Unit one: Task six - M3

Learning styles

Visual learning – learning by visual input such as:

·         Films

·         Games

·         Books

·         Pictures

·         Documents

This is the most common method of learning but does not cause much memory retention. When I was improving my own skills, this was the method I used, as I watched several informative videos to improve my skills.

Auditory learning – learning from songs or music or even audio diaries. This is also a good method to learn as it subconsciously remains in your mind. This also works when people can explain skills and techniques to you as his can help you to understand how to do things better.

Kinaesthetic learning – Learning from performing the action e.g.

·         Writing a story

·         Playing a game

·         Working on a computer

This is the best method of learning as after a number of times muscle memory takes over and you can do it subconsciously. These styles are used for many types of learning such as in schools and the learning of new skills in the workplace. When developing my own skills I used mainly Kinaesthetic and visual learning. These were the best to use in the learning environment that I was in, but my teacher did walk me through various tasks so I used auditory learning as a method as well.

Unit 30: Task 7a D1

Vinyl/laser cutter

Vinyl/laser cutters are a fairly new output device for graphics design, where an image can be cut out of vinyl for use for advertising, typically on the side of vans. Laser cutters are commonly used by schools, smaller businesses or hobbyists, rather than the professional vinyl cutters. As this technology develops, we can create things on a larger scale with a lot more precision and smoother images. This has affected the graphics design industry as it has allowed them to create large advertisements with a cheap method. One example of a vinyl cutter would be the Summa R D120 cutter which is a professional cutter used for cutting out images for advertising or other commercial purposes. The file types this can handle is vectors. This allows the prints to be used for companies who which to advertise large on billboards. The cutting is extremely precise therefore it can be produced in a high quality. 

Inkjet and wide format printing

Inkjet and wide format printers work by placing ink onto a piece of paper or other print materials. This is also a cheap way of producing graphics. Wide format printing is any printer with a print width between 17” and 100”. It is used to create larger banners and posters. This technology is developing towards ink technologies, with solvent, eco-solvent and UV-curing compared to water-based ink sets. Major applications where these printers are used are for outdoor settings for billboards, lorry sides and lorry curtains, building graphics and banners, while indoor displays include point-of-sales displays, backlit displays, exhibition graphics and museum graphics. The professional versions of this type of printer can cost up to $2 million. This has affected the graphics design industry as it has allowed them to mass produce graphic designs. One example of an inkjet printer would be the HP DesignJet T1200 which is a mid-level commercial printer used for clear precise images. The file types this can handle is bitmaps and vectors. As this can be done at home, the quality is much better and they have delveloped to become much more clearer than before. In order to create a 2m banner for advertisement, you must use 75ppl in order to be able to see it clearly from far away. Therefore if you designed something on photoshop however the file size was not as compatible, in order to get the same image, you could simply reduce the file size simply increase the resolution from 75ppl. 

Laser printing

Laser printers allow high quality graphics and text to be printed onto plain paper. This allows production of high quality vector images onto leaflets and flyers. This technology is rather expensive and potentially dangerous due to shock hazards and the toner particles can be a fire risk which can cause damage to the respiratory system. This has affected the graphics design industry as it allows higher quality flyers and leaflets to be produced. One example of a laser printer would be the Konica Minolta magicolor, which is a high-end graphics design printer. The file types this can handle is vectors. Resolution is not a big issue because the product on screen is usually enlarged. Therefore Bitmap is not an issue for laser printing. 

3D printing 

3D printing gives the printing in a three dimensional solid version so you can visually see it. It allows a different form of printing and allows individuals to see things in reality compared to three dimensional software's on the computer. It is limited therefore it is mainly used in industry. This printing is also very expensive and therefore it may not be available to all. The file types this can handle is STL - this is changed into a state of triangles in a 3D form which sends information to the printer to print it in layers to form the three dimensional products. 

Unit 30: Task two

File types 

TIF files - These are the best for the flyers because they have the highest quality file types for commercial work. This is because there is no degradation in the files, compared to JPGs and GIFs. Also, unlike JPGs, there is no ‘artifact’ when it is frequently edited. PDF files could save the document that can be viewed on any platform.

PNG files - These are probably the best choice for the website as PNG files have greater colour depth than GIF files  which means that there is less degradation in quality in PNG files. This can provide a better quality image for a photo at the cost of a larger file size. For solid colour graphics and text, PNG is more preferable to JPG as there is a much better image quality in the GIF image and PNG is bigger to GIF.

Vector files - These files are made in programs such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. The files are best for the vehicles as these are the only files that can be enlarged enough in order to fit on a vehicle without pixilation.   

Unit 30: P1 & M1

Graphics design materials

 The software used to create graphic images is most likely be the Adobe CS5 suite. This contains the following:

·         Fireworks – A web design program,

·         Photoshop – A Bitmap design program,

·         Illustrator – A vector design program and

·         InDesign – A desktop publishing program. This would contain all of the tools necessary in order to digitally create graphics images.

The hardware used to create graphics images would most likely be the Apple Mac. This is designed for user friendliness and it is easier to manage software on.  This is better than the PC as the PC is far harder to use graphics design software on.

·         Input devices for graphics design could include:

·         A scanner – Which scans images on paper and converts them into a digital image,

·         Keyboard and mouse – Peripherals which allow control of a computer.

·         A graphics tablet – Which allows manual manipulation of an image by using touchscreen controls.  All of these allow the user to easily create and modify graphical images physically.

Output devices for it could include

·         ink printers – which use ink to print an image onto paper

·         acrylic printers – which cut the image out of acrylic

·         3D printers – which create a physical 3D representation of an image or design. These are all capable of recreating the images out of various materials.

File storage is simple for images due to the low file size. Saving it on the systems hard drive, on an external hard drive or using cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox would allow the images to be safe and easily accessible from various places as all you need to do is log in.  

These are the best choices for this particular task but there are many limitations to these hardware and software choices. The cost of Macs is one of the main limitations as they can vary from £1000 and the newest models could cost excessively more.

The Cs5 suite also has a limitation as the newest model can cost up to £3000 which people may not be able to afford – however this can be reduced by a lot if you already have the previous version of the CS suite. Also you would require a lot of training in order to use the programs which can be time consuming. You need to be trained in order to use them as well.

The cost of running the output devices could be very high as you would need to purchase either ink or acrylic to keep the device running. There is also a limitation with printers as when texts/images are printed, there is always a white border around the paper which means it could be seen as wasting money on paper or everything you wanted to be printed may not fit onto one side of the paper. Also scanners can only scan onto A4 documents, therefore anything larger may have to be split up which could potentially waste money. Camera resolution could also play a role as the megapixels may not be enough for a large printing format. When printing, you may want a professional standard however majority printers you can only print on paper or thin card. 

Unit one:Task 3 - D2