Development as a Practitioner

I have been asked to consider and write about what I have been doing outside of my university work to develop myself as a multimedia practitioner. At first I didn't really think I had been doing that much, but when I consider some of the things I do in my spare time I suppose they do help in their own way. I have already decided that I plan to take the online environments pathway in my second year at university, to help me towards a career in web design. Some of these activities are specific to this chosen pathway and some are not.

First of all I have helped create the website for the company my boyfriend works for, which is called Per-Snickety, and can be seen here. I created the basic layout, including the images, headings, HTML etc. and my boyfriend edited it to fit his own and his boss's needs. Personally I would've kept the actual background black rather than using the distressed green image that is currently there, but I suppose that's up to them. This website is best viewed at a fairly high resolution.

I have also just started to research and look at websites for web design companies in the Nottinghamshire area, as can be seen from my previous post. I have decided to do this through the advice of the course leader, Simon, and personally I think it is a very good idea.

I tend to watch a lot of films during my spare time, and though this is not directly related to the online environments pathway that I have chosen, it is an area of multimedia. By watching films you can gain inspiration and knowledge, and it is also an opportunity to relax the mind. I personally enjoy most genres of films, and will usually give anything a chance. Some films I have watched recently include Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express and Withnail and I, one of my favourite films. As you can see this is quite a varied selection.

I also play a lot of video games, including World of Warcraft as you can see below, though of course Daksha is not my only character. At the moment I'm also playing Fallout 3 on the Xbox 360 as well as a number of games on the Nintendo DS.

Something most people do, simply browsing the internet can also help my development as a practitioner. By doing this I can see how a website has been designed, and I quite often view the source code of a website to see how it's been done.

Using Photoshop is something I have been doing for years, but I still enjoy learning new tricks and techniques. Following tutorials is a great way to do this, and I often learn new things or better ways of doing things from websites such as tutorialized.com.

I soon hope to buy a domain name and hosting so that I can build a website of my own, rather than just using this blog.