the king) and apply my own abstract twist to it. This was once again a play on the hearts theme which I can't seem to get away from.

Firstly I came up with the idea of an astronaut card facing up surrounded by other cards. These was shunned in our feedback groups as the background was too busy. Instead I kept the astronaut idea and changed it around a little. I came up with 3 versions of pretty much the same design of which can be seen below. Any feedback on the designs would be welcomed.





The first images font is not the font I would be using (unless there is massive appraisal of it) it was just to show the image in relation to the text.

Now my CD cover ideas are almost completed, I feel like I can concentrate further on my sketchbook assignment, and try and improve it so that I do not have to retake the whole unit again next year. I think this is one of my biggest fears of the moment and am now regretting my decision to sort of ease off on the sketchbook assignment to concentrate on other projects.

Another large topic which was discussed today was about next years team assignment and the various roles within the groups. Steve said that in most cases the project manager of the group is forced into the role as no one wishes to do it. This was then followed by a brief description of the roles of the PM. As this was been said I looked around the room and saw quite a few faces of worry, obviously hoping that they wouldn't be chosen as project manager.

Personally for me, if I was in a group and was nominated as PM I would agree to doing it. Not because I would be being forced into it, but from my previous course and experiences of team projects on that, I found myself quite enjoying taking on the role of being PM.

That is quite a while away now though, and my immediate plans over the weekend is to bump up my sketchbook work with examples of inspirational art work and idea generating techniques for further designs of CD artwork (as the inside and back of the CD still need to be designed for). I have also found myself behind in my time planning for this week already too, and may put in a few extra hours this week to get further ahead both in the project and to catch up with what I have failed to do so far.

After all, the deadline is slowly approaching all the time.

Travellers Tales

After spending the last 2 weeks away on holiday, the past few days have taken on some serious work.

Although I had planned to do some work over the holidays, I just didn't get the chance to. I managed to do an odd hour here and there but nowhere near as much as I had hoped to. However, the past few days have allowed me to catch up with some of this work, and I pretty much have all my designs done and dusted. I've yet to scan them in so I can't host them onto my blog, but I will ASAP along with my new site structure (as requested by Steve).

With only 3 weeks left until the end of the year, and therefore the end of the assignment, tensions are bound to be running high this week. Where as in previous weeks the atmosphere seems to have being quite relaxed, there is no doubt what every ones minds will be on come Wednesday.

Another bombshell was also dropped this week by Steve, when he announced that he would be pre-assessing sketchbooks. My sketchbook is still lacking (although I do have quite a few images that need printing off and sticking in when we return this week). Although my sketchbook work has improved over the past month or so, the thought is still in my mind of 'is it good enough?'.

Once more, I need to 'step-up' my sketchbook work this week and make sure that I pass the sketchblog assignment. Not only will this include finding more inspirational artwork, it will also include further use of my sketchbook for idea generation (if there is any left to do) and also concentrate once again on commenting others blogs.

This is something that I feel I need to remember at present. That the sketchblog assignment isn't JUST about the sketchbook and the blog is just something we are doing for evaluation purposes, but in fact that the blog is ALSO as much a part of the assignment as the sketchbook, and that by putting all my time and effort into the sketchbook, perhaps over the past few weeks I have let the blog slide a little too.

Finding the right balance is the key.

When Does The Holiday Start?

Almost a week into the Easter holidays and the 'holiday' has yet to arrive. Due to me going away for 2 weeks, the whole week has been devoted to trying to get my work done.

So far, I've completely changed my mind about the website site structure, and made that again (luckily however, before any work had gone into actually making the website content), created a page for my website, and began designing the co-id. There's alot I still have to do, and perhaps with it being the holidays I have slacked off a little in my work efforts and not done as much as I normally would have done in the time, but this is all going to change.

Over the next day or two I am planning to finish what I had planned to do for the whole of the holidays. It sounds like a big task, but I only planned 32 hours so it's not that bad.

One thing I have concentrated on quite alot this week is the sketch book. I have stuck in the co-id items I received from Atlantic Records, and have also been researching into e-mail templates and signatures.

I used an e-mail from Dave Pannell at TDM and an e-mail from Steve. Dave's e-mail contained a template and the e-mail size was a whopping 53kb where as Steve's e-mail with only a signature was only 6kb. Dave's e-mail was just quite a short, simple, text e-mail and was over the 50kb maximum page size that we have been taught to stick to. I found myself thinking that if a real attatchment were to be added to the e-mail (such as a document, file, image, etc) the size of the e-mail could be quite large.

I have still yet to decide whether to create an e-mail template or not, using the information I have gathered over the past week I don't think I will, but it's not just a answer you can pull out of nothing. Serious thinking has to go into it.

I shall let everyone know my decision, and what happens with the rest of my work when I return from holiday in 2 weeks time.

Watch this space.

1.4 - That's Numberwang!

Never before in almost a year of the course have numbers ever being so prominent. Although the learning outcomes have always been majorly important, this week Steve really pushed them home.

The main reason for this is, as has been said in quite a few of my blog entries as of late, the sketchblog assignment is somewhat lacking, and learning outcomes are being 'ignored'. Although I may have disagreed with some of Steve's views (or should that be punishments) this past week regarding the learning outcomes, I have come to realise just how important they really are.

Where as before I used to look at the learning outcomes for the assignments on a weekly basis, I have now started looking at them on a daily basis, and I think it is beginning to help. I am more aware of what I have to do to gain a pass in the assignments, as well as the higher grades, and am already thinking of different ways to evidence this.

Time planning was another point at the forefront of the work this week. Again linked to the learning outcomes, proposed time plans must now be submitted a week ahead, and changes shown in the following weeks finished time plans. This is not anything I am particularly worried about, as I tried to keep on top of my time plans as much as possible throughout the year as it is..

With learning out comes out of the way, it was time to focus on the assignments work. The week started with a session for us to show off our chosen logo designs, and to get mass feedback from both the group and Steve. Although I had a few major mishaps (forgetting my font wouldn't be accessible on the college computers) my 'presentation' went rather well, and I got a lot of useful feedback on my logo, of which I have now chosen a favourite, and now have just a few minor changes to make to it before it is finished.

With this in mind, it was then time for me to crack on with the rest of my work. With my site structure completed, I polished off my screen designs and started work on my website. My reasons for creating the website at this stage was to get the technical side of things out of the way this week. With Easter fast approaching and a holiday looming, accessing a computer (never mind one with Dreamweaver on) could be quite a difficult task. Therefore sketchbook work seemed a much easier option over the Easter break.

I started making my website using CSS, which didn't go too bad, but decided that tables and cells would be a more efficient use of my time at present. Although I have used some CSS for my navigation bar, the majority of my website will be created using tables and cells.

Over Easter, designing the Co-ID is priority number one, as well as trying to collect images/ideas for the CD booklet/label itself so that I can crack on (no Easter egg pun intended) with it as soon as we return back from the Easter break.

To finish off the week, the good news that I have passed both the Builder assignment and Revert To Type assignment was greatly received, and although I was hoping for at least one merit this time, it has not knocked my confidence. It just means I shall have to try harder next time.

Have a good Easter everyone. And for anyone who wants to see my 'Ambient World' website in it's current state, it can be found at: www.craig-allington.co.uk/fax

Logos With Beat

Logo design was once again the main agenda of the week this week and with a large discussion on Wednesday afternoon messing up every ones time plans it was soon decided that finished ideas would have to be created for next week for formal presentations to the rest of the group.

This may seem like one of the biggest events of the week, however this was the week in which we received our CD's for our listening 'pleasure'. I didn't do a bad job of picking my CD listening to others in the group, my CD is quite electro/techno with most songs having a beat behind them. The main advantage being, it doesn't make me drift of to sleep as some of the more relaxing music may have done.

So far the assignment is coming along relatively well. I already have my four logo ideas, it is just a case of playing about with them, developing them a bit more, etc. in Freehand and then showing them to the group next week. I also have created my site structure for the website, and also designed screen designs for it which I have received much feedback on. A very productive week if I do say so myself.

Next week however, we finish for the holidays and so I still have a lot of work to be done before hand. The more work that I can get done before the holidays means the less I have to do in the holidays themselves. Although I am planning for a week to do a good 32 hours, I would like to use the holidays as just that, a holiday.

Another major factor affecting me this week is the Sketchblog assignment. After last weeks first blog entry primarily dominated by worries over my sketchbook work, I am now glad to say I have started filling it up a lot more. A FULL development process has been undertaken in many areas of the Fax assignment already, as well as researching into vector art, album artwork and corporate ID's. The major thing I am glad of is that, after ringing Atlantic Records one dinner time, I was sent a business card, letterhead and compliments slip. I found these very useful as it showed me further examples of how logos can be used at various sizes and in various places on documents. Hopefully I shall soon have similar items from Warner Records also.

For the next few days my main goal is to concentrate on my logo design. I recently bought a book from the 'Index' series called 'Type Index' of which I should have received today, and if not tomorrow. I am hoping I will be able to use this book to help me with my logo designs, as my knowledge of fonts isn't particularly amazing.

The Classic 'Feedback Blog'

3 blogs in less than a week. Surely some kind of record.

Anyway, due to switching broadband providers, I will have limited access to the internet over the next few days (at least). For this reason, I am uploading my logo ideas so far to my blog (along with some fonts) and would appreciated if people could take a look at them and give me some feedback on them so that I can make a good start on them hopefully this week.

There is alot of them so they're saved as a PDF file for your downloading pleasure. Sadly they're not numbered, although this will be a test of a 'good logo' if it is simple enough to be described.

Logos
Fonts

Apologies for the large file sizes. I realise its not very 'user friendly' but I haven't got the time tonight to sort it out and will have no net as of tomorrow. I will sort it out ASAP however.

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.

Too Far Gone?

What a week. Just where to start? I suppose the logical answer would be Wednesday, the start of the new assignment, but it all began much sooner than that.

With a 'week off' from work I decided to use the time to reflect on the year as a whole so far. I came up with many thoughts and feelings that I have associated with the year but will save them for a later blog. The main thought that did occur in my head happened to be on Sunday night when I found my sketch book had fallen out of my bag.

The sketch book.

I picked it up and put it back in my bag not thinking anything of it. But something kept going round and round in my head.

The sketch book.

Just what exactly was nagging me so much that I couldn't just have a relaxing week preparing for the new assignment? It soon dawned on me that the sketch book IS still an ongoing assignment and has been that way for the past 20 odd weeks. Sketchblog.

I am quite proud of my blogging skills, I am sure this is primarily down to my love of writing that I enjoy sitting down on a Thursday afternoon and evaluating the week gone by, and reading others experiences at the same time I feel is a good insight into my place within the group at the current time. My sketchbook on the other hand has being....somewhat neglected.

This is not to say I have thrown it to the side and not used it, no way. Despite my earlier feelings, I have accepted the sketchbook as a valuable piece of equipment that without I don't think I would have managed to get this far on the course. I have just, as was said today despite my obvious attempts to convince myself not, ignored the collection of images for the A1 assignment.

I have collected a few, primarily Muse, a few Banksy, and the odd page from a clothing catalogue, but without reading the assignment sheet, these are all useless. So far I have simply collected half a dozen images I like, explained why, and left it at that. Not only am I a good 14 images short (at least) but also I have not really gone into much detail about the cultural aspects of the images. Why did they choose such and such a colour? Why did they decide to use such and such a font?

It is not simply about liking an image; it is about explaining the reasoning behind the image itself.

With only 7 working weeks left of the course, I find myself asking - "Am I too far gone?" Hopefully the answer will be a no, and I can pull it back on target with the new assignment, but I really need to get my head down and get collecting some images over the next few weeks.

Wednesday was completely different to how I imagined. Marc Bowers came in to talk to us about working at Real Radio, and I was surprised to hear that his work was a lot more similar to The Design Mechanics in the 'Stack em high' or 'In and out' sort of working. I can't say I was overly impressed with how the company worked, though by the sounds of it, it does sound like the company is shifting it's views a lot more in the right direction, starting with expanding the web design studio from a mere 2 people.

Wednesday was also the day we were given the new assignment. With an initial presentation about logo design and corporate identities it was obvious what the assignment was going to be about. But the sheer volume of work we were to be given came as a complete shock to me, and I am sure many others.

Even until this morning, I don't think that the amount of work had hit home, and it was only when Steve showed us some style guides for various companies that I realised just how much had to be done just to pass the assignment.

Saying this, there is now 9 weeks until the deadline hand in date, although 3 of those weeks are holidays. I really need to get my head down over the next few weeks and make a big start on the assignment. I already have nearly 40 logo designs created, and I still have more to do. To top it off choosing the best one will be hard, not because of the sheer volume of designs, but because it will be the way in which people recognise the company, it needs to be right.

For my CD I chose Hearts in Space (or hearts of space, not entirely sure at this moment in time) and already have many ideas of ways to do this. As was discussed in feedback groups, I don't really want to go for the obvious 'some hearts....in space' approach, and would rather make something a little more different (to reflect the music). I thought perhaps of using a deck of cards (the hearts obviously) and using them someway connected with space, but I have yet to decide. And finally, dare I say it? I am 'eagerly' awaiting my CD to listen to so that I can gain further ideas about my CD cover. Though my logo is still my number one task at the moment in time.

Time and Time Again

A6 has been probably one of the strangest assignments we have had to do. In fact, it has been probably one of the strangest assignments I have ever had to do, ever.

Because of the nature of the assignment (to test and prepare) it has been extremely difficult to prepare for a lot of things. Although this is what the industry will be like, experiencing it for the first time has been a huge step.

6 months ago when starting the course, my knowledge of typography was, shall we say, limited. Today however has shown me just how much I have learnt in such a short space of time. From knowing Pi only in the mathematical sense, to know knowing it is a type of font too (Dingbats - a.k.a web dings/symbols) I have received a great sense of achievement in the past few months.

As a 'part time' journalist I thought that I knew quite a lot of the different elements that made up a newspaper or magazine, after all, I've been part of making one once before. However, if I could go back and make the same newspaper again now, it would be so much better as I actually know what I am doing. Mastheads, gutters, decks and more, once pure gibberish to me, now firmly set in my mind as important information that I must not forget.

To start the assignment off I was primarily worrying about the timed tasks aspect of the assignment. I had no idea what was being planned and what would be expected of me, but it turned out that I produced (in my opinion) some of my best work to date. Admittedly I may also say I have produced some of my worst work to date (Jonathon Gee re-design), but I think that was mainly down to panic of the first timed task.

With the rechristening of the timed tasks as 'task bombs' the mood soon lightened, and perspective shifted to the presentation. For a while I left the presentation, and didn't really give it my full attention, worrying more about getting the website up to scratch for A5 than researching about my font. "It's only one font, and there will be loads about it" I kept telling myself. I needed a kick start to get me going. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily) this came a couple of weeks ago when it suddenly hit me that our practice presentations would be in a couple of weeks.

Once sufficiently motivated, and hyped up on coffee, I began working on the presentation. I wish I had done it sooner as immediately I was faced with a problem. Max Miedinger... My-ding-er? Myde-in-ger? Just how do you pronounce his name?

My-ding-er I think was the option I chose, and so I continued with the presentation preparation.

My first real problem I faced was what to put on the presentation. Finding information wasn't as easy as I first thought, and with no real examples of my font available to me, panic soon set in. Eventually however, I got my presentation finished, well I thought so anyway, and in usual style set about making my cue cards the night before the practice presentation was due.

This was definitely a bad choice as it gave me no time to really practice my presentation, so I had no idea about timings or even what to say. I just knew that my script would be purely read from the cue cards. And it was...

After getting some feedback from Steve and other members of my group, it soon became apparent that parts of my presentation were lacking. I was quite shocked to hear that I was the first person to actually get there sketchbook to write down the feedback we were given, as I believe that it is vital to keep a note of it. If it wasn't for the feedback I had written down from my last presentation I don't think I would have been anywhere near as prepared.

With the practice presentation completed, I had just over a week to tweak and perfect it. Plenty of time I thought.

There is never - Plenty of time.

Once more I believed my presentation was completed. That is of course until the day before I was due to give the presentation, when I was talking to Steve. He may as well have said 'Do it again'.

I still had lots to do.

That night I stayed up quite late preparing for my presentation, adding slides, taking slides away, practicing, practicing, practicing, and revising for the next days test. Oh how I wish I hadn't. I arrived at college tired, it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. Adding together a mix of tiredness and nerves, my presentation started off wrongly with me forgetting to change the PDF file to full screen, and then by me accidentally knocking the board and changing slides. Hopefully the afternoon would bring more luck.

With a few hours spare we set about revising for the afternoons test. We had no idea what to expect and I think that is what caused the most unease for me, not nerves, just unease. The task we were given was a simple one. Very simple in fact. With so much time spent dwelling on the subject, a lot of ideas came up, but creating a fact sheet about different type elements seemed relatively easy.

I wasn't that happy with my final product however. I think I spent too much time trying to remember all the different elements for the test and writing them down, instead of designing my fact sheet. Looking back now I can think of many things I have missed from my designs, including important information such as font types and sizes.

In the end I think I managed to write about 28 of the 57 which is quite a lot, but I keep wondering "is it enough?". With Steve's typical cryptic style, I don't think I'll find out until we get the results back from the assignment.

Next time we get a similar assignment I will be much more prepared. For a start I will use my time much more wisely. I will also take the time it takes to prepare something so small as a 5 minute presentation much more seriously, as the time I spent on it doesn't accurately reflect the time that should have been spent on it. Although I think I got quite lucky with the presentation and the information I could find, this will not always be the case, and therefore leaving things until the last minute is possibly a rather stupid way to go about it.

Word Count: 1117

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.