Working In Digital Media – Fiona Kelly
March 15, 2010Today, Fiona Kelly came in to talk to us about “Seeking Inspiration”.
Fiona Kelly was a freelance web designer. She started working in print, before applying for a Interactive Design FÁS course. She was one of 15 to be accepted out of over 500 applicants. After the course she began her own company, Glimmer, and specialises in designing web pages, flash banner adverts and logos. She has been working in the area for 15 years.
Fiona Kelly started the lecture by quoting Jim Jamush – “Nothing is original.” Everyone steals from each other, and steals little bits from everyone else’s ideas or creations.
Fioan Kelly went on to talk to us about some previous jobs she had worked on. Her previous jobs included;
ScootlerIsland
Fiona Kelly created a web page for the company “Scooter Island” Her brief was to make it “lightweight” and ”easy to update”. Fiona told us how she used websites like iStockPhoto (www. istockphoto.com) to find images to fit with the websites theme. She told us that she could spend up to two weeks researching photos and designs before starting the project. She may take small parts of loads of different designs to create her banner for the website. The design may go through 5-10 different outcomes before a final one is selected.
Fat Kitty Films
Fiona created a logo for the film company, Fat Kitty Films. She told us how she would again spend weeks researching images for the logo, before creating many different variations before sending a select few off to the client. The client would then select the final design.
MyHome
Fiona also showed us of an example of a flash banner she created for MyHomes.ie. She told us about her “inspiration folder” where she keeps images and designs that she has loved but never got around to using before. In the case of MyHomes.ie, she finally had a job where she could use a design from her “inspiration folder”. The result was a flash design using straight lines that curve, with text passing through and images borrowed from other designs.
Fiona also told us of some difficult clients she had:
Dublin Gay Theatre Festival
Fiona said it as difficult working on a web design for the client because they didn’t want to change that much of their original design.
Puca
And it was difficult working with the above client because they had unclear guidelines.
Fiona recommended that as first year students we take on as much experience as we can because it can all go towards a portfolio. Even the wort clients can lead to good portfolio material.
“Talent is the desire to practise”
Fiona’s Website
http://www.glimmer.ie/
