Development

Reach Out, going in a new direction

I showed my proposal to Clive this week and we discussed  my project in greater detail. We spoke about who the project would be tailored to and what the ideal outcomes of the service would be. My original plan was to help those who are searching for a job, or maybe those who have an upcoming interview, get the job they are after by giving advice from those with relevant experience.

While this is useful to those who are already motivated to find a job and know what they want to do, what about those who don’t. This project aims to help those who are unemployed find the job or career path that’s right for them. While a lot of people who are out of work may know exactly what they want to do and how to get there, I feel this project should aimed more at those who are maybe unsure of what they want to do and need some help getting started.

I have a few ideas of how to do this. One, which was suggested by Clive, is to do something along the lines of a quiz to find out what people are interested in and help them find a career that is right for them. The questions would ask things like what their hobbies consist of, what skills they have, what education and grades they achieved and so on. At the end the user would be suggest a few careers that may interest someone like them. I may also include advice on how to get started, like what other skills this job requires and if there is somewhere that offers this nearby.

This is a large shift in the direction of my project, but I think the outcome will be better for it. I think this is something that is more likely to help a wider range of people, while still aiming at the same target audience as before.

Week 8 – Logo Design

Last week we we’re given a brief to create a logo for a company. They specialise in training dogs to be better behaved and wanted the logo to reflect this. I started by sketching an idea I had.

FullSizeRender

The thought process behind this design is it shows a hand reaching out to a dog, palm upwards, to show that they trust and care for the dog. They could be giving them a treat, rewarding good behaviour. Simply having your hand that close to a dogs mouth (and in effect, teeth) shows that the human trusts the dog.

In the workshop we took our drawn ideas and created them in Adobe Illustrator.

Dogo Logo

I chose the colours green and yellow as they are quite passive and friendly colours and that reflects the theme I am going for with this logo. The name for the company is really just to fill space and show where the name would be. I don’t think the name that is there now is fully appropriate but it does still show the message I want to give off with this logo.

Week 5 – Motion Graphics

This week we learned about adding images and creating shapes in Photoshop and After Effects, and animating them using keyframes. We started by finding an image of a kitten and then finding something for them to look at.

Backflip Kitten

The image I went for was a man doing a backflip, and my plan was to make this guy do a backflip over the cat as it watches in awe. We started by cutting the images out, isolating them from their backgrounds. This was mainly done with the pen tool as it provides a lot of accuracy since the user decides where each point is added. It can take longer than some other tools but the cleanness that you can achieve is worth it.

To animate these images I imported them into after effects and key-framed in their movements. This included the dude rotating over a period of time, and following a curved path across the screen. The cat follows the dude with it’s head and the body (which the head is attached to) turns and moves slightly, making it look like it is rolling.

While my final project probably won’t be… quite like this, it gives a lot of ideas for things that I can do with this software.