Research Project Self Reflection.

Structure
 In regards to structure I needed to ensure that I incorporated the following:
- Title Page
- Abstract
- List Of Contents
-  Introduction
- Research (Primary & Secondary)
- Conclusion
- Word Count & Bibliography

 I included all of these sections in my research project to produce an effective research project/book. When producing my research project I wanted to ensure that I included some pictures and also that I split the text up as much as I could, this way it would differentiate the separate sections. Content wise I didn't spot any grammatical errors and I was also happy with the text size and the gaps between each line, along with the gaps between paragraphs.
 The title matches the content inside the book as I explore different social media marketing campaigns in different businesses. I think that if the word count for the project was larger I would have been able to delve deeper into different campaigns, both in smaller businesses and larger businesses.  Having the word count limit it meant that I wasn't able to add everything I would ideally want to, I needed to sift through all the information (including primary and secondary research) to narrow it down to the specific question I was asking. I think after reading some peer's projects I would have liked to have my book reviews flow nicer into my question rather than having them as separate segments.
 Next I looked at my case studies, I produced three case studies on three different businesses and the digital marketing campaigns they produced, in these I inserted some pictures as well as some relevant statistics of success rate, this later helped me when it came to my conclusion. I think if I were to redo this or had the opportunity to extend the project further I would want to research into smaller businesses, perhaps more local businesses, to see if they use social media to their advantage.

 Once I had self assessed my work we each had to do a peer assessment, I received back my review and I gathered that...

  I clearly answered all the questions, and I also answered the question in my title exploring different methods of research really well. However Oscar came across a few spelling errors in my project but nothing too major. To finish it off he said he really liked the case studies I did and that they were all fast food based as it made it easier to understand and absorb the statistics I gave.
 To improve my project I was told that I could have perhaps gone more in depth in my book reviews, something in which I completely agree with, however given the word limit I had no choice but to cut them down as in my opinion they were the least important in regards to my research and overall idea of the project, by cutting something else down it wouldn't have made the research project as easy to understand in my opinion. Overall he said he thinks due to the internet articles, book reviews, in depth research and case studies it should receive a high merit/distinction.

Paper Engineering Project.

FairyTale
 For this paper engineering project Steve asked us to decide on a fairy tale and produce a pop up book on that tale. Before we did this however Steve brought in some examples of interactive / 3d books to inspire us :



 These two in particular stood out to me, I liked the dark but delicate cuttings out and this is where I got the idea to do Rapunzel. I decided on this fairytale mainly through the visuals I had created in my head. I thought the long flow of hair, bricks in a building and a forest scene would look magical in a pop up book, so this is when I started testing and sketching ideas.

 Firstly I hand drew a tower with some vines wrapped around it, then I decided to move on and produce some visuals on photoshop (before I moved to Illustrate)



























 What I wanted to make was an A5 sized book, and once I had written out the story I divided it into 5 separate pages, to convey the story using different visuals for each element and key part. Below are my designs on Illustrate for a few of the pages:

The designing for this project was really interesting for me, I was able to chose specific elements on each page that I wanted to pop out, for example the page above the music notes would be cut out separately and stuck down to make them pop out. I wanted to make the book colourful which was a change of plan slightly compared to my first idea as I wanted to have one page and put a market twist on it!

 I became more confident using Illustrate with this project which I'm really happy about as that was one software I didn't particularly like doing, but now would be happy too. 

When it came to making my book I intended to print it out on normal a4 paper, then get some thin cardboard to stick the 3D elements too in order to make them stand out more, however when it came to printing I had some difficulty. I exported the file and sent it to print, however only 3 pages came out at the correct size, the others came out very small. So I tried again, altering the settings as much as I could and still didn't manage to get it how I wanted it, and the deadline was looming.

 What I decided to do was make use of what I had, although this project and aim was to make a 3D pop up book, I think I focused too much on using illustrate to build my confidence, that I over estimated A; the amount of time I had and B; the amount I wanted to complete. I think if I set myself a goal of one pop out I would have completed it, but because I had larger ideas I thought I would push myself out of my comfort zone and produce a whole book.

 I wouldn't say i'm pleased with my 'book' what so ever, however saying that over the past 5 ish weeks I have built my confidence using Illustrate and would now be happy to do a project just using that software which i'm very happy with. Perhaps digital books are my forte, but if I were to do this again I would reduce the amount of pages and make better use of my time!