#147dva

There are about 2 weeks left until our 148DVA deadline and I am still a bit stressed because of the HTML part of this module. As I said before, I feel like Pete’s sessions didn’t help us too much and didn’t provide enough information for us to make a good website. I do realise that we are still at the beginning and we are not expected to make a formidable website (especially since some of us might be good at HTML but others might not be). However, I still feel a bit upset because of my lack of knowledge regarding HTML. I have various problems with my web pages right now and I still can’t find a way of solving them. I do hope I will find a solution as soon as possible.

I don’t want to submit something I don’t find at least decent. I’ve always been like this. I never submitted any work I wasn’t at least a bit confident about. I think this is good and bad in the same time. It is good because like this, I put more pressure on myself and I try to exceed my limits. It is bad because I sometimes I might be too self-conscious when it comes to my work and I might find myself not submitting my work to contests because I’m not satisfied with it.

We had to come up with SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) goals for the end of next week, the end of the year, the coming year and for the long-term future. This are the goals I came up with:

For the end of the next week: successfully hand in my essay and my book cover for the 147DVA module. For the end of the year: gain more knowledge about design, develop my skills and produce better work. Improve my foreign language skills (not just English but I also want to work more on the other languages I already took up such as French, Japanese and Chinese). Get shortlisted for the Penguin cover contest. For the coming year: To try out more things. Meet new people. Read more books on various subject (design, science, astronomy, literature etc). Find a job placement that would help me to develop my skills. 10 years time: Have a job in a field of design I enjoy (maybe web design, magazine design or book cover design).

Where am I?  - this is an important question, and one you should keep asking. A useful way of identifying the groundwork upon which goals and plans can be based in a SWOT analysis. Identify one of your goals and in relation to this goal, consider your:

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS Strengths: I've already done some research on the layout so I have a vague idea about how it should look like, what it should and what it should not contain. Weaknesses: not enough research is not quite enough because I only used two magazines so I need a wider range of examples. I am also not sure about the quality of the essay as I haven't received any feedback yet, so I don't know if I am going in the right direction or how much I'll have to change it. Opportunities: access to proper magazine layouts (Elephant, Eye magazines) at the library as well as on the internet. Threats: Lack of time and motivation. We only have one week and 5 days left until the deadline and as time goes by I only get more eager to go back home and relax a bit.

Further on, we were asked to think on the specific actions we could take to enable our goals and whens should we do them. As I said before, I think I have to do more research on the magazine layout by looking at magazines in the library and on the internet. Also try to figure out a way to break down the text in only two pages, which is difficult due to the large amount of text and find the five relevant pictures we have to use for our essay in order to depict our ideas and properly place them in the magazine spread. I feel like I shold also work more on the essay; read and re-read it, look for spelling errors and make it more creative and inciting. 

We then had to think about how we got here. Specifically, about one thing we did well and one thing that we haven't done so well. For me, both of these relate to the 147DVA Module. The thing that I did well was submitting the book cover for the Penguin competition, while the thing that I did not do so well was being unable to submit the second cover. We only had to submit one, but I thought I could create two of them. In the end, I couldn't come up with a good idea for the second book cover, so I only uploaded one. While I am aware that it will not affect my grading or anything, I am a bit disappointed with myself for not being able to achieve my own goal. In the future, I want to start working on such projects earlier and spend more time thinking about various ideas.

When I first heard we had to write an essay, I was quite surprised, because I did not expect to have such a task in a creative course. Even if it seemed like a burden at first, now I enjoy it. 

I have an advantage because I always had to write essays in high school and I liked it a lot, no matter the subject. In the same time, being so fond of reading made it easier for me to read Beatrice Warde's essay and understand it quite fast. There are still parts of the essay I did not understand too well, but I think I got the main idea. 

I'm not happy with the idea I came up with for my essay, because it is not an original one, it's an idea that most people could come up with (and they probably will). But in the same time, I am aware of the fact that I should not waste the time trying to find an interesting idea, but instead try to write an interesting and original essay, using the idea I already have. 

So far, I find it a bit difficult to put my thoughts into words and to find a way of connecting my idea to Simon's lectures. This is why I have been borrowing many books about typography from the library, trying to see different perspectives of various people. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to read all of the books, so I am trying to find the information I need in each book I'm borrowing. That is not too easy, since many of the books offer way too much information that is useless to me at this point. 

When I first heard we'll have to participate in a Penguin cover book contest I was really excited about it (and I still am). Not only because I enjoy reading, but also because I've always admired the Penguin book covers. They're simple, clean, but very well executed. I am not sure if I will be able to win this contest, as I am only a first year and I know there are people out there who are a lot more talented than me; but I am determined to give my best.

I managed to read one of the books, "Carrie's War" so far. I did not like it too much, as I previously explained in this post. Right now I'm stuck in the "re-read key passages and make sketches" phase. I find it difficult to make an interesting book cover that would still work for its target audience - children. But truth is that, when it comes to children's books, it is often not the children picking up the book and buying it, but the parents. So, in a way, I have to think of a book cover that would catch the attention of parents and make them want to buy the book for their children.

As for "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", I only started reading it a few days ago. Even if I don't find the subject particularly interesting, I do hope it will be a bit more inspiring than "Carrie's War". 

Future.... something that no one can predict but you can make it your own if you work hard at want you want from life which is what I'm trying to do  you'll get out what you put in. I'm trying so hard and devoting myself to what I want to do which is web design. Although thinking about it now that this deadline for the book project is Friday it makes me wonder if I would be any good at actually designing book covers because it is extremely fun and it tests you trying to fit al the information onto the book and making that work with imagery. Technically that is what you are doing when it comes to web design, they all relate together much more than I even realised but obviously designing a book cover is much easier than HTML code.

I still want to go ahead at working more with we design but at least I know that my interests aren't just purely focused on that and I would possibly have other avenues to go down if needs be. It gives me a sense of security that I'm not rubbish at everything or in other words don't enjoy anything else. I cant exactly say that web design is my future because I haven't had enough time to experience it yet but so far its all working out well. It must be working out well when I have too many ideas for web design as that came through when I did ideas for this web design festival project. I haven't tried making t work or putting t together yet though but I'm super excited to start on once this deadline is out of the way I can focus properly on it, I've never be so happy to focus on something. It helps that code easily relaxes me while dong it and I don't really get stressed with it (yet)