Before the first timed task, I thought I might not like doing the tasks but after finishing the first task I was shock that I actually like it. For the first task I had to create a book cover for Font book. When designing the tasks product, I designed as many thumbnails as possibly in the time I had allocated for that part of designing, I found the more thumbnails I had the better it was to choose the final design as I had a wider range of designs to choose from. When I did the final design I made sure I did it to scale of what it was going to be on the computer, so when I got on to the computer I didn’t have to mess about with measurements.
Font book was a practice task, the first real time task was Hokai. This was one of my favourite tasks out of them all but I did have a problem while making the design. I lost a lot of time because I couldn’t get the page size to the correct size, but in the end it was because the margins weren’t set at 0. So I added all the information I had to use, laid out the design, spell checked and handed it all in on time, but if I had not had the problem I had, had I could have got feedback on the design and done some improvements on it. This did teach me to set the margins to my chosen size and allow leeway time, so if problems do accrue I have time to correct them.
The second task was to create an advert for Vodafone, advertising a designer’s job. When I did the design for the Vodafone advert I liked the design and I still do but I think I could have done a bit better. For this task I finished 20 minutes early, this gave me plenty of time to check my work and get feedback. Learning from the errors I had with the Hokai task, I got feedback on my designs all the way thought the stages of the designing of the Vodafone advert. Which made me fell more confident about my work because I wasn’t having to worry if my designs were ok.
The Jonathan Gee task was my least favourite, I wasn’t happy with the design I produce. Near the end of the time I looked at the design and thought it looked basic so I try to add some things to make it look better but I still aren’t happy with how it looks. I handed the design in 5 minutes before the end, so I was pushing it a bit that task. Improvement I made from this task was to stick to my time plan, has for this task I used more designing time then I planned to use. So when we were asked to remove out least favourite piece of work, I removed this one. I thought the design looked plain and boring. As I wasn’t happy with the design I did and it was the last minor task before the major task, I felt a bit nervous about doing the major task.
Before I did the two tasks today I thought I might do designs that I wasn’t happy with. So I wasn’t really looking forward to doing the tasks today, but once I had started them I really enjoyed them and I was pleased with the designs. One thing that occurred while doing this task, when I was put my design on to the computer, the image that had been given didn’t really fit in the space I had chosen to put it and not all the text would fit on with the size of the image. So I swapped for one of my other final designs because if I had tried to make all the content fit on the page, the text would have been unreadable.
When I first found out I was going to after do a presentation I wasn’t really bothered. I like creating presentations, I just don’t really like showing them. When doing a presentation I find it better to be all prepare and ready for the presentation so I am confidence about what I am talking about. The only thing I didn’t like about this presentation was the French words, I am really bad at speaking French so I tried to break down the words using a web site that help break them down for you. I have enjoyed doing the research on Roger Excoffon but there isn’t a lot of web site with information about him and his typefaces, but I did find some very useful articles by two men that came in useful. One was called Grace and speed of Roger Excoffon, it described about his life and what he was like, which made it better for me to understand what Roger Excoffon and his life was like. A lot of Roger excoffon typefaces were display font that would be hard to read small and they give a lot of impact to words.
Roger Excoffon only designed about 11 fonts so when choosing 3 to go into more detail I chose 3 of his most popular typefaces. I found a web site that shows Roger Excoffon typefaces used in everyday life. These images were good to add to the presentation as example and it also shows that the typeface a used for a range of different things, like on shop signs. For the hand I chose a different way to show his typeface examples, this was the alphabet typed out a number of time using Excoffons different typefaces.
The feedback I got on the last presentation I did was that I didn’t finish well, so I am going to try and improve this time by firstly adding a slide at the end of the presentation asking if there is any questions, so it will remind me to ask if there is any and also I need to remember to give my handouts out. The main improvement I wanted to do was to try and keep it to 5 minutes, which I did today.
Overall this assignment as made me do things I didn’t think I was good at or liked. I use to hate presentations the thought of having people’s attention just on me made me really nervous, but I can feel improvement in my confidence in doing presentations. Improvements I think I could make when doing presentations is to start stronger and carry it on though out the presentation.
Improvements for the time tasks would be stick to time plans and received as much feedback as possible so that improvements can be made to my work, which will help me make a better standard of work.
6 comments:
I was the same as you, not knowing whether I would like the timed tasks or not and I please to say I did.
Having leeway time during timed tasks is something that is really important to have because you never know when a problem could occur.
Just like you I didn’t get feedback on the Hokai paint tube and when I did on the Vodafone advert I could see the advantages it had and felt a lot more confident after receiving some.
I’m glad you’re getting more confident about doing presentations and well done for making it last five minutes, that’s something I’ve not managed to get spot on yet.
I didn’t think that I would like the timed tasks too. But I think that most people were probably nervous of what the timed tasks would involve and if we would be able to complete them in the time that was given.
But a think most people have enjoyed the timed tasks and its also nice to see that we are all making improvements in are work.
I take it that you dropped the Jonathan Gee article at the end with it been ur least favourite. I dropped that timed task from submission as I feel it was poorer then the rest.
Attention to detail also means the technical input before starting the design. Eagerness can often get us to forget about the more important aspects, no matter how small they are.
In the Hokai task, I made a big mistake by designing it on to a4 size spread. For this I copied all the elements of the design and pasted it in to a new spread at the required size.
At first, i really didnt like the timed tasks, i didnt hand in the fontbook task because i ran out of time, but when we got up to the Hokai task i managed to get into the hang of it, alothough i did have measurment problems. i felt reaally bad about this because i saw everybody else whizzing by, kinda left me stranded.
I think the early timed tasks really helped everyone to settle down with the whole process; especially the first none serious one. By the end everyone seemed to get their work in on time and at a good quality. I think this is a credit to how well Steve slid us into the dynamics of a timed task, and really got us comfortable in the end.
Getting feedback on your work goes hand in hand with the effort you put in to get it out there, and attracting people to it (Marketability). You should've tried using sources like the forum to get some of your work out there; also don't hesitate to ask on msn or ask your friends that arn't in the class what they think.
I dont think I have spoken to anyone yet that has not liked the timed tasks at all. I personally think they are great. I'd glad you enjoyed them it also shows great commitment keeping up with all the stress!
I think they are a great thing to do to plot your progress!
I looked back this week at all the timed tasks, from my Fontbook to the Story. Even in that short amount of time i feel i can see a definite improvement.
I agree with your comments about the presentation, I think they are really nice to create with all the slides and handout, and its just another design task. It is also interesting to find out the information. You learn something new every day!
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