Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Design Mechanics

Their unique selling point is that they have a set price list that does not change per service. A client scope is done at an early stage by a sales representitive so the client never meets the designer. This is a much easier this way as they have the same design knowledge as the client. I have also learnt that although some can be difficult it is the client we are designing for at the end of the day.

According to Dave Pannell in order to gain employment a good portfolio is necessary.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Back to the Drawing Board!

The first three weeks have been a totally different experience for me compared to last year. For a start the assignments are a bit harder than last year and there is more emphasis on "do it yourself!" I don't really have a problem with this as I like to just get on with things. Another was the welcoming addition of air conditioning making the room ice cool!

Finding out about the referral for A8 was a bit of a shock as I thought I had done better on that assignment. I understand why and the mistakes were all minor ones apart from the missing evaluation.

I am really looking forward to completing the team project as I am in a team with Scott and Julian. Our team name is Pen to Pix but we did get off to a bit of a false start with the presentation for the project, not really knowing what to expect and not asking the right questions, but we still managed to claim work from one of the clients. I think I am happier developing a sports website than opposed to a nursery but this site does seem to be a bit big on the development side. However this can easily be tackled by the learning of CSS!!.

New to 'Blogs' or sorry Learning Plans was the structured topic for each entry. As you can see this weeks is a Evaluation of the first 3 weeks and I think I'm happier writing when I have a topic now. I enjoyed writing last weeks blog because it felt like a personal evaluation of my skills and made me think about what I have learned over the years.

Box Clever is the assignment I was most looking forward to as it is the first creative assignment of the second year. I did feel the themes were a bit limited from the original theme list but I have decided to go with the "Pencil & Paper" theme. I think this could provide the largest possible range of ideas but also simple ideas.

On the whole this year is shaping up to be a good one and am glad that I'm still on course learning hard. I'm really looking forward to Flash unit and have one or two ideas that could be done.

For the next week I aim to have the creative thumbnails to be completed, starting on any Photoshop documents required and finished Task 1.

And on a final note I have a new job!!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Academic skills from the X-Mansion

Academic Skills that will assist me in future job prospects are:

Personal Development Planning
Over this last year, and previous years I have been constantly developing my skills and learning new things to help me gain better employment. This not only means developing with practical skills, but also developing my personal skills. E.g. Listening, researching and presentations. Another skill from this is the ability to self evaluate after each assignment. This is a skill that could be beneficial in the work place as I can self evaluate my work and my performance in order to reach my maximum potential.

Attending Lectures
In lectures I have been able to improve my listening skills, as well as the ability to negotiate my points across when I feel the need to disagree with something. I also believe that this can help with being punctual. Having a purpose of being somewhere gives me the feeling that I need to be there on time or early and as it is something I enjoy I have no problems being there.

Seminars/work groups
Working in a group has obviously allowed me to increase my skills with working in a team. I think that I have also developed the ability to discuss points and argue them if necessary. I feel this is beneficial in the work place as there will be team projects that need to be completed. I also feel that employers like to see people coming to the right conclusion through discussing good and bad points and then adapting them. I can show this skill as I am now undertaking a team project.

Oral Presentation
Under the years I have carried out a series of Presentations and I can say that not all have been pleasant experiences. This is a skill that needs to be developed as there will be times when I need to present work to a client.

Written Essays
The biggest skill I can learn through this is creative or academic writing. This can also develop my use of English and improve my spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Maths Statistics
Statistics can be seen as a way of taking research and managing it. We as designers work with statistics all the time, for example what percentage of users work on a Mac? What percentage of the world have FireFox as their default browser? All this will help us create better websites and cater for the larger target audiences.

Another example is the use of Mathematics in some coding which may be developed as a designer. E.g. ActionScripting and JavaScript.

Observations
Creative influences are everywhere and it is what we see that inspires us. An example of this is animation for me. Whenever I see a film that has great animation it inspires me and makes me think that someday I want to release something just as good or better.

Another skill to add on to this would be attention to detail. For designers this, in my opinion, is a biggest skill some one may need in this industry. I believe that if there is an improvement to be made it should be done up until a point that anymore could degrade the quality.

An example of the use of my observational skills are in the competitive analysis's we complete when developing a site and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of both the sites we create and the sites we are in competition with.

Research
As we do not know everything there is a need to research something be it coding for a Flash project, a way to align a website central on a page or even images to use on a site. This has been a bit of slow starting skill for me as sometimes I do not enjoy researching a topic which I have little interest in.

Exams & Revision
Revision helps us remember things which is an important tool to develop. If you can remember something it takes less time to complete a task than it does if you need to research something. Revision can also aid in the process of Presentations. If you revise and prepare for a Presentation then the worries and panic should be decreased.

On the whole my main weakness is Oral Presentation Skills and instead of embracing them I tend to run from them. The main reason for this is probably my lack of confidence in my public speaking.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Into the Abyss

The next 6 months...
Over the next 6 months I am hoping to get at least 4 Merits in the assignments that I complete. I have received passes so far for the assignments I have already completed and now want to push my self to attain at least Merits. In order to achieve this there will need to be a more thorough approach with my time planning and I have now adopted another method for monitoring the learning outcomes. This is in the form of a Checklist started at the beginning of the assignment with all of the learning outcomes on. When I have met one of them I either cross off that particular outcome or, what I think would be better, is add on the reference to where it is in the assignment.

Another personal goal for the next 6 months is to improve my knowledge of some areas in Web Development that I am unsure of.

I am also wanting to complete something in the area of Flash in the next six months to help 'bulk up' my portfolio in my spare time. I am interested in the area of Flash and animation and can use the software but as of yet have not completed anything to show this. I feel that this would be a good opportunity both to show off my skills and add to my portfolio.

As a designer I feel I have grown in confidence but I believe this still needs a lot of work and this could be one of the reasons why I have only been getting passes. So over the next six months I would like to try and improve this.

The next 2-3 years
Over the next 3 years I am wanting to complete this course with at least 4 Merits and above. I aim to be in a design company doing Flash animation work and web development work. Further down the line I would like to branch out on my own and start a Web Design company of my own and develop it into a bigger business.