I have done so much work today and I am actually still working away after I write this post. So I have designed a few new bits and pieces for my surveys:

So the 2nd image is simple, but I actually really liked how I gave the answers a facial expression. I also tried my hardest to have a the scales of all the heads to the correct proportion of the percentage I got from my surveys. The rest of my surveys I kinda felt because I want to make a small video of my findings and give people the results of my surveys. I think sticking with pie charts and graphs will go a long way, although they are traditional I think this will make more of an impact. 

So here are just some of my pie charts that I made. very simple, all the info is there though, now down to real buisness. and start designing what I want to do for my video, so here are a few images from my sketch book on how I have been designing so far:

So one thing I am noticing about this is half way through drawing everything up, suddenly I get a new idea and I want to move things about and change my layout. This is where I have gotten so far with designing my video, I am getting nervous and excited about continuing on and actually getting this made. I hope I get everything I want done on time for hand in, as I have said before I have used After Effects, however it has been over a year since I have used the program. So yea, thats all from me today hopefully Ill have a bit more colour and things 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.

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. 

Today, I did  a lot of logo work, I experimented a lot within illustrator,  I now feel I am on the right track of having a final logo  design. 

As you can see, these designs are totally different compared to the ones I have previously put up. I am still not too sure about shapes in certain places in all three of the designs above.  I also started to play around with fonts a little:

As you can see I chose the 3rd design to experiment with, simply due to I thought it was the strongest of the designs. There is still a lot more work to do, but I believe I'm on the right track.

I didn't get talking to a tutor today, which sucked. However I did a bit more research into my main project, I managed to find  that other universities, do have a student advise guide, from past students. So I have been reading over their questions and what some of their students were concerned about. Mainly to get a better idea on what questions to ask students, and what other students would be interested in hearing.  I have so far found that students  want to know:

• General Advise
  
• Living On A Budget
• How To Make Friends
• Placements 
• Studying Advise
• Accommodation
• Advise For People Coming From Outside The UK  To Study Here
•  And advise on their course subjects.
  

This gives me a better idea of questions to ask, although these are important questions to ask on advise, I know I want to add in some humor,  like:

• What Not To Do On A Night Out
  
• What  Advise Would You Give Your Past Self, Knowing What You Know Now  

I am hoping to have a completed list of questions by next week, so I can really get the ball rolling on this project.

 I am now half way to completing  my dissertation, YAY!!!! 
Within my dissertation,  today I was  looking more into sweatshops. Sweatshops only exists because there is a market for cheap products. The amount of accidents there are within them. Especially  within the past four years there has been two major incidents with sweat shops in Bangladesh. Many workers loosing their lives, and being left with nothing. Some lost their limbs and have had to readjust to life. Shockingly some  have even returned to work in other sweat shops. 

So yea, within my dissertation I was ranting about that for a good wee bit.  also went back into  my research  to look at the effects of more money actually seems to lower happiness

This is the most updated graph I can find depicting this result.  Although this graph just shows  America. (yes i realize it doesn't have a title, it is a terrible graph but i looked it up, it's definitely american happiness). So yea, this is what I have been doing all day. Tomorrow I am hoping to get my primary research part of my dissertation done.  So I can move on the my second last section of my dissertation. Well looking forward to it. 

Finally have gotten a start on retouching my dissertation . Today I spent most of it reading my dissertation,  as well as looking into new subjects for it.  Such as  thinking of other cultures that money is heavily evolved in.  I thought of the gypsy community, as when there is an occasion. They go all out and money really is not a concern. This is mainly the view from "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding"  TV show on channel 4.  

What does interest me about this culture  is how they travel in their caravans and  just because we see how they live from the outside. While we stay in our brick permanent houses. I know I assumed they hadn't much money and were actually rather poor. This isn't the case. Highly religious, some would say very old ways of thinking in how the  girls are brought up . Such as no sex before marriage, married young, taken out of school from the age of 12, not believed  to  have jobs as the woman is to be kept at home to cook, clean and look after the children.  The wedding day is truly the biggest day of a gypsy girls life. So yes, I find their culture very interesting in how they view consumerism and how they follow their tradition.

I also FINALLY got around into looking at the survey results  from the after the festive season  survey.  I have to admit there was many of the results that shocked me. here our two that I found very interesting.

With this question I have to admit I thought I would get a higher number of people saying yes. As I know when speaking to family and friends a lot of people do say that they need a better way to save money. So for this to be a 50/50, I found pretty remarkable.

This seriously shocked me. I am very cheap when it comes to getting people Christmas presents. As some of my close friends will know, I hate that just because it's Christmas you have to get people gifts. I don't agree with that, I do know that yes it is different when it comes to children. When it comes to my own age group or anyone over 15 really. I do not see the point. If there is something in particular that you want and you ask for, that is fine. Even if you see something for someone that you know they'll love, again that's fine. But not just aimlessly going round buying people gifts for the sake of it. Little rant over...

Tomorrow I will  be continuing on with my dissertation work.

I have been running round like a headless chicken all day today. But I am not totally ready for the interim show. I got my finals printed and mounted on foam board. They look so much more professional. So I am very happy with how today went. I even did a little bit more research with my dissertation work. I have also made a start on my dissertation, so today was incredibly productive. I am just so tired at the moment after all the running around. But I'm happy :)  

Not the best photo I know, but I did try my best.  I know it's hard to figure out but on Thursday I will be able to  show you how it will look mounted on the  wall.

With my dissertation I have not only started looking at photoshoot ideas, but also poster ideas. 

I think this image in it's self is very true and I think a lot of people can relate to it, whether it be themselves or people they know. Tomorrow I plan to look up the survey I gave out after the festive rush. If you haven't already I would really appreciate you take just one minute of your time to tick a few boxes. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFZ7G9T 

So, today I finally got started on my book cover. YAY! I am actually rather proud of it. I am just not too sure in which direction it is heading. But not half bad if I do say so myself.

This is more of less just a first draft of one of my designs, I have a few more I'd like to experiment with and see how they go too. 

On a separate note, I had previously mentioned about the survey I have created, to go towards my dissertation. If you haven't already, I'd really appreciate it if you took just one minute of your time to fill in. I also promise you it won't take you anymore than a minute to answer. It is just simply ticking boxes

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFZ7G9T



Thank you

So today I haven't really done much. I have been more or less been trying to get my sketch books in more of an order, and up to date so I don't have to come back to it later on in the year. I have however started to make more of a progress with my Main Project. As my dissertation begins to loom nearer, I have realized I need more information to add to it. So please, it will take less than a minute to do and i would really appreciate it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFZ7G9T


I hope to really get into designing my book cover tomorrow and begin to experiment with the layout and text. So I will be putting up my progress of them tomorrow, with more than likely a few screen shots.