When I was 39, I had a very good year

I was looking back over my initial Formative Statement as well as a few of my earlier blogs. I can see that before I even get into the fundamentals of the course that my writing style has changed to being more descriptive. I am constantly checking to make sure I have no grammatical errors. No doubt there are many throughout, but compared to before the course this has changed tremendously.

I originally began in September hoping to learn new skills in learning various web based programs. What has actually happened is that I have found out a lot more about the way I work, the way I plan, the way my thought processes work and my affinity for trying to end up with the best design possible by using my own initiative and not being swayed by the majority. In the end, the client is the number one priority, like the customer, they are always right. So what some people might see as having a first year of skill based assignments, what we actually have achieved is finding out about ‘us’. When you find yourself under a microscope and assessed on a regular basis, it gives you a chance to stand back and see yourself from a third person perspective.

It also helps to be pushed to develop your potential by being led down a path that is right for you. It would be easy to be told “that is good, this is bad” which is what you would get from a non committal teaching system. I have to admit that sometimes it has been hard to see a harshness that I usually wouldn’t have experienced in my younger days but the more you experience it the more you see it is relevant to the industry that we have chosen to further ourselves in.

I have enjoyed the SketchBlog assignment tremendously as it has been a good platform to air my views to a minority of relevant viewers. I am hoping that my mix of views, advice, feelings, pictures and explanations; I have achieved the learning outcomes that at the time of starting the assignment didn’t know much about. The Sketchbook has been a valuable source for expressing the thoughts that go into a design, along with some of the designs that didn’t make it, make up a learning process that can be seen by someone else and evaluated.

In the early days of the course I felt a bit disillusioned with some of the grades I was getting. After a few pointers of what is needed and how it should be presented I feel I am now well on my way to ‘thinking like a student’. I think my age and the new generation of learning was my biggest obstacle to contend with. I remember being terrified on the first hand in day that everything wasn’t how it should be or was in the wrong order.

I have met some great people too, in a different context than the usual circles that I travel in and this has been a tremendous help in creating a rapport between us all. There is no back biting or competitiveness, just a willingness to learn and get on with it. It is a real mix personalities but it all gels together nicely and makes for a relaxed working environment. I do hope that each and every one comes back next year.

The second year sounds like its going to be a test of wits. The first year was just a preparation it seems to get down to the ‘nitty gritty’. I am looking forward to learning the omnipotent CSS, this is my aim for next year to grab this bull by the horns and let it teach me the future. I know that this is when John steps in with his wisdom and knowledge.

I have been reading the first 2 assignments that have been posted on the HND site and I have to say they look very interesting. It’s good to see them early on because you can get the creative juices flowing in preparation. I am thinking about them already and hope that it will be a successful exercise.

Considering what our hopes and fears were from last year (some were a bit whimsical), my aims and goals for next year are as follows:

• To learn CSS competently and effectively and not sacrifice design
• To gain higher grades than the first year
• To use my sketchbook more effectively than the first year
• To input more thought processes and evaluation into my blog
• To create a Dean Hubert Portfolio Website of work I have done
• To become more confident in my approach to presentations
• To actually get to the second year
• To use InDesign instead of Pagemaker for Page Layout

The year has gone very quickly and looking back through my sketchbook and early blogs, I can see the improvement that I have made with a bit of guidance from the people in the know. I wish my first sketchbook looked like my second. I have begun to put the designs that didn’t make it in the second one to show the creation process from start to finish. I have actually started to plan ahead and manage my time more efficiently which is something I never even entertained before. I am looking at design all around me in a different way. I am seeing colour in a different light than I did before. I am noticing how text is laid out on a page when I’m reading the Sunday papers. I am finding myself giving advice to people who are unsure if their corporate identity suits their target market. My typing skills have improved along with my spelling and eye for accuracy.

Thank you to all involved and long may it continue.

The Tide Is High But I'm Rolling On

I am pleased with how the current assignment is going. I have finally got to grips with keeping an assignment plan that I created that helps me to foresee any problems that may arise at a glance. This is then easily rectified if something happens to change that plan by always having some spare home study time to play with. The spare study window does close slowly towards the end of the assignment but by that time the bulk of the work has been done.

A typical example was creating my CD centre on Wednesday. My plan was to complete my booklet, my inner booklet and then concentrate on the centre. The first part I managed, however with other things going on and then remembering that my bleed needed to be created at the source file rather than in PageMaker, I put some time aside to do this. I had this in mind from the beginning and created my files at 310dpi to give myself some scope for these types of occurrences which I have always done in the past. It just gives you a safety net in case anything needs budging. I have also managed to create all the images without creeping out of the gamut range. Incidentally you can change the colour of the gamut warning in preferences if like me, the default colour is difficult to see against a sandy picture. I changed it to bright green so it was more visible when checking.

After thinking about my final design, I decided that it was still missing that extra something that said ‘electronic ambient music’. So it was a 5 step process to get to my final design. (the bottom one) This has been from a 20 step tweaking process from my first thoughts on this particular design. I know I have now captured the mood, the music, the genre and the title in a subtle and relaxing cover. I think I will try to do the title and artiste text in PageMaker and lose the gradient so the text really stands off the picture.

And here are the inner booklet and back cover. Page 4 will be the same as the cover minus text and the sandy tone overlay.


My idea for the CD centre took longer than I anticipated as what I was trying to create (a 2 colour section of part of my inner booklet) was extremely hard to pull off from my lack of knowledge with Freehand. I have rarely come across a program that has so many tools hidden away out of sight that unless you knew they were there you wouldn't know existed. I am still going to do this idea but with the use of a bitmap image that I can get down to 2 colours. I made the decision to use the black & white version of my logo on the centre as using the colour version will mean using up 2 of my 5 pantone colours just for this effect. A cost cutting exercise along with a simplistic design.

Another thing that has altered my time planning is the fact that Monday (my regular study day) falls on a bank holiday.

This is a time to spend with the family so for this week I am going to break it up into small sections when I am on my own.

I am pleased that everybody liked my designs even though it is hard to judge when you haven’t listened to the music. The track 'Orphan Waves' which the album is based upon is the best track on the album, so much so that it has made its way onto 'Now That's What Dean Calls Music Volume 4' something that is a constant ongoing production when I hear good songs. Like the electronic music it has an acquired taste and if it had to be summed up in one word, the word would be 'cheesy'.

I have my preflight document and my evaluation to finish but I am now on track. I do hope that everyone else is at the same point as I know for a fact that there were a few 'oh dears' going on when it was mentioned that your CD had to be 'actual 300dpi' and not interpolated artificially in Photoshop. I had a flyer come through the door that is a perfect example of low dpi text versus high quality vector text that I will bring in next Wednesday to show whoever is interested.

I have just completed a small free website for my Sons' Pre-School this week. I have done it for free because they are struggling for new starters in September and if they don't get enough applicants it may be forced to close. This will have a knock on effect as my son would therefore be out of preschool, meaning I will have to look after him, meaning I may not be able to complete year 2, which is not on my long term planning sheet. I have done the photography myself which permission had to be sought from each parent of the children involved. This is why my Alt Tags just say 'Pic 1’; 'Pic 2' etc as one of the conditions when seeking permission is that no child’s names or descriptions can be used.

I showed it to John as I have bought the domain name and space from him and with a few little tweaks using his advice looks a nice clean informative website which after one week has already brought 2 enquiries from another pre-school and a local school. Let me know what you think.

Ah, I can hear it echoing already "you could have done that easier in CSS".

Tell your friends and their children about the pre-school and I just may be able to learn it next year and stifle your constant preaching’s.