Story of the Year – Page Avenue

The album cover looks to be based on the albums name as well as been based on the names of the songs. The work is a bitmap image as it is photo realistic. The artwork is of a shadow falling on to a city. I really like the design as they have kept it simple and made sure there is not a lot of things happening to the design. The CD also uses a lot of text in a small space and it is still really easy to read. From this I need to make sure that I include this principle in my designs.




Bullet For My Valentine – The Poison.

This design as took a different approach as they have used both vector and bitmap in the same design. The colours that they have used are also suited to the target audience and the style of music that they play. The artwork is taken from the name of the album as it is a woman that as been poisoned on the floor. The album also users good contrast with the background and the name of the album. In the work I do in the future I need to make sure that my work users good contrast as meets the target audience.


Lost Prophets – Liberation Transmission

The majority of the design is in vector as this album users quite a large logo in the middle of the design, but on the back of the design it incorporates the band over the logo. I feel this works really well as they have a good presence in side of the logo. Some thing this design does really well is make sure that everything in the design as good presence and is really easy to see by using good contrast. Some thing else they use contrast in is the fonts as they have a script font for the albums name but everything else is in a san-serif font.


BBC Site

BBC is said to be one of the best-designed sites as it follows all of the principles to do with good web design. For example the size of the page changes depending on the screen that is been used. I think this is a good idea as the site becomes available for all users. One of the other things the BBC site does really well is contrast. The site users different shades of blue to make good contrast with the text and the background.



Amazon.co.uk

Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce sites one the Internet. The site gets thousands of customers each day. Some of the ways I believe this site does this is by having more then one layout for the site as it will be viewed at different sizes and it different resolution. One of the other things Amazon does really well is the navigation as the site users different levels of navigation for each of the products as well as the brands. The site also users a search feature so that you can find what you are looking for easier.

Game.co.uk

Game is the biggest video game store in the UK. So there site needs to be easy to use and maintain the look of the store. One of the things this site does really well is maintain the corporate look like the actually store using the same colours as the store. One of the thing the site does really well is tell you about upcoming games and also users high quality pictures. One of the other things I like about this site is the navigation, the navigation is easy to use and all the information can be found within three clicks.



Hills Have Eyes DVD Cover

The artwork on the cover is aimed at the target audience, the cover gives you an insight into the film of survival horror. The cover as good contrast on the background but could become harder to see in others. On the back there is a lot of information to hold but they have managed to get it all right. The proximity of all the items works really well and the background users a lot of repartition. Some of the things I will need to make sure I am using in all my print work as well as websites.



Shadowrun Cover

This is the artwork to one of the games on the Xbox 360. The front cover gives you a really good insight into what the game is about, which is tactical combat. All of the text users good contrast and is easy to read. All of the text is in a san-serif font, this may be that the designer thinks this is easier to read then an other font. The back users contrast within the alignment by putting things both left and right aligned. This could be a good idea to use in certain circumstances if you want to get some sort of effect with the design.


Homer Poster

This poster is based on the famous painting named “the scream”. The image users bold colours in the background and all looks to be slightly slanted. There is good contrast on the actual person to the background. Homer also has good presence inside the painting as well. The background is a mixture of swirls and effects to create the feeling behind the scream. In some work you can make it work by extending on the characters feeling.

Mono Lisa Painting

The famous image of Mono Lisa that was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci shows good contrast in parts but also blends into the background for other parts of the image. I really like the photo realistic look the piece as got and how calm the background looks as well. Something that works really well though is the blending in at the bottom of the painting so there doesn’t look to be something missing. From this image I can possibly look at trying to blend less important stuff into the background where possible.

First Year Almost Up

At the beginning of the year we started with a few little tasks to start to get all the class to bond together. I believe these tasks where set to break the ice between all of the new students as no one knew anyone. One of the tasks was to set hopes and fears of the next to years. I’ve found that I’ve managed to meet some of my hopes and also sunk into some of the fears.

One of the thinks I did sink into for quite a while was losing interest in this course. I think this was because I was adjusting to the new workload and I also wasn’t sure if this was the right course for me. As time went on my self-study began to suffer as well as not doing the work to my full potential. This really began to frustrate me as I seemed to have wasted a year of my life again, and also I didn’t appear to be doing what I thought on the course. I gather there wasn’t much I could do at this moment in time except find out if I actually wanted to do the course.

After a while on the course though I started to feel more at ease with the work and start to do work at home without taking it as much of a choir. From this my work started to look a lot better and I started to hit all the deadlines with plenty of time to spare. I started to also look at other methods in which to achieve the higher grades.

Something a learnt from the first assignment was to never underestimate the size of a task. The main problem with underestimating, was not actually knowing how long a task is going to take. Some thing else that was really alien to me in this assignment was time planning, this was something I had never done before. I couldn’t get my head around recording what I had done at the time of doing this. After a few times of doing this I started to plan a lot more efficiently then I had been doing in the past. I found from doing this I could plan a lot more efficiently.

I thought on the first assignment I was going to reach the higher grades easily, but when the assignments where graded I was far from getting these marks. I suppose this was not from reading the criteria properly. As the year progressed I started to struggle because of my attitude towards the course, this was because I was trying to find myself on the course. It’s been only the last couple of months I have actually put the extra effort towards the work and should hopefully achieve the higher grades.

One of the things that have been hard is getting new to all the new software. Some of the software as been relatively easy to learn as I have used programs like them before, but others have been a right up hill struggle. This is because you cannot really be an expert in all the programs, as it would take years of learning, as there is so much to learn in the programs. One of the programs that have been a big struggle was Photoshop, this was because I have never used a program like this one before and it seemed to be the largest one to learn.

One of the things I have done a lot this year is leave things in tell the last minute, over time this is something I have done less and less. I found by doing things when you plan to do them you leave yourself plenty of time to do the smaller tasks better. The most obvious example of this is the sketchbook assignment compared to the last assignment. In the sketchbook assignment I have really struggled over the last week to meet most of the criteria as I totally forgot about that assignment, but on the other hand with the last assignment I have left myself plenty of time to look through all my work and also check everything is there. I found this a lot easier as I have plenty of time to check thought the assignment as well as not feeling stressed. In the future I am going to take this into consideration, as I will also feel a lot better about myself knowing I have managed my time correctly.

One of the things that I as changed from the beginning of the year is wanting to do a top up year. I feel this is because all of the tutoring on the course is at its best as well as feeling like this is the last hurdle for me. I feel like I have come to the end of the learning curve and want to just get into a job and get on with it. I have also realised that being a freelance web designer is also not the best job as it’s a big risk and there is plenty of people doing this all ready. So I now believe that I just want to get into the industry and see where to go from there.

Over the next year I am hoping to improve on my people skills as well as been able to communicate with people a lot better as well, I feel that I haven’t really put all the effort in as I was doing at the start of the year. I should find this a lot easier then the begging of the year as there is less people to get to know.

Something else I need to do is start to learn CSS before I go back as this will be really helpful as I will know what John is talking about next year and I will give myself a better chance of understanding the code myself. The last thing I need to do before I go back is keep brushing up my skills as I don’t want to be rusty on all the things I have learnt this year when I start the new assignments.

At the end of next year I hope to have created a portfolio that represents me through all of my work, I also hope to understand CSS and HTML a lot better. I also hope to achieve the higher grades and put a lot more effort in then I have done this year. I also hope to get into a job within the business and start earning some money from something I enjoy doing.

• To get on to the second year
• Pass all units first time
• Get at least two merits
• Build a site using CSS
• Build a portfolio

CD Artwork

The main task for this week as been getting all of the CD artwork up to submission standard. From the style of music I was given I was thinking along the lines of Jets and Jet pieces. All of the artwork I came up with seemed to look really dark as I believed this suited the music the best. One of the problems I have run into this week was when I put the final tiff into Page Maker. The problem was the logo was losing quality. This really frustrated me as the rest of the artwork printed off fine.

Something I found that went really well is the designs towards the artwork. I think this went really well as the music was so distinctive and the album name was something to go on as well. In the future I need to plan in the same way I have done with this assignment as it as led me in the right direction with the designs. I found by doing spider diagrams, roughs and looking at the previous artwork for the CD I have been able to produce some spectacular pieces.

Something that I have been doing this week is filling my sketchbook with all the needed work. I found this a really time consuming piece of work as I have had to get all the work in for the whole year. I have also been showing all the planning through all of my work over the last few weeks and also all annotated.

Something I have done different in this assignment compared to the last ones is managing my time a lot better. I understand where I am and also what needs to be done to meet the deadlines in the assignment. I feel by doing this I should be able to reach the higher grades in this assignment.

Over the next week I need to work on the pre-flight document as well as checking through all the CD artwork and making sure all the right information is on the CD.

Back into Action

This week started with a lecture on art designs and printing. This meant that we were meant to be on the last task of the assignment which is getting all the CD artwork done. I underestimated how large this part of the task is. I found there is still a lot of work to be done over the last few weeks of the assignment. Something else I realised this week is how much work I need to do to get my sketch books to the right standard for a pass. I gather the only thing I can do is get lots of work and start to annotate what I find inspiring about this work and why I find it inspiring.

Something else I missed out in the sketchbook was annotating my ideas. I seem to of just jumped from the roughs straight to the final design for most of the year. This was something I made a big change to for the final part of the year as I have started to leap further into my ideas. I found this a lot more useful as there is still many ideas within one little idea. Something I need to make sure I do this weekend is say how I have got from one stage to the other and why I have chosen that design.

Another task for this week as been tweaking my corporate identity so that is suits the needs of the company. One of the main changes I had to make is to the business cards as I created them thinking of totally the wrong thing. After a few tweaks I came up with a final idea. I think that the corporate identity now keeps a good consistent look throughout the whole of the documents.

The main task of the week as been getting all my referral work up to standard. This started at the beginning of the week with finding all of the images I needed for the site. After this I had to amend all the images so that they fit in the given place. One of the things I need to make sure I am doing in the future is to make sure that the images follow the text not the other way round.

One of the things I am going to start doing is exploring my ideas in other ways as I can see what things mean to me as well as other and then put the two together to see what I can come up with. I think this will work better as I will be handling the ideas from two sides and finding out where I can get them to meet.

Something else that cropped up this week is the professional Assignment for next year. We were informed about what was going to happen and that each member of the group will have different roles within the group. This is one of the assignments I will be looking forward too. One of the things I am not so sure about now though is if I will suit the role of the project manager.

The Last Push

This weeks main task as to get all the website up and running. The one problem I had though was getting all the images to the right size without losing the key line round it. I resolved this by using Photoshop and getting the image down to the right size. I think that the site overall was a big improvement on the last site. One thing I found that went really well with this site is that I managed to keep a consistency through all the documents as well as making the website look the same as well. In the future when I am creating websites I want to stop using imbedded CSS and start using an external style sheet.

The other thing I had to do was to concentrate on getting all my images for the last site as I didn’t get enough the first time. This made my site look unfinished so I got referred. I have managed to get all the images but I haven’t got all the images to the right size. Over the next week I need to make sure that this is finished.

The biggest problem from this week was getting all my sketchbook work in to my sketchbook. This is because my printer as broke over the last week. I have found this really frustrating as I am going to spend most of my time printing off things for this assignment instead of doing more creative work towards the last assignment.

One of the things I am looking forward to this week is starting to create all the designs towards the CD. I think this is going to work really well as I will be able to see how much I have learnt over the last year and see what work I will produce.

Corporate Identity

This week main task as been to get all the corporate identity items done and ready for the style guide. I think that I’ve managed to create all the items and make them all look consistent. Some of the problems that I had with this task were getting all the images of the documents to the right size without getting really big file sizes. This was rather frustrating as all the documents started with really big file sizes because of the size they were created at. It was also really hard to find the correct trade off between the quality of the image and the file size. This was resolved by finding the right amount of colours to use as well as the right file format for the Internet.

The other task I’ve been working on this week was getting the template to the website finished. I found that my first initial idea for the website didn’t work as I felt it didn’t look right. So I had to make some big changes to the website template. After a few hours of tweaking I finally came up with an idea that I feel works for this site. One of the things I wanted from the website, was it to keep the same consistency as the rest of the documents I feel like I have achieved this really well as it follows the same guidelines as the documents.

Something I have also started looking into this week is CSS, I am trying to understand the basics so that I can incorporate them into my website in the upcoming weeks. I feel by doing this I will make it easier for me to make changes to the website.
One of the things I have started to look over this week again is the first assignment we were given. I feel I’ve let this assignment drift away a bit and have to get hold of it again. So over the next few days I need to start getting all my work together so that I can have a go at getting this assignment to

Ambient Styling

This week had its ups and downs as I received the grades for my last two assignments. One of the things I was really frustrated by this week was the fact that I didn’t realise before I handed in the last assignment that the website doesn’t look finished. I created an image saying that an image was coming soon. I suppose this was only my fault as I was trying to take the easy way out instead of finding the images. In the future I will make sure that I am using all the images I intend to use or create designs that will work with few or many images.

On the upside the other assignment I handed in was a lot better as I managed to get all the work together and not make any silly mistakes as I did in the last assignments before. I suppose this was mainly because all of the work was done in timed assignments instead of been lots of academic work. Some of the things I need to try and do in the next assignment are to push my grades up slightly as I’ve yet to reach the higher grades I should be achieving.

One of the tasks that have been set for me in the upcoming week is to find out how long I spend doing tasks in a week and make a record of this. John believes this will show me where I can do more coursework at home, and I think this will also show where I can do other things so I have a more structured week while at college. I believe this will be an important task for me but I could have really done with doing this earlier in the year.

One of the main tasks of this week was to get the logo finished. I was quite happy that I finally got the logo together as this was one of the main tasks of this assignment. I am really happy with the final design as I have spent a lot of time creating and tweaking the design. I believe from this I have developed my work a lot better than I have done in the previous assignments. I have also realised that you cant just jump from A to B there is the little stagers in between this showing how you came up with the design and what you changed to get their.

Another task for this week was to start work on the style guide. From the screen design I originally designed for the site, I have totally changed the layout. I found that there where too many colours incorporated into the design and the vertical navigation didn’t work on that design. So I decided to lose the blue bar and come up with a new idea for the header part of the page. I feel I have come a long way since the first site I created as this site appears to look a lot more professional and also is really simple to use. On of the things I made sure I didn’t use for this site was buttons. I feel hypertext works better as its easier to use and works better with the design.