Adnan Sabanovic’s Weblog

Today we had a guest speaker come in from a studio called Language. Language are a graphic design company who do various things. They are the ones who created the new I.T.B logo which i thought was the only logo that the college had but apparently it is NOT! They had a different logo before 2006 and it was crap and the creepy thing about it is that neither Dave nor Margaret knew who made the old logo which leaves it as a mystery. Here I’ll compare the two and you can all agree with me that the old one is a load of crap

New Logo

It's cool

Old Logo

its a load of CRAP!!!

See what i mean. Fairplay to DAVE and LANGUAGE he knows what he’s doing and i thank him because i dont have to look at that eyesore of a logo everyday i come into college.

They divided the whole process into stages some of which I don’t remember but here are the ones i do:

Stage 1

• creative design brief
• sit with designers with the brief
• led a workshop of 25-30 people in itb
• it was aimed at a wide audience
• opne, human,uniques,ambitious
• this was a starting point

Stage 2

• language prepared a review of existing materials
• legibility, visibilty very N.B
• Lorenz attractor – 3D system that exhibits chaotic flow that evolves over time in a complex non-repeating pattern

Stage 3

• Finished logo
• showed choices of materials, colours and typefaces

Stage 4

• Created set of identity guidelines to go with the logo
• created a ten year anniversary logo for itb to go alongside the logo
• created linc logo
• created sub brands in itb
• photography guidelines included

That was a mouthfull and so long to type…im gonna take break now…………

Alright here we go again….

Language in simple terms sell creativity. They have been with itb since 2002 and they also did not like the old itb logo(who can blame them..it should be burned and removed from history for all eternity..and it looks like a kite!!)Interestingly enough Language started with two people making and selling t-shirts. They eventually broadened out their ideas and did leaflets and brochures for cliental and other random people. Huh maybe i should start my own t-shirt printing service..who knows i could be a millionaire like that tokidoki guy who according to one of our lecturers has bumfluff on the side of his face..

The thing i remembered from that talk without having to read thorugh my notes is:

• Have fun
• Ideas are integral
• Lack of ideas at the moment
• Fantasticness!

These few points are exactly what is happening at the moment though i am not sure as how fantasticness fits into all of that but there you go! And on that note i leave you with this:

ahh ninjas!!!

This week we had another guest speaker this time it was from Fluid Rock. Ruth McPartlin co-founded Fluid Rock with some other people. Ruth described to us how she started in the digital media industry. She started work with motorola where they had to go through each shipment and do something with tax…i’m not exactly 100% sure what it was but it had something to do with tax….Then in 1998 she started working for a company called dialog where she did work on an intranet project. After a while she took a course in arthouse now called filmhouse. It was a media project managing course. She told us some “valuable” information on doing projects and i quote “Friends aren’t always the best team”. 

She was working with Windmill Lanes when the “dot com bubble burst” and she and a few others set up their own company called….Fluid Rock…..She explained to us that there is a lot of on the job learning in the digital media industry as software programs and shtuff like that are always changing and newer versions of them are released nearly every year…which is a pain in the ass cause people have to by the new versions if they want up to date software…Ruth went on to talk about what you need if you are working or thinking about working in the digital media industry. She told us that you need a bit of luck and you need to realise your strenghts and weaknesses. She then told us that she wanted to be a graphic designer or something to do with the web but that it wasnt her forte and that she decided to stick with the business side of things. She admit that she prefferes to work for someone rather than being the employer as she didn’t have to look after a whole company beacuse well she didnt have her own company.

 Ruth then told us about some of her early projects and how one or two of them were a Fail. She did a project on the Lotto where they had to design a website for the Irish National Lottery. She told us about the Cultural Ireland web project they did and how they failed with the AIB online bank website. Towards the end of her presentation she told us what’s extremely immportant for someones’s career:

• Experience
• Teamwork
• Recognising your strenghts
• Hard Work
• Keeping up to date
• Taking chances
• Niche careers – such as writing content, audio(sound engineer), video, animation gaming and son on and so forth.

MARIA BROWN

                                          INTERVIEW SKILLS LECTURE

Today we had Maria Brown (who is the Career’s Dvelopment Manager here at ITB) as a guest speaker and she talked to us about interview skills and she gave us some advice on how to prepare for an interview. She told us the most frequently asked questions at interviews and gave us the answers! O_O. She also divided the interview into three sections but i remember two of them so thats what i’ll talk aboout! The two sections are Preperation and At the Interview.

Preperation:

• Always research the company
• Company website
• Speak to people who know about the company beforehand
• Contact the Human Resources Department at the company
• Ask for a job description/Specifications
• Note Qualifications and experience required
• Note particular qualities the employre is looking for
• Practice answering questions out loud

(That last i’ve tried and my parents thought i was going insane so only do it if you’re sure no ones around! or dont whatever! Anyway lets continue:

• Work with a friend and ask for feddback
• Take a deep breath before the interview and during( i think…i cant remember that far!)

At the Interview

• Initial impressions are important( you dont wanna come off as a lunatic or a guy who worships the anti-christ so basically lie about yourself)
• When seated be Alert, Receptive and keep a good Posture
• Speak clearly
• Listen closely( which for me is extremely important cause im kinda deaf and i kind of drift off  while listening to other people and thats frowned upon in an interview…believe me! ) 
• Emphasise the positive( remember you’re not a lunatic and the anti-christ doesnt exist)
• Play down the negative( the fact that you’re a maniac or you’re psychotic)

And dont forget even though you might do great someone else might get a call back instead of you simply beacuse they kissed more ass than you…To quote Manus “its a pity i never get any call backs…. seriously! what have i got:  Terrorism on my C.V. under hobbies?  ”

Hey maybe he’s right i mean with this beard i look like a bit of a terrorist!!!!

Trinity Science Gallery Thing

After lunch we went to Trinity to see some science. In Trinity we saw “The Orb” which was pretty cool. It was a saucer with L.E.D light attached to the side of it and it started spinning extremely fast. The led lights would glow and while it was spinning you would see an image of the earth which was AWESOME!! Then we saw an electron generator(at least thats what i think its called) It simulates the signal sent from the brain to other parts of the body and in the generator thingy we see two wires and an electric current flows using the wires. This was the best place out of all three of them and like i have stated before the last two were crap apart from a few exceptions however there was nothing crap in this place EXCEPT the star alignement thingy of the southern lights.

Picture this you’re standing in a box with 25 other people, its roasting, you’re about to die from heatstroke and you’re expecting the lights that are coming in from the holes in the box to be majesticaly epic or at least interesting but its NOT. There was also the kryptonite looking thing in after the stars. It was a mineral that could actually go through stuff and scientists were actually able to collect this mineral and form it into crystal looking things but you couldnt get past then fact that it was basically kryptonite…which would also prove somewhat that superman is real….Then the guide showed us how they were able to make electricity using soil which i will admit is extremely useful seeing as how we’re in a recession and everybody is looking to save a few quid and saving money on electricity is a huge thing but i probably should have paid more attention to how they did which could be the reason it did not work at home *sigh*…Ah well.. The last part they showed us was the DOME which looked like my estranged cousins crack den..not really his is blue….It was pretty good as any light that was shone illuminated everything ten fold which looked supremely and mepically fantacular. This was actually fun to attend and it showed me that digital media is everywhere even though some parts were boring and made me feel like i wanted to go home. My advice to anyone who wants to see this is to go see it its good but stay away from the restaurant as it’s extremely expensive and the apple juice didn’t look natural. Seriously stay away from the restaurant!!!! ughh*shudder*

Other than that the place was great

Hugh Lane Gallery

Today we also went to the Hugh Lane Gallery which contained modern art *sigh*. Some of the paintings there were ridiculous, as in stupid and hugely overpriced. A painting which was a canvas completely covered in pink cost around 15 grand….what the hell my eight year old brother can do that….I dont see the reason why it could possibly cost €15,000 for a pink canvas. However that wasnt the worst thing there. A BLUE( what is it with modern art being one colour) canvas was sold for 1.6million euro. What the hell!!! There’s starving children in africa who would be better off with that kinda money, i mean 1.6million euro for a blue canvas…there’s a perfectly normal everyday english sentence. To paraphrase the security guard that was talking to us that day” You have to be on some epicly awesome acid to like this crap” and he was right. What is this world coming to when people are spending millions for no reason..first it was manchester city trying to spend 120 million on ONE player and now people are spending 15,000 or to make it worse 1.6 million euro on CRAP!

To be fair there were three things in that gallery that were interesting. First of all was a proper painting of a house surrounded by trees and bushes and that sorta thing you know PROPER art. I recommend that if you are going to this gallery you see this painting and the next two things i mention anything else would be a waste of time unless you are an idiot who likes watchin blue and pink canvases and who admires modern “art”.  The second interesting thing was a sculpture of a dog fighting a monkey. Now that is interesting to see and its not that common. If i wanted to see a pink or blue canvas i’d open paint on my pc and use the bucket tool to paint the canvas blue or pink and i’d sit there admiring it for 20 minutes but im not an idiot. The monkey fighting a dog has to be the most interesting and most epically awesome thing i’ve seen in the year of 2009. That can be called modern art but only just as i dont think of it as proper art. The third interesting thing in the gallery was, would you believe it or not, in the bookshop/souvenir place thingy. It was a very “interesting” but mildly(extremely) disturbing book depending on how you look at it. It was a book published by some guy who you know is either in an insane asylum or is downright disturbed but those two things kinda go hand in hand. However it just goes to show that anyone can publish a book and that it doesnt have to be a conventional book where people learn something it can be full of random crap that makes you appreciate the sad boring life you lead. Anything bar those three things in that gallery are CRAP and a waste of time and those three things are the ONLY reasons why i would recommend you go to this gallery.

Today we went to the Bodies exhibition in the Ambassador. We were supposed to meet our lecturers outside the Ambassador at 10:30. The tickets cost €14 each. There was about twenty seven of us there not including the lecturers. The whole exhibition had real bodies on dislpay, some were cut and others were in poses! We took a tour of the place and there was  a lot dead Asian bodies…only asian… We saw the arteries and veins of the human arm and leg and there was a display which showed the arteries and veins of the whole body. There was a display which had a real cancer lung…everything in this place was real….and right beside it was a plastic box full of cigarette packets (ironic isn’t it).There was a body preserved in the position of a tennis player attempting to serve the ball. One of the bodies on display was cut into three parts which was pretty disgusting.

There was also a display in which the body parts were wafer thin and put in a plastic casing and it was pretty disturbing. They had a whole body cut wafer thin and put in display which showed the whole body. There was a body which was preserved in an interesting position. It had a ball in its hand and it was trying to hit while the person at the time streched out fully to hit the ball. This made me feel uneasy probably because i had a meatball sub twenty minutes before the exhibition ( probbaly not a good idea if you’re going to be looking at dead bodies cut up for science for about half an hour)!! I thought some parts of it were interesting as it made me wonder how did they manage to cut up some of the bodies so thin. My guess is industrial saw or something like that. That was about the only thing that was interesting about it! The whole thing was a bit anti-climactic as i was all excited thinking ” Hey we’re gonna be looking at dead bodies, how awesome is that” and as it turns out it was not that awesome.

They did not have a tour guide which could’ve added a bit “interest” about the whole thing, although they did have an audio tour but i was not about to spend an extra four euro on it after i just spent fourteen euro for the ticket! I would not recommend this to anyone I know because it was really boring and as I mentioned before it was extremely anti-climactic and the whole thing was a bit of a let down.

And on that note i leave you with this example of FAIL!! :

EDWARD MELVIN PRESENTATION

 Today we had a guest lecturer from ICAN called Edward Melvin (Brian’s Brother. ICAN is an advertising agency and a communications agency that helps clients make the right decisions online which is obviously useful cause there are a lot of crap websites out there…i dont mean that they just look crap but the interface is extremely abismal…that kind of crap! The services they provide are:

• online strategy
• web design
• advertising campaigns
• search marketing
• email marketing
• online pr
• project and campaign management
• multimedia design

ICAN focuses on two things:

• Engaging People
• Converting

Converting means a sale, a download even a click depending on the project objectives.He then went on to talk about how web projects are run which was extremely helpful as we will have to do a few group projects and this will probably come in handy!….who knows…Anyway he divided the whole process into five “easy” steps.

1. Plan!Plan!Plan!
2. Design
3. Develop
4. Deliver
5. Partner

The most importatnt stage of them all is the planning process cause if you dont plan your project out carefully you’re pretty much F****D!!! “Fail to plan. Plan to Fail!!”

He also told us who works in ICAN and what their roles are. There is one managing director, seven in creative sector, seven in production, five in client services, three in media, two in search marketing and one in accounting. All in all there’s not a lot of people working there thirty at most but they get the job done (and from some of the projects he showed us) they get it done well!! Its a shame they can’t fix haven works…here check it out http//www.havenworks.com. Seriously it will take the impossible to fix that site and you need someone awesome to do it like a web design wizard or JESUS! It won the worst website of 2008 for gods sake….in the great words of Heather Cotten “It defies words”  And on that note i leave you with this: