Exposed 19 – The Event

Last week was great we came in on the Monday as the 2 HND classes along with the BA to put up our chosen images. We arrived at 10am and worked till around 230pm. Thankfully the boards where relatively clean so only light touch ups with paint along with filling the holes from the previous event.

I made sure I got my hands dirty with painting the bar wall, filling holes, putting up my prints, assisting others who did not know how to use power tools and help put up the competition images. Once it was all done it was exciting to see that less than 24hrs the Exposed 19 event would take place.

On the opening night everyone was to be there at 6pm to go over a few things but as I was in the website team I did not need to do much other than enjoy the exhibit. It was lovely to hear from my tutor that our year was the best so far as it was an excellent quality of images. My partner, family and several friends came which was lovely. The turn out was fantastic as we had hundreds who came and the free bar ended before 8pm as the drink ran out. Thankfully there was a paid bar along with ours to keep the celebrations going. It was strange seeing strangers view and discuss my images as this is something I have not experienced before. To begin with I was nervous but my partner made me feel settled as I needed to treasure and enjoy this wonderful experience.

Monday morning I was on duty as staff with Tobias at Exposed 19. I had to top up my business cards as around half had been taken which was positive so here is hoping someone will be in contact with me. As it was the morning we only had around 20 people in viewing the images. We engaged with some of them but tried to leave them to enjoy the exhibit.

Tomorrow we will take everything down and ensure all the holes are filled and the boards are painted. It should not take us to long to sort. It is the end of the college year so now is the time to enjoy my summer with personal projects and working extra to save for my BA course in August.

Exposed 19 – Award Winners Page & Exhibition Update

Award Winners Page

This week I decided to have a crack with adding parts onto the website. This is not something I have much experience with so I thought I would give it a go. I have done the majority of the team research, information gathering, collecting images, emailing tutors, etc but I was aware Weronika was working full time and Stephen had a few things on so I thought setting myself the challenge of building the awards page would be fun.

I sent out a deadline for the new BIPP winners and AOP Finalists so I could place this online. Contact was made to the HND2 groups and the BA via students and tutors. The deadline was 4 days but I managed to get all the images with in 2 days. I spent a few days working on it. I had the page set up as a list setting so it would have the image with the persons details along with the award(s) won below. It was set up that when you click on each image you will create a slide show but you also have a scroll down option. I was very happy that this worked out.

The only issue I had was I thought you had to manually drag and drop the images alphabetically but it would not save and revert back to where the images had been originally positioned. When I messaged Stephen he explained the button at the top bar you can click to sort out what order you prefer. It was funny how simple it was but when you don’t know a system well it can seem hard but infant it is relatively simple. Stephen said he noticed the headings colour needed changed to match other pages but it was perfect. A few people contacted me liking this page so I felt proud that I done it by myself. There is only 2 more people to add as I am working night shift and at college till the weekend so by Sunday the full thing will be completed.

A&M

The test prints where done perfectly as they matched my Loxley prints so I went ahead to order the full 70cm x 50cm prints. These have been paid for so I am good to go when they get picked up for the event on the 3rd June.

Staffing

The meeting for the staffing rota was meant to be completed last week but numerous students have not emailed there details soon enough to work out the full shift patterns. I did mine months ago but I have found out my dog walker is now on leave some of the days I have put down to assist. This was expressed several times to the team but they say by Friday we will know. Any issues they will need to swap me as I travel in from Glasgow so my dogs cannot be without a relief break for more than 5 hours as this is unkind. I believe we are only assisting half a day at a time so hopefully this will not cause any problems.

Full Exposed 19 Class Meeting

Today we went over any final points as the preparation will commence on Monday 3rd June. We all are required to be at Out of the Blue Drill Hall by 10am to spend all day filling holes, painting, sorting out where images will go. If we get everything done we will not need to come back on the Tuesday until the 6pm prior to the exhibition commencing. The website is all up to date so told by my tutor I do not need to add anyone else if they have not sent there information as there has been several reminders.

Paint will be purchased along with brushes, sheets, wipes, black bags, foam boards, wine, glasses, etc. Other teams are in charge of this so they are nearly there with picking up the final items over the weekend.

The Fundraising Team has managed to raise well over £1200 so far. Deductions for door staff, refreshments, glasses, all the painting and decorating gear will need to come off this total. After this has been done it is looking like we will split the funds amongst all the HND2 students but that will be confirmed at a later date.

There is still no joy with a Guest Speaker as our tutor along with the Hospitality group has not been able to source a relevant person to attend Exposed 19.

Exciting times ahead as only just over a week to go.

Website – Launched & Exhibition Updates

Exposed19.com

Weronkia was hard at work putting together all the images and information gathered by Steven, Jade and I. With Jade leaving I picked up the slack with the information that was sent to her via students so that it insured Weronika had all the relevant pieces to finish the website. As usual you get people at the end not returning information that was requested with set deadlines. This was chased up with the HND and the BA on numerous occasions with only some replying. With this I contacted the tutor as I wanted to ensure that the website was fully detailed as possible with all the students work making sure it would look professional so everyone on both course would get full coverage for the major event. My experience with building websites was lacking so that is why I did the bulk of the research and gathering of the data so it would ensure I was assisting with the project to enable both Weronika and Steven to get that part done with no added pressure. Along with this I arranged all the team meetings, setting reminders, taking notes, helping appoint tasks, contact both HND and BA groups etc.

So last week the website for Exposed 19 was launched (www.exposed19.com). Weronika did a great job and sent out a reminder to students to review so that any mistakes could be adjusted. This was important as she was working numerous shifts and would be unable to edit anymore after the end of last week. People did get in touch after the deadline so Steven felt he was more than capable to add any additional images, data, final tweaks etc. As he was doing this I said I would make contact again with the BA along with HND to chase up the last of the people who had note given us their contact details or images which would save time. Along with the tutor putting out a message on Facebook I have had a great response and it looks like we have nearly all the students work in place. Steven altered some of the colours on the website and added the map/travel information as Weronika forgot to do this.

There has even been room set aside for the invitation and poster image so once they are ready we will get a jpeg copy to post on the site. The BIPP Awards are on Sunday so if we have a wide range of students we could create a page to showcase their work but we have agreed to decided once we find out the results.

Exhibition Group Updates

The tutor was more than happy with us just having a website as there was no requirement for any social media such as twitter, instagram, etc. There could be an events page put on Facebook but it looks like Hospitality will do this but we are awaiting confirmation.  As the Fundraising Team has hosted the majority of its events we will not put up an events page as it seems pointless at this stage. Hospitality still have no Guest Speaker set but I will keep reminding them. Along with this I asked that team about the Exposed 19 exhibition staff shift rotas but there is nothing set at the moment as there meeting was only this week so we will be informed so. This was down to various students not informing them when they can assist.

Dibond Test Prints

Yesterday I visited A&M for my Dibond test prints and they both turned out great. They where really friendly and helpful so I was more than delighted. So later on yesterday I sent the 2 images sized at 70cm x 50cm for my exhibition to be printed. Once the confirmation has been given and my invoice has been recieved I will make payment so the college can collect for the mounting day on the 3rd/4th June. The group are trying to get business card holders ordered but I have my own from a previous event. Along with this I have business cards that I had designed in the summer of last year so I am set for advertising myself at the event.

Exhibition – Raffle Tickets & Other Duties

Not much has gone on this week but the 2 strips of raffle tickets given to each class member have been sold so I have another £20 to donate. So far from personal donations, family/friends, car boot sale gathering I have given around £100 which has been great. Fingers crossed with the 35 students if we can all pull this in it will help so much to the Exposed 19 exhibition in June.

Not much else has happened this week due to the GU2 submissions this week and next week coming. After this I will see if the website is going to be live after the 13th May as Weronika has done great so far. There could be a message packer job at a supermarket in Falkirk but nothing has been confirmed yet along with the bake sale as Fundraising is awaiting permission from the college. Hospitality is still no further forward with a Guest Speaker. Once the competitions have been announced I will require students both in the HND and BA to give me full details to place on the site.

Exhibition – Updates

Well we had some fantastic feedback regarding the car boot sale with the donations that several students including myself gave to help raise around £67. So far we have around £350 in the account. The Fundraising Team are still awaiting permission for the bake sale in college so I will keep in touch with them as we want the information to advertise the events on the website.

I did get 2 strips of raffle tickets on Friday to sell. They costs £2 each or 5 for £8. The full class took 2 strips to sell and we have until the 31st May to sell them and any more if we can. As my friends and family have given quite a large amount of cash and belongings to sell I will just put a post on Facebook as I do not want to pressure them as they have been so kind already. I will probably purchase some myself as the prizes look good. The funding page I gave £5 extra as I wanted to add to the tally as the Fundraising Team have a target of £5000 so I wanted to help them get there.

There was a call out for people to help pack shopping at a supermarket in Falkirk to raise more funds. I got back to them as I am happy to do so as long as I am not working and I can get a dog walker. The Fundraising Team are still working things out but I will do my best to assist where possible.

I made contact with Callum in Fundraising regarding the cost of the domain name and running Exposed 19 website for a full year. The prices were explained and for around £90 both the HND and BA will have full exposure of their work. He was more than happy with this and will either give a cash or bank transfer. With this information I got back to Weronika in my team and she is happy to communicate with Callum directly so she can get the bank transfer once the site has been finished in the next week.

With regards to the Hospitality Team they have no guest speaker as the two choices were knocked back as they have not been part or involved with the college so they are trying to find more suitable candidates. I did suggest to Leigh a member of Hospitality that Chris Close is a gallery owner and photographer who has spoken in Edinburgh College in the past and studied with Jon Lee in London. I gave his details as I worked in Close Gallery for my work experience and he was very helpful so I am sure he could be able to assist.

The website is looking very good so far as Weronika is making it look professional and creative so we can stay away from the social media look. The website will go more with what the gallery will be like and we agreed to try to link the colours of say the catalogue so the full thing has a running theme.

I will keep on top of Fundraising event dates/times, Hospitality guest speaker choices and the last of the competition winners when announced. Steven and I are available for Weronika for any other capacity as she is designing the website as we wanted to make her life easier by getting all the data and images.

 

Website – Information Gathering Meeting

Over the holidays Jade, Steven and I went out to get information from the other relevant teams and data on the event site location. We met in college on Wednesday for an hour to give the hand over to Weronika who is the lead on building the site.

Jade managed to get the majority of people’s images and personal details for the site but had yet designed the logo for the web page. She announced that she will be dropping the Exhibition topic so we decided that Steven would take up her duties with any follow ups if this was required. Steven managed to get all the information on Out of the Blue Drill Hall along with the map, transportation available, parking etc, so Weronika had the full details.

I have all the current HND and BA competition winners images along with relevant data. The BIPP and AOP will be announced in May so I will need to chase this up after the events have take place to pass this on to Weronika. In the last meeting we agreed Weronika would not collate any of the information as she wanted to design the site as this is something she has done in the past and we wanted to use this to her advantage. We all decided that by Monday 13th May the Exposed 19 site should be ready to run live. As we are building this through wix.com we will buy the domain name and package through them as it will ensure the website is easy to design, fairly priced and it will run for a full year to give the students full exposure both in the HND and BA groups.

I passed on my notes electronically along with the images to Weronika. Fundraising have a funding page so we have the link to add this onto the site to try to reach the target of £5000. In the next week I will find out from Hospitality if they have made their final selection for the host so we can advertise who will be attending the event along with a little information about them and their career.

I will remind Weronika to inform me of the domain name/pack costing as I will need to let Fundraising know the price as we will have to recuperate the money which will be spent. Weronika says it can be around £70-£90 for the full year. The meeting went well and Jade says she will work on the logo for us as it simply slipped her mind.

Website – Data Collating & Fundraising

To date I have all the Competition winners thus far for the BA and HND classes. All the images and the data has been backed up on hard drives to prevent any issues of them being lost/corrupted.

There will be a car boot sale on the 28th April but as the website will still be under construction that will not be advertised. There will be bake sales, pub quizzes, raffles etc, so once we have our meeting on Wednesday we will ensure we have all the relevant data so we can place it on the site along with purchasing the domain name.

The Fundraising team have a funding link so we could add this to the site which may generate more funds outwith the college/students. Hospitality could have the photographer Colin McPherson to host the event but I have to hold back as they may get someone else as a post has been put out on Facebook to see if anyone has other contacts or suggestions. All my notes are up to date for the meeting and I will send a reminder nearer the time to ensure everyone turns up as we have no official classes on Wednesday.

Lastly I gave the Fundraising team the funds for my donations which I gathered £45 along with £5 of my own money that was agreed for each student to donate in the Facebook poll. Kind friends and family to help fill 4 bags of items that included clothes, CD’s, DVD’s, books, computer games, clothes, mirror, picture frames, bags, etc, for the boot sale. I am delighted that not only have I got the work done but I had good friends and family who where able to give a little to help out event. A huge thanks was given out to these lovely people and they have all been invited to the opening night on 4th June.

The next step is our team meeting and then crack on with the construction. We want this up in the next few weeks as it will help with advertising all the events along with the Exposed 19 exhibition.

Website – Gather Information & Assisting With Fundraising

Competition Image & Information

It has gone very well as I have 3 students work from the BA and HND who have won competitions at the moment. All the files have been sent via We Transfer and I have named and saved the images in appropriate folders to ensure that everything is in order to prevent any mix up later when placing these onto the website. All the files have been backed up on 4 drives to ensure nothing is lost.

As yet there has been no response from the Hospitality team with any information on an event Host or any other relevant information they feel would benefit being placed on the website. I will chase this up again in a few days as I need information to bring back to my team after the holiday

The Fundraising team have a car boot sale on the 28th April, possible bake sales, photography shoots etc planned. After our Website team meet up on the 24th April to ensure we have enough information, Weronika can start building on the template that has been put in place. The rest of us can assist once she had got the initial work done to ensure we do not mix up the site. The sooner this can be up and live the more we can assist Fundraising with advertising up coming events.

I have started to look for domain names and there are a number of sites who offer domain names for under £20 for the full year. We agreed to look at this after the holiday but I might start to look into this more if I get extra time in between shoots and editing.

Around £50 has been given to me so far in donations which I am delighted with. Along with this all the students have opted to give £5 each which will help the fund incredibly. Family and friends have given me 3 large bags full of CD’s, DVD’s, computer games, books, clothes, bags and other items to sell thanks to my Facebook post. The Fundraising team are trying to sort out storage so we are well on the way to getting more funds in.

Website – Meeting 1

On Wednesday we all met in college to discuss the research that we had done over the last week. The template has now been set up and we all have access to the website. It was agreed that we would not touch anything that Weronika works on until we meet as a group as this could cause issues if someone changes things.

I began the meeting with what I had found online regarding, colour/font choices, layout of the site, information required on the site, what extra information would be relevant, linking with other groups to advertise the event/generate more funds, etc. It really got the ball rolling. We all starting to compare notes and thoughts on what should and should not be placed onto the website.

I then took the time to show the group what I felt was important to work on to create the site. This list is as follows:

1. Choose 3 colours and a font that is consistent throughout the website
2. Collate student information from Graham McGirk (HND2 & BA) as the students will have passed this to him already
3. Collate 2 images per student (HND2 & BA) to be placed on the website (Quality 7)
4. Get any competition winners from this years studying to pass on the award they won, what agency it was with, the title or image name if relevant and the image itself (Quality 7)
5. Contact the Fundraising Team regarding any upcoming events to be placed on the website. Along with this if they have a crowdfunding page would be like the link place on the website to generate more funds.
6. Contact the Hospitality Team for the information on the guest speaker as this will gather more interest and excitement to Exposed 19
7. Contact Page will need a map, travel details (bus, tram, parking, etc), image of the inside/outside Out of the Blue Drill Hall & a link back to the Edinburgh College Photography Department
8. Possibly designing a logo for the website

The team where happy with what I came up with. The logo design was a suggestion by Jade and we where all happy with this. Steven will use an image of the interior from online and I reminded we will need to source this online to ensure not copy right breaches. He may photograph outside the building but we said if there is a good enough image already that would be sufficient.

So we then decided to divvy out the work load and we agreed as Weronika was doing enough with the website template/design, so Steven, Jade and myself would collate most of the information so that way she is not bogged down with to much to do. It was then discussed the next meeting would take place on Wednesday 24th April to see where we are as not all of the information will be available at this time as this is an ongoing process. Jade has agreed to do No. 2, 3 & 8, Steven will do No. 7 and I will do 4, 5 & 6. We did agree that the font will be basic and consistent for the site and it will only change size when it is a heading or subheading. The colour will be a green/blue for the dominate colour, accent colour (slightly varied for each) and the background colour will be a light grey/off white so that it is not distracting to much from the students work. The last matter was that when we have all this information we will then place it on the site and after we feel this is sufficient we will meet with the tutor to verify we have met the requirement. It will be then that we will purchase the domain name and recuperate the funds from Fundraising as this gives them time to raise some money.

Well I have placed my post on Facebook HND2 chat for the information I require from the students, Fundraising and Hospitality Team but I will need a contact for BA as if they are competition winners I will need this placed online.

Website Individual Research

Information Required to Break Down Website

It is all going well as we have our website template started. Now we have the next week to do some individual research before we meet up to go over what we have done and finalize what will work best for the Exposed 19 website along with who is being appointed certain roles to split the tasks.

Firstly I had a look over various websites along with last years Exposed 18 website to give me a starting point on what would work best to set out the website to advertise the event. For me I think it is wise to not over complicate the site and ensure it draws you to flick through the various pages to find out a little bit more on what the exhibition has to offer. I thought it would be best to split the website into sections. These pages could perhaps include:

• Welcome/Introduction
• Students Work (HND & BA)
• Events
• Contact/Information

From websites that I have looked at you usually have an ease use navigation tool bar or buttons to manoeuvre around the site. I feel having the most vital pieces of information in a few sections makes the event more intriguing as it will still give all the relevant information and be attractive to draw attention to the event but not giving it all away so people want to come to see the work that the students have done this year.

Welcome/Introduction

1. An explanation of the event that will take place
2. Where the event will be held (Out of the Blue Drill Hall), including address
3. When the Exposed 19 exhibition starts and ends
4. Opening days and times of the event
5. Image of what the event looks like

Students Work

1. Subsections of the HND & BA Student Photographers
2. Around 4 photographs for each student to showcase there work
3. Along with the images the students information (Same information that goes into the catalogue)
4. Ensure to add either to the individual students part of a further subjection on any awards/competitions have been won this academic year

Events

1. Placing all relevant fundraising information for say pub quiz, bake sales, etc
2. Link to a crowdfunding donations page such as JustGiving.com to enable viewers to the site to donate if they choose too

Contact/Information

1. Full name of the event, name/address of Out of the Blue Drill Hall & contact telephone number
2. Map of where the property is located for travel purposes
3. Image of what the outside property looks like
4. Information on local bus routes, trains and parking availability in the area
5. Link back to Edinburgh College in the case someone wants to enquire about the courses available

Colour Scheme

This is a very important factor when designing a website. You want to be able to attract people to view past the front page but not be to over powering that it puts people off. From my research the creative industries seems to suggest you can do what you want as these websites are colourful and attractive. The colour scheme needs to be no more than 3 colours which will need to compliment one another other. Looking online I found the Adobe Color Wheel which can assist with what colours work best together along with the particular shades as it is very specific when you adjust the wheel. This will be useful to go over with the team when we meet up soon in person.

I then found information on what certain colours mean and how they make people feel. An example of this is black which can suggest power, sophistication and luxury when red gives the impression of excitement and urgency. Following up my research I found that men and women both like blue and green as other colours they tend to differ in preference. Blue and green suggests a calming quality, wealth, tranquillity, peace and nature, which could work with the website as it will make the students images pop from the page and the calming colours will give colour but not over power the photography work.

For the colour scheme there will need to be a:

• Dominate Colour
• Accent Colour
• Background Colour

Each of these play an important part when making the website work.

Dominate Colour

1. For the brand logo (Exposed 19)
2. Menu tabs
3. Call button
4. Important information
5. Titles to each section

Accent Colour

1. Limited use for buttons
2. Subtitles/Subheadings
3. Quotes

Background Colour

1. This can be bold as we are involved with the Creative Industries but it must compliment the other 2 mentioned

Font

Next thing we need to think about is fonts. It needs to be a consistent theme like the colour which runs through as you do not want everything to differ as it will not look professional. It needs to be:

• Friendly and welcoming
• Creative but legible
• Professional
• Like the dominate colour it needs to be continuous throughout the website

The placing of text and images will be important as you can have white space but it must be evenly balanced. This will help the pages look more aesthetically pleasing and make it easier to view and manoeuvre through the website.

Work Allocation

We are arranging to meet up after this week to see all of the research to bring out the best points of each to implement into the Exposed 19 website. Once this has been done we can begin to split up the work load of the site construction. Initial thoughts and ideas below of what I feel is essential to complete the website are as follows:

1. Pick 3 colours along with the font for the website
2. Collate with tutor to get all the students HND & BA information which is going in the catalogue and this will be required for the website
3. Posting on Facebook/E-mailing student in HND & BA for 4 images to place on the site (Include a deadline to ensure you have all the images for the website)
4. Any award/competition winners get information on the award agency, what award was, title of image and image that won this semester
5. Make contact with Fundraising Team so site is constantly updated with any events
6. Set up a crowdfunding page like JustGiving.com so people visiting site can donate
7. Contact page find map, bus/tram routes, parking availability, image of property & link to college

Today I am going to message the team to try and arrange a date so we can discuss job roles and finalise the last choices to get this website construction underway.

References

Adobe Color CC. 2019. Color Wheel [online]. Adobe Color CC. Available from: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/?base=2&rule=Analogous&selected=3&name=My%20Color%20Theme&mode=rgb&rgbvalues=0.050000000000000044,1,0.8024338597563314,0.91,0.8024542508603634,0.04550000000000004,1,0,0,0.17783001264412102,0.4153221225979854,0.91,0.2785555585583097,1,0&swatchOrder=0,1,2,3,4 [Accessed 18/03/19]

Bestfolios.com. 2017. 10 Great Fonts for Portfolio Design [online]. A Medium Corporation. Available from: https://medium.com/@bestfolios/10-great-fonts-for-portfolio-design-2debfe2f1bb9 [Accessed 18/03/19]

Connie. 2019. How to Choose a Good Color Scheme For Your Website [online]. Website Builder Expert. Available from: https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/designing-websites/how-to-choose-color-for-your-website/# [Accessed 18/03/19]

JustGiving. 2019. Crowdfunding [online]. JustGiving. Available from: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/create {Accessed 18/03/19]

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