Unit 308 - Principles of Social Media Advertising and Promotion

Unit 308 - Principles of Social Media Advertising and Promotion

Be able to plan how to use digital vouchers for marketing purposes

• 1.1 Define the term digital vouchers

Digital voucher are vouchers that are available online for orders and sometimes to print to use in shops. They are available on company websites, social media outlets, texts, and if your subscribed to mailing lists. Websites such as Groupon are specialised in selling digital vouchers and codes. For example, I received a email from Snowdome with a code to get money off an activity. 

• 1.2 Explain the potential uses of digital vouchers.

Digital vouchers could be used to promote a product but offering money off. 

They can also be used to promote deals of the day. This is a good way to promote different products.

Also you could use tickets or discounted gift certificates by delivered through web or via email. Digital vouchers are a good way to increase brand awareness. RetailMeNot said that ‘on average, consumers will spend 2 hours a week dedicated to hunting for deals online.’ 

You could also encourage social sharing of vouchers. This could be like a student discount code. By sharing these vouchers this could encourage more people use your products or services. RetailMeNot said that ‘40% of consumers will share an email offer with their friend and 28% of consumers will share deals via social media platforms’.

• 1.3 Research the current disadvantages of digital vouchers.

One disadvantage could be that you might not make any money by using digital vouchers as a promotional method but it would still cost the company money. Ultimately resulting in a loss or no profit. So you would have to consider the cost of using vouchers as a way of advertising vs. a low profit margin. 

Another disadvantage would be negative impact on brand image. By this I mean it could make your company look cheap.

Also Customers may get used to waiting for deals, rather than paying full price. So if they see something they like they might wait until theres a deal rather than buying it there and then.

By using vouchers many customers might only use your company because of the voucher rather than because of the products you offer. This would result in a lack of customer retention.

Another disadvantage would be that coupons that are intended for specific market, parents, young people or professionals, can leak more broadly therefore not reaching your target market. 

• 1.4 Explain how to overcome the barriers of using digital vouchers for acquisition and retention of customers.

Process for customer retention. According to the Harvard Business School, increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25 percent to 95 percent. I think a good way for customer retention is communication, this could be email updates with new stock or promotions. The next point in the process is selling. 

If customers had a good buying process with you, for example when I brought a new car the company gave me constant updates via email and phone and all the staff were really friendly and helpful, customers will most likely will use your company or products again. Also by offering good customer service, this could attract new customers via the word of mouth.

I think the next point of customer retention is support. This could be by answering customer queries or complaints quickly and effectively. 

Another way to overcome the barriers would be by offering your customers incentives. For example, you could run competitions on your social media pages to encourage engagement and gain more brand awareness as well as getting customers involved. Another incentive could be using photos or reviews from your customers, you could do this by post asking customers to post pictures of them using your product and that your company can then share. A further example would be giveaways. You could run a giveaway campaign by using your social media accounts as a way to enter. 

You can offer brand special exclusive deals. For example, Dominos post a variety of discounts and vouchers to local areas to encourage people to buy their products. Another example would be loyalty cards. Big companies such as Starbucks, Costa, Subway and Morrisons offer there customers points cards so after a certain amount of purchases they get a reward. According to RetailMeNot ’91% of coupon redeemers have said they will purchase from a retailer again’.

• 1.5 Plan a SMART digital voucher campaign for a business

Specific - My digital voucher campaign is going to be for DCAS. We could run a voucher code on our social media accounts that if people bring a new person to a session they can redeem and get one free art or music session.

Measurable - To gain at least 10 new customers. 

Achievable - As many of the people to attend the session currently don’t come with friends from school, I think this is a very achievable goal. 

Relevant - This is a good goal to gain more customers eventually resulting in a profit.

Timely - This campaign will run throughout the month of July and will end on the 31st July.

• 1.6 Explain methods of managing a digital voucher system

You could manage digital vouchers by using online numbered coupon allocations. For example when sending the vouchers out they have different codes so they an’t be used more than once.

You could publish a code or URL online so anyone who follows your social media platforms or shop online can get access to the code. They can share this with friends which could result in more sales.

You could use a online database of allocation maintained by vendor. This way each customer will receive a individual voucher tailored for them.

• 1.7 Explain how to measure the effectiveness of a digital voucher campaign

You could measure the effectiveness by looking at statistics of how many people used the voucher to buy your product or service compared to how many you sold without the voucher offer. 

If they were promoted via social media you could look at the engagements on the posts and comments. You could look at the sales to see if there was an increase.

Be able to plan the implementation of Social Networking site advertising campaigns for Marketing purposes

• 2.1 Explain the factors to consider when creating Social Networking site adverts

The first point you need to consider is who is your targeted to audience. Who are you advertising to. For example, this could be young people, parents, specialists or groups. You need to use a appropriate social networking site. For example if you were trying to promote something to young people you probably wouldn't want to advertise it on LinkedIn. You need to create appropriate call to actions. These are good to get peoples attention. You will also need to consider your time constraint. For example if you were advertising a event, you don’t want to keep advertising it after the event has happened. You will need to come up with a design for the adverts you are going to post. You need to know what content you are actually going to post, such as details, images and contact information. You will need to consider your budget for advertising and look at the available advertising methods and what are the best ways to spend your money on. Finally you will need to consider multi- channel campaign targeting and analytics. This means how you will get in contact with people via websites, retail stores, direct mail, email, mobile etc and how you will track it. It is important to use analytics so you can see if your campaign is working and who it is appealing to. 

• 2.2 Justify the use of Social Networking site advertising campaigns.

Social networking site campaigns are a easy and free way to raise awareness of your product or service. You can interact with people through social media and it is easy to share and get the word out about your company and product.  

Social media is a good way to gain new customers as you can reach new audiences and interact with people all over the world. 

It is a good way to keep your current customers as you can keep them up to date with news and offers through social media platforms. You can also respond to any questions or complaints through social media.

You can gain a lot more traffic to your website as you can post about a new offer or item and people will click the link because its fast and easy. This will increase your click through to website. 

You can change your company perception through social media through your branding and the content you post. For example, when DCAS first opened it was seen as a music centre and a recording studio whereas now we post more content than music related posts, such as art, photography and film.

It’s also good for social media amplification. A advertising campaign will help you gain more interactions as people will want to share the new product or find out more. People will follow, like or share your posts to keep up to date or just because they like it and wasn't to share it to others.

• 2.3 Explain the importance of identifying the required outcomes from the Social Networking advertising campaigns

By identifying the required outcomes you will know what you need to aim for. For example, if you want to gain a new audience, once you identify the audience, you can plan your campaign around the audience. Such as if it was aimed at young people, the best time to post on social media would be between 7-9 am and 4-8pm. It will also help you tailor your campaign to the correct target audience. By identifying what you want to achieve from the campaigns, such as increase of sales, more interactions etc, you can tailor your campaign to achieve these goals. For example if your main goal was to achieve more sales of a specific product you would post frequently about it or run a special deal to appeal to more people.

• 2.4 Explain the advantages of creating more than one advertising campaign running in parallel on the same social networking site.

A advantage of creating more than one social media campaign is that it gives your social media feeds a variety of posts rather than every post is from same campaign. This will stop people getting bored of seeing the same posts over and over again and not unfollowing your social media pages.

By running more than one campaign at a time this will motivate consumers to connect with your company in more than one way and motivates valuable engagement. It could also increase sales as your company could be promoting more than one product or service at a time.

You could run two campaigns on the same site that are target at two different audiences, this way you will reach more audiences and your content will still be relevant.

• 2.5 Explain why a Social Networking advertising campaign might fail

When you are promoting a product or service through a social media campaign, you will be posting the same link every time. Most people who see the tweet will probably click the link once from all the posts they see. This will result in less click throughs if users see the advert too often.

A campaign could also fail if it results in a high cost because your adverts aren’t targeted appropriately at the right audience. A key point is planning who your target audience are and how you are going to target your posts appropriately.

It could also result in less customer loyalty if campaign is not designed for retention.

Also depending on market conditions. If there are similar products or services being sold at the same time you are trying to promote your product, it’s going to be hard to compete with other companies.

Another reason a campaign could fail is legal conditions such as copyright infringement,  misleading conduct or advertising standards. For example when you post any professional advertising the Advertising Standard Bureau basically determines what content can be an advertising or marketing communication. They have codes and guidelines you have to keep in line with. For example they govern the use of strong language, the portrayal of sex, nudity, violence or any content that could offend.

• 2.6 Plan parallel Social Networking site advertising campaigns for a business

The best two social media platforms for DCAS are FaceBook and Twitter. 

The first step to planning a advertising campaign is to create social media objectives and goals. The objectives and goals mentioned in 1.5. 

Next you should choose what networks best meet your social media goals, get social media inspiration from industry leaders, competitors or clients, Create a content plan, Test, finally evaluate and adjust your social media marketing plan.

Facebook and Twitter

• 2.7 Explain methods of monitoring Social Networking site advertising campaigns

You can monitor your campaigns by keeping a record of the daily/weekly analytics such as how many likes/retweets your posts got and have many followers you gained or lost. 

You can also see on Facebook analytics the  number of clicks your links received.

You can track your hashtags and see who used the hashtag and how many people used it. By tracking the use of the hashtag you can judge campaign popularity. 

• 2.8 Identify changes that might be required for a Social Networking advertising campaign based on monitoring results.

By monitoring the results you could identify changes such as the times you post, your target audience and content. For example if your posts  were aimed a other organisations you most likely want to post between 9am-12pm and 1pm-5pm as these are typical office hours whereas if it was targeted at young people you would post 7am-9pm, 12pm-1pm and 6-9pm when they aren't at school, college etc. You will be able to see changes in the amount of interactions you campaign attracts depending on if your are posting the correct content at a reasonable time.

Understand the use of promotional campaigns on social networking sites

• 3.1 Define promotional campaigns on social networking sites.

There are many different types of campaigns that are designed to have specific outcomes such as to raise awareness, to target existing customers, new customers or just to send their content viral.

The first type of campaign could be discount coupons. These are good to gain new customers and for returning customers.

Special offer codes are codes that customers can enter into a promotional box on a website to get a discount on their purchase. This could be a percentage off purchase, free shipping etc.
Another promotional campaign can be running competitions. This is good to gain more interactions and likes etc on your social media platforms. A competition could be a if someone likes and shares your post they could be picked at random to win one of your products or services.

• 3.2 Compare different types of promotional campaigns on social networking sites

A competition campaign is a great way to improve interactions, followers and shares of your posts because everyone likes free things. The people sharing your campaign might not know what your company does but because they want to win the competition they will like your page anyway. Whereas a coupon campaign might not increase social media followers but could result in a rise of sales. People who see a coupon post might tag a friend to share the discount with but not necessarily like the page. They will just use the coupon to purchase your product or service.

• 3.3 Explain why to use promotional campaigns on social networking sites

Promotional campaigns are a great way to increase sales, increase social media interactions and followers and to raise brand awareness. Also social media is a free and easy way to reach new audiences. Millions of people around the world use social media every day so it’s easy to get your product or service out there if you market it right. Promotional campaigns are a good way to push a specific product or service and there are a variety of different and creative ways to do it. 

• 3.4 Explain the limitations imposed by social networking sites on promotional campaigns

There are many limitations of using social networking sites for promotional campaigns. For example one of the most frustrating limitations to anyone who uses twitter is the word count limitation of 140 characters. This is roughly a sentence and if you include a image, video or if you tag someone that character count gets even more limited.

Another limitation is the Facebook image size. A lot of companies hire professional photographers and videographers to capture content for their promotional campaigns but just about all images or videos that are uploaded to Facebook lose a lot of the quality because Facebook has its own image compressor.

Another limitation is that you can’t choose who does and doesn't see your posts. For example if you wanted to market something to professionals, the likely hood of only professionals seeing the post is like zero to none. 

Also the twitter video length limit of 20 seconds. Anyone who are using videos as part of a social media campaign have to be short and to the point because they only have 20 seconds.

• 3.5 Explain how to comply with restrictions on promotional campaigns on social networking sites

A competition campaign is one of the most popular campaigns on social media site at the moment. Facebook is a powerful way to get your brand known and increase engagement but Facebook has strict rules for what campaigns you can and cannot administer and promote on their platform.

These rules include that Facebook offers must be available for a limited time, you may only run an offer if you are the merchant for or the manufacturer of the product or service you are promoting. Also you are responsible for ensuring that your offer complies with these terms and all applicable laws, rules and regulations, if you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, and acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook and many more rules and regulations you must follow. 

https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

Twitter also have promotional guidelines such as to discourage the creation of multiple accounts, to discourage posting the same Tweet repeatedly, to ask users to include an @reply to you in their update so you can see all the entries and encourage the use of topics relevant to the contest and other rules they ask you to abide by.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/68877

• 3.6 Explain the factors which could cause negative PR when running a promotional campaign

The first factor which will give your company negative PR is vote rigging and unfair preferences. If you are running a competition you should give all entrees a fair chance of winning. 

Also if your campaign uses incorrect content such as the wrong time, the wrong price or even a false image it would be a breach of the trade description act and someone could sue your company resulting in bad press.

Understand current national and international legal and organisational guidelines for a social networking advertising/promotional campaign

• 4.1 Explain the current national and international legal and organisational guidelines relating to  the use of social networking site adverts.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulate all the advertising and promotional material in the UK.  

Current national and international legal and organisational guidelines.

1a) Marketing to minors;

The ASA will ban any advertising material in the UK that could result in a young persons physical, mental or moral harm. Your content must be relevant and age appropriate.

1b) Alcohol;

The ASA’s rules are based upon evidence that points to a link between alcohol advertising and people’s awareness and attitudes to drinking. All alcohol ads must not be directed at people under 18 or have any content that is likely to appeal to young people by reflecting youth culture or by linking alcohol with irresponsible behaviour, social success or sexual attractiveness.

1c) religion;

The ASA’s rules around advertising religion is there aren't any rules that you can’t reference religion but advertisers should avoid using images or symbols central to a faith particularly if it’s to promote something that runs contrary to a belief or practice. This is to avoid any offensive of inappropriate adverts.

1d) decency;

All the rules in place for decency is the avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. All content will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency.

This also involves nudity as this can cause serious or widespread offence. The ASA are more tolerant if the nudity is relevant to the advertised product. If a image is not considered explicit, the ASA can ban a advert if nudity and sex had no relevance to the product. 

1e) discrimination;

ASA rules include that advertising must not prejudice respect for human dignity, it must not contain any material likely to incite hatred based on race, sex, religion or nationality, it must not include or promote any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, and advertising must not encourage behaviour prejudicial to health or safety.

• 4.2 Explain the importance of following current national and international legal and organisational guidelines for a social networking advertising/promotional campaign. 

It is important to follow current national and international guidelines because if your content breaks any rules of the advertising standards the content will be taken down and your company could be fined. This could result in a loss of money and sales rather than an increase. It can also give your company negative PR.

 

Facts from;

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/how-to-develop-a-successful-digital-coupon-campaign/

https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines

https://support.twitter.com/articles/68877

Unit 203 Video Software

Unit 203 - Video Software

In this unit I will be using video hardware and software to capture sequences. I will also be using video software tools and techniques to combine and edit sequences, as well as being able to play and present video sequences. 

I have made a short comedy film which I edited on final cut pro. I made the short intro animation on motion and filmed everything on a Canon 650d. The ‘DCASnews’ trailer is the short version of the main ‘DCASnews’. 

‘The Other Side’, the black and white film i made, was filmed on a canon 650d and edited in final cut pro. This film is a horror film rather than a comedy film like the two ‘DCASnews’ videos. 

DCAS news trailer;

Changed the main edit to a shorter version. Made quick cuts between scenes, added long news style jingle, added a flash transition to make it look more dramatic, added quick ken burns to some scenes to give them movement. Also added news style transitions to the edit.

The Other Side;

I made quick cuts but slow shots to create the tense atmosphere and added sound effects to add to the intensity.

1.1 Identify the combination of input device and audio software to use to capture information to avoid any compatibility issues. 

When making films at DCAS we use the ZOOM recorder as our input device to record audio. We set the recorder at 48k so it matches our cameras. This means when everything is put together it will sync together with no problems. 

In the film I have made I have used the audio input within the camera. I used a Canon EOS 650d to film and record the audio. 

Most video is filmed at 48k. You have to make sure that audio and video is filmed at the same frame rate otherwise they won’t sync together as one will be slower than the other. 

Between built-in codec used by input device - 

When layering video files, for including logos etc, the layer will need to include a alpha channel to make it transparent. ProRes 4444 is Apples codec with a alpha channel. 

ProRes 4444 - This type of codec is not compressed. This codec has an alpha channel which is the transparency to the file. 

This type of codec has a transparent layer. For example if you wanted to add a small animation or logo over the footage you can because it has a transparent layer over the top. 

H.264 - This codec is compressed therefore it is a smaller file size than ProRes4444. Youtube recommends you to upload a video with this codec. 

When you export a film from final cut pro they offer a few different options to export the file to but the usual type we export to is the Web hosting option. 

Available Editing Software

At DCAS we have a few different types of editing software. The main software we use is Final Cut Pro but we also have iMovie, Adobe Premier and Motion. 

We use motion for making animations as well as intros to videos. 

File Formats

An example of an compatibility issue is when i was recently editing an orchestra film. The audio was recorded 44.1k where as the film was recorded at 48k therefore the audio started off correct but slower than the film. 

You would have to use a good quality recorder, you would need an audio interface to take the analog to digital.

You would need a program to edit audio in such as logic.

Input devices

To film the videos i used a video camera and the built in micro phone..

Other input devices include;

Built in webcam - records film and microphones is located within the computer. 

video camera - are specially made for filming video with basic audio recorder built in. 

mobile phone - built in camera and microphone

low and high resolution - I shot the film at 1080p which is the full HD. The higher the resolution the better the footage looks. 

The difference between analog and digital technologies is that in analog the information is changed  into electric pulses, for example human voice in air, analog electronic devices. Whereas digital technology is found in computers, CDs, DVDs, and other digital electronic devices.

In the film that I have made I used a canon 650d to film and used the audio from the camera. 

 1.2 Select and use an appropriate combination of input device and audio software to record sequences. 

Usually during film projects we film on two Canon DSLR’s and record the audio on a ZOOM recorder. We set the zoom recorder and cameras to the same settings so they will sync together. I normally export them at H.264 as they are smaller files. 

I filmed using one Canon DSLR in the film.

1.3 Describe the impact file size and file format will have on saving sequences. 

When a high quality file is compressed you get left with the artefacts of the original file. A compressed file will have very low quality. A small file size would take up less storage space than a large file size. 

The ‘DCASnews’ film is 4 minutes long and has a lot of animation and transitions. This film has a large file size of 454 MB where as the short trailer is 19 seconds long and is 36 MB so is small compared to the original file. 

A small size file is usually not as high quality as a large size file as it doesn't have to process as much data. An example of this is different resolutions. If you export a film at 280p it would be a lot smaller file  that a full HD 780p file. 

Proprietary formats supported by software used (e.g. QuickTime, RealPlayer, iTunes);

For example, iTunes can export audio in WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC, and Apple Lossless. 

Quicktime supports AVI, DV Stream, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and QuickTime Movies. 

Different container formats include;

MPEG and BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Streams - used in DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Advanced Systems Format - Microsoft-based container format.

Advanced Systems Format - Microsoft-based container format.

QuickTime - Apple’s container format. 

1.4 Identify when to use different types of information coding and compression

Codec - is a program that compresses data so it can transfer data faster and it decompresses received data. Examples of codecs are MP3, WMA and RealVideo. 

Compression is how you reduce the file size of an image, video or audio. An example is when you upload photos or videos to websites such as YouTube and Facebook they compress the files.

The difference between lossy and lossless compression - Lossless compression is when a file is compressed, the quality is the same and it can be decompressed to the original quality. An example of lossless compression is flac.

Lossy compression permanently removes data so it cant be decompressed back into its original format. For example a MP3 file. 

Video Quality - the camera I filmed on, recorded at 1080p. Standard definition quality is from 240p to 360p and high definition is 720p to 1080p. 

1.5 Store and retrieve sequences using appropriate file formats and compression, in line with local guidelines and conventions where available. 

You would compress the file to a lower quality file for a draft projects then export it full quality for the final project. Social media sites such as Facebook have their own recommended file size for videos.

When saving file you should give them appropriate names and save the assets in named folders so its easy to find and everything is together.

When creating videos I import all the footage I filmed for the video and then key word and sort them into appropriate reels.

2.1 Identify the footage to add, keep and remove 

I have chose and inserted clips that I thought worked in the film. I cut down most of the clips to get rid of laughing and bits I didn't want to use. 

I planned what I wanted the film to look like and what I needed for it. I filmed the intros first, then filmed the other parts to it after. 

I trimmed down most of the footage by blading it as some of it I didn't think needed to be in the film.

2.2 Select and use appropriate audio software tools to mark-up and edit sequences. 

While editing the film, some of the audio was really quiet. Rather than turning up the audio in the clip, I added a Gain plug-in, this helped boost the audio levels in the clip which I applied it to. 

2.3 Organise and combine information for sequences in line with any copyright constraints.

We store all our files on a hard drive with everything in a suitably named folder and save all the assets with appropriate names so they are all easy to find. 

2.4 Describe how copyright constraints affect use of own and others’ information.

As the films I have made are all original. In this film I have made, there were no copyright constraints as it was all my own footage, graphics and music. 

If I did use any image or music that wasn't mine i’d have to make sure they were available for commercial use before using them as part of the film.

You can’t download any song  or image off of the internet without using the owners permission.

3.1 Describe the features and constraints of playback software and display devices.

One constraint would be if the software is supported on the device or not you watch it on.

For example you can’t watch a 4K  video on normal hd screens.

3.2 Select and use an appropriate combination of video playback software and display device to suit the file format.

As the films I created went on YouTube I exported them out of final cut in the ‘Web Hosting’ option. 

3.3 Identify the settings which could be adjusted to improve the quality of presentations

I could record the audio separately to improve the quality and I could mix the audio to make it suitable for the final product. 

I could also create my own music to fit the films better, as my friend created a short original jingle for the intro of the ‘DCASnews’ film, I think with her help I could create original music to use in the films and this could give the film a better outcome. 

I colour corrected some of the shots to fit with the other footage but some of the footage is darker than others so I could make adjustments to the brightness to make the colours consistent.

As my films were quite fast cuts I didn't need to make any adjustments to the frame rate. In the black and white film I made I sped some shots up to add to the affect and keep the intensity throughout the film. 

Illustrator Workshop

As part of my apprenticeship I took part in a 8 week illustrator workshop. We went through all the tools and techniques that illustrator had and how we could use them.

To make this apple, I traced the original image (left) using the pen tool. When i had the outline i used the mesh tool to create a grid and then chose colours from the original apple to make my apple look realistic. 

To create this Bart Simpson illustration, i live traced the original image to make it look like a painting then i traced it. 

To create these images i used different shaped and the rotate tool to create these blended patterns. I changed the colours of each shape as I made them.

On of the exercises I had to complete was to create a cloud using the pen tool and to write the text using the same tool. 

To create this bottle i traced a plastic bottle and deleted half of it. Then I used the 3D effect to create the bottle. Then using the pen tool i created the label. 

To create this background i used the blend tool.

To create this image I got a image of flowers and got a bold text. I then wrote 'flowers' and expanded the text so I could use it as a clipping mask. 

 To create this image I live traced a image of a gorilla, got a graphic of a old piece of paper, created a new brush with the rainbow pattern to create the line.

  

To create the image above I traced a image using the pen tool. To get the different skin tones and shadows I used the mesh tool and selected the colours I needed for different areas of the skin.

To create this logo I used shapes and a brush I created using lines. 

To create this mandala I traced a image using the pen tool and then used different circles and brushes to create the detail in the middle.

To create this pattern I made different characters and then copied them so they would line up to create a repeated pattern.

To create this I traced a image using the paint brush tool and using the blend tool to create the 3D effect.

This was a exercise to get used to using the pen tool, I traced the numbers and letters. 

Unit 202 Imaging Software

Unit 202 Imaging Software

For this unit I have been asked to create a pack of icons for the new DCAS website. Firstly I am going to do some research into what icons are, the sizes and what formats they should be made in.

Icons 

Icons are usually small images or symbols associated with a subject. Most icons are simple and easily recognisable. 

For example the search bar icon on a MacBook is a small circle with a stick, so it looks like a magnifying glass. This is easy to recognise and very  simple. 

Different operating systems have different icon sizes such as Windows and Mac. 

For example icons on a Windows 8 computer,  should be in .ico file format. Whereas a Mac operating system should have png icons. 

When you make icons you would make it as a png and then covert in into the other file formats you need. 

There are a few key shapes for icons, as shown on right. 

There are many different sizes that are used for icons to fit different screens and resolutions. Sizes;

64x64, 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048. 

I will be making the icons in Adobe Illustrator. 

I have designed icons for each heading on paper. 

The first heading I will be making a icon for is ‘What’s On’. I have designed a calendar like icon. 

The icons i have designed below are 64x64 and I have designed them in 4 different colours. They are currently png files. 

Below shows the difference between a size 128x128 file and 64x64.

   The next icon I made is for ‘Get Involved’.

I have designed a mega-phone like icon for this heading. 

The icons are 64x64 png files and i have design 4 different icons.

Below shows the difference between a size 128x128 file and 64x64.

The next icon is for the heading ‘Contact’. 

I have design an icon that is mobile and a envelope to show the can contact us by phone or email.   

Below shows the difference between a size 128x128 file and 64x64.

  The next icon is for ‘Staff’. 

The icon I have designed is a silhouette of a head and shoulders in a magnifying glass. 

Below shows the difference between a size 128x128 file and 64x64.

Images needed to promote DCAS will be images to print such as leaflets, images for the website, to e-mail out, for social media and for a large poster.  

1. One of the images will be produced in print eg brochures and leaflets so high quality CMYK 300dpi 

2. One of the images used for the website at DCAS RGB 72dpi  

3. One of the images as a Email mail out so again lower DPI RGB 72dpi 

4. One of the images  will be for Facebook 72 dpi RGB 

5. One of the images as a large poster 300dpi CMYK.

 

Store and retrieve files effectively, in line with local guidelines and conventions where available;

Derbyshire County Council have policies to keep all their documents safe. Their data protection policy includes everything being properly classified and that everything is managed, handled and stored correctly. Their policy protects electronic information, written information and information shared by others such as phone calls or video conferences.

We keep all computers with sensitive data and documents out of sight of the public so people who need access will have access.

Identify what technical factors affecting images need to be taken into account and how to do so.

The first technical factor is the format and size of the image.

The next factor is compression of the image when it is uploaded online. - simple things look better online because of compression

colour mode

difference between screen and print resolution.

Select and use suitable techniques to create images

edit image - crop and contrast - to improve and tidy up  

Before

After

I selected everything in the image apart from the stage and then turned down the hue and saturation to make the rest of the image look black and white. 

Select and use appropriate tools and techniques to manipulate and edit for images;

In this image I cut out the building using the lasso tool, then copied it onto a image of clouds. To make it blend in, I used the eraser tool with a low opacity.