PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is one of the most widely supported server side scripting language. It is powerful language that is most commonly used to create dynamic websites and it can also be used to create CMS (Content Management Systems).

I have been using this language to manipulate and configure the ZenPhoto CMS, we are using for the National Diploma project within the A11 assignment.

Due to studying programming on my last course I am familiar with some aspects of the language. I can create IF statements, Loops etc… but I feel my current knowledge of the language is very limited. I want to learn how create more dynamic websites and have the ability to understand

From looking at numerous job sites and reading many job adverts I have found that using PHP alongside MySQL databases is a necessary skill to have, within the interactive media industry.

During my time on the SMLP (Self Managed Learning Project) assignment I hope to gain a large amount of knowledge of both these subjects and the relationship between them as many employees are looking for skills in this area.

With the popularity of Wordpress increasingly PHP is also a useful language to know as it can be used to create plugins. It is also used by many other CMS’s and blogging software so I would be able to use and edit these with very little training.

In conclusion I think that learning PHP is essential for any web developer as it is a skill required by a large number of employees. Learning PHP will also provide me with a solid foundation for learning future programming languages such as: Ruby on Rails etc… and how they are related to databases.

Sumer assignment
During the summer I found it quite difficult to maintain the same amount of discipline I normally have with the assignments.

This meant that I was doing work as and when I could. With this method I found a lack of consistency crept in my work.

Due to this I referred the assignment. This wasn’t the best start to the year but I helped me to see what things I needed to improve.

A9 – Outside the box
The CSS(Cascading StyleSheets) assignment with John was a lot different than I expected. This was mainly due to the introduction of the test instead of creating a page for CSS Beauty.

Already having a good knowledge of CSS I felt confident about the assignment but there is something about tests that always make me nervous. Having the practice test really helped me to understand exactly what was required, for the real thing, and what improvements I needed to make.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment and although I attained a Merit I feel that I let myself. I could have gained a Distinction had I annotated more of my sketchbook work and provided more evidence of me practicing with different CSS techniques.

A11 On the Job
The A11 assignment I have enjoyed the most out of all the assignment over the length of the course. I feel the team, blu-box creative, is working really well together.

Having most of the work finished for both of our current projects the pressure is off slightly and it is just a matter of making sure we don’t get complacent and not get the work finished.

With my roles as a developer I have learnt a great deal about CMS’s (Content Management Systems) and how to choose the correct one for the job. With this knowledge I am looking forward to the A13 assignment, Content Is King, after Christmas.

I also found the usability testing really interesting. This gave me a chance to see how other people will be using the websites we have created and possible problems they may encounter.

A12 – Culture Vulture
This is a really interesting assignment. Having to create idea after idea for an unknown product is really mentally draining. Having a selection of pens, crayons, pencils etc... has really helped me.

The presentation for this assignment was something I was hoping to use to give me more confidence for future presentations. With the presentation only lasting 5 minutes I felt disappointed.

I had planned to present for around 7 minutes and I had achieved this in nearly all of my practices. When the actual presentation came around I let nerves get the better of me and I rushed.

This is something I going to work on in future presentations as I won’t be long until it’s time for the final presentation.

Conclusion
Overall the start of the second year has been really good and I have enjoyed all the assignments and I have especially enjoyed working for professional clients.

Soft skills are essential within the world of work. Being able to communicate effectivly, manage your time, working within a team etc… are skills every employer expects.

The role of creative professional is to be a problem solver. Finding solutions to the problem, outlined in the brief, is an essential. Once and idea can been developed it needs to be communicated in a clear and concise manner.

Part of this process is correctly interpreting the brief which the client has given you. Often there is only one opportunity to gain all the required information for the project. Gathering the correct information during this session will make for a better understanding of the problem and inevitably a more suitable solution.

This normally happens in the form of a pitch or presentation. Presenting in a well formed and structured manner, whilst sticking to a set time limit, will ensure that the client gains all the relevant information about your design.

This goes hand-in-hand with time management. Making the most of your time will help ensure that deadlines are met and, where possible, with time to spare for any last minute changes / amendments.

Currently I feel I have all of these skills but not at a level required for full time employment. Over the remaining duration of the course I need to work on these skills in order to be properly prepared for the workplace.

In particular my communication and presentation skills need to be improved. Conveying my ideas in a way that can be understood by someone with little or no technical knowledge is essential.

Although my time management skills have improved a great deal during the course I need to continue to improve them. Doing this will allow me to get more work done in a shorter amount of time which will give me more time to carry out research.

Job post link: http://jobboard.geekup.org/jobs/2008/aug/28/xhtml_genius/

The requirements of the job are: "... a reasonably experienced XHTML/CSS developer to either join the team permanently or work freelance..."

Although the advert is slightly vague in specifying the level of experience they would be looking for from a potential employer I feel that my knowledge of XHTML and CSS will be of a high enough level by the end of the course.

The job mentions "...experience using JavaScript and the JQuery library would be and advantage...". Although this is not necessarily required for the job I feel that improving my basic skills using JavaScript would benefit me in the future and add another string to my bow.

When looking at the website of the LOVE Creative I was a little shocked be greeted by the message "Created in PowerPoint". After my initial reservation I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the work which the company has done and the calibre of the clients which they have worked with.

After researching similar jobs to this I found that PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) was a very popular requirement. During this year of the course I plan to learn as much as I can about PHP as this will help me when I am looking to gain employment.

Another aspect I think will help me, when seeking employment, is learning and using a number of CMS management systems. CMS's are gaining much more popularity as many people want to be able to update there website whenever they want.

I feel that this job would help me to gain a large amount of professional experience. This would help to me to build up a portfolio of work that will enable me to progress to a higher level, whether that would be internally or externally.

During the second of my studies, on the HND Interactive Media course, I hope to improve both my designing and coding skills to a very high standard.

I feel my current knowledge of XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is of a reasonable standard and will provide a good platform for me to build on over the year.

As well XHTML and CSS I want to learn as much as I can about PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and I plan to do this during the SMLP (Self Managed Learning Plan) assignment.

The SMLP will require me to manage my own time and dictate the pace of my learning. Managing my time and using it as effectively as possible is a skill which will benefit a great deal in the future.

Another assignment I am really looking forward to this year is A13 Content Is King as this involves learning about CMS’s (Content Management Systems).

After using a few CMS’s, such as: Textpattern, Drupal, Joomla etc…, over the holiday break I have become really interested in CMS’s and how they can be used to make flexible and easy to manage websites.

As well as improving my technical knowledge on these subjects I also hope to gain some real world experience as this is will be invaluable when seeking employment after the course.

After the course I hope to gain employment with a design agency as a web developer. This will allow me to use my current skills as a web developer and also satisfy my needs for learning and using new web technologies and languages.

In summary I plan to use this year on the course to gain as much experience as possible and also to gain as many skills as possible that will make me more employable.

Before applying for this course I had thought about enrolling on another level 3 course but one specifically in web design so that I could learn and understand the basics of web design. I now feel that this would not have been of benefit to me as I wouldn’t have been properly prepared for the speed and work load of a professional design agency.

Upon starting the course my first impressions was that it was going to be a lot hard work and a big step up from any previous level of education I had studied at. I found this reassuring in the sense that I would be working at a pace and level that was as close to a professional environment as possible.

A2 – That’s The Plan

The first assignment was to create a basic web plan. This helped me to form a solid foundation for the future assignments as it gave me an idea of the level of detail that was required and how useful my sketchbook could be for future assignments.

Creating the web plan introduced me to the DTP (Desktop Publishing Application) software Adobe PageMaker. Designing in such detail was something very new to me as I had previously used Adobe Photoshop to create almost everything and I had never used things like rulers and column guides and I would just line things up by eye.

Working at such a level of detail is something that has gradually become natural to me and now it is not something I have to think about, I just do it. For this assignment building the website was required and at the time this did feel a little strange. After completing my second web plan, for the A3 assignment, and then using it to build a website, in the A5 assignment, I could clearly see that my web plan, for the A2 assignment, did contain anywhere near the level of detail required.

A3 – Back To Basics and A4 – Image Rights

With A3 and A4 assignments the biggest challenge was the task of managing my time over the two assignments at once. My time planning and time management skills from the previous assignment needed a large amount of improvement if I was going to be able cope.

One major thing I did to improve the way I used my self study time was to try and replicate the structure of my self study time over the two full days and focus on a separate assignment on each of the two days. This works quite well for me and I also used the same method for the A5 and A6 assignments.

The most time consuming, and at times frustrating, part of the assignment was the image restoration task. This task never seemed to end, ever time I looked at the image I saw a new part that needed retouching and the difference between my monitor at home and the college monitors, e.g. gamma, brightness, contrast etc…, only made the situation worse.

Putting the frustrations aside this task has greatly improved my ability to use Adobe Photoshop and this has already been, and will continue to be, a huge benefit for me.

A5 – Builder and A6 – Revert To Type

A5 brought with it the chance to finally create a website on the course. Designing and building websites was one of the biggest attractions of course for me and so I really enjoyed the A5 assignment.

Ensuring the website complied with the XTHML (Extensible Hypertext Mark-Up Language) 1.0 Strict standards did cause problems at times but learning to correct the errors has helped me to develop my XHTML and basic CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) knowledge.

Many of the problems I encountered were caused by the fact XHTML Strict is designed to be used with CSS and not tables. This meant that I had to use a certain amount of CSS to satisfy the XHTML standards whilst still maintaining the look of the website. My knowledge of CSS is something I keen to improve upon and one of the units I am really looking forward to next year.

I feel that the A6 assignment was one of the most beneficial of the whole year. The timed tasks introduced me to the speed of working at a professional level, the huge impact that changing a typeface can have on a document and how create and stick to a grid layout.

These are skills I have taken forward into my design work and one of the skills I hope to continually improve on from this assignment is the importance of choosing the right typeface to suit the design. A well executed and effective piece of work could be ruined by simply choosing the wrong type so I think that this skill is essential to develop.

A7 – Wailing Whales

The final project of the 1st year is designed to bring together all the skills of the previous assignments and demonstrate the ability of creating work so that it can be sent to a commercial printer.

Learning the intricacies of the printing process was something really eye-opening. The level of knowledge required to truly understand the print process is something I feel will take years to achieve and many of these lessons will only be learnt through making mistakes.

Part of the assignment was to design a logo and I found this quite challenging. Generating original ideas that will accurately convey the companies work and is instantly recognisable was something I found difficult to achieve. Many of the more famous logos that I looked at were very simple and sometimes they were just a customised version of a typeface. Although looking at other logo ideas did help me to gain inspiration it also frustrated even more due there simplicity.

Once the logo was completed I was able to complete the rest of the tasks. One of these tasks was designing the CD artwork which helped me to have a real life scenario to apply the things I had learnt about the print process to. The other large task of the assignment was to create a style guide and I found this helped me to think of my work in a more professional manner.

Overall A7 has provided the largest learning curve of all the assignments and also helped to refresh all the things I learnt from the previous assignments.

A1 – SketchBlog

The A1 assignment has been ongoing for the entire first year and at time this has meant that sometimes, especially nearing deadlines, I have paid less attention to it than I should have done. During the development stage of the assignments it is very easy to concentrate on the sketchbook as it constantly being used or referred.

Overall I would say that my major downfall with the A1 assignment was the lack of variety in the methods that I used to generate ideas and this is something I am going to work on in the 2nd year.

Thoughts about entire progress of the year

With the 1st year complete I am happy with my progress and performance on the course. I feel that I have learnt a vast amount of both skills and knowledge which I will be improving upon in the 2nd year.

Having obtained a mixture of passes and merits for the 1st year assignments I feel that my target is to ultimately gain a distinction/s in the 2nd year. To achieve this I need to generate more original ideas and develop them to a professional standard. This is something I believe I am capable of and the more work I can do at a professional standard the better prepared I will be for employment when I finish the course.

I don’t have any regrets about the first year of the course but looking back now the one thing I would have done is carry out a lot more research, in self study time, to follow on from the information given during lectures. This would have helped me gain a greater and further understanding of the technical areas of both web and print design.

Thoughts on the 2nd year and the future

I am excited about the units that will be covered in the 2nd year and I am looking forward to working at a more professional level. The 2nd year will inevitably mean much more work and the level of work will be much harder but I see this as a good thing as it will provide a good stepping stone for future employment.

In my first journal entry I said that I would want to work freelance after finishing college to help build up my portfolio before seeking employment. Now I am believe that seeking employment first would provide me a better platform to build on and then after gaining more experience I would have be able to make a more informed decision about where my career path lies.

My targets for next year are:

• Pass all the units first time
• Obtain at least one distinction
• Compile a portfolio of work that contains a wide range of skills and demonstrates my abilities
• To be ready seek employment at the end of the course

With this week being a 'reading week' and the last proper week before submission I have been trying to get as much done as possible to ensure that I was ready for next week's submission.

After making the required changes to my style I then needed to complete the outer and inner covers of my CD artwork. The outer cover was almost complete and only a few amendments were required.

With the outer design completed I moved on the inner part of the CD body. With the large amount of text that is required on the inner cover I knew that the key to the design would be the control of this text and it's placement. With this in mind I have created the design with varies typefaces at different point sizes and this will also be usual as evidence for my sketchbook.

I will be posting all three pieces of the CD artwork once the CD body is complete sometime this week. I have also started to create some initial sketches for the wire advert this week and I will be posting some final versions along with the CD artwork.

My goals for next week are:

• Complete CD artwork inner
• Complete the wire advert
• Create Merit/Distinction sheet
• Prepare everything for seminar group on Monday and final checks