Ok, for a start I think I have a slightly different taste in music to most of you guys in the class, but anyway I’ve managed to come up with a CD that I hope you will enjoy. Not a lot of other people in the group seem to really like dance and r ‘n’ b so I’ve tried to put on some things that I think no one will take offence to or have anything against; there are quite a few old songs on there and one or two from my home land (Bosnia).

Song 1 – Kanye West – Stronger

Every lunch time me and a few of the guys from the group go out to eat, and I think they will agree that for the past month or so this is the only song that has been playing in the car, it’s been on repeat for ages so it just wouldn’t make sense for it to not be on the CD.

Song 2 – Dino Merlin – Nesto ljepo treba da se desi

I think you can probably see from the title that the song is not English. Its Bosnian, where I’m originally from. There are millions of Bosnian songs, so why did I choose this one then. Basically Dino Merlin is probably the biggest star in Bosnian music, an absolute legend. He has represented Bosnia twice in Eurovision song contests and released his first album back in 1985, 2 years before I was born. This particular song was on his 1989 album, so when I was 2 the song was released. Even though his music is very old it’s still extremely popular even today.

Song 3 – P Diddy – I’ll be missing you.

When I first started to learn English around 12ish years ago I found that listening to music was a good way of picking up the language. This song was one that I loved back then, even though I never understood a word of it. Even today I often listen to it and a number of other older songs, which are often better than some of the rubbish that is being released. For me this song is a classic and one that even in years to come I will still sometimes put on and listen to.

The Year So Far...

The first half term has just finished and it really seems to have flown past. It seems like yesterday that we came in for enrolment and to hand in our summer assignments, but in fact it’s been nearly three months. I think that this is probably due t the fact because the course so far this year has been a lot more challenging and thus making it a lot more enjoyable, and we all know that time fly’s when you’re having fun.

Things definitely seem to have moved up a gear as opposed to last year. Even though the current assignments are pretty difficult and demanding I’m really enjoying it and feel I’m really learning a lot this year. At the end of the first year I had one main target in my head for the second year and that was to learn CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and I’m glad to report that I have achieved this. Ok, I must admit I’m not a total expert in CSS but I do know the basics and as long as I know this then I feel that there will be time for me to improve and build upon the knowledge that I have gained. This however is not the only place that I feel I have improved.

In all honesty last year my time management skills were not as good as they should have been, I noticed this because work was being left to the last minute and then had to be rushed at the end. This was not a good way of working and I said to myself that in the second year something will need to be done. This is why now I give my college work first priority and don’t mess about with the deadlines that are given to me. I have also created my own time management sheets, which really work well for me. Their very simple and for the time being are working really well for me but may at some point need to be updated to cope with the extra work load that we are expecting in the near future.

Something else that I have noticed is that so far this year the entire group seems to be gelling really well together, or maybe it’s just that I’ve started to now really settle in. I now find myself talking and really getting on with people who last year I didn’t really interact with that much, except for work related things. I think this has really been helped by the fact that we now have a group assignment in place. I must say that the group assignment so far has been the most enjoyable assignment of the entire course and I can only see it getting better as time passes. The group that I am in seems t have a great blend of all the qualities needed to successfully see a project through, including great project management skills shown by Craig Burgess. Craig’s enthusiasm and dedication to the group project seems to have really had a great effect on me personally. Letting a group down is something that I couldn’t do, which is why I try my upmost to meet all of the deadlines and criteria that Craig sets us on a weekly basis.

Like I’ve said the year so far has been really enjoyable and I can only envision it getting better as the year progresses. But the only scary thing is that time seems to be flying a bit too fast for my liking, because it’s only a matter of a few months that we will be leaving the course for good and being let out into the real world on our own, where there are no Steve’s, John’s or Craig’s. J Scary!

Describe yourself in three words…

Tall, Dark, Handsome

How would you measure the effectiveness of your interactive media product?

After making a website, the key thing for measuring the effectiveness is when the client says “Well done!, that’s spot on”. Another way of testing the effeteness is using software that will track the progress of the website after it has been published, such as Google analytics. This would tell me how many visitors the site has had and many returning visitors there are. The higher the level of returning visitors then more effective your product is.

How do you handle criticism?

I used to take it personally and this did not have a good effect on my work. Understanding that your generally not designing for yourself is the key. Recently this has become clear to me and now I see criticism as a positive thing even if someone says something blunt like “That’s rubbish” I see that there not saying I’m rubbish but the work that I’ve created is rubbish. It doesn’t have much of an effect on me now.


Describe a difficult problem you’ve had and how you solved it?

Something that is very difficult for designers is when you come to a point in the day where you loose inspiration and you mind goes blank and what ever you create you dislike and end up starting again. It’s very frustrating and what I do in these circumstances is to take a few minutes out and go on the web or look through magazines and find things that are really good design pieces and just try and inspire myself to create something better. For me personally this works all the time.

Describe how you fit into a team?

Team work is something that I am very keen on and think I function well as part of a team. In a team, I’m generally the guy who will relax the tensions in a stressful situation. I’m not afraid of doing my part for the well being of the team and I always lay out my own responsibilities and make sure I see it through. I hate being a weak link.

Do you have any questions?

* Do you generally employ people who specialise in one application or people who are fairly comfortable but not excellent in more applications?

* Is an impressive portfolio a greater advantage than impressive qualifications?

Evaluating my mock interview Blog post

As you can see the post pervious to this one was a case of answering mock interview questions and as you can see I didn’t do too well, did I? For a start I didn’t quite understand the way that the procedure worked and I thought I was required to answer the questions as if I was applying for the job through a letter but this was not the case.

Anyway regardless of this, looking back at some of the answers I gave I find it hard to believe that offering the job to me would even cross the interviewer’s mind. For a start when asked where I see myself in 5 years I did not make it clear that I wanted to stay with the company long term. It’s a bit of a silly thing to say to your potential employer, that you don’t see your future with them.

My answer to my greatest weakness was also a downfall for me. I knew what I wanted to say and it wasn’t a direct weakness, but something that I thought would turn the question on its head and actually turn out to be a positive. The wording was wrong however and it’s clear that the person interviewing me would think that I don’t know how to use InDesign and am still learning. What I should have said was something along the lines of “Since I have learnt InDesign, I now use it for all of my page layout tasks”

There is a lot of useful websites on the internet about interview techniques and the importance of body language in an interview which are also very useful, but answering questions accurately and saying what the employer want to hear is the most important thing and the answers I gave in the practice task were not up to scratch.

Job Details
Reference :WIM0018183-1
Position :Trainee Graphic Designer
Location :DOUGLAS
Salary :Not available
Company :Promenade Shirts & Embroid Ltd
Date Posted :02/10/2007
Close Date :23/10/2007

Source: http://jobstoday.co.uk

Why do you want the job?
Well… as far back as I can remember creativity has always been a strong point of mine. This lead me to try and peruse a career in the design industry. I have just completed a two year HND course at Wakefield College, in the interactive use of media and even though this was mainly based on web design it also involved a lot of graphic design, both for print and digital. I now feel very comfortable using Adobe Photoshop and feel I have the necessary skills to undertake this job role, which based on my skills seems ideal.

Greatest strength?
Like I said, I see graphic design as my greatest skill, especially in Photoshop.

Greatset weakness?
I sometimes rely too much on Photoshop for every day tasks, but have recently tried to learn new software skills including Adobe InDesign.

5 Years from now?
5 years from now I would ideally like to have a secure job that I actually enjoy. Not freelance but actually working for someone.

Current innovation that excites you the most?
The latest version of Adobe Photoshop (CS3) which I have had no experience with so far but hope to get hold of in the near future. Reading through some reviews and reports it promises to improve on what is already a near perfect piece of software.

Who is your hero and why?
Herman Zapf, a famous font designer. Designed some of the best fonts many of which I often use in everyday design task.