Today I learnt the basics of PageMaker. Pagemaker I thought was more complicated that programs like Word, but in a way they have a lot of the same features just PageMakers tools are a lot more advanced. I liked how a good piece of work comes out of what you make on PageMaker and how more professional it looks using Pagemakers than word.
Last week with for my self study I Started my screen designs. After the first few thumb nail web site designs I got stuck on idea, so I took a break and looked at magazines and watched television to see if I could get any inspiration, which I did, from Magazines I got the idea of using a picture for a background and also from watching television I got the idea of colourful buttons and blocks. I have learnt if you try hard to find inspiration your less likely to get it and if you just use whats around you and use your imagination its a lot easier. After I had done all the thumb nail designs I did bigger versions of some of the thumb nail designs. I asked my sister to help me choose which designs to use as I thought It would be good idea to have an other persons view on the designs. There were a few of the designs my sister really like so I used them and then we choose two other designs, all the deigns we choose were chosen to suit the target audience. I have two preferred designs they are similar but have a few differences like one has buttons and the other has text links.
One thing I will have to do for self study this week is make sure I write out all my references together and what I have used the reference for. I was glad on Tuesday when I got a e-mail back from a person I e-mailed asking permission to use their pictures, they said I could have permission to use the pictures, I will have to reference the pictures to say which web site I got them from and whose photos they are.
Tuesday 25 September 2007
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Second Week of the assignment
For my self study last week I did some work on my assignment, the tasks that I have done so far have been understandable, I have chosen 4 goals for the web site but I hope to improve them, For the Target Audience I wrote quite a bit, well more than needed, so when I have finish the other tasks I am going to after go back over the Target Audience and cut it down from a A4 page to a small paragraph, I suppose its better I am having to cut it down instead of been stuck what to write. The next task I started is Competitive analysis, for this I am comparing two web sites about Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes has many pages of information but only a couple of web sites, so I have chosen two web sites, one that isn't that good and could do with a bit of improving even though it has just been updated last week, and the second web site is good, I have used the second web site so I can see how to improve my design.
I am still a bit unsure about the time sheet, I am doing the work just not understanding how to show it on the time sheet, for ex sample I don't know what to do if I do research for my competitive analysis, i do the research all the thought the task for competitive analysis, so do i write down it took me 5 hours or do I write it took me 1 hour yesterday and 2 hours today. At the moment I have left it blank, I was thinking about putting an overall of hours it took.
Yesterday I started my screen designs I though it might I have been easyer but it pretty hard thinking of many different ideas and designs. The Internet came in useful, has I look at a range of different web sites to get ideas, i found some really good web site which gave me some ideas, the web sites i liked I took a screen shot of and wrote down the address. At the moment I am doing thumb nail designs so I can find a design that will best suit the topic i choose.
This week I have e-mail a few people to ask for permission to use some of their pictures from their web site, I have some more people to e-mail has college doesn't allow you to go on hotmail at college I have wrote peoples e-mail address in my sketch book and I am going to e-mail them from home.
I am still a bit unsure about the time sheet, I am doing the work just not understanding how to show it on the time sheet, for ex sample I don't know what to do if I do research for my competitive analysis, i do the research all the thought the task for competitive analysis, so do i write down it took me 5 hours or do I write it took me 1 hour yesterday and 2 hours today. At the moment I have left it blank, I was thinking about putting an overall of hours it took.
Yesterday I started my screen designs I though it might I have been easyer but it pretty hard thinking of many different ideas and designs. The Internet came in useful, has I look at a range of different web sites to get ideas, i found some really good web site which gave me some ideas, the web sites i liked I took a screen shot of and wrote down the address. At the moment I am doing thumb nail designs so I can find a design that will best suit the topic i choose.
This week I have e-mail a few people to ask for permission to use some of their pictures from their web site, I have some more people to e-mail has college doesn't allow you to go on hotmail at college I have wrote peoples e-mail address in my sketch book and I am going to e-mail them from home.
Tuesday 11 September 2007
Start of the first assignment
On Monday I started a new assignment, there was a lot to take in as there was loads of information, I fairly understand what I have to do but I am still a bit nervous of what is expected, as I am not sure if the work I will do will be good enough.
First thing I did after I had been told what the assignment was was research the person I have chosen to design a web site on. The person I have chosen is Guy Fawkes, I chose Guy Fawkes because I remember doing about him in Primary school, but had to use books and I can remember how boring it was reading and copying from books, so I got an idea to design an interesting and easy to use web site.
When I researched Guy Fawkes there was quiet a few web site about him and there loads of pages of information about him for schools, but the pages had hardly any information on them and no pictures on some there which made them not very interesting for children. I found two web sites that I am going to compare for a competitive analysis task which I am going to do next week, one web site could do with some improvement and the other web site is good and there is only a few things I don't like, but I can take the good ideas from both the web site and use them in my design and I can use the bad idea and changes them in good ideas if I want to use them.
Today I created a weekly plan and production schedule it took me half hour to do. For the production schedule I sorted out what tasks need to be done and estimated how long it was going to take me to do the tasks, which was quite difficult because I don't know yet how long a task is going to take. So over 4 weeks I have about 3 tasks a week to do but I am not sure if that will stay as planned, has I might need extra time or I might finish a task quicker that I expected. For the weekly time sheet I just write when I start a task, how long I estimate it's going to take me and how long it actually took me. I find using time management useful and helps me get less stress when it get close to the hand in date, because if I use the schedule right I should complete the assignment a week before it’s due in.
So today have done two tasks and started on a third task. I have set goals for the web site I am designing this task told longer than I thought and I had to have a good think about what I wanted the goals to be. The second task I have done is set a target audience which is primary school children. I enjoyed doing the research work to find a suitably target audience, its good to see what other web site are like so I can compare my design to their web site to see what they have better so I could improve my design.
Using a sketchbook to keep notes and idea is useful and when I do find inspiration I can just stick it in the sketchbook and go back to it when I need inspiration, which is good because I won't find inspiration just sat looking at a computer. I am going to keep stick good inspiration in my sketchbook so I always have some fresh ideas to look at.
Today my small group I have been put into had seminar meeting. I didn't know what to expect at the meeting but now I think the meeting are going to be useful for when I have any question about what I need to do on a task , how could I improve my work or if I have any problems I can discuses them at the meeting.
First thing I did after I had been told what the assignment was was research the person I have chosen to design a web site on. The person I have chosen is Guy Fawkes, I chose Guy Fawkes because I remember doing about him in Primary school, but had to use books and I can remember how boring it was reading and copying from books, so I got an idea to design an interesting and easy to use web site.
When I researched Guy Fawkes there was quiet a few web site about him and there loads of pages of information about him for schools, but the pages had hardly any information on them and no pictures on some there which made them not very interesting for children. I found two web sites that I am going to compare for a competitive analysis task which I am going to do next week, one web site could do with some improvement and the other web site is good and there is only a few things I don't like, but I can take the good ideas from both the web site and use them in my design and I can use the bad idea and changes them in good ideas if I want to use them.
Today I created a weekly plan and production schedule it took me half hour to do. For the production schedule I sorted out what tasks need to be done and estimated how long it was going to take me to do the tasks, which was quite difficult because I don't know yet how long a task is going to take. So over 4 weeks I have about 3 tasks a week to do but I am not sure if that will stay as planned, has I might need extra time or I might finish a task quicker that I expected. For the weekly time sheet I just write when I start a task, how long I estimate it's going to take me and how long it actually took me. I find using time management useful and helps me get less stress when it get close to the hand in date, because if I use the schedule right I should complete the assignment a week before it’s due in.
So today have done two tasks and started on a third task. I have set goals for the web site I am designing this task told longer than I thought and I had to have a good think about what I wanted the goals to be. The second task I have done is set a target audience which is primary school children. I enjoyed doing the research work to find a suitably target audience, its good to see what other web site are like so I can compare my design to their web site to see what they have better so I could improve my design.
Using a sketchbook to keep notes and idea is useful and when I do find inspiration I can just stick it in the sketchbook and go back to it when I need inspiration, which is good because I won't find inspiration just sat looking at a computer. I am going to keep stick good inspiration in my sketchbook so I always have some fresh ideas to look at.
Today my small group I have been put into had seminar meeting. I didn't know what to expect at the meeting but now I think the meeting are going to be useful for when I have any question about what I need to do on a task , how could I improve my work or if I have any problems I can discuses them at the meeting.
My past, present and future
The first school I went to was Kirkhamgate Primary school, in Year 2 and 6 I did my SAT’s both exams I got average results for my age. In 2000 I went to Outwood Grange high school I got 12 GCES, grade C’s.
This year I got a GCE in applied ICT and the two years at college made me more mature and independent. The second year at Wakefield college I tried harder than the first year because I started doing a lot more work out of college, and I was glad I did because the second years grades were better. So I learnt the more work you put in the more satisfying it is when you get your grades.
Now I have started the Interactive media course I am looking forward to the assignments, the new things I am going to learn and improve on. I would like to pass the course at the end of the two years with a good grade. At the end of the course I want to be more confident and have learnt how to have a good client relationship with all clients.
At the end of the course I am thinking of two options I could do either do a top up year or get a job, I am not sure at the moment what job I would like but I am considering if I pass this course and get experience as a designer for a couple of years, maybe doing some teaching.
To get to where I want to be I am going to have to do some things to improve myself, first thing that I would like to improve would be my confidence, I could do this my pushing my self to do new things and things I don’t like doing. I have just got a part time job which I’m hoping will help for the future because it will improve my team skills and confidence. I am going to treat this course like a job by always trying my hardest and being on time. I have done a time table to show when I am at college, when I am working and when I have to do self study, I am also going to keep track of important dates, for example when assignments are due in.
This year I got a GCE in applied ICT and the two years at college made me more mature and independent. The second year at Wakefield college I tried harder than the first year because I started doing a lot more work out of college, and I was glad I did because the second years grades were better. So I learnt the more work you put in the more satisfying it is when you get your grades.
Now I have started the Interactive media course I am looking forward to the assignments, the new things I am going to learn and improve on. I would like to pass the course at the end of the two years with a good grade. At the end of the course I want to be more confident and have learnt how to have a good client relationship with all clients.
At the end of the course I am thinking of two options I could do either do a top up year or get a job, I am not sure at the moment what job I would like but I am considering if I pass this course and get experience as a designer for a couple of years, maybe doing some teaching.
To get to where I want to be I am going to have to do some things to improve myself, first thing that I would like to improve would be my confidence, I could do this my pushing my self to do new things and things I don’t like doing. I have just got a part time job which I’m hoping will help for the future because it will improve my team skills and confidence. I am going to treat this course like a job by always trying my hardest and being on time. I have done a time table to show when I am at college, when I am working and when I have to do self study, I am also going to keep track of important dates, for example when assignments are due in.
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