Author: David Diaz

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goetz4900he98fa2019/2019/10/14/creative-app-review-1/

(PICS POSTED ON ORIGINAL BLOG ON LINK ABOVE)

The App I am going to review is one that looked really interesting to me and it’s called SimpleMind+ .What caught my attention about this app was that it relates to a creative problem all people who work in design have. That’s the ability to process lots of information and organize it in a concise logical way in order to be more creative and create something that relates back to our message. Mind Map is a nice way to organize ideas we have on a project and see how they relate to our central or core concept.

These are screenshots from my phone. The left has different templates to choose from and on the right is an example of how it works. it’s really cool for organizing ideas and for any creative is a great way to show relationships to a central idea.

You also have the ability to write yourself invisible notes that do not appear on the screen, but serves kinda like mental notes to yourself.

The one on here is the most basic one, has extra features for a price, such as putting your files on dropbox, adding photos etc… the website is https://simplemind.eu/. For the basic features however is still nice and I could see this being really useful on an iPad or tablet.

The event I attended was a meet up at CityTech called creative meetup with Chris Do. The event was a way to connect with people in the graphic design industry and it was a great way to ask him questions about all things related to the industry such as what to charge clients for a project, a logo, or whatever work you are doing for them. It was mostly him taking questions in succession from students and anyone who was a graphic designer who wanted answers to their questions.

He has a great blog/company called “The futur”, and is obviously very successful at what he does and I can tell he is someone with lots of experience in the industry and felt the information he provided was very valuable.

One thing that really stuck in my mind was his emphasis on being good at one thing. Do one thing really well. Specialize and you will be that guy that is known for that thing. This really makes a lot of sense to me, and reminds me of people who try to try to know and do everything but in actuality aren’t really good at any specific thing.

Another thing I found interesting was how he went into detail about his method of charging clients, and which was better. Do you charge by hour or by the project, and it makes sense why he chose to say by the project because your skills are constantly improving and getting better and faster. so charging by the hour may be selling yourself short.

It was also interesting to hear questions about his time spent dedicating his college years to design and all the hard work he put was very inspiring. The room was full of graphic designers and that is always a good thing to hear their experiences in how they accomplished their goals. Being around others who are starting out in graphic design is also interesting to see.

For this blog I will talk about how I think I’m doing in this internship. Maybe some things I could improve at as well.  Considering my portfolio is largely mixed with print, and graphic design pieces, it’s nice to have more web-based material in my portfolio.

I think I am learning a lot right now and sometimes wish I already knew some of these things. For instance, learning how to directly work in PHP as opposed to HTML has a huge benefit of changing multiple items at once instead of individually which the owner of the company pointed out. I am trying to learn things quickly and efficiently.

Some other interesting thing I am learning is how to work with already established web pages with multiples pages of code inside of it. I have always built my own website from the beginning so you know where all the files are, however when you are working with any kind of template or webpage with multiple pages, it can be tricky and I have found built in developer tools which make life a lot easier to find a specific line of code for changing a css file for a certain color or style.

The owner doesn’t really have a problem that I don’t know everything but he knows a lot more than me when it comes to coding so I am learning a lot from working with him.

So far working for NetComFix has been a very interesting experience. It’s a very small LLC company and observing how someone can start trying to expand their business has definitely been something I am noticing. Probably smaller than I anticipated. I know the owner of the company has most of his staff that works on site at different locations doing IT related things in networking. I know that he has a small office in which he works from and goes on sites to see clients as well.

So I’ve worked on the logo and have been working on adding information to the website. We have 2 subdomains in which we collaborate on. Temp1 and dev2. He wants to expand his business doing websites for clients and has one client who is interested in their website created called interstateride. He looking so far to build a form for the client that takes the users input through a database. I am teaching myself some things about databases as It’s kinda new for me so lots of my time working is also a learning experience on how the technical side of websites.

I started off in the BTech program in Citytech and then transferred to BFA program, which was a good decision I think but I have not had the opportunity to take some more advanced level web design courses, so some things in the backend of web development has been a learning experience to pick up on things I may not have in one of those classes.

My collaboration are mostly with owner. Mr Iftikhar, and it’s mostly going very well. However sometimes getting in contact with him can be a bit tricky depending if he’s very busy working on projects.  I try to get things done he asks for the first time so I don’t constantly have to bug him on small details but sometimes I do have to ask him about some small technical things like if something is not working or I have an issue finding something in the css file. I know he’s also working with another developer named Kevin Gonzales who is a fullstack developer who works with React Native which is mobile framwork  and I’m learning about how that works as well.

Here is a logo I did for NetComFix and sent to Mr. Iftikhar. I’m not sure If It will end up on the final logo, but I think it is improved from his original one

OrignalLogo

 

Today It was recommended I download xampp to my computer as it is a great php development environment to use on a local computer. I am working on making some logos for the company as well and was talking about possibly changing colors and moving elements around on the website to make it look better. I communicate mostly through email and texts, and through TeamViewer. I am spending lots of time familiarizing myself with the code and to change things. I am working on a subdomain so It’s not as scary if something goes wrong to mess something up.

Once I have the all the logos I want to incorporate for the website, I will start adding them to some parts of the website. I am also learning about and interested to see how forms are added to the database and how when the user sends information to the server, how php sends information back based on the results the user types.

For now I am getting familiar with the settings and asking question If I don’t understand something. Once you understand how php interacts with databases it can be a lot easier to understand how it makes updating pages much easier. I may also start adding original photos to the website which could be fun.

What’s one of the best aspects about getting to intern with NetComFix? It’s the fact that I can work remotely without having to physically worry about what I’m going to wear. In a sense it feels a bit like I am on my own working this way, and if something is unclear to me, requires calling or emailing to follow up with something or when i have a problem logging into the server to upload something but for the most part it’s a great aspect of this internship as I am taking 4 other classes along with doing this internship and it’s a great help to communicate this way.

I have installed a program called TeamViewer which allows users to communicate digitally by seeing what the other person is doing on their computer.

You put your recipients ID and password and can see their desktop. I was being shown about how the databases work with PHP to take input forms from the clients. Right now I am working on a better design for the logo and will upload to the subdomain I am working on. I was also learning about how you can change a design element simply on all the pages on a website by using php to do this, rather than html to make changes to every single page on the website which is a really effective way to work. I’ve been working mostly Sundays and Mondays and showing any updates after I’m done.

My role within NetComFix from what Mr. Iktkhar, the owner of the company had told me will be primarily working on logos, updating information within the html and css files as well assisting with updates and changes to databases for the main website. He gave the credentials to and FTP access to files i will be working on and created a sub domain in which i will make the necessary changes. right now it pretty bare bones and will be sending me files within the coming week/weeks.

I had seen on craigslist an ad for the company earlier in the summer and replied by sending a cover letter and resume out and did not hear back till I saw it posted a second time a month later and applied again towards the end of the summer and received a call back. I  was asked how many websites I’ve done and which was not that many but had a few to list on my resume and I just told him my familiarity with certain frameworks. What attracted me to this posting  as well was also the fact I could  do  it  remotely. 

 

I got a call not too long after applying discussing his plans to make changes to the website and getting all the information down about what he was planning to do with the company and what school I was attending and what days I would be available and hours I would be able to collaborate. I think Sunday and Monday as of now I can dedicate the most time to work and give the most hours to this project.

I was excited to find an internship that would allow me the experience to help with design elements as well as get experience working with clients who are web with and IT focused roles.

The company I found is a small startup private company called NetComFix which I believe the founder started it in 2016 after the owner had been working in Networking for a few years from talking to him on the phone. NetComFix deals with a variety of IT clients including large retail businesses such as target and bestbuy as well as with small privately owned business throughout out New York as well as other states.

When Talking to the owner of the company(Waqas Iftikhar) on the phone He told me how many clients he was working with and that he was also working with web based clients and wanted to work on expanding his own website to include these changes.

He has another developer working with him remotely as he is not in the US. He helps with front end web and mobile development with React and React Native which is a mobile application framework.  he has several employees(primarily IT) that travel onsite to locations from what he told me. When I replied for the Internship posting that I said that I wanted to help with any logos or graphics he might need as well. That I was comfortable with HTML, CSS, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, and knew a little about databases as well but wanted to get further insight on web related projects, as I have experience in IT and it would be helpful to know about the industry he is working in. He is currently updating the website he told me to the  main site and I am working with him on a sub domain that is not accessible to the public yet called dev1, where I am primarily working on and he his working on another sub domain for collaborations.

They are using bootstrap for their website and it will be interesting as I am changing and updating information on the site soon. I have not found any recent articles about the company to write about yet. I will ask about it and write about it any updates later.