We will finally talk about Digital Asset Management (DAM).This consists of management tasks and decisions. Digital asset management systems include computer software and hardware systems that aid in the process of digital asset management. The media asset management (MAM) sub-category of digital asset management mainly addresses audio, video and other media content. The more recent concept of enterprise content management (ECM) often deals with solutions which address similar features but in a wider range of industries or applications. What this is all about is storing your files online. You can obviously save your files onto the desktop in their own folder but say if you needed a backup of them or needed to access them from a different computer how would you go about it? Storing the files online is a very easy thing to do.
It is of huge importance to save your files in at least three locations being desktop organised into appropriate folders, USB and finally online storage. When archiving data it is seen as important to burn onto a dvd and then store in a cool dry area away from any kind of fire hazard such as heater. However I find that online storage such as dropbox or i-cloud is the safest location to store images and manage your archiving.
I imagine a lot of you have got a hotmail address. If you have noticed when you now send an E-mail you are prompted by something called Windows Skydrive. This is a program that is merged in with hotmail. What it does is basically acts as an extension to your computer storage. You can create folders just like on the desktop and just add your work to them. These can then be accessed when you log onto your E-mail account, no matter where you are. Skydrive allows up to 5GB of free storage. There are many other type on online storage centres. Mediafire is one that at first sounded too good to be true. Unlimited storage for free. It is now one of the most used online store centres. It has over 500,00 users around the globe. I myself use Dropbox. It's not the best as you only get 2.25GB free storage but I'm not one to use loads of space so for me that's more than enough. If you are needing to have more space and need to access your folders and files online you first of all need to make an account. Usually just an E-mail address and a chosen password will be all you need to do.
If you have a hotmail account then you already have 5GB of free space to use all you would need to do is log in with your hotmail address and that's it sorted. With others when you sign up they would usually send you a confirmation E-mail to make sure that you aren't trying to hack anyone or do anything like that. To confirm the E-mail all you need to do is log onto your E-mail address and then find the E-mail from whoever it is you have signed up with and just click confirm. When you confirm you are agreeing with their terms and conditions too. Now onto colour management. In digital imaging systems, colour management is the controlled conversion between the colour representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, and corresponding media.
The main goal for colour management is to obtain good matches over all colour devices. What this means is that if something has been filmed on a digital camera, it has to show up on a television, PC monitor and as a printed poster as the same colour that it was filmed in. Colour management helps to achieve the same appearance on all of the electronic devices listed above. Most of the colour management technology is already implemented within the operating system (OS). A cross-platform view of colour management is the use of an ICC-compatible colour management system. ICC stands for The International Colour Consortium. You can approach the colour management system other than just using the ICC. At the consumer levels colour management currently applies to still images rather than videos, so basically colour management is still in its infancy. There are two different types of colour profiles, Embedding and Working spaces. Image formats themselves such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, SVG and EPS may already contain embedded colour profiles but they're not required to do this by the image format. The ICC was designed to bring developers and manufactures together. The ICC standards permits the exchange of colour spaces and output device characteristics in the form of meta data. This then allows the embedding of colour profiles into images as well as storing them in a database or a profile directory.
The other type of colour profile is working spaces. Working spaces such as sRGB, Adobe RGB and ProPhoto. These are colour spaces that facilitate good results while editing. An example of this is, pixels with the equal usage of RGB should appear neutral. Using a large or a gamut working space will lead to posterization and using a small working space will lead to clipping. There are obviously different operating systems over the rage of different computers. These all have different ways of providing colour management. The Mac OS has provided colour management since 1993 through a program called colour sync. From 1997 the colour management in windows has be provided by an ICC colour management system. Starting off with windows vista, Microsoft introduced a new architecture called Windows colour system. Operating systems that use the X window system for graphics use the ICC profiles and support for colour management on Linux. In 2005 most web browsers ignored the colour profiles. Safari 2.0 and Firefox 3 were the only exceptions. In Firefox 3.0 it was disabled by default but users can enable it themselves if they need to. They do this by installing an add on and they could enable either ICC v2 or ICC v4 colour management. Since Firefox 3.5 colour management is enabled by default but this is only for tagged images. IE9 (Internet Explorer 9) is the first Microsoft browser to partly support ICC profiles. The only problem is that it doesn't render images correctly according to the windows ICC settings. All it does is converts non sRGB images to the sRGB profile so it doesn't really provide any colour management at all. Finally as of 2011 Goggle Chrome doesn't support colour management by default.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Unit 35
In this unit I will be talking about how to undertake the technical adjustments of images. There are two types of colour models and those are RGB and CMYK. RGB is used for uploading photos on the internet. So when you're making a design in Photoshop or Inkscape you need to make sure that when you open a new page you choose the RGB format if you're planning to upload the image to the web. RGB means Red, Green and Blue and these are the three primary colours of the colour model. The main purpose of using RGB is for the sensing and the display of images on an electronic device i.e the computer. RGB isn't just used on a computer though, it is an input system on most electronic devices such as a colour television and video cameras. I say most electronic devices because obviously on non colour television then you won't need an RGB input device because their is obviously no colour. RGB is also an output device because its what comes out of the electrical devices such as the televisions (LED, Plasma,CRT, etc) and computer monitors. Colour printers on the other hand aren't RGB colour models but they are in fact the subtractive colour devices or typically know as CMYK devices. CMYK is used for printing simply because it looks better when you print in CMYK. If you're printing off documents or images for a client or the company or even yourself then you want them to look good and they need to be clear. If they aren't then the client or company won't be best pleased with the image. If it is good quality and clear then this shows that you know the difference between RGB and CMYK colour models it also makes the customer happy because they can see exactly what you have produced as it will be clear enough to see. CMYK comes from RGB and just like RGB the letters for CMYK have a meaning to. Cyan (Green and Blue) Magenta (Red and Blue) Yellow (Red and Green) The K stands for Black or Key and is therefor added to the model because black can't be made by the three subtractive primaries. (when they're all added together they create a dark brown). As I said before CMYK is used in the printing process. It is a four colour printing process and this is obviously because of the four colours. When the colours are combined on paper they're actually created by tiny little dots. You then see the completed image as it looks on the screen but on paper. Graphic designers also use CMYK. Yes they see their work on monitors as RGB but when they come to finally printing it, it will be CMYK. They must make sure that they convert their digital files to CMYK format before they send their work to the printers. Because of this issue it's a good idea to use swatches.
When designing you want your work to look at its best and what a swatch does is makes sure that the colour matching is exact. Swatches also provide the designer and the client with a preview of what the colour would look like when its on paper. Then a selected swatch could then be chosen in Photoshop, Inkscape or any other design program. With a monitor being RGB and printing being CMYK BMP or .TIF file. If you wish to reduce the file size (the number of mega bites required to save the file) then you would save the image as a .JPG or a .PNG file. This way you can choose the amount of compression you want before saving the image.
It is important to consider compatibility of images when designing. If you are creating graphics online then the file needs to be set at 72dpi saved as a jpeg, however if it is going to print the file needs to be 300dpi saved as a tiff. Another thing to remember about pixels and resolution is that the bigger an image is then the more mega bites are required to save the file obviously because its a larger file. Think of it like a money box, if you have a money box that allows you to save 100 £1 coins and you need to save more because you have more than 100 £1 coins then you will require a bigger money box. You also need to remember than when a file isn't compressed its quality is good but when you compress an image yes it does mean you won't need as much mega bites to save the file but you are risking the quality of the image. It doesn't matter how big you want to print something. It can be as big as you want it to be. If you have an image that is 800X400 then you can print it like that but if you want it bigger then you will start to see blocks. We call this pixelization. If you played computer games such as the first Sims game then you will know what pixelization is. You should make sure that when you're printing something off that the printer can handle it. This is where DPI comes into everything. DPI means Dots or Pixels Per Inch. If you want to print an image that is 800X400 and you want to print that to 200DPI you do this equation. Length divided by DPI and height divided by DPI. So that is 4.0X2.0. If you print that at 200DPI then the quality would be good. 200DPI is what is recommended as the minimum for good quality printing.
It is important to have accurate metadata being both technical and descriptive. Technical being metadata stored on a camera such as shutter speed, aperture and make etc.. This can also be searchable metadata when using images on the web with specified data relative to the image. Descriptive could be relevant to copywrite status or the name of photographer or designer.
Finally we must talk about the copyright issues of photography. There are five points that I will list so that you understand the copyright laws.
1. Who owns the copyright on photographs?
The photographer owns the copyright on any photo that they have taken unless they work for a company and they take a picture for them on their behalf then the company that the photographer works for will own the copyright to that particular photo. The other way that the photographer wouldn't own the copyright would be if they sold their work to another party, then that particular party would own the copyright of that photo. No matter what, if it is any other case then the photographer who took that photo will own the copyright to it.
2. Copyright registration.
You're probably thinking why register? Well this is a simple answer. If someone else or another party tries to steal your work and you want to sue them for copyright, if you have registered then you have the proof to show that its your work. You can also submit loads of photos and only pay a single fee so if you want your work protected then it's really worth it.
3. Using the work of others
No matter what work you want to use that belongs to someone else, be it a font style, an image or a piece of writing you should obtain permission from the owner to use it. You should also be prepared to pay a fee of some sorts because its very unlikely that a copyright owner will let you use their work for free when they have put all the effort into doing it. A copyright owner can refuse to let you use their work for any reason, no matter how silly it may be. It's their work and if they don't want you using it then that's final.
4. Marking your work.
If you're a photographer and you submit work to a company and then people call that company and ask to use a certain photograph and it isn't makers then they won't know what to tell that person calling up as they won't know who has submitted it. You should also place a copyright notice on your work so that people know its copyrighted. Doing this will help to deter infringement. If you are uploading a image to the web and you wish to copyright it then you should just edit it in Photoshop and place a copyright notice on it.
5. Model release forms
An individual has certain rights to control how their image is used. This varies from country to country depending on laws. The general rule is to protect from defamatory or to use the image as something offensive.
When designing you want your work to look at its best and what a swatch does is makes sure that the colour matching is exact. Swatches also provide the designer and the client with a preview of what the colour would look like when its on paper. Then a selected swatch could then be chosen in Photoshop, Inkscape or any other design program. With a monitor being RGB and printing being CMYK BMP or .TIF file. If you wish to reduce the file size (the number of mega bites required to save the file) then you would save the image as a .JPG or a .PNG file. This way you can choose the amount of compression you want before saving the image.
It is important to consider compatibility of images when designing. If you are creating graphics online then the file needs to be set at 72dpi saved as a jpeg, however if it is going to print the file needs to be 300dpi saved as a tiff. Another thing to remember about pixels and resolution is that the bigger an image is then the more mega bites are required to save the file obviously because its a larger file. Think of it like a money box, if you have a money box that allows you to save 100 £1 coins and you need to save more because you have more than 100 £1 coins then you will require a bigger money box. You also need to remember than when a file isn't compressed its quality is good but when you compress an image yes it does mean you won't need as much mega bites to save the file but you are risking the quality of the image. It doesn't matter how big you want to print something. It can be as big as you want it to be. If you have an image that is 800X400 then you can print it like that but if you want it bigger then you will start to see blocks. We call this pixelization. If you played computer games such as the first Sims game then you will know what pixelization is. You should make sure that when you're printing something off that the printer can handle it. This is where DPI comes into everything. DPI means Dots or Pixels Per Inch. If you want to print an image that is 800X400 and you want to print that to 200DPI you do this equation. Length divided by DPI and height divided by DPI. So that is 4.0X2.0. If you print that at 200DPI then the quality would be good. 200DPI is what is recommended as the minimum for good quality printing.
It is important to have accurate metadata being both technical and descriptive. Technical being metadata stored on a camera such as shutter speed, aperture and make etc.. This can also be searchable metadata when using images on the web with specified data relative to the image. Descriptive could be relevant to copywrite status or the name of photographer or designer.
Finally we must talk about the copyright issues of photography. There are five points that I will list so that you understand the copyright laws.
1. Who owns the copyright on photographs?
The photographer owns the copyright on any photo that they have taken unless they work for a company and they take a picture for them on their behalf then the company that the photographer works for will own the copyright to that particular photo. The other way that the photographer wouldn't own the copyright would be if they sold their work to another party, then that particular party would own the copyright of that photo. No matter what, if it is any other case then the photographer who took that photo will own the copyright to it.
2. Copyright registration.
You're probably thinking why register? Well this is a simple answer. If someone else or another party tries to steal your work and you want to sue them for copyright, if you have registered then you have the proof to show that its your work. You can also submit loads of photos and only pay a single fee so if you want your work protected then it's really worth it.
3. Using the work of others
No matter what work you want to use that belongs to someone else, be it a font style, an image or a piece of writing you should obtain permission from the owner to use it. You should also be prepared to pay a fee of some sorts because its very unlikely that a copyright owner will let you use their work for free when they have put all the effort into doing it. A copyright owner can refuse to let you use their work for any reason, no matter how silly it may be. It's their work and if they don't want you using it then that's final.
4. Marking your work.
If you're a photographer and you submit work to a company and then people call that company and ask to use a certain photograph and it isn't makers then they won't know what to tell that person calling up as they won't know who has submitted it. You should also place a copyright notice on your work so that people know its copyrighted. Doing this will help to deter infringement. If you are uploading a image to the web and you wish to copyright it then you should just edit it in Photoshop and place a copyright notice on it.
5. Model release forms
An individual has certain rights to control how their image is used. This varies from country to country depending on laws. The general rule is to protect from defamatory or to use the image as something offensive.
Monday, 12 March 2012
My Screencast-O-matic work
I have made a video showing how I planned out my portfolio. I did it using photoshop. There are somethings I didn't start from scratch because I couldn't remember the links for the images. But I will explain how everything is done before you watch the video. The background is something that I did myself and you import that the same was as you do with the images just make sure that the background is the first image that you put in. The links aren't actually links since it's only Photoshop and not Dreamweaver. What you do is create a text box and then just type out the links so that you have a brief idea of where they are going to be on your actual portfolio. Just because I used . JPG files doesn't mean that you have to. You can use . PNG files if you have made an image in Inkscape and then exported it as a PNG file. You will also notice that in the video I transform an image. I scale the image and you will see that I click a little paperclip icon. This is important because if you import an image and wish to make it bigger and you don't click this paperclip icon then the image will appear all pixilated. This won't happen if you click the paperclip icon.
Here is the video which I created to show you how to import photos on Photoshop and how to turn a simple title into a good looking title.
Here is the video which I created to show you how to import photos on Photoshop and how to turn a simple title into a good looking title.
Unit 24 -Part II
Now I must send a quote to someone through Design Crowd. This is a live project and I am not pretending to be a graphic designer, I am a graphic designer. I will post screenshots to show you how to submit quotes and how they should be with in reason.
As you can see what I have done is ask that any traveling or accommodation is paid for, this way I am making the most amount of money that I can. I myself have unlimited minutes on my phone so I don't need to worry about the cost of a phone bill as it's always going to be the same. If I do get chosen for this design then I will be making a good amount of profit considering my electricity and internet is cheep.
Unit 24 - Part I
I have been told to do a practical task which is to make myself an Account Sheet in Excel. It is very important that every graphic designer does this so that they can keep on top of their money. If a designer was to just charge what they thought was best without taking into account of what everything would cost then their is a strong chance that they would lose profit rather than make it. I have designed my own spread sheet which takes care of the basic costs. In part 2 I will add to the spread sheet so that I know how much I will have to spend and then I will know how much I should submit my quote for so that I make as much profit as I can.
Here is my spreadsheet:
Here is my spreadsheet:
Here is the link to my dropbox file with my spreadsheet in for you to see: https://www.dropbox.com/home/Accounts%20Sheet
Unit 27
A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated film which is created using Adobe Flash or similar animation software. The reason animations are used used online is so your website is not static and generates attention to your site. Flash animation is 2D animation which is very simple to make and even though it's so simple it can look incredibly nice depending on how good you are at using flash animation software. Flash animation is often saved as a .swf file format. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many circles is seen as simplistic or unpolished. Flash animation has been used before on television for cartoons on channels such as cartoon network and CBBC. It is also used on computers and on websites. An example of this is a website called www.wix.com. This website is one which allows you to build a mini site of your own. One thing which I have used wix for is my Facebook page. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/JamesSneeDesign/. With it being all made in flash it's usually quite slow to load up. My website itself also uses flash animation. The title which is my name flashing from black to green and then the rollover of all the images below it. Flash is very easy to get used to. At first I thought it would be hard but it's really not as difficult as it looks. On my own website for the name flashing part at the top all I used was a background image which is the gray and then two different images I created in Inkscape, one which is black with a green background and the other which is green with a black background. I then added the images into flash and just worked from there. I made the time frame 70 and then placed my background image to go for the whole 70 then I added the two images and made the first one go for 35 then the other for 35 also and it just repeats itself. That's how simple using flash is although you can create more complex things this wasn't that difficult. If a client wants some work done on flash then you must make sure that it fits with the work you're already doing for them. Take my title change for example, I have kept the same colours as the website, I haven't done anything outrageous and made any dramatic changes. When doing work for a client you must make sure you do the same. When saving a flash design you must make sure that you save it as the right format. Like I said earlier it usually tends to be a .swf file. You must also make sure that you save the file that is relevant to the client whom you are doing it for, for example if you were doing a title for vet company save it as vettitle.swf.
Unit 25
In this section we will be talking about text editing and copy for interactive media. A text editor is a program used for editing plain text files. They are usually provided with software packages or with the operating system itself. When I say plain text files you probably think I mean word documents. I don't. There is a difference between plain text files and word documents. A plain text file is something which is represented and edited by showing all of the characters as they are present in the file. Plain text files are often used for programming and configuration rather than as documentation E.G. detailed instructions and user guides. In the past they were used for this. Documents made in a word processor are generally control characters. They enable functions such as bold, italic, underline, fonts, tables etc. These and other common formatting symbols were once only used with desktop publishing software but now they are used in the simplest word processor. Word processing software can usually edit a plain text file and then save it back to the old plain text file but you must tell word that you want to do that or else it would just save as a document. It's really important that you specify they type of save file, just like with HTML and configuration. It is important to specify proerties relative to the target medium or platform i.e. a mobile phone, tablet or computer screen. In doing so you must specify point size or DPI resolution. On doing so you must preview material relevant to the medium making sure the copy reads correctly within the browser undergoing cross browser compatibility within the browser. You must consider paragraph structure such as sentences and readabilty when taking into account scrolling and positioning regarding interactive mediums.
Before text editors existed computer text was punched into punched cards with keypunch machines. The text was then carried in a box full of brown cardboard cards. It was then read by a card reader. If cards weren't used then it would be paper tape which was generated by teletape machines. The first ever text editors were known as line editors. They didn't provide a window or screen oriented display. To minimise typing they usually had very short commands which would produce the current line. Amongst that was a command to print selected sections of the file on the typewriter.
When computer terminals with video screens became available screen based text editors or more commonly known as the screen editor became commonly used. One of the earliest screen editors was the O28 which was written for the CDC 6000 series machines in 1967. Another early development was the VI which was developed in 1970. Even though it was written over 40 years ago its still a standard editor used today for Unix and Linux operating systems.
There are different types of text editors. Some are small and simple where as others are bigger and much more complex to use. Unix operating systems use the VI editor and Microsoft systems use the notepad which I'm sure you're all familiar with and its very easy to use. Under the mac's OS there is a very simple text editor called Simpletext. It was then replaced under mac OS X by Textedit. Some other text editors such as Wordstar have duel operating modes which allow them to act as either a text editor or a word processor. Now we will move onto proof reading. It is very important to proof read your work. Yes the computer can do that for you by using a built in spell checker but that doesn't always correct the mistakes you will have made yourself. The computer may be in a different language style so when your typing and its on U.S on word then it would replace colour with color. Even though they mean the same it wouldn't look very good if you're doing work for an English client and giving them work that you have produced with American words. So when you proof read you must check the work yourself, read it out loud to yourself and not just the one time. You must do this to make sure that it makes sense.
Fair enough you could type stuff out and read it in your head and think it makes perfect sense but you don't know for sure until you read it out loud to yourself. The spell checker also may not notice punctuation which you have missed out. If you are doing work for someone then it must be at a professional standard at all times. So yes this does mean that you have to have punctuation in all the correct places. This is all to do with handing in your finished work. If you hand so work to a client and it doesn't make sense or the punctuation is really bad then they will be thinking why have I hired this guy when he isn't a professional. They would then write reviews about you and tell people to go somewhere else if they want work done. This looks bad on you and makes you look like you can't do your job properly.
Now onto the media ethics. Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton advertising. There is the ethics of journalism. First there is news manipulation. News can can be manipulating and manipulated. An example of this is the governments with censorship and corporations with share ownership. Manipulation can be voluntary or involuntary and those being manipulated may or may not know about it. The public interest. basically what this means is that if military secrets got out or other government related issues got out to the public, it may be of public interest but this is one of those terms that isn't easy to define. Privacy is also a factor in any media. publication isn't necessarily justified even if it's true. Privacy is a right and it's a one what conflicts with free speech. Conflict with the law. Journalistic ethics may conflict with the law over issues such as the protection of confidential news source deception, trespass and similar crimes just to obtain news. Onto the ethics of media entertainment. The depiction of violence and sex, and the presence of strong language. Ethical guidelines and legislation in this area are common. Most media such as games and films are subject to ratings systems and supervision by agencies. Stereotypes. Both advertising and entertainment media make heavy use of stereotypes. Stereotypes may negatively affect people's perceptions of themselves or promote socially undesirable behaviour. Finally we will move onto media and democracy. In democratic countries, a special relationship exists between media and government. Although the freedom of the media may be constitutionally enshrined and have precise legal definition and enforcement, the exercise of that freedom by individual journalists is a matter of personal choice and ethics. Modern democratic government subsists in representation of millions by hundreds. For the representatives to be accountable, and for the process of government to be transparent, effective communication paths must exist to their constituents. Today these paths consist primarily of the mass media, to the extent that if press freedom disappeared, so would most political accountability.
Before text editors existed computer text was punched into punched cards with keypunch machines. The text was then carried in a box full of brown cardboard cards. It was then read by a card reader. If cards weren't used then it would be paper tape which was generated by teletape machines. The first ever text editors were known as line editors. They didn't provide a window or screen oriented display. To minimise typing they usually had very short commands which would produce the current line. Amongst that was a command to print selected sections of the file on the typewriter.
When computer terminals with video screens became available screen based text editors or more commonly known as the screen editor became commonly used. One of the earliest screen editors was the O28 which was written for the CDC 6000 series machines in 1967. Another early development was the VI which was developed in 1970. Even though it was written over 40 years ago its still a standard editor used today for Unix and Linux operating systems.
There are different types of text editors. Some are small and simple where as others are bigger and much more complex to use. Unix operating systems use the VI editor and Microsoft systems use the notepad which I'm sure you're all familiar with and its very easy to use. Under the mac's OS there is a very simple text editor called Simpletext. It was then replaced under mac OS X by Textedit. Some other text editors such as Wordstar have duel operating modes which allow them to act as either a text editor or a word processor. Now we will move onto proof reading. It is very important to proof read your work. Yes the computer can do that for you by using a built in spell checker but that doesn't always correct the mistakes you will have made yourself. The computer may be in a different language style so when your typing and its on U.S on word then it would replace colour with color. Even though they mean the same it wouldn't look very good if you're doing work for an English client and giving them work that you have produced with American words. So when you proof read you must check the work yourself, read it out loud to yourself and not just the one time. You must do this to make sure that it makes sense.
Fair enough you could type stuff out and read it in your head and think it makes perfect sense but you don't know for sure until you read it out loud to yourself. The spell checker also may not notice punctuation which you have missed out. If you are doing work for someone then it must be at a professional standard at all times. So yes this does mean that you have to have punctuation in all the correct places. This is all to do with handing in your finished work. If you hand so work to a client and it doesn't make sense or the punctuation is really bad then they will be thinking why have I hired this guy when he isn't a professional. They would then write reviews about you and tell people to go somewhere else if they want work done. This looks bad on you and makes you look like you can't do your job properly.
Now onto the media ethics. Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton advertising. There is the ethics of journalism. First there is news manipulation. News can can be manipulating and manipulated. An example of this is the governments with censorship and corporations with share ownership. Manipulation can be voluntary or involuntary and those being manipulated may or may not know about it. The public interest. basically what this means is that if military secrets got out or other government related issues got out to the public, it may be of public interest but this is one of those terms that isn't easy to define. Privacy is also a factor in any media. publication isn't necessarily justified even if it's true. Privacy is a right and it's a one what conflicts with free speech. Conflict with the law. Journalistic ethics may conflict with the law over issues such as the protection of confidential news source deception, trespass and similar crimes just to obtain news. Onto the ethics of media entertainment. The depiction of violence and sex, and the presence of strong language. Ethical guidelines and legislation in this area are common. Most media such as games and films are subject to ratings systems and supervision by agencies. Stereotypes. Both advertising and entertainment media make heavy use of stereotypes. Stereotypes may negatively affect people's perceptions of themselves or promote socially undesirable behaviour. Finally we will move onto media and democracy. In democratic countries, a special relationship exists between media and government. Although the freedom of the media may be constitutionally enshrined and have precise legal definition and enforcement, the exercise of that freedom by individual journalists is a matter of personal choice and ethics. Modern democratic government subsists in representation of millions by hundreds. For the representatives to be accountable, and for the process of government to be transparent, effective communication paths must exist to their constituents. Today these paths consist primarily of the mass media, to the extent that if press freedom disappeared, so would most political accountability.
Friday, 9 March 2012
Unit 24
Being a freelance designer you need to know how to market and manage your own freelance services is to identify relevent business contacts. This could be a reasonable online internet hosting service to get your business online from which as a designer you can freelance your services, establishing a social network from which you can make necessary contacts and be able to check out your competitors within the industry. As a freelance designer I can promote my business and use platforms such as design crowd to develop my skills within the industry. Using the social network media and converging technologies I am able to maintain regular contact with clients and potential clients. In doing so I can keep upto date with trends using vimeo, youtube and forums such as speckyboy to help support my freelance activity and training within the creative media industry.
A good way to start is promote business cards or e-cards. You can get a lot of business cards online for about £5 you get about 400. If you think of it you will pay £5 for 400 business card which could being in a lot of customers so you will make profit for that £5 loss easily. You could even print them out yourself if you don't want to buy them. Make sure you have enough though so you can hand them out to people in meeting or on the streets even posting them through peoples doors won't do any harm. The business cards should be smart, clean and easy to read. If they have too much detail on them then people won't bother to even try and read them all it should contain are your contact details your logo and your website which i will get onto right now. Its very important to have your own online portfolio. This is so that people can look at your work to see what its like. Obviously people won't want to hire someone to work for them if their work is bad. You don't need to have an online portfolio but it does help to have one as you can then add the details onto your business card and people can see for themselves how good your work is. You could also make mailer postcards and this is a good way to show off your creative skills rather than just making a business card because they're pretty simple to make/get where as these postcards take more effort and skill. While waiting for all of these to print out you should start to decide who your target audience is. You don't want to be targeting the wrong people, it will make you look bad and it won't make you look like the brightest spark. Which is why I network using facebook to make contacts and send out e-cards using the social network. I also identify key designers who i get to know and offer work at a 50% cost to develop my skills further to attain experience and develop my own skills and contacts. As I know I could be recomended to other designers if they are busy and need a freelancer to take on extra work. Also registration with an online agecy could be a huge advantage when establishing yourself within the industry.
Think about what you do and think about what type of freelancer people want. You should distribute your services and business cards in a strategic way. Start off with all the people on your database who have heard of you before then maybe they will give them to other people. Once you have done that start distributing them to people on your email addresses and so on and so forth. Don't just hand them all out in bulk at once. Finally you should be very persistent. If you don't get many replies the first time you send out business cards and everything then don't give up! Keep at it and people will eventually come to you and see that you are someone who doesn't give up, as someone who will go that extra mile to reach your goal.
Now you need to understand how to deal with feedback. Don't get upset if someone doesn't like all the work you have done, people are different and are entitled to their own opinions. some people will like your work and others won't at the end of the day its no big deal. There are 12 ways to manage feedback and I will go through these now for you.
1. The blank page
Everyone starts off at the same place and its easy to hear what someone wants but if they don't like what you have done just think to yourself, where were they when i was starting? They weren't there so they couldn't guide you for what they exactly wanted.
2. Anticipate
What you should try and do here is put yourself in the shoes of someone else and approach the work the way they would and not the way that you normally would. Once you have done this go to someone that you have a strong trust bond with and then they could give you unbiased feedback.
3. Know your stuff
You should research all of your stuff to make sure that you fully understand what you are doing. You don't want to have someone come to you and ask for a design and then be stuck there thinking, what are they on about?
4. Power of three
All designers go through loads of different ideas when they are designing. They think of ways to add to what they currently have or how they could change it or how they could have started it differently. but when it comes to presenting your design you can go about it three different ways a conservative option, a forward thinking option or an edgy option.
5. Taking it personally
Designers take their work really personally, they get incredibly attached to it. If someone was to tear down a piece of work that is a designers, a part of them is torn inside too. When designing you need to think about the bigger picture. If you feel that the work isn't good enough for the client then you should just work at it at your very best and then send it away anyway. If the client doesn't like it then don't feel bad about it.
6. Find the value
Even the harshest of words have a source this means that you as a designer must find out what the value of those words are, what they mean to you and if they in fact mean anything at all. No matter what people say don't let it put you down because you can then decide to ignore what they say or take it in and improve what went wrong in the first place.
7. Truth and consequences
The honest truth is that clients will always want their work changed at the last minute. This is fair enough but it's not fair that it's left till the last minute where it becomes impossible for you to complete the task. The best answer would be to say yes I can do that for you but let the client know that it will come with a consequence as the deadline will need to be set back so that you have time to finish the new design.
8. Young at heart
When you come out of school and walk straight into a job, everyone wants to be the hot shot around the place to try and prove something. Don't do this, simply just keep quiet, sit down and listen. This way you could learn everything that you need to, to launch yourself into a successful career. You will get your chance to be heard but this chance must be earned.
9. Push back
You were hired for a reason, that reason is your expertise. Show them feedback, ask them why they have chosen such a specific design this way you will be able to see their motivation. The clients might not actually know what is best and they may be looking for someone with leadership to help them decide what is best.
10. Don't break the rules
The same rules apply to you as they do to the clients. Don't be a stuck up designer and say nobody can see your creative genius. If the work that you have designed doesn't fit the clients needs then just get back up and move on at the end of the day you tried and that is the best you can do. Find other people who would appreciate your creativeness.
11. Quiet confidence
You shouldn't try to prove how amazing you are with design work but you should try to show how creative you are, don't be big mouthed and make yourself look like a fool just do your work to your best and be confident about it but let others see that that's the person you are and they will appreciate your work a whole lot more.
12. Show me the happiness
If you keep on getting bad feedback off clients and you just simply can't deal with it anymore then maybe its time for you to move on. Quitting should be a very last resort. Especially since you have came all this way if you quit then you have nothing to show. There are better employers and better clients out there and really you deserve to be happy and have people appreciate the work you do for them.
When doing design work you should learn how to manage contracts. You must identify the work that needs to be done by a contractor or a supplier. You must write a brief so that you know what needs to be done and you can always add to it or check back on it if need be. You should prepare specifications and promote invites to clients so that they will be more likely to come to you if they need work done. You need to negotiate contracts to ensure compliance with the legislation and the regulations. If a contract is breached then you need to deal with it the right way and in an effective way too. You also need to understand why to manage contracts. You need to know why contracts and other forms of agreement are important and you need to understand the different types of contracts. You need to know the basic legal, organisational and regulatory requirements governing contracts. You need to know why its important to have clear requirements, an objective selection criteria and to invite a range of contractors to bit for the contract. You need to know why its important to build a productive working relationship with contractors and how to do so. Finally you need to know how its important to evaluate and report on contractors strengths and areas for improvement. When you have a contract and it has been signed it is important that you store a written copy of it so you have it as a back up incase the original gets lost.
A good way to start is promote business cards or e-cards. You can get a lot of business cards online for about £5 you get about 400. If you think of it you will pay £5 for 400 business card which could being in a lot of customers so you will make profit for that £5 loss easily. You could even print them out yourself if you don't want to buy them. Make sure you have enough though so you can hand them out to people in meeting or on the streets even posting them through peoples doors won't do any harm. The business cards should be smart, clean and easy to read. If they have too much detail on them then people won't bother to even try and read them all it should contain are your contact details your logo and your website which i will get onto right now. Its very important to have your own online portfolio. This is so that people can look at your work to see what its like. Obviously people won't want to hire someone to work for them if their work is bad. You don't need to have an online portfolio but it does help to have one as you can then add the details onto your business card and people can see for themselves how good your work is. You could also make mailer postcards and this is a good way to show off your creative skills rather than just making a business card because they're pretty simple to make/get where as these postcards take more effort and skill. While waiting for all of these to print out you should start to decide who your target audience is. You don't want to be targeting the wrong people, it will make you look bad and it won't make you look like the brightest spark. Which is why I network using facebook to make contacts and send out e-cards using the social network. I also identify key designers who i get to know and offer work at a 50% cost to develop my skills further to attain experience and develop my own skills and contacts. As I know I could be recomended to other designers if they are busy and need a freelancer to take on extra work. Also registration with an online agecy could be a huge advantage when establishing yourself within the industry.
Think about what you do and think about what type of freelancer people want. You should distribute your services and business cards in a strategic way. Start off with all the people on your database who have heard of you before then maybe they will give them to other people. Once you have done that start distributing them to people on your email addresses and so on and so forth. Don't just hand them all out in bulk at once. Finally you should be very persistent. If you don't get many replies the first time you send out business cards and everything then don't give up! Keep at it and people will eventually come to you and see that you are someone who doesn't give up, as someone who will go that extra mile to reach your goal.
Now you need to understand how to deal with feedback. Don't get upset if someone doesn't like all the work you have done, people are different and are entitled to their own opinions. some people will like your work and others won't at the end of the day its no big deal. There are 12 ways to manage feedback and I will go through these now for you.
1. The blank page
Everyone starts off at the same place and its easy to hear what someone wants but if they don't like what you have done just think to yourself, where were they when i was starting? They weren't there so they couldn't guide you for what they exactly wanted.
2. Anticipate
What you should try and do here is put yourself in the shoes of someone else and approach the work the way they would and not the way that you normally would. Once you have done this go to someone that you have a strong trust bond with and then they could give you unbiased feedback.
3. Know your stuff
You should research all of your stuff to make sure that you fully understand what you are doing. You don't want to have someone come to you and ask for a design and then be stuck there thinking, what are they on about?
4. Power of three
All designers go through loads of different ideas when they are designing. They think of ways to add to what they currently have or how they could change it or how they could have started it differently. but when it comes to presenting your design you can go about it three different ways a conservative option, a forward thinking option or an edgy option.
5. Taking it personally
Designers take their work really personally, they get incredibly attached to it. If someone was to tear down a piece of work that is a designers, a part of them is torn inside too. When designing you need to think about the bigger picture. If you feel that the work isn't good enough for the client then you should just work at it at your very best and then send it away anyway. If the client doesn't like it then don't feel bad about it.
6. Find the value
Even the harshest of words have a source this means that you as a designer must find out what the value of those words are, what they mean to you and if they in fact mean anything at all. No matter what people say don't let it put you down because you can then decide to ignore what they say or take it in and improve what went wrong in the first place.
7. Truth and consequences
The honest truth is that clients will always want their work changed at the last minute. This is fair enough but it's not fair that it's left till the last minute where it becomes impossible for you to complete the task. The best answer would be to say yes I can do that for you but let the client know that it will come with a consequence as the deadline will need to be set back so that you have time to finish the new design.
8. Young at heart
When you come out of school and walk straight into a job, everyone wants to be the hot shot around the place to try and prove something. Don't do this, simply just keep quiet, sit down and listen. This way you could learn everything that you need to, to launch yourself into a successful career. You will get your chance to be heard but this chance must be earned.
9. Push back
You were hired for a reason, that reason is your expertise. Show them feedback, ask them why they have chosen such a specific design this way you will be able to see their motivation. The clients might not actually know what is best and they may be looking for someone with leadership to help them decide what is best.
10. Don't break the rules
The same rules apply to you as they do to the clients. Don't be a stuck up designer and say nobody can see your creative genius. If the work that you have designed doesn't fit the clients needs then just get back up and move on at the end of the day you tried and that is the best you can do. Find other people who would appreciate your creativeness.
11. Quiet confidence
You shouldn't try to prove how amazing you are with design work but you should try to show how creative you are, don't be big mouthed and make yourself look like a fool just do your work to your best and be confident about it but let others see that that's the person you are and they will appreciate your work a whole lot more.
12. Show me the happiness
If you keep on getting bad feedback off clients and you just simply can't deal with it anymore then maybe its time for you to move on. Quitting should be a very last resort. Especially since you have came all this way if you quit then you have nothing to show. There are better employers and better clients out there and really you deserve to be happy and have people appreciate the work you do for them.
When doing design work you should learn how to manage contracts. You must identify the work that needs to be done by a contractor or a supplier. You must write a brief so that you know what needs to be done and you can always add to it or check back on it if need be. You should prepare specifications and promote invites to clients so that they will be more likely to come to you if they need work done. You need to negotiate contracts to ensure compliance with the legislation and the regulations. If a contract is breached then you need to deal with it the right way and in an effective way too. You also need to understand why to manage contracts. You need to know why contracts and other forms of agreement are important and you need to understand the different types of contracts. You need to know the basic legal, organisational and regulatory requirements governing contracts. You need to know why its important to have clear requirements, an objective selection criteria and to invite a range of contractors to bit for the contract. You need to know why its important to build a productive working relationship with contractors and how to do so. Finally you need to know how its important to evaluate and report on contractors strengths and areas for improvement. When you have a contract and it has been signed it is important that you store a written copy of it so you have it as a back up incase the original gets lost.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Unit 07
The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. Creative workers are counted by what they do and what their enterprise produces. For example if someone was i the record producing industry they would be classified as belonging to the music industrial sector and someone who played an instrument would be classified as a musician. The whole purpose of this is to count the number of firms and the number of workers at one location. It also identifies places with high creative activity. To avoid confusion it also counts to someone who is working for a creative company but isn't exactly being creative E.G. a security guard working for a music company is still creatively employed even though they aren't creatively occupied. There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries. Cultural industries include industries that focus oncultural tourism and heritage, museums and libraries, sports and outdoor activities, and a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Thus cultural industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value,including cultural wealth and social wealth,rather than primarily providing monetary value. In 1999 creative industries except those with software and scientifically research and development accounts for about 4% of the worlds economic output. Newspapers with cross industry ownership such as the guardian and the guardian online. Other examples could include the BBC from witch the creative media sector have ownership of radio, both digital and analogue which can be viewed online also television which cross maps into television programs and sports channels which can all be found online as well as on the television itself. Relevant relationships within the industry content creators and distributors. A good example of this could be the seven digital music store online which distributes recording artists and graphic artists work using this platform. Another example of a relationship could be an advertiser and their publisher such as an advertising agency might do some work for Addidas to advertise their product for example a sports shoe and this would be published within various magazines as well as television and online using various methods of distribution this is how relationships are formed within the creative and digital media industry.
The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. The projects that are being developed go through four phase of its life. The first one is the birth phase this is where everything is defined. Then these is the planning phase which is when the project is being planned out. Next comes the execution phase which is when the project is being built. Finally there is the exit phase which is when the project has been successfully developed. It is important that when a project is being built that its broken down into phases. This is so that the project manager and the project developers can effectively plan out how its going to be made. Its very important to organise project phases into industry specific project cycles. This is because each different industry sector has different needs for its project development. I am going to go through the four stages so that you understand what they are.
1. Initiation
This is the beginning of the project. This is where the project manager is appointed and has to select his team members based on their skills and experience. the most basic tools used during initiation are a project charter, a business plan, the project framework, the business case justification and the milestone reviews.
2. Planning
The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.
3. Execution and Controlling
The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organisation become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of risk analysis and score cards, in addition to business Plan and milestones reviews.
4. Closure or Exit
In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper completion. The closure phase is characterised by a written formal project review report containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase.
Businesses need aims and objectives to succeed, and most businesses benefit from taking stock periodically to determine or reassert what their aims and objectives are. To run a successful business it needs to have certain qualities. A business needs a reputation. This is so that people know what this business is about. It also shows how good a business is if it has a good reputation. It shows reliability and good customer service. If a business has a good reputation it is more likely to reel in lots of customers. Another this a business needs is advertising. How are you going to contact a business if you haven't seen it advertised? Sure you could use the yellow pages if you have heard of the name but why do then when there are other businesses out there that do the same thing and they advertise about it. It is important to have good advertisements both online and on the TV or even on a billboard so that people will notice it and that way you can pull in more customers. Its very important that your business makes profit. If you don't make profit then the business will go bust and be bankrupt. To make sure you make profit you must be selling your products or whatever it is your doing for more than you got the original materials for. You must also make sure that you have enough to pay your employees as well as to buy new materials to make more products. Finally you need to have plans for the future a good example is if you look at Apple. They have made macs, iPads, iPhones and iPods. They are all the same basic things. If you look at the iPod and the iPhone they are so similar, the only differences are that the phone has the ability to phone people and text people hence why its called the iPhone and its thicker than the iPod. Even if you look at the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. All they did was change the shape, update the camera, add a camera to the front of the phone and add a flash on the camera at the back and people bought the new iPhone 4 simply because its updated so make sure that when you are running a business that you have future plans.
When developing projects for the company, it's important that the whole team cooperate with each other and work together well to make sure that the project comes out on top. It's true we have all met people who we don't like for the way they act and for who they are in general but we must make sure that we knock out the opposition by working together. There are eight members of a team and I am going to go through them here. First off is the Creators and these are broken up into two sections, The plant and the resource investigator. Now you should think of the plant as a person who spreads the seeds and waits until the fruit is bared, meaning that they give out all the briefs until someone has came up with the best idea and the resource investigator is the person who find out what resources are needed for the project to be made. Next comes the leaders and again these are split into two. The coordinator and the shaper. The coordinator is the person who leads the team through even though they aren't the formal role model. The shaper is the person who is the task leader of the team and they are always looking for a pattern of discussions for people to take part in. Now comes the implementer. Again these are split in two. They are the team builder and the team implementer. The team builder is the one who is most sensitive to the team, they are aware of the teams needs and worries. The team implementer is the practical organiser, the one who turns decision and strategies into doable tasks for the rest of the team. Finally we move onto the completers, These are people who finish up the task and again they are spline into two groups. The monitor evaluator and the completer finisher. The monitor evaluator is a very hard hearted person who also judges how well the work has been done and they are very discrete. The completer finisher worries a lot about what will go wrong with the product which is a bad thing because they are always worrying and don't let go but on a positive note the do have the capability to follow through on everything by checking every little detail which makes them the type of people who make sure that the product is perfect and they accept nothing less than perfection.
The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. The projects that are being developed go through four phase of its life. The first one is the birth phase this is where everything is defined. Then these is the planning phase which is when the project is being planned out. Next comes the execution phase which is when the project is being built. Finally there is the exit phase which is when the project has been successfully developed. It is important that when a project is being built that its broken down into phases. This is so that the project manager and the project developers can effectively plan out how its going to be made. Its very important to organise project phases into industry specific project cycles. This is because each different industry sector has different needs for its project development. I am going to go through the four stages so that you understand what they are.
1. Initiation
This is the beginning of the project. This is where the project manager is appointed and has to select his team members based on their skills and experience. the most basic tools used during initiation are a project charter, a business plan, the project framework, the business case justification and the milestone reviews.
2. Planning
The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.
3. Execution and Controlling
The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organisation become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of risk analysis and score cards, in addition to business Plan and milestones reviews.
4. Closure or Exit
In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper completion. The closure phase is characterised by a written formal project review report containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase.
Businesses need aims and objectives to succeed, and most businesses benefit from taking stock periodically to determine or reassert what their aims and objectives are. To run a successful business it needs to have certain qualities. A business needs a reputation. This is so that people know what this business is about. It also shows how good a business is if it has a good reputation. It shows reliability and good customer service. If a business has a good reputation it is more likely to reel in lots of customers. Another this a business needs is advertising. How are you going to contact a business if you haven't seen it advertised? Sure you could use the yellow pages if you have heard of the name but why do then when there are other businesses out there that do the same thing and they advertise about it. It is important to have good advertisements both online and on the TV or even on a billboard so that people will notice it and that way you can pull in more customers. Its very important that your business makes profit. If you don't make profit then the business will go bust and be bankrupt. To make sure you make profit you must be selling your products or whatever it is your doing for more than you got the original materials for. You must also make sure that you have enough to pay your employees as well as to buy new materials to make more products. Finally you need to have plans for the future a good example is if you look at Apple. They have made macs, iPads, iPhones and iPods. They are all the same basic things. If you look at the iPod and the iPhone they are so similar, the only differences are that the phone has the ability to phone people and text people hence why its called the iPhone and its thicker than the iPod. Even if you look at the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. All they did was change the shape, update the camera, add a camera to the front of the phone and add a flash on the camera at the back and people bought the new iPhone 4 simply because its updated so make sure that when you are running a business that you have future plans.
When developing projects for the company, it's important that the whole team cooperate with each other and work together well to make sure that the project comes out on top. It's true we have all met people who we don't like for the way they act and for who they are in general but we must make sure that we knock out the opposition by working together. There are eight members of a team and I am going to go through them here. First off is the Creators and these are broken up into two sections, The plant and the resource investigator. Now you should think of the plant as a person who spreads the seeds and waits until the fruit is bared, meaning that they give out all the briefs until someone has came up with the best idea and the resource investigator is the person who find out what resources are needed for the project to be made. Next comes the leaders and again these are split into two. The coordinator and the shaper. The coordinator is the person who leads the team through even though they aren't the formal role model. The shaper is the person who is the task leader of the team and they are always looking for a pattern of discussions for people to take part in. Now comes the implementer. Again these are split in two. They are the team builder and the team implementer. The team builder is the one who is most sensitive to the team, they are aware of the teams needs and worries. The team implementer is the practical organiser, the one who turns decision and strategies into doable tasks for the rest of the team. Finally we move onto the completers, These are people who finish up the task and again they are spline into two groups. The monitor evaluator and the completer finisher. The monitor evaluator is a very hard hearted person who also judges how well the work has been done and they are very discrete. The completer finisher worries a lot about what will go wrong with the product which is a bad thing because they are always worrying and don't let go but on a positive note the do have the capability to follow through on everything by checking every little detail which makes them the type of people who make sure that the product is perfect and they accept nothing less than perfection.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Unit 06
When in the work place you have to make sure that everything is safe. This goes for you and everyone else who you work with. This is very important because it could just take one thing to go wrong and something seriously bad could happen. You must make sure that all wires are safely tucked away so that nobody can trip over them and if you have been using any tools then make sure they're put away and not left on the path way for people to trip over. You must make sure that when you are lifting objects manually that you are lifting them properly to avoid back pain. If there is a wet floor you must place a wet floor sign next to where it is so that people can realise that its a hazard and so that they can be cautious when walking across the slippery surface. If there was a fire in the building you would have to leave in an orderly manner and assemble at the designated assembly point. The fire exits and the main stairway at the rear of the building. The first aid box is located at reception which is on the ground floor. If one of the computers wasn't working you would need to inform the boss of the company or your supervisor. You need to make sure that all wires are tidy and out of the way so that people can't trip up over them. I have identified a risk and potential hazard and I have took action by sending an E-mail to Paul Chambers.
When you are in the office you must look out for many things and you should know where they are for when an accident occurs. You must make sure that their are no trailing wires for people to fall over. You must make sure that you know where the nearest fire extinguisher is so that you can get it if you need to. You must make sure that sockets aren't overloaded so that a fire or electrical fault doesn't break out. You must make sure that shelf's aren't overloaded with stuff as they could fall off and hurt someone. You need to make sure that there is a first aid box near by in case something happens. You need to make sure there are no trip hazards so again trailing wires are a no go. You need to make sure that the computer glare isn't bad as this can cause pain to the eyes. When the day is over it is very important that you turn off all the computers and heaters as leaving them on would be a potential risk and a fire hazard could break out. Make sure that you check for trailing wires and that all chairs are tucked under the desks as again these could lead to trip hazards. According to the health and safety at work act it should be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. Without prejudice it is the employers duty to provide training and documentation relevant to the health and safety practice within the company.
In the workplace there has got to be a certain temperature, there is no law for a minimum temperature but it should be at least 16°C or 13°C if a lot of the work is physical. If the workplace is a structure that has insulated walls or is for some reason very warm then the company should see to it that they place air conditioning or coolants in the building so that all the workers are comfortable and that the temperature is a nice one. When it's a hot day fans should be in place too. When at work you are entitled to breaks. A worker is entitled to 20 minutes uninterrupted break if they work for 6 hours or more and this break should be taken during work time and not at the beginning or end of the working day. A worker is entitled to an 11 hour daily rest during any 24 hour period. This means that when you have finished work you must have at least 11 hours to yourself/rest before you can work again the next day. An adult worker is entitled to 1 day off a week and this can be averaged over two weeks. If a young worker is working for more than four and a half hours then they are entitled to a 30 minute break. Young workers are also entitled to 2 days off each week and this cannot be averaged over two weeks.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Flash Design
I actually made this last week but i forgot to blog about it, apologies for that. What I have been doing is using Adobe Flash to create a flashing title for my website, if you vist at www.jamessnee.host56.com you will be able to see it right there at the very top.
Unit 05
When you are talking to people in the work place you need to make sure that you can communicate effectively. If someone is talking to you or asking you a question talk back but don't be afraid to say what you think, don't just give simple yes or no answers make yourself heard and let people know how you feel about something. Be yourself and that way people will see you as an individual, as someone who isn't afraid to voice their opinion. Also to add, when you are talking to people make sure you give them eye contact, don't be looking at the floor or away from them, this will make you look ignorant and the people you are talking to won't be able to hear you clearly. You must make your speaking clear and effective. It is also important that when you are being spoken to that you listen and don't drift off because what you are hearing could be very beneficial to you. Even if it doesn't always make full sense that doesn't mean that you can't ask the person what they mean, that way they can break it down so that you understand fully what they are going on about. When communicating, there are two ways verbal and non verbal. Verbal is when you are talking and listening to someone one on one or in a group and non verbal is when you express yourself by arm movements, gestures, eye contact, presentation and by the way you dress with regards professional understanding and perception. When I communicate verbally I am very polite and formal. I don't use bad language and I am very tactful as I believe this improves productivity.
If you have got to ask for something then don't be afraid but take into account what other people want too. Don't be selfish about what you want try to work around it the best way possible so that everyone is happy and not just yourself. When doing this though, don't come on too strongly but also don't be too nice as this will effect productivity.
When at work, not everybody is nice and easy to get along with, some people are nasty and like to wind you up for the fun of it. You obviously can't change who you are, if you get angry when people wind you up then that's just the way you are. What you should do with situations like these is figure out ways to avoid it. Don't come across as someone who is easy to wind up or get angry. Steer clear of situations where you know you will get angry and upset. You should avoid getting stressed out by work to. Manage your day and night so that you have time to do work and time to chill out. Don't get held back with doing work, make sure that you hit all the deadline dates and make sure that your work is at its highest standard possible.
When at work you need to build relationships with each other. This doesn't just mean other members of staff this also means people who you are doing work for, the customers and freelancers. Now I don't expect you to like everyone you come across in life because lets be honest, not everyone is the nice guy you would like them to be. When in work even if you don't like someone or don't talk to them doesn't mean you have to be arrogant towards them, even doing them simplest of things like holding a door open for them can build an effective relationship. You may not like the person but at least if you do something simple like that they will think highly of you, they won't think your arrogant, they will see you as polite and very cooperative. It's important to build relationships with those specialists in job roles that are fundamental to the production process. A good example of this would be with in my team if I was to work for a web design company I would build relationships with various people in the company such as the web developer, the designer, the researcher and the photographer as each of these individuals have a key role within the production process of building the client a productive corporate brand of website. Another good example of this would be if I was to work for a magazine such as OK! If I was to layout content of the magazine I would reply on the photographers, the reporters, the line manager etc. Each with their own specialised process. It is essential for me to communicate effectively on a professional level using verbal and non verbal communication to promote a good working relationship with people in relation to deadlines and client approval.
If something goes wrong in the work place you shouldn't go around blaming others and pointing the finger. What you should do it communicate between each other and figure out how you can solve the problem, for example if you have asked someone to hold some papers for you or documents or whatever and they drop them don't go shouting and balling and making an idiot out of yourself, just simply pick them up and carry on with what you were doing, they would most likely say sorry and help you pick them up and that's the end of it because everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect. Just remember that respect is earned and its not something that you can buy just like that, if you are polite then people will respect you and think very highly of you where as if you aren't people will think low of you and won't like working around you, thus destroying what could be a good working relationship. What you must also remember is that when you are working you aren't just working for yourself or with one other person, you're all doing the same job and should all be taking part in group activities. If someone new joins the group don't be nasty to them just be canny with them and friendly, make them feel welcome in the group this way you have an effective relationship with your group and everyone can get along because if people are upset with one another they can and will refuse to cooperate in the group and this is a very selfish thing to do because not only will you and the other person be angry but the set of the group won't be best pleased as they will have to do all the work while two others will be arguing like children. Also when doing group work, respect everyones opinions, if they say something and it sounds stupid to you don't be aggressive because no answer is the wrong answer, if someone says something that is stupid, a part of it might not be stupid and it could open up new ideas from others in the group.
If you have got to ask for something then don't be afraid but take into account what other people want too. Don't be selfish about what you want try to work around it the best way possible so that everyone is happy and not just yourself. When doing this though, don't come on too strongly but also don't be too nice as this will effect productivity.
When at work, not everybody is nice and easy to get along with, some people are nasty and like to wind you up for the fun of it. You obviously can't change who you are, if you get angry when people wind you up then that's just the way you are. What you should do with situations like these is figure out ways to avoid it. Don't come across as someone who is easy to wind up or get angry. Steer clear of situations where you know you will get angry and upset. You should avoid getting stressed out by work to. Manage your day and night so that you have time to do work and time to chill out. Don't get held back with doing work, make sure that you hit all the deadline dates and make sure that your work is at its highest standard possible.
When at work you need to build relationships with each other. This doesn't just mean other members of staff this also means people who you are doing work for, the customers and freelancers. Now I don't expect you to like everyone you come across in life because lets be honest, not everyone is the nice guy you would like them to be. When in work even if you don't like someone or don't talk to them doesn't mean you have to be arrogant towards them, even doing them simplest of things like holding a door open for them can build an effective relationship. You may not like the person but at least if you do something simple like that they will think highly of you, they won't think your arrogant, they will see you as polite and very cooperative. It's important to build relationships with those specialists in job roles that are fundamental to the production process. A good example of this would be with in my team if I was to work for a web design company I would build relationships with various people in the company such as the web developer, the designer, the researcher and the photographer as each of these individuals have a key role within the production process of building the client a productive corporate brand of website. Another good example of this would be if I was to work for a magazine such as OK! If I was to layout content of the magazine I would reply on the photographers, the reporters, the line manager etc. Each with their own specialised process. It is essential for me to communicate effectively on a professional level using verbal and non verbal communication to promote a good working relationship with people in relation to deadlines and client approval.
If something goes wrong in the work place you shouldn't go around blaming others and pointing the finger. What you should do it communicate between each other and figure out how you can solve the problem, for example if you have asked someone to hold some papers for you or documents or whatever and they drop them don't go shouting and balling and making an idiot out of yourself, just simply pick them up and carry on with what you were doing, they would most likely say sorry and help you pick them up and that's the end of it because everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect. Just remember that respect is earned and its not something that you can buy just like that, if you are polite then people will respect you and think very highly of you where as if you aren't people will think low of you and won't like working around you, thus destroying what could be a good working relationship. What you must also remember is that when you are working you aren't just working for yourself or with one other person, you're all doing the same job and should all be taking part in group activities. If someone new joins the group don't be nasty to them just be canny with them and friendly, make them feel welcome in the group this way you have an effective relationship with your group and everyone can get along because if people are upset with one another they can and will refuse to cooperate in the group and this is a very selfish thing to do because not only will you and the other person be angry but the set of the group won't be best pleased as they will have to do all the work while two others will be arguing like children. Also when doing group work, respect everyones opinions, if they say something and it sounds stupid to you don't be aggressive because no answer is the wrong answer, if someone says something that is stupid, a part of it might not be stupid and it could open up new ideas from others in the group.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Unit 04
Different work places have different cultures, This means by the way people dress and how they go about working around the workplace. I myself work in the creative media industry as a website and graphical designer. I don't have a dress code as long as I look smart and creative then everything is alright. I usually dress casually so jeans and a T-shirt. I am presentable to the client and I don't look scruffy however if I was a journalist then I would dress smarter but it wouldn't be to the extent of working in a bank where you must wear a suit. I need to manage my time effectively as I may have four jobs running at once and I need to prioritise each job in relation to time.
Challenging behaviour in the workplace is something that someone does which can hurt or humiliate the company or employees or both in some cases from not following the ERR (employment rights and responsibilities) These are the rules that apply to both the employer and the employee. Challenging behaviour can be from lack of respect for the team leaders or any authority within the company. This could include personality clashes, confrontation and argumentative behaviour. Examples would be a disagreement over media content, the use of colour for a design or someone suggesting an image to use which would be good and then others disagreeing. This could cause arguments. In doing so this could have effect on moral and on productivity within a project. If challenging behaviour doesn't take place then this could increase the quality of work and the creativity and motivation between each individual within the group. If I see something that I believe is challenging behaviour then the key people to inform would be Paul Chambers and the assessors within my building.
When I am planning and managing my work load I make an accurate estimate of a time scale. For instance if I am working on a logo and I know it's a two day job I would plan for two six hour days with an hour break, an hour dinner and two fifteen minute breaks either way. I would use a project plan to monitor tasks ensuring that the project is on schedule. The time scale would be revised in line with my budget and also making sure the client is informed on when the deadline date is with progress reports to the client in case the project takes longer than estimated. I would construct a project plan identifying resources, costs and the time scale involved and the schedule completion of the particular job. I would also have a contingency plan and place to provide an alternative solution in case there was a problem with the project, which is why I would keep in touch with the client regarding progress. In relation to the contingency plan and the project plan, I would make sure that all work is filed neatly within folders and backed up incase files are lost or damaged otherwise I could reach the completion of the project and files could be deleted or a disk could be lost which mean I would have have to start again or the client would go to another person or I would have to do it for nothing.
It is important that I partake in progressing my own development. This is known as CPD within my area. Keeping up to date with the industry standard practice. I am currently on a apprenticeship where I work on projects relative to the company. However to keep up to date I create my own websites learning skills using the social media network to develop my own way of working. I use tutorials that the tutors put in place when I am at home to improve my own skills. I am constantly using Facebook and Twitter to market myself and I buy up to date magazines on a monthly basis such as computer arts magazine to aid my development.
When I am planning and managing my work load I make an accurate estimate of a time scale. For instance if I am working on a logo and I know it's a two day job I would plan for two six hour days with an hour break, an hour dinner and two fifteen minute breaks either way. I would use a project plan to monitor tasks ensuring that the project is on schedule. The time scale would be revised in line with my budget and also making sure the client is informed on when the deadline date is with progress reports to the client in case the project takes longer than estimated. I would construct a project plan identifying resources, costs and the time scale involved and the schedule completion of the particular job. I would also have a contingency plan and place to provide an alternative solution in case there was a problem with the project, which is why I would keep in touch with the client regarding progress. In relation to the contingency plan and the project plan, I would make sure that all work is filed neatly within folders and backed up incase files are lost or damaged otherwise I could reach the completion of the project and files could be deleted or a disk could be lost which mean I would have have to start again or the client would go to another person or I would have to do it for nothing.
It is important that I partake in progressing my own development. This is known as CPD within my area. Keeping up to date with the industry standard practice. I am currently on a apprenticeship where I work on projects relative to the company. However to keep up to date I create my own websites learning skills using the social media network to develop my own way of working. I use tutorials that the tutors put in place when I am at home to improve my own skills. I am constantly using Facebook and Twitter to market myself and I buy up to date magazines on a monthly basis such as computer arts magazine to aid my development.
If there was a fire in the building you would have to leave in an orderly manner and assemble at the designated assembly point. If one of the computers wasn't working you would need to inform the boss of the company or your supervisor. You need to make sure that all wires and tidy and out of the way so that people can't trip up over them.
There is a difference between employers and employees. The employer is the person who hires the employees. Both jobs can be stressful but I personally think that an employers job is harder than the employees. This is because the employer must make sure everything is in working order, that the employees are getting paid on time and they must be organised with their paper work which can be very stressful where as an employee only does the work the employer has set for them.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Unit 03
The main type of technology used in the creative media sector is a computer. Everyone uses them from being a graphical designer to a web developer. Graphical designers may use scanners/printers to print out work. Web developers can do the same. Web developers would not use a scanner or a printer on a regular basis. To communicate with clients they would tend to use mobile devices such as phones and tablets (iPad). They will also use certain software programs on the computers such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver.
Copyright is a big issue within the creative a digital media section. If you had a design you had created and you didn't want anyone stealing that design you would have to copyright it to your name. If someone was to steal that design and claim it as their own work and you found out, you have the right to take them to court and sue them for a lot of money. It is possible for them to buy the rights to your design, that is if you're willing to sell it. This isn't just with images, its with absolutely everything that a person has designed, on the website DAFONT, people have created fonts for others to use. some are free and some are free for personal use. You must understand the difference between the two. Free means that it can be used no matter what, if you want to put it online then you can. Free for personal use on the other hand means you can only use it for a design that you don't inter to publish or make money from, if you make money from it and that person who created the font finds out, then they can take you to court.
There are many types of convergent technology examples include a laptop which is multifunctional as you can surf the internet, watch movies, play music and use computer programs also a mobile phone such as an iPhone as well as making phone calls and texting people you can use access the internet, use it as a camera and to download apps to play video games and also scan images. There is also a device called a tablet which is very similar to a laptop but with touch screen technology which you can get on the iPhone. You can interact by using the touch screen to perform tasks which you can do if you were using a phone or laptop.
The media industry is a growing one. people no longer use big websites, they now use one page websites because they can communicate by using the social network. If you have noticed when on a website they usually have a Facebook like box or a small advertisement saying "find us on Facebook". The print industry is one that is decreasing in size due to the mass market of conversion technology and the social network with designers creating apps and from the use of online magazines and websites. Everything is now instant, a good example is the news websites as they update every hour or so so you no longer need to wait the following day to get the news. The weather is also a good one as you can now use your mobile phone to check the weather. A creative within this industry knowing how to create websites and knowing that the conversion technology market can produce work for free without having to use any printers for advertising so really it's 100% profit.
There are many ways to exploit the use of conversion technology. One way is using cross-browser compatibility. When creating your website you need to use different coding for different browsers, say if you wanted to add text shadow and you wanted it to show up on all web browsers you need to show the right code. I used a website called CSS3 generator and this gives you the correct code to show up on all browsers rather than just Firefox. These techniques are to be used on mobiles and tablets especially when using an iPhone or an iPad as they both use Safari browsers.
There are many types of convergent technology examples include a laptop which is multifunctional as you can surf the internet, watch movies, play music and use computer programs also a mobile phone such as an iPhone as well as making phone calls and texting people you can use access the internet, use it as a camera and to download apps to play video games and also scan images. There is also a device called a tablet which is very similar to a laptop but with touch screen technology which you can get on the iPhone. You can interact by using the touch screen to perform tasks which you can do if you were using a phone or laptop.
The media industry is a growing one. people no longer use big websites, they now use one page websites because they can communicate by using the social network. If you have noticed when on a website they usually have a Facebook like box or a small advertisement saying "find us on Facebook". The print industry is one that is decreasing in size due to the mass market of conversion technology and the social network with designers creating apps and from the use of online magazines and websites. Everything is now instant, a good example is the news websites as they update every hour or so so you no longer need to wait the following day to get the news. The weather is also a good one as you can now use your mobile phone to check the weather. A creative within this industry knowing how to create websites and knowing that the conversion technology market can produce work for free without having to use any printers for advertising so really it's 100% profit.
There are many ways to exploit the use of conversion technology. One way is using cross-browser compatibility. When creating your website you need to use different coding for different browsers, say if you wanted to add text shadow and you wanted it to show up on all web browsers you need to show the right code. I used a website called CSS3 generator and this gives you the correct code to show up on all browsers rather than just Firefox. These techniques are to be used on mobiles and tablets especially when using an iPhone or an iPad as they both use Safari browsers.
Unit 02
You can communicate to people in multiple ways. I will explain all these ways.
Telephone is one way of communicating with people this is appropriate if you need to communicate with someone very quickly to get their response straight away. It is also useful compared to email because you can determine the persons personality when speaking to them on the phone. E-mail is good if you need to send an image or document. If you haven't got time to contact the person you can send them an E-mail. A great thing about an E-mail is that it's free. Skype is a good way to communicate with someone. This is good because its free and you can see the person face to face while you are talking to them, even though you are meeting up in person. It is good if you have a meeting with multiple people to discuss ideas as a group, share your ideas and come up with something good in the end.
To communicate ideas effectively you should talk to the person face to face. This is the most effective because you can feel their emotion and you an share your ideas in person and see the way people will react to your ideas with gestures and the facial expressions that they show you.
To communicate ideas effectively you should talk to the person face to face. This is the most effective because you can feel their emotion and you an share your ideas in person and see the way people will react to your ideas with gestures and the facial expressions that they show you.
All feedback is constructive but its how you give it. If an idea is bad or you don't think it sounds that good, then tell the person that but tell them it by saying what you think is good about the idea and what you think is bad about the idea. Show them way of improving the idea, don't just be negative and say everything about the idea is bad, and don't have a negative attitude about it, even though it may not always make perfect sense but when someone says something stupid, it may open up room for a new idea from someone else.
I did a presentation on ERR (Employment Rights & Responsibilities) on a website called Prezi. I presented this presentation to a small group of people about 5 of us. Here is the link to my presentation. http://prezi.com/nelbybhmszks/employment-rights-and-responsibilities/
When I was presenting my presentation I was criticised at the end on how I had done. There was a mix of feedback. I had both good and bad. One good piece of feedback I received was how my voice was clear and I know what I was talking about. One bad bit was that I kept looking at the screen and not facing my audience and obviously this is bad because they won't be able to understand me as well as they should be able to.
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