Strengths and weaknesses

I think i have already done this but i have thought of some more things i can do to improve. I find that i love learning how to use many different types of software however i do tend to try and do everything at once and i spread myself thin and sometimes loose interest with what i am doing. I felt this happened half way through my design specialism brief, however it wasn't loss of interest i just felt i had trapped myself with a mediocre idea and there was no way out, so i rand out of steam so to speak.

This usually happens to me with every project but it wasn't to severe this time around. Another strength is that i always have to be doing work until i feel something is complete, however this can sometimes play against me because i sometimes panic and churn out mediocre ideas but feel it i do enough work to back it up it will make the idea good, which is often not the case.

I find that i am more geared more to pc as i have used a pc all my life and find it quite hard to use mac which sometimes becomes a problem when it comes to using certain programs, and also using certain keys on the keyboard, however i feel i am improving in this area as while at home i kept looking for the command key on my keyboard to left click on something soon realising i wasn't using a mac which is a good sign. There are also programs i have never used before such as indesign and illustrator which weren't particularly hard to use because i am used to photoshop, however i still don't know everything that can be achieved in either program, so i need to start using them in my spare time a lot more as i do with photoshop already.

I feel with using a computer all my life that using and creating documents to be quite easy but on the other hand sometimes i tend to think i know more than i actually do about computers i try and do things when i have no idea what i'm really doing which may waste time when i could just ask someone for not only saving time but would probably have a better understanding in the long run.

So my new 5 point plan is:

Improve my skills within the mac operating system,

Improve my understanding of indesign, illustrator and other adobe programs.

Ask someone to save time when i don't know what to do.

Stay focused/realise i can always start a new idea rather than sticking with a bad one.

Don't panic and come up with bad ideas, stay calm and collected and think through things.

Designing useful future products and interfaces

This week we were asked to come up with a product that does not yet exist but may exist in the near or distant future that is designed around the idea that presents information to a person in a simplistic way. The idea was based around a person with a busy life style that has little spar time or concentration and a product that would catch the attention of this person/people. We were given around a week to come up with a idea, develop it and then to present it to the class. Our group based our idea around public transportation, eliminating the need for use of physical money and instead replacing it with a swab system, the swab first went from a wrist bang and later evolved into a Key ring.

The idea was to upload money to this swab so that no money would be needed on the bus, therefore speeding up the whole process. Along with the swab idea we also came up with a 2D holographic touch screen interface that would be built into one of the glass panels within a bus stop, this interface would easily show you which bus route you would be taking and also where the bus would be and how long the journey would take taking into account traffic on that day. The name for this design would be "Map Trak", one of the many useful tools unlike routes and times that are available now, would be that if the bus had been diverted and unavailable, "Map Trak" would inform you instantly and direct you to the nearest available bus stop. Another useful tool would be being able to view your travel history online, and suggest alternate faster routes. A points system would also be in effect, with keeping "Trak" of your progress and reward you with free journeys and other benefits for using public transport. The overall idea was to make public transportation easier, more enjoyable and more efficient. 

I really enjoyed this task because if anything it helped me realize the problems that designers face, how hard it is to appeal to people with very little time and how to appeal to their extremely small attention span.       

Intro for my comic

From using InDesign and what i have learned in my animation lessons i decided to make an introduction for comic. I have also decided to make my comic pages interactive, i enjoy doing impressions of people so i thought i could voice all the characters and make it more enjoyable to read, but also give the option to turn off the sound for those who don't want to listen to me.  I got this idea from Matt because he happened to see some of my artwork in lesson and started showing me some interactive comics online and how they are much more interesting with subtle small animations in them. This will all be purely in my spare time but I'm sure that it will help me improve my adobe skills in the long run. Cant wait to get started!

More concept art

I've been working hard all day and wanted to unwind, so i drew some more concept art from my head for my comic.

I shows a convoy of tanks going down a "safe" road, with 2 Shock troopers waiting behind a flimsy fence. It's a sunny day in winter with frosty mountains in the background. This is an example of when i just have to draw and get things out of my head.

Flux 1 Presentation

When receiving the brief for the presentation i was still ill from having my operation but once i got back to uni we all met up on a regular basis and assigned different research tasks to everyone. Once we had completed enough research it was time to write all the slides and put the relevant facts down, at this stage every slide had a large amount of writing on them. Once that was done we printed those slides off to sort later and started eliminating a large chunk of the writing on each slide and replacing with images. We then went on to arrange the slides in the most logical order for a smooth flow through the presentation, once this was done we were finally able to sort out who was reading what slide and when. The only thing that was left to do was to make the presentation look more presentable (bad joke) that was done and we we're ready to present. Overall i think the presentation went rather well, i was shaking with nerves as per usual and Sara forgot what tissue was but apart from that it went well. Toby pointed out a few fair placed criticisms such as topics that didn't quite fit in and that some slides were a bit boring, i hope to build on my presentation skills in the future and improve on those areas that were criticized. The only problem i had with this brief was that doing it in a group, it was hard to find a time when we were all free due to some people commuting and others not being able to make it due to the fact they had their design specialism sessions which made it very difficult to meet up on more than 1 occasion. Everyone worked hard however to get the presentation done on time so it all ran smoothly and overall was a great success in regards to time management. 

Cool movie

This has to be by far one of my favorite animated movie, it's is based on a graphic novel about the 1982 invasion of Lebanon from the perspective of Israeli soldiers. It is more of a documentary about the psychological effects of war years on than an action movie. I just love the art style so much and this is one of the reason i started making my own comic. I also love how it's so sketchy yet realistically depressing at the same time, you really start to care for the characters after a while and when one does die you cant help but feel a little sad.

Strengths and weaknesses

I've found over the many years, when i am given a brief i have a pattern and it goes like this:

1.Come up with some good early ideas without doing research.
2.Get far too ahead of myself.
3.Reel it in and start with idea development.
4.Get comfortable with a Idea.
5.Go off the beat and track a little trying out new things in my own time such as rotoscoping and 3d in this case.
6.Don't use what i have learnt and just settle for first idea.

Don't get me wrong i end up with a lot of practice work but this always seems to happen, then i end up panicing, this may not be what i need to put on my blog but i just have to get it off my chest. This year though has been more enjoyable so far and i actually enjoy doing the work but i still end up panicing like crazy when i feel i haven't done enough work, i do work practically every day because when I'm not i just think i should be. I do however love doing Moving Image and i cant wait until we get self lead projects, I also enjoy the fact that i don't seem to have to use a sketchbook anymore, i much prefer using technology than paper.

Wensday 26th of October

Today we showed our Sky Arts main idea to Matt, we both came to the conclusion that the idea was a little flat, and that it wasn't very dynamic. So I've had to go back to the drawing board, this means i have to come up with a completely new idea. However within 5 minutes I managed to take an existing idea ( my art gallery idea) and put a new twist on it. I am really glad that me and Matt talked about where i was in the brief and what i was finding hard and easy, I'm trying my best to stay on top of everything but it in honestly is starting to really stress me out but i know once I make the hand in i will feel all the better for it. Also  in the same day i did a reflection tutorial i really enjoyed and some more rotoscoping, i also managed to find a site with free stock footage which was useful as i don't really have access to a camera which i should address fairly sharpish.

Some work I've done

 This is a road in America, the year is 2056, and the world has run out of oil, America becomes a cut off country from the rest of the world and starts steal what oil is left through force. Europe has joined up with China, Russia and Cuba to form the N.E.A (New European Alliance) and this is a picture from my head of the first invasion of America or (Operation-X).

 This is Duke Nukem, one of the most under rated game characters, when i play a game i usually end up drawing the main character at some point.

 GAAAAARGHHH!!! I have no idea why i drew this but i like it, it's just a random soldier with a visor.

 This is a picture i drew because i played a game called Hitman, a game where you hide in the shadows and wait to assassinate people, this is why i used the black background to symbolism darkness i guess. People seem to like it, one person made a wallpaper for their computer out of it.

 I was playing a WW2 game and felt like drawing a German soldier from the period, i don't think it went very well. I've never been confident with colour, i suppose that is something i really need to improve on and gt confident with.

 Again i have no idea who this is i just put my pen to my tablet, put on some music and started drawing.

 This is a XD soldier from my comic in some sort of Urban area, the buildings don't look to great and the whole thing looks a bit flat in my opinion.

If I'm not making my comic in my spare time, i am drawing drawing drawing... then drawing some more. I love drawing, some people pass their time with a good book and a bit of X factor but not me, when i start drawing time fly's by. More often than not while drawing I tend to be staring at a screen none stop for 5 hours and not even know. However sometimes getting inspired is hard work and this can kick me down for a month, i get it into my head that i am getting worse at what i do. This usually happens after I've achieved my "greatest piece of art yet" and i feel i can't do any better, but it eventually passes.

Visiting the Workshop

http://www.theworkshop.co.uk/
This is where we went on the 13th of October. I remember trying to find the place, at first i though it might be hidden but when i saw the style of the building i knew where i was, it had a very modern look almost as if it were a museum of modern art. Inside was no different, brightly lit simple rooms with friendly staff. We were introduced to 4 staff who were each going to tell us about what they had achieved in life and how. I found this extremely enjoyable and helpful at the same time. They were basically saying what the visitor at the lecture had said a week earlier, that you had to stay on top and not fall behind and it was good to have a range of skills, one of the designers there applied to them and he had a degree in English lit, but he also found time to make his own website which won him favor. Another lesson learnt was that having as much work experience as possible is one of the keys of finding a job after graduating, not only do you get experiences but you also get to meet people, important people that may help in later life. I also learned that you more than likely wont stay in the same job for some time, you may go from place to place before you really find your feet which has put some of my fears to rest. I learned that some clients can also make the work they set a very narrow path, for example one of the designers there was designing a child's interactive game for CBBC. He put a pond in this game but CBBC said that they had to put a fence round the pond due to safety issues.  Overall the experiences was fun, interesting and overall has made me a lot more confident when looking into my own future.   

Whole course lecture

A couple of weeks ago we went to a lecture where we had a guest speaker. His job was to analyse key areas of popular culture and create products/programs around it, for example he worked on a project for the BBC. This was the BBC Iplayer, the general gist i got (that i could understand) was that they worked out how many people watched a certain program and made announcements a advertising available to the public based on what was popular at that time, so if a program about fish was popular they would harness that information for their advantage. Maybe this is why we have so many cooking programs on television lately. I think i understood most of the lecture however i get the feeling i didn't quite grasp it, not many people asked questions but the ones who did asked the questions i would have. One of these questions was "is it competitive?" he answered with "extremely" he also went on to say that it is wise not to pigeon hole your creativity into one skill and branch out into more and more things. He also said that it is important to stay on top of what is in and not fall behind otherwise you will struggle. I already had an idea that this might be the case so that is why i need to really try my hardest at uni and away from it to hopefully get the job I've always wanted.

Monday 3rd session

Monday was extremely helpful, it pushed me to take a step back and made me think about why i am doing what i do rather than just going ahead and doing it. This has made me consider why i have chosen my earlier ideas.I was asked why i chose those ideas and why, the reason for this is because my family has had sky for 10 years so it had been nailed into me from an early age what skys image was trying to portray however i cannot get through this entire brief by using that excuse, i do need to start doing some heavy research into the channel and what they are all about. 

My completed CV

http://www.zshare.net/flash/9521066455234933/
I am very happy with the outcome of my CV, i only used 3 key colours, black, red and white. I also mainly focused on my concept art and drawings in general because this is what the job entails and what i am good at. I put a link to my deviant art account on every page, i did this because my deviant art contains all of my art. However it would help me if I did more in my spare time that draw, for example improve other skills. However i do try to improve upon my computer skills as i know that every company no matter how small uses them.

http://www.zshare.net/flash/95097878ae0be81d/

Work in my spare time.

I draw at least once a day when i can find time. I think this is important to do because practice is key to improving your skills it is also very relaxing, fun and gives you the feeling you've accomplished something.
Recently i have started designing a comic based around all my friends, the idea is that each friend is a general in a world of my creation and each general is based on their own personality traits. My friend Adam loves playing and listening to music, so his army is based on speakers, laud weaponry and rock. I find drawing a comic with kinetic actions has pushed me to my limits but the overall outcome is very satisfying and whether anyone reads it or not doesn't bother me, sometimes i just need to get ideas from my head and onto paper regardless the outcome. Here are the pages so far:

 Page 1

Page 2 

 Page 3

 Page 4

 Page 5

 Page 6

 Page 7

  Page 8

Self Evaluation

Graphic Design

Self Evaluation and Professional Appraisal

Name:  Daniel Abraham

Date:    22/09/2011                                           

• Personal Skills Profile

First, complete the “Personal Skills Profile” that forms part of this assignment.  Depending upon your subject specialism, some sections may have greater or lesser relevance to you.

This process should help you to analyse your relative strengths.  Once you have completed the Personal Skills Profile, considered the results and reflect upon your relative strengths.  Then move onto the next part of the process.

• Personal Manifesto

Prepare a single paragraph  “Personal Manifesto” stating the things that are most important to you in your professional life and in your work. 

“A manifesto is a series of statements clarifying what you stand for in your life as well as what you won’t stand for.  Having a personal manifesto helps keep your focus on who you are and your purpose in life”.  (quoted from  www.yourbreakthroughtosuccess.com/blog )

• Your ideal job or role

Now imagine what you would like to be doing in about 5 years from now.  What would be your ideal job?  Or maybe you would prefer to be doing something else such as postgraduate study or voluntary activities?  Some of these might be design-related, but you might equally have other ideas. 

Be as specific as you can.  For example, “I’d like to be a designer” would not be very helpful.  What sort of designer?  Designing what?  In what kind of circumstances would you like to work?  For whom or with whom would you like work?  Where in the country or the world would you want to be working and living? Do you want to move into research or educational areas?

• Finding out more

Using information that has been discussed during visits, in seminars and during lectures and by conducting further research, complete the section on Intellectual Property Rights.

What further information would you need to find out to get into this ideal job or role?  Where (specifically) would you look for this information?  Respond to both of those questions giving details of books, journals, websites and other resources you might need to consult. If you aren’t sure of these sources then make efforts to research and find them out. Evidence these findings here.

Some of this might be very obvious, but still give the answers even if they seem obvious.  Other responses to this part of the assignment might be quite specialised and you might need to consider how you would seek support or advice or funding from professional institutions or other organisations.

• Five point action plan

Clearly state a five point action plan of the things you would need to do next in order to have a chance of success in attaining your ideal job or role.  Make the points in the order you would need to address them.

Some of these things might be directly related to the responses you gave to the previous question, but others might be aimed at improving your employability by (for example) addressing areas of weakness you may have identified when producing the “Personal Skills Profile”.

• Be honest

The purpose of this assignment is to rehearse some of the skills and tactics you might use when seeking a professional role beyond your current course to enable you to make a better job of that task. 

There are no marks for giving answers that you think tutors “might approve of” – and there isn’t any benefit to you in doing this.

When assessing this work, we will be looking for an honest and meaningful engagement with the assignment.

This research and reflection should be evident in your process of job selection and application.

We will look for the following when assessing your work:

An honest and meaningful personal skills reflection, showing evidence of self awareness

Knowledge and awareness of the relevant professional, institutional and legal framework.  This may include knowledge of relevant employers, unions, collaborative bodies, design and other educational institutions, copyright issues, image ownership and industry expectations, ethical and legal requirements etc.

Identification of appropriate employment and/or funding opportunities showing evidence of research and understanding

Creativity How well are you able to demonstrate :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Creativity and imagination in generating design ideas and concepts		*
·         Creativity and imagination in the development of your ideas			*
·         Creativity and imagination in technical / mechanical problem solving	*
·         Visual sensitivity through…
Making		*
Drawing				*
2D/3D computer graphics		*
Interactive Design		*
Research How well are you able to :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Obtain information from literary and electronic sources			*
·         Use practical testing and experimentation to support your ideas		*
·         Gain information from primary sources (interviews, questionnaires etc)		*
·         Derive useful research through personal observation			*
·         Synthesise ideas from your design research		*
·         Work creatively in response to your design research		*
Organisation How well are you able to :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Manage your time			*
·         Work consistently throughout projects			*
·         Meet deadlines for projects				*
·         Meet deadlines for non-project assignments			*
·         Use your initiative and work/study independently			*
·         Work with others – in teams for example		*
·         Anticipate and accommodate change		*
·         Manage and make decisions	*
Production of your work How well are you able to :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Work accurately and safely		*
·         Learn and apply new processes, skills and techniques			*
·         Understand, select and use materials and techniques with sensitivity	*
·         Solve problems through making or producing things		*
·         Create beauty or interest in your design work		*

Communication How well are you able to communicate :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·           In writing	*
·           Verbally		*
·           Visually			*
Presentation How well are you able to :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Articulate ideas and information		*
·         Present ideas and designs to audiences in various situations		*
·         Maintain clarity when presenting under pressure	*
Interpersonal and social skills How well do you :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Interact, collaborate and negotiate with others		*
·         Seek and consider advice		*
·         Listen to others		*
Critical awareness How well are you able to :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Analyse information and experiences		*
·         Formulate independent judgements			*
·         Articulate reasoned arguments through reflection, review, evaluation			*
·         Formulate reasoned responses to the critical judgements of others			*
·         Set goals and apply risk/challenge in your work		*
·         Identify personal strengths and weaknesses			*
Knowledge and context How well do you understand the context of your work :	poor	quite good	very good	great
·         Materials and related technologies	*
·         Production processes		*
·         Business and economic issues	*
·         Social and political issues			*
·         Ergonomics and human interaction with your designs		*
·         Consumers and markets	*
·         Historical, cultural and environmental issues			*
·         The work of other designers in your subject area			*

Continue on with the assignment by providing responses in the following areas.  Refer to the full brief for more information about what is expected in response to each of these questions.

Personal Manifesto   (A one paragraph statement of the things that are most important to you in your professional life/work) I like to put my all into every piece of work regardless of whether I am enjoying it or not. I also take pride in the fact I hand in everything in on time no matter what the circumstances are. However the main thing that is important to me is my ability to draw anything when I really concentrate, drawing has been a passion for me since I can remember and I would love to incorporate that into my career as much as possible.

Your ideal job or role   (What would you like to be doing in five years from now?  – be specific) My ideal job would be any job that includes drawing, animating really just putting my ideas on paper. However my one true goal in life is to design games, I play a lot of games and know that it is would be spectacular to see my ideas and concept art designs made into 3D models and played out by people all over the world, even if I don’t get payed all that much it would make me very happy. Another job I would love would be to make 2D animations, as a child I loved old style animation (Disney, Warner Bros ext) I was always interested in how they moved with such over action. The third and final job I’ve never thought about it, but I’m sure there are more jobs out there for me.

Finding out more   Explain and discuss briefly any issues surrounding intellectual property rights and copyright that may affect your life as a designer. I imagine it is of key importance to copyright every piece of work you do weather it be business or pleasure. If you do not then someone can take your work and profit from it then argue in court that they came up with that work.

Five point action plan   (The next five actions necessary if you were to have a chance of success in attaining your ideal job or role) 1.    Obtain certificate in chosen design field. 2.    Set a realistic goal: start small, think big. 3.    Apply everywhere. 4.    Think positive. 5.    Go for it.

Sheffield Hallam University : November 2011