Back on Solid Ground

Back on Solid Ground

Blogs are always rinsing and falling on the internet, am I right?
Thankfully mine stayed neutral. 
Success.

With this being the final post of this very short blogging segment, it's time to reflect on the overall experience:

I'll start by saying that I'm not opposed to blogging or sharing my opinions, it's just that it's not for me personally. Like I said back at the very beginning, I was raked over the coals in my previous blogging endeavour, and don't care to ever really try again. Although I enjoy reading other people's blogs and views, I'd prefer to keep mine to myself, or at the very most, within my immediate group of friends. 

My current social media presence is very indicative of this belief. As an example: I was recently and candidly, photographed and posted on the Vancouver Instagram feed known as "Man Bun Mondays" (make of that what you will), and due to this posting, my Instagram and Twitter feeds exploded with follow requests. I was averaging around 4 requests an hour for the next week or so; none of which I accepted. 

The reason I have any social media presence at all, is again, to primarily share things with my friends and family. I'm not in it for the "follows" or "likes", and I'm sure not about to accept any follows from randoms. This attitude spilled over into this blogging exercise, and clashed somewhat with the purpose, which was to share as much as possible and get engagement from the posts. Is there anything wrong with not wanting a huge internet following?

At the end of the day, even if no one read these Design Life & Struggle based posts, these blogs did help me to solidify and refresh my own personal love for graphic design and the web, so I'd say "job well done". 

Until next time (which there won't be),
All the best.



—tom

A JavaScript Tutorial

A JavaScript Tutorial

This scripting assignment was to create a JavaScript tutorial that taught three different JS elements.

When I was brainstorming what to teach in this project, I decided I wanted the users to end up with something in the end, instead of just learning about parallax, lightbox, or a datepicker.  So I picked three tools that could build a simple interactive website when combined. As you go through the tutorial, you learn about each element and how it builds on the last to end up with a clickable button that returns random activities when clicked.

I broke down each element and explained how it works at the top and built in a codemirror plug-in so that the user could try editing the code and see what it returned.
Finally, the user can see the the website that was built using just these three elements. I think this last part was crucial for the user to see what simple code can create.

Take a look: http://theresafrendo.com/learn-js

Checking your final grades.

Checking your final grades.

It is easy for our teachers in the New media and Web Development program at BCIT to run through their final grade check, and make sure all spread sheet boxes are filled in, while still making a few mistakes along the way.

I recently benefited from checking through a final grade and making sure all the proper points were recorded for assignments and exams.  Even though this a bit of a mundane task, there is no way a teacher will know they are making mistakes without students finding the mistakes.

I would recommend all students should check through the breakdown of their final marks, not only to make sure they are given the grade they earned, but also to help the teachers that do make mistakes learn from their mistakes.  Both parties can benefit from this.

Who knows, maybe my omitted grade was mixed up with someone else’s and they received my marks for an assignment they didn’t complete.  Maybe that was you?  You wont know unless you check.

A Rule to Remember: Target Audience

Whether it be designing a website or doing a social media campaign, the first thing that should always be remembered is who is your target audience?

Planning for Social Media

I found this out with a social media project. We set goals for different social media platforms. To be honest, my first impression was that no one really uses Facebook to post anymore. I was starting to feel as though it was being more used as a messenger. In my group of four, I guess the others felt the same way.

Facebook

 

That's the thing, Facebook has the most used users on any social media platform. Even if it does seem relatively dead on our feeds at times.

Most users for our client's demographic was men from the ages of 22-34 that were the most common fan of the page, which makes sense considering our client is a realtor and most buyers are around that age.

For general Facebook demographics they're saying that ages 18-24 are the most active user for their site.

Graph from Testini Real Estate's Facebook

Twitter, Google Plus..

You also have to do some research if your target audience even use other platforms as a ways of finding information or communication. It can be a rough start, but if you follow people with similar interests, it could be beneficial.

Goals

Make sure your goals for the social media platform are obtainable when you think about your demographic. Find out what your target audience uses the most and focus the most on that. Eventually you'll really create a community on one network and hopefully the others will follow.

Welcome to January and... the rest of your life?

Welcome to January and... the rest of your life?

New year. New career?
It seems that with each passing year, I re-evaluate my life and second guess the career path that I'm on. Am I doing the right thing? Do I even like it? What else might I be interested in? What do I do?

All these questions usually drive me wonky and, until this year, I've always ended up completely switched my focus. On the bright side, being interested in so many subjects is never a bad thing, or at least that's what I tell myself. The realization though, is that until someone offers me a job as a professional career switcher, I have a feeling I'll have a bad time. 

This past holiday season was especially rocky with major family changes, and heaps of external stress; all perfect conditions for a "life re-think". Surprisingly though, the 2014 to 2015 career blues never came, and for once I actually felt good about where I was headed. Obviously the stress of finding work after school is still lingering...hard, but that being said, I have no plans to change my focus anytime soon. Web design and development is still the game for me.

I also realize that this post is a purely selfish one, and offers no advice what-so-ever, but I guess that's just how it is this time. If there's anything can be taken away from this, it's this: If you're trying to make it in an overly saturated career field, with heaps of tough competition, long hours, little pay, and that requires a small amount of luck; and you aren't having second thoughts, you must be crazy... but you also must be doing something that you love, so it's 100% worth sticking it out.


Happy new year.

—tom

Kitchen Surfing

This was a class project where my Partner and I decided to create a fictional cooking show where we show you how to make delicious pizza. This idea was derived from our passions for food. Since my partner was the head chef and main actor and I was the cooking show host. I was in charge of all the camera work. From shooting stationary shots, to getting different angles, and perspectives of the creation of the pizza. I also was in charge of editing a majority of the footage and making sure all the transitions were good. I chose the music from a royalty free library on the internet, and thought it was quite suitable for the purpose of the show.

This project was a lot of fun to create and really gave me an idea of the complete process of video production. From making sure all the audio levels and mics are working, to lighting, and having a shot list for different perspective was a great way to exercise my production skills.

Hosting Your Website on GitHub for FREE

A lot of people know GitHub as a place where you can share your code with the community. But did you know GitHub also lets you host websites for FREE?

There are two kinds of websites you can host with GitHub, Project Pages and User Pages. Project Pages are for individual repositories you have on GitHub and User Pages are for your entire GitHub account. In this article I will cover Project Pages.

To create a Project Page all you need to do is create a branch on GitHub named gh-pages and anything that you push to that branch will appear on www.github.io (the GitHub Pages domain).

Pretty simple, here's how to do it step by step:

1. Create a gh-pages branch

Open Terminal and go to your local project repository. 

Type  git checkout -b gh-pages
 
2. Push gh-pages up to github.io

Type  git push origin gh-pages

3. Wait up to 30 minutes...

Go to [username].github.io/[respositoryname] to see your site.

For example, my GitHub username is af19 and I have repository called typetool. So, the URL is af19.github.io/typetool

And that's that.  

One limitation of GitHub Pages is that you can't have any server-side stuff on there. That means no Ruby, PHP, Python, etc. So just HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Drop Dead-lines

Drop Dead-lines

Missed the post for last week... which ends up being a perfect segue into this(last) week's topic: Deadlines

Everyone endures deadlines. Whether it's with school, work, your taxes, even library books have them, but following them perfectly, that's a whole other story. We all miss the occasional one, and usually it's not a big deal; but what about those rare times when it is a big deal? 


Step 1: Own up to it.

No one cares about the miraculous chain of events that occurred, causing you to hand in your work late. Excuses sound like just that: Excuses. Own up to your error. Admitting your own mistakes will be a far better representation of character than any crazy situation you were involved in.


Step 2: Fix It.

Take the necessary steps to complete/submit the project. Whether it's asking for additional time, skipping other engagements, or pulling all-nighters, you need to finish and submit the project quickly. 


Step 3: Plan more effectively.

Take more time in the future when planning your schedule. Whether it's being more realistic with your time-estimates, taking on less work, or sacrificing your social life, your schedule is everything. A hectic schedule is far more prone to missed deadlines than an organized one. If you haven't already, try employing the calendar trick mentioned back in blog #2.


At the end of the day, procrastination is a punk and being able to hit deadlines will either make you or break you in the creative industry. No one hires anyone who, 60% of the time, delivers on time. 


—tom

7 Steps for better SEO

1. Relevant keywords

The first step is to research related and relevant keywords and phrases that customers or website visitors would be searching for.

Example: if your your bike shop is in Vancouver BC, Vancouver bike shop would be an Important key-phrase.

Your main focus should be understanding your customers language that they might be using while searching for your company.


2. Optimize the content of your site

It is really important to create rich high-quality content when driving traffic to your site. In todays age, content is extremely critical for internet users and search engines.

Testimonials, customer reviews, and Q&A's are highly recommended, information about your staff is also very useful for users and SE.

Take full advantage of your contact page, for localized business it is said that other than the home page the contact page is second most important page. make sure to include:

• company name
• phone number 
• address
• embedded geo site map

The more content you have the better, making sure it is all valid and useful.

Once you have all your metadata and keywords in place,  now you can start looking for non related factors that will benefit your site.

3. Be consistent 

Inconsistency is a big no-no when it comes to SEO, Google and Bing both have a disliking for content of this nature as it can negatively effect your online presence.

Use the same details throughout your social media platforms, websites and local listings.

4. Legitimate and genuine reviews 

Ask customers who actively use your site for genuine reviews. When I say genuine reviews I don't necessarily mean positive, constructive criticism is highly recommended to benefit services. 

Give your  users several ways and options for commenting and reviewing.

5. Social profile optimization

To reach out to all potential customers its important to stay active on all social media platforms.

Make sure that all your social profiles are linking to each other and include your location and region, as well as your business name and a URL back to your website.

Listing your Facebook page as a local business will improve the chance of reaching the top listing in Facebook search.

6. Mobilize your site

There is over 1 million new users a day accessing the internet from their phone.

For customers in local regions mobile access is highly convenient for users on the go.

Be cautious of software like Flash and PDF that aren't fully supported on more popular devices.

7. Update and analyze results

Once you start working on your local SEO, its important to analyze your results. The best way to do this is to use tools to monitor and analyze.

First off is monitoring your selected keywords. A good tool to do so is AWR Cloud.

Moz Analytics is also a good source for monitoring rank.

Check your rank on a weekly basis and keep note of noticeable changes.

Once you have the previous tools i mentioned set up, now is time to use Google Analytics for a organic analysis of your website to monitor its improvement. 

So if your doing these steps properly you should be able to track and noticeably see an increase in traffic :)

ENJOY!

When Creativity Flatlines

When Creativity Flatlines

Stoked! 3 views last week (instructor, mom, and me). And the show goes on...

This week: How to stay inspired. 

Amid your busy schedule, it is essential to keep the creativity flowing; a feat much easier said than done. When you're constantly designing, the "well" has a tendency to sometimes slow to a trickle, if not dry up completely. Fear not. Here are two of my favourite ways to hit refresh and escape a creative drought.

Pocket Pics.
These days, everyone has a camera in their pockets and it's time you took advantage of it. Use your phone to take quick pictures of anything and everything you find interesting. Like the pattern on your take-out box? Snap it. How about the graffiti scribbled on the side of the bus, or the design of that old sewing machine? Snap those things too. So many of my design ideas come from my phone's camera gallery. I scroll through it from time to time and find all sorts of cool things I've taken pictures of. I recently used a colour scheme that I had seen on a can of peaches, ages ago.

Become a Card Collector.
So much good design can be found on other people's business cards, and usually goes unnoticed. Mind you there's heaps of bad design too, but that's the beauty of business cards. I find myself keeping any cards that intrigue me, even if I don't know why, and I file them away for later. Looking back over your collection can help you identify styles or trends that you didn't know you like(d) or realize that you actually don't like a certain style. Either way, the card comparisons can provide a starting point for a project that you may have never even considered. 

Basically, just try to analyze everything you look at or interact with. Take that extra second to make a mental note on why you like it, or what you like about it. Chances are that, if you put the effort into thinking about it in the first place, somewhere down the line, the thought will pop back into your head when you need it, thus saving the day. Theoretically of course. 


—tom

Planning is only a chore when it's treated as one

Recent projects for the New Media program at BCIT have provided me with some insight into the importance of organization and planning when working in a team environment.

Don't tell me what to do...oh wait, what do I need to do today?

In many of my previous jobs, bosses would tell you exactly what they wanted done. There were also some understood tasks that would need to be done every shift, such as chopping the mushrooms or peeling the prawns. Later, when I began taking on more responsibility, I still approached many tasks as though my boss would be telling me what to do, and thereby define my work schedule for me.

This need to be told what to do can be a real challenge to overcome, in particular when you're in a team environment, and inefficiency means the project may not get done on time and will cost more money. In our project management class in particular, we talked about (and had direct experience with) managing what is called the critical path: namely, those tasks that must be accomplished before other parts of the project can begin. Understanding the critical path and being able to plan stories and tasks appropriately becomes an essential part of maintaining productivity and efficiency within the team.

Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson (via Flickr)

Maybe you have to experience it done wrong?

In my previous experience, I can recall the at times irritation, at times distain, upon-which I viewed excessive planning. In hindsight, I see this as less a character flaw on my part, and rather a failure of leadership to make planning a regular activity. It was because planning and team management were so rarely done, and because employees were more or less responsible for their own workflow, that planning seemed to get in the way. Planning meetings would take days, mostly because it was so rarely done. Planning took far too long, and took away from time that could be better spent on getting work done.

Or that was my perception anyhow.

That wheel spin can be a killer

Looked at differently, however, it would be easy to make an effort to plan regularly as a team. A weekly (and in some cases, daily) meeting of a team is a key component of ensuring: 1) that every member of the team is aware of the importance of their job and tasks; 2) that the whole team is clear on what the goals are for the project, both short and long term; and 3) less 'wheel spin' as the team lurches out of work mode to take part in meetings and then tries to get focussed back on their main tasks.

Poor planning could be all in Greek...
Photo credit: Juhan Sonin (via Flickr)

What has become clear to me is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the need for clarity. When we work with others, and especially those who may rely upon us in order to do their jobs effectively, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the big picture and the minutia, without getting bogged down in the latter (no one likes a micro-manager). But equally important is the organization of the team's tasks and communication to the team of how important their roles are, and how critical they are to completing the project.

Planning is only a chore when it's treated as one

Ultimately, every member of a team will want to know what to do when they come in to work whether this is defined for them or by them. Making planning and organization a regular part of the work-day routine at the very least ensures that the whole team has defined and measurable goals. Seeing planning as a chore, and treating it that way, only leads to further disorganization and micromanagement of a project. Effective planning leads to team autonomy and ownership over their roles and tasks. And from experiencing both, I much prefer the latter route.

Planning For Chaos

Planning For Chaos

One week later: Still floating.

Now, as anyone in my class will know, this past week was ridiculously tight on time in regards to school. Mid-terms, big projects, presentation prep... even the Tim Horton's lines were longer. Add to that, 2 part-time jobs, several freelance projects, and moving; and now you have my past week. This crunch on time though, is a good lesson to anyone starting out in the graphic/web industry. 

Anyone getting into the field has to first learn how to manage what limited time they have appropriately. Example: I have several projects that I'm super keen to work on and develop, but I also have some far less "fun" projects to complete for school... blah. How do I complete everything on top of working 2 jobs? Simple, I don't. I look at everything on my plate to get a sense of what's there, then I work as hard as a can, as fast as I can, and not worry about the rest. Everything that slips through, means that it isn't crucial at that point in time, and just gets pushed onto next week's plate; then just work from week-to week. 

This is all fine in theory, but putting it into practice is another thing. This is where, if you're into graphics, you can have a bit of fun. Design yourself a personalized schedule or calendar and live by it. Whether it's on your phone, or on your fridge, a list will help you to separate those "must-do"s from the "want-to"s and provide a good look at the weeks ahead. 

I know this sounds like something your parents might have told you when you were younger, but contrary to what you may have thought, your parents weren't full of shit and they ACTUALLY knew what they were talking about. Calendars work, and you should try them.


—tom

Afloat Once Again

Afloat Once Again.

Hello blogosphere; my old nemesis. It’s been years since my last visit, and for good reason too. Last time around you chewed me up, spat me out, and left me for dead after only a month of what was supposed to be “fun”.  Alas, it seems that I’m now back, reluctantly, for another round of punishment. So, without further ado, let the “Blog Experiment 2.0” begin… 

I’ve learned from my failed past, and this time around you wont see generic photos with attempts at wit slapped on them, but rather just…me. Cliché I know, but in the few short entries to follow, I’ll try and share my own trials and tribulations as an aspiring new graphic designer/web developer. 

Follow along if you wish, or happily choose to never read again. Either way it doesn’t really matter. I’ll still live. If you’re a classmate of mine then I feel your pain and just remember, we’re all on this same blogging-boat together, and there’s only 8 more weeks of paddling.


—tom

You know your life is hard when you have to talk about yourself

How do you build a portfolio when you've never built one before? How do you show off your work? How do you choose the projects that define you as a person, as a professional? What is the narrative that these works create? What do they have in common?

I'd like to say that this struggle has been going on for ages but let's be honest here: it only began six weeks ago when my first portfolio class began in the New Media program at BCIT.

Up until now, I've rarely shared any of my creative works, and now I need to come up with a minimum of six to show off; and ones that have a specific message or theme that conveys something about me that will help people know me. This is a big ask for someone who has a tough time sharing things online at the best of times.

I'm used to internet anonymity. Until recently, all of my email accounts, let alone any accounts on burgeoning (or established) online social networks, were all under pseudonyms or names fictional characters. My fist email address had my first name but some other letters that kept people guessing as to their meaning (I was consistently inconsistent, always changing it up). Other usernames are taken from characters from my favourite books or plays, almost as if I did not want to be found.

And here I am now, slowly changing some (but not all) of these accounts to be associated with a real person. A real person who needs to show who he is, and what he's capable of creating or accomplishing for a future employer. This is a scary thing to have to do, particularly as someone so accustomed to disguising his identity and historically fearful of having his work judged by others.

I guess I have to start somewhere....

Bike Vancouver Promo Video

The Idea:

Hi! My name is Ocean Mattei-Tomlinson, and I'm in a New Media Design and Web Development program at BCIT. 

Todays blog is on a video project I did for my video shooting and editing class.  It was my second project in the class and a lot of fun to create.

The idea for this promotional video was derived for my passion and my project partner’s passion for cycling. We decided to show case the designated bike streets and pathways in Vancouver to promote cycling in the city as it is not only a great way to get around town but also a great way to lesson the carbon footprint.

Production:

This was our first project where we had to shoot all our a-roll and b-roll footage, create music, and mix down the audio, and edit the entire project. We ran into some minor challenges and speed bumps due to weather and mic issues but managed to successfully complete the video.

Enjoy!

Leverage Social Media for Your Business

Social media provides the opportunity to build brand awareness, transmit messages to key audiences, and drive traffic to your website at a low cost.  Social media can offer big returns through more leads which promote increased sales and revenue.

There is a large variety of social media platforms existing on the internet, but not all of them are helpful for your company. Choosing the right platforms is very important for the effectiveness and efficiency of using social media sites. The statistic below shows the amount of active users and activities daily/monthly among different social media platforms.

#1 Facebook

• 1.35 billion monthly active users
• 864 million daily active users on average
• 703 million mobile daily active users on average
• 1.12 billion mobile monthly active users

#2 YouTube

• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube — that's almost an hour for every person on Earth
• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

#3 Google+

• 359 million monthly active users
• 1.6 billion registered users

#4 Twitter

1. 284 million monthly active users
2. 500 million Tweets are sent per day

Ideally, social media sites should be updated on a daily basis to engage with your customers or clients.   Choose the best social media networks for your business, and then harness their unique audiences to leverage your business.

The use of social media networking for your business with enhance brand awareness and increase recognition in community.  Through daily use of these referral channels, you will communicate your brand message to key audiences which in turn will drive more leads to your website.