Greg Carrick – HND Interactive Media

The first semester of this course has been really enjoyable. I have made many new friends and feel like I have settled in very well. Before I started this course I didn’t think I would make friends with everyone in the class and feel so much as part of the group. This is probably from the previous course I was on, were even nearing the end of the year there were still barriers between people and the class seemed to be made up of a few different groups of friends, that didn’t socialise between others. It’s so much better that there’s nothing like this on this course and everyone interacts with each other.

I think we have all settled in so well because of the activities from the first week and the encouragement we get from Steve to become friends and get to know each other. This defiantly helped me settle into the course and I’m sure it did for others as well. Since everyone gets on so well it makes the atmosphere in the class really enjoyable and I feel able to ask any one for help or advice.

I feel I have come a long way since the start of the course, I know it’s only been three months, but the journey I’ve been on in that time has been really enjoyable and I have learnt a lot more in that time than I ever could have expected. I’ve also learnt a lot about the industry, how it works and the skills required to achieve a place in the industry.

I now feel this course is for me and even though I have to say the work can get quite hard at times, I am going to pursue this course and try my hardest to complete it and take with me as much knowledge about the industry and what is required to work in it, as I can.

The first semester has shown me a lot about myself and I now feel more confident in my abilities and that this is the course for me. I have used three new software programs that I had never used before and I am surprised at how quickly I have picked them up and I’m looking forward to extending my knowledge about them and ability to use them.

Before this course I did not have to plan my time or set out when tasks needed to be done for. This made the time planning quite a hard routine to get into and I have to admit, my time planning for the first assignment was not really up to scratch. But I now feel I have vastly improved on my time planning and it really helped me to get through doing two assignments at once. It now feels like a natural thing to plan out my week and I can really see the advantages of thinking what needs to be done during the rest of the week.

I am still not sure if I would go straight into employment after this course, as I am considering a top-up-year. This would only be if there was a top-up-year from Steve, because I know that I would not get this level of education or learn as much, on at university course.

The standard of work on this course is a lot higher than on any I have done previously. When I first started the course I felt that the standard of work was too high for me to achieve and I was unsure if I would be able to cope with it. But now I feel that I can work to the course standard and I am pleased with the quality of the work I have produced.

Short Term Goals
In the short term I would like to improve on my knowledge in using programs and feel confident using them. I would also like to improve on my designing skills and idea generations, because I feel I can design better then I’m currently doing.

Mid-term Goals
I would like to complete the course and gain enough knowledge in the industry to enable me to become employable in it. I would also like to find out my preferred area in the industry and get some experience in it.

Long Term Goals
In the long term I would like to be employable and able to get a job that I really enjoy and also get plenty of experience in the industry.

This week has been a real “get on with it week” as Steve puts it. I feel that my work is coming along quite well but I keep finding things that I’ve missed and I hope I don’t forget to do everything needed for the hand in.

Even though I’m under pressure, I’m quite enjoying the work and hope I’m still enjoying it when it gets within a few days of the deadline. The banners are doing well, I’ve had to change them quite a lot from the original designs after feedback from Steve, but I can now see the improvement in them. I’ve posted the most recent designs up and I would appreciate some further feedback if you don’t mind.

I think the image restoration is finally complete, but I’m going to have another look at it in a few days to make sure there’s nothing else to do on it. I’ve posted that up and I also like a bit of feedback on the choice of colours if you don’t mind.

I still have quite a lot of work to do for the hand in so it looks like a lot of self study this week and if I every thing goes well I should have it done for Monday, so I have a full day to check it.

I am quite pleased with the amount of work I got done in self study last week. As I made a real progression on the work needed for seminar groups and feel if this week’s self study is as productive as last weeks, I should be well on the way to having the work completed for fake submission next week.

Monday morning, there was a real unhappy atmosphere in the room and I don’t think it’s been so quite in that room since we started. After lunch the atmosphere was much more lively and peoples spirits had been lifted again, after there feedback on the A2 referral.

I spent all day Monday finishing off writing the web content and for some reason I feel that I should have and could have done much more work. Even after a full day on the content I still need to recheck all the terms and there are some that need expanding.

Tuesday was another surreal experience, even though it was basically the same method as with the business cards, I feel as though it is a new experience to me. This is probably because of the changing pace in which we had to work. When we first started I couldn’t get into the swing of thing and felt rushed, but after the first banner design I got into it. It made it more interesting when Steve kept lowering the time limit and before this experience, if someone had asked me to create four designs in a minute I would have thought it was impossible. I really enjoyed the activity and think I will try it in the future, even though it wouldn’t work if I did it by myself.

I really enjoyed creating the banners in Photoshop and even though they are not finished yet I feel that I got quite a lot of work done on them.

Below are my two banners and even though they are not finished yet, I would appreciate it, if you could give me some feedback on them and let me know what I can do to improve them. The main part I’m not sure of, is the word ‘Jazz’ been on the hat of Don Weller. Thanks in advance.