HND Interactive Media Y2

The End is Near

2007-05-14T21:16:00.000Z

At the moment I am just finishing my final major project ADIYL, a typical day in my life. A few words on my thoughts of the past two years first.

Well what can we say the year is coming to an end at college. I am in the latter stages of the course, only a day or so to go. It’s been good; over the last 2 years I have learnt a hell of a lot about what skills I need to for fill my ambition of Web Designer/ Developer. When I start on the HND in interactive media I wanted to be a Web Designer / Graphic Designer, but I have learnt that my interest lies more with the technical development side of the industry rather than the creative side. It has taken me these two years to admit my mistake of course choice. But not to leave on a sore note by completing the course I have managed to confirm a place at Huddersfield University on their top-up Degree in Multimedia computing.

I have enjoyed the last two years but feel it's time to do something more challenging - Huddersfield University, then who knows Web Development as a full time job. Having got to the end of the course I have finally completed my self learning plan for the course, researching into possible career paths to go down. Leeds University: - New Media Huddersfield University - Multimedia Computing Also I looked into the skills needed to progress my knowledge, if I want to become a web developer or web designer. Having looked at all these possible routes to follow, my six month learning plan got a little left behind; I spent a lot of time trying to get my work done rather that updating the learning plan.

I introduced myself to a couple of online tutorials in which to complete, here is a list of the sites I which I found particularly useful.

http://css.maxdesign.com.au/ :- An introduction to CSS layouts and navagation.
http://alistapart.com:- A site that listed the specifics of CSS, also had links to other articles on CSS
http://www.thenoodleincident.com/:- Purely CSS, the do's and dont's of CSS, Explaning the Box model.

Also I spent a lot of time looking at possible universities to go to rather than doing what my learning plan actually said. I created the plan to follow through the six months, however this was not the case as every time I sat down to follow the plan, there either was another assignment to do or in my case to go to work. I tried to follow it but other things happen. Adam

That was Fun

2007-03-29T18:40:00.000Z

Who would have thought that Project Management could have been so much fun? I didn’t. Anyway now I reflect back on the job as P.M I think it has gone well considering the task in hand.

The finished product looks quite good to say the least. The assignment was a group effort. A website was created for a professional client – J Brown Fabrics the result can be seen on either of our portfolios.

The current site looks like this: J Brown Fabrics

The Portfolio links are:

Dave Sellers
Adam McKenning
Mark Feather

The work created is due to go online this year when slight changes have been made, for the client.

Also this Week:

Starting the new assignment (My Final Major Project) this is a brief taken from D&AD. The brief is called A Day in Your Life.

The brief looks pretty much open to all creative aspects of design, the assignment we use a whole range of applications software. All types of media will be used, such as images videos, places such as Flickr and del.icio.us.

See you next week, feel free to leave feedback. Adam

Project Management

2007-03-06T16:24:00.000Z

Well what can you say about project management, it's very time consuming as I have found out recently after being voted in as Project Manager. This is for our current project which is A13 On the Job 2, the assignment involves another team effort.

The project involves 4 of us, to complete a professional brief for a live client, we have just 4 weeks in which to complete the assignment from start to finish, as I'm typing this only two week or so left to finish it.

At the minute my efforts are concentrated on managing the project, however on some occassion I have had to stand in.

Just a quick post this week as I have a large volume of work to get through. Times ticking.

Here's what we have so far The Redesign, this is a quick site we have created which is not the final version.

CSS - It's all got box shaped

2007-02-27T16:38:00.000Z

Well what can I say about CSS, when I started using it I thought it was a little dawnting at first but now. I find it quite easy to implement pages with CSS, that are also compliant with the latest standard, using XHTML 1.0 Strict.

I find that the Validating tools at W3.org are very good as you can check you pages locally and when they have been uploaded to your own webspace.

When I final master the art of CSS, I am going to try to get my site fully compatable with the accessibilty guidelines. The guidlines are also set by W3.org, however there is also other guidlines towards accessibility such as section 508, which is the American guidlines to accessability.

Here is what I have so far for A8 Cissy assignment: The brief is based upon the reboot website, re-design the BBC home page. This has been incorparated into our assignment. However the site is to use CSS.

Links:

Please post any feedback on my current designs, your comments are welcome good or bad.

Flash - Not so Flash

2007-02-06T15:36:00.000Z

Well what can we say from this month's assignment, I only have one word that comes to mind "Flash".

The Flash assignment A12_KISS, I thought that this would be an easy one to do, until I started getting problems with Actionscript. What a pain, most of the time it doesn't do what it says it does. Like making the script go to the next scene, frame 10 for example, just because you miss out the handler it throws a paddy and errors like made.

Put the actionscript coding right and still it won't work, also doesn't help when your using a slow computer, as when testing the flash file it judders alot this doesn't make things easy for testing.

On a better note though I final got my Flash assignment complete, all be it at the last minute, everything seems to slot into place when you have a short amount of time left well that's what it felt like today.

Tasks for Next Week:

Work
More Work
And even more Work

Will be finding out next week as to the new assignment. That's it for today, untill next time

CSS - Layouts

2007-01-30T17:39:00.000Z

Had a good go at some CSS layouts this afternoon. A lot easier than I first thought, I just have to take my time when typing them out, too many typo errors. I have to make sure to save one set of CSS instructions then type out the rest and so on. Errors can then be picked up more easily.

Things to do things Week:

Home Page
Weather Page
Sport Page

All done in CSS incorporating technologys from the BBC Reboot brief. I think after this afternoons go at more CSS layout, I am confident that my CSS site can be up and running in a shorter space of time. This will then allow me to test for errors and finsh off task 3.

The outlooks bright, the out looks Or--nge

2007-01-16T17:49:00.000Z

This week’s progress is running smoothly at the moment, I set out a list of tasks that I need to get done. Keeping to the blog rules as part of the criteria.

Here’s a list of tasks I need to be getting on with:

A7 IME:

To carry on with portfolio
Change elements of site – Peer Feedback
Blog
Time Management and organisation of work load
To look at the extended help on the assignment sheets
Make sure to plan time effectively

A8 CISSY:

To get final sketches in place
To choose from final sketches
Receive feedback from peers
To look at the extended help on the assignment sheets
Make sure to plan time properly

The New Assignment: A12 KISS

This assignment is to create an interactive e-card, in the form of a Valentines Day card.

Research
Design
Feedback
Iteration
Alterations of Designs
Create
Test

The hand in date is in 3 weeks from now, to create a professional e-card.

As from next week I will cycle through the various assignments and comment on each individual one weekly.

New Year: What’s new for 2007

2007-01-15T09:04:00.000Z

Starting off this year will be:

New assignment ( Don’t know what it is yet), continuing with previous assignments, both IME and the CISSY assignment.

Just come back off the Xmas holiday and ready to get stuck in with some new work, something fresh to get started on.

Had a good think of all my options over the holidays, regarding my future plans. Either to start working straight after the HND or to carry on at University, I now think I have made my mind up of what to do. I have decided to go onto university; I have seen a couple of courses in which I would like to look into, one of them is listed below.

BSc Multimedia Computing (Top up from FdSc/HND) (full-time/part-time) at Barnsley College

The course is done through Huddersfield University; the course should be based at the Barnsley Centre. This enables me to easily travel to and from the college.

The course would be a bonus if it is definitely being held at this centre. I will have to get emailing to see if it is.

10 Shopping days to Christmas

2006-12-15T19:48:00.000Z

The website is coming along nicely now after a bit of encouragement and CSS. A layout has been achieved with help from John, directing me in the right direction.

From instruction I am going to go to a number of tutorial sites such as Max Design to investigate the use of a 3column layout within my initial design.

Over the next few weeks I will be creating the site using CSS alone, (that should be fun). On a more positive note though, I’m starting to enjoy the IME project, it stated off a bit slow and boring, having to write the web plan. We are now to the fun part of the assignment, time to play about with designs, colour and layouts, this is something I much rather would be doing.

To do List for this Week: IME related

Make final decision on layout, from sketches
Draw up final designs on A4
Create a digital Mock-up of the site
Start to experiment with layouts (CSS)
Research .htacess, to use on Portfolio site

Over the next week:

Create website
All of the above
Make sure basic file structure is put in place

That’s it for today, time fly’s by when you are creating web layouts and designs. Here’s one I’ve been created today, many more to come so I’ll post them when they’re done.

Feedback welcome

Portfolio Website Designs

2006-12-07T14:22:00.000Z

This week I'm trying something new, I was told that my blog looked a little sparse and could do with some images. So I have decided to upload some of my designs onto my blog for some feedback.

Also a quick update you can visit my portfolio website by click the web link on the left or the new domain name amc-design.

Some quick designs knocked up in Photoshop, tell me what you think as comments are welcome.

Design 1:

Design 2:

Designs are unfinished at the moment, as you can see some of the layers are still visible, forgot to hide them.

Bought some books from amazon yesterday, seen as I saw that someone on the first year had bought them and Dave S has bought them, I thought it would be a good investment even though the date of print is slighly old, it is always good to have more knowledge.

Design Basics Index
Layout Index
Ideas Index
Photo Idea Index

Jim Krause Books

No need for an instruction book

2006-12-06T08:42:00.000Z

A11_OntheJob:

A11_onthejob, current status of the assignment is going well up to press, today we are one man down, wounded in action. So today Luke as been the acting Prime Minister for the day, oh sorry the project manger.

So today we have had to re-jig the production schedule a little, however we received an email of what was needed to be done by the 5/12/06. I think were well on the way and have made good progress today; layout and Final digital designs are near completion.

Layout is coming along nicely, CSS has been used, all be it having to play about with it to make it sit where it should, but we are well on track for today. We are hoping to finish the design over the next week, using the time available to us both Monday and Tuesday.

Work done up to press, will upload designs on further blog entry, some time this week.

6 Month learning Plan:

Just learnt something new, I need to comment on my 6 month learning plan this week, thought it was just the assignments, anyway here we go.

I have just completed a learning contract for the task in which I will be undertaking as part of the Unit life long learning skills. The learning plan will asses the skills learnt over the 6 month period by gaining experience, completing and finishing tutorials on the subject area chosen by myself, as in previous Blog.

Like extracting blood from a stone:

2006-11-29T08:51:00.000Z

Blog:

Hi again I’m back, it seems like it has been ages, anyway here we go. I’ve come to the point that this is getting difficult to do week in week out, with the amount of other work in which I have to get done.

This week’s task list:

To comment on one assignment at a time
A7_IME six monthly Plan

Six Month Plan:

I have drawn up a list of task that needs doing for this week, I need to consider all options that are available to me and to research software skills in which I need to look at:

Skills: Web Designer

Dreamweaver - http://www.adobe.com/
Photoshop CS2 – http://www.adobe.com/
Quark Xpress – http://www.quark.com/
InDesign – http://www.adobe.com/
Flash – http://www.adobe.com/
Freehand – http://www.adobe.com/

Skills: Web Developer

ASP.NET – http://www.asp.net/
ASP - http://www.microsoft.com/
SQL - www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
Visual Basic - www.visualbasic.about.com
XML - www.xml.com
XLST - www.w3.org/TR/xslt
VB.Net vbnet.mvps.org
JavaScript - www.javascript.com

Job for this week is to look at the technologies the different web professional’s use; this could become useful to have skills from both areas of expertise, as the industry is changing all the time.

The different software’s are also changing all the time and new standards coming into place. http://www.w3.org/.

I will be commenting on a different assignment every week as this may help me get into a routine.

Thanks for Reading, comments greatly received….. Adam

Blog's r US

2006-11-21T17:29:00.000Z

This week so far as it stands current work out standing: Get this bit out of the way and then we can get on with the best stuff:

IME - Webplan - To finialise the competitive analysis on a few of the sites chosen.
Cissy - Webplan - To finialise with competitive analysis.
Cissy - Webplan - Site Structure

Also new this week is a new assignment in the form of a team brief, this will show the management of a team and its team members.

We have been given a task to decide who will be project manager, we will be deciding in our teams who it will be.

We will be identifying the skills in which we have and then putting them into practice, strengths and weaknesses will be noted down. Taking a look at the belbin roles and team management, to decide which role will be best suited to each person.

Comments welcome

Bye Adam

All bloged out

2006-11-16T16:37:00.000Z

For this week’s Blog, first of all a list of outstanding work to get done:

IME Web Plan – Competitive analysis
CISSY Web Plan – Competitive analysis and Site structure

Handed my work in for this assignment I think I have done ok, well lets hope so. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be trying a different way of working to add a variety to study, as at this moment in time I’m in a little bit of a rut.

However I’m going to do things differently, you never know I might surprise myself. For example the day before deadline, I wouldn’t have thought that I could write a full evaluation for the Culture Vulture assignment. I’m well surprised, just shows you what listening to people can do, if you really put your mind to it and get the job done in no time and have free time for other things.

Countdown to group work:

Won’t be long before its Monday again, the start of a new assignment “On the Job”. Let’s have the time planning sheets ready and waiting for this week, they made a hell of a lot of difference last week and no I'm not being sarcastic, I was impressed at how much work could get down in so little time.

I wonder what this On the Job assignment will involve our team to do, anyway we will undoubtedly find out on Monday morning.

Also a quick mention take a look on Luke’s Blog, using the RSS feed is brilliant; however you’ve got to have Firefox to use it. It’s a great little feature, it lists Blogs across the toolbar, just under where you enter a web address, you can view a list of each person’s Blog’s

Can’t wait until Monday, should be fun something new to do.

Thanking for reading this weeks instalment, hope you come back soon. Feel free to leave any feedback or comments.

Bye….. Adam

The Shoe challenge

2006-11-08T19:45:00.000Z

Day 1: It's a shoe

After creating surface patterns for Task 2 of the Culture vulture assignment I wonder what would be in store for Task 3. The assignment is done in reverse so that you do the creative thinking first and design, then you find out what the product is.

Once you know what the product is you need to fit your design to it, in this case Task 3 was to put our surface designs on to a pair of trainers, fitting the design to the trainer in different ways. I didn't pick up on what we might be designing for, I thought possibly it could have been a coca cola bottle like the previous year had done.

Day2: CSS heaven:

Having fun trying to get my surface patterns to become a design on the trainer, I thought this would have been the easiest part but no, it was the hardest bit.

At the minute I'm still not happy with the result of the design so far, it just shows you how you can design creatively with knowing what it is going to be placed on.

This afternoon we learnt some more CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), in which I found very interesting; even though I might not show it I enjoyed it.

After seeing how simple it can be , I think I will do some more tutorials from Alistapart and maybe max design, lets see if we can get a 3 column page layout done by myself, then I will be happy.

Thanks for reading, until next time.....

Six Month Plan

2006-11-08T19:22:00.000Z

As part of our coursework we need to create a six month learning plan, this will show the things that we would like to learn and also include items on the progression onto further education or employment.

At this moment in time I have just started to look at the different jobs available to me when I have completed my HND in Interactive Media.

Here is a list of job positions available in the Design industry, worth doing a little more research into:

Artworker
Designer
Flash Designer
3D modeller
Information Architect
Art Director
Creative Director
Project Manager

All jobs that can be achieved with the effort put in. I found these job titles in the latest issue of (Web Designer) Creative Careers, a definitive guide to becoming a web professional.

Creating the six month plan has made me think a little harder about what I want to achieve, be it to get a job with a web design company, to study a further 3rd year at a university or to go freelance. Much more thought in the following weeks will be needed to come up with a good learning plan.

Half Term Work

2006-10-31T15:01:00.000Z

Been working on my assignments over the half term holiday, getting everything done over this week hopefully

Things that I have completed over the holidays:

Finished my assignment A10 Culture Vulture (Task 1)
Handed it in Monday 30th
Managed to get a large portion of IME Web plan done
Got a large portion of CISSY Web plan done

Progress update: Things to be completed:

IME web plan to be finished and completed

CISSY web plan to be finished and completed

Thanks for reading, Adam

New Assignment

2006-10-19T10:45:00.000Z

Day 1: New Assignment for this week.
I have been given a new assignment (Culture Vulture). It is a task that needs you to look at a 20^th century design icon or product. Had to think of what I could do, here’s a few of what I fist thought of:

Marcel Breuer
Ross Lovegrove
Bauhaus

However these were wrong, as I had read the assignment incorrectly, I chose the person not the product they were famous for. After a rethink I came up with these options:

Swiss Army Knife
E-type Jaguar
Porsche
Spitfire
Guinness
Mercedes Benz 300SL

But my final choice got the vote: Levi’s (Levi Strauss)

Day 2: Another dawn, another day

I am on the way on the second year of the course, completing a variety of tasks.

Tasks Completed/ Well on the way:

Handed in my A8 CISSY assignment
Finishing off the web plan of A7 IME
Finishing off the web plan of A8 CISSY

Tasks that are on going/ feedback:

From feedback/ Rewriting the structure of A8 CISSY Task 1
Continuing with both web plans for A7 IME, A8 CISSY
Continuing with research and write up of A10 (Culture Vulture)

I will add to the list as I think of some more tasks that need to be done; these are the most important at this time.

Thank you for reading, any comments are welcome.

Completed Work: Edited

2006-10-10T16:16:00.000Z

Day 1: Well finished off all work I needed to do for today, just got to start on my other assignments as i have been concentrating on one more than any other. I need to work on all of my assignments.

Day 2: Well what can we say, managed to finish my work on time. Handed it in today at the strike of noon, well 11.30am.

Feedback: Got some feedback this afternoon from my assignment. So here's a list of things to remember to do:

Meet criteria
Meet criteria
Meet criteria
Time Planning/ time management
Use the ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE correctly

I have heard that repeating things too many times is too much, the maximum or optimum number of repeations is 3. It's so that I remember to use the BTEC Critera correctly.

That’s enough of A9 TheBiz though. Let’s start something new for this week, to refresh with some other form of work.

A7IME: Started the Web plan (Use Template)
A8 CISSY: Start to write up the CSS Research

Thanks for Reading……. Until next time

Blogtastic

2006-10-03T16:20:00.000Z

Day 1:
Well what can we say about today, remeber to hand in work 9.00am ( The Day to Remember).

To do List:

Read through errors of Task 3
Enter all details into Task 4, The Datebase file of Web design competiors
Start Task 5 (Executive Summary)

Things Done:

Database File, entered all details of Web Designers into a database file
Progressing with Executive sumary

Day 2:
What I have managed to get done today:

Finishing off Executive summary
Researching costs involved in setup Freelance Design company ("Click Here to Donate")
Started to have a look at CSS ( Cascading Style Sheets ), looking at the different levels of CSS. e.g level 1, 2, 2.1

Things to be doing over the next Week:

Finish Executive sumary, hand in 9/10/06
Rethink Action Plan to What days to set a side time
Concentrate More on other assignments
Start A7 IME
Continue with A8 Cissy

That's it for now, May the Blog be with you

The Blogger Returns

2006-09-26T18:46:00.000Z

Day 1: Pretty hectic week to say the least, with a number of full stops, capital letters and commas, just some of punctuation used.

Basically what I mean is to concentrate on reading through work, making sure I have checked it. Not to think off the top of my head.

Things to improve on:

Read other things, get a feel for words
Use correct grammar

What I know I can do:

Research
Relevant Content (The content is there but needs to be in smaller, sharper sentences, not to run away.

This applies to all Tasks and assignments

Task 3: (Defining the roles of a team), I’ll only say one word Belbin Roles, who are you the choice is yours. Quiet surprised what role I was, a Completer Finisher / Team worker.

Lots of different roles on there worth a read if you’ve forgot who you are..

Day to REMEMBER 2/10/06 9.00

Day 2: A7 IME
The end is nigh …/ well not yet still at college, but it soon will be, a lot of information today, business plans and such like:

Executive Summary

Apparently a brief summary of a business plan, never heard of it myself, but you learn something new everyday. I now know what it is, need to get on a do it.

Blogging Hell

2006-09-19T18:16:00.000Z

Well how did it go this week I hear you Cry, reasonably well actuallyGetting the hang of this now, Lets get started then...

Day 1: Handed in work this morning 9.00am on the dot. Got some good feedback on my initial work for task 1 of the (A9) Assignment, so I'm pretty pleased, thought I'd check it through fully must not have done.Found some minor errors that need improving on, but hey not everybody speaks the Queens English, on a good note though it shows me where I'm going wrong.

Day 2: Didn't start as expect with Steve not being there, however got on with the task in hand, I must admit though i would have preferred to do (A9) Task 2, but other things have to be done.Found out that I need to be more confident when asking questions though, to come out and actually say what I mine, hopefully i can get over this and be confident enough to use my knowledge effectively communicating through my work.

That’s it for now….

Aghh: Where do I start

2006-09-12T19:19:00.000Z

Don't really know how or what to start with, but here we go.
Currently started on the second year of my HND at Wakefield, past 2 days I've had to get back into the routine.

Been given three assignments to do already and its only the first two days, must be lucky, first of all I have to do some research on copyright, for my assignment A9 (TheBiz) , think this assignment will be fine, plenty of places to find info out there on the Internet.

The second assignment A8 (CISSY) from the title its about CSS, looking at first seems a little scary, but once discussed all was clear about the task in hand, but I suppose other questions will creep into my head in which i should have asked at the time but forget.

But you learn from you mistakes and try and further yourself by correcting them.

Assignment three is A9 (IME) , a project that looks quite interesting at first glance, this requires you to create a portfolio website, to house coursework and portfolio work and of course to feature my blog.

Should be a fun assignment to do, I'll say goodbye and get some work done