Semester Diary

26.01.2012

The Day before submission and my body and mind are as cool as a cucumber! I would like to say I feel confident about my work but as we are all students who are learning there are definitely areas to improve on. Thankfully only minor. I have grown so much as a designer and found the whole process of each assignment very rewarding. It has been interesting to see how much I can done in such a short space of time and that I can make amends and develop without it being time consuming. This tells me my organisation and passion has improved making myself more time efficient. I could have wasted precious time developing an idea 4-5 months ago but now how the tables have turned. All my work is ready to submit and I am happy to say I feel my work is of a high standard. It got me thinking about the end of year show today and how in less than 6 months it will all be over and I will be starting in a new place with new people learning even more.

Today at 1.30pm the class were to deliver a presentation on there findings and summaries and conclusions on the soft drink brief. This gave the class a chance to critique one another and give any feedback on how each student could have improved. The idea was that we have had at least 4 months to do this assignment and it is interesting to see at the end what you could have done when you see it at a different angle. I took notes during the presentation and will write a summary of each student including one for myself. We also graded each student and ourselves out of 90% (10% already being the evaluation). I will say that after having a think about the presentations I have changed my percentages slightly for each person now I have had time to evaluate my feedback -:

Olivia Taylor - 79%

• Gains more confidence every time she presents which is a good sign that the course has improved her communication skills.
• She explained herself well throughout and identified a gap in the market that she felt was appropriate to go into. Her drink was one of the few that had a quirky unique selling point that hasn't been done yet which is enjoying the drink on the road.
• Olivia may not have realised at first but she had separated her target market into boys and girls giving each sex three drinks to choose from. After having a think about this I came to the conclusion that this could put off the other sex from having a drink that is specifically targeted at the opposite such as a male going to pick up cream soda finding the label to be a pastel pale pink. Maybe colour psychology could be looked into more coming up with more neutral colours for each flavour and still having merchandise specific to men and women.

Liam Newall - 70%

• Liam was clever when researching into his sector of soft drinks because he identified what no other soft drink is doing at the moment and took the opportunity to use it in his idea. Well thought out although he struggled to verbally speak us through his work. Maybe this was down to a lack of planning before the presentation.

Richard Raby - 80%

• Confidence as usual although after speaking to Richard he said he was the least confident he had ever been due to lack of preparation. So far the most strongest concept/u.s.p targeting the gaming society only. His drink was called 8-Bit and has much more potential after the logo and merchandise itself. He found a gap in the market like the other two who were before but there was evidence through the presentation that backed up all his work and how it works.

Stephen Derbyshire - 70%

• Research was very detailed during the presentation. I will say he surprised me through the session because I was expecting less.
• Choosing to do a milkshake because no one else had thought about this shows he wanted to be different.
• He looked into different materials when producing his packaging which was interesting as he was there to see the bottles being spray painted and showed evidence.
• I will say there is a downside to Stephen presenting because I feel he presents information that doesn't necessarily need to be shown and after when you critique Stephen he is slightly sour which to me shows he cannot handle constructive criticism and sees it as an attack.
• The spelling check and grammar was obviously not on as there were a lot of errors in his presentation.
• I found the final logo was good but the red background behind the type did not work with packaging and could have been a pastel colour relating to milk. 

Tinashe Muzengi - 70%

• Tinashe was very quick at first speaking through his slides quicker than the presentation moved! 
• There were some clever ideas shown using his target market to his advantage. I will say that the logo is called Yum and for me it just reminds me of food instead of a beverage. 

Suart Harvey - 65%

• Stuart is always chirpy at first welcoming you to the presentation. A pleasant aura.
• A major issue which I have found with Stuart which a few of us suffer with my included is he pointed out his flaws throughout the presentation. It is nice to see Stuart is aware of his issues but it puts a negative aspect in my mind when he talks through his work. He did however explain very well as usual and his drink was for a particular market that no one else had thought about which was refreshing.
• There were no ad campaigns and a little merchandise which was a little disappointing to see considering other work students had. Planning and concentration are an issue here. 

Andrew Maxwell - 65%

• Andrew is shaky at first but as he talks his confidence peaks which is good to see, he like Stuart also pointed out flaws in his work but showed passion when describing his drink and what he wants to communicate.
• I sit next to Andrew on a daily basis and know that he has the ideas and creativity to bring something new to a brief everytime. However he struggles to execute the idea. It is a shame because on his final package he did not use characters he had designed spending a whole 8 weeks on. This shows to me  that Andrew was not confident but unfortunately wasted valuable time. Next time he could stick to the plan making sure he is ahead.

Sophie Ireland - 65%

• I was dissapointed that Sophie walked in half way through because she missed my presentation and a few others. I however was there to see her presentation and found her to be confident. The talk was slightly rushed and finds it difficult to verbally explain her conclusions and summaries on what she has done and why. A point that was brought up is the name "fusion" was a tropical drink and it would have been interesting to see the drink with an idea of fusing.

Myself - (I would grade myself at 79%)

• My presentation was shorter than many but had all the necessary information. I was prepared and this showed through my confidence when talking. I did not have much feedback given to me and this showed everyone was too polite and not ready to critique one another.
• A guest tutor came in and mentioned that my colours in the logo were slightly contrasting one another and colour be too bright. As the segment was split into two colours portraying the two flavours I could have looked into more complimenting colours. If done so I would have to change the flavours probably to fit the colours.
•  I will say that everyone graded me very high in the 8o's and this was not evident in my work considering 10% is the evaluation and was not to be included when grading one another. I do not feel any students in the class are worthy of 80% which is evident from the work shown.

Constructively I will say that my ideas could have been worked into the branding better. I am saying this because once I had my logo in place and I started to generate ideas for the campaign and merchandise I could have gone into more detail as to how the two can relate to one another and how I can show this in my branding.

Some students who did not present because of absence today have missed out on valuable feedback and credits to go towards there final grade.

20.01.2012

Studio time today was about my boards for Roses making sure I have all the content ready to submit. I must say it is refreshing to have all my work wrapped up near enough a week before submission. The Roses Board needs space, clearly showing which section is which seperating accordingly. I also got a reply on UCAS saying Uclan University want me in for an interview which is very exciting. I have had to change the date due to commitments in London on the date of the interview. I will now need to be prepared for the interview process as well as getting my portfolio wrapped up.



19.01.2012

With Blogger complete it seems I am only submitting in my semester diary and creative commentary now for the deadline date. I will keep submitting entries and updating work for future references. I have now laid out my boards for submission keeping each one simple, balanced and seperated my boards according to what is on them. I was asked to do a final board as well as the three already showing my ideas and concepts in my sketchbook scanned and mounted. It was brought to light that these boards can also be just as important as a final piece mounted. This can be used in the interview process when someone is looking through my work. I can then proceed to show them the ideas which are clearly identified. This gives the interviewer an idea of my generating solutions, creativity and how much I can produce.

13.01.2012

Boards! Now The Roses deadline is a month later than my actual submission to college therefore the boards and any necessary amendments can be done in time for then. The board itself is a situation that is bothering me because I cant figure out how I want to lay out my work. I went onto the D&AD awards site where I looked at previous winners for inspiration on how I could lay my board.

12.01.2012

The soft drink brief is now all about proofing making sure my work is ready for print. Amendments are always a tricky one to deal with right near the end of submission because of my stubborn ways. I did however manage to amend work without too much hassle. During this session I have done a checklist outlining what I need to have completed by the end of submission. I am also going to design a PDF presentation outlining my findings during the brief, showing my planning and all work that has been designed up to date.

11.01.2012

P.D.P is now coming to a close for me personally because I have completed all the deliverables necessary for the assignment. It is now time to catch up on my creative commentary backdating any books I have read over the past four months. I am also going to create a bibliography page for Blogger making sure I reference everything. Successfully I have completed the contextual side of this semester a lot quicker than I expected but because as a student from day 1 on the course I chose to keep updating my Tumblr account and writing in a diary that was kept to date this made it very easy to transfer information from one diary submission to another. I would say a valuable lesson is to always write notes and keep a personal diary as it can come in handy for times like these.

06.01.2012

Today was certainly interesting to say the least! It was the Roses awards assignment and the class all met at the table to inform one another on what we've been up to in the holidays and critique one another. Alex said he would "brutal" but I wasn't expecting the feedback I was given. It was quite funny really because everything he said was exactly right but it seems I drift off when given a break from college. I was given constructive and concise feedback and I worked on it. The idea was that I go back to my original concept and work on the logo more that I designed over the holidays. The only reason in my opinion everyone seemed lost when looking at my work was that in the space of two weeks I had changed the whole look and feel of my museum. It is understandable but like I said I worked on the critique and instead mocked up some typefaces that I could use the branch out name on, but actually branching out the logo in some form so for example a branch as an underline. I came across American Typewriter and with the rounded characters thought of something beautiful. I took natural flicks from the characters and used parts of the letters to join the letters and portray a branch out feel. I will work on it through the week and then design some new fresh campaigns that communicate my concept for my museum strongly.

05.01.2012

So today I showed Paolo what I did throughout the holidays for my soft drink brief and with my work showing him campaigns that I mocked up. I visited the printing shop to get my wrappers on acetate and they came out really well, the only issue I would say is that some of the type due to the use of light colours wont show clearly. I am going to wrap my labels on the bottle I bought and take pictures to put up on the presentation PDF.

04.01.2012

Today is the first day back to college and there are only 3 weeks left till the deadline of all my assignments. During the holidays I stuck to my work and kept coming up with ideas, developing them and making them better for both briefs. In terms of workload I am hoping there wont be a mad rush in the last week but I am up to the campaign situation and merchandise for both briefs. Today is Contextual Studies and my UCAS application has been confirmed by the tutor to be sent off so I can pay for it and start going through the interview process. 

16.12.2011

Break up for Christmas today and I have completed my UCAS form up to date now. The only section that is still incomplete is my education which means looking through my qualification certificates. When I come back next year I will be sending off my form to gain a place for my 3rd Year. I am interested in seeing what the outcome will be and curious to know whether my last minute option of Chester will be a nice surprise for me. My plan for the holidays for both briefs is as follows -:

Soft Drink Brief

• Write down all ideas based on single minded propositions and SKETCH!! as many ideas as possible that are relevant and can communicate my core value.
• Keep concluding in my sketchbook, annotating and showing my chosen direction through each step.
• Have a wrapper ready to go onto bottle.

Tree Hugger Brief

• Campaign research and ideas, single minded propositions for my museum.
• Keep working on deliverables and have some ready to show on first day back

15.12.2011

In today's lesson I was left with the task to complete a 500 word document on my brief so far, reflecting on the assignment and my findings. I was off to a good start and got the work done but found myself leaving half way through the day to study at home. I sketched out some strong campaign routes to go down for my drink making sure my core value was communicated throughout.

During this project so far I have learnt about the world of soft drink! Researching into my target market has been an interesting time because I have found my markets typical personality, and looked into advertisement based on my market. The way the advertisement communicates to the market in a simple yet clever way speaks to me and gives me something to explore and work on within my own project.

From the beginning researching into different company profiles gave me an idea of how they see themselves and reflect to the public. Looking into core values of a company is crucial because it is one of the sole things you keep coming back to and base your opinion on, so when looking into advertising campaigns I will keep reflecting back to my core value so I have a clear vision and direction of what I want my brand to communicate.

Designing my logo from the very start wasn't a struggle as much because I came up with a name that could have many alterations to the way it is spelt. The design process gave me a chance to try Illustrator out even though I would rather stay away and surprisingly it was a success. Throughout the project I struggled with feedback because everyone gave me a different view on the logo and it left me none the wiser at times. I would reflect on feedback, take the critique in and develop and then the next week something new would occur within my logo. I decided from that point that I would take all individual feedback and merge into one so that my logo communicates what I want but at the same time taking in all the comments from before.

My logo is now called Tru Fruit. I have decided to call my logo this because keeping my name Tru is still very formal but by adding the word fruit after it still gives the brand an honest look and feel. The fruit drinks have also been mixed up a little giving my drinks more of an exotic and exciting taste which refers back to me calling the drink Tru because my drink is for an older target market but in my opinion your only as old as you feel! I am now comfortable that my logo communicates that the drink is honest and my ad campaigns will then follow the same value throughout.

Reflecting myself on this project made me realise how much I enjoy the soft drink brief and just puts more positive energy into me because branding and identity work is the area I would like to go into. I get satisfaction from the very beginning be it coming up with a name and my values to the very end where the advertising and merchandise come in. I am currently in the process of my advertising campaigns which means my planning has gone accordingly but knowing me this will be the area that hits me the hardest. Single Minded Propositions and coming up with them is a difficult process for me but I will keep referring back to my core values.

Action Plan -

• Write down all ideas based on single minded propositions and SKETCH!! as many ideas as possible that are relevant and can communicate my core value.
• Keep concluding in my sketchbook, annotating and showing my chosen direction through each step.
• Have a wrapper ready to go onto bottle.

9.12.2011

Tree Hugger today. I have noticed that when doing this brief it rattles my brain for ideas. I have now reached a point where my logo and name for the museum is coming under way. Branch Out will be the name. I also have an idea for marketing that needs working on and today was about generating as many ideas as possible. I had to have two ideas under way to be executed and because I have two to choose from now it means I can show stages of development and how to get to the point I have. This brief is not my personal favourite but hopefully as the brief goes on I will warm to it.

8.12.2011

Today was my lesson with Paolo for the soft drink and I wrote down my single minded propositions to get a start on my campaigns. I then word generated from my s.m.p's keeping it as eccentric and thought out as possible. Today was quite a slow day but at least I now have under way my logo, the name and my core value. I will keep my campaigns true to the core value making sure to go back and question the idea and whether it suits my values.

2.12.2011

Today was my unit 7 lesson and I wrote down my tasks for the day, writing what I was going to achieve by the end of it and what I would learn. I decided -:

• Keep working on idea generations for my logo! I was successful in doing so coming up with a wider range than before.

• I went into the library and used the Dos Logo book for inspiration. The idea was to learn how to overcome the idea generating issues that occur regularly for me. Mental blocks are difficult to overcome but today I kept working at my ideas and I have many more that I can now push on with, for further development. 

This way I am showing my ideas throughout my sketchbook and showing I can produce ideas in a creative and well communicated manner. Today was the start of tutorial's with me being alphabetically at the beginning the information was very beneficial now that I can move on with all briefs and today I have overcame the difficulties with my soft drink logo. I am now clear on what I am communicating within both projects.

I achieved everything in my list as I did not set myself too high a volume of work. Concluding this is that I can work independently in the library. It lead me to work quietly and productively.

1.12.2011

Paolo's lesson today was a mix up of two different activities. The first session was about our soft drinks, however with comments from Piers and my own thoughts about my logo I was in  confused situation. I never overcame the issue and decided to develop the logo based on advice from Piers. I am still clear on my core value so today was about promotion. Found myself unoccupied today with work, a little distracted. The last part of the lesson was to see ourselves with personal branding. Branding ourselves is important and how we want the world to see us lies in our values, our beliefs and personality which will show through the way we self promote ourselves. The class went round each other and spoke about what we thought about everyone. We now have a good understanding of how we portray each other and how well we show ourselves everyday.

25.11.2011

I am more ahead with the soft drink brief because the Roses brief I chose is fictional I am finding the research a bit tedious. I am one of the few in the group that enjoy the research process the most. It's fascinating and most of all I learn more about my brief and what I am to deliver, however due to the brief being made up I am lost on what to do. So today is about guest speakers coming in and there are a fair few. We have Joy who was a 2nd year on this course and went to Stockport to do her top up. She will be speaking to us about the course at Stockport and it will be a nice catch up to see where she is at now. We also have Alex's brother Piers coming in presenting work that Purpose has done and I hope it is a chance for him to see our work we have done for the soft drink as the brief is for a placement at his company for 2 weeks!

So questions for Joy I asked and the response -:

What are the facilities like?
On average how much do you see the tutors?
Are you happy with the course?
Support & Guidance?
Whats the brief spec like in 3rd year?
Was it strange walking into 3rd year?

The response was slightly limited. I dont know of Joy a great deal but I will say her answers were short and sweet. My question about how much she sees her tutor were a bit alarming because she said since she started in September she has had 3 different tutors! A little unsettling to say the least. She just said everything's alrite and that everything is good. She showed me her portfolio and some work she has been given to do since she started at September. Some of her portfolio is from her previous course even before Manchester College, she had a difficult first year and had to put in pieces of old work. I am happy to be in a position where this is not the case for me but I would like to show some work from my old course to showcase my mixed media ability. I want to say that it was beneficial talking to Joy but I felt it lacked a little.

Questions for Piers -:

What are you looking for when you see a portfolio?
How did you get to where you are now? The process?
What was your first studio time like?
Would you like to go down the route of teaching one day?
Advice to give?

Piers was great in presentation mode. I gained a lot and got to observe a lot. His advice when we went for a drink as a class was do you know of Wolf Ollins? If you have his books you'll do fine. HA! Asking Piers how he got to where he is now was a great question and it meant he was looking back at how he first started out. The fact he started so late in the game gave me a sense of satisfaction being only 20 yrs of age its interesting to see. Piers does not handle the portfolio side of work I imagine when it comes to interviews but I do feel he gave is great advice. Put work in you can explain the concept of. Once you grasp the concept you can explain yourself clearly in a way that draws them in. Remember you are a handler of word and image. The way you handle these two components can reflect massively on how you are perceived as a designer. Passion. Always important as we all know. Only the passionate ones really go onto do amazing things. I Asked him about the route of teaching having been in an agency now for sometime, and gaining contacts and respectability in the industry. He said maybe one day he has thought about it. PGCE's look "bloody hard" as he said. Really reassuring for me and my future goals but nothing I cant handle. Some time at the end of the presentation he came over and looked at my logo for the soft drink brief he will be looking at for the placement at Purpose! 

He said my concept is strong and that playing on the honesty of the drink is a great idea. His feeling is that by slanging the True Fruit to just Tru could take away the honesty of the drinks meaning. I understand why he would get this theory as I too felt the same whilst thinking of the name! I felt Tru was more stylish, and more upmarket. Now I think of it, calling it Tru to my particular target of 25-35 will they take it seriously. They are the health conscious society. I will go back to my sketchbook and see if true fruit can work effectively with the bottle. Do I stick to my guns and keep it that way or do I take the advice and work with it to see if its visually stronger? Fun times ahead for me.


24.11.2011

Today I had my soft drink brief to work on in lesson. I am enjoying this brief a lot more than the other one for reasons I can explain in my entry for tomorrow's lesson. But back today I did enjoy the lesson because I am at a stage where I can comfortably look at how my sector markets there products. I researched on ads of the world to find print campaigns that relate to my drink. The innocent ads are especially interesting. I then looked into my promotion and what kinds of promotional products I will offer. I have decided what I will be using and have already started mocking them up. Again a productive day with more progression.

18.11.2011

Today was presentation day! I went first because of the alphabetical issue I have dealt with since a child. I suppose it helped conquer my nerves! Any who I started the presentation well and then blew it up within seconds by being negative about my work before I had even put my first slide on. I have this issue with bringing out the negativity before presenting and giving my work a chance! There is absolutely no need to do this either so next time I will remember the error. I walked through my presentation confidently as usual. Feedback was interesting as well. I had interesting facts about each university I explored. Having existing student stats up shows I digged deeper into what the course has to offer because in my opinion some of the best advice and direction on where to go can be from students already living and breathing in the course I want to study. I also had my portfolio pieces up nice and big showing progression. Points to improve on were satisfying. Managing my content has always been a tricky one with me. Even with this presentation I had my blinkers on! I didn't consider for a second the content I just bunged it in the margins I set and tried to line up pictures to images. Not enough formatting so I know where to work on with the formatting now. Summarising the content is always efficient. I could have spoke more and left the important information on the slides. There was a lot of content though which is nice to see. My content was also relevant compared to others but again could be summarised to create space. Also bigging up my work when necessary. Explaining why something is lacking and how I will make it better or plan to. So everyone in the class went up one by one and I wont sit here writing all my notes for everyone but a summary will do nicely -:

Overall the class was confident when speaking. I will say Andrew was shaky at first but got into it once he spoke through each slide. A lack of stats and existing work from Universities including existing work from students which was disappointing. I understand that not everyone is clear on where or what they want to do next year but it certainly would have been nice to see existing work, after all the work could catch my eye and from that I go to an open day. Also formatting as a whole for the class could be better. Only because when given a brief or exercise in class we nail formatting but it seems everyone had difficulty other than Rick who may I just say did more than expected as usual. His presentation in terms of formatting was great but because it was so great each slide was scrutinised in great detail. Olivia's slideshow and in fact many others showed there own specific style whereas I feel mine lacked within personal style. Something to work on for sure. Also it was pleasant to see Liam is diving into Advertising for his 3rd year instead of the Graphic Design route. Very refreshing and I admire him for seeking this out. We all had points to work on which is beneficial to our marks and I am happy Alex gave us this exercise to do before we hand it in on submission day as Unit 7. This allows us time to work on our points and hopefully gain a great grade to go with Unit 7.

17.11.2011

Paolo's lesson today wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I didn't really focus. I did however get my logo printed onto acetate which is definitely something to consider. I did it to see how it would look because my logo will be on a clear bottle. I tried a printing shop in East Didsbury and to my surprise it came out nice, so when I have my final work ready for print I will go there to get it printed. I am also far ahead with this project so when Piers comes in next Friday I want to show him the logo I have worked on and get some feedback. In terms of my sketchbook I haven't done a lot this week but I will definitely be starting the promotional side to the drink now.

10.11.2011

Today was the soft drink assignment in class. We were given an exercise on typography for the first half of the day exploring the characters and basic rules around type. Each character has its place and we were asked to design our own typeface on paper using the alphabet upper and lower case and symbols. This was fun for me because I used my personality in my type and I drew a very elegant type. This was very easy for me and not as time consuming as I thought. He also gave us an exercise on Isometric type. Ha. I hated it only because I am ignorant to 3-d type. I think it looks stiff and boring, and I have never had any interest in learning this either. As I finished my typeface early I realised all the above is false. I don't like it because I struggled to understand it. Once I was shown how to do it and where to join the lines it got a little easier but I still cant do any difficult characters. Definitely something I need to develop! The second half was about my logo and I've got to say I'm happy with how I am progressing. My logo is now on a bottle and I bought a bottle from Amazon today to submit with my logo. It shows how my logo will look at its final stage. Now its time to explore some promotional routes for my logo and start designing for the advertising side of the bottle. I definitely want to be in the chance for the placement that's being offered.

04.11.2011

Guest Speaker came in today called Mark Brown. He is a freelance designer of 4 years and was in fact on the course with Alex our tutor 17 YEARS AGO! He did a HND at college an topped it up to a full degree and he said it was the norm those days and was thought highly of. He did his top up at Leeds and from his end of year show he was given a job at a nightclub in the heart of Leeds. He got this job from someone chatting to him about his work at his end of year show. This was interesting because at my final year show it would be nice to get to chatting to a potential employee. He was designing flyers and promotional work for the club in a bedroom at the time being. Now they are a big agency called UYR stands for Up Yer Ronson. Mark got his inspiration from music. Music records and all the design aspect Music can offer was where he wanted to focus on. Moving from Madhouse associates to Fathom creatives he was given a lot of corporate work. He discovered that there isn't any money in the music industry and is very difficult to earn a living from.Northerner Records was a job he did on the side of Fathom because he enjoyed working there. He did freelance for big agencies from word of mouth. Mark is a graphic designer for creative industries and a versatile one at that. His work includes band on the wall, Contact leaflets and Unconvention which is a Salford based project. After seeing existing work and seeing him as a person he is a very down to earth bloke. His work is definitely of a high standard and I like the way that he works  around technical glitches to make them easier for him. His theory was very much based around the idea that if he isn't being paid a lot and the job isn't a long process then if you can find a way around a difficult area then do it, as long as your subtle about it and it doesn't look naff! Interesting to see Graham Jones as a designer from Mark Brown. I would however like to visit a studio at some point and see it from there point of view. We see guest speakers who are freelance but all designers have said it is wise to go into studio first time round.

28.10.2011

Today we have launched our new brief for Unit 7- Student Awards. We have been given two routes to look at, one from The Roses Design Awards and the other to do a brief for The Manchester College. Both have pro's and con's to this unit so I will have to do some extensive thinking over the next few days. The Manchester College brief gives you the opportunity to promote the Wythenshawe campus and yourself as a designer. There is also competition between the other graphic design group and that is it, Whereas The Roses is a national competition. I have to say for now my appeal is slightly swinging towards The Roses after looking at the Briefs. I will need to wait and hear more about the Wythenshawe brief before I make my final decision.

27.10.2011

Today we worked on re branding well known logo's around the world. Iconic logo's that mean something to everyone. I was given the apple logo. Not only did this irritate me because I don't like the apple logo, but considering how large of a brand it is I wasn't looking forward to the task. So i got on with the task anyway and started drawing out ideas for a new logo. The idea was to create something completely different to the way it looks and feels now. As I sketched I started to find it very easy and doable. I actually started to enjoy it to say the least, and explored word generation and what apple means to the target market. I chose 9 that I liked because of the concept behind them. I will work the one up I prefer the most and put into my sketchbook as evidence.

19.10.2011

I set up blogger today, and to be honest I was not happy with it at all at first. I created a g-mail account and logged on so that my tutor can retrieve all my documents via the blog, and obviously it all goes towards my grade for P.D.P My blog would not work at first, because of a verification error but I managed to get it up and running outside class. It seems silly in my opinion to load up a blog, when I have been told to write updates and upload my own work on Tumblr. I was also told at the beginning of my first year I should write down all entries to do with the course, inspiration, lessons etc in a diary. No I have to write it all out again on Blogger because if I submit the diary it wont be graded the same. I did waste a full day trying to work my blog's problems out, but none the less I am happy with my blog now and I will be writing don entries from my P.D.P from now on. I also had feedback of Mike today for my last assignment.  I was under marked for a 1st, because of two minor errors within my work, I do feel he was being picky, but he's just doing his job. My strive for perfection is important to me so i am thankful for the feedback and error making, because now I will adjust these issues in the future. 

17.10.2011

Today was my first student rep training meeting. I was joined by Shaan at the Openshaw campus. We were given presentations, guest speakers came in and it gave me a chance to figure out my role as a student rep. I am happy to be a student rep because I have a voice, and use it very often! I want to make that difference whether its big or small, starting with the print facilities at Fielden Campus. Anyone other than the students or tutors don't seem to realise a print room will benefit the students and the college in the present and future years to come. I would like to bring this case forward but I will need to look into this more.

14.10.2011

Today we did an exercise on Layout. Similiar to the one in the first year with Typography. We were given the task of formatting text onto an A3 poster for The British Library. There was endless amounts of text and it took some considerable time to format size, type, style etc. I finally came up with a poster I was happy with using only two colour pantones. My poster got feedback at the end of the day and I decided to work on it at home, it now looks even better and I got so confident I designed a second poster which looks even more professional. Definitelely a day I wont forget.

7.10.2011

Today was an exciting day because my group for the SMART brief won! We were incredibly happy to have came through to the top, and I think we deserved it. The strap line did it for the dealership with 100% smart. So definitely an achievement today. We were given the task to work as a group again today doing a brief for the Parker Pen. Only today we had to work as a whole class. We came up with two working ads with the strap line being personal with pen + ink. The strap line we came up with finally was make it personal with a Parker, using Rick's visuals and Liam's strap line. Overall we worked well as a team and came up with finished visuals for the end of the day.

5.10.2011

Pricing Example for Freelance

Today was a lesson on S.W.O.T, which stands for strengths, weakness, opportunity & threat. This was important because it got us to think about where we are at now, and where we can be once we found out what our action plan was for the next year and further on in life. I've got to say that i found it highly amusing that I couldn't find a lot of weaknesses in myself. Not only I but a few others struggled. It is always interesting to see where everyone is at as well as myself, after all they are seen as competition and not just my peers. I was happier when people were picking out weaknesses for me because it meant I have something to work on now, it's not that I think I'm perfect I just need it pointing out to me sometimes. We also did about pricing. It was just a round up really because the idea was to get an understanding of how to price a job, and what a brief actually involves. I found a nice design price formula -:

LEVEL OF EXPERTISE +
PROJECT SPECIFICATION +
TURNAROUND TIME +
SERVICE & SUPPORT +
LEVEL OF DEMAND +
CURRENT ECONOMY +
PHYSICAL LOCATION =
TOTAL COST

The main benefit I got out pricing was learning that planning is ever so crucial, and must be flexible for pricing to be accurate. Always leave time for errors, & printing. Bad planning can lead to bad mistakes.

18.07.2011

My grades & overall unit marks came through the post today for my first year. I am happy to say I have not only passed everything but achieved higher than a pass rate. This gives me the confidence for the 2ND year. I know I can achieve great results. I must say though it is highly depressing knowing that as long as I get a pass in my first year throughout then my 1st year grades aren't really counted towards my final grade. So in my mind I see no reason to strive for the best. They say the 1st year is a time for mistake to occur so that your slate is "wiped clean" for 2ND year and you do the best you can. As far as I'm concerned its rubbish.

2.6.2011

10:30 start, met up with my group for the big Mercedes pitch. It was definitely a nervous time for many but too much sugar for me meant I was far too giddy. I also show my nerves through giddiness! So our group went second to pitch and we were on top of it! My group did me so proud, fluently spoken with facts to back us up that we had researched. Creative speech with an understanding of our concept. The only thing I would say which was not fair for anyone else is that we only had 2 to show, it meant less to talk about and less work. But others unfortunately had to show 3. I do think it was unfair of the group but more fool us for having less work. Never the less we did a fantastic pitch and working with clients is actually fun! Now its just time to see who has been picked for the advert.

1.06.2011

Hand in day for Contextual Studies. Beautiful essay if I may say so myself. I slipped up on research because I lost my lecture notes. I wasn't happy about this, but I had to hand in regardless. Then it was off to the Zion Centre to prepare our final pitch to Vanessa. It was such a transformation to the first pitch we did. We were prepared, knew what to say and confident in ourselves. I think if your confident in your work, you are confident in yourself & it shows. So positive feedback was given and I am very happy to be pitching tomorrow!