Friday, 5 June 2009
Monday, 4 May 2009
My Site
I have been working on the site till now; I was using tables in Dreamweaver as I find it easy to handle the tables more than the divs. The reason why I avoid divs is due to the fact that I find it hard to position them where I want. I understand that divs are as good as tables or better but positioning has always been the problem with me. After showing my work to the lecturer I was suggested to use the divs rather than tables. Even with tables I was having one problem with layers. I wanted the text to have its own layer and appear on top the images which would allow me to edit later on. The layer appears but floats around the page. I changed the site from tables to divs and my problem still remains. Now I only have to find out a way to position the text layer exactly how I want it to appear on the page.
The index page has flash interactivity where the icons are drag able within a certain space. I looked at many sites randomly before doing the flash work as I wanted my site to have the feel of contemporary design.
The dragging icon idea emerged from a site by Shawn Mcdonald mentioned in my previous blogs http://www.otterball.com/ and influence to change my layout of projects page came from http://www.icodesign.co.uk/work/identity
Now I have to encounter two problems rather than one. One is to fix the text layer and second is to work out how tags work.
Just making the layout has taken me 3 weeks and I still have to add the projects under the icons shown on the project page, some of them will be external links as the themes and concept of them are totally different so I think they will work better on their own, rest need to be added to the site I’m working on. The site is turning out to be bigger than I thought and still has a lot to do.
The index page has flash interactivity where the icons are drag able within a certain space. I looked at many sites randomly before doing the flash work as I wanted my site to have the feel of contemporary design.
The dragging icon idea emerged from a site by Shawn Mcdonald mentioned in my previous blogs http://www.otterball.com/ and influence to change my layout of projects page came from http://www.icodesign.co.uk/work/identity
Now I have to encounter two problems rather than one. One is to fix the text layer and second is to work out how tags work.
Just making the layout has taken me 3 weeks and I still have to add the projects under the icons shown on the project page, some of them will be external links as the themes and concept of them are totally different so I think they will work better on their own, rest need to be added to the site I’m working on. The site is turning out to be bigger than I thought and still has a lot to do.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Logos
Today’s lecture was about how logo’s work.
Text
Icon/symbol
Slogan
While studying graphics in my Diploma course I designed many logos and absolutely loved doing that. Logo emerges from a wide research of the company/individual, what the company is about, where is it from, what services they offer, the colours they use, the font, the theme and some more aspects depending on the type of company.
I personally prefer an icon/symbol as the logo rather than text but for my own site, I’m using text right now. If I get more time after finishing my site and essay and my other projects I’ll add a logo to the site. The reason why I’m not adding a logo right now is because logo is something that shouldn’t change just because one thinks its old or don’t like it. The logo represents the company or individual like a name, and you don’t change names again and again. I really want to work hard on logo and stick to it till I think something is really wrong with it. I’m more than happy with the text digiepoch and will revolve my logo around it when the right time comes.
As a reference for this lecture I have been looking at the work of Wolff Olins who designed the logo for the upcoming Olympics in London. First I thought the logo for the Olympics was a logo designed for zoo but later realise it said 2012 not Zoo. It was the way 20 was written the 0 had a cut which made it look 00 and 2 looks very similar to Z. Now talking about is making me laugh but that was my first expression towards the logo.
Text
Icon/symbol
Slogan
While studying graphics in my Diploma course I designed many logos and absolutely loved doing that. Logo emerges from a wide research of the company/individual, what the company is about, where is it from, what services they offer, the colours they use, the font, the theme and some more aspects depending on the type of company.
I personally prefer an icon/symbol as the logo rather than text but for my own site, I’m using text right now. If I get more time after finishing my site and essay and my other projects I’ll add a logo to the site. The reason why I’m not adding a logo right now is because logo is something that shouldn’t change just because one thinks its old or don’t like it. The logo represents the company or individual like a name, and you don’t change names again and again. I really want to work hard on logo and stick to it till I think something is really wrong with it. I’m more than happy with the text digiepoch and will revolve my logo around it when the right time comes.
As a reference for this lecture I have been looking at the work of Wolff Olins who designed the logo for the upcoming Olympics in London. First I thought the logo for the Olympics was a logo designed for zoo but later realise it said 2012 not Zoo. It was the way 20 was written the 0 had a cut which made it look 00 and 2 looks very similar to Z. Now talking about is making me laugh but that was my first expression towards the logo.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Design Principals
The lecture was about Design Principals
Balance
Unity/ Proximity
Alignment (underline grid)
Repetition/ Consistency
Space
Contrast (size, colour, texture, weight, style)
We looked at some website to see how these principals work and what things make the site hard for viewer. Though I’m familiar with the rules of web designing but I think it was a good reminder in good time.
The second assignments based on online portfolio, 6 businesses relevant items and an essay based on Professional Life.
I started to look at the existing designs and styles of business cards, letter heads and related items. I want to put most of my work on the site so I know this will be a big thing and will take a lot of time, so I decided to work on the site first and leave the rest to later.
First thing was the layout of the site and the logo/title. I did a little brainstorm for the title, made notes of what the title should represent and how it will be linked to my work. The list I came up with was of about 10-15 titles and I checked all on Google to see if there were sites under the same name, lucky there weren’t for most of them, and if something did exist I changed the words in my logo/title. I didn’t do a logo symbol for this site, just staying with text as title of the site. The site is named digiepoch, which means digital era/space. The word itself is pronounced something like digi ee puck. I kept Meet your highest expectations as slogan.I bought the domain as soon as I was happy with the title, www.digiepoch.com
Balance
Unity/ Proximity
Alignment (underline grid)
Repetition/ Consistency
Space
Contrast (size, colour, texture, weight, style)
We looked at some website to see how these principals work and what things make the site hard for viewer. Though I’m familiar with the rules of web designing but I think it was a good reminder in good time.
The second assignments based on online portfolio, 6 businesses relevant items and an essay based on Professional Life.
I started to look at the existing designs and styles of business cards, letter heads and related items. I want to put most of my work on the site so I know this will be a big thing and will take a lot of time, so I decided to work on the site first and leave the rest to later.
First thing was the layout of the site and the logo/title. I did a little brainstorm for the title, made notes of what the title should represent and how it will be linked to my work. The list I came up with was of about 10-15 titles and I checked all on Google to see if there were sites under the same name, lucky there weren’t for most of them, and if something did exist I changed the words in my logo/title. I didn’t do a logo symbol for this site, just staying with text as title of the site. The site is named digiepoch, which means digital era/space. The word itself is pronounced something like digi ee puck. I kept Meet your highest expectations as slogan.I bought the domain as soon as I was happy with the title, www.digiepoch.com
Friday, 13 March 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Artist’s website-1
http://www.6beersofseparation.com/
This is a 3D site, very unusual from the standard websites. 1st thing they ask is if the user is over 18 or not. Very limited colour palate but the site has a casual look. Graffiti style has been used on a 3D wall.
http://www.missingink.com/
The logo suits the site name, where the water is dropped on the typeface. White background with black text has been used for the site; navigation bar is set just after the logo. There is nothing so extraordinary about the site but is still come up as one of the best site according to the magazine .net issue 187.
http://www.nanozoom.net/swf/home.html
Timeline style has been used for the site, interesting work, and loads of space at the centre of the page. Dark tones of colours have been used. Personal opinion would be its quite depressing layout and feel with instrumental music.
Artist’s website-2
http://www.talktofrank.com/basement.aspx
Very dark site, just by looking at the way the site is presented through pictures, user can tell it has something to do with drugs. I guess the images are taken in basement and it has a feel of filthiness and dirtiness. The site has two sets of navigation, one on top and one at the bottom of the page, with some sound when user browses around the page.
http://www.otterball.com/
An interactive site, I quite like the format of the site. All the images are links to the sites, which are rather similar if compared. The moved of the images on the page due to the movement of the mouse is the best things about the site. Something new and different.
http://www.ppw.uk.com/
Recently I have seen quite a lot work presented through the same style of flash file. Firstly it takes pretty long to load up then when I clicked on some of the pictures they were half outside the window, I just couldn’t view the complete image.
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