I can’t believe that all the first year assignments have been handed in and there’s only one week left of the first year, which is actually where we find out about the first, second year assignment.
Looking back at my first ever post, the formative statement, I feel like I have come a very long way, and I have to say I’ve realised that before starting the course, I didn’t really know much about the industry at all. The vast variety of subjects we have covered and the depth we have gone into, in the first year has made me realise how large the industry is.
The first assignment A1 – SketchBlog, is an on going assignment and was one, that in my case got forgotten some of the time. The Online Journal part of this assignment was not forgotten as it was a task we had to do every week and when we required feedback. But with the sketchbook I just seemed to forget it was an assessable part and sometimes forget to work on it.
Both keeping a sketchbook and updating an Online Learning Journal were new to me and I did find the Journal hard to start off with. Mostly because I have not always been an open person and found it hard to write down my thoughts and feelings about events. I have grown to like the Journal and find it a very useful thing to have, to update everyone on what I’m going through and also to find out if I’m at the same stage and have the same feelings as others.
It was only half was through the year when I realised how helpful and important the sketchbook was. I started to take it every where and always have it open and next to me when I’m working, now I wish I’d realised that earlier.
The second assignment A2 – That’s the Plan, is when I first realised how little I knew and how much there was to know. The amount we need to know and do on this course really did hit me quite hard, as the work load on my previous course was no were as near as large as on this one. On top of the larger work load, there was the way the course is run and the formal submission of the work, which was unheard of on my last course.
I learnt a lot about how much more there is to the internet than what meets the eye. The whole web accessibility was an unheard of subject to me and something I had never really thought about. I found the web accessibility subject quite hard to take in at first, as there is just so much to it. It took me awhile to get to grips with the subject and now it’s one of the first things I think about when I access or create a website.
Even though we didn’t build the website and use the technologies required to build one, I still feel I learnt a lot about them and it helped me in the second assignment. Another experience was setting the out work in an academic format and making effort with the view of the final submission. This was something I’d never done before and I was pleased with my work when I saw it in the academic format.
I spent a lot of time researching the Great Briton, J.R.R Tolkien, just to find out the needed information on him. This brought out one of my weaknesses ‘researching’; I spent too much time researching and not enough time doing the work. This is something I feel I have improved on, I can now get the information I need in a quicker time and seem to find more relative pages for what I’m looking for.
The next two assignments were enough with the easy work and into the standard of work and speed required for the course. Having two assignments on the go and less time than the previous one to do them in, really helped me to improve on my time planning skills, which didn’t go very well on the A2 assignment. During these assignments was when I really started to feel confident with my time planning ability and really understand at what speed I could work at.
The A3 – Back to Basic assignment was another web plan like A2, but it had to be improved and in a lot more detail. I didn’t feel very confident going into this assignment as there was more to do and less time to do it in. I didn’t think I would be able to handle the larger work load, but to my surprise I managed quite well.
I feel I’ve got a broader knowledge of computer terms while doing this assignment and really improved on my researching skills, due to researching 40 computer terms and finding out more about the technologies used to create the website.
I feel I preformed a lot better on this assignment over A2, I think that’s down to knowing more of what is expected of me and been used too how the course is run and the work is handed in. I felt pleased with the extra detail I went into on the screen designs and site structure diagrams. Since I needed them to be precise as we had to make this website and used the measurements and I’m glad to say they were at a good size and worked out.
The A4 – Image Rights assignment faced me with some new challenges, ones that I really enjoyed. Getting the experience of timed tasks was something new to me and I have to say to start off with I didn’t like it but in the end I really enjoyed them. Using Photoshop was a great experience and I really started to get into the attention to detail with the image restoration.
Learning the PARC principles was a real eye opener and I started to look at everything differently and as soon as I saw something I would think about it using PARC. But I need to improve on my ability to use the PARC principle myself.
The A5 – Builder was a really enjoyable unit, getting down and creating the website was so much fun. I did quite a lot of hand coding and learnt a lot about XHTML and CSS; I know I’ve only touched the surface of both codes, but I’m really looking forwards to learning more. I also found out more about Dreamweaver, as I had used it before but not for anything extensive.
The A6 – Revert to Type was probably the subject I found most interesting and still do find very appealing. It was something I’d never really thought about before and didn’t know there would be some much about it. It’s also a subject I’m not very strong with, and is something I’m going to try and improve on during the summer. My main weakness is my knowledge of different typefaces and using typefaces in different circumstances. The subject is something I’m interested in so I should enjoy working on it during summer.
The final assignment A7 – Wailing Whales was by far the hardest assignment for me. I really enjoyed the designing and creating parts of it, but found it hard to come up with a suitable design for both the Logo and Digipak. This was when I realised how uncreative I am and although I got quite a few designs for them, they seemed to be similar and not to a standard I was happy with.
When I’m sitting with a blank piece of paper in front of me I can never seem to start to design anything, my mind goes blank and I can’t do anything. This wasn’t too bad with A7; but I just couldn’t seem to open my mind and most of the designs were similar.
I was happy with the final look of the Emit logo but not too impressed with the Digipak as it did not represent the music in the way it was to me. I did improve my Photoshop skills creating it and learnt some new software in the form of FreeHand and Illustrator.
I feel I have progressed a lot since the start of the course and my knowledge of the industry has increased dramatically. I have really enjoyed the first year at college and I know I have a long way to go to become employable, but I know this is the right course for me and probably the best one to get me in the industry. I feel I’ve got to improve to get to the second year standard, but I’m going do revise the things I’ve learnt from the first year and try to improve on my weaknesses.
Goals for next year
- Improve on my creative ability, try to open my mind more when sketching
- Be able to hand code CSS efficiently
- Be more confident with use of typefaces
- Use PARC efficiently in my work
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