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.
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You don't have anything to worry about with the Sketchbook, Tom - so long as you keep doing little bits of it all year.
Remember the advice I gave in the presentation. Collect print resources, such as flyers and leaflets, staple them in your sketchbook (not glue!) and then annotate on colours/fonts/layout/anything else.
If you collect a few a week (5 maybe?) then as the weeks go by you will have lots of stuff - and your design observations will prove to be valuable later on in the course. It's a win-win situation.
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