...and handed in to Patrick tonight.
I have just returned from presenting Patrick with half a rain forest's worth of papers and notes.
My Personal Project 6 is now finito!!!!
Have fun, Patrick!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
More feedback...
The Chairperson of Brighouse Pride has labelled the calendar "a great success" at the most recent meeting.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Outcomes...
What have I learned from this episode?
Well, I have discovered how many balls you can juggle at the same time and still keep them all in the air without dropping any! It was incredibly challenging to undertake and complete this project whilst still giving the time and dedication required to my business and I had moments when I was so busy with loads of other things that I was in danger of unintentionally neglecting something - thankfully, I didn't. My own project management skills were fully utilised throughout this project with, I believe, very satisfactory results.
Also, I have learnt that a project such as this needs someone close to it (eg a Brighouse Pride member) who is prepared to coordinate details and put everything into place before bringing a designer and printer on board. I found it quite a challenge, one that I was prepared to do, indeed had to do, to approach potential advertisers and persuade them to become involved. The process of having to repeatedly chase members for an update on who was advertising and then chasing the relevant company for their details, took valuable time and energy away from the actual design process. I found this to be a detriment and hope that, with greater forward planning, this will not be an issue with a 2010 project.
I have also discovered just how much time and effort is required to complete such a project. Despite the actual design side being relatively straight forward, the cross referencing and organisation needed was a surprise. Whilst the design side caused me no major heartaches, the concentration and attention to detail required to ensure no duplication or errors were made and any of the pages was a good learning curve. My usual design work is concerned with single pages, at most double sided, and this 13 page calendar gave my "housekeeping" abilities a good run out.
I have also discovered just how much time and effort is required to complete such a project. Despite the actual design side being relatively straight forward, the cross referencing and organisation needed was a surprise. Whilst the design side caused me no major heartaches, the concentration and attention to detail required to ensure no duplication or errors were made and any of the pages was a good learning curve. My usual design work is concerned with single pages, at most double sided, and this 13 page calendar gave my "housekeeping" abilities a good run out.
On a business side, I have found a new and local printer that I can use in the future. I was reasonably pleased with the product they produced and would be interested in them quoting on work for me. That is a plus point.
I discovered new levels of tolerance and diplomacy when dealing with client's. I have also learnt that some rival suppliers (printers) will never come up with the goods and will happily promise to do things just to get you of the phone - I suppose I knew that already, but it was annoying to find it out when my back was against the wall. But, on a positive spin, I now know not to use them for my own work. Swings and round-a-bouts, eh!
Would I do it again?
Despite some of the problems and difficulties I encountered, the answer is yes. I actually enjoyed doing something that gives back to my local community and would be prepared, if given more time!, to be involved again. A bigger budget would be appreciated as this would allow us to produce something different to the format we have used this year - this would be a nice idea. A bigger budget, however, is very unlikely! An earlier start on the project is much more likely to happen than more funding!
It was nice, and quite rewarding, to see the delight that people showed when they saw the finished calendars. A few words of congratulations made all the hassles seem worthwhile.
Would I do it again?
Despite some of the problems and difficulties I encountered, the answer is yes. I actually enjoyed doing something that gives back to my local community and would be prepared, if given more time!, to be involved again. A bigger budget would be appreciated as this would allow us to produce something different to the format we have used this year - this would be a nice idea. A bigger budget, however, is very unlikely! An earlier start on the project is much more likely to happen than more funding!
It was nice, and quite rewarding, to see the delight that people showed when they saw the finished calendars. A few words of congratulations made all the hassles seem worthwhile.
Feedback...
The members of the Pride were all very pleased with the calendar and declared it "to be the best we have so far produced". They were especially delighted with the colour scheme and how it complimented the children's pictures.
The members present that evening were all very impressed with the calendar and commented that it was the best one to date. They loved the choice of colours and were very happy with everything. After the similar colours and design of the 2007 and 2008 calendars, they were delighted that my design was, to them, a radical departure from the earlier ones.
The members present that evening were all very impressed with the calendar and commented that it was the best one to date. They loved the choice of colours and were very happy with everything. After the similar colours and design of the 2007 and 2008 calendars, they were delighted that my design was, to them, a radical departure from the earlier ones.
They were also very relieved that these calendars had been delivered on time and were not delayed like the previous years.
I suggested to the members that, if they wanted a calendar for 2010, we begin preparations in the middle of the year with the aim of getting everything finalised and at a print ready stage by the autumn. Also, Sue and I reiterated our view that a modest cover charge be considered.
I suggested to the members that, if they wanted a calendar for 2010, we begin preparations in the middle of the year with the aim of getting everything finalised and at a print ready stage by the autumn. Also, Sue and I reiterated our view that a modest cover charge be considered.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Delivery...
The completed calendars were delivered to Sue on Monday 5th December - the day of the final Brighouse Pride meeting before Christmas. Perfect timing!
Final pages...
It took a few weeks before Gary returned from holiday and this delayed me from completing the artwork. Eventually, Sue and Gary managed to get enough advertisers interested and I was able to complete the final pages and sent them to the printers on November 3rd.
Netherton Cross Printer...
I visited the printer armed with a set of proofs, my laptop and the artwork and all relevant files on a CD-ROM.
This is the stage at which you can suddenly find the printer cannot use your artwork and you have to redo something or, occasionally, start again. Hands on hearts time!
Thankfully, they said that everything was in order and they would begin printing ASAP.
The relief I felt was immense.
Nearly there...
It took a few days for me to draw all the adverts and place them into the relevant spaces; several of the companies had specified that they had to go onto a particular month. I played around with the positioning of them to ensure that each month had a variety of different trades displayed and that the adverts complemented each other.
I then carefully placed the scanned images of the children's pictures into the correct month - they had already been decided upon by Pride members - and added the correct child's name. This in itself was an issue that had not been fully resolved as we were still awaiting a decision on whether we could use the full name of each child or only the first name. Plus, we were still waiting for a definitive list of all the names anyway! The details eventually came through and the full names were allowed by the school.
The cover was designed quite quickly - the only problem was in deciding on a title for the calendar. I chose to call it "Brighouse 2009 - our town through young eyes". Slightly corny, but in the abscence of any firm details from the Pride, I had to use something or the cover would be, at best, anonymous and possible even confusing.
The first 9 months plus cover were now ready to show to Sue. I took a trip to her office armed with a set of prints and my Apple Mac to see her. Sue was delighted with the look of the pages and gave the thumbs up for me to send the artwork to Netherton Cross.
I returned to my studio and prepared the files for print and burnt a CD to take to the printers.
I then carefully placed the scanned images of the children's pictures into the correct month - they had already been decided upon by Pride members - and added the correct child's name. This in itself was an issue that had not been fully resolved as we were still awaiting a decision on whether we could use the full name of each child or only the first name. Plus, we were still waiting for a definitive list of all the names anyway! The details eventually came through and the full names were allowed by the school.
The cover was designed quite quickly - the only problem was in deciding on a title for the calendar. I chose to call it "Brighouse 2009 - our town through young eyes". Slightly corny, but in the abscence of any firm details from the Pride, I had to use something or the cover would be, at best, anonymous and possible even confusing.
The first 9 months plus cover were now ready to show to Sue. I took a trip to her office armed with a set of prints and my Apple Mac to see her. Sue was delighted with the look of the pages and gave the thumbs up for me to send the artwork to Netherton Cross.
I returned to my studio and prepared the files for print and burnt a CD to take to the printers.
Getting somewhere...
I set up the first file for the artwork in InDesign, using an A4 page with 3mm bleed all round - as stipulated by the printers. I then created the boxes required to hold the various components required on each page - images, adverts, log, dates etc. These were then arranged to suit the demands of my client and to make best use of the available area.
Using Illustrator, I redraw the Brighouse Pride logo from a scan I had made of an earlier calendar; this took several hours for me to accurate reproduce it. This was then placed into the correct box in the InDesign document.
The file was then copied and renamed for each month - January through December - with another file made for the cover; this would be the one page that had a different style.
The file was then converted into a PDF and emailed to Sue for her inspection. She replied that it looked great and was exactly what the wanted. I had set the artwork on both a white background and on a yellow background for Sue to choose which she wanted. The yellow background was much better for showcasing the images and complemented the theme of primary school and, therefore, Sue decided to go with this one.
Illustrator was also used for creating the artwork of the advertisers so far confirmed and I set to on these. Some were easier to do than others, with an average of 45 minutes taken on each one. Several adverts from the earlier calendar were obviously put together by the printers as some of them shared similar choices of fonts and the designs were very close. As time was important, I made the decision to redo some of the adverts myself as I did not have sufficient time to contact all of the companies to discuss their needs.
I also rang the printers to discuss the timing difficulties with them. They gave me a boost by saying that if I could get the majority of the pages to them within the week, then they could accept the final pages once we had filled all the advertising space. This was a great help to me as we had by now managed to get enough advertisers on board to fill 9 pages.
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