Gary Benn Professional Portfolio - Web Design - Print Design

A11 – Team Brief

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:00:39 +0000

Unit 9: Interactive Media Professional Team Brief

My Role

As Designer in the 4 person team I was responsible for all design aspects of the projects, including the team Identity.

I originally wanted to be the team developer but was concerned that I would have let the team down as I felt my CSS skills weren’t up to scratch and had never used a CMS before. Looking back I wish I had gone with this as I feel I would have got more from it.

A12 – Culture Vulture

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:00:28 +0000

Unit 7: Cultural Interpretation

The Reverse Design Process

The Reverse Design process was used for this project. The process entailed producing many surface designs for an unknown product. Once the product had been revealed the designs were reproduced in the relevant format with minimal alteration. I feel it has been an important project as it has taught me to explore much more deeply into different solutions rather than fixating on a handful of similar solutions.

The Product

At first I found it difficult to imagine the design on the Coca Cola bottle limited to just 5 colors.

The Website

All be it simple, a website was produced to display the work. This assignment was running along side the CSS assignment and enabled me to practice my XHTML/CSS skills which I had just learnt.

A10 – Self Managed Learning Plan

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:18 +0000

Unit 29: Effective Lifelong Learning

PHP and MySQL

PHP and MySQL are becoming more important in the Interactive Media industry and in a lot of cases is listed as a required knowledge. I think this is due to end users are now wanting more from the internet

Self Managed Learning

I was a little apprehensive at first about the Self Managed Learning as I had never done anything like it to a formal level. I was surprised at the rate I had learnt the subject. I have always considered myself to be a fast learner at more technical subjects.

Creative Brief

The creative brief was to put the PHP and MySQL skills which I had just learnt into practice. I created a website for the cinema which I work at that displays programme and cinema information. Staff are able to update the programme from an admin area which makes use of a MySQL database.

Launch Website: Leeds Cinema

A1 & A2 – Ideas Generation and Web Plans

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:08:13 +0000

A1 – Sketch Blog

Unit 4 [from Graphic Design]: Ideas Generation

I came to the Interactive Media course after completing A’Levels in Art and Design, Photography and a Foundation in Art.

Throughout the course the sketchbook has been invaluable to me and is where most of my inspiration came from.

Each week I on the first year I completed an online journal entry. The Online Learning Journal was very useful and allowed me to document both my learning and progress throughout the course. It helped with evaluations for the various assignments as well as receiving feedback for my designs.

A2 – That’s The Plan

Unit 19: Interactive Media Technology

Unit 5: Historical & Contextual Referencing

I consider this assignment to have had one of the steepest learning curves on the course.

Although this website wasn’t actually built I took a lot from it as it was in this assignment where that all the web standards and design principals were taught. When I started the course I thought the creative side would be much the same as that on the Art courses. However I found Design was much more thoughtful, structured and precise.

A14 – Final Major Project

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:00:23 +0000

Unit 4: Interactive Media Web Authoring

This unit has allowed me to put into practise all the techniques and skills I have gained on the course to use. It has summed up my learning.

I have used this unit to further put into practice my PHP skills but has also allowed me to gain experience on implementing a range of Javascript plugins.

Technologies Used

XHTML 1.0 Strict
CSS 2.1
PHP 5
Flash and Actionscript
Javascript

A7 – Print Design and Corporate Identity

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:32:56 +0000

Unit 1: Computer Applications in Art & Design

Logo Design & Corporate Identity

I enjoyed creating the corporate identity and feel I have learnt a lot during its production. Whilst I was undertaking the logo re-design I felt as though I would never want to produce another logo again in my life. However, when it was complete I was happy with the design as well as what I had learnt.

CD Artwork

Creating the artwork enabled me to experiment with many different ideas. By listening to the music, I could tell it would be a difficult task. I felt that each listener would be feeling something different each time based on their own experiences. It was because of this I decided to use the track names as my starting point.

After experimenting with my own photography I ended with a plexus of ideas, I decided to do just that, basing my designs around a plexus. The assignment allowed me to experiment with and expand my Photoshop and image manipulation skills.