Section 10 : Final Completion

Final written evaluation of the artefact and your Project Management experience including the interaction with your client, collaborators or yourself - 1500 words

Student ID: UP857232

Creative Industry Project Management: Project Evaluation

This report is one in which I will describe the project undertaken in addition to the other aspects and components that contributed to the complete branding of me ,this would be done in an analytical and descriptive way so that the reader can understand the rationale for my work and may see the justification behind it such as the merits and benefits that the final artefact provides.

The brief was set by me and a number of requirements were outlined which were not only limited to the development of a professional website but also complementary components such as an Instagram and LinkedIn account which are vital for showcasing and gaining a foothold in the photography field when you are just starting out as these social media accounts help showcase your work and assist in the building of a fanbase/community.

My project was one in which I branded myself by creating a website from scratch .The website was created with regard to professional standards to showcase and display my work in a professional and appealing way so that users who may be p-potential clients or employers would be able to see samples of my work in addition to other vital information such as my contact details and social accounts which they can use to contact me.

In order to create a professional brand there were required assets that were very important such as a logo ,when designing the logo the process began by examining and researching a number of examples not only limited to photography personnel but other persons within the media industry and I noticed that they all had logos that either reflected their initials directly or the work which they do to some extent. A number of sketches were made and presented to the person who would then digitalize and illustrate the final product .After discussing what would work best for some time it was decided upon that initials would work best in my case and Shoheb Naz Miah ,the person I was collaborating with began the process towards completing my logo and delivered it as soon as he finished.

The social media accounts which were used to showcase my work was started before everything else so that I can begin to build up a following as photography was always an interest of mine and I built up quite a following in a short amount of time which consisted of nine hundred plus persons. The other account which I found important was LinkedIn and that was created and the account was adjusted to suit my needs.

My website was created and designed in a way in which the work showcased would show users of the site what I wanted to portray ,I wanted to design the site in such a way that the work should say everything that needed to be said and the words would be minimal so as to not overwhelm the user but absorb them into the visuals and make them want to see more .

The first steps in creating the project was to do the project planning which consisted of outlining what was required and then partitioning my time in a way that is not only appropriate but is timely ,after determining all this a Gantt chart was designed and produced so that every process and the time it should take would be outlined and I planned to stick to this schedule because I wanted to complete the assets and website in the time frame of a month because I found this to be very achievable and would leave me with enough time to improve on it and work on the documentation. The planning process did not only include the Gantt chart however there were also different analytical reflections that needed to be completed such as the SWOT which helped outline Strengths, weaknesses ,opportunities and threats to the project .This process was fairly simple since I have had previous experience with the software and different aspects of project planning that would be used to produce the Gantt chart ,SWOT analysis and other pre-production assets.

The software used for this project was very familiar to me since I have used most software that make up the adobe creative suite therefore creating and editing images in Photoshop and Illustrator were not a problem ,the website builder used to create my site was very easy to use also because it was a very simple user interface and I was familiar with similar interfaces so finding my way around and working with this one did not cause any problems whatsoever.

I believe that this project is important for my future career because it will not only help in creating a professional brand for me but also it will help me to connect with persons who work in the same or similar industry which I am trying to join through social media .By posting and being active on the different social media I can meet these people and gain experience that can help me become a better photographer and become more professional in regards to this field .

By having a logo and social media viewers would associate certain things with my logo which would help build my reputation and associate me with photography since it is what I will be using the logo for ,the logo would represent me and when it is recognised people should be able to instantly tell who I am and be able to find more of my work.

The collaboration that took place for this website was between me and a friend /classmate who I find easy and fun to work with, we communicated frequently and was able to complete the logo quickly because he took the sketches and created a logo which I verbally commented on. The constructive criticism was then taken, and the enhancements and changes were made to the logo which was completed in two days without running into any problems that delayed the project’s process.

The final part of ensuring everything was set and ready to be published publicly was the usability and accessibility testing which was the step in which I ensured that all devices and browsers would be able to access my website because it was very important that the website was reflexive and accessible to everyone therefore the site was tested on different devices and browsers by myself and different persons to ensure it met all requirements and when it passed the testing stage it was published fully on the internet where anyone can view and access it.

There are many merits of the project ,the main merit in my opinion is that there is now a professional website with social media accounts which go along with and complement the site because there is a live feed on the website which updates along with the social media accounts ,however there are some minor problems which would easily be resolved with future developments such as the assortment of work available on the site is not a lot due to this being a fairly new brand but as time passes and I complete more pieces of work or post more to the social media accounts these will resolve themselves.

One of the problems that I encountered was getting the site and domain linked due to the fact that there are DNS settings that need to be adjusted and values that need to be input in order to get the hosting service to be able to communicate with the domain so that when the URL is entered it would be directed towards the website stored on the web hosting server since they were two different services provided by two different businesses.

There are future developments I plan to make and if I had more time, I would try to make them such as the current web hosting service I am utilising appears to be a bit slow at times so I would switch to a more reliable service which would be faster and more reliable.

Another future development I would make is that I would have added more work if I had more time however I plan to actively update the site frequently and improve as I post so that viewers can see my improvement and it would get more professional.

In the future I would also like to create other artefacts such as business cards and also include a CV in my website however because I want to be self employed I did not find it a priority for this project at this point in time

Overall I am happy with the final outcome of this project and I think it will be very useful in the progression of my career path into the freelance world of photography, the social media and website would also help me to form a network and communicate with persons in the same or similar fields or just persons with advice or feedback that can help with the development and betterment of my brand.

To view the original document please refer to the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G7sLxJ__9-AdYo36g5T_jEwzUOOfdoW6/view?usp=sharing