Wild Clothing - Finished

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

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

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

Wild Clothing Development

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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.