On Tuesday the 23rd of March I took part in ideas development throughout the day which was carried out within the group as a whole. The main aim of the day was to firstly view exisiting design magazines and gain some helpful research, and then produce some skamps for design ideas and develop these into a possible finalised solution. I found the day extremely helpful and a key factor in creating a finalised design. Before hand I was slightly unsure of where to take my ideas and what design styles to use but through working hands on with research, idea generation and finalising solutions I was able to kick start the design process. Having the tighter diciplines and working under shorter time limits helped to give a strong representation of how the design industry would work and allowed me to produce designs that were efficient and effective. I was able to produce two double page spread designs and was very happy with the quality of them.

On Wednesday the 24th of March I had an interim critique which was carried out between the whole of the class, looking at the finalised designs that were produced in yesterdays development of ideas. I found the critique very helpful in that I was able to gain some quality feedback and also observe what everyone else had created. I found that my final designs were very effective and the use of the fish head being hidden was seen as a very clever and interesting style. The type face used for the headings was seen as quite consistent with the theme of the article which was focussed around a type designer, however the post it images could be re-thought and possibly replaced with a more effective image.



Today I contacted some companies about work experience and was quite happy with the progress made. I was able to obtain some email addresses and began sedning off some emails with an attached CV and a covering letter. One of the companies I contacted was Park Corner Design which are a broad design agency located in Winchester.

I also carried out some sketchbook work, making sure everything was presented neatly.

On Wednesday the 17th of March I had an In Design tutorial in which I went through preparing files for print. I was able to learn more about altering the settings of the document in order to create the most effective printout. We were taken through the use of colour and how spot colours can be used. We were also told how important it is to keep all files for one document together so that none of the files are lost. Marks and bleeds were also covered. Overall I found the tutorial a great help towards designing my article. There was a lot of information to take in and process but I felt that going through all the areas covered once again allowed me take more of the information in and further my understanding.

The editorial illustration guest talk for Friday the 19th of March was unfortunately cancelled.

Today

Yesterday I had a pal session in the morning in which we went through layouts for our magazine publication spreads. I was able to understand more about relating a layout to the media within it and how a strong layout can be achieved. Looking at some of the second years layouts helped me to see what I would need to achieve and gave me something to think about. As well as layouts we also covered work experience, going through what we would need to do for example, contacting companies, sending cv's, writing covering letters etc. We discussed how we were getting on and what progress was being made.


Today I started off with a session on print processs going through cost; so how more colours will be more expensive, as well as touching on individual colours and spot colours. I was able to find out more about preparing work for print and also how sending specimen documents to clients is essential, instead of sending the actual document.

As well as print processes I was also taken through grids and layouts, going over how grid systems can relate to the designer in our article and also how the information can fit within the grids. I was taken through the different ways in which we can start the design process for example, using thumbnail sketches to plan out the designs or creating quick and basic sketches. I was also advised to edit out some stutters if there are a great amount within the transcript.

Today I attended an editorial talk by Copywriter Liam Donnelly who works for CHI & Partners. I found the talk to be extremely helpful and was inspired by much of the work that was on show. I was able to see how the right peice of copy can truly enhance the media that it is placed within. The burger king commercial was a very clever peice of media and one which I felt showed some very strong qualities. I felt after the talk that I understood more about how to achieve the right kind of copy. I was also able to discuss some areas of work from my current unit with Liam after the talk and was able to find out that the right kind of copy can often be simple and it is this that can often suit the outcome.

Yesterday I did some sketch book work in which I began mounting in some of the tutorial sessions that I had carried out as well as the notes that I had produced throughout the unit. I also carried out some research into type and relevant designers.

Yesterday was the briefing for the new unit entitled "Visual Communication in Context 1." I was taken through the key aspects of the unit going over what would need to be achieved and how I would achieve it. I found the briefing very informative and gave me a clear view of what I would be doing. I was also made aware that transcribing of audio interviews with designers would be a key part of the unit and was assigned the designer that I would be focussing on. I was then able to join the other class members working on this same designer to form a group.

After the unit briefing there was a guest talk by Briany Hartly, who is an editorial designer that has worked on a wide variety of publications from books through to magazines. I was able to find out more about how to make a magazine publication have greater appeal, through the use of attention grabbing page titles, an effective use of sub-headings and also through the use of captions which could add further information to the skim reader. I was also able to gain some helpful tips for use when designing a publication such as the use of colour palletes, grids, baseline grids, hanging points and also style sheets which can help to save time when making alterations to text. Overall I found the talk very interesting and helpful and felt more confident about producing the article.

Today I had my first Adobe InDesign tutorial which went over the basics of the program. It touched upon the set up, formats, grids and guides. I had previously used InDesign and found the tutorial very helpful at extending my knowledge. The correct ways of setting up the format of a document to suit its purpose was made clearer to me along with the use of grids and the use of the baseline grid. I was also taken through the use of master pages, layout, InDesign tools and also what type of image files to use and the specifications. The tutorial was quite informative and gave a great intorduction to the use of InDesign.

After the tutorial I was taken through an introduction to designing multi-page documents which went over flat-planning, pagination, imposition and binding. I was taken through each element looking at what each one consisted off. I was also introduced to new terms such as signatures and natural spread. I carried out some tasks throughout the session with one of them based around folding a piece of A4 paper to produce a 16 page signature. There was also a task which was based around flat planning and how colour prints could be used. I had to work out what pages would print out in colour when different printing attributes were applied. The session allowed me learn more about the technicallities of producing multi-page documents and gave a greater inisght into how the industry works.

On Monday the 1st of March I had a PAL session which consisted of the whole class working on their Flash animations with the PAL leaders being available to view our animations and give feedback, as well as help out with any problems we were having with creating the animation.

After the PAL session I then had the rest of the day to carry out self-directed study which I used to continue the creation of my animation in Flash, making the final touches in preparation for the crit on Tuesday.

On Tuesday the 2nd of March I had the final critique for the unit. I was able to present my work to the class and also view other peoples work as well. My work was seen as effective and very clear but I was advised to make one improvement, which would be to add in a summary at the end of the animation as this would help to tie up the whole piece and allow me to enhance the overall message. I found this feedback extremely helpful and was able to use it to finalize my animation and make it much more successful. After the critique I then began the improvements to my final animation.

On Wednesday the 3rd of March I made some final improvements on my work and handed in. I felt the hand in went very well and was pleased with my overall progress throughout the unit. I was much more prepared for the hand in than I had been in previous units and was very pleased with this.