MediaCast Blog; Final Design Proposals (Task 3)

I approached this task by creating 3 different Design Proposals, each having a matching Poster, Banner and Colour Scheme. The idea is that when people see the poster and then enter the blog and see the banner and colour scheme, they can associate them all together.

Design Proposal 1

Banner

In the first banner I created two lighting effects from both corners using filters in Photoshop. This light is coming down on the mediacast logo, to which I added some inner bevel to create the illusion of the light on the letters.

Poster

I created the same lighting effect on the mediacast logo as I used in the banner. Then I added the sticky note and I wrote "What's new with". The idea behind this was that MCAST first introduced the media courses, then mediacast was born, and then the programme "Int Min Int" started being produced. So now, what's new with mediacast? The mediacast blog. I used the caption "Your Blog" because this poster is aimed at the mediacast students, who will be using the blog, so it is really and truly their blog.

Colour Scheme

The colour scheme is composed of colours which are all found in the poster and banner. They will be used as follows; Black for the Background, White for the text, Blue for the Post Title and Yellow for the Links and Labels. The fonts used will be the same as those used here in my personal blog; Gruppo for the Post Title and Calibri for all the other text to create as a professional look as possible.

Design Proposal 2

Banner

This is the only banner I kept from the previous 3 banners; I discarded the other two. As I explained in the previous blog post, I created this banner by using a screenshot from the filming for our advertisement and adding some filters and adjustments. Finally I added the mediacast logo at the top left corner.

Poster

In this poster I took a photo of someone with the mediacast tshirt and I cropped it as I wanted to. I then selected the neck and the arm and created a layer via copy. I desatureated it and used a smart blur filter to get the outlines and I then used the invert adjustment. Finally I used the pen tool to create a stroke path and get a more visible outline. I used the same caption I used in the previous poster; Your Blog. Coming Soon.

Colour Scheme

In this color scheme I used the black and white and the colours found in the MCAST logo; green and gold. The colours will be used as in the previous colour scheme. Black for the Background, White for the text, Green for the Post Title and Yellow for the Links and Labels. The proposed fonts here are also Gruppo and Calibri.

Design Proposal 3

Banner

Since one can access the mediacast blog only from a laptop or a computer, I took a photo of a media student with a laptop (which is also used in the poster below), adjusted the brightness and added the text to create my final blog banner.

Poster

I used the same photo I used in the banner and again adjusted the brightness. Finally I added the same caption I used in all of my posters; Your Blog. Coming Soon.

Colour Scheme

I based this colour scheme on black, light brown, blue/green and turquoise as I think that they are colours which go very well together. The black will again be used for the background, this time the text will be in light brown, the Post Title in Blue/Green and the links and labels in Turquoise. I always used a bright colour for the links and labels so they stand out from the normal text. The fonts are Gruppo and Calibri also in this third and final proposal.

MediaCast Blog; Colour Schemes (Task 3a)

These are the 3 colour schemes I am proposing for the MediaCast blog. They are very similar as I have in mind to include only particular colours in the blog, based on the research my group and I conducted. This is because the majority of the students asked for simple colours based on a grayscale and the colours found in the MediaCast logo.

Colour Scheme 1 - White, black and the colours found in the MCAST logo

Colour Scheme 2 - White, black, gray (to be based on a grayscale) and gold (to have a colour which stands out)

Colour Scheme 3 - White, black, green and yellow (found in the MCAST logo) but which are brighter than the ones in Colour Scheme 1 

The colours would be used in the following way;

In all colour schemes
Colour 1 (white) - Text Colour and Date Header
Colour 2 (black) - Background and Background of the Post Footer

Colour Schemes 1 & 3
Colour 3 (green) - Post Title and Text in Post Footer
Colour 4 (yellow) - Link Colour and Labels

Colour Scheme 2
Colour 3 (gray) - Text in Post Footer
Colour 4 (gold) - Link Colour, Labels and Post Title

MediaCast Blog; Banners (Task 3a)

Finally my three MediaCast blog banners are ready!

I created this by downloading a font which looks like a film strip and removed the letters from inside it (by creating another layer and using a white brush to cover them) since I didn't like the font. I wrote each letter separately and placed them inside the film strip and then put the image of the scissors between "Media" and "Cast" to generate the idea of editing. Finally I added the last sentence using a simple font and the colours found in the MCAST logo.

The second one is composed from a screenshot I took from our filming of the advertisement, adding some adjustments and filters. Finally I added the MediaCast logo at the top left.

In the third and last one, I filled the background with a gradient composed of the colours found in the MCAST logo and I added some stroke effect to the "MediaCast" text. To finish it off, I added some brushes to the background in black and white and changed the opacity and Blending Mode untill I was satisfied.

MediaCast Blog; Design Proposal (Task 2b)

One of the ideas I would propose for the blog aesthetics would be a black or grayscale plain background with a striking banner. I would use the colour scheme shown below; a combination of greens and yellows which are the colours used in the MCAST logo to show that MediaCast falls under MCAST. I would also use white so that the banner stands out, creates contrast with the black background and attracts more attention. I would avoid bright colours such as fluorescent pink and yellow. This is based on the market research conducted where students were asked which colours they would prefer to see in the blog. With regards to the font to use, I would use a plain font such as Calibri so as to keep everything simple and with a most professional look as possible. As for the layout of the blog, I would place the banner in the top middle with the Navigation Bar below it. I would then place the blog posts in the middle with brief information about MediaCast on the left. Below this information there will be a link to the MediaCast forum. On the right there will be the labels and at the very bottom the Logos and Credits.

Colour Scheme:

Site-Map:

MediaCast Blog; The MediaCast Identity (Task 2a)

The Brief

This semester we were all divided into groups of 4 or 5 people. Each group will come up with a proposal for the MediaCast blog where students and lecturers can share opinions, ideas and communicate better. MediaCast is made up of all the Media students attending the MCAST Art & Design Institute, a community which is growing more and more each year. At the end of the semester one of the proposed blogs will be chosen and will be used by all the members of MediaCast.

Who is the audience?

·      Media Lecturers at the MCAST Institute of Art & Design

·      MCAST-BTEC Diploma in Art & Design students

·      MCAST-BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art & Design students

·      MCAST-BTEC National Diploma in Creative Media Production students

·      MCAST-BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production students

·      MCAST-BTEC Higher National Diploma in Media (Moving Image) students

·      Potential Employers of MediaCast members

Market Research

What is MediaCast?

In the 2009/2010 scholastic year, the MCAST Institute of Art & Design introduced the Media courses. Since a name was needed which all the projects produced by these students can fall under and the name of each course would have been too long, MediaCast was invented. It is a play on words between the words “media” and “MCAST”. All the projects produced by Media students at MCAST now fall under this small organization called MediaCast. The MediaCast members are all the students attending the following courses;

·      MCAST-BTEC Diploma in Art & Design (Media)

·      MCAST-BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Media)

·      MCAST-BTEC National Diploma in Creative Media Production

·      MCAST-BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production

·      MCAST-BTEC Higher National Diploma in Media (Moving Image)

Information gathered from MediaCast members

·      List of clients who have already worked with MediaCast

-      EU Publication

-      MCAST

-      PBS

-      WINK

·      Projects MediaCast have already worked on or are currently working on

-      Stopmotion animation (ND2)

-      Short Film (ND2 and HND2)

-      Music Video Production with Maltese Bands; TwoTimeShooter, Relikc and K.O.I (ND2)

-      Ident; Title Opening ‘Int Min Int’ and logo (ND2)

-      Advertisement EU Bookshop (ND2)

-      Multi-Camera Interview Techniques (ND2)

-      Sound for Interactive Game (ND2)

-      2D Animation (ND2)

-      Green Living Promotional Videos (ED1)

-      Documentary (HND2)

-      Short Experimental Film on the History of Art or Shipyards (Foundation Diploma)

-      ‘Int Min Int’ filming weekly on Mondays (HND1)

·      Sections MediaCast members would like to see in a blog

-      Updates on new films, teachers, etc

-      Tutorials

-      What is Media? To encourage aspiring students who wish to study media

-      Resource Sites

-      Personal Profiles to get to know other students

-      Forum (with comments and posts approved by an administrator)

-      Students’ Work

-      Gallery

·      Suggestions for the Design of the MediaCast blog

-      “Less is more; grayscale; blue” (HND1)

Copyright & Ethical Issues

“Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression.” [Wikipedia]

All the work posted in the blog will be copyrighted with a watermark so that nobody copies or distributes other’s work without permission. Furthermore, nothing will be posted without the permission of the author and no extra details (ex: telephone numbers, addresses, etc) of students will be posted on the blog as this is a public website in which anyone can enter.

Confidentiality

All extra details about students or their work will be kept confidential and no work will be posted if the owner does not wish to do so; permission from the owner will be asked for at all times.

Intellectual Property Rights

“Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.” [Wikipedia]

As mentioned beforehand, all the work posted will be copyrighted and have a watermark. In addition, the mouse right click will be disabled so as to keep the free reproduction of students’ work to a minimum.

Technical Considerations

·        The possibility of having comments moderated by an admin

·        The possibility of embedding a forum into the blog, otherwise a link will be used

·        Disabling the mouse right click

·        The possibility of commenting on posts created in extra pages in blogger

·        Online Video Codecs and Formats

-    Developers may choose to provide the same audio / video content in multiple formats, at varying quality levels, to ensure maximum playability across target audiences and target devices.

-    Mature video platforms are typically able to ingest a single video/audio file, and transcode it to several target formats, as defined by the web developer.

-    Typical target file formats are listed below. Inclusion does not imply endorsement:

-    Video

Video Technology Center (Adobe)

The WebM Project (WebM Project)

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Wikipedia)

Theora (Wikipedia)

-    Audio

MP3 (Wikipedia)

AAC (Wikipedia)

Ogg Vorbis (Wikipedia)

-    Flash Coverage; Flash-based video players remain the dominant form of video delivery. However, customised work-arounds are usually required to fully address accessibility issues, and several emerging devices and platforms are reducing their support for Flash.

http://webguide.gov.au/types-of-content/online-video/

online-video-technical-considerations/

My role in the MediaCast blog..

As part of our assignments, we are required to form a group and together create a design for the MediaCast blog. Eventually one blog will be chosen to be officially used by all the Media students attending the MCAST Institute of Art & Design. Each person from each group has a specific role to carry out, choosing from the roles of Researcher, Designer, Developer and Marketer.

The roles in my group are divided as follows;

Research - Jessica Catania & Francesca Piscopo

Design - Naomi Mamo

Development - Deborah Farmer

Marketing - Maria Vella

After this decision had been taken, we individually researched what our roles consist of and what we should do so that we carry out our role in the best possible way.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.

Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer.

- Wikipedia

Since my role is all about marketing, I also need to work hand in hand with those conducting research because marketing is divided into two stages; Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing.

Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out:

1. What specific groups of potential customers/clients (markets) might have which specific needs (nonprofits often already have a very clear community need in mind when starting out with a new program -- however, the emerging practice of nonprofit business development, or earned income development, often starts by researching a broad group of clients to identify new opportunities for programs)
2. How those needs might be met for each group (or target market), which suggests how a product might be designed to meet the need (nonprofits might think in terms of outcomes, or changes, to accomplish among the groups of clients in order to meet the needs)
3. How each of the target markets might choose to access the product, etc. (its "packaging")
4. How much the customers/clients might be willing pay and how (pricing analysis)
5. Who the competitors are (competitor analysis)
6. How to design and describe the product such that customers/clients will buy from the organization, rather than from its competitors (its unique value proposition)
7. How the product should be identified -- its personality -- to be most identifiable (its naming and branding)

Outbound Marketing Includes:

1. Advertising and promotions (focused on the product)
2. Sales
3. Public and media relations (focused on the entire organization)
4. Customer service
5. Customer satisfaction

- http://managementhelp.org/mrktng/mrktng.htm