Plans for the Summer

Over the summer I plan to meet up with Ross so we can make a start with our campaigns that will form our book.
I am also going to start adding to my visual reference file because I will be travelling a lot over the holidays and will be able to gather a wide range of different things that may help spark off a good idea next year.
Magaluf is one of the places I will be going over the summer, so I'll be sure to get the odd holiday snap to add to my file.. That's if the whole week isn't just a druken blur haha ;)

I'll keep you updated!

The End of the Beginning

Well this year of the course has came to an end. What I've learnt, I will never forget, and I can start making preparations for my book from the things I have been taught.
Over the year I have seen me gradually getting better at advertising and my confidence levels have increased dramatically.. I can still remember my first presentation, and saying it wasn't too good is a bit of an understatement.
I feel like I have benefited from the course and I can't wait to get cracking on with the second year.. after a long deserved holiday of course :D

Live Brief & Final Project!

I have really enjoyed this project. After the success of the Vo5 ads me and Ross Decided to work together again.
We chose to do the IKEA brief as we found that because it was an open brief, we had a large scope of ideas we could create.
First of all we went to IKEA to carry out a bit of primary research in the form of a questionnaire, this went really well and we began to form the basis of our idea.
From our research we managed to produce a good campaign that matched the brief requirements and everyone in the class seemed to like it.
Ending the year on a high is always a good plan!

From Fifty Quid to A Hundred Grand!

Although this ad is almost as cheesy as the 'Go Compare' ad I think it's actually quite good. It has a catchy jingle that sticks in your head and all the information you need to know is in there.

A quality television ad in my eyes.

Art Direction & Copywriting

Over the last few months I have had to focus more and more on group work and take a specific role in the advertising field. I have came to the conclusion that I am an art director!

After completing a project where I had to create one visual based campaign and one copy based, i found that copywriting wasn't for me. As I was doing the project I realised that when doing the same campaign but in a different format, the visual was, by far, more appealing.

I guess getting good and copywriting will just take practice, but if I'm honest, I actually prefer art direction, I find it easier to communicate with an audience via visual campaigns than copy based ones and I enjoy it more!

So my decision is final... Art Direction is for me.

Essay Writing

Yesterday I received feedback from my tutor in connection with my previous essay about branding. I found what he told me to be quite useful, as I was told the good and bad points of my essay and what I could do to improve. From this, I am able to write a clear, to-the-point, plan for my current essay, so i can achieve a higher mark.

iMovie

Today we set off in our groups to film the iMovie required for our digital skills project.

I found working with other people was effective as we could all combine our ideas together and come up with a well thought out final plan.

Not only did working in a group achieve better results, but it made it easier to keep on track and meet the briefs requirements, as sometimes, when working on your own, it is easy to lose sight of the required elements and slip off onto your own little path, miles away from the brief specification.

As a group, we set ourselves tasks to complete tonight so that our development file can be put together. By setting each other individual tasks we are lowering the work load, so we are able to concentrate on other projects we have running alongside our digital skills.

Hopefully we'll have it all done by tomorrow morning :D

Time Management

First day back after the Easter holidays, and I must admit, it was better then I thought it would be.

Since Alison left, we've been pretty much left to our own devices on a Monday and I couldn't find the motivation to do anything. Today, however, was different because we had a new lecturer.

I actually enjoyed the session and found what he was saying quite interesting. He put the points he made into a simple form, making it easier to understand and I felt the session was a lot more focused than previous Monday mornings.

We were asked to create a time plan, in hope that this will help us manage our time more efficiently, so we'll meet important deadlines. I think that this will help me a great deal because if I follow the plan I won't be tempted to go home and watch TV all night or go out with the lads - lol.

Time Plan

AD103 V05

Vo5 project done and dusted. For this project I worked with Ross, to see how we work as a team and I found that we bonded quite well. We both had a wide range of different ideas for our visual campaign and our final outcome was an interesting idea.
This project had to be visual based without any copy, and although it was quite difficult with it been a bit of a girly product, I found creating the ad visually was a lot easier than creating an ad using only words.
Based on this project I think I will probably end up leaning towards becoming an Art Director.

AD105 Lurpak Spreadable

I've completed my firt ever advertising brief! And I really enjoyed it.
I found the whole project to be really exciting as I've never really done anything like this before, especially making my final design.
I enjoyed putting my thinking methods into practive, such as mind mapping and the 'Six Thinking Hats' process, which I had learnt on the previous project and I found that they really helped me get my ideas down.
I feel confident now after knowing I've made my very first advert and I feel like this year is going to be a good one.
Bring on the next brief!