HND Interactive Media - Mirhad Kalabic

Final Summative Evaluation

2008-05-15T08:47:00.001+01:00

In a quest to make it big in the design industry, I decided for my major stepping stone be the HND Interactive Media course at Wakefield College. I had little design experience before i joined the course and when I was shown some of the previous students work at the interview I was hooked, I knew that this was exactly what i wanted to be a part of.

Two whole years i spent at the Thornes Park campus and enjoyed pretty much every day of it. I started the course at a very basic level but knew that I could make the most of the two years that would follow and gain enough knowledge to ultimately get a job in the industry.

The course has taught me pretty much al the basic things I need to know about building web sites and creating graphical work. I can actually build a web site from scratch which in it self is an achievement. However, I have also learnt some things that have nothing to do with web design but equally as important. The lifelong learning unit is a prime example and knowing that I can teach myself anything I want/need to know is very reassuring.

The second year brought along new goals for me and a Cascading Sytle Sheets was at the top of my hit list. A lot of hype sorounded the importance of CSS and I knew that i would need to know it pretty much inside out before i left the course. Thankfully, I can report that can now use CSS, I'm still not an expert, don't get me wrong but I feel comfortable using it and have built every web site in the second year using it.

Overall, I don't really have many complaints for the last two years. From an educational sense I think I have learnt probably more than I first thought and from a general sense I have made some friends for life, had a great time and hopefully the ultimate goal will soon be realized of entering the scary place of the working life.a

Final Screen Designs [Portfolio Site]

2008-02-27T21:25:00.005Z

Folowing the feedback that I have recieved over the past week or so, I have now took some of you advice and have come up with what I hope will be the final screen designs. Sorry to dissapoint some of you but the textured background is staying, purely because I feel it makes it slightly more interesting and different.

Home Page

Interior Page

I have also created the site structure diagram to go with this.

Site structure

Screen Design Version 2

2008-02-20T21:05:00.003Z

Folowing the feedback left for me from my last post regarding the screen designs, here are a new set that I have derived from the original. A few changes have been made, including shades of colour and the background colour. Again your help is always appreciated.

Home Page screen design

Interior Page Screen Design

Portfolio Screen Designs

2008-02-14T21:00:00.003Z

Here are a few variations of what could possibly be my web portfolio. The designs are only very basic and are the first major part of the design process. Any feedback or comments are welcome.

#1 - Simple and effective
Here I have chosen to make it as simple as possible in an attempt to make the work speak for itself.

#2 - Simple but with colour
Here I have again tried to keep the design relativly simple but this time have added a bit of colour to just liven it up a bit.

#3 - Something a bit different
as an alternative I tried to just design something that I would normally not, just something a bit wacky and different.

Competitive Analysis

2008-02-06T16:29:00.000Z

http://www.cliftonwebdesign.co.uk/portfolio-web-design.htm
From the beginning I think that it is very obvious that this portfolio is supposed to not over power the work as it is very simple and plain. I’m sure that a company like this has created hundreds if no thousands of websites so what they have tried to do is pick only the best 6 and the ones of the highest profile and only display them, which is something that I am also looking to do in my own portfolio.

Its simplicity is also very appealing to me because not only does it allow your work to speak for itself but also provides a user friendly environment that is easy to navigate and understand.

Each of the websites that they have designed has a small preview, a description of the project and then is finally linked to the live website. All three of these are something that I must also consider when designing my own portfolio.

There is a small section outlining some of the current clients that the company are working with, but seen as none of them are links to anything and don’t go into any kind of depth about the project then it seems just a bit pointless.

Overall the portfolio part of the site is I believe a success and the only thing letting it down it the lack of more examples of work. Only six examples seem to be somewhat too little for what seems to be a fairly large company. Its also reassuring to see that the page is actually valid which make a change from most design companies.

http://www.matt-gibson.co.uk
This website on the other hand is the complete opposite. The designer has opted to make the portfolio itself a design task and has made it very flashy and arty. This approach still works but in a different way, what he has done here is actually distracted the users from being able to easily view his pieces of work that they have came on the site to view in the first place.

The designer has also split his work into five different categories which is helpful for the potential employer to differentiate some of the pieces in order to find what they are actually looking for.

Dark blue text on a black background also was not the wisest choice and it proves extremely difficult to read at times. Also when you hover over the thumbnails they turn black and white which I can’t really understand because the whole point of a mouse over is that it makes the selected item stand out even more from the rest and not make it even harder to see.

Something else that I found strange is that there are actually three menus on each page and all three are the same, two at the top and one at the bottom of the page.

Overall this is not a particularly bad site even though it does have many flaws, the designer has opted to almost try and make the site itself a piece of art but has somewhat failed in my opinion, simplicity I believe is the way forward.

This page is also not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Refined Target Audience...

2008-01-30T16:54:00.000Z

Primary – Educationalists
Gregg is 37 years old and works at the examining body BTEC. Gregg is fairly self contained and spends a lot of his time on his laptop computer. He has a 17” widescreen laptop with a screen resolution of 1152x864 Pixels, his operating system is Windows Vista and the browser he uses is Internet Explorer 7.

He mainly uses his computer as a means of communication when he is on his travels and often uses his computer on the train. The main other uses he has for his laptop are internet viewing and word processing. His skills in using his computer are not really that great but he can comfortable use it for his requirements.

As he uses his computer a lot on his travels he has a 3G mobile connection so the speed is not as high as broadband but is still higher than dial up. He also has a monthly download limit of 3GB.

Secondary – Potential Employers
Trevor is 35 years of age and is the owner of a small design company based in Leeds. His company is only 5 years old but has managed to establish itself as one of the best design companies locally. His pay is based on the number and level of clients that they receive, but is generally in the region of £40,000 P/A.

Trevor has access to a number of computer systems; at home he has a 15” Mac Book running the OSX operating system. On this computer his screen resolution is 1152x864 and the browser he uses is Mozilla Firefox 2.0.

At work he has also uses his Mac Book but has in his office he has a 20” iMac that is also running the OSX operating system but this has a screen resolution of 1280x1024 and he also use Mozilla Firefox 2.0 here as well.

Tertiary – Private Clients
Carl is 45, is married and has two children. He is a homeowner and is self employed. He owns a small shop which involves selling home made furniture that he and his brother produce. Their business is started well but they would like to extend into the national market and appeal to customers all across the UK and because of this they are looking to create a website.

Carl does not have any notable experience with computers and only uses it for email and the occasional catch up on news websites. He has a fairly old computer system in the back room of their workshop.

It’s a very basic computer and not very fast. It is running Windows XP and has a screen resolution of 1024x768. He does not really understand how to update his system and is still using Internet Explorer 6 as his browser.

Carl would require some form of training on how to use the website for processing orders and some basic requirements for the website are contact information with a map and he would also like customers to be able to place orders online and would also require a method of online payment.

He does not necessarily want the site to be all singing all dancing and would prefer if it worked well rather than looked nice.

Delivery Requirements - Portfolio

2008-01-30T15:24:00.001Z

Technologies:
CSS Version 2.1
This is something that I have only reacently picked up and am looking to improve upon even more. CSS will be the vital ingrediant to the look and feel of the website as it will be used to style all of the pages and their elements. In order to create the CSS I will be using Dreamweaver.
The style sheet will also need to be validated using the W3C Validator.

XHTML 1.0 Transitional
XHTML is now seen as the standard web language and has replaced HTML. I will therefore use it to place content onto the web page, which will then be styled by the CSS.

FTP (Dreamweaver)
The file transfer protocol (FTP) within Dreamweaver will be used to upload the created website and associated files from my local machine to the internet.

Flash
I will also look to incorporate some form of Flash in the design, this will not be anything major, but as it is a new skill that I have learnt reacently I will be looking to show off some of the techniques I have learnt.

Feedback Form
This will be the main and preffered method of communication that the users will be able to use to get in touch with me. There will be a small box where the user can input their comment and also a drop down menu where they can select how they have managed to come across my website. The feedback for itself will be linked to my email adress.

Software:
Dreamweaver
This program will be used for the actuall build of the site. It will also be used for the creation of the CSS code. The FTP within dreamweaver will also be used, so this is a piece of software that I will be using throughout the majority of the build process.

Adobe Flash
This software will be used for creation of any flash elements, whatever they may be.

Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop will be used for creation of any graphical work on the website. The look and feel of the site will ultimately be decided on the type of graphical elements that are on the page, which is why Photoshop will have a major role to play in the creation/.

Portfolio Target Audience

2008-01-23T22:22:00.001Z

Primary Audience - Educationalists
The design of the portfolio is for use in the final presentation where there will be a number of educationalists present, so it makes sense that they are my primary target audience. An educationalist is generally someone who will be able to appreciate good design when they see it and will also be very specific in their likes and dislikes. Age wise I think generally between 30 and 50.

Secondary Audience - Potential Employers
The level of web experience that a potential employer will have is quite high. They will be very specific about what they want to see. Generally an employer will have experience in actually creating websites and graphical work. The reason that they will be on the website in the first place is to try and spot someone that they see potential in, so the portfolio must only show the best of my work.

There is however some potential employers who have no experience in web development at all and are simply in charge of the business because of their management skills. This type of potential employer will probably be more difficult to please as they will not be able to appreciate some of the work that goes into creating even something rather simple.

Tertiary Audience - Other Designers
As is often the case I find myself scouring the web for other peoples portfolios, often just for that bit of inspiration to keep me going when I lose concentration. I hope that my website will be used by other designers to offer them inspiration.

The profile for a designer can vary drastically. It starts with beginners or “baby designer” as the phrase goes. The baby designers won’t have that much experience in web development or graphic design. Baby designers are in most cases students between the ages of 16 and 23.

On the other hand there will be the more experienced and probably employed designers who will be generally between the ages of 20 to 40.

Portfolio Website Goals

2008-01-16T21:32:00.000Z

Must be limited to containing at least 10 main pieces that will be accessible to the general public
This will allow the website not to become cluttered which will hopefully allow the work to be more easily accessed. Limiting it to a maximum of 10 pieces of work also make me only choose the best of my work where as I otherwise may be tempted to put on something that I would not this way.

To be made using CSS
Weather the portfolio should be a design task itself or if it should be something subtle and let the work speak for itself. Making the portfolio in CSS is a way of still making the portfolio a piece of work even if the design is plain because it shows a different skill that you are capable of.

Must Validate
A simple yet very effective goal, it will show that the coding is correct and it is an crucially important, especially when the large proportion of the target audience is potential employers.

To meet Priority 1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Meeting this priority is something that I think the majority of web designers should be taking as a given, but many are not doing so. Simply making the website accessible to a wider range of people is what every designer wants, so why they are not doing it is beyond me. If I’m honest this is something that I have only recently become familiar with, but I will now start to try and implement it into my working methods.

Coke Bottle Design Feedback

2007-12-12T23:30:00.000Z

These are the three designs that I have chosen to digitise, any comments, suggestions or improvements would be greatly appreciated. Please don;t be too harsh because they too me ages, especially the second one...

On the home straight... almost!

2007-12-12T23:16:00.000Z

It’s nearing the end of the third semester, ¾ of the way through the entire course, which is kind of scary. Time seems to be flying and it seems like just yesterday that we were throwing a ball to each other and throwing eggs out of the window. The fact that time is flying is usually a sign when you’re having fun and I think this semester out of them all has been the most enjoyable.

We have had the group assignment this semester and that experience was fantastic. Everything about it, from the choosing of the roles to meeting with the client and organising a great user testing day flowed seamlessly. This unit has generally taught me the most, and especially the importance of user testing, which I somewhat did not take much notice of before but now seems to me that it should be the centre of any website that I make. User testing is simply the best way of ironing out a websites flaws, which me and my group learned the hard way the first time around because our site was simply not user friendly at all.

Another assignment that we are currently in to process of completing is the Culture Vulture. Again this has taught me a great amount and has given me a new found respect for artists. We literally had to sit behind our desks for three consecutive weeks and come up with designs for and unknown product which meant that they would be extremely diverse, and to be fair they were but after a couple of hours my mind tended to go blank and new distinct ideas were hard to come across. At these types of moments I always thought how it is for artists who have to come up with extremely distinct ideas day in day out, probably not at the pace we had to but even still their minds must boggle sometimes.

This semester also saw the introduction of CSS, something that I had been greatly anticipating and have managed to pick up rather well I felt. To say I had started with no knowledge whatsoever I was genuinely impressed with the final outcome, which although not perfect and not the best design in the world proved to be almost and exact replica of what I envisioned it to look like.

To say there is only one semester left and not a very long one if you take out the holidays I think its time to realistically start looking at the future and to look at the types of jobs that are currently available. Uncertain of exactly what type of job I want at the end of it all I think I will probably apply for a number of different types and hopefully I will the get a more specific idea of what I want to do. A third year at university I think is out of the question, for now at least. I just don’t see what I would gain from it and at the end of the day if its possible to obtain employment with what I think is a rather credible qualification then why waste another year, and I think from what I’ve heard I would learn much more in a year at work than I would in a year at university. So let’s bring on the last semester and learn some Flash!! Although I can’t wait for the Christmas holidays…

Skillset or BTEC?

2007-12-05T21:12:00.000Z

Education is all about working and training to a certain level that is required for you to be seen as an employable person. Sounds pretty simple, but the difficulty in this is who do you get to actually set this so called standard that we should all be aiming for?

Many courses these days including the one that we are currently on are sort of being torn apart by two different groups of people. First of all by people who actually run the courses and who provide the platform for the tutors to then interpret these elements in their own understanding and then there is the people who are actually experienced industry professional and therefore potential employers.

The majority of us are all on the course to learn the skills required for us to enter the world of work; therefore it would make logical sense for us to be told what we should learn by the experienced industry people rather than people who have probably never been to a design studio, let alone have any sort of in depth knowledge of what goes on in one on a daily basis.

Due to many reasons all of which we don’t really have much choice in, our course is ran by what I would say are the wrong people. Simply looking at the two standards and requirements it is clear to me that Skillset seem to know more of what they are talking about. Their standards are laid out in three columns labelled “What you must know”, “What you must be aware off”, and “What you must be able to do” and that is really all we need to know, this would in turn allow the tutors to become much more creative in the writing our assignments, and that in it self would make the lives of the students and teachers a lot easier.

The thing that drew me towards this particular course was the fact that I knew I loved graphic and web design and had previously done rather well in these areas. Something else that attracted me towards this course was the fact that there were no examinations and I always figured that it would be a very creative course rather than an academic one. This sadly was not the case and there seems to be at least a 50/50 spilt between the two. The creative is very enjoyable and I feel myself and many others are being pulled down by what can only be described as lack of competence on the academic part. Admittedly there must be some sort of evaluative pieces and research but it’s at a level that I did not expect, at least not on a vocational course. A lot of this I can see the point of, mainly to give us an understanding of the industry but it often does affect the grades of people with real potential to work in the industry.

The other thing that seems quite major is the fact that the BTEC ones seem to be very outdated and I think this is the most obvious when they still consider CSS as a New technology even though it has been around and fairly widely used for a number of years now.

Overall without going into too much depth I think it is very clear that people who not only know what they are talking about and have the experience to back it up but are also seen as our potential employers should be setting standards to which we should all be aiming for which is why I am a fan of the Skillset standards more than that I am to that of BTEC.

CD Tracklist

2007-11-23T15:49:00.000Z

Not sure if their in exactly this order because iv'e lost the playlist, but the songs are all listed below.

1) Rocky Soundtrack - Eye of the Tiger

2) Bryan Adams - Summer of 69

3) Dino Merlin - Nesto Lijepo Treba Da Se Desi

4) Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby

5) Brad Paisley - I'm Gonna Miss Her

6) Mash-Ups - Fat Boy Slim Vs Offspring - Pretty Fly For A White Guy

7) Puff Dady-Ill Be Missing U

8) Pink - Just like a pill

9) Kanye West ft Daft Punk - Stronger

10) Rednex - Cotton Eyed Joe (Country Dance Remix)

11) Rob Thomas - Lonely No More

12) Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls

13) The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret

14) Tifa - Dani bez tebe - Duge kise jesenje

15) Timbaland- The Way I Are

16) Will Smith - Miami

Blue and Yellow = Bellow

2007-11-15T21:12:00.000Z

These colours are both primary colours, they are both natural colours and symbolize nature and everything that is natural. The sun is Yellow, the grass is green and the sky and sea are blue.

Probably one of the first few colours any of us became familiar with as children.

Blue is a cold colour and yellow is a warm colour, but when used together it is possible to create some magnificent pieces of design work, mainly because there is a great deal of contrast between the two.

Believe it or not the cool, calming effect of blue makes time pass more quickly and it can help you sleep.
Blue is also the main colour of trust which is why many banks use blue in the corporate id.

Yellow is one of the three colours in the lower half of the visible spectrum it is known as a "warm" colour and has a stimulating effect. It is the colour of the intellect and can be very helpful with study and where concentration is required

Here are some examples of where yellow and blue have been used to some stunning artefacts.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visit...

2007-11-07T20:58:00.000Z

After what seemed quite a long time we finally got the chance to present out presentations on our chosen design icons. I had been looking forward to this day and to be honest really enjoyed it. I though I was very confident in my approach and felt it went pretty well. After the presentations today we went over to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which proved to be a rather interesting visit.

When we arrived there we started to walk around some of the sculptures and to be honest most of them were fascinating. I was impressed to see what people can come up with such limited and sometimes rather strange resources. I think it just goes to show that the creative industry is not for everyone. I really appreciated most of the pieces although some of them I just had to laugh at and think “what is that?”. The first few, where the people actually used trees and wood to create their pieces were amazing I though, especially the room where the ceiling and the walls were completely covered in wood and even the smell of the place was really interesting. Unlike the others that were very modern and minimalist this one actually smelt damp which was more appropriate I suppose.

On the other hand the one where the artist used manure to create these paintings just dint appeal to me. I can see how it’s something different and new, but I just don’t see where they can get such motivation to do such a thing. But ohh well that’s probably why im not an artist and am a designer, and let’s not open that can please…

Today we also got our results from the CSS assignment and I was very disappointed to say the least. I know that I did struggle with the assignment at the beginning but I genuinely thought that I made a lot of progress and have learnt so much in such a short space of time. The things I referred on were nothing major which was a bit reassuring but I was still gutted after all that hard work to be the only person in the group to refer. Never mind, I will treat it as a lesson learned to pay more attention to the small things when handing in, in the future.

Here are some of the photos that I took whilst at the sculpture park. Comments and opinions welcome as always.

2007-10-31T20:34:00.000Z

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.

2007-10-24T17:23:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-10-10T17:04:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-08T23:44:00.000+01:00

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.

2007-10-03T17:27:00.000+01:00

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.

2007-09-26T16:35:00.000+01:00

Key Points of the Design Mechanics Visit

The portfolio can be more important that any qualification and commercial work in your portfolio makes you more employable.

All round ability is more desirable than specialising in one sector.

The key to success in the industry is to distance yourself from your work and expect people to not always like what you design.

Making phone calls to pursue an application, after sending a CV both written and through email.

Fitting in with the group is almost as important as your skills.

2007-09-19T17:36:00.001+01:00

Reflection of the first two weeks of year 2

I think we can all agree that a large portion of the first year was spent talking about the second year, and often in the first year and there were often days when I went home slightly worried and concerned what the second year will bring. Now that its here it’s not as bad as I thought. A few of the people from the first year have dropped out, which is a shame really but a smaller group will always function smoother than a larger one.

Something that was mentioned in almost every group meeting last year was the group assignment and that is one of three that we have already started and the one that I’m enjoying most out of all three. We were required to create a proposal for two generic web sites in order to determine who would get to work for the two clients that Steve had already found. There was a lot to do, and I often couldn’t help but think how it would be wasted if we did not get the client, but to be honest that spurred me and my group on even more. In the end I am very pleased that we did get one of the clients which means that we do not have to waste valuable time searching for our own. I did the screen designs, which weren’t too bad I suppose but I think the thing that really won it for us was all of the elements that the project manager had created. Craig (Project manager) had really gone all out on the preparation for our group, even building us a website and registering a domain name. Even I was extremely impressed and I was in no doubt that Steve would be too.

Were now well on with the project and tomorrow is the first meeting with the client, a very important day as first impressions count for more than many people think. By the end of tomorrow we should have a rough idea of exactly what they want us to make for them.

Overall im really looking forward to the other assignments that are coming my way, Flash the most, I’ve never tried to create something in flash but have seen some really interesting flash stuff on the web and have wanted to have a crack at it, but have never got around to doing it.

We have also entered the world of CSS; something that last year put fear into me when it was mentioned is actually not too bad. I’m by no means great at CSS but im starting to get the hang of it, and have grasped some of the basic concepts. Like I said im still not too confident in CSS but im not worried, there are a lot of very helpful people who know what their talking about sat around me.

2007-09-12T20:46:00.000+01:00

Current Skills and how they will be useful in the workplace...

Personal Development planning
A person is always learning throughout their whole life and it’s nice that some of the things that I have learnt on the course have been recognized, not only by myself but also by everyone else. This blog (Online learning journal) is where this is carried out for the most part. It’s a very useful tool and each of our blogs are visited by each other regularly, where we also offer feedback to each other’s progress and current work.

End of assignment evaluations are also a key place as to what I have done well, done badly and what factors I can improve on, which is a key to the personal development. Seeing thing that need improving is a key to working in the industry and I’m gaining experience of it already.

Attending Lectures and Tutorials
Literally attending the lectures and tutorials is a good place to start. So far I personally have not missed a single day of college and lateness has been kept to a minimum. Therefore my punctuality is excellent to say the least, and the same concept will no doubt apply to the working industry where time costs money.

Whilst in the lectures, I again have learnt a great deal, note taking being the main thing. When a person is stood in front of you talking for hours, it’s very rare that you will remember even half of what they say. Taking notes is a skill that if done correctly can save you a lot of time and effort.

Group Work/Team Projects
The main thing when working in a group is general communication skills. These are key in almost any industry, but a necessity in the interactive media. Interaction is also a part of this, working as a team will always require you to get on with people in order to achieve the goal. Web design industry is no different, in most circumstances you will be required to work as part of a team and should you not fit in or get on with other people, then management will pick up on this and take action regardless of how good your work is, if you ruin the atmosphere then you’re not needed.

Oral Presentation
I’ve never really had too much of a problem with oral presentations, ever since high school I always saw them as a fun and enjoyable activity. Providing you know what you’re talking about you should not have too much problems. The main thin to delivering a good presentation is confidence, if your confident you will fly through it without problems whereas if you stuttering and nervous then your audience will notice. Employees always prefer the confident person as opposed to someone who is scared of public speaking.

Writing Essays
Writing an essay is not as simple as it may seem at first, well maybe it is but writing a good essay is not and a lot of thought needs to be put into it even before you put pen to paper. Writing skills will definitely help in the work place as anything that I write with my name at the bottom represents me as a person and therefore must be impressive. If it’s a CV or even something as small as an email to a colleague, professionalism is key.

Maths & Statistics
During the course so far, I have come across many times where math’s has had to be used. In many assignments figures and sums have played major roles, understanding them and converting them into some form of visual representation was often the deciding factor on whether or not I would pass the assignment. Math’s is a key skill that is used in everyday life often without oven noticing. Figuring out time scales and time plans often require math’s to be used. Therefore, math’s skills, even basic ones will be almost a necessity in the working industry.

Observation
Another main thing that has been instilled in me, I now see things that I never would even think about, whenever I receive post I take time to look at how it has been designed and various factors that have been considered. Observation is again a very useful skill to have as picking up on the small things will be a major part of any job in the design industry.

Research
Again another key skill if I want to pass the course at all. Research is the key to finding things out that I am unaware of. At the beginning of the course research was the thing that saw me get referrals for some of the assignments. Generally I think I have made a lot of progress and have begun to see the real importance of research, and the importance of using a wide variety of sources not just web sites.

Research in the work industry will also need to be undertaken, even if it’s just looking at similar competitor sites, you need to know what you’re looking out for and what if anything you can take from it and improve upon it.

2007-09-05T16:43:00.000+01:00

Hello Mr Blogger! I'm Back!

For the most part I’ve had a great summer, been aboard for six weeks, and worked more often, earned my self some extra money and still found time to complete the summer assignment. The summer assignment went really smoothly in fact, which rather surprised me as I had always known that in college I would have someone to ask for help, and even offer help to others, but this time I was alone and am proud of what I had come up with in the end.

The first day back and no messing about, straight in with the new assignment and the beginning of "CSS", which I must say I have been looking forward to with some anticipation but a lot of excitement. The summer assignment was a very useful thing for me personally. Before this summer I had never really even looked at CSS code, let alone build a web site in it. I think my tutors were aware that a lot of the group were not experienced in CSS and hopefully their expectations and my final product will be on the same wave length. Here is to the site I made, nothing special in terms of functionality or aesthetics, but extremely special to me as it is my first ever CSS website, and the first of many hopefully.

The next six months will be...
...tough!, Simply put. CSS is by no means easy, and especially if you don't know what your doing, and even if you do its still pretty tough [So I’ve heard] The aim though is to crack it and I will crack it, if I don't then I may as well forget my career in the industry as it is essential in pretty much any web design job. It's now the end of day one, and already I’m starting to see why people would use CSS instead of standard HTML.

CSS aside, there are a few other things that I would like to achieve during the remainder of the next six months. The main thing is to see an improvement on last years grades. Even though they were adequate enough to see me progress onto the second year, I know I’m capable of more. This is why in the last blog post of first year I set myself a few goals, one of which was to achieve three merits and one distinction and that’s where my thoughts are at the moment.

Long-term, I can still see my self in the design industry. Hopefully in the next two/three years I will have a full time job doing what I love. If the third year is given the green light, then that’s something that I will have to sit down and really think about.

2007-05-14T23:13:00.000+01:00

Evaluation of first year.

As far back as I can remember had always been a creative person, as a kid I used to love drawing and just going crazy on pieces of blank paper. This creativity thankfully had never left me and when the time came for me to think about my career and future I came to the decision that the design industry was for me. Another thing I have always loved is computer and digital gadgets.

As a result, after taking and passing my all my GCSE’s I then undertook an AVCE in ICT at Wakefield College. I really enjoyed the course and passed it with extremely impressive grades, two of which stuck out from the rest, these were the units of “Multimedia” and “Web Page Design” where I achieved the maximum possible grades.

After completing the course I thought I would explore the design industry more as I had always had a keen eye for creativity and I had already had a bit of experience in some of the programs that the industry uses [albeit just for my own personal use].

After researching the industry further I came across a very interesting course [still at Wakefield College] and this was the HND in Interactive Media. After reading through various prospectuses, leaflets and website I decided to apply for it to see first hand what it was about.

Not so long later I was called for an interview with the course leader Steve Smith, in which he showed me some of the type of work that previous pupils had done and in my mind I was thinking “I do this kind of stuff in my own time, wouldn’t it be great if I could get paid for doing something I would enjoy” After leaving the interview room, my mind was already made up. Not only would I be doing something that I was really fond of but there was also many more advantages for me personally. The proximity of the college to my home, the course fees and the fact that it was just two days a week [Which would allow to still having a job along side my studies] are just some of the factors that persuaded me to join the course.

Without any hesitation I accepted the place that was offered to me and discarded the university courses I had also applied for. Even though I had always wanted to live and study away from home the HND seemed more feasible and flexible, which is why I took it, and after the first year is now complete I don’t have a single regret with regards to course choice.

At the beginning of the course I was slightly uncertain as to how I would fit in with the rest of the group, as any one naturally will be when meeting the 15 people that they would have to interact with for the next two, possibly three years. Thankfully, I had no problems and I don’t think anyone else in the group had any altercations with each other. Everyone was very friendly, helpful and understanding [including the tutors] and I strongly believe that this is the biggest contributing factor as to why no one had left the course yet. Considering the different backgrounds, different ages and previous experience I was somewhat surprised that we would all get along as well as we have done.

Looking back at the first year as a whole I can safely say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course there has been the odd time when it’s late in the long day, its dark outside, I have a headache and I’m stuck in front of the computer figuring out file sizes. But little things aside, I have never thought that I dislike what I’m doing nor has the thought of quitting ever crossed my mind.

Another major factor for joining the course apart from to make friends and enjoy myself was to actually learn something and gain a more technical proficiency that would aid my life long ambition of breaking into the design industry. I believe that I have learnt a great deal of new things in this first year, a lot of which has been design skills and useful things to remember when designing but I’ve also gained a lot of technical skills [i.e. New Software]

The design industry revolves around the use of creative software, and any budding designer will have to know the software they use inside out or they won’t be a designer for very long.

On the HND interactive Media course I have been given a basic knowledge of numerous industry standard software packages, which Include Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe InDesign, and Macromedia Freehand/Adobe Illustrator.

A person’s creativity comes from deep inside and I don’t believe creativity can be thought. But if a person has even a slight bit of creativity then thorough knowledge of the software packages will no doubt contribute to and influence the final outcome of the design piece.

Let’s put it this way, before September 2006 I had not even heard of some of the software packages that are used in the industry, let alone used them. I could not properly create and upload a website to the internet [using correct procedures i.e. FTP], and now at the end of the first year I feel extremely confident and capable when using some of the programs, especially PhotoShop and Dreamweaver.

Feeling confident is one thing but actually having thorough knowledge that will allow me to be employable is another. I can honestly say that I’m not yet there and still have a long way to go, but so long as I enjoy what I do I don’t see why in time I can’t get there.

Mainly I think what I lack knowledge in is the whole coding side to web design, and also CSS which apparently is the future of web design is something that in the future I look forward to learning and putting into practice. I’m glad to know that in the second year we will be looking into CSS and I will no doubt pay extra attention to these lectures, because even from just looking at some job specifications, 99% will see CSS as a standard requirement.

I don’t fear that I will not pass the course and my grades so far also indicate this, although to be honest I know that I am capable of higher grades than just “Pass”. In hindsight things could and should have been done differently from the very start.

Time planning is the major thing that I underestimated at the beginning and that is solely the reason why I received “just passes” Toward the end of the year I started to see the importance that time planning had on the work that I produced and that the two were directly linked. My later assignments were noticeably improved and again this was evident in the grades I received when merits started to appear on the grade sheet.

Overall, it’s been a great year for me. Meeting new people and making new friend has all been fun and enjoyable, but the real importance of learning and passing the year had not been forgotten and has also been achieved. I’m very thankful to everyone that has helped me though the year, mainly Steve Smith my tutor and also the rest of the group for making it a pleasant experience for me. Another person that deserves praise is John Munday, John provided me with extra “out of class” sessions, and I believe it’s mainly down to John that I came to see the importance of time planning in the industry and on the course.

With the final deadline larking close by, its time to wrap up the year and look forward to the next, with no fear but pure anticipation as to what it will bring, and if its even half of what this year has been then it will be great.

Goals For Next Year:

To progress onto the second year.
To build at lest two websites using solely CSS and/or hand coding.
To achieve atleast three merits.
To achieve at least one distinction.

2007-05-05T20:27:00.000+01:00

Yer But…No But…

The main talking point of the week for me has been the creation of my CD packaging. Something that I initially anticipated to take no more than a couple of hours seems to have taken up a massive amount of time already and is still not complete.

To be fair I think so far I have managed my time well and have managed to complete all of the corporate identity stuff and even the web style guide, which left me with about 3 whole weeks to concentrate on the CD cover. It may seem like a massive amount of time, but when something is not good enough if its not perfect the time just seems to fly past trying to perfect it.

I had created this design [above] that I personally really liked and felt it was very aesthetically pleasing. Everyone else also said they thought it was really good, but one person in particular seemed to be harder to please than I thought, of course this person being Steve. He claimed it was to “Christmas Caroly” and did not represent the type of genre that the music is from. Of course I was annoyed at the fact that something which I had spent a lot of time and effort on was “Inappropriate” and wrong basically. So, like any good sales person I tried to sell him the concept and came up with millions ways of trying to make him see what I was seeing, but he was having none of it, his mind was made up the moment he saw it.

Mirhad: “Yeah but Steve, how about…”

Steve: “No buts”

Mirhad: “I know but if I…”

Steve: “No”

Honestly I can appreciate his comments and I totally see where he is coming from. So I took it like a man :) and started from scratch. All of Thursday was spent on the design of the CD cover. I had come up with a number of variations of which I then chose the best one. Below is an image of the CD cover in its present state, feedback is welcome as always but please don’t make me start all over again. :)

One of the reasons that it seems to be taking me so long to create the CD cover is the fact that everything on the first one was my own. I actually even took the picture myself (of my nephew) and had somewhat become emotionally attached to it. It’s very easy to become attatched to something and even if you know its wrong you can’t help but like it. Clients don’t care if you like somehting, there paying for it and if they don’t like it then your oppinion counts for nothing. So, make sure that none of you get too attached to one design, because in one second it can be totally dismissed, a very important lesson to learn and im glad that it has happened now with two weeks to go.

2007-04-28T20:17:00.001+01:00

Finally back to good old college and finally back to the old way of working full days after a long period of time off for Easter. Its been a really pleasant week back and I have genuinely enjoyed it, but the enjoyment has failed to hold me back from moving forward with my assignments, and if anything these two days have been much more productive than most of the Easter holiday.

Wednesday morning we were finally given our tutorial on creating the CD Packaging for our chosen albums. Its something that I couldn’t wait for and have been itching to get it started but had been told not to, simply because I would have done it wrong if I did start before, and to be honest that’s a fair comment. For a start I would have made it in CMYK and not in RGB, this to me seemed the more obvious way of going about the task and I still believe it is but apparently it is the wrong way of doing it.

There is a large amount of things that a designer needs to take into consideration when designing something for print. Most of which I was not aware of prior to Wednesday morning. When designing something for it is far too common for the designer to forget that the final product will actually need to be printed and the concentrate on making it look good on screen. Oblivious to the fact that the finished product will probably not look the same way as it was intended.

This week we were also required to bring in all our sketchbooks for a “Pre Assessment Check” and the thing that seemed to let me down mainly was not that I hadn’t done everything expected of me, but that I’d failed to evidence this. Seems a bit stupid but I bet I’m not the only one. The fact of the matter is that the course is evidence based and the examiner can’t mark what’s in my head but what I put on paper. Simple equation, No proof = No grade. Shame really because I have really now started to see my sketchbook as an important part of everyday study as well as an assessed piece of work. My second sketchbook is far superior to my first as a result of this.

The work I currently have will give me a pass grade but apparently a merit is not out of reach within the last three weeks, that’s definitely something that I will now try and rectify over the remaining period of time. There is not long left till deadline and I’m quietly confident that everything should be done and done to a reasonably high standard before the hand in date.

Finally, as part of the criteria for the “sketchblog” assignment we’re required to evidence some form of cultural reference. It seems like most of us are going for the cultural colour thing, so if anyone needs the cultural meanings of the colour green, here is a PDF so you can download and print a copy for yourself.

Colour Green - Fact sheet

2007-04-23T11:54:00.000+01:00

Seen as the Easter holiday is rapidly coming to an end and considering my and many other peoples lack of activity on the Blog, I thought I would just write a post to update you on what I’ve been up to.

The first week really was a holiday and was great. No college work and no “work work” I was left to relax and enjoy my short bit of time off. Week two was back to work for me, Seen as I had a bit of time off college I saw it as an opportunity for me to earn some extra cash at work so that’s pretty much what week two was about, Working!

Finally the third week came along, and I knew that I had not really done as much as I could have over the holidays as far as college work was concerned. So I decided to devote the third week to college work.

I knew that there was still a lot to do and I really never knew where to start. I finished off all three of my business cards, and example of which is shown below. I’m really pleased with the final outcome of them. The letterhead and continuation sheet are also complete. I still have one or two of the corporate things to do, but I’m not too worried about that. Everything so far has a certain style and it shouldn’t be too hard to carry it over to the email signature etc...

The style guide is one of the biggest parts of the whole assignment, and I’m on the way to completing that as well. I have the template that I am going to use on all of the pages. Two of the pages are already finalised and the rest is just a case of filling in the blanks.

I’m really looking forward to starting college on Tuesday and seeing out the final part of the college year. Thanks for reading my Blog!

2007-04-01T15:17:00.000+01:00

Hong Kong knows his Syllabus-ish

Sorry about the title, but it’s a long story to do with last weeks learning outcome problems and Marc confusion King Kong with Hong Kong. :)

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, the assignment. I have a final logo design chosen, which will now allow me to crack on with everything else, and there is a lot to crack on with. The corporate colours and probably the most important part of the entire assignment because it will determine the final look of almost every singe design piece we have to do. Bad corporate colours will ruin anything you do so the importance of them is paramount. Here is a small graphic that represents the corporate colours that I have chosen.

The logo as well will be used on almost everything so it has to be of a size and shape that can be easily adapted to any of the circumstances. Sometimes it may need to be very small and out of the way, like on the CD cover and other times it will have to act as the dominant feature like on the website or business card. Creating it as a vector graphic helped the cause a little, but all vector graphics are still not 100% visible when they are reduced to a significantly small size.

The logo I have created was designed on the theory that simplicity is the best. It’s a very simple but I think effective logo that incorporates the corporate colours well. The fact that it does not rely on small details is also very helpful for when it will be resized. Out of the many logo ideas that I had came up with and presented to the rest of the group this is the one that was most talked about, even though at the time it was not my personal favourite.

Some of the people who saw the logo thought that it was far too plan but fail to actually notice that a lot of thought had gone into its design. The alignment of the letters which cause the reflection on the ‘W’ and the ‘M’ is one consideration. Another is the specific alignment of the individual letters so that the ascender of the‘d’ joins smoothly with the letter ‘T’. The font was also thought about carefully, the fact that the letters ‘W and M’ have four lines rather that the standard three make them look almost like alien type icons, which fits in well with the whole “space and out of the world” feel. As is so often the case with real company’s logos, there is a lot more to them than “simply a font”.

The Logo!

2007-03-24T18:05:00.000Z

Forgeting the obvious.

After a very long but extremely interesting feedback session this week, I and I believe my two team members were given a very alarming wake up call regarding our progress and development on the course, I therefore feel that it is my duty to try and help all the other guys out who are in the exact same position as we are.

Try this out, without looking at your assignment sheet can you honestly remember what the learning outcome of 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 are? Genuinely give this a go and if you can’t recall them, ask yourself why not? At the end of the day these 4 relatively simple learning outcomes are what we are being assessed on, so if they have not been met then you obviously won’t get the grades you want, even if you sketchbook and blog are the best and neatest even.

More likely than not the answer is that you can’t, so how then do you expect to achieve anything higher than a pass or even a pass. Have a read through them and remember them thoroughly, I know that’s what I will be doing for the current assignments and for every other assignment that I get in the future. Once you know what you are being assessed on then it’s a very simple process of just ticking them off one by one as you go along. Common sense really, but I doubt any of us in the group have taken this approach.

Something else that was brought up was “The Second Year”, this is the kind of stuff that Steve will no longer see as something good if were doing it, but will see it as a necessity if we want to even pass. We have all been so far told not to be too down about getting pass grades and that were meeting the level expected. But in fact, that’s very far from the truth, all a pass grade means is that you have achieved the basic level and I don’t think that employers want basic level people. If 20 people apply for a job and most have merits and distinctions then why would they even consider the people who have “just pass grades”. So to put it simply, higher grades are not out of reach for anyone in the group, its just a case of reading what were being assessed on and then making sure that they are all achieved, not too much to ask is it?

Just a quick update on my progress with the current assignment(s), the new assignment is proving to be very enjoyable indeed, it’s a very creative assignment which suits me very well as opposed to the very academic type of assignments which I personally am not too keen on.

My sketchbook is also being transformed with the arrival of this assignment; pages are now rapidly being filled with sketches, thumbnails, ideas and inspirational work. My new sketchbook is looking very impressive; if only I had done this from the beginning I don’t think I would be too worried about the SketchBlog assignment.

2007-03-18T13:15:00.000Z

Most of the course so far, well practically all of it has been web based, and seen as it’s a web design course that makes sense. This week however, we were given out our new assignments and for a change it was print based rather than web. I was rather pleased to hear this as I would like to learn a lot more of the multimedia industry rather than just web design, and it’s always useful to know a bit about everything.

Once I had received the assignment sheets and started to read through them, the news just kept getting better and better. We were required to create a CD cover, a logo for a company and a website. This kind of stuff I do in my spare time anyway, so I now have the chance to actually create something good for a purpose, rather than just for my own interest.

The CD cover design is a place where I can definitely try to impress on. I have always loved Photoshop and feel this will be a chance for me to show what I am capable of. The logo is also a place where we can be creative to some extent, there are however a few more guidelines that we have to stick to with the logo. One of the requirements for the logo is that it has to be in vector format, this is simply so that no matter what size it is it will not loose any quality. The problem with this is that vector images can not be created in Photoshop, which is a shame for me as I feel fairly comfortable with using Photoshop. Basically, this then means that I have to learn a completely new software package either Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator, and seen as I have never even opened either of these programs this may be a slight problem. I’m not worried however; it’s always useful to know a lot of the design software and I’m defiantly looking forward to Macromedia Freehand.

I know I keep saying this but time planning on the last assignment somewhat went downhill. I did create weekly time plans for every single week that the assignment lasted but the difficult thing that I find is finding the motivation to actually complete some of the tasks outside of college. I like to think I’m fairly productive in college and get on with what is asked of me, but I know that if I stuck to what I plan to do at home then my productivity would shoot through the roof and I would no doubt start to enter the higher grades. This is something that I am very concerned about and am looking to concentrate on during this assignment, which is incidentally, the final major project for the first year.

2007-03-11T23:26:00.000Z

A6 Revert to Type Evaluation.

Typography, something that is far too often underestimated by students and designers alike, yet the type in a piece of design work is probably one of the most important features. Designer’s everyday, make decisions on different aspects of type and a bad piece of typography can completely ruin an otherwise perfect design project. Typography is something that I personally have not had much experience with in the past, mainly because I had never studied a subject where the design of type would be considered as an important part of the syllabus. Now that I am studying Interactive Media, typography seems to have taken a key role in everyday design tasks, so it only makes sense that a whole unit is dedicated to the subject.

After looking more into typography, it seems to be a vast subject that I never really knew much about. There are literally thousands of websites and books based on typography and there are even degree courses at universities purely devoted to type, which is something I was not aware of. Typography is not the easiest subject to master but defiantly an enjoyable one. A person who can use typography well can probably design something just by using letters better than someone else using images, colour, animation and everything else. It’s a very powerful tool is type, if used correctly, which is why some people are paid so much to design typographic elements and fonts.

A particular part of the unit is that I was required to conduct a 5 minute presentation on a notable font designer, this don’t designer was Herman Zapf. The presentation has thought me a great deal about type in general and not just about Herman Zapf, who the presentation was centred on. I was required to analyse some of Zapf’s work and pick out distinctiveness of the particular font. The general impression I got from the re-search I did was that most of Zapf’s fonts were script based, although his favourite font was Optima, a sans serif font. I showed examples of these fonts to the audience and described some of the font’s characteristics.

I was very pleased with the actual presentation, and it was something that I was actually looking forward to. The week prior, we had a practice presentation in our feedback groups and what I thought was a perfect presentation was soon criticised and many points of improvement were pointed out to me. I then had a week to make amendments to the presentation and deliver it to my audience. As I said, the presentation was something that I was really looking forward to and I think it generally went well. I talked about everything that I had planned and included many technical terminologies, which is the main thing that the presentation was being assessed on. I found the practice session very useful and had it not been for it, I probably may not have passed that particular part of the unit.

With in the unit we were required to complete timed tasks which were deigned to replicate a real-life work situation, and I loved every minute of them. Working under pressure is something that I personally thrive on and the tasks were pressure at its best, especially the last five minutes when the whole class was trying to print their work and rushing about to get their work in on time. I really enjoyed them and was surprised at the standard of work that I could produce within such a short and limited space of time.

To complete these timed tasks we had one final one which should incorporate everything we have learned so far in the unit and test out typographic knowledge. The only difference being that it was under exam conditions, so no internet, no sketchbooks, and the most difficult was the fact we were unable to talk and get feedback from peers or tutors. The actual task was to produce a series of A4 newsletters which explain all of the typographic terminology that we had previously been taught. We had only about 2 ½ hours to this, which include all of our planning, thumbnail sketches and actually producing a final product. At the end of the task I was slightly worried that I may not have done enough explanations and examples, but generally throughout the whole class most people seemed to about the same as me, which was very reassuring to know.

Even though the task was under exam conditions, again I really enjoyed them and again was positively surprised at how much is achievable in such a small space of time. I knew most of what I was required to know which made the timed tasks and the presentation run very smoothly indeed. Had I not know the typographic terminologies and their meanings I would have really struggled. It’s very useful to know the importance of type as it generally is the deciding factor to pretty much every piece of design work out there

2007-03-02T19:10:00.000Z

Week Begining 26th February 2007

Wednesday was a real eye opening day for me and no doubt for the rest of the group as well. We had a visit from one of the ex-students on the course. The guy had really done well for him self and came in to give us a little talk about what he does and how his working life is. The main thing that I learnt from the day was just hoe far I still have to go in terms of my knowledge of web design.

He talked a lot about what his company does and has done in the past and to be honest a lot of what he said just went in one ear and straight out of the other, and a lot of the time it was like he was speaking a different language. No doubt a lot of what he talked about will become clearer in the second year when we actually start to learn some of it.

Since his visit I’ve see just how important it is to know ‘CSS’ is you want to be employed in the industry and since then I’ve had a look at a few website and tried out a few tutorials, but still don’t fully understand, but I don’t fear it and always know that if I do need some help with anything then I always have people to turn to. [Tutors and Peers]

Thursday we had our practice presentations and I wasn’t really nervous at all, maybe because subconsciously I knew that it was only a practice one and I would get another chance if it went wrong. As a group I think Julian, Scott and I did really well, but our presentations are still not perfect. The main thing we will be assessed upon is our knowledge of the terminology used in typography, and that is something that my presentation lacked. According to Steve that was the most common mistake with everyone’s presentations, but overall I think we will all be fine, and don’t see why anyone should be worried.

I still have a handout to create and next week we have a task under “Exam Conditions” which I need to revise for, and that is what I will be doing over the weekend.

2007-02-27T10:31:00.000Z

Half Term Blog

I’ve had a really relaxing week off in which I have managed to complete most of the work that I had planned to do during this time, mainly concentrating on finishing my presentation. The presentation was complete in PowerPoint but need to be changed into another page layout application. I don’t have PageMaker at home and I’m still fiddling about with In Design but I don’t really see why it shouldn’t be complete for Thursdays practice session.

After receiving the helpful feedback on my website I have made a few changes to it and they are now published on the web so please have a look at let me know what you think. There are still a few problems with the site that I find very difficult to correct, and this is mainly the difference of the site in Firefox and Internet Explorer. This problem is not down to me and therefore I really can’t do much about it, it’s just the way that both browsers interpret the HTML code.

I’ve definitely learnt a lot just by making this one site and will admit that I had made a lot of mistakes, but mistakes are fine as long as you learn from them and don’t make them again. Expect better sites from me in the future.

http://www.mirhad.co.uk/back_to_basic/index.html

2007-02-16T15:34:00.000Z

User testing each others web sites is what we were doing on Wednesday and it was yet another eye opening day for me. My website was shown to the rest of the group and what I thought was a “done” website was judged and criticised all day long. Well it wasn’t actually as bad as it may sound; in fact most people seemed to actually like the website I created. But it was more a case of how they though the site functioned and if there were any major problems within it. Luckily for me problems were limited and the few that people did pick up now just seem like obvious things that I should have included. An example of this is that most people thought that the header should be a link back to the homepage, which is the case with most modern websites. Duhh! A silly mistake which I will now be correcting.

Another thing which was more of a serious case is that more than half of the people thought the text on the website was too small. In all honesty the text was small but still readable but apparently this is not good enough and had to be made better. It will be enlarged but overall I think that the larger text somewhat ruins the aesthetics of my website. Once I have done this I will upload the site and you can all have a look what I mean.

As with the past few Thursdays this Thursday was no different at the tasks just kept coming, and as with all of the other tasks I really enjoyed this one. For the first task we were asked to produce all of the column guides and sizes for a newsletter type of page, and the second task was to then fill these guides with the content provided. After a lot of thumbnail sketches and a lot of trial and error with regards to leading and type size, I finally came up with a design that I was happy with, and here is a example of it. It’s in PDF format, because I’m showing off a new skill of mine ;) I now know how to create PDF’s which I didn’t know before. Please check out my newsletter design and as always comments and constructive feedback are always welcome, and the site will also be updated soon for you all to check out.

Here is the link for the Newsletter Design:
Newsletter Design

2007-02-10T23:37:00.000Z

Team Roles

Next year as part of the course we will be required to work in a group to plan, design and build a website, and I must say it is something that I am really looking forward to. I know from previous experience that I work well in a group.

After looking at the Belbin website I think that I have a few of the qualities from most of the different categories and cannot put my finger on any one completely. I think at the moment I would mostly see myself as an “Implementer” and a “Teamworker”. The main reason for this being that I think I can produce high quality work and to a deadline, I’m fairly disciplined and I listen well to what I am told. I am co-operative and can turn ideas into a reality.

If I could choose my own team members I think that as the co-ordinator and the person I charge I would choose someone more mature than myself, without being disrespectful to anyone I think Dean or Scott and possibly Craig Burgess would be good team leaders. From what I have seen so far I think they are not afraid to say what they think and are very confident. These are very good skills to have and are exactly what is needed to be in charge of other people.

Also if I could choose the group myself I would select someone to solely be a time planner and time keeper. The main reason for this is because I am not very good at this and I much rather prefer to just get on with my work as it comes along and if someone could be there to say “Right, leave that now get on with this, otherwise it won’t get done” Much like Steve says to most of us in everyday college life, then the assignment would run much smoother.

All in all I think that I would be a very useful member of a group to have and that I would defiantly not be afraid of work that would be thrown at me.

2007-02-02T14:20:00.000Z

A week with a difference, the normal get on with it days were thrown out of the window, and both of the two days that I attend college were already planned for us. As it was already planned in advance I did not have any issues with my time management. Most of the normal work will now have to be done at home.

Wednesday was great. The entire group went down to London for a ‘day out’. Although we had initially planned to visit the Tate museum which happened to be closed, for all of the museums across the country were on strike, which was a major disappointment. So we had to find other places of interest, and London is world famous for places of interest. All in all the whole day was great and I don’t regret a single moment of it.

Somewhere, between visiting Newcastle, Scotland and seeing sheep that were actually cows (long story) I actually found time to admire some of the great architecture and attractions of London.

Thursday was also a very enjoyable day. The work that was planned for us was a timed assignment, where we were given simple instructions and told to go and do it, and hand it in by a certain deadline. It was a great experience and a very life like one. Working to tight deadlines is what the industry is about and something that every one of us will have to get used to, if we want to be successful that is.

I really enjoyed this week, defiantly one of the most enjoyable of the course so far. Now, the idea is to get back into my normal routine and try to get some more work done on the presentation and on the website, which are not yet complete.

Ohh yeah, and I got my characheture done in London... here it is... cool huh? :)

2007-01-26T14:19:00.000Z

Wednesday was one of my favourite days at college so far, as far as work was concerned. Before joining the course I expected it to be very practical, and all day Wednesday I was just building a website, which was great. I totally forgot about the academic side of things that I have got used to so far, and just concentrated on completing as much of the website as possible.

I didn’t encounter too many problems whilst making the site and anything I did come across I found that help was always there, from my feedback group and other peers. Wednesday was probably the most constructive day of the course so far as well. I think I must have done at least 2 weeks worth of wok in one day. Most of the site is now complete, but having said that the site I have designed is not very complex. Simplicity and a very calming colour scheme were the key things I concentrated on whilst designing the site last semester, and I believe I have achieved that, which I am very happy with. I’ve included a screenshot of the site with this Blog entry, so feel free to comment and criticise.

Another thing that I found difficult was trying to stick to what I had actually planned, although I did manage it. Every single size on the site is accurate to the sizes given on the proposed screen layout to the pixel. I did take a lot f patience and time to do, but I am happy with the outcome.

On Thursday I did a lot of re-search on my “Font designer” and topic for my presentation Herman Zapf. When I initially looked on the web I couldn’t seem to find a lot about him, which worried me slightly as I have to plan, create and present a 5 minute presentation on his work, and very soon. But I managed to find somewhere t start and have begun putting the presentation together. I’m looking forward to getting it out of the way. :)

Here are a couple of screenshots of my website…

Home Page [Still in Lipsum Mode] :)

Content Page

2007-01-20T19:38:00.000Z

A much eagerly anticipated return to college was finally brought to an end on Wednesday. After such a long time of college I found it hard to get back into the normal mindset. However, once I walked into the classroom and saw the agenda for the day and the new assignment I immediately felt more comfortable.

Something that had been on my mind during the whole of the holidays was my last assignments and what grades I would get for them. I knew from the firs assignments that I had underestimated the higher grades by a long shot, and didn’t want to make the same mistake again. Once I saw my grades I think they were kind of what I expected to get to be honest, of course I didn’t want a referral for one, but Steve had told my already that it was only a small change so I wasn’t really too worried. The other was a ‘pass’ which isn’t the best grade but I knew that my work was not in depth enough to achieve anything higher. This is something that I am currently working on, and looking to improve for the new assignments.

On Wednesday we had our first real look at Macromedia Dream weaver, it’s a program that I had not had much previous experience with and was eager to get to know. I had purchased the software about a month prior to the start of the course and had played about with it on a few occasions. Wednesday’s tutorial thought me a lot of the simple basics of the software that I was unaware of. We also learned how to FTP [File transfer Protocol] which is also a very useful tool that I was unaware of how to use.

Since the session, I have had chance to try out all of the things I have learned. Using the techniques I created a site www.mirhad.co.uk , it is live on the web so please feel free to have a look at it, although there isn’t much on it yet.

2007-01-16T01:05:00.000Z

End of the first semester - HND Interactive Media

When choosing a HE course I took a lot of time to research all my options and found that the flexibility of the HND would suit me the best, and I have found this to be the case. Only attending two days per week means I have a lot of free time, which I can then use to conduct self study and even work, which is very important for me at the moment. I currently can not afford to be out of work and had I chosen to go to university I may not have been able to, for some of the courses I looked at required me to attend all five days a week. Which would have made my life a whole lot harder than it is now.

With regards to course content it is exactly what I expected and more importantly it’s exactly what I wanted. Before I joined the course I had a look at the HND website and attended an interview where I was shown some of the type of work the HND students did, and immediately knew that it was for me. Something else that really pulled me even more to the HND was the fact that there will be no formal exams and that the work is purely portfolio orientated. I know this might sound a bit customary but I have never liked exams, I hated all the preparation and revision that went in to one exam, I hated the fact that there was a lot of pressure on me for every exam, knowing that I would only have that one chance to prove that I knew what I was talking about and if I couldn’t then I would fail and there was no chance of sorting that out.

Another thing that has impressed me is the way that the course is run. It is very organized and disciplined, and is nothing like I have experienced as yet. I am starting to see that I am not here just to learn web design skills, in fact so far this first semester I would go so far as saying that I have learned more about my self that about web design. I have learnt that my time management was extremely poor, and that is something that I am constantly working on improving. Prioritizing things that are important is something else I need to look at, because ultimately the qualification that I gain from the course will allow me to pursue my life long ambition of entering the design industry. I have changed me working hours so that I now have another two free days, which I will then use for my self study. Toward the beginning of the course I never saw the real importance of self study, but I have now realized that it is as important as my actual time in college. As my tutor always says “I can just give you the basics, its then up to you to take that further”.

The Blog is another place where I found my self lacking in motivation, I saw it a chore and didn’t quite realize that it is a whole unit on its own. I am now striving to make my Blog entries as interesting as possible and am trying to use the Blog to collect and give constructive feedback, to and from my fellow peers. I’m actually starting to enjoy the Blog now, it a place where I can get a lot of my chest and express how I actually feel. Something I may not be able to always do in real life.

At the beginning of the course my web design skills were somewhat limited and my only previous web experience is that of my AVCE course which was no where near the standard that is expected of me at higher education. Now that the first semester is over I still wouldn’t say that I could fully build a complete website without any problems. Having said that, we haven’t even started to look at building websites yet. In my own self study time I have tried making a few website using the Macromedia Dreamweaver software that we will be using, and have came up with a few interesting designs that I will try and get on the internet so that you can all have a look as soon as I get my web hosting sorted out.

The next semester is rapidly approaching and I can’t wait, I’m really looking forward to getting back and expanding my limited knowledge even more. I have no regrets so far, and know that I have defiantly made the correct decision. Many people have jobs that may be well paid and may sound good (like accountants) but I’m sure that they don’t have a passion for what they do and I can almost certainly guarantee that they don’t enjoy the work they do day in and day out. Design is different; I think it’s very hard to teach design to somebody who doesn’t naturally have what it takes. I know I enjoy it and that I have the will power to pursue it all the way and I’m hoping that this HND course will be a major stepping stone to making that dream of mine a reality.

Please feel free to comment or question my evaluation.

2006-12-23T00:40:00.000Z

Week 16 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

At the beginning of this new term I was told that we are now entering the longest part of the entire college year. Eight straight weeks without any time off, but to be frankly honest these eight weeks have absolutely flown past. Every college has been filled with hard work on my part and I’ve never had a lot of free time, which is probably why it’s gone as fast as it has. Having said that, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Along with my feedback group of Chris H and Craig, we have had many interesting and informative feedback meetings. Which usually tended to go on for much longer that our allocated time. :)

Over the 3 weeks off I plan to really take my mind away from anything college related, but I know for a fact that I won’t be able to do this. It won’t be long before I’m back on my computer and fiddling with Photoshop. But I do have a ski holiday booked, which should be a great way to relax, if only for a week.

One of the many feedback meetings involved a lengthy conversation about committing to what is important in our lives, which in my case are my career and the course. So, I plan to make many changes after the Christmas period, which will allow me to do this. Altering my working hours to fit around my self study will be one of them. Taking self study more seriously than I have done so far is another. Deep inside I know that I am capable than much more than just ‘pass’ grades, and I am yet to prove this, but will strive to do so.

That’s it for now; I’d just like to wish everyone all the best over the festive season and hope to see you back in the New Year.

2006-12-14T16:05:00.000Z

Week 15 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

It’s the week before deadline day, and things are starting to get a bit hectic. Self study this week will be significantly longer and more focused than ever so far. The fact that we have 2 assignments to hand in rather than just the one makes it all the more difficult.

I know that there is a lot of work to do over the next week, but knowing that once I get this work out of the way I can then have three weeks off, is very encouraging and I will not be wasting any time to get this work out of the way. Even though the bulk of the work is done for both assignments, there are a lot of small changes and corrections to make, which last time around I underestimated and found myself struggling the very day before the deadline.

I still don't believe that I have mastered time management, something I’ve never really been good at, but the weekly time plan I found very helpful and the "mini deadlines" even more so. Had there not been a combination of these two I think I would now find my self having a lot more work to do. This is probably because I would have adopted the attitude that I am so very used to "There's plenty of time and I’ll get it done". I know the importance of good time management in everyday life and not just in college and it is something that I am constantly trying to achieve.

This week we were also told our new feedback groups for after Christmas. I will now be with Scott and Julian. I was very pleased when I saw I was with these two people, because I have not really spoken much with them in the past and I feel it's a chance for me to get to know them a bit better.

2006-12-10T12:22:00.000Z

Comments and feedback, always welcome.

2006-12-07T16:12:00.000Z

Week 14 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Nothing really too special about this week, another one of those "just get on with it" weeks.Submission ready for next week, well that’s the plan. Hopefully, mine will be submission ready even though I was unable to do any work on my assignments over the last weekend because I had no computer. Hopefully this week I will have got my new one delivered and the work can continue. As far as the actual work is concerned I think I’ve managed to keep up well with the "mini deadlines" which has allowed me to be able to finish the work on time. There are a few alterations I need to make and a few additions but overall I have done the majority of the work and am feeling confident.

Thursday was great, practically the whole day on PhotoShop, the best program in the history of mankind :) I created some banners which (for the first attempt) I am very happy with. I will try to get these banners on my blog as soon as possible. The photo restoration task which I have completed I think I will need to re-visit. When I started, I was really happy with what I had done, but it started to loose its realistic look as son as I started to add colour.

Thursday morning before we started to create the banners, we were told to draw out the sizes of the two banners (160x600 and 350x200) and were asked to draw concept designs for each of the images we had. The longest time we had was 2 minutes and the shortest 30 seconds. I found this very challenging especially with the shorter time limit, I much prefer to think about what I am going to do and then do it, rather than just spontaneously come up with random designs. But I do understand that spontaneity will trigger other ideas and I think that was the whole point of the task, to try and get us out of that state of mind.

2006-11-30T16:45:00.000Z

Week 13 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Ahh… Good old PhotoShop is finally here in a creative sense. I’d really been looking forward to this because I had used Photoshop before albeit very unprofessionally and with no real meaning, but I thought that Photoshop would be the place where I can really express my ability.

The task was to restore an old battered photograph, by removing all of the blemishes, cracks and to add colour. I’d tried something similar before in my own time but not in the same way that we were taught to do so today, and to be fair the new skills I have learned have made the process a whole lot easier. I really enjoyed the task today and really saw the picture come alive when I started to add colour.

In this Thursdays feedback meeting Chris was absent so it was only me and Craig, and I think Chris has really missed out on an important meeting, which again for the second time lasted for over an hour.

Basically we discussed the importance of committing to the course and not allowing outside sources have an effect on your studies, which in my case seems to be very much an issue and from what I gathered from Craig with him as well.

We discussed how much we actually wanted to pursue a career in the industry and that this is reflected in things we do everyday. Lateness, days off and self study are all factors which clearly show your interest in the course and ultimately in your future in we design.

I know I want a career in the industry and hope that the rest of the class do as well and are not here just to waste their time and everybody else’s time. I defiantly know where I need to improve and what is holding me back from getting the higher grades that I know that I am capable of getting.

As Steve always says to us, he will only give us the basics and it is up to us to further our own knowledge. No one will spoon feed us for the rest of our lives, and changes need to be made.

2006-11-23T16:24:00.000Z

Week 12 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

As you may have gathered from my last blog entry I am now starting to take planning more seriously and am planning well in advance. However most of my plans for this week were thrown of course and I now have to re-consider my weekly planning sheet. The reason for this is because I had planned to do quite a lot of work on Wednesday, but when the lesson started at 9AM we were given a lecture on how to give meaningful presentations accurately. After the lecture we were then given a much unexpected task, which I think took most of the class by surprise. We were given a random colour and were split into groups of two; we then only had a few hours to re-search into the cultural and psychological meaning of the colour and were required to create a 3 minute presentation which we would all individually have to present to an audience.

Giving presentations is something that I don’t really have much experience in but have always enjoyed when I have been asked to do them. On my previous course, which was a 2 year course I only had to do two presentations. One in front of the whole class and one was presenting a website I had made to a perspective client. This might seem like perfect experience to talk about, but the client was one of my teachers and the presentation was very informal and laid back, nothing like I would imagine a real life scenario being like.

When we were told we had to do the presentation the same day, my first reaction was a bit of a shock. But I did however look forward to it. Public speaking has never been an asset of mine but I think I coped well with Wednesday’s presentation. With there only being two people in the room, it made me feel more uncomfortable than it would have, had it been the whole of the class. Perhaps this is because there are only two people and they are constantly staring at me. I also found it difficult to make even eye contact with both of the people, something that Steve managed to pick up on, and something I have to work on in the future.

As far as nerves were concerned I wasn’t very nervous at all, apart from the walk up to the room which was the worst. Once the presentation begun I soon settled in and felt comfortable with the surroundings and with what I was talking about.

I never realised that colours meant so much and how they can effect descisions we make every day. I am now beginning to look at everything that has a significant colour and questioning its purpose. [Is Steve’s office deliberately painted a soothing and relaxing green, or is that just a coincidence?] Green is seen as being relaxing mentally and physically by the way. [Is the Microsoft XP layout deliberately created in green and blue to make the users experience more relaxed?] Things like this I would never have even thought about contemplating before Wednesday’s presentations.

I enjoyed the presentation and am looking forward to the next one, and there will be more! :)

2006-11-16T16:50:00.000Z

Week 11 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Yet another very productive week has flown past, and I am completely up to date with my assignments, and more importantly, I’m actually enjoying completing them. A great sense of achievement passes me every time I tick something off my ‘weekly time plan sheet’.

I think I’m beginning to see the purpose and importance of planning, something I had struggled with before. For this realisation I owe a lot to my feedback group and Steve, my tutor.

Throughout this week we have been looking at colour and file compression. Every time I learn something new in college I tend to naturally apply it to everyday web browsing. An example of this is that today I was looking at a random web site and out of interest looked at the file sizes of some of the images, which to my amazement had not been compressed at all, and the average image was about 700kb. This was not much of problem because the college has quite a fast internet connection, but had it been slower, then the users would have paid the price for the "Designers" lack of planning and consideration for all users. Another great sense of achievement as I now feel like I am a person “in the know” Which is kind of the point of me being on the course, for me to get to know these secrets that not everyone knows.

As for the ‘Back to Basics’ assignment, which I thought was “just another repeated web plan”, I’m starting to see that its not, and that it’s actually a way for me to improve and push myself harder. For that reason I have chosen to completely re-write it, rather than just copy and paste it from before. My goals are now very much different and I feel like I’m not making as many mistakes as I did the first time around.

2006-11-09T16:22:00.000Z

Week 10 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Getting on with it is probably the best way of describing this week. We have two assignments, (3 including Sketblog) which means that we have a lot of work to do. I have completed the 'Designers Republic' part of the "Picture this" assignment, which still needs to be checked for errors and a few changes to be made, this is what I will be doing in my self study this week.

On Thursday, in our feedback group, one of the requirements was to have our weekly time sheets to show to Steve. I never had any, because I personally tend not to use them and take everything as it comes. Everyone else seemed to disagree with me on that and persuaded me that they are a good idea, and well worth doing, and because they are assessed and part of the merit criteria, I better get planning. :)

Another major thing that I have to improve on is to collect influential material from websites, magazines etc... Last weekend I set aside about an hour or so, specifically for this and now just need to stick them into my sketchbook and annotate them. One thing I realised whilst doing this was that it’s actually quite fun and not very hard at all, and seen as it is an assessed part of the course, I might as well do it more often. So from now on it’s a weekly thing for me, and something to write in my weekly planning sheets :)

During this week, I also noticed that a lot of the students were talking about setting up a class forum. Personally I love the idea. Steve seemed to be against it and thought it would diffuse the point of the blog, but I always thought that the forum would be an out of college place where we could all talk and get to know each other more, seen as we don’t really get a chance to talk much in college.

2006-11-02T16:27:00.000Z

Week 9 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

A very nice week back at college. On Wednesday we were given our results for the previous assignment (A2) and I was very anxious and nervous about what I would get. When Steve was giving us feedback to our assignments as a group he gave a list of the thing that were very common mistakes that many people had made, and I couldn't help but think that a lot of them were related to my work, and this made me even more anxious.

What I did get was one pass and one referral. This was not too bad, but I was intrigued to know where I had gone wrong on the referral one. Eventually when I did get my feedback form Steve, it turns out that the only mistake I made was that I forgot to include an 'Internet Connection' in the user requirements and a minor amendment to my target audience. This was very annoying because I really thought that the assignment was at a 'pass' standard and I checked it many times over, and even fellow students never managed to pick up on such an obvious mistake.

Another thing that Steve made clear this week is that most of the class are not using their Sketchbook in the way that they should be (i.e. including influential material). One of these people is me, I know that for sure, and from now I will set aside about an hour a week to specifically look for inspirational material and stick it in my sketch book. I would also advise everyone else to do this, because it’s not difficult but is very important, and according to Steve, the Sketch Blog is the easiest assignment to get a Distinction or a Merit in.

This week we were also given our new assignments, 'A3 Back to Basic' and 'A4 Picture This'. Looking at the assignment sheets I’m feeling very comfortable with both of the assignments. A3 is pretty much the same as the one that I have just passed, so I think I know what I am doing with that one, and A4 has a lot to do with Adobe Photoshop which I know I will enjoy for definite.

2006-10-29T16:12:00.000Z

Week 8 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

What a great week, from the first day to the last, it’s been nothing but fun. Having handed in my assignment I knew that I had no real work to be getting on with as far as college was concerned.
However, whenever I got a bit of spare time I found myself on my computer, doing what I really love, designing and creating websites and graphics.
Macromedia Dreamweaver is a new program to me so I spent lot of this week trying to get to grips with it, and am now starting to feel more comfortable with it. Using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver I managed to come up with a website that I am pretty pleased with, considering it’s my first ever site made in Dreamweaver. Here is a link to the site, and comments or suggestions are always welcome.

2006-10-18T14:36:00.000+01:00

Week 7 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Its the beginning of college week 7 and I have pretty much finished my assignment with some time to spare so I have decided to write an early blog entry for this week. Finishing early is a great feeling, although if I had finished too early I would be a bit worried that I had not used my time wisely.

Finishing this first assignment has taken a massive weight off my shoulders, and now I'm only looking forward to the next one.

Next week we wont be in college for the half term holiday, during this week I will try to take my mind of the course and anything course related, and try to have some time to myself to enjoy. Mainly because I've noticed that since the course has started I am having trouble finding a balance between self study time, my own time and work time, and this is something that I need to work on in the future, perhaps making myself a sort of timetable for each forthcoming week.

2006-10-12T16:45:00.000+01:00

Week 6 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

If you have read my last blog entry, I must have came across as very confident about the assignment, but the first thing on Wednesday Steve dropped a bombshell. We were asked to list all of the things that we think would prevent us from passing the assignment, and this made me realize that I had a lot more work still to do, even though I have actually completed the actual assignment content itself.

Some of the things that I had not thought about were things like creating a disc cover, and the label for my folder; I have however managed to finish this, this week, and as I said in my previous blog entry “all I have left to do is to write an evaluation” and this time all I really have to do is an evaluation.

When I first looked at the assignment sheet I would have been extremely pleased with a ‘pass’ but as I had complete the majority of my ‘pass standard’ requirements I decided not to waste my time doing nothing and instead I would try to show that I am capable of a ‘merit’.

On Thursday, for our feedback meeting, we were asked to provide our assignment to a ‘Submission Standard’ and we then reflected on what we had done and how we felt about it. Personally I find the feedback meeting very useful, as it’s a chance to discuss anything that needs to be discussed in a quieter and more relaxed atmosphere.

The submission date is next Thursday and I am feeling very confident with regards to meeting it. All I have left to do is to write an evaluation, well atleast I hope thats all I have to do.

2006-10-09T15:56:00.000+01:00

Week 5 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Wow! What a busy week for me both in and out of college. It is Monday now, and this is actually the first time I have had some free time to turn on my computer and begin to write my blog entry for this week.

This week as far as college is concerned it has definitely been my most productive week so far, I have made all of my final screen designs on the computer and they are to a fairly high standard, better than I actually expected.

Next week Steve expects all of our assignments to be ready to “Submission Standard” which doesn’t really worry me too much as mine is pretty much complete and all I have left to do is to write an evaluation, which shouldn’t take too long.

As I have said the first assignment is nearing to the end and I feel a great deal of satisfaction to know that I can actually complete what is asked of me at Higher Education.

Bing on the next one!

2006-10-01T19:07:00.000+01:00

Week 4 at Wakefield College - HND Interactive Media

Another week has absolutely flown past and a lot of work has been done this week. I completed a very large proportion of the current assignment “A2 “that’s the plan” which is nice. I drew a lot of sketches of screen designs in my sketchbook and I then converted my final sketches into a digital format using a piece of software called ‘Adobe PageMaker’, software which I was unable to use before this week. We had a few hours of learning this software on Wednesday morning.

One thing that is very pleasing to know is that the whole group are working at a similar pace including me, and I’m not being left behind on anything. I believe I’ve done a lot of hard work n this assignment and I strongly believe that I am on course to reach the deadline.

Something interesting that I’ve noticed this week is that Steve many times has said “I’m just ramping you up to the hard stuff” and “I’m just easing you in” which makes me look forward with great anticipation and eagerness, but I will try not to let this have any affect on my current work.

2006-09-23T21:47:00.000+01:00

Week 3 at Wakefield College -HND Interactive Media

This week was a very busy one for me. I have made a lot of progress on my assignment “That’s the plan” and I have to say that it is very fulfilling to know that I can actually complete work at Higher Education Level. About half of the assignment is now complete but may need a few tweaks, but overall I am pretty pleased with what I have managed to create, in such a small amount of time.

This week I have also learned a very important lesson, and the easiest way to explain it is “Simply don’t be late!” The afternoon lesson was supposed to start at 1.00PM, I arrived at 1.02PM, 2 minutes late, and I was told to take my stuff and work in the library. I suppose I may seem a bit harsh, and that is what I thought at the time, but my late entrance disturbed the rest of the class, which I have no right to do. I will do all I can to make sure that this does not happen again.

A woman called Helen Rivron came in to see us on Thursday, basically to help us with our academic writing and re-search. Although she had a bit of technical trouble with the presentation, she tried very hard and a lot of what she said was very helpful. She gave us a lot of very useful tips on how to re-search and find what were looking for without going through a lot of hassle.

Overall I’ve enjoyed this week and am very much looking forward to next week, when I hope to create some website designs and complete the Structure diagram, after which the majority of my assignment will be complete and I will then go over it all to make sure that I have not missed anything important out.

2006-09-15T12:47:00.000+01:00

Week 2 at Wakefield college - HND Interactive Media

Last week we were just getting to know each other, which was fun, but this week the course started for real. We were handed out two assignments, one was "Thats the plan" and the other is called "Sketch Blog".

At first glance "Thats the plan seemed to be very difficult and complex, but we were given a lot of guidence and help with it, and once i broke it down into smaller more managable chunks, it doesn't seem to be that much work involved at all.

The other assignment "Sketch Blog" is more of an ongoing one and will last throughout the whole year, and the majority of this assignment will be covered by ther assignments so we wont even realise that we are doing a lot of it. Which is good. :)

2006-09-15T12:15:00.000+01:00

Where iv'e come from, where I am now and where I want to be.

Up to the age of about 5 I had I very difficult upbringing. Moving to the UK from a war-torn country was very difficult. Not having any friends and not being able to speak a word of English made it very difficult for me to settle in.

However, as the years few past I picked up a lot of the language and stated to attend high school. Making friends seemed to be more important to me at the time than concentrating on my school work. I was late for lessons and homework was not always done, but I still managed to pass all of my GCSE’s and pass them very well.

After leaving high school I attended Wakefield College, where I studied an AVCE in ICT. I enjoyed the course very much as it covered most parts of the ICT sector, and this allowed me to make a more specific decision when entering into Higher Education, which in my case was Web Page Design.

Since leaving college I have started to take a more serious approach to education but also to life in general. I believe I have matured a great deal and am starting to look at life from a wider perspective.

Currently I am at the beginning of my new course ‘HND in Interactive Media’. So far I am happy with the course and strongly believe I have made the right decision. At first it seemed a bit daunting and the tutors seemed to be very strict, but I did not have a problem with this as I knew that in the long run it would only help me.

With regards to the future, I would like to peruse a career in Web Page Design or even Graphic Design which I enjoy equally as much. I know, in order for me to achieve this it wont be easy and that there will be difficult times on the way to achieving my goal, but will power is something that I have in abundance and I will not allow myself to be fazed by anything that is thrown in my path.

From a young lad who couldn’t speak a word of English and having no friends to a high flying web designer. That’s the plan anyway, how I will get there will depend entirely on my attitude and approach.