Trexi!

Culture Vulture
This assignment has been by far the hardest assignment I have ever done. The 'Reverse Design' process did seem a little daunting and all through the assignment I was wondering what the product was. With the previous two year's being the Coke Bottle, I was hoping that we did not get this as I thought it might be too easy. Going through my designs now though I do not think I have a design that would suit it.

The two product choices were a bit cryptic as I guess they were supposed to be in order to hide it. I originally chose number 2 which seemed the easiest choice, but in the end I chose 1, "A niche product, Child's play? no way! Urban Vinyl", as I thought what if it is the Coke Bottle? I guess I would have chosen quicker had I have 'googled' it.

It was quite a nervous situation last Wednesday morning having turned up to the room early only to be turned away by Steve. At 9 o'clock we all got ushered in and then those who picked number two had to leave for half an hour. Thankfully though it was only to show us our product.

I am happy with the product choice which happens to be a collectible item known as a Trexi. I am quite a collector of things and have already purchased my first Trexi which is the Godzilla/Dinosaur design. I think the week before receiving this 'product' I was beginning to get tired of the constant creative work. As soon as I saw the product I think I got a new burst of enthusiasm. This week has been the 'apply it to the product week' and I have found Freehand to be an amazing tool, making the 'difficult' bits look easy. Saying that I still have to do the fish on the front of my design and make sure it looks right in the perspective.

I decided to do the skeletal design for the website last week as then it is just a case of dragging and dropping an image into place. I kind of knew which idea was going to be created so I wrote the content to suit it and having looked at the Freehand design I can clearly see it is the best of the 3.

It is a bit scary having an assignment hand in date close to 7 days away as there is still a bit of work to be done but hopefully this time next week it will be over!

Things that need doing for this assignment

• Draw the Fish – all will become apparent soon...
• Finish the Collector Card – Should finish before 5 tonight
• Finish the 'Mini Site' – Just a case of finishing the design off
• Evaluate! – Evaluate assignment

One thing I would like to add is that I would prefer to have 2 weeks creative and 3 weeks build as there is a lot to do in the build exercise. Saying that I have managed to nearly complete the design in a day so I am not doing too bad.

On the Job!
I will be glad to finish this assignment as I feel it may have drawn out a little bit too much. I have enjoyed it though and it is something to add to my Portfolio. I think it has turned out a lot better than I had originally expected.

I think the assignment has gone well though as everything has been finished or is near finish. The assignment has been managed effectively by Scott and there are lots of things that I may have missed had I been the Project Manager. Tomorrow is the client sign of date and feedback and we also need to give a copy of the website to Dean and tell him what needs adjusting and what needs updating.

The only thing that should need sorting out is the folder which can be done tomorrow hopefully by the end of tomorrow the team assignment will be done and dusted so I can concentrate on the Culture Vulture assignment.

I have enjoyed this Semester and am looking forward to finally being 'forced' to use Flash. It is scary that in 6 months time this course will be over and I will be looking for a job in the industry but in a way I am looking forward to doing this as I am happy designing and it was I've wanted to do for ages.

Skillset vs BTEC

For the past two weeks I have been given the task of becoming familiar with the Stndards set by both BTEC and Skillset. It is now my task to compare and contrast the two.

The first major difference between Skillset and BTEC is the size of the document, BTEC having 198 pages and Skillset having only 41. The main reason behind this is because BTEC goes into more pages about a unit giving us an idea on how it should be delivered, BTEC also gives Goals on what will be learnt through the units. Skillset is set out in a table making it easier to understand and shows the 'Knowledge and Understanding' , 'Awareness' and 'Performance Statements'. I personally see this as being easier to understand compared to the BTEC standards and having them on the same page helps keep everything together.

Skillset seems to be more on the 'Technical' side saying that we should learn more coding languages including PHP. I for one would like to learn PHP as I see it as it is a skill that is highly sought after in IM Careers. The Skillset standards also help with life skills including communication and time planning. I don't think that all of these skills could be taught in the two years that I am on the course but I think that it could be handy looking at the units we will not get to do and seeing if I can meet the requirements. It is a shame that we cannot do some of these units as I am interested in some of the units and would like to pursue some of them.

The Skillset standards however do generalise themselves to one specific area/job, which in some places of employment can be accurate when the work force is substancially large. This is handy though as it shows the skills that are needed for a specific role but when the work force is a small team of about 5 people you may find that the roles swap and some people may find themselves with out work to do. So it is common that people will learn more than one set of skills for the job.

Personally if I were to go into a Interactive Media post I would make sure I had learnt about different areas e.g. Coding, DTP, Image Manipulation and Animation, as this would make more accessible to work in a variety of roles.

The information on the BTEC is sometimes seen as old and outdated making it harder to clearly add to an assignment. Some sections have to be re-worded/worked to make it clearer to complete. Skillset on the other hand is updated more frequently and has been updated in the last week.

Personally I think that the Skillset are the most relevant as these are up to date and more relevant because they include coding units and BTEC do not. I believe that coding is a big part of our job and would have liked to learn PHP and mySQL.