Basic Wireframes

I want a new blog

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

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

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

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!

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

Flash Banner Project

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

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.