Sum Up

Starting this project I wasn't too sure what to expect because it's very different to what we have previously done. The project involved Event planning and personal self development. It is to my understanding that it would be pretty difficult to keep track of what everyone has done for the event so I'm going to state what I have done for this project.

For the end of year show I took part heavily in 

- The discussion of the event name. 

- The discussions about invitations 

- Helping decide on colours for invitations

- head of social media which involved:

creating a twitter account, gaining followers, promoting the event. 

creating a Facebook page, gaining likes, promoting the event. 

creating a Facebook event, online invites. 

creating a vine account, 6 second videos to promote the event. 

- organised a press release, I organised a press release with Zara Baker who works with sussex downs business department. This involved:

going to a meeting with Zara to discuss what to put in the press resale. 

constant email communication.

getting quotes from classmates for press realise

getting photos of classmates working and such. 

gathering photos of classmates artwork to put forward. 

organising what newspapers and radio stations would be most appropriate. 

photographer for event

after summary in newspaper or on sussex downs site of how the event went down. 

For the personal development side of things, I wanted to create an overall branding for myself. 

I chose  3 main colours which I wanted to use which where blue, white and black and I chose two font types which I sourced and downloaded from a free fonts site they're called Billabong and Simplicity. The reason i wanted to create an overall branding is because i think whenever someone see's my work there should be something which links everything together. 

I created a portfolio website using Tumblr, the reason i didn't create my own website is because i knew i wouldn't have enough time to create something which looked decent with the time we had so instead i thought creating a tumblr as a temporary site would do quite nicely. I made sure the code I had was responsive as that was a requirement. All my work goes up on one page because I think it's easier to view it like this. 

LINK: http://ginaallendesigns.tumblr.com

I also created a second youtube channel along side the tumblr so all the videos i put on the tumblr website are sourced from the youtube channel. It makes it quicker to upload and a second place to find my videos. 

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/user/ginasprojects

I created business cards on Illustrator with the same style as what I have been working with throughout, I got them printed from vista print and im really pleased with how they've turned out and I got 100 and I will be handing these out at the Dots Per Inch event. 

PHOTOS:

Part of the brief said to create a CV though I already had one I wanted to create a designer one, I created this in illustrator and I'm pleased with it, I didn't want to over pack it with information but I think it works for the project. 

PHOTOS: 

Overall I think I have put in a lot of time and effort into this project and I have really enjoyed creating a brand for myself an promoting some of my work. I enjoyed making the business cards and the CV I think it works well with my website, i will continue to use all of the things i created for the future.

As for dots per inch I am happy with the time and effort i've put in to this too, i think it should be a good show and i will continue to promote the event through social media. My goal is to get 500 followers on the twitter account and hopefully more newspapers will print about the show too. 

Copyright

Today we done a lesson on copyright, the reason being is because it's good to have knowledge about what copy right is and how it can be useful to our own work.

what is copy right?

Copyright protects the physical expression of ideas. As soon as an idea is given physical form, e.g. a piece of writing, a photograph, music, a film, a web page, it is protected by copyright. There is no need for registration or to claim copyright in some way, protection is automatic at the point of creation. Both published and unpublished works are protected by copyright.

Copyright is normally owned by the creator(s) of the work, e.g. an author, composer, artist, photographer etc. If the work is created in the course of a person's employment, then the copyright holder is usually the employer.

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/legal/copyright/what_is_copyright/

we also spoke about fair use and shirley showed us this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo because it explains it in a fun way and a meaning to why they use disney

fair use is a way around copy right it is not a law but it can be used to get around copyright.

CV

On the brief it said we had to create a CV to hand in to go with the business cards and self promotion stuff. I didn't want to create a boring CV on word I wanted to make it a little more exciting. I went google and searched for some inspiration.

This one caught my eye straight away and I wanted to re create this.

Here are a couple screen shots of how mine has turned out, i'm really pleased with it and I think its fine for this project. My favourite part of the CV is the Skills section I think its a really cool way of getting across the skills I have with taking up as little room. 

I chose the colours and text based off of the other things i have created (business cards and website) because it ties in with my self branding. 

MEDIA COVERAGE

Today I came across that BN1 Magazine and Sussex Downs had published the article on our Dots Per Inch show, it's really exciting to see the promo and I'm hoping more newspapers which Zara reached out to will publish the article also.

http://www.bn1magazine.co.uk/dots-per-inch-brighton/

http://www.sussexdowns.ac.uk/news/new-digital-age/

I have gone on twitter and facebook and shared the posts to get more people to see i also retweeted this on my personal twitter account which has over 2k followers.

Press Relase Update

I have been talking to Zara a lot recently about the finishing touches to the press realise and she says it's being sent off today (2/06/2014) the press realise includes some images of the class together, some photos of art work, the opening and closing times of the event and also says what the event is about.

I am very happy with how helpful Zara has been throughout to help get the press realise sent.

here is a conformation of the media coverage we hope to get on the event.

Im hoping the press realise will be on the event will be covered by as many media platforms as possible this way hopefully many people will turn up.

Business Cards Update

Whilst going through the design process of my business cards i decided to change the look a little bit, first the colour, i was very worried that the light blue colour wouldn't come out as strong as I would like so I changed this from AEE6FB to 88d3ED, which is a darker shade of blue but I think helps the text stand out more.

I then changed the bottom line form "hi it's nice to meet you" as seen in my previous post because though I thought this was quirky I think it's better to have something a little more professional for long term use.

I also wanted the white cut out parts to look like they thane almost been ripped off, I really like how they look. I done this by using a charcoal paint brush tool in illustrator.

I have ordered them on Vistaprint and here are a couple of screen shots of how they should hopefully turn out.

They should be here in time for the DPI event and I'm excited to see how they come out. 

Business Cards

Today I am designing my business cards and hopefully by the end of today i will be sending them to get printed.

I have been having a look on google for some inspiration on business cards to see what designs people come up with, what information they put on them. One of the first one that appears says 'hi, its nice to meet you' which I thought was quite nice and different.

The second one I had a look at had clouds and text saying 'carrie wong' the text and clouds were both embossed which I thought was pretty cool and gives a little something extra to the card.

The style I am going for is the same as my website. I want it to be really clean, simple and sleek. I have chosen to use the same fonts Billabong and Simplicity and the same colours blue and white (see previous blog post for screenshots) because I think it is a good use of continuity and it's almost like a branding myself.

I have been playing around in illustrator on ideas here are a couple screen shot of what I can come with.

FRONT:

BACK:

YouTube

I have created a YouTube channel because it's a good use of self promotion and also an easy way to upload previous and future film projects too, I have created the banner to match the style I have been working with for my website which is simple and sleek, well this is what I am trying to achieve.

I have used the same two fonts and two colours and I will continue to do this throughout for my business cards too.

I have set a link from my website to the youtube page so it's easy to find I have also added the videos to my website so they can be viewed from there.


LINK: https://www.youtube.com/user/ginasprojects

PRINTSCREENS:

Press Release meeting

Over the past couple of weeks myself, Liam and Glen have been emailing the Sussex Downs College business people to organise a meeting about sending out a press release for our student show. A press release is an official statement issued to newspapers giving on a particular matter, because we're all on the social media team we have set the ourselves the task of getting the word about the show out into the general public.

Today we met up with Zara Baker who is part of the business development team for Sussex Downs. Myself, Glen and Liam attended the meeting we discussed a range of things such as, what the show is about and what type of work we're going to be showing. We also told her what types of people we would like to attend to which we said anyone can come but we really want people in the media industry to attend. Zara also mentioned about getting flyers to which we could create or they could, she also mentioned a lot of newspapers which they would try and get the word out in.

We spoke about social media, she asked for the Twitter and Facebook page, she told us they would follow and would also tweet about the event through their sussex downs account.

We spoke about getting a photographer to the event so they could send out a press realise after the show about how it went.

Zara wants us to email her some quotes from students to what we think of the show, what we think of the course, I will send about 5 quotes from a mix of 3rd year and 2nd year. She also wants us to email her a list of contacts of who we would like to attend.

I think the meeting went really well and I am pleased with how much they have to offer, Zara was really nice and helpful, she seem's really involved and eager to help.

Self Promotion | Website

When I first started thinking about making a website, I wanted to code my own one because we had learnt how to do this in the first year, but because Im still learning and getting the hang of it, I don't think id be able to get it up and running in time for the end of year show in order to put the link on my business cards. I will work on making my own website for the future but for the time being I will be using tumblr and buy out a url for that instead.

Because I'm using tumblr there is a range of themes I can choose from and make my own with styling, I have chosen to go with a simple one though it is very sleek and eye catching. 

I have 4 tabs at the top of the page under my name 

Ask Gina < this is for anyone who may have inquires about my work 

Videos < this is a redirect link to youtube where my project videos will be. 

Archive < this is a fast way of seeing all the things i have uploaded within a time period. 

Twitter < easy way for self promotion / business inquires

the link to my website is http://ginaallendesigns.tumblr.com I will be buying a url so it will just be 'ginaallen' most likely which will sound better than '.tumblr.com' at the moment i only have a small amount of work but i will be putting more work on the website over time such as university projects, photography, personal projects etc.

My website is also responsive, which I'm really happy about because it was a requirement on the brief. 

here is a screen shot of how my website is looking at the moment.

http://ginaallendesigns.tumblr.com

Twitter | for Dots Per Inch

I have been following a lot of designers mainly around brighton but also from around the world to promote our end of year show, I am going to be tweeting about what people can expect to see and 'bigging up' the event.

Also if someone sends an email in of their work i will tweet it out and give them a little self promo.

I gave been using hashtags '#' such as #brighton #DPIShow #digitalmedia things like this so not only our followers but designers / anyone can see the tweets we're posting.

we're currently at 150 followers and I am aiming for at least 500 by the time of the show.

Liam is doing the same with facebook making sure peoples work is getting updated on the page and also promoting the event, I have gotten a lot of family and friends to like the page and that is currently on 27 likes - which is not as much as i would like it to be though it seems harder to get likes on facebook in actual fact it should be a little easier because people in the class can get family members and friends to give it a like, by doing this hopefully this will pick up soon.


Screen Shot: what the twitter/facebook page looks like, Glen made the banner which I think is really good, though we might have to change this as we have to include the third years into it at some point.

Self Promotion

I have been thinking a lot about self promotion and I've decided I want to brand myself, by doing this I have to choose colours, fonts and such which would be repetitive around all of my platforms for example YouTube, My Website, Business Cards etc.

The Colours: 

#AEE6FB - this is a really soft light blue colour, I really like it and I think it will work perfectly for everything I need to create a brand, I will be using this colour for the background / text 

#FFFFFF - I  will also be using white for the background / text and swap the colours to which ever i think works best. 

Font One:

This font is called Billabong, I really like the instagram font and this is a close one to that. 

Link : http://www.fontsner.com/font/Billabong-41586.html

Font Two: 

This font is called Simplicity, I really like it i think it works well with billabong because they're both complete opposites and not take the attention away front one another. 

Link: http://www.1001freefonts.com/simplicity.font



I have been playing around with the fonts in illustrator to see what i could come up with and here are my favourites.

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i will keep playing around with these but i think they will work really well for my business cards and website. 

My Branding Posters

The first thing we decided to do as a class was to decide the name of the event, though this wasn't easy because everyone had such different opinions, some might have seen this as people causing problems but in actual fact its because people care enough to say their opinions which I respect.

The name that was chosen is called 'Dots Per Inch' once the name was decided we could then move on to the branding ideas, everyone in the class was to come up with a poster idea something to get inspiration from or to use for the event.

1. when creating this poster I thought it was humours I asked several people to look at the poster and tell me what they thought to which they responded 'dots .... per inch' often with a smirk or laugh at the end like 'haha I get it' This shows my poster is clearly understandable and gets the point across, I thought it would be a good idea to include the social media aspect so anyone could have a look and see wha

2. the second poster I designed was very simple, I wanted to play around with the fonts which i like very much they're called simplicity and the other is an 'instagram' style called billabong 

i think the simple style is a little boring and I should have probably added some drawings in there.

3. the third poster is more creative than my second one, I used the slogan idea that jess came up with "think outside the dots"

I really liked this idea so I thought i would place the slogan, continuously going round the circle of dots, i chose black and white for the colour theme though i think pastel colours would have looked nice. 

on all of the posters I've added the social media links because I think its a good source of advertising. 

What I am responsible for.

Since starting the project everyone has been given their set task in order to get the event up and running for example there are groups for branding, money, social media, drinks and printing in each group theres a head person who manages their group. I got voted to work on and be the head of Social Media, I am happy about this because I think I will do well with getting an audience.

The Social Media group is made up of myself, Liam, Glen, Chloe and Dan

My main job is Twitter, though the whole class know the username and password to both twitter and Facebook and can post whenever they like, I will in charge of making sure we're gaining followers and spreading the word about the event with frequent updates and uploads of students work. Also myself and a couple people in the group will be working on the press for the event, making sure we have adverts in local newspapers

Liam is the face behind our Facebook page, again everyone in class knows the password to the account but Liam will mainly be the one posting current updates and gaining a following.

Glen has been helping with both Twitter and Facebook but Glen is firstly responsible for making the pages look good for example the banners and backgrounds. Making it look professional as possible.

Chloe and Dan are working on the invites email and postage, they're going to be designing them and getting rspv's making sure people will be attending - they're also working on drinks and food for the event.

As well as doing this for the event the brief states we have to do  little extra such as
- I will also be creating a website so I can display my work professionally.

- I will create a business card to hand out at the event.

- I will create a few branding poster ideas for class.

End of Year Show - The Brief

The Brief (general description of the course work requirements)

The Digital Media Design Graduation Show 2014 is going to be at the Brighton Media Centre on Thursday 12^th and Friday 13^th June, with a ‘private view’ event on the evening of Thursday 12^th. 

For this assignment you are going to:   

Publicise and brand your Graduation Show.

Manage your Graduation Show

Design and create a responsive website, printed booklet, show reel, or other medium (to be agreed with the module tutors), which showcases your Digital Media Design work. 

Prepare an up to date CV alongside business cards/postcards that you can distribute at the Graduation Show to potential employers and contacts.

1 Publicise your Show

You will have to produce a marketing plan which needs to include the following:

A visual identity for the show that is promoted by a poster design, a complimentary flyer, an invitation, email design, eflyer or moving image teaser.

Guest list, contact details, invitations to be distributed and reminders nearer to the time.

An online presence for the show in the form of a website and/or social media activity.

To decide on this year’s branding theme you will each develop at least one poster design idea to pitch to the group. The chosen design will be decided through a group discussion guided by your tutors. Remember, the show is for both the FdA students and the BA students and, therefore, they will also put design ideas forward.

As well as the visual identity for the show, you need to work on the guest list.  It is important for you that you invite as many industry professionals and supporters as possible to the event. By ensuring that invitations are sent out in advance, with a follow up reminder nearer the time, will ensure that the Show is a well-attended event and, therefore, a successful and opportune evening for you all.  

2 Manage your Show

You will manage the event by preparing and selecting both print and digital material for exhibition.  This is your graduation show for the whole FdA so that means you are picking the best work from both years of your course, not just from the second year.  

3 Create your Showcase Portfolio

You will produce a website or printed booklet, show reel or other medium (to be agreed with module tutors) which showcases your own digital media design work. Make sure you show a selected range of your work that works on a range of screen sizes.  The URL for your website, if you create one, will be published on any promo cards (such as postcards or business cards) which you can distribute at the Graduation Show, and these sites will also be available to browse on computers at the show from your own URL. 

You need to secure your own Domain name and hosting.

The Show’s Content

You will act as an editorial team to shortlist the work to be included in the show. You will need to discuss and decide with fellow students on which work to include in the show, if not all of the work. You must consider the amount of work that is possible to display and the balance between the different types of work presented. 

You will all need to put forward at least two images prepared for printing at A3, A2 or A1 and two .movs for consideration at short-listing stage.  You can put forward more than two, but you must be selective.  As well as graphic design, you can also create displays of stills from interactive, moving image and motion graphics work to propose for printing or in the form of QuickTime .movs for the show. You as a student body contribute to editorial discussions deciding what goes into the show with the guidance from your module tutors. 

Once the work is selected, it needs to be prepared for the show.  This includes the following:-

Selected print materials need to be professionally printed at the agreed size and quality, in advance of the show. 

A show-reel of AV (Audio Visual) work needs to be edited for the show, including a ‘highlights’ piece and show branded idents.

The Event

You need to create a rota for helping over the two days in June, covering set-up, supervising the show and packing up the show.   

Deadlines and Key Dates

Show branding crit on 28^th April

conclusion

I started off by working on the stings, Originally I created a piece in illustrator which included a couple houses a for sale sign flying down from the sky and then the logo appearing at the end though i didn't like this at all, it looked too much like my pervious work, I think it looked childish and not very good as a sting. (even though I'm not using this I uploaded this to the server so you can see what I'm talking about)

The next set of stings that i created where very different i got my inspiration from different intro videos that i had seen across youtube and this really helped me create my new theme. I only had 2-3 seconds to work with so i thought working in after effects would be easier than using film. I really like how my next load of stings came out i think they are fast and almost sleek.

The section stings weren't hard to do because once i created one I knew they had to look exactly the same so all i had to do was change the title. I chose to used a red background which is the same colour as latest tv and I think it works well, the font is plain white and stands out that way. I think they work well as section stings.

When starting this project I knew what direction I wanted my opening title to go in, I wanted it to be fast with quick cuts to an upbeat song, though when I got sent the music it was very slow and didn't fit with the theme that I wanted to go in.

When going out to find the footage I found it pretty difficult because I didn't have a car, I was walking around Brighton with my camera and tripod. & because I'm not from Brighton I wasn't sure on the best places to go, I made sure I went on a sunny day because Latest TV suggested I did and I'm disappointed that i could find any for sale signs when filming. i tried to get some good shots of a couple streets in Brighton I also tired to get some shots of the general life around brighton for example the beach, people walking down the sea front and i think i catered this quite well.

When editing the closing title I didn't know really what direction i wanted it go in, I chose to do two different versions, The first version i created was pretty much the same as the opening title using the same footage but with credits scrolling up and a sting at the end though i didn't like this, i thought it was too similar. This is when i chose to create a second one with a red background the same as my section stings, the credits go up and then a twitter promo comes up at the end.

In conclusion I enjoyed creating the branded/section stings and the section stings I think thats where my best work is for his project, though if I had more time I would change the some of the sound effects that I used because some of them for example the zoom and the heartbeat don't sound very good.

I think there are elements of my opening sequence which is good and well filmed but then there is other parts which could have been improved i think if final cut pro had been working it would have looked better than editing in iMovie because i could have maybe some some better effects. I think the second closing title I created with the red background was okay though the timing a little off so that could be improved.

The project experience has been a good learning curve for me, working for a client was an experience because I know now how frustrating it is when they don't get back to you and you're struggling to meet a deadline, and at the same time it's hard to keep them up to date because you're trying to work as fast as possible.

final piece's

Branded Stings

1. I like how I created the house to zoom out from a red screen, i think it works really well. Then the latest homes logo appearing afterwards with the sound effect, Its quick and does the job.                

2. I've tried to go with the same theme of the logo appearing on the screen, I think its very fast but because i only had 2-3 seconds to work with it works well. 

3. This is the changed version from feedback sting I really lit and think it works without the pulsing effect it gives the viewer more time to read what it says. 

4. This sting is one of my favourites I think it looks really cool though it was one of the most complicated to create I think it came out well, again the sound effect isn't that good but could easily be changed if latest decide they want it. 

5. this is the sting with the pulse in the middle, I don't like the sound effect that much i think if latest bought a version then it could work better than a free version. 

This is the same but with a black background i was going to right it off but Val said she liked the black background, though i think it looks better with the red behind instead. 

Section Stings.

13 section stings, all exactly the same but with a different title the font I used is called Passion One which is a free font from http://www.1001freefonts.com/passion_one.font i like the font because its clear bold and readable. 

opening sequence

I'm not really happy with the outcome of my opening title. i think it could have been better if i had better footage to work with and if Latest TV sent me footage not images it would have looked better. Also the music, i wasted the music to be fast, upbeat with quick cuts that go with the beat but the music i got sent didn't allow me to this is as it was very slow. I created a second version with different fonts to see which works better.  

closing sequence

I created two different versions for the closing sequence, I like the first one better than the second one because i think the second one is too much like the opening sequence, I like that I have included their twitter username with the hashtag latest homes at the end because i think most people would use this though now thinking about it i probably should have put it in the opening title. 

closing sequence improvement

I wasn't sure on what to put really for the closing sequence because it probably could have been a block colour with some credits scrolling up, but i kept it in the theme with my opening sequence with slightly different footage, but I'm not 100% on it.

I also created this closing sequence as an alternative because i think the red background goes best with the rest of the work i have done, Im not sure on the font, I only chose to use this because its the same as the section font.  it's called passion its big, readable and bold also its a free download from 1001freefonts.

i prefer this to the original. All I need to do it make slow it down so it lasts 20 seconds & also I will add some background music to finish it off.

opening sequence improvement

I still need to add footage of for sale signs but this won't take long to capture & place. 

originally I wanted fast music with quick cuts but Latest TV sent me the music and its much slower than i originally thought out so this ment i had to extend the footage and make it fit the beat. 

for opening & closing sequence

Here are some screen shots of the footage I am using for my opening/closing titles

and here is the JPG's latest tv sent me which i will place in also. 

the opening sequence is 30 seconds and the closing title is 20 seconds, 

I still need to get some footage of for sale signs around brighton.