FireFox IE-Tab

Hi,

For anybody who uses the Mozilla FireFox web browser here's an extension which I've found quite useful. It enables you to use a tab within FireFox to view a website as if you were using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

Quite useful when previewing whatever site your building in the browser

Bonded By Blog

Hello,

I’ve had a really productive week this week as most of the On The Job website has been created.

As with my recent main blog entries, this entry will focus on one of the assignments. This time it will be CiSSy.

CiSSy

I’m pretty much ignoring this assignment for the next week or so due to the approaching deadline for On The Job, and also the mini deadline for getting my digital portfolio online. I will resume some work on it over Christmas in any spare time I have when I’m not continuing progress on my digital portfolio, doing my six month learning plan, or… having a break!

So there’s not that much to say this week regarding that assignment.

Six Month Learning Target

My Adobe InDesign book finally came yesterday so this week I can start to get on with learning the initial basic skills for InDesign. I had a quick read of the book last night and it looks to be very good and just right for what I need. It also comes with a CD which has all the files and fonts needed to take part in the lessons within the book. I think it will be quite interesting to learn how to use this program and I’m quite looking forward to being able to create professional documents with it.

In Other News

I have volunteered to present my work at the next ILG (Industrial Liaisons Group) meeting. Last time there was a meeting I didn’t really want to take part in it, and was glad I wasn’t chosen, but this time round I can see the opportunity to show off my work, and hopefully for people to like what they see. Plus there is the fact I’m a lot more confident in the quality of my work this year than I was last year. I think I have progressed quite a long way since then and I’m eager to get a professional opinion on it.

That’s it for this week; I may make another post during the week about something or other, who knows!

Thanks for reading

Note: This blog was written on Tuesday afternoon but due to two days of internet down time at home i was unable to post it until now.

Commander Updata'd

Hi,

As I said I would do in my last post, here is the updated digital mock up of the iMe site. I'm rather pleased with how it looks and hope I'll be able to make it without too much trouble with CSS. I feel it is easily the best looking website I have ever designed. There's just one thing I'm lacking, a name of some sort! I'm sure I'll come up with something.


How do you think it compares to the last mock up posted?
Any feedback is welcome via comments.

Blog Sells... But Who's Buying?

Hello again,

So continuing on from last weeks blog entry here is a progress update on one of my current assignments. This week it will be an update on the iMe assignment, so here it is!

iMe

I am pleased at the rate I am progressing with my digital portfolio having gone from being quite behind a few weeks ago to having done design sketches, logo sketches, and layout sketches. I have today chosen the design I will actually be implementing for my portfolio and done the majority of a digital mock up of how the finished site will look. Here is the digital mock-up in its current unfinished state.


I still need to replace the box at the top with one that has rounded corners, and also I need to show how I will be implementing both the main navigation and the secondary navigation.

I am very pleased with how the design looks so far and will be completing the digital mock up during the week. I will post it here on the blog when it is complete later this week, so stay tuned, as they say.

I feel this will be my best looking website to date when it is completed; I just have the task of using CSS to get it implemented. I have been assured by John that it is possible to be done using CSS, so that’s good.

With regards to the sketchbook part of the assignment, I have done as I said I would last week and put all the pages into a folder for better organisation/presentation. Also I have been continuing putting more effort into exploring design ideas, and just generally sketching a lot more ideas in there. Not just lots of sketching though, I have been trying to annotate everything that I draw to say firstly what the idea is and what I am trying to achieve with it.

The Six Month Learning Target

Not as much progress on this one as I have with iMe. I have ordered the Adobe book I mentioned in my last entry and am currently awaiting its arrival. Until then I have made an outline of tasks that I am going to be undertaking. Plus I have added a couple extra projects that will use the skills I am learning over the next six months. These are developing a corporate identity for my dads business Bliss Wedding Cars, and then also perhaps doing the same for a friend of his Limelight Limousines. It will be good to put the skills I am learning into use.

For this outline plan I am going to spend some time tomorrow working out a time scale for each of the tasks so I can then work out what I will be doing each week.

That’s it for this entry, thanks for reading.
Dave

Masquerade in Blog

Hi again,

Over the course of the week I have spent a fair bit of time getting some designs created for the iMe in my sketchbook. I have been putting a lot more effort into my sketchbook when sketching ideas for website designs. In particular I’ve been making sure that I annotate everything that I draw and self analyse everything. Another thing I have been doing is trying to explore my design ideas more than I have done in the past. For example on one page I tried a design idea using different shapes, tried it with different colours, and also tried it with different spacing.

After a chat with John this afternoon we discussed how I can improve further upon this. I can achieve this by going back to my notes from last year for the ‘C.A.R.P.’ principles. (C.R.A.P.? No I don’t think it is). The C.A.R.P. principles are of course colour, alignment, repetition, and proximity. I can use these four principles to analyse my sketches in my sketchbook, and thus building up my knowledge of good practise.

Starting from now on each main weekly blog entry will contain information on where I am up to on one of my assignments. There will be a different assignment featured on every main entry, so for example there will be three weeks between talking about the iMe assignment.

On The Job #1

So we are just over a week into this group project now and I was hoping we could have had a final layout design chosen by now. But unfortunately we haven’t as on Monday I think we went off on too much of a tangent trying to design a different theme for each page. It turns out a lot of them ended up looking a bit cheesy. We now have clarified that the client wants a template layout that is consistent throughout all of the pages.

Out client also liked the look of the image galleries which mark had designed, so I had a look around on the net for a solution to this. I instantly thought that using JavaScript would be the solution so I went off hunting for a suitable script. Our team is pleased by the results I achieved as it looks rather nice, and I think our client will also think so.

Another new weekly addition that will be featured on every main blog entry I make is an update on my six month learning plan. So… here it is!

Six Month Learning Plan

This afternoon I have started putting together a detailed plan for my six month learning plan. I have 90 hours to cover, and I must show measurable achievement. The way I am going to go about doing this is firstly purchasing Adobe InDesign CS2: Classroom in a Book. I read about fifteen user reviews of this book and it seems to be perfect for my current Adobe InDesign level, which is a complete novice. A useful exercise I have undertaken on my learning plan is to answer these questions. WHAT am I learning? HOW will I get there? WHERE am I now? And WHERE will I be in the future? The reason I have found this useful is because I can use it as a basis for my plan. In this weekly blog update I can answer the question of WHERE am I now?

Other things I will be using to complete my learning target are the online Adobe Tutorials.

Thanks for reading,
Dave.

Organisation Mania

Hi,

I thought I'd take a leaf out of Mark's book of organisation today as I have just bought myself another folder, 400 plastic wallets, and some separators. It should be a much better way of organising my sketchbook than my trusted 'Ram A Big Pile Of Loose Papers Into The Front Of The Book' method. Rumour has it somebody else also become fed up of the ramming paper method and also bought a folder of some sort on a recent visit to Staples.

"Look at that!"

Goodbye.

Something ‘Blog-Esque’ This Way Comes

Hello again,

Over the course of the last week I have really put effort into getting back onto track with both the iMe and the CiSSy assignments. In particular both of the web plans have come on in leaps and bounds. After today’s session with john studying and discussing the assignment brief again though, I need to go back and make alterations/additions to both of the web plans. But after this week I should be in the position to get on with the creation of my online digital portfolio. As I write this I have a good idea of a design in my head but have not actually had the time to get it down on paper this afternoon. So the first port of call when I get home is to whip out my sketchbook and get it down so I don’t forget about it over the week.

When thinking about the designs for the iMe profile, it was brought to my attention it would be very useful to actually to design a logo first, and then expand that idea or theme throughout the website. As I said in the previous paragraph, I have a few ideas floating around in my head at the moment and it is a case of getting them down in my sketchbook so they don’t float out of my head and into oblivion!

Also this week I have received a new assignment in the form of On The Job, this will be the first time (on this course) I have worked in a team for a client. Things have started off pretty good as Mark seems to be organised, so it should hopefully go smoothly enough.

Lately I have begun putting more effort into my sketchbook usage, I am making sure when I do sketches and such in there that I am annotating them and self critiquing so that I can meet more merit and distinction criteria. I know if I put the time and effort in I can get beyond the passes and start getting merits and distinctions. Stemming from a conversation with Steve I am also exploring my idea’s more by sketching variations on my ideas. For example using different shapes and colours but still using the same initial idea.

Something I’m finding myself constantly doing in shops like HMV and Music Zone when I’m looking at CDs and DVDs is looking at the box artworks a lot more closely than I used to do and deciding what I think of their designs, much to the annoyance of my girlfriend! An example of this is these two recent purchases.


I thought the Arnie DVD cover was quite poor looking and probably took about 5 minutes to make, while I think the Iced Earth CD cover is fantastic and really fits the theme of the CD.

Until my next entry, goodbye.

Six Months of Learning, in Plan Form

Hi,

There’s been a bit of delay in getting this blog update made, mainly for the reason that I was unsure as to what I actually wanted to do regarding the six month learning plan. But after conversations with both Steve and John about pursuing the more graphic design side of this industry after this year I am a lot clearer now. I want to pursue this for a number of reasons:

1. I seem to enjoy the graphic parts of tasks more than the technical parts.
2. I feel if I put the time and effort in it is also one of my strengths as I think I am good at it.
3. If I pursue the graphic design side after building up my knowledge of the web design aspect on this course I’ll be in a good position to combine both aspects and be more tempting to potential clients/employers.

In regards to singling out a skill I want to develop over the next six months I think it is well worth trying to learn how to use Adobe In Design CS2 as it seems to be the industry standard in print design. In case you did not know, Adobe In Design CS2 is like a much more advanced version of PageMaker. If I can learn how to use this program over the next six months I think it would put me in a great position for the future as I’d be able to concentrate more on the designing rather than worrying about the implementation as much. From having a look on the net at this program it really interests me in wanting to learn how to use it.

I think I’d like to go onto do a top-up degree in graphic design, going straight in on the second year. I’d preferably like to do this at a local university instead of travelling away as well. I will have to research which university will be right for me.

Thanks for reading,
Dave

The Splendour of A Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Blog

Hi,

Firstly before I get started with the main part of this blog entry, I want to apologise for my infrequent blog updating as of late. I’ve now realised that I need to make these weekly updates on at least Wednesday so that any thoughts or revelations I have had during the week are still fresh in my mind and I can put them across effectively. Also from now on I’m going to try and make my blog entries a lot more engaging to read, as I feel my past posts were possibly lacking somewhat in that department.

Speaking of revelations, I have gone from thinking “I don’t really understand this CSS” to “Ahhh this is starting to make sense now”. I thought we had a really productive session with John last week and I think I am making some fair sized steps towards being able to actually make a page layout using only CSS. The turning point was when we were asking John about what exactly DIVS are; I feel not knowing that had made me just not understand much up to that point. I understood about selecting the different attributes for things on the style sheet, but I didn’t understand why they affected certain things on the website.

It’s not just CSS that I’ve been productive with this week; I’ve got on well with Steve’s Culture Vulture assignment this week and enjoyed doing it in the process. Firstly for this assignment I have learnt a new skill. I’ve realised that before I get started on an essay, or any written task I find it really beneficial to work on an essay plan in my sketch book. With the essay about 20th century design icons (which I did on the Nintendo Game Boy) I feel this is the first time I have successfully used such a method, and as a result I think my essay was a lot better structured than any I have done in the past.

The main part I have enjoyed about that assignment though was getting to finally work on something graphic for the first time this year after all the academic tasks in the ‘TheBiz’ assignment. I especially enjoyed getting to use PhotoShop again for adapting my design to fit the Adidas Hi-top shoe. I think I enjoy these sort of tasks is because I feel I am skilled at them, I am happy with the way my final shoe design turned out.

One more thing to add, I want a bigger desk at home, there’s just not enough room on this one!


Thanks for reading,
Dave

Bloginator 2: Judgement Blog

Hi,

So the rest of the week before half term, the first piece of work I got done was the essay for Culture Vulture, which I did about the Nintendo Game Boy. I found that because I had made a detailed essay plan showing exactly what I was going to write about the essay was pretty straight forward. I found this essay a lot more interesting to write than the ones on TheBiz assignment, possibly due to the fact I regularly play games on my Game Boy and newly purchased Nintendo DS. The essay plan definitely helped though and I feel this is the best essay I have written in terms of structure. Plus I thoroughly researched the subject beforehand in a range of sources.

The next thing on my list is to continue getting stuck into the web plan for my digital portfolio for the iMe assignment. I hope to make this web plan a lot more detailed than my previous web plans so all the decisions are made regarding the website, and I don’t have to ‘wing’ anything upon creation of it.

Things left to do:

• Complete rest of Web Plan
• Proposal for 6 month learning plan
• Action Plan for Johns session upon returning from half term

Thanks for reading,
Dave

Blogger The Barbarian

Hey,

This week the majority of my time was spent completing the 22.1 part of the A8 CiSSy assignment. It wasn’t as confusing as I originally suspected and once I sat down and did it, it didn’t take too long as my research was substantial enough. After receiving feedback on it from John there are a few things I need to look at before writing the revised draft. These are:

• The way I have structured the essay
• The reading ease, and language used
• Expanding upon examples, not just fonts
• A more in depth conclusion drawing back to the introduction

The other activity I did over the last week at home was to research three potential subjects for the Culture Vulture assignment. The ones I came up with weren’t really suitable so on Monday I researched a little more and came up with the subject of doing the Nintendo Gameboy. Before I chose that I was deciding between the Nintendo Gameboy and the Sony Walkman. I’m quite happy with this choice as I think there is plenty to write about, and also from doing research on the subject I’ve found a fair bit more to include than I originally realised. Also I seem to be enjoying this assignment more than the last, due to the fact it is more interesting to research and write about.

The first part of the Culture Vulture assignment (the essay) must be completed for when I return from half term. I am very confident this will be completed.

This week at home I plan to continue going through the CSS tutorial which I started earlier today, I think if I do this and other similar tutorials it will set me on the right course for understanding CSS.

I have received a list of things to have completed by the end of my half term ‘break’ from John, these are:

For the CiSSy assignment:

• Rewrite Task 1 (22.1) as per feedback.
• Complete web plan.

And for the iMe assignment:

• Research as per BBC web site
• Complete web plan
• Complete blog entry for week off.

And then also complete a proposal for a 6 month learning plan

And one final task of completing an Action Plan for the session after I return.

Turns out I have quite the opposite of a half term break ahead.

Thanks for reading,
Dave

TimeBlog

Hey,

This week was more relaxed than I thought it would be having the A9 deadline mainly due to the weekly deadlines we had previously, most of the work was already completed. To the first three parts of A9 all I needed to do was to make some minor amendments. Due to this I could afford to have a day off on my birthday which was Wednesday.

Got the assignment handed in this morning around 11:40am, I spent the morning just printing it and putting it together as I completed all the work in my self study time. I am confident I have included everything I need to do in it.

This week i'll mostly be concentrating on the 22.1 part of the CiSSy assignment as the mini deadline for it is Tuesday.

Things to do for next week:

• CiSSy 22.1 essay on CSS1, 2, and 2.1
• Research 3 20th century design icons
• Secure some better folder organisation
• Web Plan for iMe
• More rough sketches for iMe after web plan has been completed.

Thanks for reading.

After an email from Steve it was brought to my attention I forgot to upload this week’s entry, so here it is a bit late.

Big Trouble In Little Blog

Hey

My time planning during the last week all went to hell due to not getting as much as I wanted to get done before I went to the Bloodstock festival for a couple days, leaving me Sunday to do more than I intended to be doing. I have since got back onto track though and have the 6.3 part of TheBiz done.

I’m comfortable I will get all the TheBiz assignment completed for its deadline next week on Tuesday 10th October 12 noon as I have the 6.4 part of it well planned out as to what I will be writing. Then it’s just a matter of making any small amendments I need to do and collating it ready for handing in.

Given the choice whether to come into college next Monday or have a ‘home study’ day I decided I would rather come into college, mainly because if I did stay at home I probably wouldn’t even wake up till 1pm, and that’s half of the day gone.

During the week at home I put just over an hours work into researching CSS’ 1 and 2 and found I did not really understand a lot of it. I mentioned this to John and he explained the answer to any questions I had. Then this was further cleared up this afternoon when we actually made something basic in CSS. This was the first time I had ever used CSS for the layout of a website and it was perhaps a little simpler than I thought, but I’ll have to have a play around and see if I can make anything on my own.

My priority for this week’s home study is going to be TheBiz assignment due to its impending deadline but I will most certainly be fitting in some time for Johns assignments later in the week. But I want to get the A9 assignment all completed and arranged ready for hand in as soon as possible.

For next week I will have completed:

• Assignment A9 [For Tuesday 10th Oct 12noon]
• A9 - 6.4 Executive Summary of a Business Plan
• A9 - Small amendments to 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3.
• Research BBC Reboot website and evaluated gallery of entries.
• Research other people’s Digital Portfolios for inspirational/evaluative purposes.
• Weekly planning sheet [To be completed tonight (Tuesday 3rd Oct)]
• Weekly blog entry.

Thanks for reading.

Dave.

The Blog Strikes Back

Greetings,
I'm on the third week into the course and have progressed further with the A9 TheBiz assignment by having completed the 6.2 section of it. I am very pleased with what I produced for that section of the assignment and I think I completed it to a better standard than the 6.1 section. Of course before I hand the 6.1 in on the 10th October I will have put some time aside to improve it the best I can. The main thing I will be doing to improve it is:

• Add all the references I used
  

I am now onto the 6.3 aspect of the A9 assignment, the first part of it (defining the roles of a four person team) seems relatively straight forward after the work we did on it on Monday. For the documents that need producing I initially didn’t understand what it was I needed to be doing so I had a chat with Steve and I have more of a comprehension of what I need to produce. As long as I plan my time correctly I’m confident it will be done.

Demolition Blog

There were all sorts of madness that went on with this blog last week as I originally created it on the standard blogger.com, but then decided to remake it on the beta blogger. After initially getting it all up and running correctly I couldn’t seem to log back in. After much frustration I realised when I made it I had put my login name ending with .com instead of .co.uk. Then when I had it all working again, I accidentally deleted the Google account that I had used to make it… and the blog disappeared. So finally I’ve remade it again and emailed both Steve and John as I had to change its address (as it wouldn’t let me choose the old one).

Note:

• Email peers with update of blog address.
  

As to time planning while I have improved from last year I still need to work on it and rigorously stick to it as I ended up not having enough time to complete the action plans for John’s assignments. To correct this I have planned in my weekly planning form to complete these on Tuesday night and have set them as the highest priority. Other than that mishap I managed to get all the other tasks I had planned completed on schedule.

This week I’m planning to complete the bulk of my work as early as possible in the week because I’ll be at the Bloodstock festival most of Friday and also Saturday. I want to get it done early so I don’t have it all to do on Sunday and have to rush it, which has happened in the past.

Weekly Action Plan (Blog To The Future):

• Complete Action Plans for [A7] and [A8] (Priority: High due to time planning error last week)
• Research any relevant dates regarding CSS history [A8 22.1].
• Research cascade, inheritance, specificity on the W3C website [A8 22.1]. (www.w3.org)
• Complete the defining the roles of a four person team part of [A9 6.3]
• Produce documentation for [A9 6.3]
• Make amendments to [A9 6.2] (line up references, convert test plan into a form)
• Start thinking about A7 Digital Portfolio
  

Deadline for A9 6.3 – 2nd October.

Thanks for reading; any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Return Of The Blog

Greetings,
Just over a week into my second year now and I am pleased with the work I have already accomplished, especially having the assignment 9A 6.1 essay on the legal essentials of intellectual property rights. When the time comes on October 10^th to hand in the completed assignment, the amendments I need to make sure I have completed are:

• Insert all of the references I used.
• Double check my spelling and grammar to make sure there are no silly mistakes.
• Make sure the essay structure flows.

After yesterdays lesson with John I am now much happier and clearer as to what the CiSSy assignment A8 requires now that we have had a good chance to ask John questions regarding it.

Also yesterday I received feedback for my blog as a whole; most if not all of the changes will have already been implemented by the time you read this. I agree with the comments given as they make my blog look a lot more professional and fitting for my target audience.

I’ve found writing this blog a lot more comfortable than I did the first one, seems I’m just getting more used to this sort of thing as before this I had never had a blog or anything that I regularly publish my thoughts and feelings into. Plus I can see its potential uses like for example to aid me in my time planning and action planning.

For the 6.2 I have found Steve Krug’s book ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ useful, and also I like the way it is written. I shall be reading some more of it when I get chance to.

Things to do this week:

• Continue to improve my time planning.
• Research CSS levels 1, 2, and 3.1 for A8 CiSSy.
• Read some more of ‘Don’t Make Me Think’.
• Complete TheBiz 6.2 research then type up in essay format.
• Update my blog with a second entry (though I suppose I can already tick that one off my list!)

Deadline for TheBiz 6.2 – Monday 25^th September.

Thanks for reading; any comments would be greatly appreciated

Enter The Blog

Greetings,
I managed to get up early enough to get the bus on the first day back and get back into a more normal sleeping pattern after the summer holidays

After first receiving the assignments I initially wasn’t sure where to start with them but after reading them through thoroughly it has become clearer as to what I need to do. My note taking from the lectures has already proven useful in the planning stages of TheBiz assignment. I’m fairly confident I know what I will be writing.

Thanks for reading; any comments would be greatly appreciated.