Photoshop

Photoshop, developed by Adobe, is one of the most used pieces of software for a designer in this day and age and is available pretty much world wide. However, with design comes responsibility and responsibility means understanding how Photoshop actually works. There are a million different things you can do to an image with Photoshop but without the right knowledge and understanding the image could look amateur or unprofessional.

My first experience of Photoshop was two years ago in my previous course. At first I was rather dazzled (and scared) by the amount of functions it has but after much time spent fiddling about with it I learnt it was rather easy to follow. The very first confusion I had was what resolution to use… 72 or 300dpi. I never really came to understand it properly until I enrolled on my current course. To my understanding 72dpi for anything that is staying on screen and anything to print should be 300dpi.

Other things that I came across whilst playing with Photoshop that I believe are of importance are layers and filters:

Layers

Layers which is represented with this little tool is one of the most important tools when it comes to design. The biggest mistake and usually a once only mistake is to not put every little detail onto a new layer. Unfortunately, I learnt this the hard way on one of the first pieces of design, whilst studying graphic design, I had ever created. I was almost on completion of this design when I noticed something I wanted to change but because it was in the same layer as another piece of design made this very difficult to do.

Filters

There are many filters and effects that Photoshop allow you to use but filters can either break an image or make an image. Filters can be found in the navigation bar across the top of the page and will look like this image below.

To anyone new at Photoshop filters are God’s gift, the more filters the better but think again. Effects and filters should be able to blend well together in a subtle way. They should only be used where and when needed not used because you can use them.

In my conclusion I believe that Photoshop is a must have for any inspiring designer and should, however, be used with caution.

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Unorganized.

After thinking long and hard about one single critical incident I can discuss whilst on this course, nothing really seemed obvious. I decided to look at each assignment I had been given previously to see if anything jumped out at me and although there are bits that I thought I struggled on what seemed obvious to me what how unorganized/ messy I actually am. I believe how unorganized I am actually shows in my bedroom, my car and my work.

In my previous course studying graphic design I already knew I was unorganized as I knew my heart wasn’t into the work I was doing, in all honestly my mind was elsewhere. I ended up getting very behind and almost missing my final deadline. I was ‘the last minute’ girl, everything completed to minimum spec.

When I started this course I promised myself I wouldn’t be like that any more. I promised myself I would be organized, I even bought myself a diary but who knows where that has gone now. Since my last course I have seen an improvement but I think old habits are hard to kill.

The biggest change in me so far is all my deadlines have been handed in and to the best quality I think I could do. I feel the part of me that is unorganized is my time management, and my bedroom. Looking back to the past few assignments I don’t think I honestly put as much time as I could of towards them and even though I passed and feel as thought I did the best I could, thinking of the extra effort I could have easily put in I wander what my results would have been then.

I think the typography task helped me to realise this the most as we had to do that in real time. So before I started my work I had to think about what needed to be completed and how long I was going to give for each little task. There was no waiting around for a few weeks to complete tasks. They had to be done there and then and I enjoyed working like that.

I’ve decided I need to seriously buckle down and dedicate periods through the week to when I will do my work and not slip up by thinking I can do it later.

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A quarter of the way there

A semester has passed and I’m now a quarter of the way through my first year. When I started the course I was quite nervous as I assumed everyone would already know everything about web design on some sort of level and I felt as though I would be behind in the learning process but meeting people and learning that others where in the same boat as me made me feel at ease.

Over time I have sat down and researched companies, looked at inspirational web sites, read blogs, contributed to Das Forum and tried to look at what ever I can to help me to learn and be more creative.

Over this past semester I have found different aspects of the course both easy and difficult to grasp. One of my biggest worries was been able to remember over 50 different typefaces, plus their designers and the theory we had many lectures on and getting tested on them. I’m just waiting on the results. I think this assignment alone has helped me to learn to manage my time and focus clearly and help to understand what needs prioritizing.

My first assignment, Work Related Learning one, I believed went quite well. I had to interview three people within the industry and produce a report on my findings of the local web design industry. I passed this assignment which made me feel quite happy.

My second sets of assignments was the Typography tasks and the Interface Design assignment. The typography tasks where both easy and frustrating. One of the tasks was to prepare for a test on typography and the other was to produce around 6 mini tasks to do, some of which where interesting and some of which where tricky to get right. It was left up to us how much of our finished designs we were to hand in and I ended up handing everything in.

My favorite typography task was the type trump card in which we had to create a trump playing card which has not previously been used, had to research it up and produce a design for it. This is what I came up with,

The idea of this design was to have a card that is easy to read as the typeface itself isn’t suitable for loads of text. We was limited as to what colours we were able to use and after fiddling about with it I came up with this design as my best option. Using the rule of thirds with the red helped split the card up and create a divide line from the header to the body.

This assignment helped me to understand other aspects of been a web developer and what is expected of a web developer. In this day and age I have come to the understanding that you won’t make it big specializing in one thing and if you’re in this to make money you need to specialize in more than one thing, perhaps a few different things.

The Interface Design assignment is the first assignment that’s made me start to get quite excited about the course and the assignments I will be looking forwards to in the next semester. The assignment involved coming up with an interface for a web site in which we had control over everything, images, body, navigation and layout. The only restriction was it has to have three pages, four including a thank you page. What I found difficult about this assignment was trying to understand things I’m not able to include in my web design as they could be close to impossible to do.

I believe that this past semester has helped me to mature. I have learnt what is more important in life and know what needs prioritizing first. Before I started this course I tended to just go to college (most of the time), work and party. Whereas now my studies and family have become two of the most important things to me.

The assignments that we have been set previously I have enjoyed and I still think that this course/ career is right for me. I enjoy the creativity and the challenges. I even enjoy the staying up late to get work completed because I know when it’s done how satisfied I will feel.

Next semester I will concentrate on improving my organizational skills and keeping them at a good level.

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Where I am going

I feel as this course is forcing me to head in the right direction for how I’d like my future to be. I don’t want to come out of this course with low pass marks or fails. I want either middle or top marks. However, I know that someone who doesn’t have a history in web design might struggle with that. I would like results that I can be proud of and that employers will look at and think I’ve worked hard.

On completion of this course I would like to study for a third year to make my qualification a degree and hopefully Leeds Metropolitan University will allow our college to bring the third year to University Centre Wakefield. At the moment I don’t feel this is particularly important due to the fact that I believe employers and clients tend to look at the quality of the designs you can produce rather than the qualifications.

I would like to pursue a career as a designer, not just a web developer or a graphic designer but as both. I believe that this industry is hard to keep on top if you specialize in only one area and the reasons why is there are too many people out there that have taken the time to learn all areas of design that if you did choose to specialize in only one area you could struggle to keep up with the level of competence that others have.

After I have completed the course and taken it further to study at degree level I would like to take a few years out to work and see what I have actually got myself into. If I thoroughly enjoy this and want to carry on in this career I would love to set up my own business or work in partnership with someone. However, another option I would like to try out is moving to the United States of America (or anywhere except England) and taking this new skill with me and one day, hopefully, I will do that.

I am enjoying the assignments we have been set and I feel that I am slowly and steadily catching up to where everyone else is knowledge wise on the course. The assignment I am worried about is recognizing 54 different typefaces. Revision isn’t one of my strongest points so I’m quite cautious about the upcoming test. I feel I am much more of a hands on person.

I think I need to focus on is how easily I am able to forget things. I need to over come this by taking more time to revise and analyze every little detail that I possibly can. I’m one of those people who when revising tends to let things fly over their head instead of absorbing the information.

To summarise; these are my main goals:
* To complete the course with satisfactory results
* Be educated on all aspects of the web design industry
* Improve motivation for self study

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Where I am now!

I started on the FdA Web Design course short of two months ago and so far so good. I’m really enjoying the course. My first assignment was to write a report summarizing different views on different aspects of the web design industry. This has helped me to become aware of what is happening in the web industry at this period in time.

I’d been extremely worried about failing my first assignment as I didn’t know what was expected of me. Thankfully my class let me received my results first and I then found out that I had passed! Passing this assignment made me feel ecstatic. As I’d worked hard on producing this report to a professional standard getting the mark I did made me feel proud.

My second and current assignment is to produce a design spec for a local hero/heroin and found a local councilwomen who I would love to create a web site for. In a few days I will be meeting her to find out what information I can put on the web site.

All together we have three assignments to juggle with. At first I found it easier than expected until my grandfather passed away and since that moment my life seems a bit hectic. I have to divide my time by seeing my family, focusing on college work and actually going to work. I am ashamed to say that I feel as though I have fallen behind at college from where all the others in the class seem to be at.

Another assignment is typography in which I currently have to memorise 50 various typefaces. This assignment is one I feel I am struggling on. The typefaces that look similar, such as Helvetica and Arial, are going to take me a while to pick up. I feel as though I’m not picking this up as easy as other people can. I think I need to look at typefaces like these actually in use to determine the difference between them.

I feel as though I’ve got to know everyone on the course quite well and enjoy spending time with them in and out of college. I like how diverse individuals in the group are yet we are all able to get along well. There are plans to do group activities together which I am looking forwards to.

I currently work at Asda in Wakefield as a counters colleague, they are the serve over ready meals [SORM], deli, rotisserie, pizza and fish counter. I mainly work on the pizza, curry and fish counter, three days a week. I’ve worked here for a year and in all honestly it’s not where I’d want to spend the rest of my life. My uniform isn’t flattering in the slightest.

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Where I have come from

I’ve always had a goal to pursue a career in computing, as I can easily sit in front of a computer for hours but I figured there isn’t much room to be creative if I only studied computing.

After school I spent half a year studying ‘As’ levels I took information communication technologies, business studies and sociology and found that this kind of educational establishment wasn’t suited for me. I spent some time looking for an appropriate course that would suit my needs and thanks to an old friend of mine I applied to study a National Diploma in Graphic Design as I thought I could merge being creative with computers.

After two years of studying a National Diploma in Graphic Design, I found that the only assignment that took my interest was one in particular which involved me in creating a basic web page. This assignment gave me enough freedom to be creative and I didn’t have to move an inch from the computer screen. This one assignment led me to looking for appropriate courses to study within my area. I knew from the start I didn’t want to move away from home due to the costs involved.

As I was already a previous student to Thornes Park College I saw the web design course signs posted around my college. I asked my previous tutor to arrange an unofficial interview with the web design tutor so I could get an insight as to what the course involves. Steve Smith would certainly make a good door to door sales man as since that moment I’ve been hooked on this course. It’s all I wanted to do and I didn’t want to do anything else and so I applied for the FdA Web Design course.

The day of my interview was very nerve-wracking for me. I’d woken up very early that morning getting myself ready making sure all my work is there. The interview itself was rather delightful. My nerves calmed down and I was just able to be myself. I’m guessing I gave a good impression because I received a letter through the post saying I got a conditional offer, which made me feel ecstatic. I worked hard on my graphic design course so that I would get the right marks to get me into the web design course and I did it.

I got in.

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