Lagging behind?

Next week is our assignment standard hand in date. This means that everything, or as much as possible, has to be completed for that day. I feel that everyone will have to work very hard to achieve this standard. I know I will. I feel like I am lagging behind everyone else and I'm not sure why. Almost everyone has started their screen designs in StressMaker, but I am still creating a final piece in my sketchbook. Maybe this is due to the amount of work I have put in it?

I have a lot to complete for that week. I also have another problem, as my sketchbook has been obliterated. I will have to copy all of this up into a new sketchbook, which will consume valuable hours of my study time.

Wednesday was a good day for me, as I was able to receive some valuable feedback on my screen designs. I think that my designs were too fancy, and as I have never created a website before, I felt like the designs would be too hard to create. I simplified them down to make them more standard, but made sure they were flexible. I feel that my final design is the right choice for me, although I had a little help choosing this design from some feedback Steve gave me.

I hope that my design will be easy to build and look effective at the same time. I really want to achieve a merit this time, although I am still unsure of "how much" research we need to put into our assignment. I have done research on my goals, target audience and my delivery requirements. I have also thought about the feedback I recieved from peers. This was something I did badly the first time. I think the feedback forms were really helpful, although they are time consuming.

The feedback forms have really taken a lot of my time. I think that next time I use them I will have them ready for the Image concepts deadline, instead of designing them at the last minute. I will also make sure that image designs are a little more flexible and not similar designs with minor changes in them. I must keep in mind that minor changes dont contrast, they conflict. I feel that this is an important line when creating screen designs.

Thursday was rather stressful, especially when we had to create some banners using Photoshop. I feel that my designs were too complex to put into Photoshop, especially for me, as I am a Photoshop novice. I think next time I will choose a less complex design until I get a grasp of the basics. I should of chose a basic design in the first place, but I thought I would tackle the complex one as it looks quite effective. I wanted to impress myself by creating a design that looked good and wasn't basic. This was a mistake in my opinion.

The exercize Steve set us in the morning was a real motivation to me. The idea of quick fire designs was really an inspiration of what real designers work like. I think that Steve should make more of these, as it lets us expand our minds, within a very short period.

The feedback with Steve didn't go well at all to me. Instead of a 30 minute feedback session, where valuable points can be taken, I felt that it lacked in helpfulness this week. I feel that this was our groups fault though, as we were ten minutes late into his meeting. I guess we were too busy working and didn't hear the last group come out. Sorry Steve.

Over the next week I will make sure that all my work is saved into StressMaker layout. I will also need to make sure that I complete my draft designs in my book, ready to create at college. I also need to make sure that my sketchbook is repaired. I will need to create a budget statement and complete my banners. I am going to leave my Image restoration till last, as I feel it is the least important thing for handing in next week.

To make sure I complete all of these I will come into college on Monday and Tuesday (with permission from Steve), as I feel that I completed a lot more their than I do at home. I feel that this week will be a struggle for everyone to complete, although I feel that everyone will make more effort to complete things for the submission standard this time.