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

I have been tasked with submitting a quote to a client using DesignCrowd. This is a live project that i am currently undergoing to see if i can be accepted to create this website. Here is the brief:

Here is my application form:

This is the whole quote that i have submitted. It includes my previous work to show the client what i am capable of, my pitch, which is basically selling myself to the client, and finally my conditions for things such as travelling/accomodation costs and to be given a good amount of time to finish the project. Things such as phone bills there should be no problem, although with the client being in a foreign country i might need to require to use a program such as Skype to keep the costs down. And also i have lowered the price of the quote to $750 

Unit 39 - Undertake Image Asset Management

When you are using images, you first need to check if that particular image has any copyright attached to it. If it does have copyright attached to it, it cannot be used unless you contact the owner of the image.
Colour management is used to simplify the reproduction and exchange and reproduction of images for all variations of industries. Some methods for storing the original copies of work include

• producing uncompressed copies of the original work
• make the work read only when it is finally done so it is protected from any one editing the material
• back up the master copies into another more secure location. 

Other examples of a business that use image asset management would be the advertising industry, as the adverts that they create normally require multiple images for it to function correctly as an advertisement.
To keep control of your physical printed images and keep the protected from any unwanted damage, you could do a number of things such as

• putting protective material over the image such as wallets or if there are lots of them use a box etc
• if they are being carried around by employees/couriers etc, you should require that they could wear gloves or advise them to handle the documents carefully.

To keep the quality of the image intact when carrying out adjustments etc you should make sure to separate the copies from the originals and try not to destroy any important parts of the work that are needed.  In order to make sure that the colour management is in line with the particular requirements you should regularly check the images every now and again throughout the whole process to ensure that the quality is still as good as it can be. Before you assign colour profiles to images you need to make sure that you know all of the procedures that your organisation takes out with the colour profiles as if you dont there could be consequences.
If you want to organise your images correctly to ensure the most quality, you should:

• use labels to identify the best images to store so that you know the unlabelled images can be used for general use or cast aside
• use keywords/captions on images so that you can identify each image with the date/colour used/copyright/contact info etc if needed

To control the use of images you should

• Use a company logo to claim the image 
• Use copyright on the image
• Hold records of anyone using the image
• Archive the image to show it is in the right hands

To ensure protection of the images from things like the environment etc you should

• Have multiple copies of the images
• Back the images up on another directory, if on the internet, make sure it is secured (firewall etc)
• Have the original data in a secure place that only a select amount of people know where it is
• Record where you put everything so you can cover your tracks if you happen to lose anything or just need evidence that the image is yours.

The main aspect of legislation of image asset management is copyright infringement.
The main aspect of health and safety are the policies in the particular company that identify the hazards in your place of work.
If you use any particular image, you need to make sure that the image you are going to use abides by all of the guidelines and laws such as copyright infringement or personal/classified information and also the use of children/different races.

Unit 27 - 2D Animation for Interactive Media Products

2D animation is most commonly created using Adobe Flash but other programs can be used swell. Flash animation are saved in .swf format. Flash animation is a certain type of movement and visual style using circles. Flash animation can be used for almost anything, from websites to television programs. One website that uses flash animation for websites is a site called wix.com, which creates a variety of pages of your choosing that inserts in flash animation automatically with your certain preferences. The only problem with flash animation is the file format, being a very complex format, makes whatever it is being used in much slower to load as it takes longer to process everything in a .swf file.
I have used wix.com to create a small promotional page for my Facebook home page, this is situated at www.facebook.com/danielmackenziedesigns.
Flash is quite easy to use, but to master it you need to take a lot of time figuring all of the parts of flash out as there are so many things to do on it. For instance you have to first sort out the FPS (frames per second) of the design, the higher the value of FPS the smoother it will be (and also the file size will start to get higher as there are more frames to process) then you can put the images/text in and start creating your design using the tweens and key frames (there are 2 tweens, shape and motion. Motion controls movement, shape controls the structure of the object and the motion of the object at the same time.)
When you save a flash animation, it has to be in the .swf format otherwise it is not going to work and save the file appropriately to what the design is for.

Unit 24 - Manage and market own freelance services

To get your own freelance services out in to the public eye, you need to make some sort of effort to get the best opportunity. There are 7 qualities you need to take note of, these are:

• Use business cards to their full potential
• Create an online portfolio
• Market yourself with mailer postcards
• Think about who you're target audience is
• Follow a rigid marketing strategy
• While pitching, show that you are focussed on thinking of the client more than yourself
• Be persistent

Business Cards

Business cards are essentially the most important item to get your work into the public eye. They are good because if done well, they can give all of the details needed for someone to contact you (e-mail,number, website, mailing address etc) but do not rely on just an e-mail address on to the business card as your clients will wipe off the emails and you would lose out on a potential job offer. To get the most out of your business card, you should:

• Make sure that it is clean and easy to read (not full of words and pictures as this will definitely put a client off working with you) as the best presented cards will most likely take a better priority over others that aren't as well presented.
• Print lots of cards (thousands if necessary as they are really cheap to make) as you do not want to find that you have ran out as you could easily lose a job offer from forgetting a card as the client has no details to contact you with and might see you as a forgetful person or unreliable. 
• Don't be afraid to just hand out cards to people who are not particularly in the business, as they could refer you to a friend or family member that might want something done. Everyone is a potential client. 
• Add cards into invoices,reception areas, sports clubs, just basically anywhere you find a lot of people either walking past or looking through where potential clients might set up meetings etc. And don't be afraid to hand them to people.

Online Portfolio

If you are a web designer, this type of portfolio is almost essential to sell yourself, as it shows that you can create a website as well as showing some of your other work, and shows how good you are. A website can also help to communicate via e-mail as attachments on e-mails from unrecognised senders are normally not opened so you can just send them a link to your portfolio.

Mailer Postcards

Mailer postcards work well with your business cards as a direct mail postcard is a great way to show off what you can do and also to get you out there. Postcards are becoming increasingly more acknowledged as at the moment it is becoming standard for freelancers to advertise through e-mail, so a postcard that has been hand delivered shows initiative and will put you in the top of the list.

To create a decent mailer postcard you should put all of your best visual work on the front, then put all of the details on the back such as your fees/contact details etc. Treat the postcard as a pitch, showing how your client will benefit exclusively from employing you.

Target Audience

Before you even start trying to look for work, you need to make a decision on what companies you want to work for, if you want to aim high or low. You are best off targeting large businesses that have more than just one department as they will prove to be a more lucrative move and will most probably keep you in work as they will have lots of clients. If you play your cards right that large company could be your client for a long time if they are happy with your services.

To look for the specific companies that you want, google will be the best answer, searching for the most ideal company for you (distance,pay,experience etc) and build a database of contacts that you would be interested in.

Marketing strategy

Using the details that you have gathered from researching companies, send out the post cards to all the addresses that you have accumulated along the course of the search and send them a personalised email with your website and contact details included and ask if they use freelancers, then in the next email ask to discuss a meeting later if they reply and say they are willing to take on. But only send one email at a time.  If by any reason you haven't got a website, be sure to attach some images of your best work (make sure that it is under 2MB as anything over will automatically deleted most of the time.) To effectively and efficiently submit your contact details in your emails, set up an email signature so your clients can access your contact details. Follow up your email with a phone call the next day to get the contacts feedback to your samples.  If your contact says they don't use freelancers, ask for another contact within the organization who does.

Client Priority

To pitch successfully you should focus your work solely on the client and what they want as you will be doing it for them. 

Persistance

To make yourself known you need to be persistent. When you meet people from companies, you should remember to take your portfolio and business cards every time however informal it may seem as you could find that there is one day where you forget a business card for example and you could have potentially missed out on an offer.
If you meet clients and they say things such as "i have no projects but will keep you in mind" theres no need to get frustrated as if you nag them and beg for a place, you will just push them further away from you and you'll definitely not get an offer, you are best off biding your time, sending them occasional e-mails to keep them interested (like every month) and also give them a call every month as they are bound to give you work at some point if you are persistent.

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This next part is how to boost your job opportunities and also increase your fee for projects.

This part is to help you get that little bit more of a boost once you have completed the first part.
There are 5 qualities that you need to grasp, these are:

• Stand out from the crowd
• Communicate the aspects of your service online
• Find a profitable niche
• How to offer a copywriting design service
• Creating your own marketing agency creative service.

Stand out from the crowd

Freelancing is a very competitive business depending on where you are working at. In order to get on top, you need to take a look at all of the other services like their fees and try and offer a better price while still making a good enough profit, as most of the time it doesn't matter if you are better than certain competition, it normally roots down to the price of the service and what they can offer with that pricing.

To get the most out of your fee pricing, you need to give the client specific skills that other competition don't have or just don't give, such as:

• Quick and efficient designs (advertisement design drafts created and sent in a day)
• Wide variety of skills, not just specifically dealing with logos for example, try branching out in to brochures, leaflet designs, animation, web etc.
• Promise a quick response as this will be a big factor because the client wants an active designer that cares about the client.
• Try and make sure that you can tell the client where you specialise in and what you are best at, but don't come across as narrow minded just doing one part such as logos.

Communicate the aspects of your service online

once you have made up your mind on your fees and services, put it up on your website and make it out as a special and unique offer that entices the client. Also you should research search engine marketing to market yourself on the web efficiently, what this is is creating certain key words to your website so that if people put in those certain keywords, your website will come up on the page. A useful tool to help you do this is www.wordtracker.com as it shows what keywords people type into search engines and shows how many people are using the same keywords so that you have a better idea on how to market your website.

Finding a profitable niche

To make the most amount of money, you need to find a profitable niche, this is basically your own specialised service, that doesn't particularly have a large competition for which covers a broad range.

to get your niche, you need to find the market which gives the highest rewards, such as the marketing communications sector (adverts brochures websites etc). Research that market, get to know all about that sector and see if it works well for you so that you have a good understanding, and maybe more than others which could potentially get you above the others and help you get that job offer. Respond to the needs of the market, the weak spots of the market where there are less designers, as this is where you can flourish as a designer as there is a gap for someone to at least start off.

How to offer a copywriting design service

It is best if you team up with a copywriter as this service will offer clients a cheaper service to specific agencies and the copywriting partner also keeps you in check to design assignments they find for other clients so it could give you more of a business than going solo. 

Creating your own marketing agency creative service.

You could also be a copywriter as well as a designer. You could learn techniques in a similar time frame to learning a new piece of design software. This is a good way to go if you are a freelancer as it makes life easier for clients dealing with just you, it is much quicker to contact one person and you'll offer the exact same service as an agency but at a much smaller cost.

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How to deal with feedback

There are 5 different types of feedback, these are:

• Collaborative feedback, which is basically when the person is genuinely interested in making your product better, and they allow you to do what you do best.
• Informative feedback, this is someone who isn't experienced in your field, but respects your work and creates constructive feedback from their limited experience and what they think would be better for the end product.
• Egocentric feedback, this is where the person believes themselves to be better than you and more experienced so they will take credit for ideas until someone doesn't like it, then leaves all the credit to you when things go wrong.
• Uninformed feedback, this is where the person feels they know enough to make a detailed decision, but really they don't and don't really give you anything constructive.
• Influenced feedback, this is where the person has unoriginal ideas and don't have anything that is different, basically copying off other people.

In general, don't take feedback too seriously if it is troubling you too much or is annoying you, as it is just someone else's idea. If someone starts to get on your back telling you it is terrible then ask others if they think the same, if they do then take the necessary changes that they suggested, if not, don't change it at all as it clearly works for everyone else. maybe that one person is just an egocentric person that doesn't want your work to take its full form. Do not take any feedback personally as that could damage you in the future, for example if a client says they don't like a certain part of the project and suggest another alternative way to create it and you don't agree, you have to go with what the client wants, or try and find another way that appeals to the client more that they might prefer. In the end of the day, the client is the one paying you so you should create what they want even if it isn't to what you want, if it puts a stain on your portfolio leave it out and put other work in there or put in the other drafts that you thought were better with the outcome of the design.

How to manage your contracts

To manage your contracts efficiently, you need to organise yourself accordingly as certain contracts can be more complex than others. You should start to develop your contract as soon as it is needed (when you have selected a vendor that you want). You should also send letters of agreement etc to guide the exchange of goods and services so that they know exactly what is happening. A director of risk management can assist you with the contracts. If a contract cannot be signed prior to its effective date, terms should be agreed upon by both parties to ensure there is a mutual agreement on what you want happening.


All contracts should be assigned to a contract admin, they are responsible for tracking the performance of the contract and addressing any issues that might emerge under the contract.


Contracts must include:

• A final copy of the contract
• all other documents related to the contract
• all changes should be declared as long as they are in the terms of the contract and attached to the agreement.
• all certificates should be kept with the contract.
• A compliance file should be made to keep all documents including certificates and insurance up to date.

at the end of the contract the admin responsible should close the agreement and ensure it is properly stored.

Unit 35 - Undertake Technical Adjustment of Images

This unit is about describing the process of adjusting images with programs such as Photoshop and InkScape. This includes the sizing of images, using layers and filters, re-colouring, cutting and masking.

Colour Modes
The first part of this unit is about colour theory, colour mode and colour management. The most widely used colour model is RGB (which stands for Red Green Blue), this is used by combining the primary colours red, green and blue light together in various ways to create an almost endless amount of colour. The RGB model is for sensing, representation and display of images in electronic systems, such as TV and computers, though it has been used in photography also. Before RGB was used in electronic systems, there was already a solid theory behind the whole model as it was originated in how humans see colours. RGB is a colour model that is "device dependant" which means different electronic devices detect different values of RGB as their responses to the individual levels of Red Green and Blue are all different depending on manufacturer (also the device can detect more or less values over time with the age of the device). So RGB does not define a specific level and value of colour in every device without colour management.
The most well known devices that use RGB as input for colour are colour TV's, video cameras, image scanners and digital cameras. Devices most well known for output of RGB are LCD and Plasma TV's, computers, mobile phone display screens, video projectors, LED displays. Despite what you may think though, colour printers do not use the RGB mode, they tend to use the CMYK colour model which is most commonly used within the printing process, which i will explain next.

The CMYK colour model uses the RGB model which is typically in computer screens for example and combines the three primary colours to create its own, as RGB can only be created using natural or produced light (like in computer screens) so there had to be a different colour model to replace RGB for the printers. The CMYK stands for Cyan (green and blue creates it), Magenta (red and blue creates it), and Yellow (red and green creates it) as you can see CMYK is basically all of the RGB colours mixed to make slightly different colours that are not the primary colours created from natural/produced light (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are all subtractive primaries). Black is the K in CMYK which stands for 'Key' as black cannot be made by RGB as it just created a dark brown, which is not required.When CMYK is used in the printing process, the four colours are combined on paper using small dots which combine the different colours together until the final image is created.

Graphic designers have a problem with this process with the colour models RGB and CMYK as they see their work on the computer screen in RGB, and once their final image is used and is printed, they will see the image on the paper in CMYK colour which gives the image an almost total different look. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop can convert files into RGB/CMYK however you see fit. To give your clients and yourself a good idea of what your images will look like in different colour modes, you should make good practice in creating different swatches to provide yourself and your clients with a good idea of what everything looks like. Printers also give you the choice of creating a proof print, which is an example of a printed piece before the print is actually done which will be in the CMYK colour mode.

Image Resolution
Image resolution is basically the total amount of pixels in an image or the width and height of an image as well as the amount of pixels in the image. Every computer screen has a set resolution that it can use, usually depending on the size of the screen generally. If you have a 17" monitor, you are most likely to have the monitor set to 800x600 pixels etc. Resolutions can be changed but normally these are the optimum settings for the screen size. If a monitor is set to 1024x768 and you open up an image that is 640x480, it will not fill up your screen, but if you open up a image that is 2048x1536 you will either find that you will have to scroll to the right and also down, or the image will be decreased in size to at least fit your screen. A computer monitor has a limited amount of ppi (pixels per inch) so if you are going to display an image just on a monitor you should drop the quality to 72 ppi to save file space. If you are going to put an image on a webpage or email, then you should first adjust the image to the correct size so the image is just the right size  for what you want, and if needed compress the image to save space.

Image quality can be manipulated and compressed. certain file types such as BMP or TIF files don't compress the image, so they keep their quality. File types such as JPG reduce the file size, but also reducing the quality depending on the amount of compression you want before saving the image. JPG compression analyses images in blocks of 8x8 pixels in size and reduces the detail within each block. At higher compression rations the pattern becomes more visible and there may be a large loss of detail, this also happens when you try to make the JPG image larger than its default size, you start to see lots of blocks as the compression of the image has decreased the quality depending on how much detail is in the image, for example if there is just a picture of a blue to white gradient, the image will have to be compressed a considerable amount more than, say, a picture of a car which will lose detail in very low amount of compression and start to look increasingly pixelated.

Metadata
Metadata is data providing information about one or more aspects of data such as:

1. Means of data
2. Purpose of data
3. Time and date of creation
4. Creator of data
5. Location of data (on a network)
6. Standards
7. Titles of files such as music

metadata contains data for the size, colour depth, resolution, date of images along with other data also. A text documents metadata contains information about how long the document is, the author, date of document, and a short summary of the document. Metadata is used in photographs for digital photo files to identify who owns it and also the copyright information and contact information, what camera created the file and also the exposure information and descriptive information such as keywords about the photo, making the file searchable on the computer and/or the internet. Metadata can also be used in videos for information about contents like transcripts of conversations and descriptions of scenes. Web pages also use metadata but a different form of data called meta tags. these tags are descriptions of the pages content. most search engines use this data when adding pages to their search index. To create metadata you can manually create it or it can be automatically be done for you.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept which is used all around the world to give the creators of their own work the exclusive rights to claim all credit for their work so that no one can legally recreate their work legally without the original creator's permission. To fully secure your work, you should register whatever you want copyrighted so that you have solid legal evidence on whoever has allegedly stole some of your copyrighted work. Copyright also applies to photography. Generally, whoever has took a picture has the copyrighting rights, but if the photographer works for a company that has specifically wanted the employee to take those pictures, the company owns all rights to that picture. This applies to anything else that is done under a companies name, as they have told the employee to take that picture. 
If you have a image that you have copyrighted, you should mark it with copyright to tell them that they cannot use the image without permission by you, and you should also insert your e-mail, or any contact details and who you are, as there are many problems with people who have found a copyrighted image, but cannot get hold of the owner to see if they can get permission to use the image.
If you want to use someone elses work that you have seen and like, you should contact the owner if there is any way of contacting them, such as a mark on the image that has their contact details on it, if you cannot find any contact details, you cannot use the image as if you do, you will be breaking the law. If you do get through to the owner you must be prepared to pay a fee as there are very few people who would want to let their work go for free and you must also remember that the owner is not legally obliged to let you use their work so you should also be prepared for them to tell you that you cannot use it.

Unit 25: Produce Copy for Interactive Media

This unit covers the use of text editors. These are programs that are used to edit plain .txt files. The text editors nowadays a provided with every operating system (such as Notepad for Windows), and can be used to create ebsites with coding such as HTML and CSS in the Creative Digital Media industry.
.txt files are very different to word processor files such as Microsoft Word as with text editors, for example:

• Plain text files are represented and edited by showing all characters as they are in the file, this makes text files increasingly useful for programming for websites and configuration. All you can do on a notepad in terms of functions are things like cut, copy and paste and undo/redo. Text files also used to be used for detailed instructions and user guides, but are alot less popular now as word processor files have taken over and also the world wide web has become a big part of tuition nowadays with YouTube and Google etc
• Documents that have been created by a word processor such as Microsoft Word normally contain application specific characters that enable different functions such as bold,italic,fonts, columns,tables and the like. These functions are now a default part of a word processor, which gives them a certain edge over text files if you just want to create a document that is not needed for coding, such as HTML/CSS etc. Word processor programs can usually edit a plain text file and save it back in the text file format. However, one must take care to tell the program that this is what is wanted. Specifying the save format is especially important in cases such as source code, HTML, and configuration and control files. If left to the program's default, the file will contain those "special characters" unique to the word processor's file format, and will not be handled correctly by the utility the files were intended for. 

What word processors can not do for you is properly proof read your work. The computer can correct spelling mistakes and punctuation errors etc, but sometimes the spelling could be in American format, such as if you put in "aluminium" the computer could 'correct' it by putting it into the proper american spelling which is "aluminum" missing out the 'I'. This is something that only you can correct by proof-reading your work, scanning through and if you need to, reading out loud to make sure certain sentences or paragraphs sound correct. If you rely on the computer to handle all of your mistakes, you would end up with a document that would not look particularly polished and professional, so in order to make the document give a professional look, you are required to manually proof read your work as if a client seen a document that was poorly written with spelling and punctuation errors, they would easily be put off by you and could turn to another person and could potentially give you a bad review which is definitely not what you would want as it damages your reputation that you will have to get back at some point and could damage your business.

The next part of this unit concerns Media Ethics, which is a part of applied ethics which deals with certain standards of media concerning TV/film/theatre (the 'entertainment industry'), print media and the world wide web. First of all i will talk about the ethics of Journalism. Journalism has one of the most defined branches of media ethics, mainly because it is the most frequently taught in schools of journalism.
There are three topics of journalism ethics. These are:

• News Manipulation
• Truth
• Conflict

1. News manipulation works both ways as News can manipulate and be manipulated. Many people try to manipulate the news media, examples of these are governments. Governments are allowed censorship (they control what the news can talk about) so that nothing can be said that would damage peoples privacy, or a countries reputation (such as propaganda).
2. Truth covers four different qualities, which are public interest, privacy, fantasy and taste.
   
   Public interest concerns the news which the public are interested in, but there is a limit to what can be published, as top secret government information cannot be shown to the public.
   
   Privacy covers the details of public figures which is a large part of the media. Publication is not justified simply because the information is true.
   
   Fantasy covers entertainment, which is a goal of certain parts of the media's content. This draws in audiences by mixing truth with fantasy.
   
   Taste covers certain debateable topics such as war and disasters, which are situations that may not be of everyone's taste and desire. There needs to be a balance of how far you can go before you start to intrude on the audience's feelings and sensitivities to report the truth.
3. Conflict covers the law, certain journalistic ethics may conflict with the law concerning confidential news sources (such as witnesses) who might want to remain anonymous. There is also a question on how far you can go before you go too far just to get a news story such as trespassing, stealing etc

Unit 24 Pt. 1 - Accounts sheet

i have been tasked with creating an excel document that acts as my accounts sheet that will track all of my expenses while i have been doing a certain project. This sheet helps me maintain a decent idea of how much i have spent during a project with a client so i have a concrete idea of how much the reward will give me in gross profit.

unit 07 - Creative Industry Awareness

The Creative Industries sector is comprised of 12 different sub-sectors, which are:

• Advertising
• Architecture
• Arts and antique markets
• Crafts
• Design
• Designer Fashion
• Film, video and photography
• Software, computer games and electronic publishing
• Music and the visual and performing arts
• Publishing
• Television
• Radio

The bigger companies today that once relied on just one main focus are now branching out and creating many many more divisions in their company. The biggest example of cross-industry ownership would be Virgin, that company started out as just a small record shop and now has multiple different divisions excluding music, such as:

• Mobile
• Trains
• Airlines
• Broadband
• Phone Service
• Television
• Banking

Industries within the Creative Media Sector would not be able to work without working with other industries, for things like creating advertising for the Television/Ads on the high street, website creation, Publishing Brochures/Leaflets/Business Cards to help the other industries apply more to their audience and give the audience more access to the different products that the industries deal with. So if a small company that sells bicycles wants to get their products out there and into the public eye more, they could hire a website designer that creates and maintains their website. They could also hire a graphic designer that would maybe create a better logo, create brochures/leaflets/business cards which will get their business out there.


There are 4 stages in a Creative Media project life cycle, which are:

• Initiation: In this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the team members based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in the initiation stage are Project Charter,Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview), Business Case Justification, and Milestones Reviews.
• Planning: The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.
• Execution and controlling: The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of Risk Analysis and Score Cards, in addition to Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.
• Closure: In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client, Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase.

There are many techniques and activities to get you going if you are either stuck or you just cant think of any more ideas or are just not happy with what you have created. For example if you were thinking of creating a logo design and you were stuck, here are a list of different things you can do to give you ideas:

• Brainstorm with Mindmaps: This is the classic way of brainstorming. You start with a word then create a spider like diagram with associated words, these words can be as loosely or closely associated as you want to the original word. You can create mind maps with paper and pencil or use mind mapping software.
• Brainstorm with Doodles: Instead of sticking to the classic text brainstorm mind maps the addition of doodled images can really help generate ideas. You start to see visual similarities and associations with the look of things as well as their written meanings.
• Visual Metaphor: Moving on from the pictorial mindmap you may also start to think of visual metaphors. Is the concept that you are trying to get over that the product is as light as a balloon, as strong as an elephant etc.
• Play-on-words: A website that I find really useful especially for advert concepts is rhymezone.com. You simply type in a word and decide the type of words you want to get back you can choose from many things including rhymes, synonyms and related words, all things which can help springboard new ideas. A great little feature I like to is the “match these letters” feature. I used this a while ago when I was creating brochure concepts to promote 16 cities in the UK. I thought 16 looked very much like ib and so put in to “match these letters”. From this I got the word vibrant which I used for one of the headings in this form V16rant Cities.
• Moodboards: Moodboards are a great way to get your creative thoughts flowing. You can create moodboards either with a large sheet of paper that you stick bits of graphics on that relate to your theme or have the “feel” you are looking for. Alternatively you can do this electronically.
• Random Words: Using Random Words to boost creativity is a creative technique that is very useful. In essence you take a random word and introduce it to whatever subject you are brainstorming about, however random it may be. Sometimes the most outlying names are the best that catch the audiences attention. This technique would come in most useful for a graphic designer for projects such as advertising or when more out of the box thinking is required. The idea of the random word is to stimulate ideas you may never have thought about before. Say for example you were creating an advert for some new form of chocolate you might pick a random word ie. car, you then need to think how the car could apply to chocolate – a chocolate car, a chocolate that doesn’t melt so keeps your car clean, a chocolate bar on wheels, a chocolate bar which comes with a mini car journey game on the inside of the wrapper etc.
• Rephrase the question: Rephrasing a question is a creative technique I heard of recently whereby you rewrite the question you are asking of your self as a designer. So instead of "How can I create an advert for a new chocolate bar" ,you instead rephrase this "How can I make this chocolate appeal to men/women/children?What makes this chocolate different?How can I increase the sales of this new chocolate?Why would someone want to buy this chocolate?"
• The ideas is that you take away the rigidity and limitations (ie create an advert) and open your mind to other possible solutions you may not have explored. Instead of an advert you might and up thinking of a teaser campaign or some other sort of promotion which would be more effective. Of course this is not so great if your client insists on an advert but then you probably just have to re-work some of your ideas a bit.
• Forget Colour: If I am working on something like a logo quite often I will work only in black and white, this frees me up to think about shapes and how things work together without worrying about colours. This can work for page layouts too. Start by mapping out your basic layout form (after preliminary sketches) n black and white on computer before adding in colour later.
• Mirror a Shape: If you are producing a layout based design for a company look to see if there is an element of the shape of the logo that you can echo. If for example the logo has an angular icon can you use that same angle to cut up your page in some way or to make an usual picture box shape to house your images.
• Do an Image Search on Google: Decide on several keywords which relate to your topic then search for them using google images this should throw up ideas you may not have thought of. Collate useful images from google using iphoto or similar to use as reference.
• Look at What Else Your Target Market Might Buy: Think of your target market, think about what products they like and might buy, look at the designs of those products. 
• Restrict your Design: How could you only use typography to get the message across? How could you use mainly photography to get the message across? How could you use mainly diagrams or symbols to get the message across?
• Also another idea is to try concentrating just on an element of your design. Try for example restricting yourself to just creating great looking headings (sketching first). This immediately takes the pressure off yourself. Once you have a strong heading see how you can apply elements of that to the rest of your page – is it smooth, rough, spikey, rounded, modern etc.
• Keep Scrapbooks and Sketchbooks: Being creative is always difficult when the pressure is on, so keep a sketchbook and scrapbook to hand. Use the scrapbook to collect interesting design material together. Use a sketchbook to keep your design ideas and thoughts in one place.
• Other ways to help Creativity: Don’t forget how much it can help to talk through a project with a friend to help springboard ideas. If you are really stuck, move onto something else allowing your mind to think about the creative project in the background. It is amazing how the best ideas often happen when you don’t realise you are thinking about your design project – in the car, in bed, walking the dog etc.

All businesses need aims and objectives to succeed. Without these aims the business would not be able to focus on certain targets and will not be able to compete with other businesses who are considerably more organised than them. For example, an advertising company would have aims and objectives like:

• Reputational aims: The company would want to ensure they have a good reputation among the general public. This is both an aim and an objective. Companies can enhance their business reputations by sponsoring local youth organizations or charities and by maintaining excellent customer service. Reputational aims and objectives also include advertising and publicizing the company, especially new or smaller businesses.
• Advertising their own business: Advertising is a more exact way of demonstrating a business's reputation to its target audiences. An aim might be to get the company name spread to a certain age bracket that the company hasn't targeted before. An objective might be running six television ad campaigns during that age bracket's most popular TV shows. Being an advertising firm themselves, they would want to make their own adverts the very best they can be to promote business potential with clients.
• Profit: The ultimate goal for most businesses is profit. Without financial gain, a company cannot stay in business. During an aims and objectives meeting, a certain percentage increase in the company's profits may be discussed. Any financial gain is discussed, and ways to increase it brainstormed. The desired percentage increase decided on is the company's aim, and the ways it plans to increase profits are the objectives. Being an advertising firm, they would want to get their business out there in the public eye and use as many advertising techniques that they know to promote their business and get the most profit out of what they do.
• Future: Future aims and objectives are similar in purpose to a one-year or five-year plan. Company officials will discuss the long-range aims and objectives they want for the business, and what direction they see the business heading. They will determine aims for each of the other types of general aims, such as advertising and profit, and will draft out a rough plan to achieve them. These future aims will then be analyzed and steps outlined to meet objectives. The reputational aims will have a lot to do with the future plans and the profit aims, as reputation can very commonly make or break a business.

In a good team, there are generally 4 types of people, these are:

• Creators
• Leaders
• Implementers
• Completers

These are all what is needed for a cohesive team that works. I will now go through the details of each category of people.

Within the Creators, there are 2 types of people, they are:

The Plant: The Plant is the team's source of original ideas, suggestions and proposals: the ideas person. The Plant tends to be the most imaginative as well as the most intelligent member of the team, and the most likely to start searching for a completely new approach to a problem if the team starts getting bogged down, or to bring a new insight to a line of action already agreed.
Positive qualities: genius, imagination ,intellect, knowledge
Negative qualities: up in the clouds, inclined to disregard practical details or protocol

Resource Investigator: The Resource Investigator (RI) is probably the most immediately likeable member of the team. Relaxed, sociable and gregarious, and easy to interest and enthuse. RI's responses tend to be positive and enthusiastic, though they can dismiss things as quickly as they take them up. The most popular;  the diplomat; the 'Fix-It'; extroverted; enthusiastic; curious. The RI's. ability to stimulate ideas and encourage innovation can lead people to mistake them for an ideas person, but the RI does not have all of the qualities that distinguishes the Plant. They are, however, quick to see the good ideas when they come across them.
Positive qualities: a capacity for contacting people and exploring anything new; an ability to respond to challenge
Negative qualities: liable to lose interest once the fascination has passed

Within the Leaders, there are 2 people, they are:

Co-ordinator: The Co-ordinator is one of the best suited to lead the team even though that may not be their 'formal' role. The Coordinator is the one who presides over the team and co-ordinates its efforts to meet external goals and targets. They are the social leader; calm; self-confident; controlled.
Positive qualities: a capacity for treating and welcoming all potential contributors on their merits and without prejudice; a strong sense of objectives
Negative qualities: no more than ordinary in terms of intellect or creative ability

Shaper: The Shaper is full of nervous energy: outgoing and emotional, impulsive and impatient, sometimes edgy and easily frustrated. Quick to challenge, and quick to respond to a challenge the Shaper is the task leader of the team. The principal function of the Shaper is to give a shape to the application of the team's efforts, always looking for a pattern in discussions, and trying to unite ideas, objectives and practical considerations into a single feasible project, which the Shaper seeks to push forward urgently to decision and action.
Positive qualities: drive and a readiness to challenge inertia, ineffectiveness, complacency or self-deception
Negative qualities: proneness to provocation, irritation and impatience most prone to paranoia, quick to sense a fight and the first to feel that there is a conspiracy afoot and he is the object or the victim of it.

Within the Implementors, there are 2 types of people, they are:

Team Builder: The Team Builder is the most sensitive of the team; the most aware of individuals' needs and worries, and the one who perceives most clearly the emotional undercurrents within the group. If you want to know the mood of the team ask the Team Builder. Supportive; uncompetitive; mediator; socially oriented; rather mild; sensitive
Positive qualities: an ability to respond to people and to situations and to promote team spirit
Negative qualities: Indecisiveness at moments of crisis

Team Implementer: The Implementer is the practical organiser; the one who turns decisions and strategies into defined and manageable tasks that people can actually get on with. If anyone does not know what on earth has been decided and what they are supposed to be doing they will go to the Team Implementer first to find out. A practical organiser; conservative; dutiful; predictable. Research has shown that a high proportion of Team Implementers end up in leading roles in industry - they do the tasks others find too uninteresting but are necessary for progress and survival!
Positive qualities: organising ability, practical common sense, hard-working, self-disciplined
Negative qualities: lack of flexibility, unresponsive to unproved ideas

Within the Completers, there are 2 types of people, they are:

Monitor Evaluator: In a balanced team it is only the Plant and the Monitor-Evaluator who need a high IQ, but by contrast with the Plant, the Monitor-Evaluator is a bit of a cold fish. By temperament serious and not very exciting. The ME's contribution lies in measured and dispassionate analysis rather than creative ideas. Analytically rather than creatively intelligent; sober; unemotional; prudent
Positive qualities: judgement, discretion, hard-heartedness
Negative qualities: lacks inspiration or the ability to motivate others

Completer Finisher: The Completer Finisher worries about what might go wrong and is never at ease until they have personally checked every detail and made sure that everything has been done and nothing has been overlooked. Completer Finishers are not common in business and when you find one , treasure them! Checks details; worries about deadlines; chivvies; painstaking; orderly; conscientious; anxious.
Positive qualities: a capacity for follow through, perfectionism
Negative qualities: a tendency to worry about small things, a reluctance to "let go"

Unit 6 - Ensure Your Own Actions Reduce Risks to Health & Safety

One of the main hazards in my workplace would be loose cables and expose wiring as i am constantly around computers. I could easily trip over them if i am not careful. One way I could prevent tripping up/getting hurt on the cables is to properly sort out the cables by either tying them up or get cable guards. The second most dangerous hazard would be eye strain as your eyes can start aching after a prolonged amount of time in front of a screen. To stop this from happening i would either take a break from the computer if i felt my eyes were hurting, or turn the brightness down on the screen.




My responsibility is to be careful in the workplace by looking around for hazards such as any loose cables or exposed wiring and if necessary, i should tell others about the potential hazard.

The procedure i would take for things outside of my responsibility would be to report to the manager/supervisor or whoever you have been told to go to for these problems and inform them and ask them to deal with the problem, for example, if the air conditioning broke in one of the rooms i would notify my supervisor/manager and see how it pans out from there.

One example of workplace instructions is reporting. For example if you see certain hazards or have a problem, you should report it to your supervisor/manager.


An unsafe practice in the workplace would include throwing objects such as stationary/ batteries/ keyboard/mouse. Doing this can result in major injuries to you and your workmates and could damage equipment such as the computers or could also smash windows etc which would cause a lot to replace/repair.




The most dangerous practice would be throwing objects as it could lead to major injuries or could lead to an expensive reparation charge to the building or replacement of equipment which is really not needed and can easily be avoided.




To take action to address hazards in accordance with the workplace in terms of the wire issues, i would talk to my supervisor/manager and ask them to buy cable ties/guards to clean up the wires so no one trips up. If there was a problem with a machine, such as the cable used to power the machine was exposed, i would first turn the machine off and take the cable out of the machine then tell the supervisor/manager about the cable and ask for a replacement , as it is against the health and safety act to use a dodgy computer but doesn't cover things like throwing objects as it is your responsibility to not do that, it is when you cause damage that you start to go against the health and safety act which might lead to your employer being prosecuted and you could also get fired from a small thing that you do which you might later regret. If there is an item like a carrier bag blocking up an aisle or a certain item that is not in the possession of the company it is not the companies responsibility to protect that product so you would not be able to blame them for any certain damage caused as it was your responsibility to look after.




I have created and sent an e-mail to Paul Chambers asking to sort out a potential safety hazard on the floors of one of the rooms i work in, as there are exposed wires that could be dangerous if someone trips on them or messes with them. Here it is:









There are varying different levels of safety that need to be taken in to consideration as every different workplace is different, for example, if you were in the creative digital media you would have less hazards to worry about than if you were to work in a warehouse where there would be a lot more health and safety procedures to take into consideration such as taking care when you lift objects, how to lift the objects properly, wear a hard hat if necessary, put the safety on machines when you are finished with them etc.

Unit 5- Contribute to Good Working Relationships

Communication is essential to success in the workplace. if you communicate well with each other you'll raise morale, promote creativity and increase productivity. 


To increase communication levels with your workmates, you have to: 

• Take into consideration the personality, attitude and ability of the people you are talking to and when they talk to you they should take into consideration the same qualities. 
• Speak clearly and in a moderate pace so that you are easily understood, and if there is any background noise in the room you also need to take the right action such as raising your voice accordingly so that everyone hears you, or trying to prevent the disruption if it is possible.  
• Try and think of ways to continue the discussion instead of replying with a simple yes or no, give reasons on why you agree or disagree as that promotes creativity and productivity as everyone has their own input. 
• Do not promote bad behaviour and try not to be the target of negative behaviour, as you can influence other peoples actions even if you don't know that you are.
• Combine strength with sensitivity. meaning you have to provide a balance as being too aggressive or demanding has more or less the same effect as being passive in the long term, it becomes ineffective and you lose respect of everyone. There has to be a balance.
• Maintain Eye contact with people so that they get your attention.
• Brief effectively, by encouraging questions for clarification and finding different ways to explain things.
• Encourage others to reach agreement.
• Identify any potential or actual difficulties or problems.
• Discuss options for responding to problems and difficulties with relevant people when appropriate.
• Encourage staff to look at and evaluate their own and others' work, so that they provide praise and constructive feedback and respond positively to feedback from others.
• Encourage staff to make positive contributions to meetings.
• Establish and promote constructive relationships with others.
• Take the lead in resolving any potential and actual difficulties and problems with colleagues, clients or other external agents.
• Negotiate and liaise effectively in ways that follow any identified requirements and constraints.
• Provide feedback, advice and support to motivate staff.

Unit 04 – Professional Behaviour in the Creative Media Sector

Cultures overall are totally different everywhere you go. People in the middle east will do things totally different to people in UK, they will be more religious compared to people in UK, there will be limitations to what they can do, as they follow certain guidelines given to them by their religious views. UK gives people a lot more freedom. For example, if there was someone working in the creative media sector in the middle east, there will be certain limitations of what they are allowed to portray, like they have to be careful with creating anything disrespectful to what they believe in, as they could be punished. In UK however these rules aren't as strict.

Challenging behaviour in the workplace is something that someone does which can hurt or humiliate the company or employees or both in some cases from not following the ERR (Employment Rights and Responsibilities) These are the rules that apply to both the employer and the employee.

If there was a fire in the building you would have to leave in an orderly manner and assemble at the designated assembly point. If one of the computers wasn't working you would need to inform the boss of the company or your supervisor. You need to make sure that all wires and tidy and out of the way so that people can't trip up over them.

The employer is who hires the employees. Both jobs can be stressful but I personally think that an employers job is harder than the employees. This is because the employer must make sure everything is in working order, that the employees are getting paid on time and they must be organised with their paper work which can be very stressful where as an employee does the work the employer gives them.

Unit 03 – Awareness of Converging Digital Technology within the Creative Media Sector

Digital Technology is a colossal part of the creative media sector. This is because we have became more and more reliant on computers and other devices such as printers, telephones/mobile phones etc. The internet and computers have created so many jobs that if it wasnt for those devices, could never exist. Such as web designers, computer/console game designers and the like. Computers have became such a big part of everyones lives simply because it has speeded up the workplaces, made everything much easier to handle and organise, and frees up time for other things that previously might have taken a much much longer duration.

Copyright plays a huge role in the creative sector as if you have a certain design that you have created yourself and you specifically dont want anyone to copy/recreate what you have done, you can stop them by copyrighting it under your name and/or company. The only way they could copy or recreate it legally is if you gave them the privileges to do so. If they did so illegally you can take the person to court and sew. Also with copyright, file sharing is legal if the files you are sharing are not copyrighted files such as songs/movies/tv series etc.

Converging technology is means to transfer different formats/using visual and audio at the same time . Converging technology has made a huge impact to everyone, including the workplace. Web designers, for example, have a much easier job as they can now put both visual and audible formats on their websites. What this does is creates another aspect of the website to get information across, and to advertise also on their websites if necessary. It also helps certain people if you say wanted a tutorial on something, some people are auditory learners, some are visual. This creates a much easier way of teaching people in the workplace etc as they will learn much more efficiently.

The audiences will get less and less surprised as technology evolves, as they get higher expectations. This will then lead to creating a healthy competition to expand the creative media as there is a certain expectation of better quality each time something new has been created.

The multi - platformed approach that businesses have been taking branches out to other audiences, as it doesnt just focus on a small base of people, it applies to literally every one. for instance Orange have started to use Microsoft Windows in their phones, that has now branched out windows, which was only really for computers previously.

Converging technology can easily be exploited because you could use it for evidence in a murder trial. e.g. a video with no audio is nothing compared to a video with matching audio giving harder evidence.

YouTube is one of the biggest websites for videos and uses converging technology in most of their videos. It can be accessed from things such as computers, Macs and consoles. It is widely used all around the world due to its ease to find copyrighted music and clips from a movie and also the option to upload your own content for the world to see for free. You can also make a living out of making YouTube videos as you get paid for creating the videos from how many views you get.

Unit 02 - Communicating and Presenting Ideas in the Creative Media Sector

1. There are many different ways in which you can communicate, such as:

• Telephone - good to use when you want to talk to someone for a small period of time, as it can get expensive if you talk for longer periods of time. Better than e-mail in the sense that you are talking to the person directly.
• E-mail - totally free to use, but can be very inefficient as the person you have e-mailed may take a long time to reply back, and you cannot get a proper feeling of a persons personality and emotions through an e-mail sometimes as you are not talking to them directly.
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - These are programs such as Skype, these programs are very useful in the way of saving money as it is free to call your contacts so you can talk to them for however long you wish. Plus, if you have a webcam you can basically have a long distance meeting over Skype. This is very useful for businesses as it no longer requires people to travel long distances just to have a meeting, they can now do it over Skype and have the exact same outcome. 
• Memos - These are very good as you can send them to numerous amounts of people  which is very good if you want to send small messages to a large amount of people without individually going to them and telling them which saves a lot of time for other things.

2. In my opinion, the best way to communicate with someone and get your ideas through with the best effect is to talk to them in person as you get to know them better and can potentially get a better outcome from speaking to them in person. 

The second best way to communicate with someone is using programs such as Skype as they are more or less exactly the same as talking to someone in person because if you have a webcam and a microphone, you can more or less talk to them like you would face to face because all of the different aspects are there, you can still see their reactions, they can't perfect anything as they have to reply on the spot to what you say, and you get to see their personalities better.

The third best way would then be by telephone or just by VoIP because you can hear their voice, which is much better than just getting a letter/memo or e-mail

The fourth best would be letter/memo/e-mail as you cannot get a full idea of what the person is like and it can potentially take a long time for them to reply to what you have sent them or they might not reply at all.

3. To give constructive feedback you have to be honest to the person while still giving them a certain amount of respect and giving them ideas on how you think they could better the flaws that you have pointed out and giving them reasons on exactly why you thought what you pointed out was flawed/bad. This is required as if you asked them for constructive feedback, you would want the exact same qualities back.

4. To convey specialist ideas to others who are not into that field, i would make a presentation that would be simplified and descriptive which would be appropriate for the audience that i was given judging by their experience in the topic i am presenting.