The majority of my work revolves around multimedia.

The word "Multimedia" covers a wide spectrum of areas. Most people's first ideas of multimedia are digital presentations that can be viewed on a PC i.e. a power point, or an interactive demonstration CD i.e. a Macromedia Director/Flash distribution. But multimedia does not just include interactive presentations. If we break down the word we can establish the scope that the meaning can be applied to.

Multimedia consists of two words; "Multi" which means "many", "multiple", "a number of" and "Media" which has three main meanings. The first relates to the materials and techniques used by a designer or artist to produce the work. The second relates to forms of mass communication i.e. News papers, magazines, billboards, adverts, mail shots, internet, radio, television, etc. The third meaning of "media" is the type of storage medium for the finished product such as CD, Disk, DVD, Tape etc.

So the word "multimedia" in essence is the integration and presentation of more than one media into an information source.

Multimedia covers many areas. From web sites to graphic design. From Programming to presentations. Below shows an example of the scope of multimedia. Please note the list is no where near complete, there are many other areas and crossovers that can be categorised under "multimedia".

Form

• Animation
• Text
• Audio
• Interactivity
• Video
• Still Images

• Methods
• Rich Media
• Technology used in Internet ads that goes beyond stationary banners (streaming video, applets etc) that allow interaction and special effects. These appear on e-mails, banner ads, Web pages and in-between video clips. The techniques used are normally created using Flash, Shockwave, streaming video, Real Audio/Video, pull-down menus, search boxes, applets etc that allow for interactivity.
• Graphic Design
• 3D
• 2D
• Animation
• Ideogram
• Symbols
• Icons
• Logos
• CAD
• Illustration
• An visualisation such as image, drawing, picture, photograph, diagram or other work of art created and used to clarify and explain a concept. They can be either conceptual, abstract or realistic. The Illustration will stress subject more than form i.e. a technical diagram and photos of a car showing features and parts rather than a nice rendered image of the car for pleasure of the eye.
• Web
• Design
• Development
• SEO
• Implementation
• Authoring
• Video Editing
• Typography DTP
• Photography

• Target Medium
• Disk
• Broadcast
• Internet
• TV
• Radio
• Paper based

Through employment, voluntary work and own projects I have learnt various multimedia skills using a range of software. The main software packages that I use are Macromedia Dream Weaver, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Visual Studio and Borland Delphi. My main areas of expertise are Web design and Development, Programming and Graphics. I count these as my main skills though I hold skills in other areas the skills I currently have can be easily transferred to other subjects i.e. Web Design requires expertise in the layout and presentation of information in an interactive form for the internet. This can be very easily transferred to a presentation and also transferred to DTP as essentially a paper based brochure, advert, article etc is exactly the same as a website. DTP has numerous forms of presentation depending on the target audience in the same way.

Email received from Graham Robert (Designer of GIN Gliders and kites)

"Hi Darren,
how are things going. 
Just a short mail to tell you we have put a link to your website.
Did you get any further with the sle foil kite?
A bientôt, Robert "

Great News :). I know what site I will be upgrading next. More late night's lol. That reminds me, must sort out that brake mod for the Eskimo .