Feedback in Design Crowd

I recieved feedback for my chalk drop design, they said they really liked it, and give me a really high rating, they said they loved it but went with another design, so close this time, this feedback will help me through with other designs.

Unit 39 - Undertake Image Asset Management

Image Asset management consists of tasks surrounding annotation, storage and the distribution of digital assets, digital photographs, animations, videos and music are a typical example of media asset management. Digital asset management refers to the backing, downloading, renaming, grouping, archiving and exporting of files.

When capturing and uploading images, making sure there is no copyright attached to it is the first thing you should do as if it has copyright attatched to it, you will have to ask for permission from the rightful owner so that you do not infringe any current laws or guidlines. Colour management is there to make sure that the colour works across many devices such as a monitor to a digital camera, this is why when designing for any project we have to make sure that it is compatible colours and that can be used on many devices.

Photoshop file and JPEG

Backing up your work is essiential in the media sector, it is always a must that you should keep a master copy of your original work on somewhere like a flash drive to keep it safe incase something might happen to the computer it is stored on, also keeping a saved copy of the original format for example photoshop as for further editing you can go back to it and change whatever is needed as it will still have the layers as if you saved this as a PNG or JPEG you would not be able to edit any on the layers on this. When saving your edited work make sure that you name/caption is something suitable and that you are able to easily find it quickly and effectively relevent to what it is.

There is many aspects of working life that can effect image asset managment, things such as someone coming on to your computer and changing the caption/name of your work, then it would be impossible to find or if they saved over your work and it would be lost as it would be their worked saved their instead of your own. This would obviously be a big problem in a work place so it is a good thing to keep a spare on a flash drive or some sort of device to keep all your work together to prevent this from happening.

Also to prevent physical damage to your images/ work, you should always make more copies and store in a safe place where it won't get damaged or ruined, making more copies is good as if one does get damaged you have a spare just incase, and store in a safe place so that.

All companies archieve their images/work load, it is important that these are backed up and stored on suitable devices that the work is not damaged in any way, for example a disc, flash drive etc. Another good way of storing images is using an online method such sites like Dropbox, I used this for my own work so that it does not get lost or deleted at work, Dropbox allows you to place work via there site from one computer and access it from another, it even lets you share work with others too.

Unit 35 - Undertake Technical Adjustment of Images

When changing an image in Photoshop and Inkscape you have to make some technical adjustments to the image by size, adding layers etc, adding layers to an image makes the image stand out a lot more than without, as you can add drop shadows etc which makes the image pop out and look realistic and not just like a stuck on image as shown in the image to the right adding a drop shadow to the bounce brackets makes it look like the text is bouncing around and it pops out the page, this was a good effect as it makes things look more realistic and alive,  adding filters to layers make the image your own and adds an effect such as stained glass etc, this will make the image so much different.

For example what I did here for my Facebook link for my Portfolio, I made this into a rollover image which means when you put your curser over it, it changed the look into the filter Facebook icon, this give the people who were viewing my portfolio direction, it let them know that it was a link that they could click on, the filter I used here was Artistic Cutout, it created this watercolour effect on the icon which changes the page significantly as seen, the edges are more softer than the original as such.

Colour theory is an important thing in graphic design, as graphic designers use computers mostly everyday of their job, they see RGB which stands for red, green,blue the name comes from the primary colours  as these coloured lights are adding together in a way that creates more rays of colour within the computer monitor, but the colours on a certain image on the monitor will look different when printed as it doesn't have the same light when printed this is where CMYK comes into it, when the RGB colours are mixed together they create CMYK which consists of Cyan, Magenta,  Yellow and the K stands for key which is Black, when printing your work to the human eye we see a final picture but on paper the image that is creating is made out of small dots which combine into an final image.

Any work created in RGB should be changed to CMYK format before printing unless specified, it is a good thing for designers to use swatches as it provides them with an exact match of what it will look like on printed paper.

Keeping an images dimensions is important , as if you stretch the image you will make the image all pixelated, and will be a poor quality image, the image quality depends on the size of your monitor, this will have an impact as the size on the monitor might not be the print size. When the dimensions box is checked, any changes I make to the images width or height will not change the image’s resolution and any changes I make to the resolution will not effect the width and height, Keep in mind, when I increase the width and height, or resolution, with the dimensions  box checked, I am adding extra pixels to the image. The pixels don't actually exist to Photoshop has to make them so that the quality of the image stays.


The best software to use for editing images is Adobe Photoshop, it has much better tools than others, and lets you create using loads of layers and filters this is nice to have as it has more options to do more things with an image you can change the colour to grayscale, change the size of an image, and other tools to help you create an interesting image. Many photographers use Photoshop to edit there photographs, making people have airbrushed skin etc like in magazines. A good site to retrieve images, brushes is DeviantART, which gives you images etc to create anything, some you can use for free and have no real copyright on them however some do so you have to ask the permission of the person who owns it, however when doing a logo for client or flyer they will send you relevant information and images for you to use and play around with. Importing images into Adobe Photoshop is simple, just go to file then open and choose the file you would like imported into the software, then this gives you the tools to edit the image to whatever you like.


For images different file formats they have to be used for certain images,  file formats consist of , JPEG, PNG, TIFF, RAW, GIF, BMP, JFIF etc. These are used for different images the most common ones that I use at work are...


JPEG/JFIF - ( Joint Photographic Experts Group) it is a compression method, JPeg compressed images are normally stored in JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) NEarly every digital camera can store JPEG's as it stores an 8 bits per colour (red,blue, green) for a 24 bit total producing small files.
PNG - This twitter icon is a PNG image, it has no apparent background to it so it can be stuck anywhere without having a white box surrounding it, PNG's excel when it comes down to image editing  and when the image has a large coloured areas around.  


With this logo I had to adapt to the colour requirement that the client wanted, they wanted no orange, blue or pink so i had to adapt the logo to meet the standards they wanted, they wanted it to be a colour that could represent both girl and boy while trying to make it look similar to what the company is all about.






In the creative and digital media sector there is health and safety regulations that need to be followed which effect this sector, such as maintenance of the workplace, equipment, devices and systems, this is key in the creative media sector as such as computers, computers are an essential piece of equipment needed in the creative media sector, computer screens can damage your eyes if looked at for too long, making sure that employees take breaks is a good way to prevent any eye strain that might occur to employee's.
Not putting chairs in front of fire escapes is essential, you must always keep a fire escape clear for emergency use and reduce the risk of others at the workplace and making sure work stations are clean and tidy, as in creative media sector wires from computers and other equipment must be tucked away out of site as this could cause serious harm to someone, to prevent this make sure any wires are hidden or placed somewhere where none could trip and fall on them.


When creating anything designers have to think about copyright, copyright is a legal concept what the government have put in place so that the person who owns that image/work has full rights to their work,  or has full credit to their work, for example a photographer has full rights to any photo they have taken unless they are employed by a company the photos are taken for or if their is an agreement that gives copyright to another party. If you want to use a photograph you would you have to contact the person themselves and ask for permission to use their photograph for example for my music that rocks website, the photographs of the bands I put on I would have to contact say Nickelback directly and ask permission to use a photograph of them however they could refuse with no permission for any reason if you don't ask for permission you could end up with a law suit on your hands.


Performers and people who are featured in your photograph etc have moral rights which protects the personality and reputation of the person, they can chose weather to be identified or not, if they do not want to feature in your photograph you will have to replace them with someone else or use a blur effect on their face so their identity is hidden.

Unit 24 – Manage and Market Own Freelance Services

A freelancer is a person who may have a job but does things such as graphic designing on the side, this is a good way to make extra money.

Design crowd is a online business which is used a lot by the creative and digital media sector, and is a good place for freelancers to make money, it is where designers can upload there designs to clients and get payed for it if they are chosen, as they can use this aswell as being employed to another person, it is a good way of making extra money and gain better experience.

Another good place to find jobs is GumTree, it is another way for designers to find jobs suitable to media as Gumtree has its own Media, Design and Creative jobs section, this is another good place for potential creative and digital media designers to come and look for work, it is a good place for freelancers to go on for extra jobs along side their day to day duties.

When promoting yourself as a designer you have to be good at what you do and good at marketing and presenting yourself, to get noticed you have to offer things that others wouldn't to stand a chance,  doing a design for someone to an excellent standard will make that person recommend you to other people for more jobs and that is where your business starts and you start getting recognised, once you are getting more and more business the next is creating business cards for yourself, business cards are great for people who are walking about as within a business card it tells you all the information that you need in order to contact you and such just within a small card.

Creating a online portfolio is a creative and interactive way for potential clients to view your work, it is easier than sending all your work in an email, as clients are a bit spectacle when it comes to emails from people they are not familiar with and it is much easier putting all your work within one site.

When managing your budget you have to think about your pay per hour to clients, and bills such as electricity, phone bills you may run up talking the the client, Internet etc, and the amount of hours it will take you, when putting a quote to a potential client think about all this and make a good quote for examples for a poster £6 over 12 hours or so to complete and add in printing costs to the quote then the client is bound to pick you. All freelancers have a excel spreadsheet which records all of the costs they have to do a certain job and to keep on track of what to quote and keep a record of what they have done, this is a good way as it is quick and secure and if it is on a computer it won't get lost like paper would.

Freelancers work isn't all consistent in pay and the cash-flow won't be very well, as when an opportunity occurs your not sure if you will be chosen so you have to manage your money effectively and know what you can spend or not, as you never know when you will have money coming in, this is why a spreadsheet is a good way of keeping your money records all in one place.

When taking on projects with certain deadlines you have to make chances to your own lifestyle to fit in the work that is needed to be done, for example if you normally go out for a walk on a morning and have lazying afternoons, you will have to make sacristies to meet the deadline so maybe no walk or cutting down the hours of the walk and cutting the lazy afternoons out to complete what needs to be done.

Don't make overpriced quotes like I did, thinking about your money is key for job opportunities, as you want to make sure you have enough for a profit margin but not too much that it is over priced, make your quotes reasonable and time scale to realistic. as I have learnt with my first quote of putting in too high of a price, if I had made this smaller with a printing opportunities I probably would of had a good chance is getting this. It is good that I can learn for this so I don't make the same mistake twice so when the next one comes I know exactly how to work out my money and time correctly.
When putting in for a job you have to sell yourself, tell them what you are capable of doing, show previous work this will land you a chance at making it.

Receiving feedback on your designs is always something that you should have, such websites such as design crowd have a feedback response, this helps you get feedback from any job you have posted for, however there is a button where people who can't be bothered to give feedback just put nothing and an automatic feedback, this is not good for designers as it does not tell them what they did right or wrong so in future will not be able to chance what they did in order to make the design right. Many designers post designs up on social networking sites such as Facebook which is really popular and everyone goes on so you are bound to receive feedback on there, like I did it helped me as it told me what i was doing right with the design.

When managing supplier contracts it is important when managing a contract that the file consists of the final contract, other documents relating to the contract, all changes that have been done to the contract, certificates of insurance and any extensions to the contract. You have to make sure that the contract meets the legal, regulatory and organisational requirements and make sure you look over the contract at least twice so you have a clear understanding of what you are signing and what you get out of this. 
When communicating with other parties make sure you speak clearly and project your voice this is a good thing as people can understand what you are saying, don't just say nothing if you are unsure about anything you have to speak up and ask them to explain again so that understand everything fully, because if you don't understand fully and just accept anything you could put yourself in a situation that effects your cash-flow and business. 

Once a contract has been signed, keep it in a safe place that you will find it, maybe a storage folder or even scanning into the computer will store if safe with all the rest of your work as losing this could be crucial as the other party in the contract may try to breach this contract and you will have no evidence to say otherwise.

Unit 24: Part I - Be Able To Manage Own Systems, Accounts and Records

 Creating a Spreadsheet in Excel, this is what all freelancers should have to keep a note of how much everything will cost to do certain projects and what they are willing to quote for, it is a quick way of doing sums and keeping track on what you earn.

Unit 24: Part II - Be able to manage own contracts

Submitting a quote for Byte my chip computers in design crowd, making links to my other websites and photos of work helps them decide if I'm the right person for the job.

Writing on a bit about yourself helps them work out what kind of person you are like and if you are someone they would like to work with.
I submitted £91 as I worked out that for 11 hours work on this project the cost per hour would be £8.27, I chose this project as it is simple and a nice project to do.

Receiving Feedback From Facebook Fans

Here is my Facebook page, I loaded up some of my designs on my Facebook wall and asked people to comment on what they thought about my design, I received feedback from this gentleman about my chalk drop design, I believe getting feedback helps me as I can learn from this and know what I am doing right when designing.

I also received feedback from the Habbo DJ on his logo design I created for him which he wanted the same as rebellion one I did earlier