Elephant in the Room

Thoughts from the real world..

Sheila Sugavanam — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:18:31 +0000

It has been a while since I last wrote. It is a strange time at the moment. Term was only 9 weeks long and then the program was effectively done with a 6 week placement left to go. The last term was at best a bit of a blur but I am now starting to see why we were pushed out into the real world so quickly. It is so important to make a concerted effort to keep learning and acquiring knowledge.

The multidisciplinary nature of interactive multimedia is such that we try to learn so many new skills in a short time span that we end up not knowing one thing really well. This reiterates the necessity to keep learning and building knowledge long after academic life.

I am now about a week and a half into my work placement which has been educational and very enjoyable. Seeing how design and development are tackled outside of school is a different world. Many times I have heard fellow students eagerly talking about setting up a business right after graduation. I hope the experience of work placement does enough to convey that this is actually a really tough job to do and should be tackled realistically. The organizational and administrative efforts alone of managing clients and accounts are definitely one thing to consider first and foremost.

Working alongside exceptional designers and developers could be enough to intimidate but if anything I am becoming more and more inspired every day. Being the only woman on the floor has also made me realize how largely male dominated the field of multimedia still is. Still, no great surprise there, especially when we see how undoubtedly the male gender has influenced the internet as we know it today. I do hope to see more women working in multimedia, making their mark in this field and changing the internet’s stereotypical male image. I certainly want to be one of them.

History of the internet

Sheila Sugavanam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:41:28 +0000

An informative animated documentary by Melih Bilgil explaining inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet..

Check out imCareer

Sheila Sugavanam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:19:07 +0000

As I come to the end of my program at Algonquin, I want to mention imCareer, a web community, co-founded with three of my good buddies.

imCareer is a community of Interactive Multimedia (IM) job seekers. The goal is to share information on starting a career in interactive multimedia. We divulge on a number of topics including preparing for interviews, building your personal brand, using social media to your advantage, finding the hidden job market.

So far we have had a good response to our community and we will keep building and growing our presence and provide useful information to all out there interested in or starting a career interactive multimedia.

Find imCareer on the web
imCareer Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Photoshop is how old?

Sheila Sugavanam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:14:23 +0000

Some may not know this but Photoshop is actually 20 years old!

To celebrate I found this interesting video which takes a look at the software’s first unveiling on TV and the founders of Photoshop reunion twenty years on…

ok, maybe a silly video to some, but strangely compelling and quite brilliant..

Sheila Sugavanam — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:18:26 +0000

Web Checklist

Sheila Sugavanam — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:05:38 +0000

I am sorry for not posting more substantially. Much of this has been down to homework and avoiding a computer screen when I can after that. I have however been fairly active online looking up ideas on portfolios and web design as I enter my final couple of weeks.

I came across an interesting piece on Essentials Checks before launching a website.

While some of the items may seem obvious, some I had not considered and now look forward to implement.

Web Checklist

CSS IS AWESOME

Sheila Sugavanam — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:58:43 +0000

It certainly is in the form of this fantastic mug!

/*css is awesome*/

A Music Video Worth Watching

Sheila Sugavanam — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:21:52 +0000

100 Essential Websites

Sheila Sugavanam — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:19:31 +0000

Whether or not you agree this is a pretty decent list of what’s out there currently in the world of web.

100 Essential Websites

Anything missing worth mentioning?

16th Century-Style Portfolio

Sheila Sugavanam — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:14:30 +0000

As I was looking around for ideas for my portfolio I came across an unexpected sample, namely one dating back to the 16th century.

The Macclesfield Alphabet Book, produced c1500 is possibly the oldest design studio marketing portfolio in existence. The British Library is hoping to raise enough money to purchase the book from its current owner at a price of just under 1 million Canadian Dollars. I actually would have expected this to be worth more.

Luckily samples of the portfolio are available to view online and it contains a variety of incredible scripts, letters and decorative borders. It is believed that all the samples derive from the same workshop. Pretty impressive stuff, not even considering the painstaking amount of time and effort that would have been put in to produce it.