It smells of Roses!

It was the MPA Roses awards this week, and my work was highly commended!!
I was very pleased! The event was held at The Cube. I managed to see a part of the judging take place because I was there to photograph as they discussed the work. But wasn't there when they looked at my work. The photo's have been sent to MPA Roses for their press.
I have a couple of companies with possible work opportunities which is great and I hope to get the experience.
I have been preparing my YCN entries to send off next week.
And also working on the website, I have found a way to work with Lynsey's photos which were taken on her phone! and it keeps with the theme of the other pages, it's the best I can do with such poor quality images.
Easter next week - I have never known time go so quickly!!

week ending friday 7th march

Well its been another crazy busy week!
The Florist website is on track now. I have been to see Lynsey twice.
Firstly she loved my photography of the shop and the flowers etc, We have sat down and gone through the design layouts of the site. I have steered her in the right direction and have gone for the white layout with blocks of bold coloured images. We did try something different with a large scale image in the background like a wallpaper but the white is the best.
So now I have to make the theme continuous throughout the whole site, I am still mocking up pages.
I have had more flash lessons and after effects which I like.
I have discovered an illustrator which I really like - Adrian Johnson. He did the Robinson's fruit adverts and he is the illustrator behind VodaFone. I bought a t-shirt - the mummy. I love the naivety of his work and the textures he applies. The pastel colours too, its all very lovely!

the last 2 weeks Monday 18th-Thursday 28thFeb

I will start with this week as it's the most fresh in my mind! It was a very busy week. I have been working in the shop quite alot this week.
At college on Tuesday I took part in a weekly challenge with the 1st year photography group. We are given the next days headlines for the guardian news paper and the task is to go out and photograph (photo journalism) if its good enough there is a chance it will go to press. Its really not easy! And no-one knows what the paper is looking for but I think its a great opportunity and a good exercise. The only thing is it clashes with my contextual studies and everything else that I have to do!
On Wednesday I went to an open day at MMU there was many companies in our field that we could talk to. I did a little self promotion went over and spoke to several companies one of which I have been looking at previously caled Flame Digital I noticed they were advertising for a junior web designer over xmas. I need to follow up my conversations with an email. I think it is interesting to see what they are looking for and what particular line of work they are in.
Thursday we learn't about search engine optimisation which was useful.
I had another after effects lesson I like the program I think there is a lot of potential and I must develop my work on it and experiment.
Friday I was in the shop again in the morning then in the afternoon I went with my colleague to The Circle Club in town to set up our shop for the Charity Fashion Show which was filmed for channel M. It was interesting to see the club prepare for the event. It was such a long day I had no lunch and no tea! I didn't see the show as I was in the back dressing the models, it was very stressful as I had about 2 minutes to change each model in between our outfits. Pete my boss said they looked the best out of all the other shops. I enjoyed it but didn't enjoy being in the circle club!
Saturday I went to The Florist to photograph which was a good opportunity as it was mothers day the next day and there were lots of gifts and flowers to shoot at, but however the shop was busy and I was getting in the way so I left with the pics that I had and took them home to look at, they are great and it helped me to design the pages as I had richer content. Tomorrow morning (Monday 3.3.08) I am to go again to show her what I have done so far and to photograph more. I need to get a move on!

THE WEEK BEFORE
Again it was a busy week, we had a very useful session with the careers man and also we started to learn after effects. It looks like I didn't do anything this week because I have not much to write but to tell you the truth I can't remember! Now that's the signs of a mature student, sometimes my fellow students say I am not mature but very immature - which ever but one thing remains and that's my memory has a time span of a week! Ahh! I remember something - I had a meeting with Lynsey at Living Flowers who I am designing and building a website for.
Wednesday 20th Feb - LF meeting with Lynsey.
I showed Lynsey my photography for the Jo Padmore opticians website to give her a feel of my pictures. I showed her my research and we both loved the close up square photos of brightly colored flowers from a Tricia guild magazine and said this was the direction for us to go. She gave me 3 disks of photos of ranges of contract work they have done. I had a look through them and to be honest most of them were not what I wanted to work with, they were not focused enough not styled enough and not like what we had just admired. So I said that I need to take pictures. I wanted to use my own pics anyway as I want the site to flow visually. There will be some missing for example there are no weddings at the moment for any of us to photograph. We want to create a feeling of lifestyle so image is very important.

I have been going to SPIN classes at the gym aka RPM. It's a constant cycle for 45 minutes racing, flats up hill etc etc and my god its a killer!! The second time I went (1st time I went light headed and it really hurt breathing) the instructor said 'You might feel sick but don't worry thats perfectly normal' its so good you burn between 400-800 calories.
Anyway I am going cos I'm waffling!

14th February

Last week was constant crit's and we had 2 deadlines to hand in. It was different for Interactive Media this time as we presented infront of New Media, so a bigger group and more competition! But I think it's good because you learn more from the discusions.
This week is half term but I have been in college 2 days to present my Arthur Fowler project for the roses awards and research my new project which is to design and build a website for a Florist - Living Flowers. On monday I had my first meeting with Lynsey the owner of the business. It was only a brief meeting and I wanted to find out from her if there was any particular direction she wanted the website to go. And mainly to say to her that at this stage I am to research other florist websites and gather different styles.

Friday 1st Feb

Thank goodness January is over!
This week I have been creating flash banners and feel more confident in using flash.
I have done my hand drawn storyboards for Arthur Fowler brief and put together the seed packets and cd covers to send with my work to the competition so that brief is now finito. Our current deadline has been put back a week so this means I can be getting on with more work for the presentation!
I am pleased with what I have done for the YCN Nude brief and am pleased with my concept, lets hope I get a good mark.

25th Jan 08

Work this week has gone well, I am pleased with my designs and concept for the Nude brief.
Need to get my portfolio and profile organised so they are ready to show to companies for work experience.
I have started my flash banner for nude also.
A new brief has been set to design a logo for an academy/school, so I shall do that after our deadline of next week.
Also, I have decided what I am going to do my Dissertation on and its a much better subject (I was stuck for good ideas before) I am going to base it on advertising and how it has changed in todays world of media and the internet. This is a good subject as most of what we do is for advertising on the web.

17 January 08

Happy new year!
This week has been a slow start.
Having Christmas followed by a trip to Budapest knocked a dent into my inspiration and I found it a slow start to my new project.
But! after a huge brain storm I have good ideas and am on the road to recovery.
I am doing the 'Nude' brief for the YCN competition. My work is going to be graphic advertising, posters, magazine ad's and hopefully a flash banner. This is good for me because I don't have any experience with graphic design and it will be good for my portfolio. Also it will be good to familiarise myself with flash. (and vice versa)
So, I know what I am doing - just do it!
Also today I have been to see the careers people to sort out my CV and get help with cover letters for work experience. In result I have allot of work to do to get them right but I MUST chip away at it and not forget it.
I have also finished my animation tweek's and finished the seed packet and cd cover - just need to get them printed off on the right papers. Still got my storyboard to do, and record 2 sound clips.
This weekend I am going to be sat at my desk working away like a busy little Bee!