Unit 5 Assignment 3 Working to a Professional Brief

Plans:

Prepared Plans to Meet Requirements ILP, Timelines, Milestones & others:

In this section of reviewing my Unit 54 Assignment 2 I will be talking about how I followed
my ILP and managed my time appropriately for this assignment to complete the work on
time and at a high standard.
Even for every other assignment that I do we have to fill in an ILP, (individual learning plan).
On the ILPs there are headings which tells us what tasks we are expected to be working on
that session and after every session we write underneath what work we have done that
lesson.
From the screen shot on the left you can
see that I have filled in my ILP after every
session stating what work I have done in
that session and what work I will be doing
the following lesson. I update my progress
of my work after every session and show
that I am handing the work in before the
deadline.

Milestone reviews are things we fill in during an

assignment to review our progress so far within the
assignment and we state what section of production we
are up to and if we are behind on schedule. We can also
add additional comments about the current work we
are working on.
During one assignment in which we have to right out
milestone progress reviews I normally, have to do three
milestones reviews, sometimes only two.

Relevant Legislation to be Followed:

For any production assignment / unit we do before creating the designs / products, we must
have a legal and ethical document. I have used the same legal and ethical document
throughout the year since it cover the legal and ethical concerns from graphics design to TV
to web design etc.
Screen shots of my Legal and Ethical document are below.
Timescales:

Deadlines how met:

I met my deadlines by making sure I attended all lessons and kept at a good work rate to
make sure I do not fall behind. To know where I should be up to I would follow my ILP to see
what section of work I need to be on in order to finish in time.
On some days I would stay in for extra session in-between lesson time to make sure I stay
ahead to hand work in on time, Also sometimes I would come in on Fridays to catch up and
stay up to date to hand in work for the deadline dates.

Resources and Sources What Was Used:

On every assignment we do as create and produce a Sources Document which contains link
to websites we have used for information and also what softwares and programs we used
in that particular assignment. A screenshot of a previous sources document will be below.
The reason we create sources document is that
it shows evidence of where we got all our
information from which you will be able to see
in the work I produce.
It also shows that I have not copied and pasted
the work from other sources since I am
providing evidence where my work and come from.
Development of Projects:

Brainstorms:
Sometimes in certain units when we will be producing sometimes, during the planning
process we will create a brainstorm document. We have done this at least a couple of times
during this year and below I will show screen shots from a brainstorm I produce for a
previous unit this year.
We create brainstorms to produce strong idea, which we can look back on when I am
actually producing the product for this particular assignment / unit and it builds a strong
structure of the order and asset I will need for when I actually come to create this product in
the assignment 3 of that particular unit.

Mind-maps:
Sometimes in certain units when we will be producing sometimes, during the planning
process we will create a mind map on paper and sometimes a mind map document. We
have done this at least a couple of times during this year and below I will show screen shots
from a brainstorm I produce for a previous unit this year.
Below are a couple of screenshots of a digital mind map I create on the computer from a
previous assignment from year 1.

I have create many mind maps on paper also throughout this course. However, I do not
have any digital scanned copies of them on this computer right now to provide screenshots.
We create mind maps to produce a wide area of ideas, which we can look back on when I
am actually producing the product for this particular assignment / unit and it builds a strong
structure of the order and asset I will need for when I actually come to create this product in
the assignment 3 of that particular unit.

Proposal:
In this assignment, I had to write up a proposal to show how I am following the brief and
what techniques and ideas I have and will be using when it comes to producing the graphics
for the assignment. Below is my proposal from this assignment.
Establish Concept:

The concept of my band, The Pixels will be a Manchester based Rock Band that is up and coming with lots of
local support and very popular locally, This new CD cover and other digital advertising designs will be for their
next big tour for them to break out nationally / worldwide.

Since the name of the band is The Pixels I would like to use their name to reflect on the style of the CD cover,
A3 poster and band logo. The design will revolve around Pixels and how I can create these designs using
pixelated effects for the background for example and for the logo, I will be creating the band title The pixels
in a certain font which clearly saying The pixels but looks like its many digital pixels for it to look like that.

I will now review the album covers of two bands, which are very similar genres of The Pixels band. These two
bands are Happy Mondays and Oasis.

The first album I will be talking about is Oasis second album, (What is the Story) Morning Glory. I believe this is
a great album to review because The Pixels are very similar genre and Oasis are considered one of the greatest
Manchester band and rock band across the world before separating. This album cover is very basic and urban
design. With just the whole of the front, cover being what appear to be a UK street, most probably a street in
Manchester. I believe the design of this album cover is very different to how I want to design The Pixels album
since that there isnt anything in this album cover that represent an Oasis whereas with The Pixels there will be
a lot of Pixels and pixilation effects which can be reflected to the band name, The Pixels.

The second album I will be talking about, review and comparing the concept to how I will be designing The
Pixels album cover is another very successful Manchester based Rock band which like Oasis managed to break
through nationally and worldwide to sell records, the Happy Mondays. This Happy Mondays album cover is a
very vibrant colour scheme with a much kind of Hippy style of colours and font. The whole of the front cover
of this Happy Mondays album is just the title of the band name, Happy Mondays. You could also say that the
style of the font and the outline, which is used on the text almost, looks like a painting / wax / pencil crayon
drawing. The one thing, which I can say this album cover will have in common with the album cover, I will be
designing for The Pixels is some of the colours I will be using in my Pixilation effect, which I wish to use for my
album cover design.
Format:

When I come to produce my logo, A3 poster and album cover for the Manchester based band The Pixels there
is only really one format, which will be the best and most helpful for if the graphics are used again later. Even
though there is a huge size difference between the A3 poster compared to the Logo and album cover I will still
export them all as a .PNG file format for a few different reasons.

I will be exporting all my graphics I produce as a .PNG file formats because once exported as a .PNG so that if I
ever choose to use these graphics and I need to resize them they will not be affected by pixilation. In my
opinion, it is most important that my logo is export as a .PNG file format since that I will definitely have to
resize the logo for The Pixels band for when I import on to the A3 poster and Album where I will also be scaling
it up. Also since that, the file format is a .PNG when I scaled the size of my logo up for the A3 poster and album
cover if will not suffer from pixilation.

Nature of Content:

The Nature of Content for all three of my designs, CD cover, A3 Poster and band logo design all either needs to
have extreme relevance to either the people in the band, the band logo or the city where the band originates
from. For the CD cover and A3 poster I would like the background of both a high definition image of an area /
building or structure in Manchester, which is unique just to Manchester and something, which Manchester is
known for. With that as the main image in the background, I would maybe then consider having The Pixel band
standing in front or by this object / structure. Above this, at the top centre of the design I would like to the title
The Pixels in a pixel / pixilated effected font which I think fits in very well since the bands name is The
Pixels. The CD cover and A3 poster will have the same background / designs, just scaled larger for the A3
poster.

I have already made the logo for the pixel band from when we create a logo and web banner for The Pixels
band last year. I will be using this same logo, slightly tweaking it and upgrading it to a high quality and standard
before using it as the new official band logo and to go on the CD cover and A3 poster of The Pixels.

Consideration of Audience Usage:

When designing my CD cover, A3 poster and logo for the pixels I need to make sure that it is
appealing and suitable for the genres of music in which the Pixels bands music is. In addition, because
The Pixels genre is Rock it is very most likely that the audience of The Pixels is also big fans of other
rock bands. My goal is to keep the design and visual appearance of the CD cover and A3 poster as
close to the rock theme and somewhat similar to other rock bands design but Im also trying to make
The Pixels CD cover and A3 poster design as unique as possible but not so unique to the point where
 most fans of The Pixels and other big rock band fans cant even tell which band or what genre the
bands music is.

Layout Design:

Since that, the design for both, the CS cover and A3 poster design is the same just smaller scale for the CD
cover and larger scale for the A3 poster design. The style of the designs I will be talking about right now appeal
to both the CD cover and A3 poster. To start for the background off the designs I will use a high definition
image of a popular location / landmark of Manchester, something that is unique for Manchester. I will then
use a Blur effect on this image to slightly blur the image out so that once the title is over the top it stands out a
lot more. The font and text used for my designs is a Pixelated type of font where it appear many pixelated
pixels have been put together to create that type of font. Each character of the text will be in a green colour in
the order of Red, Green and Blue.

In the centre of my designs, I will use a symbol that is very popular and well known in Manchester and this is
the Manchester worker bee. I want to find an image of a Manchester worker bee and create my own style of in
a pixelated effect so it looks like a RGB colour schemed Manchester worker bee. I think this a great idea
because the Manchester worker bee is a huge unique representation of Manchester but because I am also
creating it in this pixelated effect, it fits in perfectly for the bands CD cover and A3 poster it will be on, The
Pixels.

The dimensions I MUST use when creating the canvas size in Photoshop for The Pixels A3 poster is 297mm x
420mm (11.7 x 16.5 inches).

The dimension I MUST use when creating the canvas size in Photoshop for The Pixels CD cover design is 4.724 x
4.724 inches.

Images Editing:

From the planning that I have made and when I think through the production stages, I will go through when
creating my designs and logo there are only two images that I will manipulate and edit to complete the
production of my designs for The Pixels. The first image is a high definition image of a Manchester landmark,
which is very popular and well known in Manchester. I will edit this image be cropping it down or scaling it
larger by using the transform tool in Photoshop, shortcut for this tool is c-T. Once I have rescaled a landmark
image I will then use the Blur tool to slightly blur this background image to make the text and other images I
add on later stand out a lot more.

The last image I will be really manipulating and editing during the production of my designs is an image of the
Manchester worker bee. I will be using a Manchester worker bee image as a stencil to go over and create my
own pixelated version of the Manchester worker bee so that once complete there is the same image but with
the appearance and effect of pixilation on it. I think this is a great thing to include on my design since it
strongly represents Manchester, where The Pixels are based and also the bands name The Pixels because of
the pixilation effect used on the Manchester bee image.
Selection of Style and Tone:

I have great confidence in saying that the style in which the CD cover, A3 Poster and Logo shows great pride
and strongly put the message across that The Pixels band is from Manchester from the Landmark image in the
background to the Manchester worker bee in the centre of the designs. I also believe that the use of the
pixelated font I will be using the text title of the designs will strongly show that it is the pixels, especially with
the pixilation effect on the Manchester worker bee image in the centre of the designs. I even believe that with
just the blurry Manchester land mark image and pixelated effect Manchester worker bee in the centre of the
designs, even without the actually The Pixels title people will recognise that its an album cover of The Pixels
because it has everything on their which perfectly represents them.

Consideration of Limitations:

I think there are two strong limitations, which I will have to face and overcome while planning and producing
my designs are my Photoshop skills and my ability to produce high level sketches / drawing on my storyboards.
I believe that I have the potential and basic Photoshop skills to produce a high level CD cover and A3 poster for
The Pixels band but I am concerned that in the time we will be given to produce the graphics the quality will
not be as high compared to if we have more time.

I have never been attracted to sketching / drawing neither have I ever been complimented for my drawing
because I do not enjoy drawing and I am not good at it so I definitely see this as a strong limitation. I strongly
believe that my final digital design of the CD cover and A3 Poster will be a lot high standard and more detailed
in comparison to my sketched / drawn version of them.

Advantages of Formats:

Once I have planned all my graphics design for the CD cover and the A3 poster for The Pixels band I will then
go on to the next assignment for unit, which will be going on to, create and produce the final product of these
designs. When producing this design in Photoshop I will first make sure that the canvas size is exactly the
correct size for either a CD cover or an A3 poster / page.

After I have my basic canvas and Im actually creating my designs I will need to make sure that I only use .PNG
file images on my designs so that once I scale the design on the CD cover up to the size of an A3 poster / page
there will be no pixilation at all. This will also be the same once I come to exporting / publishing I will be
choosing .PNG file for the final product so they are the highest quality and do not suffer any pixilation if I need
to resize them for things such as screen shot evidence towards the end of the next assignment.
 Script:
In the assignments this year where we create an animation we had to produce a script with
the animation when putting voice over files over the animation. An example below I will use
of when I wrote up about a script for one of the animations we produced this year was from
Unit 34 Assignment 2. A screen shot will be below will show this.

Meet Requirements of Brief Review of Projects Feedback from Peers:

Whenever we produce a product in a Units assignment 3, in the assignment 3 of those Units

I will create a questionnaire for my peers to fill out and I will receive feedback about my
product I created in assignment 3.
In the evaluation in assignment 4 I will then type up a statistical analysis where I will analyse
many questions from the questionnaire and talk about the results of the question etc.
I believe it is very important to look back and review the results of your questionnaire.
 Evaluate Against Requirements and Constraints:
In this section I will talk show evidence of producing and typing up an Evaluation for the
assignment 3 I am currently reviewing, the first one will be Unit 53 Assignment 3.
After most assignment 3s we do at college, there is an assignment 4, which is an evaluation
assignment. Either in this assignment, we can type up an evaluation or we can produce a
podcast talking about the required heading for the evaluation.
For this assignment 3, Unit 54 Assignment 3 I did not do a podcast.
I will show the first page of the evaluation for Unit 54 Assignment 3 and then I will screen
shot the rest of the page from that evaluation below.
Unit 54 Assignment 4 Evaluation

Effectiveness:

Extent to which brief has been realised:

I believe I have met the assignment brief exactly how I should have done. I have produced an A3 Poster,
Album Cover and Logo for a Manchester based band keeping in mind that the band originate from
Manchester. In addition, I needed to make sure that the design were relevant to the people in the band,
the origin of the band and the genre of which there music is.

Use of appropriate methods and techniques:

I believe that there are many appropriate methods and techniques you can use to produce the logo, A3
poster and Album cover for The Pixels, which we have produced in the previous assignments. For this
previous assignment, we were given and extremely recommended to use Photoshop for the production of
these graphics. I agree that Photoshop is a very appropriate method and using the tools in Photoshop to
execute the editing and production techniques for The Pixels Logo, A3 Poster and Album Cover. Other
softwares such as Paint.net and Adobe Fireworks are both very viable pieces of image editing but over the
past few years Photoshop has been deemed the number 1 software for graphics creation due to being the
most popular in my opinion because you can do the same things in these other softwares as well as
Photoshop.

Level of professionalism achieved:

I believe I have achieved a good level of professionalism while producing my graphics however there a
things, which I would change that I think, would change my level of professionalism from good to great.
While I was producing my graphics whenever I change something or do something while editing and
creating my graphics but I ended up producing my software diary after actually creating my graphics, I
believe that if I did my diary exactly alongside the production of my 3 graphics then I wouldnt have
missed a few smaller details in the production of my graphics and would turn my level of professionalism
achieved from good to great.

What message your final versions communicates:

I believe that my final graphics, especially my A3 poster and album cover strongly communicates everything it
needs to the audience. From receiving the assignment brief for the previous assignment, we knew that The
Pixels are a Manchester based band who are very popular locally / their own town and are now releasing their
new album and advertising future shows around the country through A3 Posters. The top 2 things we were
given about the band Is that they are a Manchester based band and there name is The Pixels.

Discussions with Client:

After receiving the brief for this assignment, I had a Client meeting
with the client where I was given all the demands and requirements of
the designs and additional information about the designs, which I need
to follow.
This client meeting is a list of client needs which I need to follow in
order for the final designs to meet the client needs and to be exactly to
how demanded on the assignment brief.
I met all the requirements from this client meeting and met all the
clients needs listed on the client-meeting list; I will show some examples
of me meeting the clients needs.
The first screen shot below I am showing how I have used the exact canvas sizes in
Photoshop when creating the CD Cover and the A3 Poster for The Pixels band.
In the assignment brief, it was clearly stated that the poster for The Pixels had to be an A3
size and the CD Cover size had to be the exact size as a real CD Cover.
In this Unit / Assignment there wasnt an actual Client meeting like in Unit 54 but below I
will show a screen shot of the clients needs for this assignment which was shown in my
proposal in the assignment 2 of this Unit.

Apply:

Pre-production Phases:
When producing a product in a unit we first have to plan what we are going to create.
Usually in assignment 2 of the unit we will create storyboards of the product we will later
create for real and digitally.
An example of me doing some pre-production work before actually going to create the
product in the assignment 3 of that unit is the unit creating the CD Cover, A3 Poster and
band logo for The Pixels band.
We create storyboard like the scanned storyboards examples below to have a good idea of
what to go off when I create the real version in Photoshop in the assignment 3 of that unit.

Production Phases:
The production phase of any of our units are when we are working on the assignment 3 of a
unit and we are actually creating our actual products. In these production assignments we
also type up an assignment software production diary which shows proof that I have
actually created this product.
Also the use of a software diary can be looked back at if something about the product
needed to be change but also the software diaries can be used for if you or someone else
wants to create the same product and they can follow your software production diary to
create the exact same product if they want to.
Below I will show the software diary for the assignment 3 of The Pixels band graphics
production.
Unit 54 Assignment 3 Software Diary

A3 Poster:
I will start my ~A3 poster by creating the canvas size in Photoshop at the correct size,
29.7cm by 42.0cm.
To create the background for my A3 poster I will first import the background image and add
a blur effect on to it after.
I go to File>import and select my file.
Now I will resize the image to make it fits perfectly to the A3 canvas size.
Now it is time to add the blur effect. I go to Filter>Blur and select a Blur effect. This is how
my background for my poster looks now.

Now I will add The Pixels band logo to my A3 poster.

File>import and select my logo .PNG file.
Once imported I resize the logo to an appropriate size by pressing c-T to free transform the
logo.
I will place the logo in the top centre of the A3 poster for The Pixels.
 Post-production phases:
Once I have produced something in assignment 3 and it is now complete its now time to
export the final product out to submit.
For example in unit 54 assignment 3 I need to export / render the images out to print /
submit them in the correct size and format.
With assignment like this we create a publish evidence document to provide evidence that
we have exported and published the product.
Below is a screenshot of the publish evidence from Unit 54 Assignment 3.

Monitor Progress How and Why:

When working on any assignment I monitor the progress of my work by updating my ILP at
the end of every session.
In this section of reviewing my Unit 54 Assignment 2 I will be talking about how I followed
my ILP and managed my time appropriately for this assignment to complete the work on
time and at a high standard.
Even for every other assignment that I do we have to fill in an ILP, (individual learning plan).
On the ILPs there are headings which tells us what tasks we are expected to be working on
that session and after every session we write underneath what work we have done that
lesson.
 From the screen shot on the left you can
see that I have filled in my ILP after every
session stating what work I have done in
that session and what work I will be doing
the following lesson. I update my progress
of my work after every session and show
that I am handing the work in before the
deadline.

I monitor my progress during an assignment to see whether I am going to be able to hand it

in before the deadline. It is very important that I keep monitoring my progress to make sure
that I complete and hand in my assignments before the deadline.

Reviews How and Why:

After I create a product in the assignment 3 of a unit and then need to get my class mate /
peers to review my production, this takes place in the assignment 4 of the unit.
I will create a questionnaire about my product I have just produced in the assignment 3 and
my class mates / peers will answer the questions on the questionnaire and review my
product.
Below is a screenshot of a questionnaire I create in a previous unit / assignment.

Every questionnaire I produce to give out for my classmates / class peers to fill out I ask
around eight questions and I will print out 10 copies of the questionnaire for 10 of my
classmates / class peers to fill out for me.