Donna Massam

After reading through both interviews I found that I was inspired more by Dan Saffer, I gathered from reading it that he is very passionate about his work. He made some very interesting pointers aimed for beginner designers, these were very helpful.

One thing that I learnt whilst studying multimedia at college that it is a good idea starting your designs on paper-based before going into the programs to design it, both designers mentioned this. Obviously to have a structured design development might not be fun to some as i know some designers prefer to go straight intp the program and design, I have had times of doing this before, but found that structuring my design development pays off in the long run, as your project is more organised and its easier to resolve problems. Thankfully though thanks to college i dont find it too hard to work in this way.

Dan Saffer also noted that beginner designers need to learn to have more variation in their work, this is something i have to learn to do, my designs i have noticed in the past have tended to have a very similar structure (and thanks to Simons lecture this morning i now have a better understanding of different structural architypes) I think in a sense the note i have already made above about starting on paper before in the programs would help with this, as i find that 'trial and error is a good technique to use, i struggle to do this in a program, one point that i have had prople tell me previously is that im too scared too go wrong, but i find this a different matter when designing on paper first, im not afraid to draw it wrong.

Both designers also mentioned reading, magazines and RSS Feeds about other designers and how they work, this has never really occured to me and I have been thinking about subscribing to a website design magazine, maybe it'l help me gain more inspiration.

I should try looking at websites such as the FWA for inspiration as they both mentioned this. I have always steered away from this thinking that its 'copying' or that the website is that complex i think "i cant do that" and just close the website, but obviously it is a good source for inspiration so im going to have to give it a try.

One thing that Dan said really applied to me, what he finds most irritating whilst working. "My own ignorance, lack of skills, or inability to grasp new concepts" I relate to this so well and find it extremely frustrating but im glad that im not the only one.

Both have also noted what they drink too, Joel drinks coffee and Dan drinks tea, so it might be a good idea to find a drink that helps to stimulate my mind when designing!.

One person in particular who I have always been inspired by in Jason Beam, he is a graphic designer who in my oppinion has created some of the most outstanding pieces of work. I have researched into Jason Beam and read interviews that he has done. The style that he tends to create is very dark and grungy, using lots of textures and images placed upon each other and edited. The most inspiring thing about jason that stands out to me though is the fact that all of his pieces have a meaning to them, a story behind them. for example, one of my favorites 'Bloody Mary'

This piece is based on the bloody mary story, of a girl who kills herself after downing a bottle of vodka after the man she is having an affair with tells her he wont leave his wife, she breaks a mirror as she does't like her reflection and then cuts herself with the glass and then bleeds to death.

A bit morbid i know, but its the style of wok i am interested in. how he designs each piece to perfection. I like the idea of laying layers upon layers, to create a deeper meaning to the design.

Mansfield Civic Centre Mural
When studying for my National Diploma in Multimedia i took part in a live client project alongside 4 other fellow students through the summer break between the two years. The project was to produce a mural of a large scale that would be displayed in the reception area of the building. The mural was to represent all that the Mansfield Distric Council do to make Mansfield a better and nicer place to live.

Taking part in this project taught me that there is a lot of things you have to take into consideration when designing on such a large scale, such as printing isues like the bleed, measurements have to be exact, as it was on such a big scale we had to split our design into sections and print them off seperatly, they then had to be lined up exactly on the wall. It also taught me how important is is to meet dealines. It gave me an understanding of the sort of official meetings that take place, like giving the client a range of ideas, they then select ones they like until they finally decide on one design, we then all worked on this design. We would also be given feedback that we would go an include within the designing. It taught me how important it is to work in a team and take everybodies suggestions and ideas into consideration.

So taking part in the project taught me some very important skills that have and will continue to benifit me in my future.

Statement
The essential point of networking is human contact. Business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person.

I don’t agree, I think that it is in some way thanks to the career orientated or business people, networking wouldn’t be as easy as it is today, such as facebook and bebo etc, now we are capable with networking with people half way across the world as well as socially networking in person. Obviously networking is extremely important to business as it make your name known, but also personal networks can be formed from this, I think that basically its like one big circle and the social and business networking’s are capable of bouncing off each other to balance it out

I know i havent posted anything recently and thats due t being very busy, working as a carer and studying for an NVQ in health and social care, but i have done a redesign for my own portfolio, Ive desided that it going to be a website that follows me through uni, with all my work being displayed on it. Below is a screenshot of it, although this is just the basic design done in Photoshop. I will still need to add flash elements.

Ive gone for a look that suits my own characteristics, a notepad look (i am always one to take notes no matter what it is to do with), grungy style (his is just something i have always like the look of), clean (I like the clean look as it look modern), textured (ive always been a fan of textures), bright and contrasting colours (This looks really funky and stands out really well).