Non Web Designer Three

Peter Saville
Peter Saville is a graphic designer from Manchester. He is most famous for creating record sleeves for Factory Records and has designed covers for such bands as Joy Division and New Order.

I have been a fan of Factory Records and the bands they employed for a long time and I was always intrigued by the interesting simplicity of the record covers. I then started to look into the design and that is where I discovered Saville. I then went on to look at his other work he did for the 'Hacienda' club in Manchester.

All of his designs are very simple but yet so effective, and this is a theme which has run through all of the other successful designers I have looked at. This is also something I can interpret in my own work.

My favorite bits of Saville's work are the posters he created to advertise the different nights which were happening at the Hacienda. They all followed a similar theme which contained big bold colours and stood out amongst other designs. This is definitely something which I could interpret in my work by using big bold colours to attract the users attention, but at the same time not overcrowding the page with many contrasting colours.

Non Web Designer Two

Shane Meadows (http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/)
Shane Meadows is a director and screen writer from Uttoxeter. He has been my favourite director ever since I first saw the film 'Dead Man's Shoes'. The way he creates atmosphere within a film and really sets the scene for the audience is why I was mainly drawn to him, along with great storylines and scriptwriting.

I like the way he uses simple landscapes within his films, the kind of landscapes you look at and can straight away connect with as they are generally of commonly seen sights and areas. I can also relate to him on a personal level as he is from an area very close to me, and many of his films have been filmed where I live and some of my friends have also featured in these films.

He has won several awards for his films and achieved some success with the release of his most famous film 'This is England'.

I am inspired by Meadows on a daily basis, when I see things around me which look similar to the images portrayed in his films. I can take inspiration from the way he has stuck to his roots and is able to connect with so many different people through simple imagery.

Creating things which people can relate to gives you a much greater chance of achieving success and I can try to bring this across in my work. By creating imagery which people are familiar with and like my work will be spread across a more wide audience.

Non Web Designer One

Raf Simons (http://www.rafbyrafsimons.com/)
Raf Simons is a 41 year old fashion designer from Belgium. He is strictly a menswear designer and has his own brand of clothing, Raf by Raf Simons, as well as designing for other companies. I became aware of Raf when he did some work for Fred Perry.

Fred Perry is a clothing brand which I am a massive fan of, I have spent a lot of money on their clothes and own hundreds of items. Raf announced a collaboration with Fred Perry in 2008 and they bought out several garments, primarily knitwear, but also some more casual items. The collaboration was fairly successful, although all the items were priced towards the top end of the market.

Raf primarily appealed to me because he was designing for Fred Perry, but through this collaboration I discovered his other work. Despite the fact I probably wouldn't wear his own personal brand, I still admire the way he has really expressed his own identity through his clothing. After looking more into Raf's work I discovered his website, this also fits in extremely well with his identity as it is based on a white background with very few things shown on the screen at any one time. This works really well and keeps you focused on what is important on each page.

I am influenced by Raf in the way he is able to express himself through his practice. You can really see his identity in the clothes he designs. He keeps them simple and sharp, creating stylish items. I can apply this into websites I create by being very minimal and taking the approach that keeping it simple keeps it effective. I can also be influenced by the way he has used a lot of experimentation during his career, this can easily be done through web design by collaboration with people from different areas of design and multimedia.

Waterfall and Whirlpool Software Development Methods

The waterfall and whirlpool software development methods are very similar in what they do. They have both been designed in order to break down tasks for a project into smaller, more manageable pieces. This enables you to see each specific part of a project and will give you an idea of how many tasks you have left to do, much like a gantt chart.

The waterfall method is given its name as it looks like a waterfall, flowing downwards as you complete each phase of the project through the stages; requirements, analysis, design, build and testing. It is a very strict method, in the way you cannot begin the next task until the one you are currently working on has been fully completed. This means there is no room for error as you cannot go back to a previous section.

Whereas the whirlpool method flows round in a circle allowing you to go back to the start if required. This method allows the user to flow more, much like an actual whirlpool, and it gives you some freedom to work on different sections until you are completely happy with them.

The waterfall method is very straightforward and indicates that you work through each phase just once until it is completed. This is not very good for a web designer as it means you cannot go back to any of the previous sections in order to alter your work. This of course is a huge part of web design as it is important the client is happy.

The whirlpool method seems much more suited to web design as it allows the designer to go back to previous sections once a full circle has been completed. It allows you to constantly update and evaluate your design. This is good if you have a client as they may want you to update the website on a regular basis.

The Waterfall Method