Evaluation after the First Semester

On reflection, the first semester of the course has proved to be a very important and key stage in my development as a designer. Having come from a position with effectively no design or web design experience, I feel as though my progress thus far has been massively influential on what is to come in the future.

The main 'learning-curve' this semester has concerned developing a greater comprehension of theoretical design principles and concepts, as well as a greater knowledge of the technologies and processes used in web design. These advances in my understanding will again be very important and influential in my future. I have also begun to develop more specific interests over the past few months. Specifically, I seem to have developed more of an interest in the graphic design aspect of the course. Obviously, having not actually built a website yet, and with many aspects of the course to come, my interests may again evolve to accommodate different areas of the design field.

In terms of the actual work this semester, I have been quite surprised at the commitment and effort that the work takes. Looking at friends and family on other Higher Education courses at Universities, it seems we get it much tougher than they do. This is, in many ways, the opposite to what I expected. However, in the long run I think I will appreciate the difficulty of the course as is it gives me a much greater level of experience and I feel I will also be able to learn much more effectively.

Over the next semester, my primary aim is to gain a merit in an assignment. I feel this is an attainable goal for me, although I admit it will take a lot of work. I also hope to develop my currently limited web-building skills through the work done on assignments, as well as work undertaken in my own time.

In terms of the rest of the course, my main target is to gain skills, both design related and transferable skills, which will make me employable. It is also my aim to gain a number of merit/distinction grades over the coming year and a half, and to ensure I reach my full potential.

My long term goals, at the moment, I am not sure of. In my previous statement, it was my aim to eventually work for myself. Whilst this is still something I wish to one day achieve, this may be a 'long-long term goal'. I feel gaining industry experience would be much more beneficial prior to this. I am still not sure whether I would like to further my education before moving into employment, but this is definitely something I am considering. My thoughts at the moment are that as the course progresses, I will gain a better understanding of which area I would like to work in, and therefore be able to form a better plan for the future.

Bad Time for Illness!

I've not been in College this week much due to illness, and what a time for it to happen! With a week until deadline, this is exactly what I didn't need! I have got more work done than I expected I would whilst I've been off, but not as much as I could have done in the time if I'd been in College and fit.

Thankfully, I feel that I'm in a position that I needn't worry about the deadline- I don't have masses of work to do this week, it's just a case of ensuring all the references are okay, putting them in the column, and then placing all the images in the correct place on the facing page for A3.

For A4, everything is now done!

I still have both the evaluations to complete and the merit and distinction lists, but I find writing the evaluations relatively painless.

The thing I'm worried about this week is my time sheets- I'm not sure whether the time this week will add up to the 32 hours, with me being ill. This'll be a shame as I've managed to meet my target of fulfilling the whole 32 hours each week, and I don't want to be let down in one week simply due to my illness.

I'm glad I was able to come in for my seminar group this week, it's obviously important, especially this close to the deadline. It took it out of me getting there, but I'm definitely glad I did!

I'm really looking forward to next week, finally handing in A3 and A4 will be a massive weight off my mind, and plus it's then the Christmas break... and you have to love Christmas! Especially the dinner...

In conclusion, I hope that this week I'll be able to find time to both complete my work and also have time for rest and re-cooperation. I think I'll start the latter tonight by sitting in front of the TV watching the Liverpool match, although it might not be too relaxing if things don't go our way!

Additional Feedback Post

This is an additional post this week so I can put my rough Screen Designs up for feedback.

Please bear in mind they are only rough- so be gentle!

Screen Design 1
















Screen Design 2

Two Weeks To Go...

This week has been pretty productive as a whole!

A3 isn't as far on as it technically should have been- I'm currently gathering some feedback on the screen designs and developing my assets list- hopefully it should be finished by the end of this week, and the budget statement should also be done, if not well on it's way.

In terms of A4, I have finished the Image Restoration task, and have got a lot further on in my Banner Ads than I thought I would, mainly due to the intense design session we had this morning, in which we generated 40 ideas in 30 minutes! I found this task quite vigorous, but at the same time fulfilling- it was good to succeed at something I didn't feel confident with.

These ideas were then developed over the rest of the morning, and then this afternoon I managed to get them digitised! Please offer any feedback or constructive criticism on the designs.


This week brings sad news, with the departure of our colleague Tom Wealthy. It came as a big surprise to me when I found out he was leaving, and I was sad to hear it. However, it may be something we have to get used to as we get further into the course.

As I haven't posted it yet, I also feel it's about time I showed off my Image Restoration and got some feedback on that as well! I've been a bit behind on the gathering feedback side of things thus far, and want to change that before we hand in the assignment- a necessity if I want to achieve the much sought after 'merit' grade.

Before


After

Content about Content

This week has been one for getting quite a bit of work done. I've managed to complete the content for A3, which ended up taking almost 20 hours! I'm really glad this is out of the way now, though, and intend to get well into the screen designs this week. I also really need to get the site structure done this week seeing as I didn't get opportunity to last week.

Although I've got a lot done this week, I haven't got as much done as I would have wanted to. I did do the full 16 hours, but I literally had no other time to spend doing additional work. This was because I had committed to too many other things last week- I suppose in a way it was bad time planning for other aspects of my life. Having the content out of the way has removed a big obstacle though.

In terms of A4, I've only just begun adding colour onto the photo. I've restored all the scratches, etc. to a standard I'm almost happy with, and over the next week I don't think there'll be a problem finishing it. I am struggling to decide what colours to do the guy's suits though.

Another thing I'd like to talk about is the 'business card' task on Monday in which we had to design and make a business card in 30 mins. The purpose of this was to show the pressure that can be applied to us in the business, as well as testing our ability to keep the information exactly as the client wishes- which all but one of us failed to do! I think this was a valuable lesson to learn... even if it means simply not adding 'Tel.' in front of the telephone number!

Last week I bought a book Steve recommended, called 'Photoshop for Photographers'. Despite the name, it's a good all round book that isn't really just for photographers- it addresses a wide range of Photoshop's features. I haven't had a deep look into it yet, but the parts I have looked at seem well written and really helpful... I'd recommend you get a copy. It's also a great price at £14.99.

Manipulation of the Nation (or three old men...)

As usual, I'll start with an update on last weeks targets. I managed to complete the delivery requirements and competitive analysis, although after todays seminar groups some minor adjustments will have to be made. The image compression essay was also completed, after a massive amount of editing after going almost double the word count!

The most important thing I've realised this week, I think, is how much time is will actually take to write the full compliment of definitions for the A3 Webplan. It took me the entire afternoon on Monday morning to write the 10 definitions for the 'hardware' section. This has lead to me having to reconsider my time plan for the week, and I'm now doubting whether I'll be able to complete the content this week as indicated on my production schedule.

On a brighter note, we're now on to the image manipulation part of the A4 assignment. This is the same image as the current 2nd years had this time last year. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is the part I've been looking forward to. Although much of the work is repetitive, and doesn't take a massive degree of skill, I still love using Photoshop and always get satisfaction out of an end product. Having two weeks to do this should mean that it can be does to as high a quality possible, although this kind of work is something that can never be quite perfect, and you could spend forever messing around with it.

This week we also had a short lecture on typography. This has confirmed a few things I wasn't sure about, and will enable me to use this knowledge when I get around to the screen designs for the A3 assignment, as well as for other future work. This followed on from a lecture on digital imaging, in which we were told about the differences between bitmap images and vector graphics. This again confirmed some things I wasn't entirely convinced about.

Over the next week, I plan to complete at least two more of the content sections, with the hope I can complete the final one next Monday afternoon. I had also planned to begin to have some ideas for the site structure diagram, but the time-consuming nature of the content means I might have postpone this until next week. Finally, I'm going to continue some work on the image restoration assignment.

Manic Compression

This week has been a good week at college. It's been quite a relaxed atmosphere, which is definately one I learn better in. I always find things sink in easier with less tension around.

I'm really getting into the 'A4 - Image Rights' assignment at the moment. There's something about this unit that I'm really enjoying. Having completed the 'Artist vs. Designer' essay last week, this week it's an essay on image compression. Even this, which most people probably aren't interested in, excites me. I think it's being able to get to grips with the kind of stuff I've been messing about with over the past year or two in a context I feel I can expand my knowledge and learn new things. I'm looking forward to doing some image manipulation in the next few weeks, this is another area I'm really interested in, and having played around in Photoshop in the past, I'm excited about the prospect of learning some new techniques.

As for A3, I've taken a different approach this time for the target audience. Having received the 'general feedback' and today the more personal feedback, this is the area I need to improve most for this web plan. I've now created a general user profile based on the Adobe technique, as well as a specific user profile, based on a fictional character I've named Kenneth:

Kenneth is a 67 year-old retired builder, who has just purchased his first PC. He has a 56k dial-up connection, and is excited at the prospect of being able to communicate regularly with his grandchildren and old friends from his working days, as well as being able to research into his hobby, train spotting. He has no previous experience with computers, and despite having the most up-to-date software on his new PC, he struggles to customise it to meet his needs. Kenneth suffers from chronic glaucoma and his eyesight is badly affected. He struggles to read small type. He also suffers from arthritis, and has trouble at times using a mouse, and so he prefers to use the keyboard where possible.

I've now chosen a couple of sites to do my competitive analysis on, and am hoping to complete this and my delivery requirements over the next week. I'm trying hard at the moment to make sure I dedicate time to both assignments, despite my current preference for A4.

This week, then, my targets are:

• the image compression essay;
• delivery requirements;
• competitive analysis;
• much better time planning.
  

A Myriad of Emotion

First week back after the half term and reading week, and what a week!

Monday morning involved each of us doing our presentations about our respective colours, and it was actually quite a pleasant morning. The presentations were one-on-one with Steve, and whilst not doing ours, we were able to sit in the refectory. This gave us time to get to know each other better, as well as offer each other support both prior to, and after, our presentations. It was also good to get to know the HNC student Mark better, as this was the first full day he's spent with us.

The presentation itself, as far as I am concerned, went quite well. I over-ran the time limit slightly, but not massively. I had been forced to amend my presentation on Saturday as when I practiced it, it was too long. Maybe I should have rehearsed it more after I had removed a couple of slides, but time restraints meant this wasn’t possible.

Monday afternoon, to describe it in a word, was ‘eventful’. Firstly we discussed in our new seminar groups what our feelings were towards the course after the first half term, before bringing this before the whole group. This was quite a useful exercise, and it brought to light a few interesting points. One of the main points was the ongoing issues around communication- in terms of email response times, the number of blog comments, etc. This remains an issue within the group, but hopefully it shouldn’t for long… the number of times it has been reinforced now makes me feel that soon it must be sorted!

After this we looked over a few general feedback points from the marking of the assignments. These were problems that recurred in a number of assignments. This, again, was beneficial, as it showed a number of specific details that need to be included within the assignment, that maybe I overlooked. It made me quite nervous, however, and the wait for the results seemed to last forever! Hopefully next time we will be able to get results earlier in the day.

Then, finally, we were onto the grades! This was the moment that we had all been patiently waiting for over the past few weeks. Thankfully, I passed. When hearing this I was briefly happy, but the mood in the room was sombre, and I quickly found my frame of mind was deteriorating. I guess with the combination of the earlier conversation about communication, and the number of referrals, it was hard for people to stay positive, even those who had passed.

Tuesday was a much more encouraging day for me, and the time at college definitely felt more comfortable. Throughout the morning we had a very interesting debate concerning the question ‘Are we Artists or Designers?’ I hadn’t really considered this before, and a massive amount of interesting and controversial points we made. I’m still trying to make up my mind on the differences, and I’m looking forward to exploring this more in the first essay for the new A4 assignment. One interesting article, entitled Art Vs Design, can be found at the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) website.

I spent the afternoon completing further research on the subject, as well as having a seminar group in which we looked over the new assignment sheets for both A3 and A4. Both the assignments look really interesting, especially the image manipulation stuff in A4. I’m really looking forward to getting into this and developing my skills in this area over the next few weeks.

Fade to Black

This week has been quite interesting actually. Over the weekend I wasn't looking forward to having to get stuck back into some work... I think I slipped slightly into lazy mode during half term! However, Monday morning came and the task was revealed. At first I was a bit surprised to find I had to do a presentation all about the colour black, but in retrospect, it's been really interesting and a good task to do.

Firstly was the research. I spent pretty much six and a half hours on Monday just reading on the web about black, as well as the theories behind colour psychology. Having done Psychology at AS Level, I already had some knowledge and grounding with this, as well as an existing interest. This definitely helped with my preparations for next weeks presentation.

I've almost got my presentation done now, just need to practice it a few times and make sure I know the structure, etc. like the back of my hand. Not that I know the back of my hand that well...

I guess I didn't realise colours mattered as much as they do prior to this task, and my eyes have, in many ways, been opened. I suppose, in my ever-cynical view on life, I take the opinion that maybe the importance of certain things are over-analysed, and I think this may be one of those cases. Colours can be important, but more often than not, I think that they are just simply colours. I don't know what others think about this... let me know.

I've got my hosting sorted this week, so I expect I'll be providing you all with a new e-mail address soon enough, but I'll wait until I see you to do that. My domain name is www.tp-smith.co.uk, not much up there at the moment, but I thought I'd let you know for future reference. I decided to go with John for my hosting- it really did seem like the best option at this time- not just in price, but also what is provided. I think it's a brilliant deal!

I've also printed off the assignment sheets for the next two assignments. 'Back to Basic' looks quite interesting, but I have to admit, on first reading of 'Image Rights', I felt quite nervous about it. It seems to be quite a challenging assignment. I'm definitely going to have to re-read it a few times and come up with some questions about it. Hopefully this'll help me get my mind together and add to my comprehension of what the assignment will want from me.

Half Term... and Glad!

This weeks post may not be as long as the others, as it's half term and not a lot of assignment-related work has been going on!

I've set this week aside as a real time for rest and re-cooperation. I've found myself really, really tired this week, and I think it's been die to all the unforeseen stress I experienced during the first assignment.

Having said that the week has been for rest, I have spent a few hours messing around with XHTML, and I think I'm beginning to get to grips with the basics... although the more complicated stuff still has work needing to be done on it to improve. As for CSS, I think that it might be later in the week before I get onto having a play with that, if I'm lucky!

This week I've also had a chance to step back and think abut how I think the course is going for me, on a more personal level. Again, as I mentioned in previous posts, I'm beginning to feel that this really is the course for me at this point in my life. This, I can tell you, is really encouraging for me... I've really struggled to find a sense of direction in my life in the past!

Deadline Day... Done and Dusted!

Today was the first deadline on the course, and I feel good that it's finally out of the way! As you can see from my previous posts, the assignment hasn't passed without problems, and I'm massively thankful and happy for the deadline to now have passed and the assignment to be handed in.

I was surprised at how relaxed I was around the deadline... if I was asked last week, I would have said that I'd be working right up until the last hour or so before the cut off point for handing in. In fact, all I had to do on the morning of the deadline was print off a few pages (that I couldn't at home) and put them in plastic wallets. By being prepared in advance, I think it enabled me to be much calmer around the deadline, and I had plenty of time to proof read and make any last minute amendments. Next time, though, I might make sure I can print the colour pages off at home... 20p a page can make it's impression on the pocket!

Over the last seven weeks, I think my knowledge of web design has evolved massively, particularly, I think, in terms of theoretical aspects such as accessibility. I've found looking into things like this really interesting, which is brilliant, as I've never found myself doing academic research into things I'm interested in before. At times I've ended up reading more than I had to. Having this feeling has made me begin to think that this really is the right course for me at this point.

Throughout the assignment, I think one area I've definitely improved in is the time management. At first, I found this difficult to do, but over the past few weeks I've found myself planning and recording my time much more efficiently. I'm also beginning to see that this has really helped the way I work. My recording of time is a lot better than my planning at the moment, so I've decided to assign this as a target to work on for the future.

Over the half term break and reading week, I've decided that, in addition to the work Steve sets, I'm going to spend a bit of time 'messing about' with HTML, and maybe a bit of CSS. I'm not massively familiar with these at the moment, and I think it's about time I set some time aside to deal with this. Now I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge of this area, and I'll let you know how it goes.

A week to go...

This week has been the most chaotic, yet enjoyable, week on the course so far. My last post has become entirely void... I had selected a final design, but Steve wasn't happy with this choice and insisted on an amalgamation of the two designs. Looking back to the feedback group last week, I now remember that this was his conclusion as the conversation developed, but this must have been forgotten throughout the week and after the gathering of further feedback from other sources. First lesson for this week: make notes during feedback groups for future reference.

I arrived on Monday with the target of getting my screen design done on Pagemaker. However, after a short conversation and brain storming session with Steve, it became apparent that the design needed a complete makeover. With the 'practice' deadline looming on Tuesday, this seemed almost implausible, especially as I still had to finish the assets list and budget statement.

Fortunately, I managed to get all the assignment completed (with the exception of the evaluation) ready for the feedback group, and I had time for a quick proof read as well.

Looking back on this week, it's been a real challenge, but I've really appreciated the pressure. It could be that I work more effectively with an impending deadline. Of course, there have been times of frustration (with Pagemaker for the most part!), but in general, getting my head down had been enjoyable, and definitely beneficial.

For those of you who are interested, here is an image of my final screen design:

I personally am really happy with the result of the redesign. In my opinion, it's a much more effective design than the others, and the combination of different aspects of the other two has led to a design that is much more suited to my target audience.

This week, I have to complete the evaluation, redesign my feedback form to include more methods of gathering information, and make some minor alterations to the body of the assignment. In all, I feel confident that I can get this done relatively easily within the time I have.

Decision

Despite some feedback from members of the class, I've decided to go for screen design 1 as my final design.

The primary reason for this is the reaction of Steve in the feedback group on Tuesday. This was his preferred design, and he is the client! I did try to dissuade him from this at first, but in retrospect, he is the client and therefore he has the final say!

Over the course of the week I think I've come round to agree with him... feedback from older family and friends leads me to believe that the style of design 1 will 'connect' more with older people, and that this design reflects some styles of 30+ years ago. As my target audience is older, it's probably the best bet that I go with this and use design 1. Now all that remains is slight editing, including 'chunking' the text and amending the font to a more web safe font.

Thanks to those who left feedback.

Screen Designs

As I said in my previous posts, I've got my screen design down to two ideas. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

Screen Design 1:


Screen Design 2:


A quick response would obviously be appreciated, and you can use the vote function on the right if you fancy it, although constructive comments would be better!

Under Pressure...

As usual, I'll begin with an update on last weeks post. My time management, I felt, was better than previous weeks and this week I have again planned the entire week in advance, which I find helps my mentality- I seem to dedicate myself to actually doing the time if I have it on paper. The Design Mechanics visit last week was excellent- really worthwhile to come in on an extra day to listen to what was said by Dave and the two former students, Jemma and Oliver. On a more negative note, I didn't manage to get a final screen design chosen- I've got down to two now but will need some more feedback before deciding on which design to submit- I'll post the designs up later today.

This week it's really hit home to me that the deadline really is just around the corner. And there's still a lot to do. Although I've completed the majority of tasks now, the remaining tasks seem like a mountain in front of me. This week I've managed to complete the site structure diagram, and I've written up an almost final draft of the written part of the assignment- the project goals, target audience, delivery requirements and competitive analysis. The problem with this, though, is that I've almost written too much! With an upper limit of 2500 and mine reaching 2300ish, I'm really going to have to do some editing at some point. I think, on the whole though, I'm happy with this part of the assignment.

During my self study this week, I need to make sure everything else is ready to be incorporated into my assignment document next week. This includes:

• a final screen design;
• assets list;
• budget statement;
• evaluation.

This is a lot of work for one week, and admittedly I'm mildly apprehensive about getting it all completed for our "practice" deadline next Tuesday, but I'll try my hardest. I've already got my site structure diagram completed whilst practising with Pagemaker this week.

On Monday of this week, we had a session in which we discussed the question: "What do you have to do to get 'merit' and 'distinction' grades?" After this, I felt, to be honest, as though there wasn't a hope of achieving anything higher than a 'pass', especially at the moment. In a way this is a new feeling for me, to feel a grade is out of my reach, and it's not something I felt comfortable with. On the other hand, it's challenged me to set my targets a bit higher and has illustrated to me the difficulty of the course. Perhaps I could set an aim at some point to achieve a 'merit' or 'distinction' in an assignment, but I feel for now as though getting to grips with the course and what's expected of me is still a higher priority.

Moving Along Nicely?

I'll start with an update on last weeks targets, and how they went. Firstly was the target to get through the competitive analysis, and begin work on the initial stages of screen design. Unfortunately, although I did complete the competitive analysis, I didn't get onto the screen designs in my self study time- admittedly through bad time planning. However, I did complete my other targets of collecting and annotating design work, and creating a page numbering/indexing solution for my sketchbook.

To combat the issues I had last week with time planning, this week I spent a good half hour at College on Monday planning the full week ahead. In previous weeks I've struggled to plan more than a day in advance so by forcing myself to plan a full week it may help with my self study time.

I've spent a lot of time this week thinking about accessibility, and looking into this on the web- although I've now learnt to document literally EVERYTHING I research in the sketchbook in order to prove I've done it- and in order to be prepared to answer any question that may come my way! I suppose this was learnt the hard way this week.

We also got underway with using Adobe Pagemaker this week- a program I was unsure about, mainly due to what I perceived to be it's limitations. However, I was surprised by the quality of the simple document we made, and I suppose this illustrates that design is about just that; design. It's not about the programs used to design or the more technical aspects- it's simply aesthetics. There was also a conversation during one lecture about creativity in design- and how, as web designers, we're not designing for ourselves, but for others. I think this could be a hard concept for some, but for me, it was fine; I totally agreed with the idea.

This week my primary aim is to stick to the time plan I've made and not allow myself to be distracted by other temptations. Hopefully, I'll have a final screen design completed and ready to be DTP'd (DeskTop Published) next week, prior to the seminar session on Tuesday. It's also the session with the Design Mechanics this week, which a few others and I will be joining the second years for- that should be very interesting and a great experience.

And We're Off...

I've genuinely surprised myself this week, as I've actually enjoyed getting stuck in and doing some work! This, for me, is a strange experience; to appreciate work. Yet it's also a great feeling, to know that I'm finally enjoying what I'm doing with my life. On the other hand, there are still the niggling doubts in my head on the odd occasion, which sometimes counter my positive feelings.

This week I've managed to get quite a bit of work done on the first assignment. I've finished the project goals, the target audience, and now the delivery requirements just need a touching up before they're completed. I've spent a lot of time in College this week starting my competitive analysis, looking particularly at the BBC site dedicated to John Peel, the 'Great Briton' that I'm designing the site for. I suppose the fact that this is a BBC site and therefore it's so well designed in terms of accessibility and content, etc. has been quite nerve racking. How am I, as inexperienced as I am, supposed to compete with that?! However, using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) method of analysis has actually helped highlight some negative aspects of the site which I'll hopefully be able to capitalise on over the rest of my assignment- I feel better about that now.

In terms of an update on last weeks journal entry, I'd like to say my time management wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! The hardest part is the actual planning, but when I've got that down, sticking to it wasn't as difficult as I'd assumed it would be.

My aim for this week is to complete the competitive analysis, and to get on to the initial stages of the screen design. I also need to allot myself some time to find some examples of good design, stick them in my book, and add some annotations to them... this, so far, hasn't proved to be my strong point. Another target is to manage to get an indexing/page numbering system sorted for my sketchbook.

The Good, The Bad, and The SketchBlog.

This week we were handed our first assignments. The first one we received, entitled 'That's the Plan', is an assignment to complete a web plan. Basically, it's a task to design a website without actually building it. At first, I was slightly disappointed not to be getting straight into the actual building of a site, but on later reflection, it's actually going to be the best way to learn the web design process, and the successions of thought that occurs behind the scenes.

The depth of the preparation required prior to creating a site actually surprised me, particularly in terms of the amount of research into a number of things. Having struggled with research in the past, I wasn't particularly looking forward to spending a lot of time sitting, reading through things and taking notes. However, I actually ended up really enjoying the time I spent doing research, and found a few quite valuable resources, not only for the website plan, but hopefully for future work too. One particular website of note was webdesignfromscratch.

The second assignment, 'SketchBlog', is also an interesting one. It's an ongoing assignment lasting the full academic year, from now up until May, which will assess the work in my sketchbook and my 'Online Learning Journal'. This assignment , based on Ideas Generation, is actually from the Graphic Design syllabus rather than the Interactive Media syllabus, which I think is a great opportunity to expand my skills.

At first when considering the work for the SketchBlog, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do, and I suppose I was surprised and slightly unnerved at the concept of an ongoing assignment over such a massive amount of time. How can I keep up a consistent level of work over such a long period? However, having time in our first seminar session to look through the second years' sketchbooks, I felt that my understanding of what is required of me was increased, and I now feel a bit more confident about what lies ahead in terms of the SketchBlog.

My biggest issue now, I think, is managing to successfully organise my self study time at home. I haven't been the best at this in the past, and have always had a problem with disciplining myself to stick to any time frames I have pre-planned. Hopefully the time planning sheets that Steve's given us will help me to sort this issue out, and assist me with managing myself more effectively.

My Past, My Future, and Everything in Between.

Prior to starting on the HND Interactive Media course, my background doesn’t contain a lot of creative or technical study related to the area, aside from the compulsory subjects in school of course. I have tended to study more ‘academic’ subjects, completing A-Levels in English, Politics, and Geography; and an AS-Level in Psychology. This choice of subjects may suggest a contradiction between my interests and the Interactive Media course, but I have always had an interest in computer-based design, although I have never, until now, had the chance to study it in a way that appeals to me.
My working life up until this point has involved working for the majority of my year out in the Council Tax office in Wakefield, which has proved useful in a number of ways, including developing my self confidence and changing my attitude towards the ‘world-of-work’, helping me realise the importance of making a true effort to get where I want to be.
In terms of developing a specific interest in web design, I would say this occurred during my year out, in the time leading up to starting working for the Council. I was asked by the other members of my band to design a website to show the world what we are about and to enable contact with us through the site. Obviously, having never done anything like that before, I wasn’t sure where to start. Despite my lack of knowledge in this area, I used online tutorials and my brothers experience of Flash, which he had gained from his Music Technology degree, to use Photoshop and Flash to create the site. I found creating my bands website a very challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable experience, and my interest in web design has grown since. Further reading and research has led me to realise there are much better ways to create websites, and I decided that studying this at college would probably prove to be the most effective and fruitful way to learn more.
In the future, it is my aim to be able to work for myself in the web design industry, running my own small business. My Brother-in-Law currently runs his own web design business, and my hope is that he will be able to provide me with experience of work, which in turn will lead me to a position where I am able to work for myself.
I recognise the amount of work and commitment it will take for me to get where I aim to be in a few years time, and also the personal skills I will need to develop to be able to achieve my aims effectively. I especially feel these demands when considering my lack of experience in the area, both in terms of creativity and the more technical side. However, I look on this as a personal challenge to overcome, and aspire to put all the effort I can into the course.