Fiona works for an e-commerce set up with Palm Webstore, an innovator in the smart telephone sector. Her job is to help drive and push potential financial targets and help create revenue. She has spent the last 15years working in the Sales and Marketing sector and is now solely focused on e-commerce.

Along with helping to grow revenue, Fiona also helps build strong, loyal and satisfied customer bases to ensure continual revenue and provide market intelligence. The Palm online store itself covers up to 16 countries worldwide. Here they give customers the opportunity to browse and purchase all of their up to date mobile smart phones and accessories.  When it comes to purchasing the customer must always be aware of fraud and the laws governing the markets such as; Data Protection & Privacy Law, Brand & Trademark Protection and Online Advertising Law just to name a few.

An important area for Palm, and indeed many eStores, is online traffic. Online traffic means the steady flow of visitors to a particular website. The traffic can be generated through three key avenues; Natural Visits, Search Engine and Word of Mouth. Search Engines account for up to 85% and more of online traffic and is still regarded as the best investment. Word of Mouth is also important for long term investment as this usually builds fan-bases who then can generate traffic through the likes of viral marketing. Palm also has it’s own twitter and facebook accounts as a way of getting traffic through younger people, who of course are the ones that will most likely be interested in all the new technologies in the world, so they become the prime target audience.

The lecture today was interesting. I’m sure I’ll never want to work in this sector of the industry but it’s great to know just how online marketing works as it holds a lot of important information that we as online designers need to be aware of.

This week we managed to have our interviews! A lot of people came in looking pretty sharp. I still managed to retain an air of casual posture. Dressing respectable is one thing, but dressing confidently can be the icing on the cake that interviewers look out for. The interviews went by smoothly. I came in and presented myself well and drove most the interview, I could tell they we’re pretty impressed so I’m glad today went off without a hitch. And with that I do believe this is the end of the blogs for this year. This place does need a lot of renovation over the summer, haha.

We were told to meet up outside the main parliament buildings at around 11am. I happened to miss my bus going out there so I was a good 15 minutes late. I also happened to bump into Eoin on the way there, he was going in the opposite direction. I’m sure he was grateful for the guidance, up until we both got lost on the way. It seemed we took a wrong turn and ended up at the back of the building we were supposed to be. After a few calls we managed to find the entrance. Luckily they hadn’t started the tour yet. I found them all in the waiting room lobby drinking tea and coffee. We were given a speech from Ronan about his position and a overview of how the Irish political system works in comparison to the American counterpart.

We spent the  tour going to the different rooms including the Dáil chamber and many portraits of past politicians and important national treasures. Afterward we all decided to go out for some lunch before heading down to the Trinity to attend the science museum trip. Unfortunately, I lost track of time waiting for a few people to pay for their bill. As we walked down to Trinity we realized that we had no idea where the building was. I attempted to call the others to get idea where it was but all got was mumbles because apparently they started five minutes earlier and weren’t allowed to use their phones.

After spending over twenty minutes walking around Trinity I finally gave up and just decided to go home, I was simply too tired and annoyed at the fact I wasted an entire day on something that was not even related to the course, and hope that in the future my time is not wasted.

This weeks guest speaker was Maria Browne. Maria is a Careers Development Manager and she has come to us today to help us prepare for our mock interviews next week.

A few key notes that everyone should before going into an interview is that grammar on the CV is vitally important and achievements are essential. After all, you’re going in their to impress them, so it’s best to pack your CV with as many (useful) achievements as you can. Another thing is to never point out any negatives n your CV or character. The best way to deal with this is by posing a positive twist to everything. As long as you don’t lie, of course. Having examples of your work is also vital, especially if you are apply for a designer position, whether it’s for graphical or architectural design it’s a bit of a “no-brainer” to have a portfolio of past work and projects at the ready.

When it comes to preparing for the interview some of the key notes is to have researched the company and the actual position you are applying to. You have to know what you are expected to do and knowing the company shows that you prepared yourself well and are very keen on the whole thing. Work out what possible questions might be asked and study your CV carefully because this is where they will be looking at when it comes to asking questions. Of course, always be punctual, dress accordingly and always be confident in yourself.

Some of the most frequent questions asked in an interview are;

Tell us about yourself? This is probably the most important question, since you are essentially selling your character to the company. Tell them about your hobbies, your college, what your goals and dreams are. Companies tend to pick people who seem to have a lot of things going in life since this basically translates to a confident and successful employee.

Can you tell us your strong and weak points? People need to really look out for these types of questions, especially when it comes to pointing out your weaknesses. As I said before never paint yourself negatively. Try and take negative aspects and twist them into positive ones. A good example is for someone who can’t take many projects on at once is because he tends to put all his focus on a single project to make sure he gives it 110%.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years? This questions tends to catch people off guard. Many people, especially college students, never really think about the future. Most of the time they are thinking about the present college years ahead of them. Passions and goals in life are essential in interviews because this gives the company the impression that you reach out in life and want to higher yourself, personally.

Why should we hire you? Questions like these yearn for confidence. You might have the requirements, but so do all the other applicants. This is where selling yourself is important. Think about your achievements and skills, such things are important because they give you an edge above all the rest.

Personally I think I took a lot from this lecture. I can honestly say that I’m feeling really confident for these interviews  and can’t wait to get them done.

Robbie works at BPN Media, where the main goal is influencing their products to customers through Digital Media. They work using the three mediums of information; Visual, Audio and Interaction.

Some of the work that BPN Media does is placing music video captions in for the audience in clubs such as The Barge or Copper Head Jacks. They even give the option of texting in to have their messages displayed along with the video. Advertisement is usually played during intersections of the video, these are usually adverts for restaurants and other establishments. Selective music is also used to increase the chances of customers revisiting certain places. An example he gave was for a wine seller who used French music to influence the purchase of french wine. Beforehand in the advertisement the key motto was “Content is King”. This has now changed over to “Relevance is King”. Such as the correct type and use of music in stores that can keep customers in for longer and hopefully encourage more spending. They usually perform customer research to find out the best way to influence them.

When designing relevant content there are several things that we need to be aware of. The most important is that the advert is interesting, if it isn’t then customers will not pay attention. I think there are a few names that come to mind that seemed to have hit the nail on the head when it comes to interesting adverts. Namely the new Old Spice adverts that seemed to have become viral over the past few months. Another important issue is to keep information up to date. Thanks to slim monitors the information being displayed in the areas of restaurants and food establishments can now be updated in seconds. Treating any sort of audio with care is also quite important. You wouldn’t want to go shopping for groceries while listening to loud techno music. Usually tests are performed to check the acoustic of the venue to make it as audible as possible without it being intrusive to our senses.

In a nutshell, make sure you message is clear, have it in line of sight and make sure the audio and video is clear and simple.

Personally, today’s lecture was on an area that I ever wish to dwell on too deeply, but it was interesting nonetheless and I did manage to learn a few new things about the advertisement world. Now to go and get me some of that Old Spice, can’t have myself using woman’s fragrance shampoos.

I checked out a video for a guy called Simoné Legno, an Italian born designer who is best known for his work in TokiDoki, which is English for “Sometimes”. TokiDoki is a Japanese life-style branding company, creating apparel and other items using iconic characters.  Simone set up TokiDoki in 2005 with the help of a few business partners.

Legno came from a humble beginning as a freelance worker. He started designing using the Adobe Illustrator program and then animating them in Adobe Flash. He set up a personal website which he used as his own personal portfolio to display his illustrations. After doing a few freelance jobs for various companies he got noticed by the co-founder of American cosmetics company Hard Candy, Pooneh Mohajer, and her husband Ivan Arnold. Through them Simone was able to set up TokiDoki. His design and artwork are heavily influenced by the Japanese art culture, but he also takes inspiration from his homeland Italy.

His advice to fellow designers is to always allow yourself room for improvements and not to take it as a sign of the lack of skill, but the desire to better yourself everyday.

Fiona is a digital graphics designer who runs her own business, Glimmer. Today’s topic was about inspiration, how best to find it and use it to it’s fullest potential. She started off her presentation with a famous quote from Jim Jarmusch;

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

Crude, but very honest and a pretty accurate way of looking at things.

She went on to show us some of the past projects she’s worked on and how she came about acquiring the inspiration and making the delivery. The first one she showed us was a header graphic for the Scooter Island website. First, she did some research on how best this could be designed. She looked up images of Vespas, which are quite popular, and decided to go for a retro look, using late 50′s and early 60′s design in her ideas.

The next project was for a friend’s business, Fat Kitty Films. Obviously she wanted to incorporate a graphic of a cat somewhere in the design. The request of the client was to use 50′s design so Fiona went back through her past projects and did a bit more researching to find the right inspiration. She created several versions of the design and showed them to her client. This is a really clever thing to do, if you have the time, since you never really know what the client is actually looking for. So giving them several options is a good way to save up time and to build up your portfolio.

She also had a hand in designing the new Gay Theatre Festival website. The festival asked that it should at least be green and have the Oscar Wilde logo incorporated, Fiona was then given the go to do whatever she wanted after that. For inspiration she researched other Gay festivals and festivals in general to get an idea of how to layout and design the website. Since designing a website isn’t just about how it looks, but where everything should be. Good communication with the client is needed, but best not to always listen since you should know the best way to layout a webpage (Thank you Rob Smith!)

Fiona left us with a final comment; Talent is the desire to practice.

Toika is a group of 25 people that include animators, designers editors and producers and they specialize in branding in television broadcasting. They work in a collaborative environment in that each group having their own work areas so they can work more efficiently. They are an extremely ‘visual’ group who concentrate on the creative aspect of their work. They even visualize their ideas rather than write them down. Sounds like my type of group. To be honest I was never the one for written reports for project mock-ups. I still firmly believe in story-boarding and client communication when it comes to creative projects.

The group is based in California and have worked with really big names in the broadcasting industry including Fox, ESPN and ABC. They refer to their line of work as ‘Network Branding’ which means creating a connection between the network and the audience. When creating new projects for television use they search through all of the other networks advertising, styles and effects so as they can create a more impacting effect for their clients and their audience.

I wasn’t too thrilled about not having a guest speaker this week. I tend to have a better connection with subjects if they have a face to show. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Emma is a visual designer who works with Digital Media and performance. She graduated from Dun Laoghaire, which was actually my second option. The only problem I found in DL was that many of the courses were very concentrated and didn’t give any room for a broader horizon in terms of skills to learn. That’s why I’m happy with the choice here in ITB. I’d rather be the jack of all trades (and there’s nothing stopping me from becoming the master of all trades either, if I set my mind to it).

Where was I? Oh yes… after Dun Laoghaire, Emma went on to work for a design company for a couple of years to gain experience and then moved up to Dublin. She decided to become an artist after a visit to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Personally, art will always be a hobby in my book. I could never see myself picking it up as a career choice. Of course, I’m not saying that I don’t absolutely love it nonetheless, and glad that people are following their dreams and passions.

One of her first creations is the “Cheer Up”. Which is basically a mat that activates a nearby speaker to blast an encore of cheering. She got the idea one morning after waking up to a cheering crowd outside her window, apparently there was a marathon going on that day. The creation was designed to cheer people up basically. For her  Masters exam (in the Fine Art Department of NCAD) she created an exhibition through the perspective of her dog, it was called “Rexotrek”. The exhibition was designed so you had to get on all-fours to enter and experience, much like a dog. Afterwards Emma took a three year internship at the Guggenheim Museum in New York!

Her latest project, called H.U.G.S. (Human Utopian Generation System) is a creation that simulates the feeling of getting a hug by making a jacket out of bin bags and bike tires filled with air. The idea was inspired by the Free Hugs movement.

A Master in Music and Media Technology, Ian first discussed to us about our current position in studying digital media and our inevitable entrance into the industry. He says we as creative digital media students have it better off than most previous students due to that fact that we have such a broad horizon due to learning so many different aspects of digital media. In the end we will be better prepared because we studied a range of tools, traits and skills. Ian hit the nail on the head with this one. One of the main reasons I decided on doing CDM here in ITB was because it gave me so many options. My initial idea coming in to the college was graphics and web development, but my directions seem to shift every few months. I’ve now got a better interest in sound engineering , video editing and software & web programming. My dream goal would be to become an architectural designer, but I have a long time before I make a solid decision. Right now, I’m just enjoying what I have and I’m taking in as much as I can.

Ian moved onto his internship at One Production where he mostly did Flash advertisements. Afterward he moved to Hyper Production Company which unfortunately closed down, forcing Ian into freelance work. Ian never thought he’d get into that position, which I could understand. As alluring as working for yourself may seem it’s quite unstable as far as money is concerned, but it’s fantastic to help better yourself in the area and pile up your portfolio, which always helps.

He went onto creating a number of music videos including one made for James Yorkston, a Scottish artist. He sent it through MySpace who then offered him to create a documentary, which Ian says he loves doing the most.

Through this Ian met up with a number of people such as Donal Dineen, who does photography loops for concerts and Lisa Hannigan, an up and coming artist who Ian help make an EPK (Electronic Press Kit, a short documentary that is given to the press to help artists get a name for themselves). They didn’t get paid much but the experience was invaluable.

Ian moved onto to Editing. A key goal when it comes to editing is to keep your files organized because a few years work will devastate your work flow if you can’t find crucial files. Thankfully I’m an utter freak when it comes to organizing my computer files. He worked as an assembly editor on a show called The School for a company called Scratch Films. He also got more experience when he helped cut a Christmas episode for Maeve which took 3 weeks to finish.

He is currently directing a three episode mock documentary called ‘We Own The Streets’ for Storyland, which is a quick way to get into RTÉ. It’s about a a character called ‘XL’. XL is thirty years old and unemployed. He likes music and “free running”. Everybody plays themselves in the episodes. It is masquerading as an edgy counter culture documentary.

Edward Melvin is a project manager who works for ICAN. Apparently Edward also took up a digital media course but shifted more towards the management of the industry. What exactly does he manage? Well, ICAN is an advertisement & communication agency. They help business make the right choices and get a better edge in their field. I’m sure this all involves some marketing magic to make it work. The teams in ICAN provide a lot of services including Design, Search Marketing and Project Management and Edward is in charge to make sure the ships set sail smoothly, efficiently and on time.

So who exactly works in ICAN? Well to make sure a project is done efficiently they’ve got a well armed team of specialists including; creative designers, client service providers, media and search marketers and accountants. ICAN’s sole purpose is advertisement and a great example of their work can be found on the WRC website where you can insert pictures of you and your friend in rally videos and e-mailing them, which I always think is a lot of fun. Another important aspect is the communication between ICAN and it’s clients. Feedback and appropriate communication means the end result is pleasing for both the client and industry standards, and of course the end user, who I think are the most important part in any advertisement project since it needs to work for them. If it doesn’t then that’s a lot of work wasted.

As I expected, the agency industry is fast paced and hectic according to Edward. But it’s also very rewarding because if an advert project is set off successfully then you get full credit in it’s creation but also it’s a great way of getting your work across the industries community.

Over the weekend I managed to get a few versions of my Book Cover finished, I’ve managed to get some feedback from other students today in class. I’ll make a few tweaks to the design at home and later post it onto the blog. We also worked on the awesome copy and place tools in the labs today These are great for designing logos.