Process and Production Aidan - Lesson 3 InDesign Layouts

Within this process and production lesson with Aidan we started out by looking at a presentation example known as Two Valleys. I found that this presentation design was very creative and professional, as the work was set out in a professional and presentable manner that would be seen easily by the target audience that the presentation is aiming at. We were told that we need to consider what is a good presentation, for example the font style that we use, the colour scheme, the layout of the presentation and the arrangement.

For this process and production lesson we were given the task of creating our own presentation, I wasn't too sure about this at first because I usually present my work the same way I have since college. This is because I find it a lot easier to work, however I was very intrigued to see how this lesson would help me learn to present my designs in a different way that was still professional.

To create the presentation I used the programme Adobe InDesign where I created a new document at A3 size, I wanted to make sure that the design and presentation was create. To do this I decided to use the guides to plan out my presentation perfectly and presentable, to add a personal touch to the presentation I decided to add my personalised logo, so that it gave the design a professional touch.

For the colour scheme I wanted this to connect with the branding of my logo, so I decided to keep this black and white. I found that it was simple but I felt that this colour scheme wouldn't cause me any problems with the people that I am aiming this presentation at. The font styles I chose to use were Cabana and Avenir Next Condensed. I felt that these font styles were easy to see and read, however I also felt that they worked nicely together. I think that its important to use font style that are easy to see and read, so that this won't cause any problems to the target audience I'm aiming at.

To present the designs that I created I decided to use a website known as Graphic Burger which allows me to use free mockups to present my work, so that it would look presentable and professional, it wouldn't look messy and untidy.

Overall I am pleased with how the presentation looks, to improve on this I may present my first project of second year out like this so that it looks professional and eye catching to people and companies when I am looking for placement.

Business Lecture - Contracts and Finance Sheets

We firstly recapped on the previous lecture that we did we with Peter Norris, which was about Money and Finance. We firstly looked at finance sheets, what we need to start looking at for the future. The first one we looked at considered the costs that we need when doing a project. - so what do we use, we need to ensure it is included in the costs. Travel - to and from the client. The subcontractor. We then were told that we need to look at what is the cost of and working with the exchange rate. You need to make sure that its correct, however it doesn’t pay your salary - we also looked at staff time. The bottom part of the finance sheets is for the clients eyes, but the part above is just for you, which you can develop and improve. Make sure that we look at these costs and on a short basis as it is good to look at and consider.

Company Finances
The cost of electricity, water and other things. For the company not for design work, marketing. How are you going to get people to come to you, you are there. You will have to look after the finances, marketing. You will also have make sure that your design is correct as soon as possible.

Staff Costs
Gross pay - pay without any tax taken off
Pension - that they are putting money into,  its now the law of your employees to get a pension tax, this is known as the Tax level.

Cash Flow
We need to make sure that you know when the money is coming in and when it is coming out. You also need to know when you do this you can pay the back to the bank out - which is known as budgeting. This can also show the bank where you are and what you are doing with the money.

Within the second part of the lecture we then moved on to look at the contracts which we found had two sides too, these were classed as the:

Client Side -  This is the contracts between you and who you are delivering to.
Employee Side - This is the contracts between you and your staff which includes any freelancers.

We then looked into the duty of care and the duty of contract that is included within the Client side. I found that this part was very interesting because at some point in the future this information will become useful to me when I am in a business or have set up my own company. We firstly looked at the duty of contract that included the obvious one which is what the client you are working with has asked you for, the problems that you need to overcome but also consider. So what does the client really ask you for? You also need to ensure that the parameters are put into place. After we had done this we then looked at what is important in the duty of care on the Client side this is the Broader aspect which is to look after the clients that you are working with and their concerns and problems that they have. You also need to know what the clients business is and know the knowledge of what they do and get a broader understanding of the economic environment that you work in.

However you also need to remember a company is a 'Person in Law'.

We then moved on to look at the Duty of Care of the employee side, which again is a very important point to consider when we move into the employment business in the future. This is a lot of employment legislation and the aim of the care of duty is uses to protect employees from very unfair actions and practices. It is used to look after each and every employee including the:

• Physical and Mental Care
• Safe Working Environment
• Clear job understanding
• Procedures to resolve issues

We then were told about several different terms that related to employment, I found that some of these terms were very interesting to find out what is meant by each terminology that we were shown. 

Employment Terms - 

Resigned - You leave the firm out of your own free will.

Released - The firm that you are working for has no further use for you so they have to release you back onto the job market. 

Dismissed - Not as bad as sacked. This is based on the neutral and depends on the context. 

Probation - Period of time you need to serve before you are permanent and have employment rights. (Notionally, 1 Year)

Redundant - Companies can't hold onto you. The positive part of this is that you gain a statuary pay off.

Sacked - You've been bad, stolen stuff and have been thrown out of the firm/company which is very negative and looks very bad when applying for another job. 

An important point is that you need to know where you stand and the sub contractor, the employee and about the fixed contract, it is important to know what your contracts says. 

Seminar #7: Keywords and Literature - Polina Zioga

I found that this lecture was quite interesting because we told that we should make sure that choosing the correct keywords and Literature within our presentations and Essay's were very important. The first part that we did in this lecture was talk about what we looked at in the previous lecture. Where we looked at the Essay, the brief, the essay structure and the visual appendix that we need to produce by February 2017. The first thing that we were told to do, was to try and pick out the keywords within our title's from our presentation that we had created and the topic that we were going to talk about. My title for my presentation was 'Title Sequences between the 1960's and Now'. I thought that the most important keywords and Numbers within this were 'Title Sequences' and '1960's and Now'. We were told that we should try to look at how author's may use other words to present what the are saying, for examples Openings, Opening Sequences.

We then moved on and talked a literature review. A literature review is a critical presentation and discussion of the main topic you are looking into.

What does a Literature Review do?
A literature review is used to tell the reader that you have got an idea about what you have read into. Even looking at online sources, it tells the reader you have a good indication of what is going on. A literature review is how to find the main works, of the subject that you are looking into. This means that the work you have produced has a important effect on the succeeding development on the subject. We were told that it is very important to make sure that we reference everything even on the date that we used it and we should not also use the internet but using books may help us even more. It also shows them the knowledge and understanding that you have established. The varieties of the approach that you have taken to get to your final outcome.

A Literature Review Structure

1. The first thing we should do is tell them the outline of the topic you have looked at.
2. The next is to give a brief explanation of the history and give several definitions of this.  
3. After we have done this you can then start to work on the main body text, which is the main ideas, writings and practice you have researched into. 
4. The final part to do is to present our research question and find out what you need to do to push this further, to find the answer.

It is very important that we make notes, to everything that you read because this will help you in the future and back up the point that you are to make. It helps the reader to show us your understanding of the topic and subject field. Another point is to keep a copy of the resource, whether this is a scan to keep a note of the resources you have looked at. Make sure that you reference the websites, books, articles that you use. There is also three different types of literature, these are: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. We found that we need to make sure we have more primary, less secondary and even less tertiary within our work. 

I found that this seminar was quite useful, as I found that keywords and literature reviews are very important when creating an essay and presentation. I going to keep this in mind, when writing my presentation and essay. 

Process and Production Sara - Lesson 3

Within this process and production lesson with Sara, we looked at using the stroke effect on a design of our choice, before we started to create the animation I needed to create 3 designs that were the same but slightly different in a way. This is so the letters move and create an effective piece, to do this I drew out the design on a piece of paper and then scanned them in to the computer using the scanner. Once I had done this I was then able to take these sketches into the programme Adobe Illustrator to image trace, so that I would be able to use in this animation that I was going to create. After I had done this I was then able to place these sketches into the programme Adobe After Effects that I was going to be using for this lesson, however I firstly had to create a new composition by following the process of composition > new composition. I had to make sure that all the settings that I wanted for the document were correct.

In addition to this I was then able to place these designs into the timeline at the bottom of the screen, I then moved on to look at the stroke effect tool. But before doing this I had use the pen tool to trace and create masks around the letter that I had chosen to animate and highlight, however when using the pen tool to create masks I had to make sure that I didn't connect the lines together so that it wouldn't create a block colour of shape or look odd. To add a stroke effect to the animation I had to go to Effect > Generate > Stroke, in order for the design to work I had to make sure that the thickness of the line was changed from 2 to 20 and the colour of the line was a suitable colour that would be easier to see and stand out on the animation that I was going to create. I then had to move the timeline playback header to the start of the timeline, in order for the design to work I needed to make sure that the stopwatch of the end option had been selected. This then allowed me to change the value of the end option from 100% to 0%. I then moved the timeline playback header to around 4 seconds and changed the value to 100%.

Furthermore into this I then added a texture behind the design to make the design look vintage looking and stand out. I felt that I was pleased with this design overall.

We then moved onto look at the CC sphere tool, which allowed me to create a sphere that looked 3D. For this part of the lesson we were going to create something that was round and spinning, I decided to use a world map that I had created to create a globe. To create the world map I had to paste this into a new composition with the sphere. I decided to change the radius of the world to 200.0, so that the design and globe would be very easy to see in the animation, I then made sure that the playback header was at the beginning of the timeline where I then looked at the rotation of globe using the axises Y and Z I had to make sure that the Y axis was 0x+0.0 and the Z axis was 0x-20.0. After I had done this I was then able to put the playback header to the end of the timeline and change the value of the Y axis to -3x+0.0 which allowed the globe to spin around 3 times fully before stopping.

The hand from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

Overall I was very pleased with this animation that I had created, to develop by skills further I might create several other designs using the stroke effect to expand on my knowledge in After Effects.

Spencer - Animated Documentary, Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen

Within this lecture we were shown an animation, which was directed by Mori Masakis in 1983 called Barefoot Gen. It is an anime film and was the first ever translated into English, the poster example that we were shown for this was like a comic strip, this was created by Keija Nakazawa. The anime film was based on the events that happen in Japan on the 6th August 1945, which was based around the time of the bombing of pearl harbour. However it was the story that was based towards the bombing that happened in Japan around the time. It is a Japanese artist and/or author that is looking into these events. Within this lecture we watched the first 30 minutes of the animated documentary.

Within this animated documentary there is lots of symbolism within the film to create a strong crop. All of the arguments with the people in this film is to do with the food shortages, it's like a metaphor to show the symbolism of food shortages in the town that the anime film was set. The animation is about the lives of the people that were living in Japan when the war was taking place between Japan and the USA and the attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. A plane known as a B-29 is seen undetected and bombs part of this town that is being shown in the anime.

In my opinion I am not sure about this Film and Animated Documentary, as the storyline of the animation was very sad, as the little boy saw his father, little brother and older sister die due to the bomb attack on the town. I had a lot of mix feelings about this animation.

We then moved on to look at David Deamer who is the author of the book known as Deleuze, Japanese Cinema and the Atomic Bomb. He wrote this book as an analysis of the animation that we had just watched, which he compares with the Lucky Dragon in 1959.

Going back to the Animated Documentary there was no dialogue at all throughout the explosion to give a effects that creates a big impact to the film when this event is taking place. We get to see the expression of the emotion throughout the event. Another point that I want to make about this animation is that there are lots of metaphors and symbolisms.

The final part that we looked at within this lecture was someone called Thomas Lamerre, who focused on the comic strip between Barefoot Gen. Both the Structural Line and the Plastic Line and how they vary over the course of the Animation film and Documentary.

Seminar #6: Essay + Visual Appendix

Within this seminar we were given the brief for the essay, which we were told was already on unilearn in the theory as practice section. It tells us what we need to do and the deadlines that we need to meet for this part of the course for second year. The essay is 2500 words, which doesn't include our references, the essay that we will have to do is based off the presentation title or research question that you have just been presenting. We were then then shown two different examples of essay's that showed us how the structure of our essay should look like. This allowed us to look at the layout that we need to follow when creating and writing our essay. To start off the essay you need to start with the title, mine was 'Title Sequences between the 1960's and Now?'.

The structure

• Introduction - Title 
• Abstracts and Keywords
• Introduction to the essay 
• Main Body 
• Conclusion 
• References List and Bibliography

Feedback is very important on the essay, we need to make sure that we produce a 750 word draft of our essay for our formative assessment by February. We also need to produce along our essay a Visual Appendix (Poster) or a visual summary of our essay. Where will use our 150 word abstract to help us to produce another 2500 words. The size of this Visual Appendix needs to be A2 Size. 

What is an Essay?

An essay is an argument, where the essay is a concise evidence. 

We were told that we need to make sure that the essay has a clear defined structure, a clear narrative and be well written. The references aren't included in the essay's word count, we were advised that we should create a folder to become organised and not get mixed up with the different materials that we have been provided with. We then looked at the Do's and Don't of what to do when writing an essay, I found that this was quite useful because it is something that I could follow and look at when writing my essay to make sure that I do it correctly and not incorrectly. 

Do's 

• Define terms.
• Write carefully. Build good sentences. Link related sentences in clear paragraphs. Work toward an overall structure.
• Use time flow.
• Provide sources. Offer evidence.
• Present and discuss contrary evidence.
• Cite direct and paraphrase quotations carefully and explicitly.
• Read aloud. Revise and rewrite.
• Find the environment, time and routine that works best for your writing.

Dont's

• Use slang and jargon.
• Use professional, technical or 
• scientific terms that you cannot 
• explain or define.
• Use fancy words.

The most important thing to make sure is that there are no Grammatical and Syntax Errors, within your essay as this may create some difficult within the written work. The difference between Grammatical and Syntax Errors is that Grammatical is spelling and the Syntax Errors are tenses and the way that the sentences read. For our next seminar we need to look at the feedback that we will receive next Monday from our assessments and change the improvements within our presentations using the feedback. I found that the seminar was quite useful. 

Business Lecture No.6 - Entrepreneurship

The first thing that we talked about in this business lecture was a Campaign and Marketing Week. This is where advertising campaigns that are from companies are sent before they’re released and the marketing week is in relation to brands, campaigns and advertisements. In todays lecture we started out by looking into firms. However; we firstly recapped on what we talked about in the previous lecture, which was Business Finance.

So what are firms?
Firms are individuals traded goods.
In effect to this, most people became sole traders - self employed individuals.
In many cases, this is still a form of trading today.
This can be in physical product, or services.
Its easy to start and very common with designers, more of freelance people.
However there is a warning, if you start up a firm, but ENSURE you keep a very clear record of your trading. To do this you should keep track of orders, purchases and other types of business to keep as a recored. This is because the tax man will want to know, so keep a good clear financial background wherever you end up. Individuals traded goods in the 1750’s have grown over time and individuals needed more money to develop trade that has resulted in Partnership.

What is a Partnership?
A partnership is where 2 or more people get together with the intent of supplying good or service for financial return.
It is easy to start, as you can agree with something and be away. Although it is a little more difficult to stop, as a formal dissolution is needed. However, if there is no partnership agreement made the finances are split equally between the partners. When your in a partnership you are joined and liable for each others debt. This implies TRUST in your fellow partners that you are in business with. Sometimes partnership have one partner that has the responsibility of the money and the other is more of the trade and ability. But modern partnerships are more complex and Limited Partnerships provides a limit on debt. However, whilst partnerships are still used, it became evident that more funding was need for the growth of the trade throughout the Victorian time.

For the second part of the lecture we focus on Entrepreneurship and Business Engagement. You have to follow a certain process which is:

So what is the aim? 
- is it the money
- kudos?
- society/aid?
and how do you succeed?

1. we have to strike whilst the iron is hot.
- Go for it, just do it, make it work. This implies the DESIRE to make it happen, we were told that we shouldn't sit back and wait for it to come to us, we need to go out there.
2. Tenacity.
- There will be problems, but we shouldn't give up. Work through the issues and solve the problems that we have to overcome. This implies the DRIVE to make this happen.
3. Don’t be precious.
- Its your idea, but it will change. Its your Work, but it will be modified. We have to have the courage and the grace to accept alteration and change the design or the work that we have produced. This implies the ability to LISTEN to others.
4. Ability to Do
- Practical/Pragmatic and the ability to Act. This implies the ability to ACT or initiate ACTION.
5. Its not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know.
- Not Ideal. Get over it. No one said Life is Fair. Understand it, use it. Who do you know, who should you know? consider Linkedin, Trade Associations, Up coming Individuals, Business Leader and Key supporters that support the business.
6. What is the cost and what is the return
- If someone is going to help you. There will be a cost. Know what this is. So how can you achieve this?

Need to create a linkedin.

I found that this lecture was very interesting helpful to me when I am in the design business and world. I am going to keep this in mind in the future.

Emigre and 8v0: The Legibility Wars - Spencer's Lecture

Within Spencer's lecture we firstly recapped on the previous lectures which was about the brief histories of Animation and graphic Design. Also the claims of expanded practice in Animation and Graphic Design. The point of this lecture is partly to try and address the big debate in Graphic Design around legibility and in communication about how things are clear, but there is also a post-modern thing that pushes against this and questions the idea that the communication for it to communicate it has to have a strong legibility. Its about the power of Graphic Materials itself.

One of the publications that foregrounds this is the Emigre Magazine that ran from 1984 to 2004 and foregrounded this issue with communication and legibility, modernism and postmodernism that was done in a provoking format. It had a massive influence, both stylistics within Graphic Design because it also meant design criticism and design theory that designed a visual war. Lots of arguments about legibility and communication came through the Emigre magazine.

Also within this lecture we will also be looking at another publication in comparison to this called 8VO or the Octavo, these had similar concerns but from more apposing in the debate. Emigre was one of the first publications to arise out of the purely digital publication techniques. It was one of the first digital Graphic Design publications. It existed through different types of formats from Large Prints to small hand paperbacks and Music CD's that changed a lot over the course of the publication to keep this up to date.

The Emigre was a collaborative project that was founded by a Dutch, Editor and Designer known as Rudy Vanderlans and Zuzana Licko who is a Czech founder and Typeface Designer. Emigre was also one of the first type foundries that also started to digitally distribute there resources, as they did this lots of other publications started to look very similar to the Emigre. this then had a massive influence and became the face of publishing generally. It was originally published in San Francisco in the USA. The founders original idea was to publish and focus on in between-ness, it was used to showcase work of the Emigre's that are the writers, the designers, artists who live, or had lived outside of their country of origin. Lots of qualities came out of in between-ness:

• Technologically Engaged
• Critically Engaged 
• Transformative Graphic Language
• Exploratory and evolving visual language 
• Hard to pin-down style

They were also the first people to use the Apple Macintosh, they exploited the quirks and possibilities of the software to produce new annotative design language. We then moved onto look at critics that have spoken about the Emigre magazine. The first one we looked at was Massimo Vignelli who was Neo Modernist designer that talked about Emigre as an abberation of culture and an national clamity. also Stephan Heller who is an middle ground - design journalist said that the Emigre is like a blip in the continuum and the cult of ugly, like its an anti art, trash ethics starts to appear around this publication. The final critic we looked at was David Carson who is a post modernist designer who is a commercially successful designer, he initially champions there work, but then starts to condemn it because there distributing there fonts so it starts to saturate culture within that period of time. His phrase is "Don't confuse legibility and communication" this means don't equate them with the same thing.

We then started to look at the Allies of the Emigre such as Stephan McCarthy who is an Author and Writer. He says that despite digital context it can be mapped into the tradition of William Morris. we then looked at Gill Sans who named his typefaces after people that were very close to him, as he was influenced by personal qualities. The voice of a new generation of Graphic Designer; postmodern, deconstructed and experimental.

In 1988 Vaughan Oliver (4AD) issues devoted to album covers that was very similar to the likes of Tim Burton that was very poetic. Oliver started with a part of the Human (Human Body)/ Human Cultural Artifacts that had a poetic surrealist style. We were shown some examples of the emigre magazine spread, from this I found that there were lots of different combinations that were very board and disrupted. Once we had been shown this we then looked at the Cranbrook design and the Cranbrook Academy of Art that was a collaboration with Jeffery Keedy, Lorraine Wild, Ed Fella, Andrew Blauvelt and Katherine McCoy. Jeffery Keedy, Lorraine Wild and Ed Fella were all linked to the Cal Arts that also became part of the fold. The Cranbrook's design became famous  and notrious for it's style and approach.

We also looked at some of the work which was shown in the Walker Art Gallery which was rebrand for exhibition design. These were 'Snap On' Serifs, Vertical striping patterns and morphs and Combination instructions for designers. The content that came from the Cranbrook's design was:

• Interviews
• Profiles 
• Reprints 
• Lengthy Essays packaging in design
• Letters to the Editor (Dear Emigre).

The last part that we did was talk about Octavo and how there was a link between them and Emigre which has a more modernist lead, where there is a more experimental modernist approach that has some Swiss punk that flowed through both Emigre and Octavo. The designs layout of Octavo were resolved as full-scale mock-ups using dummy typesetting, acetate, paint and so on - trying to get as close as possible to appearance of the final printed work. 

I found that this lecture was very interesting as I feel that I learnt quite a lot from the lecture that I didn't know about. 

Seminar #5: Assessment Feedback - Polina Zioga

In today's seminar we were talked about the subject of our assessment feedback, from our presentations that we had presented the week before in our assessment week, which I found quite scary as when I present something to people I tend to become quite nervous. However; over the course of this year I do hope that this improves and I do become more confident about my work and when presenting in front of people. The first part that Polina told us to do in this session was right down what we thought went well in our assessment/presentation? What we could improve? and What I need to consider after receiving my feedback from my presentation? I found that two of the question were quite easy to answer but the other was a little more difficult, however here are the responses that I developed when looking and thinking about the questions were.

What did I do well?

I found that something I did well was to keep my presentation relevant to the subject I had chosen and also to stay focused on the presentation and topic that I was giving.

What I could improve?

How I presented my presentation because I was nervous and could have spoke clearer than what I could have done.

What I need to do from my feedback?

The part that I need to look at and develop further for this presentation is to look deeper into my chosen subject.

Once we had done this we looked at the good and bad points about the presentations overall that we had presented to the tutors. I found that there were less positives than negatives, however I don't think that this means that there is always improvement that is needed somewhere when creating our presentations.

Good Points

• Presentation Design - It fitted the guidelines of the assessment criteria
• Topic/Subject - They were very interesting
• Aural Description - Good Time Management of the presentation that was being presented.

Bad Points

• Presentation Design - Overall the text and images were quite close to the edges of the powerpoint and presentation. It should be more visually engaging and less text and better use of words, but not too fancy. 
• Topic/Subject - Some subjects or topics are quite broad and need to be narrowed down. 
• Title - The title should not replicate and be the same as your research question, it needs to summarise the whole topic or subject that you are researching into. 
• Research Question - The research question needs to be phrased and said as a question. It should also be focused on the topic that you are researching. 
• Aural Description - We need to practise talking about our presentations. 
• Language - Use the correct terminology and Grammar, Syntax Errors. We also need to avoid using slang words. 
• Referencing/Bibliography - Make sure you put this at the end and follow the APA 6th Referencing System.
• Finally Submission and Attendance - You need to make sure that the submission is on time and improve our attendance because this will allow us to improve our performances.

Time Management

This is very important, time management is needed for the preparation that you need when doing your presentation. When you create something early it will make it a lot easier to spot a mistake, well before you need to submit your assessment. Also another important part is feedback that you are given because it will help you to improve the presentation that you are going to be creating. We need to make sure that we make notes every time we are given some feedback, as this will help you in the future. In next weeks seminar with Polina will be given the essay brief. I found that this seminar was quite useful, as it allowed me to think about what I could use to improve my presentation to make better.

Live/Competition Brief - Introduction

Today in this lecture we were given feedback on how the assessments from our previous project that we had just completed for our first project at university. We were told that overall that the assessment went really well, however there were a few pointers that we needed to consider for our next brief, which was to make sure that the document, which contained our research, ideas and development in was landscape. we were also told that it was very important to consider was where we placed the design in the document, as the design should stand out. However I always place my design towards the end because I find that I want to show the research that I have done before hand and the ideas and development that I did before getting to my final design. We told that this was very important to consider because we needed to make sure that the designs that we created were seen by the company or target audience that we were aiming towards, so that it would stand out and be easy to see by the target audience that I was aiming the design at.

The brief that were set in this lecture was to look at two different design competitions, which were YCN and RSA. When we were shown these design competitions, I was very intergued by what the briefs and companies would be taking part in these design competitions. I then found out that there were 16 Briefs for the YCN competition, the deadline for this is 23rd March 2017 and there were 12 Briefs for the RSA competition, which had a deadline of 8th March 2017. This meant that there was 28 Briefs overall that I could choose from to look at for my next project, I thought that this was very interesting because I thought that it had a good variety of briefs that I could look at expanding and looking at for my project. I was really excited to look at the briefs and I had done a YCN brief before, whilst in college but hadn't actually taken part in the design competition. I thought that this competitiom will help me to boarden and develop on the skills that I have already learnt and need improving on. The deadline for this project though that we have been given at University will run up until chritsmas, however we could still work on it after christmas. Although we were advised that it would best round it off by christmas, as we will be set more briefs before and after christmas.

To move forward in this project I need to look at all of the briefs and see, which of them interest me the most I can then look into them a lot further and start to create several different ideas for the briefs that I have chosen.

We then looked at a previous students work who was a YCN winner in 2013, that went to the University of Huddersfield known as Fung Yee Wai. She won the competition for the Fedrigoni brief. This brief focused on inspiring printers throughout the United Kingdom, to work with a wide variety of Fedrigoni paper that was on offer. I found her work very interesting, as she created different types of food from the different types of Fedrigoni paper that was on offer.

Reference- https://www.hud.ac.uk/schools/artdesignandarchitecture/student-work/fungyeewai-graphicdesign.php

Another example that we looked at was Zaiul Haqu who was again from the University of Huddersfield, but was the winner of th RSA design awards in 2015. I found there work very interesting and very creative because I think that the animation which they have created is very bold and stand out and makes a statement about the message that they're trying to tell the world. I think that this is very important because you need to make sure that you can get your message across to the target audience because you want them to connect with them.

 

Reference - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TISnBSkcRak

 

We then watched a short documentary, which was about RSA Design from the students point of view. Where they told there experience and stories about the process and winning the awards in the design competition. We were told that research is very important to work out the target audience that we will be aiming towards. I think that this will be a consideration when doing my project. We were also told that doing these competitions or winning them could boost our CV's, which would be a great advantage, however I do feel that there is a lot of competition out there.

To start off with for this Live Brief, we should start to look at three briefs one from the YCN and the other from the RSA and generate ideas, and moodboards of how I could develop my ideas even further. We will then be able to talk about them and look at them in more detail and see which of the three we would like to take forward further for our final design piece and enter into the live competitions that we have been told about.

I found that this lecture very useful and very exciting because I think a live brief will be a good opportunity to do. I am really looking forward to this project.

Business Lecture Number 5 - Economics and Finance Basics

The first thing that we looked at and were told about in this lecture was a website Graphiccompetitions.com, this website is a site which allows you to look at active design competitions that you could take part in. This could be our spare time, which would allow us to expand and develop on our skills that we already know or want to learn and improve. We then previously talked about the subject that we looked at in the lecture before this one, I found that this was a good point because allowed me to recap on what we did in the lecture.

To start of with in this lecture we focus on the Economic side of Business, where we looked at several graphs that showed us how the Sales, Quantity, Demand, Prices and others all work together. When looking at all the graphs I noticed that they were all very different to each other. The one graph that we looked at closely was the Inelastic Demand and High Elastic Demand graphs because when we placed them together you could tell that they were completely opposite.

After looking at the graphs we then started to focus on the Government and how they try to manage their economics. I found this very interesting because I hadn't learnt about it before and was interested to find out and see how it worked. We then moved on to talk about the different Taxes and what taxes are? Taxes is the method that is used to raise money for the government and it is the idea that is used to be spent to benefit all. Below is the different types of taxes:

Different UK Taxes

Income Tax
National Insurance
VAT (Value Added Tax)
CGT (Capital Gains Tax)
IHT (Inheritance Tax)
Corporation Tax
Vehicle Excise Duty (Car Tax)

Duties

Stamp Duty
Import / Export duty
Hydrocarbon Duty / Tax (Fuel Duty)
Alcohol Duty (Beer Tax)
Tobacco Duty

There are lots of things in the world that we spend on that include the NHS, the Police, Armed Forces and education.

We then moved on to look at the subject of finances itself and what it is?

What is Finances?

It is all about the control of money, also the flows of money. So where does our money go and how does it flow. We do this everyday, as we keep an eye on our money, but some are better than it than others. Although; business is no different, however a long time ago people made things, and traded them with each other to get other things that they wanted this was mostly commonly known as a Barter which is like an exchanger. The trade that was mostly made within this was about food, an example of this is the Shekel which was a set weight of barley. Furthermore into this the trade after a while used standard values and common values, which was like set weights or gold and the silver. This was then developed overtime which was better for local trading, as they began using tokens, it was the start of the many early monetary systems that began around the 700 BC, this became more important as regional powers grew. However shortly after this minted coins became more common because of the growing economies and the complexity of the economies, this was then the start of the money that is used today. 

What is money?

It is a medium for smoothing trade in all things, its a measurement method of value. However arguably it has no intrinsic value.  However; money has several different definitions because it is the cash that you have, the cash you have and the cash that you can get. For example from your savings. it is also the cash that you have, the cash you can get and the loan credit. The loan credit could either be short term or a long term loan.

When then moved on to talk about the cost and the price of items. The cost is what you have to give to make sure that the product is as it is described and also to make sure that the product is valued at the correct value. The price is what the item will be sold for. After this we then looked at Profit, which the difference between the cost and price that is positive because it determines how much money you will make when the product or item has been sold. Loss is the negative difference between the cost and price this shows us whether or not the item work or doesn't because if there is a loss there is a chance that the product could be taken off the market.

A few definition of other terms that we looked at and need to consider when in the design business or going into a business of our own.

Income
This is the money that you receive and comes in which could come in many ways like credit or cash.

Expenditure
This is known as the money that is usually used when it goes out of the bank, like spending.

Debt
This is how much money that you or the company OWES. It is also known as the negative part.

Credit
This is how much money beyond that which you have, you may use. It is also known as the positive part.

We have to deal with this everyday, companies are no different. The task that we were then given was to try and work out how much we spend each week and how much we spend each year? I worked out that I spend a lot and I need to try and cut down on the amount that I spend.

Process and Production Nick - Lesson 2

Within this second process and production lesson with Nick, we were given the task of creating self publishing Posters. Before starting the project we were shown several examples of posters that we could take inspiration from when creating our own designs. We firstly started out by talking about what a poster is? 

What is a Poster?

A poster is a type and piece of designed printed paper that is attached to a wall or vertical surface. Posters are mainly designed to be eye-catching and informative so that the message on the design stands out to the target audience that is being displayed. Posters can be use for many purposes, such as:

• Advertisements like Music and Film Events, New Products
• Propagandists 
• Protestors and other groups that try to communicate a message.

Poster designs are created using both graphic and textual elements to display a design or a message to the target audience. I found that this point was very interesting as some posters are use for reproductions of artwork like famous works, and are generally low cost compared to the original artwork. We were told that for our task we should keep it simple but creative and we should always take this into consideration for our projects that we have also been given.  

We then moved on to talk about the artist known as Anthony Burrill. Where we were shown some examples of the work that he has produced for some poster designs. I found that these poster designs that we were shown were very interesting and creative because they were very bold and the font style and colour scheme that was used for the posters allowed them to stand out and communicate the message across to the target audience that the poster design was displaying. The part that we needed to think about the most in this process and production lesson is the Tone of Voice and the Visual Impact of the poster designs that I was going to create. The content that we were given for our task were song lyrics from five different songs. The lyrics we were given were:

• Lets go dip it low then you bring it up slow
• What you gone do when I appear?
• Started from the bottom now we're here
• I'm missing more than just your body
• Haven't had a dream in a long time

Our task was to create as many as we could with our time period and develop the rest at home or in our spare time. I managed to create three of the five, however I am going to complete this in my spare time at home to finish the other two designs. Another pointer that we were given in our task was to use only three specific font styles that we were given to use, One simple, One fancy, One bold but all three fonts stood out.  

For my first poster design I decided to use the Serif font style because I like that style of the font was very bold, stood out and was very easy to read by the target audience that I was aiming these posters too. The lyric that decided to start out with first was 'Lets go dip it low then you bring it up slow'. Once I had created this poster design I wasn't too sure about the layout that I used for the design because I felt that it was slightly boring and simple, however I thought that it was easier to read and see, so it wouldn't cause any problems. After I had completed the design I then photo-copied it to create a copy to see how it would look with a different appearance, overall I felt that the design worked and stood out.

For my second poster design I decided to again use the Serif font style that was slightly different to the last, but I felt that the style of the font was very simple but easy to see and read. I think that the font style was also very bold and stood out well, as I think it is important to choose a font style that can easily display your message across to the target audience that the design is advertising to. The lyric that I focused on next was 'Havent had a dream in a long time' for this lyric I decided to be a little more creative and place the first three words and 5th, 6th and 7th words wonky and different to the 4th and last word as I wanted to display the 4th and last words straight because I felt that these words were the most important within the lyric that I had chosen. Overall I felt that this design worked, however if I had more time I would have tried to be a little more adventurous and look at the layout of the lyrics again. I then photo-copied the poster design to get the final effect. 

For my final poster design, I used the lyric 'What you gone do when I appear'. For this design I decided to use the Sans Serif font style because I thought that the style of the font matched the lyric perfectly. It wasn't too bold but still stood out to me and would be easy to see and read and wouldn't cause any visual problems to the target audience that you are aiming at. For the first six words, I again like the last made them look wonky and wobbly to create an effective piece. Although with the last word which was Appear I decided to use all capital letters because I thought that this word was the most important design of them all. I wanted this word to stand out and be more bolder than the other lyrics within the sentence. This poster design was one of my favourite designs that I created within the process and production lesson, after I had done this I again photo-copied the design to how the appearance would change if copied.

Overall I found that this process and production lesson with Nick was very interesting, as I was allowed to be very experimental with the design that I was creating. To expand and take this task further I might look at the other lyrics and new lyrics that I could use to create other poster designs.