Digital Skills: The Brief

The first project of this year is Digital Skills Acquisition, we've been set a live brief as well as different digital skills tasks which need to be carried out weekly, which will help to develop our computer skills in weekly tutorials and sessions carried out by our tutor.

THE LIVE BRIEF
The live brief aspect of this project has been set by a company called Instant Print, where consumers can use their website to put together business cards, flyers and other stationary using the templates provided, with the opportunity to customise them. Our task is to design a potential template for a chosen category of our choice. However there are some restrictions to consider...

• Each document must have 2 layers, 1 for the background and elements which can't be edited such as illustrations, the background colour and shapes.
• The second layer is for editable elements such as the text, shapes and other elements
• Text can only be set at even font sizes, and it can not be smaller than 8pt.
• All text must be placed on layer 2
• Only one font size or colour can be used in each text box.
• The only colours to be used are the ones provided on the palette in the brief document
• The only fonts to be used are the ones specified in the brief document.

SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS: I'm looking forward to putting together some initial ideas for this brief, which I have yet to chose a category for. I also feel that I'm quite confident in putting together stationery design layouts, especially business cards.
WEAKNESSES: I don't really feel very confident about my current digital skills, however with the I.T sessions this should change over the course of the project. I also feel that the live brief is quite vague picking any category!
OPPORTUNITIES: In this project there's a huge opportunity for my digital skills to be developed more, which is definitely useful for progression. Attending all I.T sessions and completing all digital tasks set is very important in this module.
THREATS: I feel the threats for this project are the restrictions set in the live brief, as there's a list of fonts to choose from so the design I eventually come up with will have to cater for this. The colours may also be a potential threat however it does depend on how my designs turn out.

TIME PLAN:

Hello 2nd Year!

As it's the beginning of the year, I'm going to set myself some goals from what I want to gain this year and where'd I actually like to end up in terms of what I'm doing!

I feel as though I need to focus this year on my studies, and the possibility of hopefully gaining a placement will additionally help me gain a bit of insight and experience into the industry, although I will have to be careful if the opportunity arises that I balance my workload with placement work so I don't get behind!

In terms of education, the summer will mark the end of my Foundation Degree and I'd really like to continue my studies to top it up to a full degree, as I don't think I'll be ready for industry yet and the Creative Industries top-up course at Newcastle College is all about getting you ready for industry, so that is definitely something I'd consider applying for. This also means I'll have to apply through UCAS again and therefore do a personal statement! 

I'd also like to try and stay as organised as possible this year, by creating time plans at the beginning of each brief in order to make the most of the time I have on each project. I'll also carry out a SWOT analysis on each and possibly targets to set myself in order for progression.