And another one...

I do like it when I learn something, in this case the !include tag. Nice and handy. I dont like it when I realise it depends on the hosting. It will work for some and not for others so when I went to change my site I find out my hosting company doesnt support it and I have to use this other tag which, to this day, I have not been able to get working.

Would consistancy be too much to ask?

Moving on, below is the latest website. This was a build only and the client did all the design.

Remind me why I'm doing this?

Sometimes I wonder why Im persuing the jobs that I am. Im not an overly technical person, never have been yet I'm trying to be a web designer, which by its very nature is technical. Especially if you enter the more interactive websites. With help I have managed to create a calculator using Flex, which at this early stage I'm liking, and a simple form. What caused me the most trouble with this site has been the form followed by the calculator. I don't know why the form wasn't working and ended up learning about permissions of files on servers... it's a form, a simple form and it shouldn't be that difficult. Yet, somehow, I managed to make it difficult but it's working now and I have an understanding of how it's set up. I know that the next form I create will cause me just as much trouble as this one.

Out into the big, bad world

There comes a time when we all must grow up... I've finished two years of college and I dont believe I have had a more stressful time. Well maybe I should ask those I complain to, seeing as I have complained to them for two years. Im now a freelance designer, focusing on web design and Im still learning.

My first freelance job was creating some artwork for a CD for a Manchester based musician. I have a few more jobs in various states of completion. When they get uploaded I will show them.


















Joe Duffy's site was designed and built as a group effort, I built it. If you click on the image you will be taken to the site.











The Birkbeck & Duffy site was built and designed my me :D Click on the link to see the site.

An April showing :)

Well, April is a bit of a none event blogwise! What can I say except, well, here's a blog entry.

Raw Fish is finished! YAY! We presented on Wednesday. The black and white poster, flyer and tickets for Fresh Cuts was changed due to the clients wanting colour. So heres the colour version which looks nothing like the orginal.

I have been working on the Birkbeck&Duffy website. Im working on the preloader as the site takes a little while to load. Its been passed to Mr Duffy for consideration today.

Im on the count down for the course to finish and still have a list of things to do before the end.

Contextual studies is moving on, the first draft is due next week and I should have something to hand in for then. I'm finding it difficult to find research that has a negative view on technology in museums and galleries. I have no doubt that there are articles etc out there, Im just not finding them.

This weeks reflections... w/e 28 March 2009

Where exactly did the week go? and March for that matter?

One thing I find difficult to manage, even when I know whats going to happen, is the convergance of projects. Why did I submit for the title sequence knowing I have one week to go before the Raw Fish project is due? Probably because it might look good on the CV IF its selected. That's a big IF, going up against two London agencies. When I get stressed I get grumpy as both Jason and Dave now know. Its done and dusted though.

My poster for Fresh Cuts was wanted and so I have designed the tickets and flyers in the same manner. The microsite, which Jean is creating, is looking good.

My Made in Manchester was a serious contender and up against Jean's. Jean's was good though! Although, selfishly I would have rather had a CD cover than poster/flyer/ticket in my CV Im happy :)

Another weeks reflections

This week I have been working on the final tweeks and twitches on the BabyBoom Records website and had hoped to actually have it finished. The technical tweeking is taking longer than expected but this is all down to my inexperience and lack of knowledge more than anything else. Thanks Stio for spending time with me and helping me sort things out.

I have designed a poster for the Fresh Cuts group and will be presenting it to them this week. If they like it I will use the same design idea for the tickets etc.

I presented my websites ideas to Joe Duffy on Monday but my gut instinct is that it's a no, not compared to Jacub's. Although I can create any website from a technical point of view it seems I still have a long way to go with regard to designing the sites.

On Wednesday we were told about the new live brief, a 30 second title sequence/intro to a series called Fresh!. The timing couldnt have been better because I have been wanting to do some moving image stuff for a while now. The last moving image, with footage, was last year. Below is my attempt. The pitch is on Monday and if its liked etc then I will have til Wednesday to put in the actual footage and mock it up in Motion/Final Cut. Im not sure about the music, that is something I will talk to tutors about and maybe get some time with the BB Records people, see if they know any bands that might fit the bill. I was thinking maybe the first 30 seconds of Get out by The Shackletons, maybe as an instrumental version, rather than the lyrics.

This weeks update

Its been a week :)

I have been working on the BabyBoom Records Drupal website and am very glad to say its due to go live this week. Cross fingers. There is content on the site and I have a few technical issues to sort out, but thanks to Stio on Thursday I should be able to sort through them quickly enough. My biggest worry is time.

Monday is going to be mad, too many things booked for that day for it to go well and its time I would rather spend getting the BabyBoom Records website finished.

Below are my attempts at the Joe Duffy site. Going to put them forward on Monday and see whats what. I feel they give the flavour of how the site will look and feel without having to create all the other pages, and to be honest, time is at a premium at the moment.

I have spent some time down in London at the V&A and Natural History Museum having a look at the interactive elements of their displays. The Natural History Museum is more fun and obviously directed at children, where as the V&A is a little more reserved. The V&A does have a multi-media/new media element which isn't personalised and this is the point/direction I was thinking of going for my contextual studies work. I need to crack on with my contextual studies work!

Weekly update

Its been a productive week, I have been working on Drupal for most of the days at college and working on other projects when at home.

This is a concept I have thought about for the "Made in Manchester" CD cover. The design makes use of the space at the back of the T-shirt that usually has the size and washing symbols. I have seen examples where that information has been screenprinted on.












The other piece I have been working on is the Joe Duffy website. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble conceptualising Non Space. The is my first attempt but comes across as too much space, not enough non space. Maybe I will get an idea before Monday. Either way I still like the page, even if it's not appropriate for the purpose, maybe I could use it for something else.

...and another week has finished...

This week has been a study week and its been nice not having to get up at silly o'clock. I have been working on some projects, some more successfully than others.

First the more successful, I have spent some time working on a design for consideration for a CD due to go to print in about a weeks time. Result is below. The right half is the front, the left half is the back of the CD.











The other not so successful project has to do with Drupal. It was successful until 4.20pm Friday, 20 February 2009. I was getting to grips with it, managed to import some modules and themes and was even managing to understand some tutorials I found on Drupal, which can be found here. In my excitement I deleted the Login module, then logged out and found I couldnt log in again...duh!!! I went home soon after I realised it. Lesson learnt, trust me. Can't promise I wont do anything as silly again but it has prompted a question or two for Stio the tutor :D He is going to look at me funny when I ask him.

Also managed to work on a first draft of a demo for the widgets. If it goes down well with the college I will work on it for the competition deadline.

Sigh!

No sooner than I write the previous post and feel happy about my website I stubble across this and my good feelings have gone :/

The list is as it says on the box, 50 Insanely Good Vector-based Web Designs... blah, back to the drawing board.

and breathe...

Well, it's study week and I have taken the opportunity to take a few days off so to speak. I did plan on having three days but yesterday I had the inclination to work on my website (again) and so I went with that inclination. The results of my endeavour can be seen here. Chances are it will change again next month :)

1000 word essay: Done
Widgets for college: Done

I am now working on a demonstration model of the widgets for the D&AD deadline. It was a good decision not to try and do too much, ie complete the model, for the college deadline as it meant I could concentrate on the design of the widget and not trying to get Flash to do as I say when I want.

I've had a few ideas for the Raw Fish and Penguin work, which Im planning on putting to paper today and tomorrow. Wednesday is Drupal day at college and for the rest of the week, we shall see. At the moment Im looking at having the weekend off again :) I admit it was nice not looking at the screen for a couple of days.

I was reading up on what Drupal can do and apparently Drupal 6 can do multi-lingual sites. The method explained seemed simple enough but in theory everything is easy. Watch this space for the real reaction :)

So, as blogs go, not much this time Im afraid.

The week so far

I have been working on my good ol' widgets, 1000 word essay this week and getting the preliminary work for the group project completed.

You know where I'm up to on widgets etc so I will let you know all about the group project. I'm the first to admit I didnt think this was a good idea. The teacher inside me can see why we are being asked to do it but from a student point of view I dont like it. It highlights the difference in motivation and determination for one and I dont want to have nothing to show for the six weeks. This is probably a selfish act but I want something good enough to go into my portfolio. Moving on ...

So far we have met with the Raw Fish people a couple of times and have a good idea of what they want. They want everything, websites, flyers, CD covers, corporate id, you name it they want it. The websites have caused a little issue. The amount of technical knowledge required to build these interactive, multi-lingual sites is, at the moment, beyond any of us. Having said that, we have spoke to Stio and he has suggested we look into CMS as a tool. I have started to look into Drupal and I'm working my way though the documentation. So far so good, but its all theory at the moment :D

On an entirely different note, Mad Men, I really like the opening title sequence to this series. I like the silhouette graphic style, simple, effective and clean.

Widgets!!

This is what happens when you dont blog for a little while, things pile up and suddenly I find myself tackling images and trying to get the layout correct. I'll do my best at controlling where images end up.

I have been spending alot of time on my widgets. The results are below.

We have been given our new brief, a group brief. I feel we have made progress already given we were initially told about the brief of Monday. I think Jakub's idea of targeting Raw Fish was inspired and with any luck after the meeting next Monday will give us enough work to be considered enough. I have been giving the website and digital angle to the project some thought and have been making notes with the idea of passing them on to those attending the meeting if it is decided that one a couple of people attend.

Contextual Studies has been moving on steadily. By taking Mike's advice and working to his deadline I find myself feeling in control of the writing and research. I need to revisit my idea for the dissertation, get something down good enough to show Mike. He seemed interested enough to remember my idea from our very initial chat.

Ok, this is image heavy but hopefully you will see that I'm making progress on widgets, slow though it is. The response has been positive so far, although they keep asking the same question "You did all this?" To clarify, I havent made the content, this was stipulated in the initial brief. The rest is all me!

I've started to look at the experience of the user from the start. I would suppose the user would want to use all six widgets so the initial two pages are for customisation purposes.

























Once the customisation is complete the user will come to the page below, the welcome page. The user will be able to change their preferences at any point by clicking on the little tool icon.












By toggling the widgets on the left the pages will open. I have concentrated on Food and will keep the page layout similar for the others. The next two, hopefully, pages show the information for "What's on". This is a page for food events happening around your area, based on your postcode.



























The next two pages are for the "In Season" tab. The buttons will highlight when selected.



























And finally, I met up with Creative Funnel and although I felt the meeting went well I'm not a match. By saying the meeting went well I felt my "performance" was good just maybe miss directed. The positive out of the meeting was the potential lead from Creative Funnel to another company with a better match. What do I mean by match? My current portfolio is very new media heavy and doesnt reflect any print design which I am addressing by taking on the Penguin Cover brief. I would like to publicly thank Creative Funnel for their time and having a look at my portfolio, it was very much appreciated :D

Penguin cover

Time I think for you to have a little look at my design for the penguin cover. I have been trying to get a hint of red into the design and Im sure there is a better method than Im using, which is trial and error at the moment. Not very print friendly option - sorry trees - Feedback welcome. The images are taken from iStockphoto.com.