Meow

New Blog!

2011-01-26T14:45:00.005Z

I recently bought myself a domain name, and so have a brand new blog at http://blog.jennoefur.co.uk

This blog will no longer be updated, so please go over there!

GOOD Driving School Websites

2011-01-24T21:37:00.002Z

Courtesy of Dan Ryland, here are some GOOD driving school websites! Yes they do exist - what a shocker!

Revolution Driving Tuition - I really like the scrapbook style of this design, it manages to be quirky and fun while still remaining professional. While the theme isn't really related to driving lessons, rather than feeling disconnected it gives the site a personal feel. The design also shows awareness of current web design trends through the style and use of fonts, as well as the inclusion of a blog, something I haven't seen on any of the other driving websites.

Visibility Driving Tuition - Being effective in a different way, this website uses simplicity and elegance rather than the quirkiness demonstrated by the Revolution website. Effective use of gradients give the site a sleek feel, and it follows web design trends without looking boring.

Being creations from Chris Spooner of Line 25, it's no surprise these websites look lovely :)

Mock-Up 3

2011-01-24T21:23:00.003Z

Here is mock up number 3! I'm having a meeting with my client tomorrow evening so am hoping to get another mock up done tomorrow so I'll have 4 to show her. Hopefully she'll have some opinions on the designs - who knows, I could be going in completely the wrong direction.

Mock-Up 2

2011-01-23T14:03:00.003Z

Looking at my previous design, I don't think it's that bad any more. This is the second mock-up for the Petal website, which is pretty similar in simplicity. The photo is just for illustration purposes as I still need to take pictures of the clients car.

Hopefully I will be meeting up with my client this Tuesday, the 25th of January.

Mock-Up 1

2011-01-21T14:36:00.004Z

I'm having a serious case of designer's block right now, and I think it's making me a bit mental. Everything I try and create ends up looking poo and it's making me want to throw my laptop on the floor and jump up and down on it...

This is the best I'm getting at the moment -

Maybe it's just because I've been staring at Photoshop for the past two days, but I don't like it. It's plain and boring and just looks like all the other plain, boring websites out there.

It hasn't been possible for my client to meet with me yet, which is probably a good thing. Maybe i can make something halfway decent by the time we meet next week.

Hmph.

The Petal School of Motoring car

2011-01-20T19:22:00.003Z

Since the car used by my client is something that makes the business recognisable, it will feature within the design of the website. I'm been playing around with a photo I had of the car to make it fit into a website.

Client - Another Wireframe

2011-01-20T19:06:00.004Z

Looking at the previous wireframes I feel that I am lacking something! They're not too bad, but just not that great either. I'm continuing to try and develop more with the hope that something good will happen...

SPP Assignment 1

2011-01-18T21:09:00.004Z

Well I clearly didn't read the brief for this assignment very well! I reread it after our SPP lecture today and there's much more work involved than I thought! I need to -

Find four real-world multimedia jobs and create a mock application for one of them - Should be simple enough!

Find four postgraduate courses and create a mock application for one of them - I've been browsing thought postgraduate courses for a while now, and can't really find many focused specifically around web design. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

Write a 1000 word rationale outlining why I chose the specific job and course - Can I really say 1000 words about this? Probably. Just doesn't seem like a fun thing to do right now...

Create a new web design orientated curriculum vitae - The only CV I have right now is my regular retail/admin based one, so I suppose this needs to be done sooner or later.

Create an electronic portfolio of my work to support my applications - Possibly matching my new CV

It's definitely good that we're doing this so we're prepared after graduation, just wishing I'd started it last term now! Silly me..

Logo Ideas

2011-01-16T19:48:00.003Z

I'm not feeling to great at the moment so apologies if this isn't very coherent!

This is the current logo for The Petal School of Motoring website -

It's based around that fact that the owner is named Peta, and by adding the l-plate on the end it makes Petal, which is how the company got its name originally. It's a nice idea and the client wants the logo to remain this way, though I will be giving it a bit of a redesign.

Idea 1 - Pretty basic, just a change of font really. The l-plate is intentionally covering the text to give the impression it's just been slapped over the top.

Idea 2 - More decorative than the previous idea, though I'm not sure about the font. I've used floral brushes to give a feminine feel.

Idea 3 - As above only with a serif font used. Still not sure though!

Idea 4 - A layering effect is used here with a textured background. Might play around with this a bit more. Maybe giving it a sketchier feel?

More to follow...

Client - Wireframes

2011-01-15T13:55:00.004Z

I've been working on some wireframes for the Petal School of Motoring website. Here are the first 2. Hopefully they should translate well into working designs.

I've decided to make the logo and header area quite prominent, as it will be the first way for the user to make the connection between the website and the Petal car they've seen driving around. Large headers are also on trend with web design at the moment, as are horizontal navigations, which I personally prefer anyway.

I did play around with the idea of a vertical navigation but found the results were not quite what I wanted. Vertical navigation is actually being considered an out of date method nowadays, as explained over at Smashing Magazine in this interesting article. This was written around a year ago, and looking at popular websites at the moment, you can see that vertical navigation is not a very common feature.

Argh

2011-01-15T13:45:00.006Z

I've seen so many bad driving school websites now I feel as if I should make it my personal mission to rid the world of them. I think the problem lies with the many companies that are offering to make websites for driving schools, when they clearly lack the skills to do so... I mean, come on -

PRP - Survey

2011-01-14T11:46:00.003Z

If anyone is looking at this please go and fill out this survey to help with my PRP research!

Located here: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=HBIILF_2ade67df

It's very short and won't take long, but your opinions are invaluable!

More Driving Schools...

2011-01-13T14:29:00.008Z

Still scouting out the current environment of driving school websites...

Ignition Driver Training - This website isn't incredibly bad, but it has the feel of a template that someone has just slapped all their own information on. The cheesy stock images only add to this, as well as the 'sidebar' containing only one link that directs to an empty page. You can clearly tell the website has not been specifically designed for this company, and so it feels kind of disconnected. I want the website for my client to feel as if it's part of a brand, so people will see the site and immediately know it's connected to that car they see driving around.

Brakethru School of Motoring - As soon as this website loads up an annoying woman pops up in the corner congratulating you on finding them. Most people find websites that play sound at them automatically rather annoying, and this is no exception! Generally it's not a bad website, but the way they're displaying content is letting them down. The varied fonts and text colours look confusing and amateur, like someone designing a poster for a church fayre in Microsoft word. There's also a couple of flashing images, which is kind of unnecessary.

Dr L Test School of Motoring - This is another website with an annoying person popping up to talk to you! This time it's a little man, and you get the option to play the video rather than it just starting up by itself. However, what he says is in to way specific to the company. He doesn't mention the company name, or anything about driving lessons, but tells the user to give them a call or email, without telling the number or address. It's clearly just a generic message you can buy from a company and stick on your website. I don't feel as if it adds anything to the site, and imagine that the 'play video' button doesn't even get pressed very often. The design of the website is not very attractive, and has an impersonal feel gained through the use of generic stock images and buttons.

Your Old Crap Website

2011-01-11T23:08:00.002Z

http://youroldcrapwebsite.wordpress.com/

I love this blog! The author finds old website designs in the internet archives and compares them to the current design. Some are shockingly bad, some surprisingly before their time and others just plain funny. Also, the satirical way the author writes about the designs is entertainment enough!

Driving School Websites

2011-01-11T20:53:00.007Z

While researching the current environment of driving school websites I have made a discovery - most of them aren't that great. The good designs are all for big companies like BSM or RED Driving School, whereas independent companies like the one I'm designing for are being left with designs that look ugly and dated. Here are just a few I've found. More will probably follow.

Gold Seal Driving School - This website looks like it was designed in the 90s, though it's not quite as bad as the site of the actual designer. In fact,the website for 'Website Dynamix' is pretty much the same, only with extra annoying adverts. Gold Seal Driving School severely need to update their site, as it is boring and dated and so is not doing much to advertise their services.

Apple Driving School - This website is much better compared to the last one, using simplistic design with effective use of images. The information is clearly displayed on each page, and there doesn't seem to be any unnecessary elements. It could do with a bit of a revamp to meet current web trends, but overall it's clean, simple and effective, much better than most of the other sites I've looked at.

Safedrive Driving School - This website is quite awful in many ways. The design is cluttered, bombarding the user with information and images, including annoying animated gifs. The school seems to offer services to a large part of the country, but if you want to actually find out where you have to scroll down a long list contained in a small box, not the greatest example of user experience. The homepage is loaded with information, making it very long with more scrolling needed than on the average website.

Mob (a near-future science fiction story) by Tom Scott

2011-01-11T12:12:00.002Z

This presentation, given by Tom Scott at Ignite London 2, tells the fictional story of a flash mob gone wrong. Watch it!

Simulated Client Project

2011-01-11T11:52:00.001Z

Just realised that the previous link I gave for my piracy project is no longer working. Crappy free webhosts randomly deleting content...

It can be accessed here http://maeda.ads.ntu.ac.uk/~n0237873/piracy/ but only from within the university network.

Client Project - Design and Conceptual Ideas

2011-01-11T11:27:00.005Z

In this project the main concern for the client is the content of the website, rather than the way it looks. Therefore the design has to be fairly simple so that it does not distract away from the information. It will also have a modern clean feel to it, conforming to current design trends. One thing the client has specified is the colour scheme, which is to be red and white. This will match the current branding of the business, as these are the colours of the logo and also the actual car used for driving lessons. A conceptual idea of the client’s is to have the whole website contained within a picture of a car, with the content being in the windscreen area. From a designer’s point of view, I think this could be a bit tacky if not executed correctly. The image of the car would have to be very slick, perhaps using vector graphics, in order to conform to modern web design trends. This is an idea that will have to be experimented with to see if it is viable.

A set of four Flash banners will also be created, to be used for advertising seasonal offers. At the moment the idea is to have one for each for spring, summer, autumn and winter with animations playing that match each season. The possibility of making these banners interactive is also being considered.

Design Inspiration -

Frog CMS website – Simple, clean design that doesn’t take away from the information the website is providing. Important points of focus are emphasised.

Infinitum website – This site uses minimalist design with a big emphasis on images. Using the bare minimum amount of text, just the important information is given.

SurfHer Party website – This design shows something a bit more quirky executed very professionally. The site is designed to look like a surf shack, to match the subject of the website. This could be inspiration for my client’s idea of making her website into a car layout.

The Many Faces of… - I really like the large image based header used in this design. This kind of header could be used for the Petal website to feature a large illustration of the business’s car, rather than making the whole layout into the car.

Client Project - Rationale

2011-01-11T11:25:00.001Z

The client is looking to have her current website (above) redesigned to better suit her needs. It is felt that the existing design is too obtrusive and so it will be condensed to a reasonable size, allowing it to appear on common screen resolutions with no negative effects. The number of pages of the website will also be reconsidered, as some of the current content is unnecessary.

The main priority of the business is to advertise the services being sold, and so this will take precedence before any other content on the website. However, the client does not want just a source of plain information and so the possibility of adding some interactivity is being considered.

An important requirement for the website is to allow the client to make simple updates herself. This is especially important when considering things like price changes. Her current website does not allow her to do this and she has to contact her administrator every time a change is needed. I will incorporate a simple ready-made Content Management System (CMS) to allow the client to do this herself.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a big priority, and at the moment my client feels her website is not being found easily enough. I will utilise SEO techniques to allow users to find the site easily. Alongside this I will employ analytics software to allow the client to see how the website is being found.

Client Project Progress

2011-01-11T11:09:00.003Z

After submitting my proposal before Christmas, I have now realised I never actually made any updates on here about it (probably due to PRP-induced panic). So in the next few posts is an overview of what I'm going to be doing in this project.

My Client

The client for this project is Peta Aston at the Petal School of Motoring, a driving school based in Nottinghamshire. Peta has owned her business since 2003 and it has a good reputation, with a very high pass rate.

Peta makes use of two selling points when advertising her business; her car and the fact that she is a female instructor. A lot of people feel more comfortable with a female instructor and so she takes advantage of this selling point. The car used for her lessons is a Fiat Panda, which is not used by any other driving schools in the area. Being unique, it is a big selling point for the business. This car with its colour and decoration has also allowed the business to establish a recognisable brand within the area.

PRP Progress

2011-01-11T10:52:00.004Z

I'm very happy to have my PRP written document submitted and out of the way. I was fairly pleased with how it turned out in the end, though now it's done I keep thinking of other things I could have added to it. Never mind. On to the artefacts now...

I am currently finishing up a survey designed to answer the following questions -

How do people use mobile Internet?
Do people like using mobile Internet?
How often do people use mobile Internet?
Mobile or desktop Internet - which is preferred?
Using mobile optimized websites or full size websites - which is preferred?
What is the general user opinion of mobile internet? Good or bad?

I am also going to look at how people percieve mobile internet, and see if this affects the way they use it. For example if someone is expecting the experience of using mobile web to be difficult, they may be unprepared to try it or give up easily. The focus group held for my next artefact will be more useful for getting results in this area, as I will be able to see directly how people are using mobile internet.

However, something I am wondering about at the moment is the kind of audience that will be participating in my survey. The amount of experience they have with using mobile web could affect their oinions drastically. If someone has had no experience of it whatsoever then the results gained from them may not be very useful to me.

Happy New Year

2011-01-11T10:51:00.000Z

Sorry its a bit late.

The iPhone is the new Internet Explorer 6, says mobile developer | Technology | guardian.co.uk

2010-11-23T15:23:00.001Z

The iPhone is the new Internet Explorer 6, says mobile developer | Technology | guardian.co.uk

While doing research into mobile web for my PRP, I've come across an interesting article from the Guardian website (Feb 2010). Charles Arthur is reporting on the opinions of Peter-Paul Koch who warns that the iPhone is becoming mobile web's equivalent of Internet Explorer 6 (hated by designers - see http://www.bringdownie6.com).

A quote from Koch states "The iPhone has become an obsession. If we don't pay attention, we'll have a mobile web that only works on the iPhone. And then we'll have the real mobile web that wasn't made by us and doesn't give a shit about web standards and best practices."

I think I agree with him!

Another pointed comment "No "mobile web development" specialist ever mentions Nokia ever. After all, Nokia only sells more smartphones than BlackBerry and Apple combined, so there's no reason to mention it." really make you think about this iPhone 'obsession'.

Piracy Final

2010-11-08T10:09:00.000Z

Located at: http://jennoe.x10.mx/piracy/1/myths.html

Working Version

2010-10-20T18:05:00.001+01:00

Here is a working version of the site how it look at the moment: http://jennoe.x10.mx/piracy/1/myths.html

I think I like it!

I seriously need to get some reliable web hosting!

More Progress

2010-10-20T17:18:00.004+01:00

This is how the website is looking at the moment. The jQuery extender is there but at the moment I haven't really worked out how I'm going to match the right text up to it's respective myth. Hmm.

Browser Compatibility

2010-10-15T13:50:00.003+01:00

Google Chrome -

Firefox -

Internet Explorer -

You can't really tell in much detail here, but it looks better in Chrome and Firefox rather than IE, mainly because IE doesn't support the text-shadow property, and also has a fit trying to run a simple piece of JavaScript.

Can be seen live here: http://jennoefur.comyr.com/piracy/myths.html

Pretty styles!

2010-10-15T13:30:00.001+01:00

So we start off with a line of text yeah?

Add a bit of CSS styling and... bam!

I was originally trying to embed some webfonts with @font-face but it doesn't seem to like working within JavaScript so I've decided to go with one of my favourite classic fonts; Century Gothic. I think it looks pretty smart with some styles thrown all over it. I have used the CSS3 property 'text-shadow' though, which requires a webkit browser.

Close-up -

JavaScript Array

2010-10-15T12:58:00.003+01:00

In order to make my piracy myths appear randomly on the webpage I have used JavaScript to create a function. An array has been created containing all the myths then the floor() and random() methods of the Math object are used to pick one out at random. The code for this is demonstrated below -

function getMyth()
{
var piMyths = new Array();
piMyths[0] = "Pirates only want things for free.";
piMyths[1] = "Downloading music damages the artist.";
piMyths[2] = "No artists support piracy.";
piMyths[3] = "Piracy is stealing.";
piMyths[4] = "Piracy will kill creative arts.";
piMyths[5] = "Digital piracy costs the industy billions.";
piMyths[6] = "Piracy is illegal, and therefore wrong.";
piMyths[7] = "Pirates are all young people who don't really understand how society works.";
piMyths[8] = "Using pay services is so much easier.";
piMyths[9] = "It isn't expensive to just pay for stuff anyway.";
piMyths[10] = "You don't support the band by pirating their music.";
var randValue = Math.floor(Math.random() * piMyths.length);
document.write(piMyths[randValue]);
}

By using an array more information can be added quickly and easily by just editing this one piece of JavaScript. I have placed this script in an external .js document that can be linked to from any of my HTML pages. Then all I have to do is call upon the JavaScript function in the body of my HTML document in order to make the random quotes show up.

This can be see in action at http://jennoefur.comyr.com/piracy/arraydemo.html. Refreshing the page will bring up one of the randomly selected quotes.

Colours + Backgrounds

2010-10-15T12:42:00.002+01:00

Experimenting with colours on a manipulated texture for my background image -

Blue -

Green -

Red -

Designs

2010-10-15T12:07:00.003+01:00

I've been making some mock ups in Photoshop for this project, and I think this is more helpful that creating wireframes. I prefer the second design here, and think I'm going to have a fairly dark colour scheme, with big emphasis on the typography.

Wireframes

2010-10-14T15:16:00.004+01:00

Not too sure how useful these really are for this project, as it's mostly based on the aesthetics the wireframes just look empty.

here's a pirate

2010-10-14T13:22:00.000+01:00

First of all, here's a pirate. I don't think it really has anything to do with anything but there you go. I think he's cute.

Progress..

2010-10-14T12:30:00.000+01:00

I think my piracy project is going quite well so far.

I will post some of my development work shortly.

Piracy Myths

2010-10-11T20:06:00.000+01:00

Okay so here is a list of the myths I intend to bust:

Pirates only want free stuff
Downloading music damages the artist
No artists support piracy
Piracy is stealing
Piracy will kill the creative arts
Digital piracy costs the industry billions
Piracy is illegal, and therefore wrong
Pirates are all young people who don't understand how society really works
Using pay services is much easier anyway
It isn't expensive to just pay for stuff
You don't support the band by pirating their music

Most of these statements are claims made by anti-piracy groups, or are just common misconceptions. All that stuff about you wouldn't steal a handbag, and it's not even stealing...

Schedule

2010-10-11T18:09:00.000+01:00

Here is a Gantt Chart showing my schedule for the Simulated Client project.

Simulated Client Project

2010-10-11T17:46:00.000+01:00

The Brief:

Produce a short multimedia piece that informs about or illustrates Digital Piracy.

Proposal:

To answer this brief I propose to create a pro-piracy website informing about myths within anti-piracy campaigns. It will mostly focus around digital piracy within the music industry, but also touching upon the film industry.Through research of digital piracy I have discovered that there are many points argued by anti-piracy groups that can be disputed and sometimes proven wrong. Some examples are –

Digital piracy costs the industry billions every year
Piracy is stealing
Pirates are all young people who don’t understand how society really works
No artists support piracy
You don’t support bands by pirating their music

I intend the website to be very simple but also focused on aesthetic design, with a clean, modern look conforming to current design trends. It will be created using HTML and CSS, with JavaScript being used for certain elements.

I have taken inspiration from the website' WTF Should I Make For Dinner?' with regards to how my piracy website will work.

On this website a link to a different recipe is displayed each time the page is refreshed or the user clicks the link to display a new one. I would like my piracy website to work in the same way, with a different myth displayed on each page. Using large type to state the myth, I will then give the user the option to read more information using a link. When clicked, I plan on having more text appear explaining why it is untrue. There are examples below demonstrating this.

Piracy

2010-10-06T16:30:00.001+01:00

THIS IS A NEW YEAR

2010-10-06T16:21:00.000+01:00

From this point everything is fresh.

I would like to make a new fancy blog on my own website, but then I know I'd get caught up in designing it when I'm actually supposed to be doing work.

So I won't.

I'll just write a big message like this saying that from this point the work will be GOOD.

Title Ideas

2010-03-08T14:47:00.001Z

Final Wireframe

2010-03-08T13:38:00.001Z

After experimenting in Photoshop with some of the layout used in the previous wireframes, I found none of them were really very effective. I've created a new one like this which is working much better as a design.

Basic Wireframes

2010-02-26T11:52:00.001Z

I want a new blog

2010-02-26T11:22:00.001Z

Stupid crappy Blogger is doing my head in, I need something better!

Considering getting 123-Reg's student offer, it's a bit of a bargain I think...

Second Project - Development

2010-02-26T11:01:00.001Z

So after looking at the websites of existing photographers I can determine that they generally have simple designs, which makes sense since you wouldn't want to distract from the actual work. The colour schemes seem to include a lot of grey, with the odd splash of colour thrown in. To me this also makes sense since the website will be showcasing a number of photographs which could be made up of various colours, by using blacks, greys and whites you will be sure that none of the colours will clash.

The website for Sean McGrail, Photographer and Film Maker will:

be simple
be pretty
have a grey, black and white colour scheme
use a splash of red here and there
include a Flash gallery, slideshow and navigation (this may change)

This has been worked out with the client to work around my project. Not too sure about the flash at the moment, I want to have a slideshow on the main page that cycles through photographs automatically, but as I will also be including a proper gallery I'm not too sure if these are too similar to count as two different elements towards the required three.

Photographers

2010-02-26T10:26:00.001Z

I've been looking at the websites of existing photographers to get ideas and inspiration. There seems to be a general theme of simplicity in the sites.

Mattstuart.com

This is a really nice website, simplistic clean design, visually effective and includes cool Flash elements. The heading for the website is in Flash and changes as you navigate around the site. In this screenshot of the homepage it says 'Matt Stuart Captures Cops' but on other pages 'Matt Stuart Frames Strangers', 'Matt Stuart Shoots Rabbits' and 'Matt Stuart Exposes Himself' which I rather like. Colours are very basic, using just greys, blacks and whites in the actual design, with brightness only being added through the actual photographs.

Carlwarner.com

The main page here looks nice and simple, but overall I'm not really a fan of this design. When you click the links to the different pages they open in a new window, all of this being Flash-based. I just find this a bit annoying. However, I like the colours that have been used, with minimal amounts of bright elements against a dark grey background. The work is also very good, look at the 'foodscapes'!

Stevenbrooksphotographer.co.uk

This website is a little more decorative than the previous two though is still fairly simple. There is the same dark grey theme used here, along with a few simple flowers framing the content. I really like the use of typography in the headers here. Overall very nice!

Second Project

2010-02-26T10:18:00.001Z

Been a bit slack on the posts lately!

For our second brief we are required to create a website for an artist or arts organisation which is designed to increase traffic or customers for the client. The site must have a minimum of five pages, include three different Flash elements and a journal page that populated by drawing on a MySQL database using PHP.

This project works out really well for me because my friend recently asked me to create a website for her boyfriend who is a photographer and film maker, so I can kill two birds with one stone. Not real birds.

Ideas and wireframes to follow...

Flash Advert Finished!

2010-02-26T10:04:00.001Z

I did it! Quite pleased with it really, since to begin with I had no idea where to start!

Flash Banner Project

2010-02-11T10:17:00.001Z

We're now required to create a Flash banner advertsing a mobile phone, that features animation and interactivity. It's supposed to be for the phone that we own, but everybody has the same one, an iPhone. Haha. I don't however, I have a really basic Nokia that everyone must think is primitive in comparison.

It's a Nokia 2330 and doesn't do a lot but at the moment it's working for me (until I get an iPhone ha).

I think a Flash banner for this phone should focus on its simplicty as a good thing rather than a hindrance.

After some doodling and sketching I've decided upon an idea I'd like to do but to be honest, I don't really know where to begin. I've been looking at some of the user interfaces of old operating systems, specificly Windows 1.0 to 3.1 which compared to the operating systems of today are extremely simple. I would like to create a flash advert that shows the desktop of one of these operating systems, and allows the user to click on the icons and such but with not many options available, demonstrating the simplicty of it. This could then eventually display a message such as "Not all technology should have stayed simple, but the Nokia 2330 should" or something along those lines. As in, it's good to be simple and not over-complicated! After all, not everybody actually needs a phone that can browse the internet or run loads of apps or even play music.

An advert like this could probably never be real because Windows wouldn't let Nokia display their OS in a bad light, even an old one. Another complication is the initial user reaction, as a banner just displaying an old OS could easily be ignored, in the same way the awful fake Windows popups are.

Aside from that, I have no bloody clue how to start the idea in Flash!

Andrew Bradshaw

2010-02-05T09:59:00.001Z

This is the personal website for Texas designer Andrew Bradshaw, who is creative director for Church Plant Media. He creates elegant, simple designs that are mostly for churches or other religious establishments. This is not a subject that appeals to me at all, but the designs are all very modern and sophisticated and since I'm looking at this from a design point of view I'll try not to let my (non-existent) religious views affect my judgement. Haha.
His personal website is a great example of his work in itself, being clean and sophisticated with a clear layout that draws the user in.

The header uses a dark brown textured background that looks great against the muted shades used in the rest of the design. I really like the use of type in the header as well; I have always been a fan of typography and the contrast of the capitalized serif font against the lowercase sans-serif really appeals to me. The use of colour in the word 'design' helps it to stand out amongst the earthy brown.

The navigation for this website is rather nice, with creative use of hover effects. When the user hovers over the different links they are underlined by a block of colour. There is also differentiation between the portfolio links and the personal links, which are faded out slightly. However, I'm not sure the word 'portfolio' is really necessary as it's quite clear that this is what the links are for and it just looks quite obtrusive.

The use of imagery on the main page is attractive, giving the user a quick view of what the designer's work is like. He has also added faint drop shadows, giving the illusion of 3D and depth.

An element of this website that bugs me a bit is the text 'Web. Simple.' as to me it looks quite irrelevant to the design. It has been connected to the rest of the design by matching the font colour with that of the word 'design' in the header, but the actual font seems out of place. The hand-written style is on-trend in web design at the moment, but here, mixed in with the other various font styles, I think it is a bit too much. I myself would not use this amount of different fonts in a design. However, looking at the rest of the design and the other featured in his portfolio, the diesgner clearly has a solid grasp of typography and how it should be used. This can be seen in the company website, Church Plant Media.

Overall this designer has a nice style, creating modern sophistacted designs with a personal edge. The use of textures throughout his portfolio is noticeable, and this is clearly something he is fond of. The use of type is also significant, an is mostly used very well.

Wild Clothing - Finished

2010-01-26T13:26:00.001Z

I think I've finished this now. To see the site working go here.

I changed the fonts used, added some hover effects to the navigation and managed to get the footer working properly. The paint splatters are displayed at the bottom of the page no matter how long it gets.

There are still a couple of things that bother me but I don't know what to do about them. The background looks really plain being just white, I tried adding a simple texture to it but it just made it look too busy along with the paint splatters. I don't know if it's just because I've been staring at it for ages, but the design seems a little boring to me now.. I dunno.

Signature Illustration Blog

2010-01-25T22:59:00.001Z

If you're interested in art or illustration, a great place to check out is the Signature Illustration Blog. They regularly showcase amazingly talented artists and illustrators of all different styles, and also show hand-drawn animations and short lessons that can be useful. It's an excellent place to browse to gain inspiration or simply just pass some time by looking at beautiful paintings.

Wild Clothing Final Design

2010-01-25T13:29:00.001Z

This is the design I've settled on. I might still change fonts/background colour etc.

Wild Clothing Development

2010-01-22T11:26:00.001Z

I've tried the wavy navigation design I came up with earlier in Photoshop but I think it looks a bit tacky to be honest. Don't think I'll be using this.

Ana Bagayan

2010-01-22T10:39:00.001Z

I recently found the website of an amazing artist called Ana Bagayan who has done work for the likes of Rolling Stone, Diesel, Honda and Sony. Her paintings have somewhat sickly-sweet fairy tale like themes, though there is often something dark or surreal lurking in the background. I advise you all to go and look, discover and appreciate.

Final Wireframe

2010-01-22T09:07:00.001Z

This is the wireframe for my final design, though it's a pretty messy looking one. I've decided to keep the messy pattern for the header and use the same effect on the footer. The wavy navigation just didn't look very good, and I didn't really like the vertical navigation either.

Super cute website

2010-01-21T13:46:00.001Z

Design studio Meomi have what is possibly the cutest website I've ever seen!

The content is set within what is apparently called the 'cloud house', which is created in Flash and features numerous animated little critters. Various sounds and animations play out when the cursor is hovered over the different areas. I love it and think everyone else should too!

(Very basic) wireframes

2010-01-21T13:09:00.001Z

This is the first wireframe I came up with. I'm quite liking the wavy navigation thing at the moment but I'm not too sure... As you can see from the picture in my last post the font used on the actual shop is quite curly, and this teamed with the bright red and white (though you can't see that in the picture) makes it quite reminiscent of the Coca Cola logo/design. Maybe this curly navigation make take that a bit too far...

Sticking with the wavy navigation. Thinking about having some kind of messy decorative stuff at the top, like cartoon style explosion lines? Maybe paint splatters?

I think I will stick with the messy pattern on the header. Got rid of the wavy navigation here and stuck the navigation on the left hand side. Still not sure though...

Think I'll go play in Photoshop again.

An actual decision

2010-01-21T12:53:00.001Z

After some sketching and playing around in Photoshop I've actually come up with a few ideas and made a decision about what to make this website for. I tried a few ideas for The Lounge hairdressers but inspiration wasn't exactly jumping out at me. What worked out a lot better was designing for the shops Wild/Wilder clothing. The shops themselves are painted in a very bright red, with white text and so I think this would work well for the website also.

Note: I didn't take this, can be found here

More to come...

Dotty's Cafe...

2010-01-21T12:12:00.001Z

I just found out this place is probably closing. Damn economic climate and all that jazz... Guess it would be a bit silly making a website for a place that's closing...

Mini Project - A Website in Two Weeks

2010-01-20T21:15:00.001Z

For this 'small' project I am required to create a website for a retail environment within the space of two weeks. So basically it's like the project that we had the whole of last term to do in two weeks. Fine by me..

On the day we were set this task I came up with an initial list of places I could create a website for.

Page 45

One of my favourite shops in Nottingham. It's a comic book store that sells every type of graphic novel imaginable. Their website has been under construction for a while.

Wild/Wilder

Two vintage and second hand clothes shops owned by the same people, hence the similar names. They do not currently have a website.

Alley Cafe

A vegetarian cafebar in one of Nottingham's alleyways. They show artwork, have alternative bands and artists on and serve great food. They already have a website designed by Nottingham company Seismik.

The Plough and Harrow

My local pub in Hucknall. Not much to say about it really, they very occasionally put bands on or have other events.

Mayfair Restaurant

A Chinese restaurant located on Mansfield Road. It's bring your own booze too! They do not have a website.

Ice Nine

Hippy/indie/stoner clothes and accessories shop in Hockley. I loved this place when I was younger but don't go in much any more. Their website is under construction.

Homemade

A nice little cafe that serves some good homemade grub. Don't have a website.

The Lounge

A newly opened fashionable hairdressers in Hucknall. Do not have a website, could be an opportunity to approach them about one?

Dotty's Cafe

A vegetarian cafe on Mansfield road that has a 1950's kitsch kind of style. Could be fun designing a website with the same theme. They currently don't have one.

I've looked around at some people's blogs and it seems like some people have the same ideas as me. I originally wanted to create a website for Page 45 but after searching for a bit I believe I came across what is to be their future design. It is styled like a comic book itself and is very good! I don't feel as if I could compete with what they've come up with, especially since I think the comic-book style is what I would have done anyway.

Therefore I think I shall create the site for either The Lounge Hairdressers or Dotty's cafe. I'll play around with some ideas before coming to a decision.

Waterfall and Whirlpool Development Models

2010-01-20T20:12:00.001Z

The Waterfall model is a software development process that works sequentially. The diagram below illustrates the path taken using this process.

This model originated from the manufacturing and construction industries, where it was usually impossible for people to go back and change areas once they were thought to be finished. It was applied to software development mostly because there were no existing models already being used. The key to this model is that each step is thoroughly completed before the next one is started. With regards to software I imagine this can be quite a problem, especially if it is being developed for a client. Things can often seem a good idea in theory but turn out differently when in comes to testing, or people can simply change their minds about something.

The Whirlpool model is much like the Waterfall model in terms of structure, but unlike the Waterfall the idea is that modifications can be made. This seems much more useful, logical even, when it comes to things like software development or web design.

Finished Website

2009-12-09T14:20:00.001Z

Finally finished my website after a couple of hours of annoying validation errors and fixes. Overall I'm very happy with it :)

JavaScript elements include text size changer, image gallery and a function to remove the background image.

Click the screenshot to take a look.

If you're picky enough to check the validation yourself it will come up with two errors but these are not actually on the website but in some code added by the free host I've used to check analytics or something.

Lego Advert

2009-12-08T21:21:00.001Z

I'm loving the reappearance of this classis lego advert. Obviously I wasn't born when it was first aired in 1981 but it's as good now as it ever could have been.

Mirificam Press

2009-11-19T20:48:00.001Z

http://mirificampress.com/index.php

Technique, business and worldview for web designers. Applying Christian worldview to a secular vocation, apparently. Whatever, there's some useful articles anyway.

ThinkGeek

2009-11-19T20:33:00.001Z

My friend Kirsty posted this on her blog, but I had to share it too cause it's pretty awesome!

http://www.thinkgeek.com

Look at the background. Scroll all the way to the bottom.

Photoshop Mock-ups

2009-11-19T20:29:00.001Z

Here's a couple of designs I've come up with so far. The first one is based off my original wireframe, and I don't like it too much now. I much prefer the second one.

2009-11-16T18:34:00.003Z

Catteries are crap

2009-11-16T18:34:00.001Z

I contacted loooooads of catteries and got only two replies, both of which just said rather plainly 'no thanks'. It's really annoying! I didn't even contact them asking if they needed a website, it was more asking if they would help me out by letting me make one. One which nobody would ever see. Hmph. Stupid..

Therefore I'm going in a different direction, since I have to. A nice leafy green park would be a good subject and I'm thinking one of the following:

Titchfield Park in Hucknall
The Burntstump Country Park
Nottingham's Arboretum

The arboretum is the most interesting of these places I think, but I have more of a connection with Titchfield Park. As for Burntstump, how did the stump get burnt? I can't find out how...

It's a shame it isn't Summer, I would be able to take much nicer photographs of these places if it was sunny.

Only2Designers

2009-11-13T11:09:00.001Z

I love the website for visual design agency Only2Designers. It makes amazing use of CSS with a design that is simple but looks so elegant and sophisticated. The only fault I can find is that when the design stretches as the content changes the image on the left side cuts off abruptly.

Edited Logos

2009-11-13T10:53:00.000Z

Colour can greatly affect the way we perceive things and how we think about them. These logos have had their colours changed in order to affect their meaning.

Colour Theory

2009-11-13T10:24:00.003Z

This colour wheel shows the spectrum of colours and whether they are primary secondary or tertiary.

From this you can see the following :

These are complementary colours, and are seen on opposite sides of the wheel from each other. When paired together they can look attractive or dramatic depending on how they're used.

I have always been a fan of the combination of purple and yellow, I don't really know why, I just think it's nice.

The colours on the right are harmonic or analogous colours, and sit next to each other on the colour wheel. They are similar shades to each other and so will go together well. When thinking about design, using harmonic colours can result in an aesthetically pleasant theme which will flow together.

Catteries

2009-11-11T14:33:00.003Z

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make my wesbite for a cattery, but of course it has to be a real one, which is causing a bit of a problem for me right now. I've got in touch with some about creating a website for them and had no reply, which is pretty annoying. Obviously it doesn't really matter if they want a website or not since it doesn't have to used, but since I need to do research/take photos etc. I don't think they'd appreciate it if I just turned up and started snapping away.

It's funny, you think they'd be eager for a new one after looking at this or this. Ha.

HTML vs. CSS

2009-11-11T14:33:00.001Z

I don't think it's too hard to guess who the winner will be. Click the link/screenshot to see the actual site.

Website designed using HTML with tables

Website designed using CSS

It's obviously an incredibly basic layout anyway, so neither of them are great, but the improvement from tables to CSS is pretty clear.

Wireframes

2009-11-11T14:29:00.001Z

Even though i don't know what my wesbite is about yet here are some wireframes for what the design could look like.

my website...

2009-11-02T18:47:00.003Z

I don't think I can do it about a toilet... Maybe one day a website about public toilets that isn't a directory can exist, but I don't think that day is today.

So yes buildings are boring. But maybe I could make one less boring by making a fabulous website for it. Shame we can't make it about an imaginary place, I would gladly make the website for my future comic book store/coffee shop.. But saying that, perhaps I could make one for one of my favourite shops in Nottingham, Page 45. They do have a website but its been under construction for a while. Another idea is to focus the project around something I love; cats. Of course... There are quite a few catteries in Nottingham, but most of them have pretty awful websites.

Whatever I'm doing I think I should make a decision about it sharpish.

Nick Joore

2009-11-02T18:47:00.001Z

http://njoore.com
This website is really cool! It's the portfolio of a games progammer/3D artist, and the whole website is built like a game itself. This is a great creative way of showing off your skills to prospective employers who may be visiting the site. Rather than just listing things the designer has done like on a CV, you can see first hand what he can do incorporated into the design of the website. The site is built using Flash, and even starts off with a target shooting game for you to play while you're waiting for it to load. Once you're done with this you reach the main site, a 3D modelled airship which contains the navigation for the website within itself. The user can explore the ship by clicking on different areas of it, thus allowing them to find out more about the designer. To visit different areas of the site the user presses a map and chooses where to go, which results in the airship flying to different islands (accompanied by music a la Top Gun). The downside to this website is that I imagine it would take a long time to load on a slow connection, but I suppose this does not matter too much as the target audience for this site (employers, creatives etc.) will generally have a fast connection.

The Natural Confectionery Company

2009-10-27T00:27:00.001Z

I really like this website! It's cute with a fun design and also fun content. Go take a look!

Also:

Java Jive

2009-10-26T17:37:00.003Z

This cute little animation depicts the life of a coffee bean in 1 minute and 54 seconds. Created by Kristyna Baczynski, all the visuals are hand drawn then coloured in Photoshop, before being edited in Final Cut. The animation won first prize in the digital media category of the Northern Design Competition. I love the music too :)

Building, structure, environment?

2009-10-26T17:37:00.001Z

I've been thinking about this on and off since the task appeared on the NOW, but my ideas are all really vague at the moment... I don't want to take on this brief too literally and make a website for some boring old building like a shop or a restaurant. Well I guess it depends what kind of shop or restaurant it was. What I think I mean is I don't want the website to just be plain information, 'about us' 'where to find us' 'history' etc. I want it to be fun, interesting and have some kind of user input.

Toilet?
The first idea that sprang to my mind was a public toilet, in a nightclub or something. I don't know why. Maybe it's a bit stupid, my boyfriend certainly gave me a funny look when I told him the idea... But I was thinking about those sites that post pictures of people in nightclubs, like tilllate.com, and maybe the same concept could apply to the toilets in the club? It would be more interesting if taking pictures of random people didn't require their consent, as I'm sure you could get some funny stuff, expecially towards the end of the night. Haha.

Byron's Grave
Lord Byron is buried in my hometown of Hucknall, and it's always been a bit of a shrine to me and my friends. I would love to make some kind of tribute to this in website form but I'm not sure I could do much without just going into the history of the poet, which is nothing original.

Other than that I don't know at the moment. I'm really quite hung up on that toilet idea...

Crappy Cat!

2009-10-26T17:36:00.001Z

http://www.crappycat.com/

Go here! I love it! You should too!

Three Examples of Design with User Input

2009-10-24T19:42:00.000+01:00

Odosketch

Odosketch is a free-to-use website from design agency Odopod that allows the user to draw anything they like and submit it to a gallery. The drawing process is recorded, so the viewer can see exactly how the artist got from a blank canvas to a finished piece of work. The interface is very easy to use as it only has the one function, which is accessed by pressing the button on the homepage which says 'Create a Sketch'. Browsing other people's sketches is also easy as there are some displayed on the home page with options to look at more. The website is also very nicely designed, using a light colour scheme with pastel colours and cute images. Personally I really like this site, both in content and design, and will probably use it myself now I know about it.

Nigella.com/recipe

Aside from being chef Nigella Lawson's personal website, this site has a rather good recipe section that allows users to share and review recipes. There are lots of recipe sharing site on the web now but I think this one has a more attractive design than most. Users can search or browse for recipes in a few ways; by clicking 'inspire me' to get a random recipe, picking a category such as indulgent or romantic, or by simply searching using keywords. I believe there is one annoying issue with the navigation on the site, when displaying the list of recipes. When the list comes up it has links to pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 then Next 5, so you have to click this to get links to page 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. I think this is unnecessary and just plain annoying. The colour scheme for the site is simple and attractive, using white and orange for the recipe section of the site. Each section has a different colour representing it, forum being brown, book being blue etc. Overall it's a clean-looking attractive site that is easy to use.

Gumtree

Gumtree is a classified ads site that has a homepage for different cities across the country. It's free to use and has lots of different areas to post ads in; jobs, flats and houses, stuff for sale etc. I use this website quite a lot to find things in my local area and as a user I find it simple and easy to use. This is vital in a website like this, as it is designed to be used by anyone and everyone. The design is simple using mostly text and not many images, though I find it more attractive than the site craigslist.org, another classified ads site. I think this helps towards the usability of the site, as when I saw craigslist.org I found the wall of text quite intimidating at first glance.

JavaScript

2009-10-24T18:59:00.000+01:00

Here are some of the JavaScript programs we've been working on.

Adding VAT to an Amount
<script language='JavaScript'>
a=parseFloat(prompt('Enter cost',0)); // ask user for amount to add vat to
cost=a; // set variable cost to the amount entered by user for a
vat=cost*17.5/100; // set variable vat to the amount of cost multiplied by 17.5 and divided by 100
document.write('£',cost,'+VAT at 17.5% =','£',cost+vat); // write sum of cost and vat to screen
</script>

Adding Numbers
<script language='JavaScript>
a=parseFloat(prompt('Number to start from?',0)); // ask user for number to start adding from
b=parseFloat(prompt('Number to stop at?',0)); // ask user for number to stop adding to
count=a; // set variable count to amount set by user in a
sum=0; // set variable sum to zero
while (count<b) { // while count is less than the amount the user entered for b do the following
count=count+1; // add one to the amount of count
sum=sum+count; // add the amount of count to the amount of sum
}
document.write(sum); // write amount of sum to screen
</script>

Creating a Slash made of d's
<script language='JavaScript'>
a=parseFloat(prompt('How many rows?',0)); // ask for user to input number of rows
row=0; // set variable row to zero
while (row<a) { // while row is less than the number inputted by the user for a do the following
space=0; // set variable space to zero
while (space<row) { // while space is less than zero do the following
document.write(" "); // write a space to the screen that the browser will not ignore
space=space+1; // add one to the amount of space
}
document.write("d<br>"); // write the letter d to the scren
space=0; // set variable space to zero
row=row+1; // add one to the amount of rows
}
</script>

Second Year

2009-10-24T18:55:00.001+01:00

I haven't written anything in here since I started my second year, which is pretty shameful as its been two weeks now. My excuse is swine flu. Or flu at least. Anyway, I think it's going well so far, I'm enjoying the IM Pathway and am looking forward to starting my projects. I even quite like doing the JavaScript, which seemed rather scary to me at first. I've been thinking about ideas for the first project but I'll talk about that soon.

I like this

2009-10-24T18:50:00.000+01:00

Most people may have seen this, but if you haven't you should!

Identities - Finished!

2009-05-18T02:44:00.000+01:00

My final box can be found at http://jennoefur.itriss.com/pages/box.html, so take a look if you fancy.

Identities - Animation

2009-05-15T15:11:00.003+01:00

Flash animation for my identities box, go see it here!

Identities - Avatar

2009-05-15T15:11:00.001+01:00

Final render of my 3D avatar

Killer Fish II

2009-04-27T19:04:00.005+01:00

I fixed the video of my Killer Fish animation and re-uploaded it to YouTube. It now has some cheesy background music! Thanks to http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html

Identities - Avatar

2009-04-27T19:04:00.003+01:00

I've been creating my avatar, someone slowly (stupid program), which is a 3D representation of myself. I decided I didn't want it to be realistic but rather cartoony instead. After trying and failing with different techniques in 3Ds max I finally came up with something. It's not finsihed yet but here's some shots of it so far.

I rather like the hair! I'm going to give her a lovely dress and put her in a nice grassy environment with lots of flowers.

Identities - AV

2009-04-27T19:04:00.001+01:00

So for my piece of AV work, the interview with myself, I've decided to write up a short script. I'm a terrible actress so I hope it goes alright.. Anyway, here it is.

Q: Hellow and welcome! How are you?

A: Great thank you

Q: First of all, what’s your favourite band?

A: I hate it when people ask that. I like lots of different bands and lots of kinds of music. I think by having to choose just one you’re kind of putting a label on yourself.... But if I HAD to choose I suppose I’d say The Smiths.

Q: They're one of my favourites too! Any favourite songs?

A: This Charming Man is one of my favourite songs of all time, though there are loads of others

Q: I hear you have a bad memory, is that true?

A. Oh, it’s not that bad, I mean sometimes I... Um... Sorry what was the question again?

Q: Er never mind, let’s move on. If you could be any animal what would you be?

A: Definitely a cat. It would be cool to be a lion or a tiger or something but I’d be content with being a housecat. You get to lounge around all day, sleep as much as you want and all the food comes to you. And you look pretty of course.

Q: So cats are your favourite animal?

A: Oh yes.

Q: Mine too! So here's a question for you, if you could invite five people, anybody you wanted, to a dinner party, who would you pick?

A: Gordon Ramsay, James May, David Bowie, Claire de Vries and Bear Grylls

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time?

A: As a crazy cat lady!

Q: It's been great talking to you, thank you!

A: Thank you!

Identities - Animation thingy...

2009-04-22T15:10:00.003+01:00

Just a note to say I've finally decided what to make for the last item to go in my box. I'm going to make a Flash animation about flowers growing... Just something simple and pretty. Like me. Haha.

Identities Box

2009-04-22T15:10:00.001+01:00

This is the actual design for my box as it looks at the moment. Click the butterfly and voila... You go somewhere.

Final Website Layout (I think)

2009-03-19T17:26:00.001Z

I think this is going to be my final website design! I like the grass :)

Website Layouts

2009-03-19T16:25:00.005Z

Here's just a few website designs I've come up with.

Spoon...

2009-03-19T16:25:00.003Z

I made a 3D spoon. How useful and interesting...

+GOOD

2009-03-19T16:25:00.001Z

Just a quick post about a web design company I found, +GOOD. Go see their website at http://www.plusgood.co.uk/ because it's awesome! I actually wrote about this company for our last essay, and thought that I should probably share it here. The design for the website is like a virtual map, and the user travels to the different areas by answering questions and choosing where to go next. I think it's a really clever and innovative conccept, and it works really well.

2009-03-17T17:22:00.001Z

Just some more logo designs.

Whats in the box?

2009-03-17T16:43:00.003Z

Okay so I've been working on this project for a while now, so I suppose I should outline some specific ideas for whats going in it. I'm going to go with a nature-themed interactive box, and this theme should apply to all of the elements included. I have decided upon this because I feel it will reflect my identity well, I love nature and consider myself a very natural person. Now that I've come to this decision I have created another moodboard to help me with my designs.

The different elements included in this digital moodboard reflect my identity in different ways, while all retaining the nature theme I'm going for.

With these points in mind, I feel I can now clarify what the different elements in my interactive box are going to be -

1. Logo - As shown previously, very simple, using the name Jennoefur. Image of a flower drawn very sketchily.

2. Avatar - Me in a field? Sleeping? Having a picnic? An animal? A plant? I don't know!

3. Audio Visual Element - An interview with myself. I will film myself both as the interviewer and interviewee then edit the film to make it seem like I am answering my own questions. I will be wearing different clothing as the interviewer and interviewee, possibly outfits reflecting different sides of my personality.

4. Website - A website about me, including a portfolio.

5. Interactive - To be honest I'm not entirely sure about this right now. I might create an interactive story using photos or short pieces of film, or I might make a Flash game of some sort.

To coincide with my theme and other elements, I've decided upon the meadow idea for the actual container of my interactive box.

Identities - Ideas

2009-03-17T16:43:00.001Z

I've been thinking for a while about the actual design for my interactive box and I've had a few ideas, so I guess I should be writing about them here right?

1. Creepy Castle
An interactive Flash movie which allows users to explore a dark and creepy castle by clicking on different doors, e.g. great hall, dungeon etc. Each door would lead the user to a different element of my interactive box.

2. Peaceful Meadow
Another piece of interactive Flash. An image/digital drawing of a peaceful and beautiful meadow, possibly on a Summers day. Different elements of the scene would be animated, for example a bird flying overhead, or a cat leaping through the grass. The movie would play without any instructions and at first seem like it was just a piece of animation. Only by moving the cursor over the different elements of the movie would the user discover the links to different parts of interactive box.

3. Confusing link-crazy website
Much like the hypertext website Singaporeasy, or the baffling Mouchette.org. A website using both text and images as links to take users to the different elements of my interactive box. This method would have the links in seemingly random places, be rather hard to navigate, include nonsensical information and may not even look very attractive. Sounds crazy! But it works for these guys, and makes the website memorable.

4. Chapters of a Book
An interactive book created using Flash. Probably a huge old-looking hardback or leather bound book, like those seen on bookcases in old libraries. The user would click to open the book, which would contain an actual story. However, by clicking certain hidden words in the text the user would be led to different elements of my interactive box.

Logo stuff

2009-03-17T16:21:00.001Z

I've just been messing around with some stuff on Photoshop and Painter to come up with some designs for my logo. Originally I was going to name the stuff in this project (logo, website etc.) Catzilla, but I've now decided that as much as I like cats I can't let them rule my work! So I've decided upon them name Jennoefur, my own long-term nickname.

Anyway, here's some stuff.

Typography cat.

Just some doodles for original Catzilla idea

Trying out some different fonts. Generally I'm a fan of a nice, simple sans serif font, but I thought I should experiment with a few different kinds. I like some of the decorative fonts, but I'm still not being swayed from a lovely Century Gothic...

Here's a few doodle experimenting with a flower design for my logo. Possible a tulip, my favourite flower, though very sketchy or cartoony.

Here I was just trying out some of the different brush types available in Painter X. I want a kind of sketchy feel to my logo, as if it's been hand drawn.

Some initial concepts, possibly substituting the letter J for the flower's stem.