So I have just being doing research and writing up my books today really. Today was a bank holiday in Scotland, so with uni being closed I have been working from home. I have been asking a whole bunch of different people which of my logo's they prefer. I have previously put up the different colours of my logo, a lot of people have more than one colour that they liked my logo in. I have finally managed to make it into a GIF. It looks soooo pretty. However, I have a feeling that the above image is not actually animated to show the different array of colours. (I'm currently viewing it as black) I have been having this problem with weebly for a while. I thought I had been just doing something silly, there is no reason for it not to work.... yet here I am, I have to admit it is really starting to bother me. I even tried to make it my banner to see if it just turned out I couldn't have it as a logo, and nothing. So yea, its annoying me, I keep getting on with other projects and working away. Although it is still in the back of my mind so every so often I suddenly find myself searching how to fix it on Google, looking through all of the Weebly help pages, trying to even re-save the logo in a different way...... notta.
So, I am now trying to discover or even just think is there a different way I could show this on my website, I am even planning to get business cards printed soon with all the different colours, so people who pick up my business card can get a colour they prefer. Ok, so besides my logo being a problem the rest of my projects are getting on pretty well, I have just had to kick everything up a gear. Especially with my main project and trying to get my side projects all up to the same sort of standard. Within my main project I am started to really gather all of the information I have and get it organized, I am actually planning on designing some info graphics once I post this blog and even a logo if this is to become a website. My ViewBug stuff has sort of been on a hold while I really get back to writing up all of my projects. Although I have already noted down some challenges I would really like to do before the deadlines, One of them involves getting to play with my face, with makeup and what not. So that's going to be pretty fun, I also have seen a few opportunities to again brush up on my underwater photography skills, so hopefully more things to show in the upcoming weeks. Card project, I am planning to take Wednesday out and just have that one day to design the Diamond cupcake suit, and who knows maybe even start getting on with the clubbs or spades suits. I am hoping to have all of the designs done by the end of the week, So i can get started on my Monster suit. I'm not too sure If I have mentioned it or not, I am planning to do this cupcake suit, then toying with the idea of merging cupcakes and monsters together. Not too sure if it'll even work but hopefully I'll have cute little twisted cupcakes. And of course, I have already ranted about my logo project. So, yea, that's all from me today, hopefully have more visual things to show you guys tomorrow.
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So I seem to be blogging every other day... Whoops So today I have been rather productive and I have actually completely one suit of the cupcake deck of cards So, top right, I'm sure looks familiar, however I have made it more obvious to which suit it belongs to. I have decided that the top rip cup cake will be my Jack of Hearts. Top left cupcake, is to be my Queen of Hearts. I added pearls to the cupcake, I made the frosting red, to re-enforce the suit colour. The bottom two cupcakes I have made both of them for the King of Hearts. I wanted to keep the idea of making a cupcake more masculine. I firstly created the cupcake on the left. I didn't want to have so much decoration on it, I thought decoration on the cupcake would be in it's self very famine. Although once I created it and looked at it, it looked so boring, and I couldn't really tell that it was part of the heart suit, So I sort of went back on myself a little bit, and created the bottom right cupcake. which is pretty a collage of hearts all over it. I was going with the idea of Kings cloaks: As you can see on this King costume, the almost dalmatian print on the white of the costume, I tried to recreate this with my cupcake.... So yea, It's a manly cupcake!
That's it from me for today hopefully more to show tomorrow. OK, So I again forgot to blog yesterday, I have to admit I had done a lot of work yesterday I just completely forgot. Today was no different, although I have gone back to my cards project making cupcakes and researching cupcake designs. So below is some of my research, I hope it makes you as hungry as I am! So first of all what I really like is that, most of these cupcakes are unbelievable looking, I don't have to worry too much about the design being believable looking or not, as the things people can create with cakes and cupcakes is pretty brilliant to be honest. Here is one cupcake I made last night, I have to admit I'm very happy with this: There is still a lot of things I would like to add and change about this, I also have a slight problem with making cupcakes looking masculine and feminine. So I have saved this image as my Queen of Hearts, but I may end up changing this to possibly being the Jack of Hearts.
On a separate note, I have been doing more research into my main project. I have previously looked into the most expensive cities in the UK. However, I was concerned that I didn't see my own university city showing up, as it is incredibly expensive to live here in Aberdeen. So I looked up one of the main private student accommodation companies prices. I went through every city writing down the new prices for 2015-2016. I have previous lived with this company, looking at the price that I paid per week when I was there in 2012, to the prices for next years students. The price has gone up a clear £30 a week, that's pretty much an extra tenner per year that the rent goes up. This was also at the time the cheapest student accommodation available, what is scarier, is that this still seems to be the case, even though the prices are going up. Within the list of cities the student accommodation has housing. I looked at the prices of the cheapest accommodation within ever city, out of the 20 cities I looked into Aberdeen was #14 in the cheapest, Sheffield was the top for cheapest student accommodation offered with this company. What my research is showing me is that, although the government says that higher education isn't just for the rich. The reality is that it truly is going back to those old ways, this may not be due to just tuition fees. But companies like private student accommodation, are exploiting students. This makes it harder for students who are not as well off as others to study away from home. My project is to help students, by giving advise on how to save the pennies and still have a full university experience. The advise I am giving is all from my surveys from past students and current students from all over the UK. I am still looking into my own research and have even looked at cheapest cities to live in judging by the price of pints. Not an exact science, but still good to know. That's all from me today. Well it has been forever since I last blogged. I have been a busy bee as well as going home for the Easter holidays. I have been designing a logo for this website so I can get my business cards printed and what not. There will be even more work added to the website. I am now into my final 2 months of university, which is a very scary thought. Here is some of my characters for my student help guide, these are not finished yet, but they are a work in progress: from the top left, we have the hungover student, Hipster student, Sport student, Geeky student, Protester student, and Ghost student. I have also been researching the most expensive cities to be a student, in within the UK. I have already gotten 125 responses to my survey. Which is fantastic! I have a lot of information from current and past students. A lot of students have found to have the same problems and have solved them in the same ways. I have a lot more research to do, but I don't want to get so caught up with research that I am not really doing a lot of work. Which to be honest, is pretty much why I haven't blogged in a really long time, no pretty pictures to show and what not. On another notes with my logo project I have been experimenting with different colours for my logo. See below logos: I also really like the idea of having my logo be a gif that goes through all of these different colours. I am not too sure if I should continue with that idea, but I think Ill do it anyways and see how it looks. I have also been thinking about how to have this website. As I do love the amount of colours within it, I may keep this, but I would like to change the layout a little more, so the plan is to hopefully do Code Academy. I will also be able to create a website for my main project also.
I haven't managed to get much of my playing card project done, however I plan to get really stuck into all of my projects and knuckle down in my last few weeks of being a student. That's all from me today So I have been pretty productive, so productive I didn't even notice I missed another day of blogging. So firstly. My survey is done, so if your a student or a past student. Please, please, PPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEE do my survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S2C6VY3 I have also finally completed my first set of cars in the traditional style. I have also been playing around with the idea of having little characters around the answers and advise I get from my surveys, here are some illustrations I have been looking up, for inspiration and ideas in general I have been trying to identify stereotypes that everyone sees at university. Like everyone knows a few of them and can even identify to these stereotype characters. I thought this would be interesting, although it's all still very early days. The character idea could end up being a total flop and not work at all. Hopefully I will have sketches to show tomorrow. That's all from me today.
I didn't get to post yesterday due to feeling so ill. I didn't manage to get any work done yesterday. Still feeling crappy today. however I was actually finally able to do some work. Not a great amount but still a fair bit. I finished my Queen of Spades card, I am now currently working on the jack of spades. I also skipped a little bit a head and have started to design the newest deck of cards design, Cup cakes As you can see, I'm just on the concept of ideas, I plan to go ahead into illustrator and see what designs work better than others. I also have been toying with the idea of giving the cupcakes a bit of a horror/ monster feeling to them, I am as yet unsure. As I feel that the monsters could again be another design of a deck of cards on their own. I am hoping to be well enough to go to uni tomorrow, being ill is getting boring and I am dying to get my teeth stuck into my work again. That's all from me today, hopefully more to share and see tomorrow.
So today, I got a few more bits and bobs done. I finished off the heart suit within my deck of cards project. I also got started on the spades, within my deck of cards project. I only have 4 more designs to do, I am hoping to get them all done tomorrow, so I can move on. Here is my King Of Spades: I also finally got experimenting with doing more underwater photography, below was my set up for doing so. I however I'm still to edit the images, so I don't really have any to show for now. I also went to a lecture this evening held by Iain Stewart, on his latest TV series "Planet Oil" It was very interesting. I don't normally go to such lectures, but I was invited by a flatmate, so I thought, why not. That's it for me today, hopefully more to talk about and show tomorrow.
didn't realize the time, so slightly missed a day of blogging.... by about half an hour, whoops. Today I have to admit, I didn't really get up to too much, I got woken up by my flatmate over the Solar eclipse, I managed to get a few photos of the event: The moon looks a little like a banana.... Just saying. I also went out today and got a padding pool. Yes, a paddling pool. I'm hoping to continue on with experimenting with my underwater photography, I had meant to do some today. But I think I am starting to get sick :(
So here's hoping I will get to experiment a little more tomorrow. Just not sure if I will be putting this bad boy in my kitchen or the bathroom. Either way, lets hope the flat mates don't walk in and fear for my life. Hoping to also get a bit more deck of cards done, even get another deck entirely started. As I am beginning to get a little bored of the ones I am currently doing. They are too traditional, so who knows, i might go back and make them all rock starts or something for fun. That's it anyways for me tonight/morning. Will update in roughly 20hrs time So! Happy St Paddy's Day! I have not been taking part in the festivities this year, I have however gotten sooooo much work done today, I gathered a lot of information on the services that my university offers. In hope that I could find a new sort of market for my own book. I below is just a few pics of some of the material I have found available: I have found that my university really does have a lot of areas covered, and there is a LOT of information for all students. So have been thinking about what to do all day. Looking over the materials found and trying to decide what my next step may be within this project. So while I have been allowing this information to sink in. I have turned to one of my other projects, my deck of cards project. I did say I would try and get a new deck of cards designed every week, that being 12 new designs every week. which I do realize is a lot. I haven't however really started this, so I have just been finishing off the previous deck. I am just finishing off on the Diamond suit. I only have the Jack of diamonds to finish off, then go onto the next suit. I know that these are still not completely finished, I would however like to design something that will go across where the figures join. I have decided to do this more nearer to the end. The King Of Diamonds was a lot of fun to do. Please note the detail on the kings bling. I plan to do this with the Jack's bling too.
So as I have been working on the deck of cards and thinking on my main project, I have come to the conclusion that throughout the material I have found, there was not primary sources, no experiences from other students. So what if I created a book with just pure advise from past students to future students. On a few carefully chosen subjects, I would like to be able to get really funny stories, I don't however really know how to go about this. I could do a survey, have a box that people post their stories anonymously through, they can even post as many stories as they like. Set up a section on my website that people can email or again virtually post their stories and advise through...... there's a lot of different things I can do. I think I really need to talk to a tutor about this, as I can even up with no one answering. and be out of having a book. I do think that this idea could be very amusing and probably in most cases rather shocking. I do also know however that, other websites have done something similar to this and while some stories were grim. It was all really funny and in a way made up your day. This would also make the book not only aimed at just my university but it can also be advise for others. So yes, I think I will email my tutor tomorrow and ask her advise on whether or not to continue with this idea. Long time now speak, I have been travelling and setting back into my flat. So i did what I said and went and took some night time photography. I did have a few technical difficulties, as I had borrowed some of the equipment from friends. Anyways, here is my incredibly blurry star images taken on Friday night First image was my most successful image taken, unfortunately it is of course, blurry. My camera also started to act up and not showing images once they were taken. As well as just shutting it's self off. I plan to however go out sometime next week to take some more images, however. This will mean I will miss the deadline for this particular challenge. Which sucks, but to be honest, I'd rather miss this challenge, practice a bit more and be prepared for the next challenge. I do however have a choice, of uploading a past image. This is the closest image I currently have of stars, just the moon is very much dominating the image. I still really like this image, it is however still not right to upload for this challenge. I also have a really good Idea for the other ViewBug challenge , which is playing with light. When out in a forest of the outskirts of Belfast, where I took the top two images. I had my assistant holding a torch for me so I could set up. He however had other Ideas. He started to play with the torch as all of us have done as children. Making animal shadows with our hands. It was pretty creepy. Being in a forest late at night, alone and creating shadows on the forest. I really wished I had gotten a photo of it, It was creepy, but really amazing looking. So again hopefully when I go and take more starry night images, this time with fellow photographer. I will be able to do this, again though I really hope this will be possible due to the deadlines.
Also going back to my underwater photography, I have been thinking about doing more of it, perhaps for my main project. I was looking up paddling pools and was surprised that they can be as cheap as £4. So I may get one and practice, only problem is filling the small paddling pool up and also being able to empty it....... In student accommodation. WHOOP! I am unsure when I will be doing this, but I have been thinking and taking a lot more time with my main project, I previously mentioned that I was looking up some student help guides. I wasn't very surprised to find that there are many. This has disheartened me a good bit. As I feel my project will get lost in a sea of student self hep books. Even with some of the topics the books had within their blurbs. They had topics I had never even thought of. Such as sex, drugs, freshers week, and exams. I personally have no interest in touching on these subjects. I would prefer to talk on topics such as: Money, mental health, social life, and "life hacks". This is still all possible, but do I now aim this towards people who just go to my university or do I continue to aim with the idea in mind, of any university. I have started to think about what sort of questions I can ask people, however I have so far not written them down as of yet. I plan to do a bit more research, and go to my student union to get some leaflets to see what they offer. Hopefully I will get more ideas on how to move forward with this project. I have also thought about my deck of cards project, I had originally said I would design a new set every week. So I am starting this tonight, continuing on from what I have currently done, however I feel that these may not be completely, completed. To make it easier for myself I think, I shall just have sketches, this will also help me balance my time between my side projects and my main projects. I am beginning to feel I am procrastinating too much within my other projects. I will choose which suit style is the strongest to go forward with. I also have to still design the back of the deck of cards. This I am hoping to keep neutral so whichever design I use, the backing will suit all. That's all from me today, a little bit of an information overload. |