The semester is almost over and yet again, I have been tasked with looking for web design opportunities in my area. Depending on what the definition of "my area" is, the answer is "more than six months ago." Though there are still few opportunities in Evansville, the openings posted in Indiana as a whole have increased quite a bit. Unfortunately, most of them are located near Indianapolis or in northern Indiana.
The Advertising Federation of Louisville has some postings in Kentucky that might interest Web Designers in this area. More and more postings also seem to be for "team members" instead of a single designer in charge of everything involving the web. This is encouraging because it shows that many more businesses are beginning to understand the value of web design in their business. Some of the jobs did interest me, in that they involve both design and implementation in the job descriptions. Being in charge of the look of the site as well as the design of it makes the job prospects seem much more interesting to me.
If one wants to do much in the design arena, it still seems as if they will be forced to move at least an hour away from Evansville. More and more lately, especially after the closing of Whirlpool, leaders in this area have been struggling against brain drain. The recent "I am Evansville" campaign is proof enough of that. I think that if we could shift our focus away from manufacturing and more toward a service economy, design opportunities will increase a great deal.
12.09.2010
12.07.2010
A Survey of Current Browsers
After many years of being on top, Internet Explorer has finally lost the browser race to Firefox. Due to how difficult it is to design/code for, as well as security issues, IE has never been very well-liked among the design community. However, most laypeople with computers in the US today have PCs, which come pre-installed with IE. Due to the availability of IE, it remains an important browser to consider for those that want to reach a wider audience. The good news is that version 8 of IE has become the most popular version, which doesn't have nearly as many problems as 6.
Firefox is the most used browser among those with at least a bit of Internet savvy, however. It's free, has solid code and is customizable with a number of plug-ins and skins. Most websites design for and around Firefox. If you have Firefox, you should have no problem viewing a well-designed site. Unfortunately, in some cases a user can have their Firefox program laden with too many plug-ins and unnecessary toolbars that can threaten the user experience and break even the best layouts.
Google's Chrome browser still only has a small chunk of the total share, but it has been steadily gaining momentum since its release in 2008. It's a very user-friendly and simplistic browser, without a lot of extra bells and whistles that can interfere with the user experience. It is as solid, if not more solid, than Firefox when it comes to defense against viruses and other issues. I expect to see more and more adoption of Chrome in the future, helping to eliminate IE and threaten Firefox's share.
Safari, the standard browser available for Mac, is also a very solid and user-friendly browser (just as Macs tend to be). However, it is very weak defensively and surprisingly easy to hack, despite the reputation of Macs themselves. Since most Mac users tend to be computer-savvy professionals, I believe they end up downloading Firefox immediately upon acquiring their new computers. For this reason, I believe, Safari continues to hold a very small share.
Overall, I feel Firefox continues to be the best browser for its availability, widespread support and solid history. In the future, Chrome might give Firefox a run for it's money, however!
Firefox is the most used browser among those with at least a bit of Internet savvy, however. It's free, has solid code and is customizable with a number of plug-ins and skins. Most websites design for and around Firefox. If you have Firefox, you should have no problem viewing a well-designed site. Unfortunately, in some cases a user can have their Firefox program laden with too many plug-ins and unnecessary toolbars that can threaten the user experience and break even the best layouts.
Google's Chrome browser still only has a small chunk of the total share, but it has been steadily gaining momentum since its release in 2008. It's a very user-friendly and simplistic browser, without a lot of extra bells and whistles that can interfere with the user experience. It is as solid, if not more solid, than Firefox when it comes to defense against viruses and other issues. I expect to see more and more adoption of Chrome in the future, helping to eliminate IE and threaten Firefox's share.
Safari, the standard browser available for Mac, is also a very solid and user-friendly browser (just as Macs tend to be). However, it is very weak defensively and surprisingly easy to hack, despite the reputation of Macs themselves. Since most Mac users tend to be computer-savvy professionals, I believe they end up downloading Firefox immediately upon acquiring their new computers. For this reason, I believe, Safari continues to hold a very small share.
Overall, I feel Firefox continues to be the best browser for its availability, widespread support and solid history. In the future, Chrome might give Firefox a run for it's money, however!
11.04.2010
Web Typography
In twenty years, web design has come a long way. First we were given images to work with, and then more color choices, and then more font choices... But not many. The problem with using typography in a web page design is that the viewer has to have the font on his or her machine. Your average user doesn't have fancy fonts beside the system fonts their computer came with.
To solve this dilemma, a lot of designers began placing the fonts they wanted to show in images and embedding them into their page layouts. While this approach worked from a visual standpoint, it caused a number of accessibility and SEO issues. Not to mention that if one wanted to copy and paste the information, he or she could not.
So, why not provide the end user with the font so that they could view your design as intended... as it shows on your machine? The easiest and most acceptable option is the "@font-face" command, which allows the CSS to fetch a needed font from somewhere on the server. The problem with this method is that anyone with the knowledge could dig into the server and download the font for himself. In the case of fonts with limited use licenses, this is comparable to theft. There are some font foundries that allow their fonts to be used for free in your designs, but you're still limited in your choices. Also, IE doesn't support the "@font-face" command.
Speaking of Microsoft, they came up with their own solution to the licensing problem by providing some fonts in the "Embedded Open Type (.EOT)" format, which temporarily downloads a font for view on a specified site per machine. Unfortunately, IE is the only browser that supports this method, and many are critical of the restrictive nature of the font usage.
The most widely-accepted method at the moment is to subscribe to font services like Typekit, which allow you use of their font libraries or the option of uploading your own fonts for a monthly fee. This method is the least exploitative of creators of fonts, but the most painful for users of fonts, especially those that can't afford the fees involved.
The future of Web Typography seems to be pretty uncertain. Nobody can come to an agreement on what method is best, and a consensus has to occur before the W3C will endorse that method. I personally feel that if you want to utilize the best fonts, you're going to have to pay in some form or another. A means of uploading and sharing the fonts you've paid to license will probably be the best method that makes everyone happy.
This blog entry is really informative and lists a good batch of links that can help designers explore their options.
To solve this dilemma, a lot of designers began placing the fonts they wanted to show in images and embedding them into their page layouts. While this approach worked from a visual standpoint, it caused a number of accessibility and SEO issues. Not to mention that if one wanted to copy and paste the information, he or she could not.
So, why not provide the end user with the font so that they could view your design as intended... as it shows on your machine? The easiest and most acceptable option is the "@font-face" command, which allows the CSS to fetch a needed font from somewhere on the server. The problem with this method is that anyone with the knowledge could dig into the server and download the font for himself. In the case of fonts with limited use licenses, this is comparable to theft. There are some font foundries that allow their fonts to be used for free in your designs, but you're still limited in your choices. Also, IE doesn't support the "@font-face" command.
Speaking of Microsoft, they came up with their own solution to the licensing problem by providing some fonts in the "Embedded Open Type (.EOT)" format, which temporarily downloads a font for view on a specified site per machine. Unfortunately, IE is the only browser that supports this method, and many are critical of the restrictive nature of the font usage.
The most widely-accepted method at the moment is to subscribe to font services like Typekit, which allow you use of their font libraries or the option of uploading your own fonts for a monthly fee. This method is the least exploitative of creators of fonts, but the most painful for users of fonts, especially those that can't afford the fees involved.
The future of Web Typography seems to be pretty uncertain. Nobody can come to an agreement on what method is best, and a consensus has to occur before the W3C will endorse that method. I personally feel that if you want to utilize the best fonts, you're going to have to pay in some form or another. A means of uploading and sharing the fonts you've paid to license will probably be the best method that makes everyone happy.
This blog entry is really informative and lists a good batch of links that can help designers explore their options.
9.16.2010
Designing with Color
Color is a terribly important thing for a graphic designer to consider. The same is true for a web designer. Certain colors evoke emotions in their viewers, and when one is designing a site, he must consider how he wants the viewer to feel about the product he is presenting. Do you want your viewer to be excited? Do you want your client to be viewed as trendy and young or more mature and responsible?
The Psychology of Color does a great job of explaining the emotions that certain colors are meant to evoke in viewers, and how members of different cultures can view colors differently. Designing for Americans is different from designing for the Chinese, for example. While white evokes purity and cleanness for us, it is also the color of mourning in some countries.
Once you've decided what your primary color is going to be, you need to select other colors to use along with it... Your text, accents and imagery all need to "get along" with your primary color. Colorblender.com has a wonderfully simple tool to help you accomplish this task. By selecting any color on the RGB scale you will be presented with a color blend that you can use to design your site around, complete with Hex Codes.
However, if you don't really understand what the heck a blend is (I had to Google it myself) you can go a more direct route. Color Scheme Designer allows you to take a more proactive approach to your color design by selecting a primary color and finding the accent colors by using the classic rules of complimentary color. You can also see how the colors might come together in a site with just the click of a button. This also provides Hex Codes to help you on your way.
The Psychology of Color does a great job of explaining the emotions that certain colors are meant to evoke in viewers, and how members of different cultures can view colors differently. Designing for Americans is different from designing for the Chinese, for example. While white evokes purity and cleanness for us, it is also the color of mourning in some countries.
Once you've decided what your primary color is going to be, you need to select other colors to use along with it... Your text, accents and imagery all need to "get along" with your primary color. Colorblender.com has a wonderfully simple tool to help you accomplish this task. By selecting any color on the RGB scale you will be presented with a color blend that you can use to design your site around, complete with Hex Codes.
However, if you don't really understand what the heck a blend is (I had to Google it myself) you can go a more direct route. Color Scheme Designer allows you to take a more proactive approach to your color design by selecting a primary color and finding the accent colors by using the classic rules of complimentary color. You can also see how the colors might come together in a site with just the click of a button. This also provides Hex Codes to help you on your way.
8.31.2010
Art Direction on the Web
The newest trend in the graphic design world is "Art Direction" on blog entries/web sites. Unlike, say, this blog, where the entire blog is cohesively designed and every entry follows suit... Each entry gets a unique design that corresponds to the content, like a magazine article would.
This can be observed on Jason Santa Maria's site where each article often receives a completely different color, font and graphic treatment. He brings up good points about how sites can easily mimic print design to add visual interest. Personally, I wondered why it took web designers so long to reach this point. I think that, for a long time, web designers and graphic designers were different creatures. Finally, you are starting to see more people wearing both hats.
My first thought is that, perhaps, web surfers are more fickle and have shorter attention spans. Instead of pretty graphics they want straight information, easily laid out with links clearly visible. However, I then realized that attractive design could easily draw in a reader and keep him there. Unfortunately, from what I've witnessed so far, I think that "Art Directors" are often more concerned with the design aspect of each entry and less about delivery of information. I see big and bold and to the point, but I have yet to really linger on what the text is actually trying to convey. "Okay, this entry's about pencils aaand what is it trying to tell me about pencils? Okay just one paragraph." Why spend all that time designing a page around such a minimal amount of information? I think that design and information need to be married more closely.
I also have a problem with the lack of cohesiveness. With every page being different, there is often little to link a person back to the originating page. I feel that there has to be at least a certain amount of similar elements to keep the entire site and the designer's vision in one place. In most magazines you will often see radical headlines and graphics, but the body text, treatment of columns, etc. still remains the same. You can open a copy of Wired to any page and know that you are reading Wired. With some of these blogs, each page is radically different and the only thing tying you back to the designer is his logo, tucked away in a corner somewhere.
In other words, I feel that this is a promising new direction that needs to be further refined until it becomes as efficient as what we were doing before.
This can be observed on Jason Santa Maria's site where each article often receives a completely different color, font and graphic treatment. He brings up good points about how sites can easily mimic print design to add visual interest. Personally, I wondered why it took web designers so long to reach this point. I think that, for a long time, web designers and graphic designers were different creatures. Finally, you are starting to see more people wearing both hats.
My first thought is that, perhaps, web surfers are more fickle and have shorter attention spans. Instead of pretty graphics they want straight information, easily laid out with links clearly visible. However, I then realized that attractive design could easily draw in a reader and keep him there. Unfortunately, from what I've witnessed so far, I think that "Art Directors" are often more concerned with the design aspect of each entry and less about delivery of information. I see big and bold and to the point, but I have yet to really linger on what the text is actually trying to convey. "Okay, this entry's about pencils aaand what is it trying to tell me about pencils? Okay just one paragraph." Why spend all that time designing a page around such a minimal amount of information? I think that design and information need to be married more closely.
I also have a problem with the lack of cohesiveness. With every page being different, there is often little to link a person back to the originating page. I feel that there has to be at least a certain amount of similar elements to keep the entire site and the designer's vision in one place. In most magazines you will often see radical headlines and graphics, but the body text, treatment of columns, etc. still remains the same. You can open a copy of Wired to any page and know that you are reading Wired. With some of these blogs, each page is radically different and the only thing tying you back to the designer is his logo, tucked away in a corner somewhere.
In other words, I feel that this is a promising new direction that needs to be further refined until it becomes as efficient as what we were doing before.
8.25.2010
My Goals for This Class
Here I am again writing about my goals for the upcoming semester. Looking back at the blog I wrote for last semester, I feel that I definitely accomplished the goals I set forth. I now have a simple yet attractive website, though the coding needs improvement. As I said before, it seems that any Designer worth his paycheck these days has knowledge in Web Design, and I don't want to be left out in the cold. As well, I like being able to represent myself in a professional manner on the Internet.
I would like to tighten up my now pre-existing knowledge of html and CSS, and possibly learn more advanced techniques like Javascript so that I can make my pages more functional on their own without relying on outside scripts. As far as the basic coding goes, I still have a great deal that I need to learn. I managed to float by with a few basic commands and even those only worked for me after lots of sweat and tears! Even then, there are some issues with viewing my website in browsers other than Firefox. Woe!
Though I am seeking a degree in Graphic Design, my true passion is for illustration, and more and more often nowadays you hear about Illustrators being discovered solely on the strength of their online portfolios. I feel if I could have a strong Internet presence, it would do a great deal to advance my career in the right direction.
I would like to tighten up my now pre-existing knowledge of html and CSS, and possibly learn more advanced techniques like Javascript so that I can make my pages more functional on their own without relying on outside scripts. As far as the basic coding goes, I still have a great deal that I need to learn. I managed to float by with a few basic commands and even those only worked for me after lots of sweat and tears! Even then, there are some issues with viewing my website in browsers other than Firefox. Woe!
Though I am seeking a degree in Graphic Design, my true passion is for illustration, and more and more often nowadays you hear about Illustrators being discovered solely on the strength of their online portfolios. I feel if I could have a strong Internet presence, it would do a great deal to advance my career in the right direction.
7.19.2010
Mowey and Dibby
So a good friend recently commissioned me to design the mascot for her boyfriend's burgeoning lawncare business. He wanted something simple but eyecatching to put on his flyers. She sent some clip-art of a lawnmower with very specific instructions regarding how to design the character's face.
The liked the first one and suggested only minor changes; erasing one of the more technical pieces of the mower, filling in the wheels and raising the bar a bit.
Easy peasy, and so now I present MOWEY in all his finalized glory!
I finished an illustration for myself yesterday of my own interpretation of Dib from Invader Zim. My friend sent me the song "Master of the Universe" by the Sick Puppies, saying that it was suited for him! I agree, and that inspired this drawing.
I cleaned up the sketch and decided to color it without even bothering to ink. I like the effect, I think it makes it look a bit more grungy.
I put some choice lyrics on the image, and that was originally my plan; but once I got them in place I wasn't too wild about how it looked. I love playing with type but I guess it doesn't do as well with my illustrations. My hubby and I agreed that it would probably be best to remove the type and crop the image.
Ta-daaa!
The liked the first one and suggested only minor changes; erasing one of the more technical pieces of the mower, filling in the wheels and raising the bar a bit.
Easy peasy, and so now I present MOWEY in all his finalized glory!
I finished an illustration for myself yesterday of my own interpretation of Dib from Invader Zim. My friend sent me the song "Master of the Universe" by the Sick Puppies, saying that it was suited for him! I agree, and that inspired this drawing.
I cleaned up the sketch and decided to color it without even bothering to ink. I like the effect, I think it makes it look a bit more grungy.
I put some choice lyrics on the image, and that was originally my plan; but once I got them in place I wasn't too wild about how it looked. I love playing with type but I guess it doesn't do as well with my illustrations. My hubby and I agreed that it would probably be best to remove the type and crop the image.
Ta-daaa!
6.20.2010
DaMenSion and Batman
Man, it's been a month since I updated! Sorry (as if anyone reads this lol!)! Real life grabbed me by the lapels and wouldn't let go.
I have one more assignment to share before I'm done with this semester. Dave wanted us to see what we could do to improve the reputation of DaFont. For those that don't know, it's a site where one can download free fonts for just about any use, submitted by various creators. It doesn't seem that there is much quality control there, and it has a bad reputation among graphic designers.
He showed us some booklets from sites like Veer, that offer resources from fonts to stock illustrations. I felt that DaFont could easily steer in that direction, but keep the industriousness and community vibe that it already possesses. I thought it would be a neat idea for each creator to be able to have their own sort of "storefront" on the site to attract people toward their work... And also include more of a "networking" aspect that having a larger variety of work would provide.
So I decided the best way to showcase that would be to have a "theme" for every page, alternating between stock photos and illustration. We'd also need a new name to communicate how EDGY AND DYNAMIC the site is now. So I came up with "DaMenSion" because, you know, 3rd dimension and all.
A lot of us went along with that basic idea. It probably wasn't the most innovative thing I could've come up with, but I was more concerned with finishing an 8 page booklet in a timely manner. (It actually wasn't as difficult to accomplish as I thought it would be!)
All of the fonts are taken from DaFont. I must say that only one of the fonts was, in my opinion, badly constructed. I won't tell you which one, however! Hopefully you won't be able to tell. I played around with all of them to get them to my liking.
The illustrations are all taken from Veer... And I believe the photos are mostly from the Stock Exchange. Seeing as how this is effectively just a mock-up, I hope that nobody is offended that I used their work. I took care to ensure that most everything was royalty-free, save for the illos. I used the lower-quality versions that Veer provides for my project.
I love the front cover the most, because this is the most experimentation I've done with type so far.
I had to put some thought into how the pages would be arranged so they would print out correctly. I put pages 2 and 6 together originally, and my mind didn't even linger on the fact that two even-numbered pages would NOT face eachother.
The superhero drawing is mine! DMS man! I originally had the text laid out differently to compliment each image, but Dave and the class thought I should have more consistency between each page. So now the cute girl's eyes are covered. She is anonymous!
And the photo of the final booklet! (Taken with my phone tee hee)
Also: A fun little birthday gift I made for my friend! She loves Batman and is into silly things like me XD So I came up with this idea.
(Wait for it... it's animated!)
I have one more assignment to share before I'm done with this semester. Dave wanted us to see what we could do to improve the reputation of DaFont. For those that don't know, it's a site where one can download free fonts for just about any use, submitted by various creators. It doesn't seem that there is much quality control there, and it has a bad reputation among graphic designers.
He showed us some booklets from sites like Veer, that offer resources from fonts to stock illustrations. I felt that DaFont could easily steer in that direction, but keep the industriousness and community vibe that it already possesses. I thought it would be a neat idea for each creator to be able to have their own sort of "storefront" on the site to attract people toward their work... And also include more of a "networking" aspect that having a larger variety of work would provide.
So I decided the best way to showcase that would be to have a "theme" for every page, alternating between stock photos and illustration. We'd also need a new name to communicate how EDGY AND DYNAMIC the site is now. So I came up with "DaMenSion" because, you know, 3rd dimension and all.
A lot of us went along with that basic idea. It probably wasn't the most innovative thing I could've come up with, but I was more concerned with finishing an 8 page booklet in a timely manner. (It actually wasn't as difficult to accomplish as I thought it would be!)
All of the fonts are taken from DaFont. I must say that only one of the fonts was, in my opinion, badly constructed. I won't tell you which one, however! Hopefully you won't be able to tell. I played around with all of them to get them to my liking.
The illustrations are all taken from Veer... And I believe the photos are mostly from the Stock Exchange. Seeing as how this is effectively just a mock-up, I hope that nobody is offended that I used their work. I took care to ensure that most everything was royalty-free, save for the illos. I used the lower-quality versions that Veer provides for my project.
I love the front cover the most, because this is the most experimentation I've done with type so far.
I had to put some thought into how the pages would be arranged so they would print out correctly. I put pages 2 and 6 together originally, and my mind didn't even linger on the fact that two even-numbered pages would NOT face eachother.
The superhero drawing is mine! DMS man! I originally had the text laid out differently to compliment each image, but Dave and the class thought I should have more consistency between each page. So now the cute girl's eyes are covered. She is anonymous!
And the photo of the final booklet! (Taken with my phone tee hee)
Also: A fun little birthday gift I made for my friend! She loves Batman and is into silly things like me XD So I came up with this idea.
(Wait for it... it's animated!)
5.15.2010
Evansville Museum Ad Campaign
This assignment involved picking a local business from a list and coming up with a nice ad campaign for it. Surprisingly, most of the class picked the Evansville Museum along with me. They're a privately run museum that's currently trying to raise the money needed for an expansion. They have a lot of neat exhibits but not a lot to capture the public interest. Therefore, I first sat down and considered what the museum already HAD that could bring in the public.
My favorite part of the museum in my youth was the replicas of Lincoln's home and other period shops and homes, so I focused a lot on Lincoln and log cabins in my initial sketches. They also have the EMTRAC museum that has an actual train you can check out, and a planetarium. I also tried to think of more cost-effective means of advertising, because they obviously don't have a huge ad budget.
I really liked my idea to create postcards that could be folded into interesting things. I had a log cabin, a "planetarium" that you could pop on top of a flashlight, a train, and other silly things.
When Dave looked at my sketches he wondered what my obsession with Lincoln was and when I replied that I was trying to focus on the stuff that they had to attract customers, he encouraged me to perhaps think of some stuff that the museum NEEDED that could also attract guests.
Upon researching other museums, I decided that our museum needed DINOSAURS and a cafe. They're located right on the river, providing what would be a really nice view for visitors that would like to drink some coffee and sit a spell.
My ideas were distilled down to some final concepts.
First, I created my billboard. It would set the standard for everything afterward. The image is from the Stock Exchange as so many of my images are! The font used for "celestial" is from Blambot, I think, as so many of my fonts are.
Some of my classmates weren't wild about the font, so I changed it out for my final draft. Font from Blambot yet again, I believe!
Next, I created the buswrap. It is difficult to find a usable dinosaur skeleton just lying around, you know? I eventually settled on this one, just for the purposes of the assignment. The bus is from the Stock Exchange, yet again~ I really wanted to find a usable image of the buses our own METS uses but could not. I took photos of our buses but they didn't work well once I plopped them in Photoshop. The billboard and building itself were my only usable photos, actually.
Third is the magazine ad! This is my favorite one. Why do I have such love for a dying medium?? The picture of the river is by myself, and the coffee is from the Stock Exchange. When it was all said and done, someone remarked that it reminded them of another ad campaign from someplace... Like Jimmy John's or something? I guess by the way the words are stacked. But... I LIKE stacking words... ;)
Lastly is my "installation." The EMTRAC was NEVER open when I had a chance to come down and take photos, and as I said, most of what I took didn't work well anyway. I had the idea to make a sort of installation along the building using train tracks and a replica train, but that just didn't pan out. Instead I created a huge banner! With a train I took from the Stock Exchange. It really wasn't detailed enough to make a good banner image, though. Curse you, trains!
My favorite part of the museum in my youth was the replicas of Lincoln's home and other period shops and homes, so I focused a lot on Lincoln and log cabins in my initial sketches. They also have the EMTRAC museum that has an actual train you can check out, and a planetarium. I also tried to think of more cost-effective means of advertising, because they obviously don't have a huge ad budget.
I really liked my idea to create postcards that could be folded into interesting things. I had a log cabin, a "planetarium" that you could pop on top of a flashlight, a train, and other silly things.
When Dave looked at my sketches he wondered what my obsession with Lincoln was and when I replied that I was trying to focus on the stuff that they had to attract customers, he encouraged me to perhaps think of some stuff that the museum NEEDED that could also attract guests.
Upon researching other museums, I decided that our museum needed DINOSAURS and a cafe. They're located right on the river, providing what would be a really nice view for visitors that would like to drink some coffee and sit a spell.
My ideas were distilled down to some final concepts.
First, I created my billboard. It would set the standard for everything afterward. The image is from the Stock Exchange as so many of my images are! The font used for "celestial" is from Blambot, I think, as so many of my fonts are.
Some of my classmates weren't wild about the font, so I changed it out for my final draft. Font from Blambot yet again, I believe!
Next, I created the buswrap. It is difficult to find a usable dinosaur skeleton just lying around, you know? I eventually settled on this one, just for the purposes of the assignment. The bus is from the Stock Exchange, yet again~ I really wanted to find a usable image of the buses our own METS uses but could not. I took photos of our buses but they didn't work well once I plopped them in Photoshop. The billboard and building itself were my only usable photos, actually.
Third is the magazine ad! This is my favorite one. Why do I have such love for a dying medium?? The picture of the river is by myself, and the coffee is from the Stock Exchange. When it was all said and done, someone remarked that it reminded them of another ad campaign from someplace... Like Jimmy John's or something? I guess by the way the words are stacked. But... I LIKE stacking words... ;)
Lastly is my "installation." The EMTRAC was NEVER open when I had a chance to come down and take photos, and as I said, most of what I took didn't work well anyway. I had the idea to make a sort of installation along the building using train tracks and a replica train, but that just didn't pan out. Instead I created a huge banner! With a train I took from the Stock Exchange. It really wasn't detailed enough to make a good banner image, though. Curse you, trains!
5.10.2010
MSI Site Design and STFU Tak Illustration
Today I have a Web Design project for you and a new illustration!
This project involved choosing a band with at least four releases and redesigning their logo, then creating a discography and merchandise page for them. I chose Mindless Self Indulgence because they are my favorite band and their site is okay but rather disjointed design-wise.
MSI uses a lot of Nintendo chipset music in their work, as well as having lots of bright, neon techno elements in their design aesthetic. I wanted to stick to that, while making it a little more slick since they've been sort of entering mainstream music.
I tried playing with Impact and layering colors to see how they'd interact. (The "MSI" logo is intentionally vulgar, haha! MSI is a bit of a vulgar band. Don't hate!) I also had my prerequisite hand-drawn font. I downloaded a nice font from Blambot and played a lot with its serifs. We all ended up liking that logo the best.
Once the logo was straightened out, I went about designing the pages. I stuck with my techno vibe in my sketches.
I really liked the circuit board and microchip ideas I'd come up with, but trying to integrate them practically didn't really work. I did end up using the sort of "electrical current" vibe in my final design, though.
For my first draft, Dave didn't quite dig the way I had laid out my navigation links. My classmates also pointed out that the gradient was a little ugly looking. It's supposed to fade from green to pink, but I intended for the page to extend beyond this "preview" window, so I didn't adjust the length of the gradient.
So I fixed those things! Made the nav links smaller and separated them with the fonts neato "asterisk." The way the page is supposed to work is that when you scroll over each thumbnail, it increases in size. If you click on it, additional info and order links will appear. MSI doesn't quite have their own storefront for a lot of their music; you are taken to other sites to order.
Then came the merchandise page! This one operated on the same basic premise, except I also added a shopping cart and size menus and the like.
I'm pretty pleased with this but I ended up getting a "B." Horrors! Dave said that the lack of a grid might be confusing... Which confused me, because I am sort of operating on a grid. *sobs!*
Next is an illustration I did for a good friend of mine. She gave me a hand with something when I was in a bind! This features her character Bianca and my versions of two characters from the old TV show Invader Zim. Bianca and the alien don't get along very well, and the poor hairy guy is caught in the middle. Love triangle!
By clicking on the thumb you can see my pencils, inks and the final version. :)
This project involved choosing a band with at least four releases and redesigning their logo, then creating a discography and merchandise page for them. I chose Mindless Self Indulgence because they are my favorite band and their site is okay but rather disjointed design-wise.
MSI uses a lot of Nintendo chipset music in their work, as well as having lots of bright, neon techno elements in their design aesthetic. I wanted to stick to that, while making it a little more slick since they've been sort of entering mainstream music.
I tried playing with Impact and layering colors to see how they'd interact. (The "MSI" logo is intentionally vulgar, haha! MSI is a bit of a vulgar band. Don't hate!) I also had my prerequisite hand-drawn font. I downloaded a nice font from Blambot and played a lot with its serifs. We all ended up liking that logo the best.
Once the logo was straightened out, I went about designing the pages. I stuck with my techno vibe in my sketches.
I really liked the circuit board and microchip ideas I'd come up with, but trying to integrate them practically didn't really work. I did end up using the sort of "electrical current" vibe in my final design, though.
For my first draft, Dave didn't quite dig the way I had laid out my navigation links. My classmates also pointed out that the gradient was a little ugly looking. It's supposed to fade from green to pink, but I intended for the page to extend beyond this "preview" window, so I didn't adjust the length of the gradient.
So I fixed those things! Made the nav links smaller and separated them with the fonts neato "asterisk." The way the page is supposed to work is that when you scroll over each thumbnail, it increases in size. If you click on it, additional info and order links will appear. MSI doesn't quite have their own storefront for a lot of their music; you are taken to other sites to order.
Then came the merchandise page! This one operated on the same basic premise, except I also added a shopping cart and size menus and the like.
I'm pretty pleased with this but I ended up getting a "B." Horrors! Dave said that the lack of a grid might be confusing... Which confused me, because I am sort of operating on a grid. *sobs!*
Next is an illustration I did for a good friend of mine. She gave me a hand with something when I was in a bind! This features her character Bianca and my versions of two characters from the old TV show Invader Zim. Bianca and the alien don't get along very well, and the poor hairy guy is caught in the middle. Love triangle!
By clicking on the thumb you can see my pencils, inks and the final version. :)
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