Project Overview Movie:
Critical Evaluation:
My project
originally started off as collaboration with my friend Loren, owner of a
bespoke / custom cake company called all
kinds of cake. She wanted to expand the horizons of the company and
establish a base with which she can work from and increase public awareness of
her business in order to increase her revenue; helping to turn it from a hobby
business into a more profitable, professional company and maybe eventually developing
it into a shop.
In order to
take her business forward we both decided a website was absolutely crucial, the
amount of people online is ever increasing and having a medium with which to
contact these people gives a huge advantage to a business. Creating a website
was only the start of it however, Loren and I had decided that the website
would need to be as professional as possible; in order to develop a really
effective website we had to essentially set about developing the business as a
brand, encompassing all aspects of business branding including things like a
logo and graphics etc. As a collaboration this led to some really interesting
and unique opportunities, both Loren and I have a keen eye for design and so
developing a theme for the company as well as an eye catching logo (primarily
for the website but with a view that it may eventually be used in a shop)
proved to be really enjoyable and successful.
We both had
very different ideas initially, due to our different interests and backgrounds.
My initial approach to the project was drawing on a more surreal, anime style
as I thought that it would be a completely unique approach, this was based on
my own personal associations with cakes. Loren was firmly against this idea and
wanted to use a theme based around the style of the 1950’s, this would evoke a
more retro-diner feel, using soft, pastel colours and stylistic fonts. It
didn’t take her long to convince me that this was the way to go and it made me
look at the project with a different thought process. This led me to develop
ideas that I probably would have not have even come up with had I gone on with
the anime idea without Loren’s feed back in collaboration.
The
decision-making was left mainly with me, everything creative like logos and
themes were initially my development after we had agreed on a stylistic
direction during our many meetings. I would then get extensive verbal feedback
from Loren. Using this feedback I would go away, rethink and edit my ideas and
get feedback again, repeating the process until we were both happy with a
finely tuned, finished product. This was in no way an easy process, both Loren
and I were having personal problems in our own lives and although the work was
progressing, it was not at the rate that was necessary to stay on schedule. The
development of an entire brand would be a full time job outside of the academic
context and would probably need a specially assigned team to get everything done
properly. The many unexpected obstacles and hurdles we both faced slowed us
down in the development process. Eventually we did agree on a logo and a theme
but it was much later in the project than I would have liked.
Because the
project had hit a snag in terms of staying on track with the timetable, the
process of developing a website with all of the features I had planned became a
daunting task, particularly as I still had a lot of work to complete with the
deadline looming closer and closer. In order to tackle this I brought in a
website developer, another friend of mine, Paul. This expanded the
collaboration further especially because I had to then relay messages between
him and Loren’s Father Jim, who owns the domain names and server space intended
to host the finished website.
Initially
this was a very good move, Paul was very receptive of ideas and knowing the
urgency at which I needed the website developed he began immediately. This
enthusiasm did not last very long unfortunately and his progress became slow. I
began to think that maybe he underestimated the level of work required and would
not be able to complete the site to the agreed deadlines or to spec. He was
very hard to reach at this point and I think it may have been down to
embarrassment, owing to the fact that we are also friends and he had to let me
down. I feel if he were a professional this would probably not have occurred. I
personally did not have a problem that he would not be able to do it but it I
would like to have been properly notified, so that I would have had a chance to
correct the situation.
I started to
feel that I would need to try and create a contingency / back up plan, which
involved me developing a website using an online website development tool
called moonfruit. This was a challenge as I had not used the software before
and had to learn it as I went because there simply was not enough time left. It
proved however to be a very good tool as the website came together and there
were easy features that gave me ideas of how to better improve the site. Loren
liked the website I had developed as I was able to make a unique site which
included most of the features I had originally planned as well as some extra
ones, most notably the social widgets.
The project
is going to be an on going one and now, just because the website is done and
the branding has begun it does not mean that my role is finished. The project
has been a huge learning curve; I initially thought that working with Loren, as
a friend, would be a relaxed atmosphere and would go seamlessly. This was not
the case and because of the friendship it was assumed that we would be more lenient
on each other when unable to attend meetings due to personal issues, which set
us back in our progress. If this was not an academic piece of work but an
actual professional job (i.e. Loren had hired me or there was no prior
relationship between us) I feel it would have gone smoother, Loren would have
been more interested in deadlines as it would be her money being spent and it
is likely she would have had a clearer agenda on the design side of things from
the start.
Bringing in
Paul was a decision I did not take lightly and although it appeared promising
at the beginning it quickly went on to prove fruitless, I do not blame Paul for
this, I was misinformed about what he could do and I dropped him in the deep
end, he was just trying to help a friend as a favour and probably didn’t
understand the scale of the work that needed to be done. Again, if this was a
professional project I would have had to spend money bringing in somebody who I
knew could get the job done by way of extensive research, in this project I
lacked the resources to be able to do that.
I feel that
although there were numerous snags and hiccups within all stages of the project
the fact that Loren and I are both happy with the end result proves that it was
a successful collaboration. In reality, whenever an agreement is made to work
with other people, you are taking on board all of their problems and issues, in
a professional setting a contract would be drawn up to ensure that these are
minimalized when it comes to getting the work done. In this project the
opposite happened and the problems were exacerbated, coming before the work
because of our existing understanding and friendship.
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