Web Unit - Reading

HND 2 have started their Web Unit. This is a two credit Unit that covers the major aspects of designing for the web, including converting print design for the web, developing web-based layouts, controlling web typography, and of course, CSS.

Smashing Magazine has dozens of articles worth reading to get a perspective on current issues and trends in design for the web. Here are three key ones -

Switch From Print to Web : Where To Start?
Getting Out of the Box - Creative Web Layouts with CSS
Web Design Trends for 2009

There are also 100's of online inspiration galleries you can check out (and in some cases, 'borrow' css from). A great examples is CSS Envy.

Photoshop for the iPhone

Adobe has released a stripped down version of Photoshop for the iPhone. Its still only available in the US, but has already taken 1 million downloads in less than 2 weeks. Apparently it features some nice touches including:

Basics: Crop, Rotate, and Flip
Color: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White
Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus
Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White.

You can edit photos in your library and upload them to your account, but not the reverse. Once it is uploaded, you'll need to go to the Flash based Photoshop.com to continue to edit.

But we won't be seeing students (or designers in agencies) ditching their Mac's just yet.

Adobe, recognising the limitations of the app, are only too happy to provide a link to a very funny spoof, where Layers TV announce a full-blown CS3 version, complete with callcentre support:

Looking Back Looking Forward

With lots of activity on the Mentoring programme, and the HND 2nd Year work placements only a few months away, a number of students have been asking about job prospects for 2010, so it's worth looking back to the early spring to see how the experts were viewing employment prospects at that time.

Back in March, Design Week published an excellent article outlining the current trends in the Graphic Design employment situation. It also included a pdf file detailing average salaries for various job roles, both in London and across the rest of the UK.

Their research showed that there has been a drop in demand for print design, but a steady increase in the need for digital skills and and web-based knowledge.

Obviously its becoming ever-more important to develop good working practices with the digital processes that are delivered during lab sessions. But remember - you still need to be able to generate good ideas, and a quick glance at some of the recent vacancies in the likes of The Drum shows that both print and web-based roles are still out there.


Resources :
The Drum
jobs.stv.tv

Chocolate Presentations

The HND 2nd Year surprised our panel of Mentors, and themselves, by pitching five amazingly inventive and well-realised concepts for the Chocolate brief.

There was a real atmosphere in the studio (should that the the 'boardroom'? :), and thanks to Helena's excellent organisation, everything ran very smoothly. The groups delivered their ideas, visuals and concepts very professionally, with lots of nice team interplay, and every pitch put forward a convincing case for the winning idea.

The mentors took copious notes and provided some great feedback for each group, and despite a few insightful disagreements, were remarkably united in declaring 'Choc - Chocolate with Character' the winner. So congratulations to Artur, Duncan and Carolann - You're Hired!

A second Mentor brief has now been issued, and rather than one project, the class will have to take on a number of different projects, including rebranding a Fish Tackle Shop, reworking the Olympic 2012 Logo, creating a web presence for an extreme sports outlet, and developing a campaign for the 65th Anniversay Memorial of the Holocaust. Wow.

Detail from 'Choc' Packaging : (Artur, Duncan, Carolann)




Detail from 'White Lies' Packaging : (Hannah, Lisa and Paulina)





Detail from 'Aztec Gold' Packaging : (Tania, Jonathan, Julie)




Detail from 'Fetish' Packaging : (Amanda, Ola and Gunnar)




More packaging to follow ... and the posters will all soon appear in the gallery page.

You're hired!

The second years have been set a tough task as their first project. Based around the final episode of the Apprentice they must create and promote a new range of chocolates. Working in teams they have just 2 weeks to put a presentation together that will be shown to all the Mentors on the 23rd September. This evening will be the first opportunity for both Mentors and students to meet. There will be no firing though only hiring and ultimately that will be the choice of the 8 Mentors.

This year we have 4 new Mentors on the team. We are very grateful to all the designers who have offered up their time and energy to work the students throughout the year. This is a tremendous opportunity for our final year group. Next week we hope to allocate students to Mentors.

In the meantime I will be doing my 'Margaret' bit and observing how each of the teams are working - watch out for the raised eyebrows!

Now where did I put that box of chocolates......

Perception

One of the projects the first years are working on at the minute is based around the word 'perception'. The brief allows students to be both designer and curator for the National Gallery. In our first class together we spent quite a bit of time looking at the different meanings of the word. Working in teams of 2 we then transfered all our thoughts on to the 'concept wall'. This will be left up for the duration of the project and the second years were encouraged to add any thoughts they may have about the project. We discussed what we would include in the gallery and how we could use the space to challenge people's perception.

We looked at some interesting presentations on the TED talks website - one of my all time favourites- and used images from Flicker to challenge how many of our perceptions are built around a persons appearance. Some great feedback! I am looking forward to seeing how the ideas develop over the week.

Check out Natasha Tsakos multimedia theatrical adventure and Tom Wujec on the 3 ways the brain creates meaning all on ted.com