Portfolio Website

Marked Feedback

I have just received the feedback from my lecturers for the portfolio website that I have created. From the feedback that they provided the issues that I thought would appear, such as the footer not being fitted properly, and that the website was really simple have appeared in the feedback. However some there was also some positive feedback from my website, such as they felt that the colour scheme that was very nice, although quite simple. They also felt that the logo that I had created was a good way to show that I was creating a image/brand for myself. 

However despite the fact that I have received some positive feedback on my website I am going to remake the website from scratch. The reason that I am going to remake the website is because firstly I dislike the website that I made quite greatly, which is not great because how are other people meant to like my work if I, the person that created doesn't even like it. The second reason is that in the weeks since I have created the website I have learned new techniques which will make the website look and feel a lot more professional and showcase my work a lot more effectively. 

Team Channel

Video ideas

Today we had another team meeting to clarify the ideas for the videos and the brand. We have decided that we will not be continuing the I'm Possible brand and logo, which has been mentioned in previous meetings. We have decided that we would not be continuing with brand and logo due to the fact that we feel that the name I'm Possible does not have anything to travel, and therefore does not meet the brief of having a strong brand image. We have not yet decided on another name for the brand however the name Time Frame has been mentioned with that likely to be the name for the brand. 

Along with changing the name of the brand we have also clarified the ideas for the videos. We have decided that we would be creating 4 videos which would each be between 1 minute and 1 and half minutes. The 4 videos will be focusing on:

• Time travel 
• Teleportation 
• Hover boards 
• Portals 

We have decided that we would be stopping with the idea of having videos based on jet packs and tube travel. We have decided to stop these ideas for many different reasons, one being that we feel that they would be far to hard to film and edit, which makes them unrealistic ideas. We also felt that having less videos would allow for more content within the videos that we will be creating which would mean that the quality of videos that we will be making can much better. 

From the meeting we had, we then had to present the ideas that we had come up with to the two lectures that would be marking the project. They had suggested ways in which we could make life easier for ourselves by suggesting that when we are filming that we should manipulate the camera to create the illusions that we want, instead of relying on the editing of it. They also suggested that it will be the audio that will be key to creating the illusion of futuristic travel. However the lectures were not overly happy with the idea of having spoof type videos, but when Callum (member of our team) suggested the idea of having a hybrid between a news channel and the Gadget Show, they seemed to think that it was a good idea. Along with that they also suggested that if are to film it as news channel  that we should have a more American style news show, as they feel that the way in which American news channels are presented would be much more interesting to the way news channels are presented here in the UK. The final point which they made was that we should attempt to get some actors for our videos. They said that this would be beneficial to us as it would allow more of the team to be focused on the production aspect rather than the acting side of the videos. 

With the feedback that we received from our lecturers we believe that we are in a situation in which we can comfortably film our videos and make them look realistic. This means that filming for the videos should be starting within a week, depending on when will be allowed to take the equipment and have access to the green screen room. The plan for the website should also be finished soon, which means that the construction of it will begin soon as well. 

Team Channel

Channel Ideas 

Today we had are third team meeting for the brief that we have been set, which is to create a brand which is composed of a website, a channel and a series of videos. From the pervious meeting (see previous blog post) we have finally decided that the brand will be called I'm Possible. We have finally decided on this name for the brand because it is the brand name that has tested the best. We have also decided that the logo below will be the base idea for the brand logo, although the one below does need some changing. 

Base idea for brand logo

However the main reason for the team meeting was that we had to finalise the ideas for the videos. After some discussion we have decided that we would be creating spoof videos. We feel that creating spoof videos would be the best decision due to the fact that we feel that more relaxed and fun vibe that spoof videos have would be the type of videos that would captivate our target audience (16 to 30 years olds) the best. 

Along with deciding that the videos would be spoof videos we decided that there would be 6 one minute videos that would cover the following forms of futuristic transport:

• Jet-packs
• Teleportation
• Time travel
• Tube travel
• Portals
• Hover Board

These we felt were the most obvious modes of transport that people would think of when asked about futuristic transport. After we had choose the modes of transport that we would be focusing on within the videos we needed to think of way to make the video make sense and feel part of a brand. After some discussion we felt that the best way to do this would be to have the videos as small news broadcasts in which we would have someone reporting on new breakthrough technology, such as jet packs. 

After this meeting we were all set are individual tasks, which included someone ordering the kit that would be needed for the videos, someone writing the scripts for the videos and another designing the website. I will be coming up with some ideas for the website and will be meeting with the person we have put in charge of graphics soon to discuss ideas for the website, before I go and make it. 

One day brief

Create A logo

Today we was set a brief to work on for the day. As we were currently working on a group project making a future channel brand, we used these groups to come up with a logo design to represent the company’s identity.

This brief was to come up with a concept for a new channel based on one of the five  following areas:

- Health

- Travel

- Entertainment

- Architecture

- Communication

- Politics

The area which we felt would be best for this project would be travel. We thought this because we felt that the area of travel had the most potential to be creative and allow us to research into future travel methods and allow use to take a futuristic  approach to the brief. In the first meeting that we had the day before the one day project we had decided that we would be creating spoof type videos, that are similar to the GoCompare adverts, in that they would mock the brand but at the same time promote it. 

At first we started brain storming ideas for possible names that we could use. These included a range from IMpossible (suggesting the idea that something that used to be thought of as an impossible concept to now being re-identified as now a possible idea) and I’mPossible (to extend on our idea).

After deciding on some on the name ‘IMpossible’ we then started creating some initial ideas of what we thought would promote the brand in an effective way to our target audience of young adults.

The initial idea for the logo was to  represent the evolution on man from ape to robot, following on with a representation of future travel.

(Initial ideas for the logo)

After a lot of thought , we decided to changed the name of the brand to ‘MOMENTUM’. We decided to do this due to the fact that we felt that the I'm Possible did not entirely suggest travel and we felt using a word such as Momentum does suggest movement and therefore links better. We also decided to have a change of the overall look of the logo design to represent futuristic transport methods.  After several attempts we came up with a new logo which we thought would effectively promote the channel.

(Above is the final logo for 'Momentum')

The logo above is the logo we decided on for the 'Momentum' brand due to the fact that we felt that the logo suggested futurist transport. After we had decided on the finished logo we then put together somethings which the logo would be expected to go. Below are images for the logo in use on mock up business card and letter heads, along with merchandise (in this case a cup).

Although we believed that we had came up with a good idea, when it came to presenting the idea to other peers they felt that we had gone one step to far. This is because they felt that the idea of I'm Possible was better and they felt that the logo idea that we had come up with (see below) was in fact better than what we had decided to go with. From this feedback me and the other members of the team decided that we would go with the I'm Possible brand and decided that we would fine tune the logo. 

(Logo that tested the best)

Portfolio Feedback

A new design 

From the feedback that I have received from my other course members, I have created a new design for my website. One of the things that I will be changing is the use of space in that I will be using much more of it and not having spaces at the top and the bottom. Another thing that will be changed within the new website is that there will be a changed colour scheme which will use less saturated colours. Along with that another design issue that will be changed is that fact that some people said that the rest of the website apart from the home page was boring, therefore more images will be placed on other pages of the website. 

One of the other key things that I will be changing within the new website is that I will be ensuring that the site is styled using percentages as this will ensure that on different sized screens the features of the website will change and keep the same layout. This will prevent the issue that I had within the previous website. 

There are some aspects of the first portfolio website that I will be retaining. These aspects are the email form that I had within the first website. This is because the email form work perfectly within the first site and there would be no need to change it. Along with that the home page of the new portfolio site will again contain an automatic slideshow as this was one of the aspects of the first website that received the most positive pieces of feedback. The final aspect of the website that will not be changed is the design of the logo. However the colour scheme of the logo will be changed in accordance with the new colour scheme of the website. 

Portfolio Feedback

Some changes are needed

Today I presented a portfolio website which I have been creating over the past few weeks. Within this presentation I received feedback from other members of my course and I will be using some of the feedback to make changes to my portfolio site to make it better. 

One piece of feedback which was received was that the home page which I had created (see image below)  was the best page of the website and was from a design view, professional and clever. The page contained automatic slide show which takes up most of the page. The slides included some of my favourite design quotes. 

Home page 

Another piece of positive feedback which I have received was that people appear to like the logo which was within the website. The feedback which I received was that people liked the design of the logo and they also liked the rollover feature of the logo which would make the logo when hover over go from image 1 to image 2. 

Image 1

Image 2

However I also received some negative feedback from the website. One piece of negative feedback which I have recieved was that some people felt that the colours that I used were to saturated. When looking at the website after I received this piece of feedback, I also started to agree with this piece of feedback. Another piece of negative feedback that I received was that apart from the home page the other pages within the site were quite boring. The last piece of negative feedback that I received was some that I actually found from myself. This is because when previewing my site on another computer, the footer of the website was incorrect, in that the logos of twitter, tumblr, email and linkedin were out of line. When I investigated why this happened it appeared that I had made a mistake with the CSS of the footer, in that I had designed it using Pixels. This meant that when I was creating the site and previewing the website it would look correct on my screen and screens of the same size. However on different sized screens the footer would not be correct. The way that I will have to correct this is when redesigning the site I will use percentages not pixels as this will automatically adjust the footer when on different sized screens. 

From the feedback that I have received I will be redesigning the website so that it is more professional and in general looks and works better. 

Michael Gove - Blackadder

Is Blackadder left wing?

Although I am digital media design student, I did study government and politics at A-level and do have a bit of a passion for politics. Therefore within in this blog I will occasionally post about politics as, one I like to talk about politics, and two I believe that the media and politics are very closely aligned, in that one affects the other. 

Well as you can see from the title this post will regard Michael Gove's statement that Blackadder promoted left wing myths about war. Now before I start what will appear to be a bit of rant regarding Michael Gove, I feel that it is important to state that I do not support a specific party, and do not believe that someone should be underpinned by a specific ideology. 

However to the original point which is what Michael Gove has stated that Blackadder promoted left wing myths about war. This is a statement which I greatly disagree with and I believe that this statement from Gove sums the man up slightly, in that if anyone slightly disagrees with him he brands them a left wing communist. Gove has said that "Left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths by attacking Britain’s role in the conflict". Gove's statement is in so many degrees incorrect. In my view Blackadder promoted one thing about world war one and war in general, that war in almost every case is a pointless and horrific thing. The image below is statement from Harry Patch the last surviving solider from World War 1 and I believe that it sums up war better than any politician has ever done. 

References

Bienkov, A. 2014. Michael Gove blasts Blackadder for spreading 'left wing myths' on war [Online]. Politics.co.uk. Avaliable from: http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/01/03/michael-gove-blasts-blackadder-for-spreading-left-wing-myths [Accessed 4th January 2014]