Georgi's Blog

For my next meetin with Bate Brand I researched some of the features that sites identical to Signature Printing incorporate. Subsequently, I created a PSD mockup that included a carousel slideshow, fixed menu at the top of the page and parallax scrolling I presented the mockup to Elliott and justified my choice for the sections and dynamic functionality (where available). He seemed pleased with it and said him and Mark would go through it more extensively. Also, Elliott gave me access to Bate Brand’s Squarespace account so I could explore it a bit more and attempt adding content blocks, check the available templates and see how the mock I had created can be best represented with a Squarespace template. I decided to use the Bedford template as a start. I had no difficulties placing content blocks or rearranging them. However, after analyzing the settings options and doing additional research online, I found out that the template does not support parallax scrolling o...

My first meeting with Bate Brand was in their office in Ryde (Isle of Wight) . I presented my portfolio and explained to the team what I aim to achieve for the company on a voluntary basis. Mr. Bates gave me a description of what Bate Brand deals with and introduced me to a service called “Signature Printing” which provides print consultancy and advice to interested clients. I was shown the existing website and was offered to work on creating a modernised version of it. I accepted the offer and got to know the other members of the team as well – Elliott (Graphic Designer) and Rachael (Sales and Marketing).  For most of my meetings with Bate Brand I got to work more with Elliott who showed me the principles of Squarespace – a content management system for building and publishing websites. It did not take me too long to get used to it as I had worked with similar online builder before. I was also given a task by Elliott which aimed to include HTML code into a Squarespace ...

Acquiring work experience before graduating and getting a feel of what working with professionals feels like are objectives I consider as highly important. This led me to applying on a voluntary basis for several companies on Isle of Wight as a Web Design intern, hoping to produce some original work and make contacts that would help me if I decided to take a placement year. In October 2016 I approached several companies by email and phone. I attached my best pieces of work that match the quality of the projects I had seen in the portfolios of the businesses. A lot of them however were small web design agencies that that could not accommodate a student due to lack of space. Eventually I received a message from a company called Bate Brand that seemed interested in my work. I was invited to their office for an informal chat that would help me and Mark (Bate Brand’s director) see how I can be useful for the company. On October 21st I met Mark and his team in their office in Ryde. ...

Another step that I took which helped me visualise the steps I need to take in order to get a job in the field I have chosen was to look into current web design vacancies. Understanding what skills employers seek from candidates would help me analyse my understanding of how prepared I am at the moment to get a job in web design and what I need to do to increase the chances of getting employed. For the purpose I spent some time researching web design job specifications and came across a wide range of skills that are primarily required for the job. Here is a list of the vacancies which the content below is based on: Creative Web Designer - Atlantic Group (advertised by Indeed)  - optional screenshot Graphic Designer / Web Designer - Hays Specialist (advertised by Reed)  - optional screenshot Junior Web Designer - Become (Advertised by The Guardian Jobs)  - optional screenshot Web Designer - Dixons Carphone (advertised by TotalJobs)  - optional sc...

Choosing the right career and identifying the steps to reach a career goal are undeniably related with one's self-awareness of their interpersonal and professional skills. In order to obtain a better perspective of what the best approach for me is to get my desired career path I completed a SWOT Analysis the outcomes of which gave me a better sense of direction about how to successfully achieve my career ambitions. The SWOT analysis has a simple structure of 4 elements - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The following observations are based on my current work ethic and circumstances which means that some of they may be altered overtime hence the completion of a new SWOT analysis might be needed after a period of a few months. 1. Strengths Good skills with front-end programming languages (HTML, CSS) and some knowledge on back-end languages (Javascript, jQuery, XML) Experienced in using some of Adobe Creative Cloud's main tools (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, M...

Identifying my career goals and personal traits needed for the career path I had chosen was accomplished by online profiling tools provided by Prospects' website. After answering a number of questions focusing on my work ethics, skills (both personal and work related) and ambitions for the future, I was given a list of job roles that would supposedly match my personality based on my answers.The majority of the results belonged to the Digital Media sector. However, only five of them are somewhat relevant to my desired job. Application developing is not my main interest but it can be related to web design which justifies its ranking in the list. The job of a web designer takes the twelfth position in the chart and it is preceded by three sound & video editing related careers. In some instances web design requires manipulating visual footage for browser compatibility purposes (e.g. encoding, changing the resolution) whereas sound editing is rarely necessary. Prospects J...