I've Come to a Big Conclusion!

I have successfully been able to research ways of how I might approach getting work experience or a work placement and conclude that networking is crucial to my success and very important. Through self-promotion and using social media sites to network, I see these as invaluable ways of getting my name and work known by other designers and design agencies.

In light of this, I will be improving my online portfolio by wiping off the cobwebs and updating it regularly with more current work and blog articles, signing up to more designers and agencies via Twitter feeds to get a wider understanding of their thoughts and works and I will also start signing up for newsletters and RSS feeds in order to increase my knowledge of certain works within the wider industry of interactive media.

I have also come to realise that creating a creative CV in an innovative way and sending it to different design agencies and companies would be a unique way in which I could get my foot in the door.

In doing all these steps, I will ultimately develop myself as a multimedia practitioner on an interactive pathway and be developing and expanding my network as a whole to help me in getting work experience or a work placement in the near future.

OK, it sounds very 'essay-like,' (which it is) but over the Christmas holidays I hope to start putting into action these methods highlighted. I've started by re-jigging my blog template and adding various links to my top bar.

Over the next few weeks, I will be giving my online portfolio a new like of paint and trying to design something that can be implemented throughout my other social media links, for example, my blog and Twitter pages.

Essay Research

Essay Term 2 - Creative Practitioner

• In this essay you should state your pathway choice and explain the personal challenges and opportunities afforded to you by choosing to enter that specific multimedia practice identified,
• Do that through discussion of your work produced this academic year,
• You also need to identify three diverse practitioners,
• Discuss why you have chosen these practitioners. Pay particular reference to particular concepts or ideas that form a conceptual focus, social conscience, visual dramatic work. Perhaps their work is thought-provoking, and innovative in its scope, delivery or execution,
• Finally through examining the work of these practitioners, reflect on your own work.

My pathway will be Online Environments.

Below are a list of website that I've found and gone through while trying to research for my essay. Some links are to sites that include examples of web practitioners -

• http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/01/28/how-important-is-web-design/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/14/web-design-trends-for-2009/
• http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/
• http://carrotcreative.com/
• http://24ways.org/2008/recession-tips-for-web-designers
• http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
  
• http://www.spoongraphics.co.uk/

• http://viewcreative.co.uk/
• http://www.llandudnoattractions.com/
• http://mychoicewrexham.co.uk/
• http://www.theatr-nanog.co.uk/

Summary of the links above -

• View Creative Agency link is a graphic and web design company that I like. Three links to sites they've made have a certain style that I like and use,
• SpoonGraphics is another practitioner that I like and he has a good blog (Check it out - http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/)
• Web Trends - Proof that web design trends are always changing due to the developing of coding and what you make of the tools you already have,
• Interesting article within first web link about how important web design is and does it matter at all? - 'The other question is whether Web design matters at all. At the end of the day, a Web site is going to be successful if it offers a product/service that people want. Aidan Henry had a good post recently looking at Craigslist, which features one of the worst designs in the world - yet people love the service.'
• 24ways website - how the current economy situation can effect career choices we make.

That's it for now. More coming soon. To finish a humours image...