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.