1) Understand how to communicate in the workplace
1.1 Describe several communication techniques and explain their appropriate application
NON-VERBAL - Process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages (Body language, chronemics, haptics, gesture, posture, facial expression, eye contact, object communication [clothing, hairstyles, architecture], symbols, infographics, tone of voice).
ORAL - spoken verbal communication. Can also employ visual aids and non-verbal elements to support conveyance of meaning. Oral communication includes: speeches, presentations, discussions and aspects of interpersonal communication.
WRITTEN - information conveyed in writing, either on paper as a hard physical copy (either printed from a computer or written by hand), or displayed on a screen via projection of a digital image.
1.3 Describe how to give and receive constructive feedback
Information-specific, issue-focussed, based on observations. constructive feedback comes in two varieties:
> POSITIVE FEEDBACK - news or input to an employee about an effort well done
> NEGATIVE FEEDBACK - news to employee about effort that needs improvement. Negative feedback doesn't mean a terrible performance, but rather a performance in which the outcomes could be better.
> In the first sentence, constructive feedback, identify the topic or issue the feedback will be about, then provide specific details of what occurred.
> Without specific details, you only have praise and criticism.
> Start each key point with an "I" message, such as "I have noticed," "I have observed," "I have seen," or when the need exists to pass on feedback from others, "I have had reported to me,". "I" messages help you be more issue-focussed and get into the specifics.
> Be direct when delivering your point. Don't beat around the bush. Both positive and negative feedback should be given in a straightforward manner.
> Avoid "need to" phrases, which send implied messages that something didn't go well (e.g. "Jane, you need to get your reports turned in on time, and you need to spell check them," This is not performance feedback. It implies Jane did not do something well in her reports, but doesn't report exactly what happened)
> Be sincere and avoid giving mixed messages. sincerity says that you mean what you say with care and respect. Mixed messages are referred to as "Yes, but..." messages (e.g. "John, you have worked hard on this project, but..." What follows is something John did not do well, and is the main point of the message). The word "but" alonger its cousins "however" and "although", when said in the middle of a thought, create contradictions or mixed messages. In essence, putting "but" in the middle of a sentence tells the other person "don't believe a thing I just said,"
> In positive feedback situations, express appreciation. Appreciation alone is praise; yet when added to specifics of constructive feedback, the message carries an extra "oomph" of sincerity.
> In negative feedback situations, express concern. Concern communicates a sense of importance and care and provides the appropriate level of sincerity to the message. Tones such as anger, frustration, disappointment and sarcasm tend to colour the language of the message and turn attempts of negative feedback into criticism.
> Give feedback person-to-person, not messengers of technology. constructive feedback is verbal and informal. That can only be done by talking live to the employee, face-to-face, or by phone when you cannot physically meet.
> State observations, not interpretations. Observations are what you see occur; interpretations are your analysis or opinion of what you see occur. Tell them what you've noticed, not what you think of it, and report it at a concrete level, rather than characterisation of the behaviour.
1.4 Describe methods used to communicate technical and specialist issues within and across teams
> WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS - Dispatched by mail (e.g. statements detailing tax liabilities and payment schedules). Paper-based items sent by mail have the advantages of providing a clear, fileable statement that is likely to reach its intended recipient.
> ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - customers can "phone in" with their queries. They can also speak directly to the employee managing their account or concern. Oral communications allow issues to be resolved immediately.
> FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATIONS - e.g. a visit to the local office by arrangement. This can save time and subsequent communications.
> ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS - today consumers can complete their tax return, claim tax credits and do a variety of other business with the Inland Revenue directly online, thereby saving a great deal of time. An important advantage of this method is that ongiong "help" is provided by pop-up help facilities. This is a cheap, quick and efficient means of communication.
Face-to-face communications make possible more detailed discussions to clarify issues.
Written communications provide clear statements of discussions and their outcome can be recorded and files (such as the minutes of a meeting, or a receipt for a transaction).
Online communications have revolutionised ways of working by providing fast, cheap and efficient ways of interacting that can be easily stored within files. It can also be easily edited if a mistake is made, or the details of an employee or client is changed, and can be quickly shared between teams of employees working together to complete a task or project. For example, a customer's account details can be accessed both in a local office in Scone, as well as in the central tax-paying department in Glasgow, simultaneously, as well as each being able to send and receive information at request within minutes in full.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Unit 01 – Awareness of Employment within the Creative Media Sector
1) Know about employment status in the Creative Media Sector
1.1 Describe the main types of employment status within the Creative Media Sector
EMPLOYED
People who are employed:
> Have to do work themselves
> Someone tells them at any time what to do, where to carry out the work or when and how to do it
> Work a set amount of hours
> Someone can move them from task to task
> Paid by the hour, week or month
> Can get overtime pay or bonus payment
People who are "Employed" can be broken down into three categories: Full-Time, Fixed-Term and Part-Time.
FULL-TIME
Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined by their employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary or flexible workers, such as annual leave (paid time off work, about 20-30 days per year), sick leave (paid time off work for periods of temporary illness) and health insurance.
FIXED-TERM
To be a fixed-term employee, two conditions must apply:
> You must have an employment contract with the business you work for
> your employment contract must be "fixed-term", meaning it must end on a particular date, after a certain event or on completion of a task
Examples of fixed-term employees are:
> "seasonal" or "casual" staff taken on for six months during a peak period (e.g. agricultural workers or seasonal shop workers)
> a specialist employee taken on for the duration of a project
> someone employed to cover during another employee's maternity leave
You are not a fixed-term employee if you:
> have a contract of employment or other contractual relationship with an agency rather than the company you are working for (e.g. temporary or agency workers)
> are a member of the armed forces
> are an apprentice, student or other trainee on a work-experience placement or temporary work scheme
PART-TIME
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part-time if they commonly work fewer than 30-35 hours per week. In the UK, part-time workers are protected by legislation that states they should be treated no less favourably than full time equivalents.
SELF-EMPLOYED
Someone who is self-employed:
> Can hire someone to do the work or engage helpers at their own expense
> Risk their own money
> Provide the main items of equipment they need to do their job, not just the small tasks that many employees provide for themselves
> Agree to do a job for a fixed price, regardless of how long the job may take
> They decide what work to do, how and when to do the work and where to provide the services
> They regularly do work fr a number of different people or clients
> They regularly have to correct unsatisfactory work in their own time and at their own expense
FREELANCER
A freelancer is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labour and that of others to its clients with or without project management and labour contributed by its regular employees; but others act independently.
Full-time employees have benefits that are not typically available to those working part-time or fixed-term (temporary) workers. Full-time employees are generally given:
> Annual Leave - this is paid time off work, usually for the employee to do within that which they please. This varies from country to country as to the amount of time the employee is allowed off per annum, but the most common is about 20 days per year, excluding national and bank holidays.
> Sick Leave - this is paid time off work due to the employee suffering from a temporary illness longer than four consecutive days, but less than 28 weeks. The first three days of sickness are called "waiting days". Statutory Sick Pay does not apply to those over the age of 65; those who are paid less than the national insurance lower earnings limit; new employees who have not done any work under contract of employment; pregnant employees in receipt of maternity pay; employees recently in receipt of social security benefits; prisoners; employees on strike.
> Health Insurance - insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses amongst individuals. In the UK, the NHS covers health insurance.
Part-time employees can juggle multiple jobs at once, working with one employer weekday mornings, another in the evenings, and another at the weekend, and even work from home for some employers.
Freelancers can make more money than employees if they are successful, since if they are a regular user of Design Crowd, they can earn a few hundred pounds each week, though with smaller, more frequent jobs than this means that they do not have a steady income, and really need to be top of their game in order to generate an income.
1.2 Describe the key legal and taxation differences between the main types of employment status
CONTROL
> Do you have the final say in how the business is run?
> Can you choose whether to do the work yourself or can you send someone else to do it?
> Can you choose when and how you work (or does your employer tell you what to do)?
INTEGRATION
> Are you responsible for hiring other people and setting their terms of employment if you need help?
> Are you excluded from your employer's internal organisational matters, corporate training, staff meetings?
Are you exempt from having action taken against you using the company's disciplinary procedures and have no access to their grievance procedures?
> Are you excluded from company benefits and perks?
> If, for example, you lead a team of employees of your clients, you are integrated.
MUTUALITY OF OBLIGATION
> Does the employer offer work to you only if and when it is available?
> Can you decide when you will work and can you turn the work down that is offered (or are both parties of a view that a contract of employment exists)?
ECONOMIC REALITY
> Are you responsible for meeting the losses f your employment as well as taking the profits?
> Are you responsible for correcting unsatisfactory work at your own expense?
> Do you have to submit an invoice to the company for them to pay you?
> Do you get a fixed payment for the job (including labour and tools/materials)?
> Do you provide the main items of equipment needed to do the job?
> Do you work for a range of different employers?
Answering "Yes" yo all or most of the above questions, you are SELF-EMPLOYED.
Answering "Yes" to some (specifically that you can decide when you will work and whether or not you can accept/turn down work) but you are not in business on your own account, you are an EMPLOYEE.
Answering "No" to all or most of the above questions, you are EMPLOYED.
Questions are summary for guidance only and courts take a view of all the tests - none will decide a case on its own.
1.3 Explain the main implications of each employment status, in relation to job security, flexibility and working patterns
For employees:
> Employer decides how and when they do the work
> Will usually have a written contract (permanent [open-ended] or a fixed-term contract), but a verbal contract will count
> Have to work a set number of hours
> Can only be dismissed for disciplinary reasons (after number of formal warnings and subject to independent appeal)
> Private- and public-sector employees who feel they have been unfairly dismissed have the right to take the company to an Employment Tribunal in order to be re-instated or to obtain extra compensation
For employers:
> Employment legislation generally doesn't cover self-employed because you are, in effect, your own boss
> Choose whether to do work yourself, or get someone else to do it
> Choose when and how you work
> Exempt from action taken against you, using company's disciplinary procedures
2) Understand the Creative Media employment market place
2.1 Describe a range of prospective employers and the profiles and products of these employers.
Taken from http://www.viewcreatives.com
2.2 Explain how to choose an employer in terms of own personal interests, knowledge, skills and job requirements
> INTERVIEW THE EMPLOYER - While a prospective employer is interviewing you for a position, you should also be interviewing him/her. This is your chance to ask pointed questions that you may not feel comfortable asking once you've established the employer/employee relationship within the organisation.
> USE PAST EXPERIENCE AS A GUIDE - Assuming you've worked somewhere before or are currently working, call on your experience to know what questions to ask about a prospective employer. If you know you're unhappy with the evaluation method at your current job, be sure to ask a prospective employer how evaluations are performed. Ask about how interpersonal conflicts are handled, what the overtime policy is, and anything else that may have caused you stress in a previous job.
> LOOK THEM OVER ON A RAINY DAY - When shopping for real estate, if you love a house when the weather is bad, you're going to like it all the time. Rainy days are the worst possible condition for a house. Apply the same logic to choosing a good employer. Ask about worst-case scenarios. Imagine yourself in the new position under the worst possible circumstances and find out how the employer will react.
> ASK THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW - No-one knows your prospective employer like the people they already employ. Find an opportunity to speak with a couple of their current employees to find out what it's really like to work there. Employees tend to be loyal to the boss, but if things are really bad, theyll tell you. Also you should be able to judge from their responses if they're comfortable working for this employer.
1.1 Describe the main types of employment status within the Creative Media Sector
EMPLOYED
People who are employed:
> Have to do work themselves
> Someone tells them at any time what to do, where to carry out the work or when and how to do it
> Work a set amount of hours
> Someone can move them from task to task
> Paid by the hour, week or month
> Can get overtime pay or bonus payment
People who are "Employed" can be broken down into three categories: Full-Time, Fixed-Term and Part-Time.
FULL-TIME
Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined by their employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary or flexible workers, such as annual leave (paid time off work, about 20-30 days per year), sick leave (paid time off work for periods of temporary illness) and health insurance.
FIXED-TERM
To be a fixed-term employee, two conditions must apply:
> You must have an employment contract with the business you work for
> your employment contract must be "fixed-term", meaning it must end on a particular date, after a certain event or on completion of a task
Examples of fixed-term employees are:
> "seasonal" or "casual" staff taken on for six months during a peak period (e.g. agricultural workers or seasonal shop workers)
> a specialist employee taken on for the duration of a project
> someone employed to cover during another employee's maternity leave
You are not a fixed-term employee if you:
> have a contract of employment or other contractual relationship with an agency rather than the company you are working for (e.g. temporary or agency workers)
> are a member of the armed forces
> are an apprentice, student or other trainee on a work-experience placement or temporary work scheme
PART-TIME
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part-time if they commonly work fewer than 30-35 hours per week. In the UK, part-time workers are protected by legislation that states they should be treated no less favourably than full time equivalents.
SELF-EMPLOYED
Someone who is self-employed:
> Can hire someone to do the work or engage helpers at their own expense
> Risk their own money
> Provide the main items of equipment they need to do their job, not just the small tasks that many employees provide for themselves
> Agree to do a job for a fixed price, regardless of how long the job may take
> They decide what work to do, how and when to do the work and where to provide the services
> They regularly do work fr a number of different people or clients
> They regularly have to correct unsatisfactory work in their own time and at their own expense
FREELANCER
A freelancer is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labour and that of others to its clients with or without project management and labour contributed by its regular employees; but others act independently.
Full-time employees have benefits that are not typically available to those working part-time or fixed-term (temporary) workers. Full-time employees are generally given:
> Annual Leave - this is paid time off work, usually for the employee to do within that which they please. This varies from country to country as to the amount of time the employee is allowed off per annum, but the most common is about 20 days per year, excluding national and bank holidays.
> Sick Leave - this is paid time off work due to the employee suffering from a temporary illness longer than four consecutive days, but less than 28 weeks. The first three days of sickness are called "waiting days". Statutory Sick Pay does not apply to those over the age of 65; those who are paid less than the national insurance lower earnings limit; new employees who have not done any work under contract of employment; pregnant employees in receipt of maternity pay; employees recently in receipt of social security benefits; prisoners; employees on strike.
> Health Insurance - insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses amongst individuals. In the UK, the NHS covers health insurance.
Part-time employees can juggle multiple jobs at once, working with one employer weekday mornings, another in the evenings, and another at the weekend, and even work from home for some employers.
Freelancers can make more money than employees if they are successful, since if they are a regular user of Design Crowd, they can earn a few hundred pounds each week, though with smaller, more frequent jobs than this means that they do not have a steady income, and really need to be top of their game in order to generate an income.
1.2 Describe the key legal and taxation differences between the main types of employment status
CONTROL
> Do you have the final say in how the business is run?
> Can you choose whether to do the work yourself or can you send someone else to do it?
> Can you choose when and how you work (or does your employer tell you what to do)?
INTEGRATION
> Are you responsible for hiring other people and setting their terms of employment if you need help?
> Are you excluded from your employer's internal organisational matters, corporate training, staff meetings?
Are you exempt from having action taken against you using the company's disciplinary procedures and have no access to their grievance procedures?
> Are you excluded from company benefits and perks?
> If, for example, you lead a team of employees of your clients, you are integrated.
MUTUALITY OF OBLIGATION
> Does the employer offer work to you only if and when it is available?
> Can you decide when you will work and can you turn the work down that is offered (or are both parties of a view that a contract of employment exists)?
ECONOMIC REALITY
> Are you responsible for meeting the losses f your employment as well as taking the profits?
> Are you responsible for correcting unsatisfactory work at your own expense?
> Do you have to submit an invoice to the company for them to pay you?
> Do you get a fixed payment for the job (including labour and tools/materials)?
> Do you provide the main items of equipment needed to do the job?
> Do you work for a range of different employers?
Answering "Yes" yo all or most of the above questions, you are SELF-EMPLOYED.
Answering "Yes" to some (specifically that you can decide when you will work and whether or not you can accept/turn down work) but you are not in business on your own account, you are an EMPLOYEE.
Answering "No" to all or most of the above questions, you are EMPLOYED.
Questions are summary for guidance only and courts take a view of all the tests - none will decide a case on its own.
1.3 Explain the main implications of each employment status, in relation to job security, flexibility and working patterns
For employees:
> Employer decides how and when they do the work
> Will usually have a written contract (permanent [open-ended] or a fixed-term contract), but a verbal contract will count
> Have to work a set number of hours
> Can only be dismissed for disciplinary reasons (after number of formal warnings and subject to independent appeal)
> Private- and public-sector employees who feel they have been unfairly dismissed have the right to take the company to an Employment Tribunal in order to be re-instated or to obtain extra compensation
For employers:
> Employment legislation generally doesn't cover self-employed because you are, in effect, your own boss
> Choose whether to do work yourself, or get someone else to do it
> Choose when and how you work
> Exempt from action taken against you, using company's disciplinary procedures
2) Understand the Creative Media employment market place
2.1 Describe a range of prospective employers and the profiles and products of these employers.
Taken from http://www.viewcreatives.com
2.2 Explain how to choose an employer in terms of own personal interests, knowledge, skills and job requirements
> INTERVIEW THE EMPLOYER - While a prospective employer is interviewing you for a position, you should also be interviewing him/her. This is your chance to ask pointed questions that you may not feel comfortable asking once you've established the employer/employee relationship within the organisation.
> USE PAST EXPERIENCE AS A GUIDE - Assuming you've worked somewhere before or are currently working, call on your experience to know what questions to ask about a prospective employer. If you know you're unhappy with the evaluation method at your current job, be sure to ask a prospective employer how evaluations are performed. Ask about how interpersonal conflicts are handled, what the overtime policy is, and anything else that may have caused you stress in a previous job.
> LOOK THEM OVER ON A RAINY DAY - When shopping for real estate, if you love a house when the weather is bad, you're going to like it all the time. Rainy days are the worst possible condition for a house. Apply the same logic to choosing a good employer. Ask about worst-case scenarios. Imagine yourself in the new position under the worst possible circumstances and find out how the employer will react.
> ASK THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW - No-one knows your prospective employer like the people they already employ. Find an opportunity to speak with a couple of their current employees to find out what it's really like to work there. Employees tend to be loyal to the boss, but if things are really bad, theyll tell you. Also you should be able to judge from their responses if they're comfortable working for this employer.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Portfolio Website
I've spent the last few days of work time on designing a Portfolio Website to show prospective employers some of the work I have done, as well as the 3D models I've designed and built on Minecraft, which could help display my creativity and that although it isn't commercial work for a client, I can replicate an image of something to a high degree of accuracy.
Thus far, the above image is all the content I currently have on the homepage of my website. I decided to go for an "old school" look, using grey buttons with an LED light on the left, a graphic and text explaining in a single word where the button will take you.
Below the row of buttons is a grey information plate, bearing a single sentence briefly explaining the page, with a small screw in each corner. The banner above the buttons bears the same logo on each page, with the accompanying image changing for each page.
The image is always an image of a model I have built on Minecraft, since they were the only things I've created that served the purpose of both decorating the banner, and without causing confusion or copyright infringement (since a lot of other work I've produced are logos or entire pages for magazines).
The buttons are all roll-over images, similar to my other page, each of which has a small LED light on the left hand side of the button, that illuminates red when the mouse hovers over the button. This is demonstrated by the screenshots provided below.
The only other page I have created so far (and completed) is the Biography Page:
This page is opened when the "Biography" button is clicked on the home page, and this opens in a new window, so that it can be closed, and there would be no need to navigate back to the home page.
The Biography page is similar in design to the main page in the following respects:
> The banner at the top is the same size (350px height)
> The logo on the banner is in exactly the same place
> The buttons are the same size and in exactly the same place
> The buttons are all rollover images
> The information plate is the same size and in the same place
This helps the user navigate through to different pages and having everything in the same place means that it takes the user less time to find the button they are looking for. Keeping everything consistent and neat creates familiarity and security, and eases navigation throughout the website.
The Biography page is different in design to the main page as following:
> Thunderbird 1 in the banner is replaced by Thunderbird 2
> The Biography button's "idle" state has its LED glowing green (to identify that the user is currently on the Biography page
> The text on the information plate relates to the current page
> There is an IFrame beneath the information plate
I decided to use what is called an IFrame on the Biography page, because I simply wanted to minimize scrolling of the page as much as I could. The text in the IFrame scrolls independently to the rest of the page, so that while I can scroll down and read the rest of the text in the IFrame, the rest of the page stays in the same place.
The text you can see in the IFrame is stored in a separate Dreamweaver file, and is linked to the IFrame through some simple coding. The IFrame feature is not a standard toolbar-available Dreamweaver feature, so I had to code it from scratch, using the References panel on Dreamweaver to help me.
The code I used for the IFrame is written as thus:
src="Biography_Text.html" refers to the source file for the content of the IFrame, stored in a separate Dreamweaver file. If I edit the file in any way (add or remove text, change the font, font colour, background colour etc.), it will also change the IFrame content.
width="484" height="375" obviously dictates the size of the IFrame on the page (in Pixels). The content on the source file (in this case, Biography_Text.html) is wrapped to this frame.
Above is the file Biography_Text.html in its full form. Below is the same file wrapped into the IFrame on the Biography page of my portfolio website, as well as a display of the scrolling of the page within the IFrame.
The final part of the coding is frameborder="no", which turns the default thick black border around the outside of the IFrame invisible.
Thus far, the above image is all the content I currently have on the homepage of my website. I decided to go for an "old school" look, using grey buttons with an LED light on the left, a graphic and text explaining in a single word where the button will take you.
Below the row of buttons is a grey information plate, bearing a single sentence briefly explaining the page, with a small screw in each corner. The banner above the buttons bears the same logo on each page, with the accompanying image changing for each page.
The image is always an image of a model I have built on Minecraft, since they were the only things I've created that served the purpose of both decorating the banner, and without causing confusion or copyright infringement (since a lot of other work I've produced are logos or entire pages for magazines).
The buttons are all roll-over images, similar to my other page, each of which has a small LED light on the left hand side of the button, that illuminates red when the mouse hovers over the button. This is demonstrated by the screenshots provided below.
The only other page I have created so far (and completed) is the Biography Page:
This page is opened when the "Biography" button is clicked on the home page, and this opens in a new window, so that it can be closed, and there would be no need to navigate back to the home page.
The Biography page is similar in design to the main page in the following respects:
> The banner at the top is the same size (350px height)
> The logo on the banner is in exactly the same place
> The buttons are the same size and in exactly the same place
> The buttons are all rollover images
> The information plate is the same size and in the same place
This helps the user navigate through to different pages and having everything in the same place means that it takes the user less time to find the button they are looking for. Keeping everything consistent and neat creates familiarity and security, and eases navigation throughout the website.
The Biography page is different in design to the main page as following:
> Thunderbird 1 in the banner is replaced by Thunderbird 2
> The Biography button's "idle" state has its LED glowing green (to identify that the user is currently on the Biography page
> The text on the information plate relates to the current page
> There is an IFrame beneath the information plate
I decided to use what is called an IFrame on the Biography page, because I simply wanted to minimize scrolling of the page as much as I could. The text in the IFrame scrolls independently to the rest of the page, so that while I can scroll down and read the rest of the text in the IFrame, the rest of the page stays in the same place.
The text you can see in the IFrame is stored in a separate Dreamweaver file, and is linked to the IFrame through some simple coding. The IFrame feature is not a standard toolbar-available Dreamweaver feature, so I had to code it from scratch, using the References panel on Dreamweaver to help me.
The code I used for the IFrame is written as thus:
src="Biography_Text.html" refers to the source file for the content of the IFrame, stored in a separate Dreamweaver file. If I edit the file in any way (add or remove text, change the font, font colour, background colour etc.), it will also change the IFrame content.
width="484" height="375" obviously dictates the size of the IFrame on the page (in Pixels). The content on the source file (in this case, Biography_Text.html) is wrapped to this frame.
Above is the file Biography_Text.html in its full form. Below is the same file wrapped into the IFrame on the Biography page of my portfolio website, as well as a display of the scrolling of the page within the IFrame.
The final part of the coding is frameborder="no", which turns the default thick black border around the outside of the IFrame invisible.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Logo Redesign
 |
| Original Logo Design |
 |
| My custom-made PhotoShop brush |
Again, I decided to incorporate the custom brush I created into the design, and tried to make it more pronounced and central to the design.
The main intention of using my own brush as a kind of "signature" was so that my work could immediately be identified by its presence or use, or so that it becomes my own brand mark (so-to-speak).
I've produced two versions of my logo, using the same method I used on Design Crowd when submitting designs to clients, with one printed in black on a white background, and again with the colours reversed (white print on a black background), to display what it would look like on a darker and lighter background.
One of the drawbacks is that since I faded a decent portion of the custom brush print on the left of the design, it may prove to be problematic if I ever decide to transfer the logo onto clothing, getting the fading embroidered may be difficult for the embroiderers, but this may not be a bridge I'll be looking to cross, since getting a personal logo embroidered on shirts or caps does seem unnecessary and costly.
The text used is a font called Krungthep, which I believe is standard to Word, and has simply been vertically squashed to allow for a neater fit.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Portfolio Website (Pt. 1)
I have been tasked with creating a website to display various pieces of work that I have done throughout the course.
This Portfolio Website needs to include four things:
> a link to Facebook, including a template from Wix.com
> A Flickr slideshow
> a link to Twitter
> a link to a destination of my choosing. This has yet to be decided upon.
Any links used must open into into a new window.
Currently, I already have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/GeorgeRCopDesigns), and have created an account on Wix using my pre-existing Yahoo! account, as well as creating a Flickr account and uploading some images to it (the Photoshop Design for my website, my Newcastle Science City double-page spread on InDesign, Swiftwall logo design, Coast Net Solutions logo design, original Trillium CNG logo design, and compilation Trillium CNG logo design).
This Portfolio Website needs to include four things:
> a link to Facebook, including a template from Wix.com
> A Flickr slideshow
> a link to Twitter
> a link to a destination of my choosing. This has yet to be decided upon.
Any links used must open into into a new window.
Currently, I already have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/GeorgeRCopDesigns), and have created an account on Wix using my pre-existing Yahoo! account, as well as creating a Flickr account and uploading some images to it (the Photoshop Design for my website, my Newcastle Science City double-page spread on InDesign, Swiftwall logo design, Coast Net Solutions logo design, original Trillium CNG logo design, and compilation Trillium CNG logo design).
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Design Crowd (3)
I have submitted another design to Design Crowd today, to a company called Trillium CNG (CNG = Compressed Natural Gas), which specialises in transportation of Natural Gas for fuel and use in industrial installations and petrol stations.
Below is an image of the generic mono-colour design itself, and the compilation of logos incorporating some colour in the "Trillium" text:
The logo design was, in large, inspired by the chemical structure of the compound Methane (CH4, see right), which is composed of a single atom of carbon (C), and 4 atoms of hydrogen (H).
From this, I used the "C" in "CNG" as the nexus of the atom, representing the carbon atom, in addition to "Compressed" in "Compressed Natural Gas".
I decided not to use an "H" to represent each atom of hydrogen (since the addition of letters may have led people to believe they were of more than merely artistic and aesthetic significance), so instead used smaller white circles (since on a lot of 3D models of compounds and hydrocarbons, carbon atoms are usually black, and hydrogen atoms are usually white).
Submitted the design today, and am awaiting a verdict from the client. Fingers crossed!
Below is an image of the generic mono-colour design itself, and the compilation of logos incorporating some colour in the "Trillium" text:
From this, I used the "C" in "CNG" as the nexus of the atom, representing the carbon atom, in addition to "Compressed" in "Compressed Natural Gas".
I decided not to use an "H" to represent each atom of hydrogen (since the addition of letters may have led people to believe they were of more than merely artistic and aesthetic significance), so instead used smaller white circles (since on a lot of 3D models of compounds and hydrocarbons, carbon atoms are usually black, and hydrogen atoms are usually white).
Submitted the design today, and am awaiting a verdict from the client. Fingers crossed!
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Design Crowd (2)
Have managed to submit a design to Design Crowd for an IT company called Coast Net Solutions, and am awaiting feedback on it, having posted it on both white and black backgrounds to show the client how it would look on both:
The client specified that he would like the logo to incorporate grey/silver and blue, but was not required, so I drew inspiration from that and applied the two colours separately to the words "Coast" and "Net" (written in the font Impact), leaving "Solutions" to be written in black or white (dictated by the background colour). To make it look more professional, I gave the word "Solutions" an underline and an overline in the same colour.
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