It's Easter weekend and the chocolate bilby has almost been eaten. I haven't eaten chocolate in a number of weeks and the chocolate buzz went straight to my brain. I would like to say that as a result I came up with a number of cool ideas for the website and worked super fast but I'm afraid it didn't happen. Thanks to a friend who took the time to test my website I now have another idea to implement and that is a secret brick. :)
This weeks version of the website. Looking at it compared to last weeks, there is little change but I have been working on it pretty much consistantly. The only way I can describe it is that its like a duck, alot of work happening under the water.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/websitev11.html
On Wednesday we had our last Contextual Studies lesson before the two weeks off. This weeks speaker was Dave Haslem. A very interesting man, even if he does wear some gold thing on his shoes. Dave spoke alot about the "consumer of culture to producer of culture" attitude that Mancunians have. This trend in DIY attitude has been traced back by Dave to the birth of Manchester in the 1800 during the Industrial Revolution and detailed in his book Manchester England. His idea of consumer to producer of culture has been proven in the success of bands like Sonic Youth, Stone Roses and Oasis. It is not just in the music industry that has produced talent but also writing and television. At first I felt that he was just a lucky guy, being at the right place at the right time to become a well known DJ and associated with the Hacienda. But I take his point that it was his drive, determination and skill that got him to the right place. Dave started his journey with a fanzine and had the opportunity to interview Morrissy before he became well known, started promoting bands until he was told that some of the bands were terrible and that was the catalyst for his DJing career. I very much appreciated Dave coming to speak to us. Thank you Dave.
Still can't get into the Headstart website....Grrrrr!!!
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Sunday, 16 March 2008
This weeks reflections - w/e 16 March 2008
This week in contextual studies we had a speaker, Graham Jones, who is a freelance graphic artist based in Manchester. His amazing work can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-man77/
He definately has a style, metallic/bright colour on board, coster, packaging, thus introducing the texture to the final product. Something that new media doesnt really allow. After his talk I did entertain the idea of swapping to print design.
He had some interesting stories to tell about how he got to where he is today. I believe the single thing I took away from his talk was the amount of work required, the commitment and believe in your own ability. He also explained why he decided to stay in Manchester and not take the trip to New York or London. His decision to stay wasnt so much about the work but the place itself.
Have been working pretty steadily on the website, up to version 9 now.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/websitev9.html
There are bugs everywhere on the site and I have yet another list of questions for Stuart on Monday. We only have three more days with Stuart and then its into the Easter holidays. I'm pretty confident that by Wednesday I will have the structure up and only have some tweaking to do. This plan will of course give me time to do the work for Contextual Studies, catch up with a few reviews and maybe (just maybe) rest a day or two! Well that's the plan anyways - maybe take a day and go see the Manga exhibition at the Urbis.
He definately has a style, metallic/bright colour on board, coster, packaging, thus introducing the texture to the final product. Something that new media doesnt really allow. After his talk I did entertain the idea of swapping to print design.
He had some interesting stories to tell about how he got to where he is today. I believe the single thing I took away from his talk was the amount of work required, the commitment and believe in your own ability. He also explained why he decided to stay in Manchester and not take the trip to New York or London. His decision to stay wasnt so much about the work but the place itself.
Have been working pretty steadily on the website, up to version 9 now.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/websitev9.html
There are bugs everywhere on the site and I have yet another list of questions for Stuart on Monday. We only have three more days with Stuart and then its into the Easter holidays. I'm pretty confident that by Wednesday I will have the structure up and only have some tweaking to do. This plan will of course give me time to do the work for Contextual Studies, catch up with a few reviews and maybe (just maybe) rest a day or two! Well that's the plan anyways - maybe take a day and go see the Manga exhibition at the Urbis.
Sunday, 9 March 2008
This weeks reflections w/e 9 March 2008
Pretty happy with my results for the Contextual Studies assessment I completed before half term. I got a merit and was very surprised when one of my essays scored higher than the other. The one that sored higher I considered to be my weakest one, Semotics. Really looking forward to the next topic, about the NW and how it fairs against the big boys. Its nick name is the Manchester brief and so far we have looked at the history of Manchester. This coming week will include a speaker from industry, really looking forward to that.
The website is driving me nuts! The buttons seem to work whenever they feel like it.
www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/websitev5.html
I'm getting more comfortable using scripting and, when thinking straight, can workout where the scripting should go. I'm concerned that the website is running too slowly and I can't decide if its because of my system or the files. I have included a preloader. It's very basic and needs designing but to be honest this was an after thought and was never considered in the original design process. Once I get the first button working reliably, hopefully, the other four will come together quickly enough. I am aiming to have the basic structure set up before the Easter break, leaving those two weeks to tweak the design.
To be honest, I can not decide if I like the design. Some times I absolutely hate it and other times only hate it a little bit. I look at it and am really not sure what I don't like about it, possibly its the clunky artwork. I was very tempted today to scrap what I have done so far and start again but looking at the timeframe for this project I would be pushing it to meet the deadline. Maybe it's the orange colour.
I'm not sure but I'm not liking this project as much as I expected to, certainly don't like this project as much as the video work we did before. This is part of the reason why I'm interested in the Doritos competition - it's video.
Thank you Stuart for your help with the scripting :)
The website is driving me nuts! The buttons seem to work whenever they feel like it.
www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/websitev5.html
I'm getting more comfortable using scripting and, when thinking straight, can workout where the scripting should go. I'm concerned that the website is running too slowly and I can't decide if its because of my system or the files. I have included a preloader. It's very basic and needs designing but to be honest this was an after thought and was never considered in the original design process. Once I get the first button working reliably, hopefully, the other four will come together quickly enough. I am aiming to have the basic structure set up before the Easter break, leaving those two weeks to tweak the design.
To be honest, I can not decide if I like the design. Some times I absolutely hate it and other times only hate it a little bit. I look at it and am really not sure what I don't like about it, possibly its the clunky artwork. I was very tempted today to scrap what I have done so far and start again but looking at the timeframe for this project I would be pushing it to meet the deadline. Maybe it's the orange colour.
I'm not sure but I'm not liking this project as much as I expected to, certainly don't like this project as much as the video work we did before. This is part of the reason why I'm interested in the Doritos competition - it's video.
Thank you Stuart for your help with the scripting :)
Sunday, 2 March 2008
This weeks reflections - w/e 2 March 2008
We had our first Contextual Studies lesson back after half term. This term has the potential to prove very interesting. There will be a number of talks given by industry professionals and they will be giving us an insight into this business. We have already been given our new brief and it's about the North West and the creative/design industry...is this the place to be?
I have been spending alot of time thinking about the new design brief. This has resulted in a change of artist. Although Dave Grohl is an interesting person I felt from design point of view Terry Pratchett would be more exciting. With this in mind I have decided to go with a single piece of artwork with buttons/links embedded into the artwork and so the visitor would "minesweep" the page. According to Dan this is the natural reaction of the viewer when they come across a page like this. As part of the artwork I wanted a working clock and so, below, is my attempt. Im happy with it and will be the first to own up to copying and pasting the code. The code makes sense when I look at it but I feel that I wouldnt be able to write this from scratch and so feel that I will want to explore ActionScripting further, possibly outside the course. I will chat to Stuart next week regarding this and see what he advises.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/clock.html
I have been working on the wireframes for the brief and have been using Visio to lay it out. I can not imagine working on these wireframes without it. To do it by hand would be such a time wasting exercise. Althought I have completed the initial sketch with pen and paper, Visio is able to use a spreadsheet to import the information and set the wireframe up from that, leaving the tweaking to me. Fantastic! Below is my first of three wireframes on Jean Michel Jarre. I have to complete the analysis.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/wireframe%20jmj.htm
I have been spending alot of time thinking about the new design brief. This has resulted in a change of artist. Although Dave Grohl is an interesting person I felt from design point of view Terry Pratchett would be more exciting. With this in mind I have decided to go with a single piece of artwork with buttons/links embedded into the artwork and so the visitor would "minesweep" the page. According to Dan this is the natural reaction of the viewer when they come across a page like this. As part of the artwork I wanted a working clock and so, below, is my attempt. Im happy with it and will be the first to own up to copying and pasting the code. The code makes sense when I look at it but I feel that I wouldnt be able to write this from scratch and so feel that I will want to explore ActionScripting further, possibly outside the course. I will chat to Stuart next week regarding this and see what he advises.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/clock.html
I have been working on the wireframes for the brief and have been using Visio to lay it out. I can not imagine working on these wireframes without it. To do it by hand would be such a time wasting exercise. Althought I have completed the initial sketch with pen and paper, Visio is able to use a spreadsheet to import the information and set the wireframe up from that, leaving the tweaking to me. Fantastic! Below is my first of three wireframes on Jean Michel Jarre. I have to complete the analysis.
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/wireframe%20jmj.htm
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