Coding Crash Course!

Me and James have scheduled ourselves the challenge of learning to code this week before we go back to Uni on the 25th. Or at least get a basic understanding of the elements that make up a webpage. We've found a brilliant tutorial online that shows the basics of building responsive websites, ranging from small screen sizes (mobile devices etc.) to larger desktop displays. We've watched about an hour of the video today; so my plan is to sit down at my computer, go back through the process, and make material for my own comprehensive website. Here's a link to the video we're referencing, and below is a photograph of the notes I took:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBK_1WrM294

Templates, Drafts & Planning!

PLAN TO SUCCEED.

PREPARE TO FAIL.

FAIL BETTER TO IMPROVE.

Today I've been in college again with the sole purpose of creating my brief templates so I can hit the ground running on September 25th. I've taken the default provided template, altered slightly to make it more appropriate and applicable to myself and I've formatted in a way that not only reflects my attitudes as a designer, but functions better as an important document.

I've also had the opportunity to talk briefly with our Tutor about the specifics of writing briefs with the intention of a final year based heavily around collaboration and studio based work. It's great that myself and James have cleared up that we need to approach any work we credit to our studio from our own perspectives, and clearly deliver a recognisable, individual portfolio to cover ourselves in case of changes to any plans. As much as we're serious about [ B R A C K E T ], we need to personally develop as designers as well and make sure we're both individually hitting programme criteria if we want to do well this year.

Here's a look at the brief template I've designed:

The Beginning of the End.

Or the end of the beginning, I suppose it depends on which way you look it at. Over the past couple of months, myself and James Horrocks have been discussing at length our plans for when we graduate next year. It has been my intention for a while now to launch my own studio, instead of just joining a studio as a junior designer and ending up being another cog in someone else's machine. My motivation? The studio's I'd otherwise be applying for had to start similarly, they all took the plunge and did something right. I want to the same. We've decided we want to go ahead at making our studio a reality, and launching this year as a test run. Last year as part of our PPP we made the hypothetical plans for:

[ B R A C K E T ]

A collaborative creative studio that boasts a wide range of creative solutions to everyday design needs. Today we've been drawing up time management plans for the next three weeks prior to enrolling into our final year. We've also got basic plans as to which briefs we'll be tackling this year, the nature of them, and any potential clientele & collaborators. Tomorrow we've scheduled creating a template for our briefs, as well as fleshing them out fully with more consideration. Here's a quick look at some content I've been emerging myself in to prepare myself for what to expect:

4 Deadly Mistakes Most Startups Make When They Launch from Ross Simmonds

Top 100 AngelList Startups to Watch in 2014 from Stinson

As well as that, I've personally been continuing with my research for my dissertation concept. I've been into the library and taken out some books that I think will be a great starting point for justifying my field of interest.