OCA Graphic Design: Core Concepts 1

Assignment 1 - Introduce yourself

Jane Braybrook

Jane511794

Supporting Blog

https://jane511794.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-1/

Critical Evaluation

• Having never done any formal graphic design before, I had no under-standing of the process and needed to break each idea down to try to understand it. I struggled with Creative Suite and each I thing I did seemed painfully slow.

• I struggled with the blogging activity and had to restart my learning log several times throughout Unit 1 and when I read back through the log it all seems very disjointed.

• I thought I had the right hardware and software for the course, but I’d never used Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign much before, especial-ly all at the same time. I found my dated laptop was very slow running my old software, plus I stored my files on our server which also slowed down the software, so the creation process was frustratingly slow and liable to crashing.

• My internet was also impossibly slow so as to make blogging and internet research impossible at times. So after completing this assign-ment, I had to totally reorganise myself before the next one, which meant relocation to a different room to make the internet work, up-grading my old windows pc to a new Mac, learning a new operating system and updating CS to the latest version which took nine months and a lot of expense. That said, it certainly was a learning experience!

Grid Magic for Windows

Grid Magic is an art package designed in 2003/4 by myself and my partner Peter, a professional computer programmer.

Grid Magic started when Peter was investigating the potential of ImageMagick, an open source im-age-processing library, for a client. He was trying to break it by inputting daft values but instead of breaking it made abstract patterns on the screen. Our son, James, was watching and loved the ab-stract art, so we decided to build an interface for him to play with ImageMagick.

The problem with designing an interface for James is that he’s disabled, with Cerebral Palsy, learning disabilities and visual impairment. He can’t read, write and has limited understanding of number concepts. But having said all that, he’s been brought up by a couple of dedicated geeks with a networked house and a computer or three in every room and has loads of computer skills.

So by working out what our son could do, we designed an interface to give him control of Image-

Magick. He loved simple colouring-in packages, so we gave him a grid of large squared ‘paper’ like we had used in schools, and some simple colouring in tools. We further added drawing tools and math-ematical operations like symmetry and rotation and an easy workflow between tabbed work areas.He quickly learned to move his grid pattern to the ImageMagick tab, where he could click different buttons and adjust sliders to make abstract art.

Working with our local school, we further developed GM to create a mosaic tab for repeat patterns, to import and export images, to overlay images and to add frames, borders and captions.

We launched the software at the BETT Education Show in 2006. In 2007 Grid Magic won a BETT Award ‘Creative & Construction Tools’.

Jane BraybrookStudent ID: 511794

Assignment 1: Postcard 1/412/6/2013

Go-Robo Programming Kits

Go Robo is a simple programming language for teaching children elementary computer program-ming skills using cheap but fun toy robots. We launched the software at the BETT Education Show in 2007, which with hindsight was bad timing as we unexpectedly won a BETT award for our other software, Grid Magic. The robots got far more publicity and attention than Grid Magic, which was a shame given what followed.

The company manufacturing the robots were very keen on our enterprise, however, their fast paced development cycle and lack of customer support made it difficult for us to reliably supply schools with robotic products. With several new robots launched each year we couldn’t keep up creating the software and packaging during the short product life cycle. Several of the robots (the dog and the girl robot especially) were very popular in schools, but we simply couldn’t fulfil orders as robots were discontinued after only 18 months.

The robot manufacturers gave us the option of putting on our own production run of robots, but

with a minimum order quantity of 10,000 units, no bank would consider advancing funding for this type of venture, (though we did get auditioned for Dragon’s Den!)

However, I loved being involved in the design and development of the software. At each stage we involved children which was great fun and we felt our design process was much better than with GM.

For the first time, I worked with a profes-sional graphic designer, someone who’s been very inspirational for me. Since this time, Russell’s been closely involved in all of our design work, mostly at the later stages finalising graphics after I’ve done my best with them. I still do all the photography, which I enjoy and would like to study in the future.

Jane BraybrookStudent ID: 511794

Assignment 1: Postcard 2/412/6/2013

App Development

Our plan for 2013/14 is to re-develop the original Grid Magic for the iPad, only hopefully it’ll be bet-ter this time around as we know in advance what we’re planning to do. Grid Magic for Windows was a lovely, personal sort of project to be involved in. It evolved over a period of years to have all sorts of cool features, but underneath it’s a bit of a mess. because it wasn’t really planned properly.

So in planning our GM app we’ve gone back to the drawing board and started building from scratch. In 2011 we developed our own library of image-processing filters - I think we have about 80 of them to date. Each filter has been honed to produce effects suitable for GM. Plus filters can be combined to make other filters, so we have a unique library for building image-processing apps.

In 2012 we registered with Apple as developers and invested in the technology to start creating apps. Next, to learn the Software Development Kit (SDK) Peter created two iPhone test apps using the filters.

I think we were both quite surprised by how long it

took to create a couple of simple looking apps. The first one, called ‘Take&Shake’, you take a picture and then shake the phone to create an effect on the image. Keep shaking until you find one you like, then share it. The second is more complex, you drag and drop filters into a stack and apply them simultaneously. All-in-all, from start to finish, it took 4 months, which included a lot of weekends and evenings too.

My job is to design the graphical user interface (GUI) using Illustrator, which is a bit of a daunt-ing prospect, but we can’t afford to pay a GUI de-signer and I know how I want the workflow to oper-ate anyway. And hopefully doing this course, my Illustrator skills and designing skills will improve enough for me to do the app itself (which is mostly icons) and just use Russell for the branding.

Jane BraybrookStudent ID: 511794

Assignment 1: Postcard 3/412/6/2013

Shelford Lodge Farm

In December 2009 we sold our house to repay outstanding business loans and moved into an old rented farmhouse. We feel incredibly lucky to get the property as we would never be able to afford to buy something like this on the open market.

Shelford Lodge Farm is part of the Crown Estate and has been a working farm since the 1650’s, when the first part of the farmhouse was built. The front part of the farm (the Lodge) was added in the 1700’s, and the back extension added in the Victorian era. Originally owned by Lord Carnar-von along with most of Shelford village, the Crown Estate took it over when he lost the family fortune searching for Tutankhamun and they couldn’t pay his death duties.

The farmhouse has been neglected for many years by tenant farmers, and The Crown Estate pay as little as possible for upkeep, preferring to find tenants to do the work in exchange for lower rent. However, it’s a fantastic ‘shabby chic’ project that’s swallowing gallons of Farrow & Ball paint; and masses of eBay furniture.

My favourite part of the farm is the walled garden at the back. When we moved in we were unaware this was part of our garden; it was so overgrown with Buddleia, nettles and bindweed you couldn’t get into it at all. Now into our third summer, we’ve cleared the land, set out a Mondrian-esque veg garden with old beams from a disused barn, and restored an ancient greenhouse into the centre. We’ve built a chicken coop and run, though the chickens only use it at bedtime, preferring the freedom of the farmland in the daytime.

This is the place where I have most of my ideas. It’s a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the wildlife and reflect on things. The top floor is our studio, where hopefully in the future Peter and I will be able to work together developing apps for ourselves and clients.

Jane BraybrookStudent ID: 511794

Assignment 1: Postcard 4/412/6/2013