Snot Hatch

I have just come to the end of my second year on Fda Interactive media, and so far I’ve really enjoyed it.

The first year of the course was a really enjoyable year, but when I started the second year I had the valuable chance to look back over the last year and reflect on my shortcomings. I feel that while I felt proud of my work in the first year, most of the projects were pretty much last minute rush jobs. Instead of making the most of the 3 months or so we were given per project, I’d leave alot of the work to the last month and that then meant I often always felt at the end like I didn’t reach my true potential.

This made me promise myself that things wouldn’t be the same in my second year. So far I’ve done really well - not leaving any project till the last minute. I can tell the difference myself in the quality of my work, when I look through it I am more pleased with it this year, and think what I’ve produced my work to a better standard. I’ve really gotten more involved this year, and have really got my head in the industry.

One of the most important things I think I’ve done this year is really built on my interest in the industry. I now have a real sweet collection of artists and art groups I follow closely and draw alot of inspiration from. From styles to philosophies, I feel that having a true and real interest in art and what you are doing is really important when trying to get creative and inspired. I have also started buying alot of art related books on subjects and collections that interest me. This is great as I can have the books next to me on my desk. When I’m sitting down to work and feeling a bit shit about the project or work I’m doing, having a flick through some of the books opens your mind a bit to the possibilities of what I could be achieving.

The first project we had this year was the Motion Graphics project. It was based around the use of kinetic type, and I really really enjoyed it. Motion graphics is a subject area that really interests me at the moment, and I got really involved in this project. The researching of what was already out there was great and got me juiced for getting on with my project. I started out doing quite a grungey, dirty paint and handwritten scribbles based piece to a hardcore punk song. I got about a third of the way with this, when I started to feel really limited and constricted by the theme and layout I had chosen. The feel of it was as if words were being written on to a piece of parchment with black ink. This was nice and graphically pleasing, but after a while it was a bit limited, and I felt like i couldn’t put a lot of techniques and layouts in to it that I wanted. The second piece I did was much fresher and bold and colourful, and in the end was a lot more fun and appealing. It also gave me a chance to get creative with the words, as where with the ISHC song it had a lot of lyrics in a short amount of time, the Admiral Ackbar had nicely structured words and was snappy, but not too fast. I really enjoyed working on this project and would really like to pursue more work of this nature. Working with Holley Gray as lecturer was very helpful to this unit. He was a great lecturer and was really helpful. It felt like he taught us exactly what we wanted to know, and explained things very honestly - if he didn’t like what you’d done he would tell you and explain how to make it look more competent graphically.

In the first term of this year we also had a unit called Advanced Web Design. Unfortunately this was mainly code based, and mainly ActionScript. This was unlucky for me as I find writing, learning and understanding code very difficult. I really struggled with this unit, but Liam was very supportive and understanding. He helped me through alot of it and was really good at explaining things in ways that made sense to me. Although I didn’t come out of the unit with a final piece, I feel that I learnt alot and developed some understanding - however small - of how ActionScript works.

The third project we had in the first term was the Interface Design Principles unit. For this group project we all worked very closely with Sky TV, which was a great experience! To be able to work with as huge a company as Sky was a great feeling. I was in a group with Mike Simpson, Shin Su and Mike Dovey, and we worked great together as a group. Our project was called Sky Friends, and was based around the idea of combining Sky TV on demand, with a social networking environment. The project was successful, and when we presented it to Sky in January they loved it! This was such a big compliment and we received great feedback. Overall we received a 72 for the project, and we were all very happy with this.

In the Summer term we had the Professional Project. I worked with Mike Simpson again on this project, and we set up a promotions company called Mucho Promo. We completed a lot of work for local bands and ended up with a very nice portfolio of work from it. We compiled a short show reel at the end of the project, and have already had requests for more work, which is another great compliment. Me and Mike are going to continue working under this name and build its brand up to get as much out of it now whilst we’re studying to help prepare us for the big scary world after uni!

This year also saw the return of writing an essay under the supervision of Bob Cotton. Writing is never my favourite or most successful time of year, but this year it went okay. I chose a subject that interested me, which really helped as I actually enjoyed doing a bit of research! My essay was entitled ‘Refining and Defining Themes and Issues: Using Interactive Media to Build Brands Online’, and focussed on things such as the use of blogging and youtube to build consumer interaction and make a better connection with your target market using online tools. I got the essay back recently, and got a 55 for it, which I am very happy with. It may not be the best mark ever, but this is the area I really struggle with so it is a small personal achievement to get good feedback from Bob.

When I look back over the year and the projects I have completed, I am really pleased with the group of work I have produced. I think that it all comes together nicely and the pieces compliment each other to make some really nice portfolio additions. On their own they are great, but I have realised I really need to make a big effort at blogging my progress throughout the time of the project. I really need to document how I get to my finished product, and document my research for other people to share.

Overall, I feel very pleased with how my year has gone. I am very excited about starting next year, and am going to do my all to push my potential and get the best grades I can.

pre multiplication

L