Digital Skills - Week 5/Day 1

This lesson is all about using Illustrator, the skills include...


1. Typography formatting / Tracking / Kerning
2. Create Outlines / direct selection tool / point manipulation
3. Warp options / Envelope distort / Type on a path
4. 3D options
5. Appearance palette options

After going through the skills I was given the task to use them to create a Thomas holiday press add and a Adidas press add. I've included my final outcomes below with my evaluations.

Plan of the week

LO2
The plan for this week is to continue the digital skills lessons. After the lessons on Monday and Tuesday I will compile all my screen grabs in a InDesign documents and write about the process and evaluate the skills that I've learned and developed. When I have finished my InDesign pages I also want to blog about them.

Weekly Reflection

LO5
Looking back I've managed to stay on task and also managed to update the blog with my InDesign documents, final outcomes and evaluations.

Digital Skills - Week 4/Day 1

This lesson is all about using Illustrator and Photoshop together, the skills include...


1. Shapes tool / pen tool
2. rotate tool option
3. Stroke options
4. Pathfinder options
5. Transform options

After going through the skills I was given the task to use them to create a Thomas holiday press add and a Adidas press add. I've included my final outcomes below with my evaluations.

Plan of the week

LO2
The plan for this week is to continue the digital skills lessons. After the lessons on Monday and Tuesday I will compile all my screen grabs in a InDesign documents and write about the process and evaluate the skills that I've learned and developed. When I have finished my InDesign pages I also want to blog about them.

Weekly Reflection

LO5
Looking back I've managed to stay on task and also managed to update the blog with my InDesign documents, final outcomes and evaluations.

Digital Skills - Week 3/Day 2

This lesson is all about using Illustrator and Photoshop together, the skills include...

1. Layer masks
2. Transform tools
3. Typography formatting

After going through the skills I was given the task to use them to create a Thomas holiday press add and a Adidas press add. I've included my final outcomes below with my evaluations.

Plan of the week

LO2
The plan for this week is to continue the digital skills lessons. After the lessons on Monday and Tuesday I will compile all my screen grabs in a InDesign documents and write about the process and evaluate the skills that I've learned and developed.

Weekly Reflection

LO5
Looking back I've managed to stay on task and also managed to update the blog with my InDesign documents, final outcomes and evaluations.

Digital Skills - Week 2/Day 2

This lesson is all about using Photoshop the skills include


1. Selections /Refine edge options /clipping masks
2. Creating gradients / Brushes /Creating your own brushes
3. Painting with blending modes
4. Adjustment layers

After going through the skills in Photoshop, I was given the task to use all these skills to create a Absout Berry press add. I've included my final outcome below with my evaluation.

Digital Skills - Week 2/Day 1

I thought I'd post my final InDesign documents showing the skills I've learned and developed and my evaluations. This lesson is all about using Photoshop for image styling the skills include...


1. Levels (tonality)
2. Blending modes
3. Colour correction / replacement / saturation

Plan of the week

LO2
The plan for this week is to start the digital skills lessons. After the lessons on Monday and Tuesday I will compile all my screen grabs in a InDesign documents and write about the process and evaluate the skills that I've learned and developed.

New Brief

LO3/LO1

Well first day back to college and the start of a new brief. This new module is called Digital Skills. Throughout this module, I will attend IT sessions on a Monday and Tuesday in Zone 1.

Where I will be introduced to the industry standard packages learning digital skills for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I will be introduced to the principles of software skills and will be given tasks and exercises to help equip myself with the necessary skills that I will need for industry. I will be given multiple exercises and tasks applying my design and technical skills to generate creative outcomes.

There will be research tasks throughout this module, helping me evaluate, annotate and reflect on my digital skills process and learning. The best way to do this is by screen grabs, I will then put them in an InDesign document and evaluate my development.

Contextual Studies - My Essay

Today is the last day at the college before the Christmas break which means that I have a few weeks over the holidays and then a few weeks in January when we come back to complete my essay. Now that I've finished all the contextual lectures I have chosen which topic my essay will be on.

A little while ago I bought two books from the college library on Toulouse-Lautrec, as I have an interest in his fine art. Then the next day was the Toulouse-Lautrec lecture, so I decided that it must be fate and decided to make my essay on Toulouse-Lautrec and his influence to the world of graphic design.

Augmented Reality Video

Just a video that I watched for Contextual Studies, just a thought about how we might be interacting with technology and our own computers and devices in the near future.

Alt Tech - SWOT/Skills Analysis

Alt Tech - Final Outcomes

Today is the hand in so I thought I'd post my final outcomes.

Contextual Studies - Time Table

LO3/LO1

I thought I'd post my schedule for the contextual studies module. As you can see this module ran alongside the Alt Tech module which meant that I was juggling quite a few different tasks at the same time. Previously I wasn't very used to doing two modules at the same time, so this last month had definitely improved my management skills as I have had to start writing my essay while continuing on my Alt Tech brief. I know that being able to work of multiple projects at once is a key skill and something that is a requirement when it comes to working in the industry, and is something I feel more confident doing now.

Contextual Studies

Over the last seven weeks while doing the Alt Tech module I've also being doing the Contextual Studies module. The Contextual Studies module aim is to...

'examine the industry in its context, identifying key influences that shape and define practice. Students will also investigate the potential impact of emerging factors that may influence future industry direction. It will provide the opportunity for students to focus on a specific aspect of graphic design'

There is lecture every Tuesday afternoon each lecture is based on a different topic in graphic design. At the end of the seven weeks I have to hand in a essay wrote by me, the topic of the essay is of my choosing and will explore an area of graphic design that I find interesting and how it is being effected by the evolution of the industry. The essay has to be 3000 words and must include a wide range of sources.

Alt Tech - Development

I thought I'd post some images of my development during this brief. These are some print screens of how my loyalty card designs have progresses.

Weekly Reflection

LO5
My plan for this week was to start sketching out initial ideas which I did accomplish. Its just this brief seems endless in all the final outcomes that is needed, but as long as I make time management plans I think I will be ready to hand in on the deadline.

Alt Tech - Logo Ideas

I thought I'd do a post showing some ideas that I've come up with this week. I have been having some trouble with this brief as even the name of the coffee shop had to be decided by me. I guess I've never had a branding brief better where nothing is decided before I start so I'm having a little trouble knowing where to start as creating and branding a whole new company seems a bit daunting.

LO3
I think a way to solve this problem would be easier If \i planed the whole branding process before it came to ideas as it's difficult create w whole brand identity and style as you go. Next time I would come up with a whole branded style and visual look before moving onto the actual design.

Alt Tech - Sketches

Plan of the week

Well this is the start of the third week of the alt tech module. My plan for the week ahead is mostly about starting my initial sketches and ideas. Another aim for this week to keep updating my blog with the posts about what I'm doing during the week

- Start initial ideas/sketches
- Update blog

Weekly Reflection

Looking back on this week my aims were to really get stuck in the new branding brief and quickly move onto research. I've completed research into coffee shop branding ans also managed to update my blog and write a few posts about recent modules and briefs.

LO3
I think that my time management skills have improved over the past few months as I have learned how to better prioritise tasks and I think I can better juggle different modules at the same time than I used to.