ifinks

A New Chapter

2011-09-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

Three years passed away very quickly, I have now finished my degree at NTU and have moved back up to the north west.

I am currently working for Currys and PCworld, looking to move forward into an administration role.

Artefact 6

2011-05-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

Evaluation of One Page Profile to Employers

I wanted to hear what employers within the creative industry thought about my idea of one page portfolio websites to promote people online. I emailed several employers who gave me feedback earlier on in my project; I introduced my idea to them and provided them with the links so that they could see the two different layouts. I asked them if they thought it was a good solution for creating an effective online presence and what they think the benefits might be.

I got a mixed response from the people I emailed, some said that although having a one page portfolio is a good idea, they still “believe having numerous pages is also good. It depends how much varied work you have to display.” Others said it makes it easier to navigate and see all the information that is pulled in from various sources onto the one page, “The benefits are quite huge really”.

When asked what they would include on their one page profiles, one person said that they would include “everything 'front facing' (i.e. not personal/private, like facebook).” And another said that they would include “anything that you believe will help you get a job in future”.

Overall the response from everyone was positive when looking at my idea of having a one page online portfolio. The idea of easily finding all of the information without much navigation or scrolling seemed to be one which would benefit them as employers trying to find a candidate to employ and for the person promoting themselves as it puts all of their information in the same place which can be accessed easily.

Artefact 5

2011-05-17T01:57:00.000-07:00

For my 5th artefact I wanted to find out from a wider range of students what they thought of the one page 'Profile' portfolio. I was most interested in what elements they would include in their one page portfolios, this helps me realise the potential of this style of online presence because I will know how other people will utilise the space to best portray themselves. I think it is interesting looking at what others from different professions will include to portray their work.

Evaluation of Students Thoughts

I emailed my peers to see what they thought of the one page portfolio website, I wanted to show them the two examples that I had made and find out if they would use something like this to promote themselves and their work online. As I emailed students throughout various disciplines within the university, I wanted to know what they would include on their one page portfolios to see what various elements would be seen as important to show.

Most people said they would only include a small about me section, I found this really interesting as it told me that they wanted their work to do most of the talking for them. Everyone wanted to include a portfolio of their work, which was expected because that is the main purpose of the website but the other elements varied from person to person. Some wanted to include a Twitter or LinkedIn feed whilst others thought that these feeds were too personal and “would render the objective useless”.

I could sense from the responses that people would be keen to adopt this style of portfolio because they talked about how they would make it their own, not just by the elements that they would include but how they would style the page with their own images and taste.

This gave me confidence that one page portfolio website could well be future of an effective online presence.

SPP3 Catalogue Images

2011-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

I have made a couple of changes to my Catalogue images after talking to my tutor about them. Instead of including the website logo in the top of each image I have written a brief description of what the website is and then I have included the coding languages used to create each website. This will give the viewer more of an insight as to what I am capable of producing which will promote me further.

75 Word Entry - that's tiny!

2011-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Trying to sum up who you are as a designer in just 75 words is a big challenge. You want it make the reader like you and respect your ideals. To help me come up with my 75 words, I have decided to see how other companies or web designers sum up their abilities and disciplines in the About Us sections of their websites:

http://www.absolute-design.co.uk/about-us/
Absolute design seem to think about web design the same way that I do.

Colour and imagery are best used to portray an identity through the use of the web. A website is an extension of a company or person and should be seen to best show the ideals and purpose throughout its pages.

Perhaps this will suite for my catalogue entry as it describes my thoughts on what is web design?

SPP five images

2011-04-23T03:31:00.000-07:00

Exhibition Package

2011-04-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on making 5 images which will represent my work as part of my SPP exhibition package. Putting together images of your work to represent yourself is quite a challenge I think because you have to get it right in order to make the right impression.

What is normal for web designers to do to promote their work in images? Do they simply take a screen shot of a website they have made and have done with it? Or do they try to be a little bit more creative?

After having a look to see how designers have displayed their work online, many did simply have screen shot images of the websites they have made, I decided to adopt a style that I have seen a few designers use:

sjlwebdesign.co.uk

Some designers have 'stacked' images of the same website together to better display a piece of work in its entirety.

Another popular way of displaying a web page is to put the screen shot at an angle and take a cropped section of that image:

sjlwebdesign.co.uk

Thinking about my 5 images, I want to see what will work best to represent myself. My first choice is to take the 'stacked' image approach with a gray to white gradient in the background. But do I need to keep a consistent design with my own personal branding?

My current website www.skirky.co.uk has a wooden effect background, if I am to keep my own branding consistent then I think I can do this simply by adding this look to the images which I will submit:

It is a tough choice because even though I feel the gray background looks more professional, the wooden background has a more 'homemade' style which what I love and it retains my brand.

If my images which are to feature in the exhibition catalogue and in the exhibition keep the same style as my personal website, if someone does decide to find out more about me, it will be clear that this work is connected to me.

Content and Going All Romanian

2011-03-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

This week I have been starting to put in content that my client has started to feed through to me. I have the welcome page text, the 'about us' content as well as a few other bits and bobs.

I am just starting to insert their products into the database to replace the test images and information that I have been using, its all slowly taking shape.

Another thing I have been working on is the Romanian half of the website, this has started to come together now that I have the text content to use on the pages. I managed to adapt my MSQL table so that it defines 'romanian' and 'english' so that the right pages can pull the right information (in terms of language required). This will all come together now that I am going to insert the actual products to the database.

Also, I found out today that the CMS (back end) can stay in English which is quite convenient, this is because the person that will most probably be making any changes on the website is sufficient with English. I have told my client that if they do want it changed to Romanian, it will not be a problem.

Product of the Day

2011-03-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Getting the product of the day to display in the index page has been a big coding challenge for me. The aim was to get a different random product each day from the 'Product' database, this would be the 'Product of the Day'. I managed to get the random code working so that a random product was selected from my database but it kept changing on page load instead of the same product displaying throughout the day.

I was unable to solve this problem so I have had to compromise and delegate a product to each day of the week. This works just fine and still means that the product of the day is automatically selected, which is what my client requested, it also means that the products can easily be changed if my client wanted to.
This is the PHP code for the Product of the day:
It took a while to sort out the displaying of the product of the day, I am just trying to sort out the positioning of the rosette:

Contact Page for Client Project

2011-03-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

After playing around with several different php contact form codes, I finally realised that it was my wamp server that was not allowing the email to send, not the code. So now I have a simple contact page which a person can fill in and the email will send to my client's inbox.

Many Thanks to freecontactform.com for the easy to follow code.

So now my contacts page looks like this:

Contact Page and Action Plan

2011-03-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

I am now working on the contact page for my client's website, I have followed tutorial to do this because I have never made one before, for some reason though this is not working yet. I will keep at it and try to get it working in the next couple of days.

With regards to the overall progress of my Client website, I would say that I was about 60% done which means I have lots to do before my deadline in 5 weeks.

I need to:

Finish the contact page (get it working)
Look at integrating some Flash interactive elements to the photo banners on the About Us and Location Page. This will have to include 'if' statements for relevant browser or flash software used. So if the user does not have the right software to view this it will display as a static image.
Create the PHP for the 'Product of the day' which will appear on the index page and the menu page. I have tried to find some tutorials for this and so far have not had much luck, I need to do this soon.
Content Content Content; I will need to again ask for the content from my client so that I can start to replace the lorem ipsum and finalise composition of the text and image elements throughout the site.
I need to create the Romanian half of the site, there will be an option to switch between English and Romanian. One of the ways to do this will be to add another table into my database which will be the products in Romanian to pull from for the Romanian menu pages.

So, lots and lots to do still....best get to it!

Artefact 4 Evaluation

2011-03-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Evaluation of the One Page Templates

I tried to build a picture as to what the future of online portfolios and online presences might be. My understanding is that employers want to see all the various online presences a person has in order to get a full picture of how the person works and how competent they are at what they do. Therefore I think a future trend might me that practitioners create a one page portfolio website, like a profile, that brings in elements from whatever online presences they feel is necessary. To demonstrate my idea I created two examples of these one page portfolios into which I included examples of my work, a feed from my blog and a feed from my Twitter account. I then held two focus groups with my peers to get their thoughts on my idea of the future of portfolio websites.

Both groups agreed that this was a really good idea because the websites were both simplistic and they liked how everything was pulled into one place which they saw as being much better for the employer who can easily see their work or blog posts and quickly get a good sense of the person they are and the skills they have.

They discussed how the style and functions of a portfolio website (which I described as being like a profile page portfolio website) would benefit them as practitioners because people can view all of their information easily. This style of portfolio allows the designer to include whichever information they see fit, Filmmakers also discussed how they find it important to include who they have worked with in the past to better depict their work experience. They said that this dynamic style of portfolio will easily enable them to do that.

Artifact 4 cont

2011-03-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

I have now made a second website as part of my 4th artifact which has a different layout, this layout came from seeing this one page portfolio website (which I think is really good) - www.kinoz.com.

Second Website: www.skirky.co.uk/portfolio2

Now that I have made the two portfolio websites, I will get feedback on the effectiveness of the sites. This will either be done via a questionnaire or a focus group. I think a focus group will the better way to get people's opinions on the websites.

Artifact 4

2011-03-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

Have finished to first website to be used as an artifact:

Portfolio 1

I am now working on the second, it will have the same information in it but will have a different layout.

Artifact 4

2011-03-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

I response to artifact 3's results, I have decided that for my 4th artifact I will create a portfolio website that is designed to fit the criteria that was stated by the employers who have helped me with my research (see artifact 3)

This portfolio website will encompass different online presences that employers look for when hiring. It will hold examples of work, blog feeds and Twitter feeds in a one page format.

I feel it is important that this is done over one page because this will mean less navigation involved and many portfolio websites are being created in this style which makes it more up to date.

Here is a quick look at the un-finished portfolio page. Please note, I have made the theme of the page quite plain as it is a generic layout:

I have placed the content in three columns and it is easy to establish which column is what.

The portfolio content uses jquery's 'fancy box' and includes links to the websites displayed. I have utilised 'google reader' to link the RSS feed from my blog to this page. With more time I would hope that some content of each post (a couple of lines at least) would also be displayed instead of only the title of the post. - If anyone knows that this is possible through google reader please let me know - @samkirkfinks via Twitter.

For the Twitter feed I just grabbed the code I already used on my blog and re-styled it to suit this page.

I am working on a nice sliding content area that will come down and give the standard "this is me" jargon, I saw this in a lecture given by a past student www.jupiterking.co.uk . I couldn't find the example I am thinking of but this site demonstrates it with the navigation bar hide/show tabs.

A great example of a single page portfolio can be found here - www.kinoz.com the content areas here are clearly stated although much scrolling is needed, I think the design makes up for it.

Artifact 3 Evaluation

2011-03-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

Email To Employers within the Design Industry:

I emailed various different employers within the design industry to get their opinions on my research topic. I wanted to find out what kind of online presence they look for when hiring somebody and what were their thoughts on the use of blogs and more socials sites such as Twitter.

Many seemed genuinely interested in this topic and made some interesting points towards my research. It seems that the general consensus is that it depends on the kind of job that is to be undertaken as to what kind of online presence a person would require. However it was clear in the replies that an online presence of any kind is very much to be expected. The overall response was that a mixture of both personal website and blog would be looked at when in the process of hiring a person. As one person said “These are not different mediums, but shades in the same palette of online presence.” Some employers place emphases on having a personal website, especially if the job is web design related, the employer would use the website as a live example of their working capabilities. Others expressed emphasis on the use of blogs to demonstrate their knowledge and interest in their occupation. “We look for a knowledge and understanding rather than a physical example of a web site.”

Twitter was also claimed to be very popular with the majority of the employers, “It's simply about being a part of an arts community”, twitter gives the employer a better insight into the person they are hiring, it also grants a great opportunity to acquire people through recommendations from others, “I always like to see people doing a Website Portfolio backed up with a Blog & a Twitter account.”

Times Past

2011-03-03T03:16:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would re-post a video made by two of my Peers; Steven and Daryl:

Getting you up to date with my PRP Research Topic

2011-03-01T13:58:00.000-08:00

I realised that although I have posted a couple of bits and bobs relating to my final year research project, I have not kept you up to date with where I am up to.

Just to clarify, my research document is titled "Portfolios Vs Online Presence" I have written a thesis

that outlines my research topic as mentioned in an earlier post.

I am now working on the 6 artifacts need to prove or dis-prove ideas outlined in my research paper.

Artifact 1

My Questionnaire was composed to research the expectations that designers have, with regards to an online presence. I asked which kind of portfolio they would like to have, only 2 people opted for a paper portfolio, 28 opted for both and 11 (26.8%) opted to only want an online portfolio. This is a significant amount of people who choose to rely on the Internet to represent them. More specific to my research document, the questionnaire revealed 53.7% would choose to have a blog instead of a dedicated online portfolio website.

Results lead me to think that perhaps the boundaries between social networking and work related networking are being blurred with the help of social websites. I also find it interesting that Personal Blogs are popular tools for work related networking. Perhaps this is because they are an informal means of sharing progress and opinion which make them a much better utility for networking than a portfolio website which is not so informal.

A few of the comments at the end helped me to get a better understanding of what designers are expecting from having an online presence for work purposes. One person said “I find a blog useful as I can show my current work, so perspective clients can see my process and my current employers can see what I am up to/looking at.” It outlines one of the main differences between an online portfolio and a blog. The portfolio usually displays a person’s finished accomplishments, whereas a blog is a continuing commentary of a person’s progress. Another person adds “Most designers will have a website then utilise social networking tools to go alongside it.” So the expectations these days are that people will use both blog and portfolio together to create a successful online presence.

Artifact 2

I wrote to several peers who I know have attained work through their online media. I asked them to share with me their experiences of using online presences and the methods they have used to promote themselves online. One successful method was found using Twitter “I currently have custom searches set up to notify me with certain tweets which include keywords such as hire, need, web and designer” a few of the people I emailed told me that they have gained paid work by replying to feeds which have come to their attention using this method.
Blog posts have also led to these people acquiring work “tagging blog posts with keywords can help provoke interest in your work” A lot of companies will search themselves online to see what the public think of them and their products. This is how one person was asked to produce some web elements for them because they read a blog post about them which prompted them to find out more about this person and they eventually contacted him to do work for them.

Social networking sites such as facebook are used to tell people they already know about the services they provide “hence doing work for previous associates rather than new clients”

All of the peers who replied said that they use their online portfolios, after somebody has already expressed interest in hiring them, as a showcase for their work, a tool to show what they can produce. This tells me that it is the other online presences such as Twitter and Blogging websites that are used to get the prospective clients and start these conversations. The online portfolios are used as an efficient way for people to view your technical skills and creativity.

Artifact 3

I emailed various different employers within the design industry to find out what their opinions were on my research topic. I have not yet evaluated this artifact as I am still in the process of gathering the information i have received back. A lot of the people who replied to my email seemed really interested in the topic and many were keen to give me their opinions on the matter.

(I will post more of my findings when I have evaluated the replies I received)

So as it stands I am due to begin Artifact 4 of my personal research project. I keep trying to think about my project as an ongoing investigation (which it is) and in doing this I realise my research document discussed what has been and I am now satisfied that I have gathered enough information for the state of things as they are now, what I want to begin to do is look at what might be with regards to people's online presence and how they can be used to promote successfully promote a person.

Client Website Update

2011-03-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

Just an update on my client project to document where I am up to at the moment.

I am really happy with the progress I have made regarding all of the back-end code work (mainly the PHP, MYSQL). So far I have made the site so that my client can upload another new product easily to their website, the four product types are; Pastries, Cakes, Wedding Cakes and Special Products (suitable for diabetics etc). As it stands the four types are all separate, they are uploaded via separate links and the data is stored in four separate tables within my MYSQL database. It all works really well, the upload is great, the edit function works great and also the delete function works fine for all four products. I am really Happy with it so far, here a some screen shots of the work:

Index Page:

About Us Page:

Menu Page:

Product Page:

Location Page:

Here is the CMS system that I have built into the site linking with a MYSQL database:

Admin Tabs have been included in various different places on the site.

Authentication is required:

This is the CMS interface:

Icons appear for my client to edit/delete a post:

Adding a new product is nice an easy:

Overall I am really happy with my progress, however after meeting with my tutor and peers I realise that a few changes need to be made.

Firstly, as it stands, each type of product gets uploaded to a corresponding table in the database, I need to change this so that it all goes into one table called 'products'. I will add a field called 'type' and edit the CMS system so that my client chooses which type of product it is (cake, pastry etc) when they upload the image and details. This will help me when it comes to coding the 'Product of the day' section on the homepage where a product will be randomly selected each day.

I also need to change the width of the content area as at the moment there is too much white space at the sides. This will lead to adapting all content within the content field so that it still looks in line. I am going to add a washed out background colour to the text areas of the CMS system because the text is a little difficult to read with the background being so busy.

I want to avoid scrolling as much as I can, so I will adapt the layout of the product information and image so that there are two products side by side instead of viewing them one at a time. This also means getting rid of the 'show all' function because I want the browser to automatically show all of a type of product.

I am going to change the layout of the main menu page, if the content area is wider then I can also have these side by side instead of as a list, the aim of this change, again, is to avoid scrolling.

Other things I will look at changing are the banners, the main image on the home and menu pages will be adapted to suit the new content width and I will look to incorporate some Flash into the banners of the Location and About Us pages.

This is because they are in the style of Polaroid photos, so I will look at including an interactive element that means the image can be played with, shuffled around and perhaps enlarge so that they can be viewed better.

So, even though so far I have accomplished a lot in a week, I now feel like I have a lot more work to do!

Best get to it!

File Relationship Diagram

2011-02-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

Now that I have explored PHP more and attempted to create the pages that I need for my client project, I have decided to go back to last year's group project 'Lambley Riding Club' and use the PHP files we created for that (which was my original option). Last week I could not use these files because I did not understand how they worked, what they did or their relationship to each other. But now, I have managed to create several working MYSQL databases which respond to several PHP files, I am confident that I can produce what I need for my project. I have however not managed to learn how to insert text with image into a database and then get it displayed together on the server...it is this reason that I turned back to my original plan of using PHP code from a past project.

I started to look at the files from the 'Lambley Riding Club' project again and I am happy that I understand (at least enough to be getting on with) how it all pulls together. I am confident that I can now use these files for my current client project.

To help me get my head around the PHP file relationship, I drew (by lamplight) a small relationship diagram so that I could visualise how they work together:

...and so, at 22:56 on Wednesday 23rd Feb 2011, I start to put together my PHP (lack of) knowledge!

Wish me luck!

PRP - sidetracked

2011-02-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Was looking for some contacts to email with my third artifact when I came across a really lovely website, the website is for a design company based in Nottingham and felt like I just had to post it up on here:

The design of the website is really clean and tidy, it also has some nice little features such as the roll over effect on the navigation.

I think what won me over was the feeling of a friendly company which came across through the page that explained who worked for the company and roles that they take within it. They had created little characters along the bottom of the screen which resemble the person and you click on the character to see their actual image and a description of them. This little feature is a gem on the website, it made me want to go to them if I had any work that needed doing and i'm sure many people have felt the same way.

Check it out yourselves: www.distracts.co.uk

I also came across several companies which have integrated blogs, Twitter and Facebook feeds and links into their company websites, I found this really interesting because it is linked to my research question. Not only are individuals using social websites to get their online presence across, whole companies are beginning to do so also. This could be a possible follow up to my research question, how this trend has gone from individuals to a tactic used by companies.

PHP - Back to basics

2011-02-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

For me to able to create my Client Website, I need to be able to use PHP to provide them with an effective CMS. Therefore, I am getting familiar with PHP again.

Variables:

Variables and Constants:

Variable Variables:

My Blog Stats

2011-02-09T14:36:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool ( I only descovered it tonight! ) Who would have thought I'd have so many Americans looking at my blog and the Ipad operating system could only be Tedson himself (probably on the occasions I have "borrowed" his Ipad)

My Portfolio - New Design

2011-02-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have created another portfolio website for myself.

This version is much clearer and looks more professional. I have edited the blog link so that it opens up in a new tab and the colour scheme has been changed to make it easier to read.

The main difference is the background to the website which I have changed to be a wood image, this is so that it gives the impression of working at a desk and goes better with the paper imagery used.

Another main difference is the portfolio page which I have changed to include the title of the project with the various techniques listed also.

www.skirky.co.uk

Finishing touches to Chosen Design

2011-01-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

After giving my client the four design choices, they decided they wanted to go with design number 4. They asked me to make a few changes to it however which was not a problem.

Changes - Email from Client:

1. The most important one, is that the horizontal strip with the cakes, we would like this replaced with a picture I`m going to attach at the end of this email. It is basically the picture we have made for the banners we have put up across town as well, and we have one of them in our shops as well...so, it`s sort of like a familiar image we want people to associate with the shop.

2. The logo...could the red be a bit lighter perhaps? It`s a bit crimson-ish now, we`d like something more red-ish, again, have a look at the picture I`ll attach.Also, size-wise, you could make it larger/wider.

3. Instead of the Latest Recipe, the text should read something along the lines of Product of the day, because it`s actually a random selection of the products that are going to be displayed in the menu section, rather than a recipe.

4. Instead of the pic showing the big wedding cake, I`ve attached some picture from inside the shop which we`d like to have on the welcome page.

I have mde these changes so now the index page will look like this:

Now that the style has been decided, I can start to build the website and then look at the design and layout of the different sections.

**I am going to make sure I recieve the forms from my client which people who work in the shops have signed, this is so that I have their permission to use any images of them on the website.

My Portfolio Rejuvenation

2011-01-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

I have started to re-vamp my own portfolio website in the one of the styles that I have just designed for my client.

Watch this space!

The Designs to Choose From

2011-01-29T04:14:00.000-08:00

Here are the four designs that my client will choose from:

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

2011-01-29T04:09:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest design for the Diana website:

This design uses the red as much more of a feature. There is a nice contrast in the colours used in this design. I have made it clean and clear which is what my client asked for. The banner at the top will be a sliding banner, so the images slide across the screen slowly on mouse over. I would also like for the main image in the right hand side of the content area to change on page load, so each time you load this index page, the main image changes. This will probably be a cycle of images that I will set up.
So far, I think this is my favourite design as I think it is clear, simple and has its own distinct characteristic.

It does however go against my initial design ideas of Art Deco which I stated in the client proposal, but if my client does choose this design. I will be happy to move away from those initial thoughts that I had for the style of the website.

Design 3

2011-01-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

I have played around a little bit more in this design with the colour scheme, I think the reds and browns mix really well together here.

In the header at the top of the webpage I have out the images in the shape of a "swoosh". I have also tried arranging the images differently, i'm not sure at this stage what works best.

Research of Red Websites

2011-01-28T04:14:00.000-08:00

Seeing as my client wants their website to be red and white so that it keeps in theme with the current company style, I have been researching websites that use red and white. Some use the red subtly in the design whilst others really use the red in all its glory.

This last website www.nuevo-aurich.de really caught my attention especially seeing as it is concerned with food. I really like how the main image of the food set out is the main focus of the whole page on every page. I also like how the gallery sections have been presented and how simple the actual image galleries are.

Website Style Research

2011-01-28T02:41:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to think a little more outside the box to create three different designs for my client website. I have gathered 10 images of websites which have used the space around the main information area to give the website its overall identity.

Although the general layout of these websites are very similar, the identities are all very much different.

Have a play with this one:

www.meomi.com

From an interactive point of view, this website is really nice to play with, roll overs on the little characters reveal sound and movement which makes the website really nice.

Design 2

2011-01-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

Have looked at what my client wants and come up with another design:

I have also tried it with a white background:

I have seen other websites with drawn images in the background and found them very effective. The header is more like what my client has asked for in that it mimics the shop's poster. I thought the image at the bottom of piping icing is a nice touch and in keeping with the website. I do think that I need to include an image in the content area somewhere. Perhaps under where it describes the new recipe, an image of the new recipe could go there?

Diana, Website Research

2011-01-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

As my client did not like my first design, I asked them to give me some websites that they do like the look of so that I would have more of a guide as to what to produce for them.

They replied with the following websites:

www.e-retete.ro

www.nigella.com

www.danessa.ro

www.columbuscafe.ro

Now I can produce some more designs and have them choose which one they want. I need to get the design chosen as soon as possible as I need to start making the website straight away.

Further Client Website Development

2011-01-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

I showed my client my initial design of the website, they gave me the following feedback:

The navigation will read - Home, About Us (Our Story merger together), Menu, Location, Contact Us.

Contact Numbers needed are on a copy of the poster that I have been given by the client.

Design wise, they said they would like something with a greater contrast which is more on the red-white color scheme side than the pinkish gradient. Also, they would like it be more crisp, rather than round edges, something clean and clear. The detail on the border of the welcome text will have to go (unless I find a way to integrate it better with the design) In the header, they thought the picture included was not the best choice, they said that something smaller and more refined would perhaps be more fitting than the big, chunky bit of pastry and the strudel.

So, taking these comments on board I have decided to alter the design to suite their needs:

My client are keen on keeping to the style of the poster that they gave me at the beginning of this project. They are keen that style wise, the website should follow the design of the poster. However, instead of creating a website that is white on red I have chosen red on white, this will reduce eye strain when using the website, making the visit to website more comfortable for the user.

As the adapted design is now very white, I have also made a few images where the new design is on a red background, this brings in much more of the contrast that they are after and the overall crispness of the design.

This one is much more in keeping with the design of the poster which will help to maintain consistency within the company.

This is slight variation on this which has a little less contrast but still maintains the design of the company's poster.

Diana Development

2011-01-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

Header for the website.

Unfinished design for the hompage

Finished initial design for the hompage.

**Need to confirm the catagories of the cakes for when I do the tabs on the navigation and the photo galleries.

**Also trying to think about how the tab style navigation will work when it comes to coding it...

Update on Client Project

2011-01-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

Due to overworking during the festive season my client project has not progressed in the last four weeks as much as originally hoped.

I have however emailed the proposal to my clients and am eagerly awaiting some feedback from them.

I will start to throw together some initial design ideas until I hear from them.

Nice Tattoo Shop Website

2010-12-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

Was looking around at some stuff and came across this website for a tattoo parlour in Nottingham, even though it has music which played on page load (which is usually annoying) I really like the website, it has this really nice 50's / 60's theme running thoughout it which is enhanced by both sound and imagary.

Rampant Ink

Romanian Websites

2010-11-25T02:04:00.000-08:00

I asked a Romanian peer to give me some examples of Romanian companies that are similar to my client. I was given these three websites:
Vel Pitar
Tomis
AnaPan

Tomis is a Flash based website which was nice to interact with but I will not be making my project entirely in Flash.

The AnaPan website was very nice to view, it seems very elegant and had an extensive image gallery which really showcased the produce well.

I really enjoyed the Val Pitar website, I found it interesting how similar it was to how I envisioned my client project to look (minus the Deco theme) the colour scheme is similar to the one that I have been thinking about and used in my mock images. It has many features that I will be using, the tab to switch from English to Romanian being one.

I also enjoyed the interactive banner which featured which was similar to what features in the English company Graggs' website.

Online Presence Vs Online Portfolio

2010-11-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

Are Social Websites and Blogs becoming more important for a creative to have and maintain than a Dedicated Online Portfolio.

For years it has been essential for a creative practitioners to have a dedicated online portfolio to showcase their skills and talents. But now, with the incredible growth of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, many people seem to be turning away from the technical platform of a dedicated portfolio and are starting to embrace the freedom of the tangible Blog.

Blogs provide a platform for immediate and continuous updates on any aspects of a persons life and they help build the relationship with communities of practice. Large companies are also starting to turn to the blog as a way of keeping their readers in the loop which makes them feel involved.

Thinking about it, a peer of mine has said that they think web designers are having to go backwards in terms of design and technical features within their websites. As more and more handheld platforms are being used to view the Internet, there has been an increase of blog style sites being used for readers to easily access the information using hand held devices. Accessibility is being challenged way beyond the old conflict of browsers as mobile technology advances.

My research so far into this personal research project has made me think that I could integrate a blog RSS feed as the 'News' section of the website. This would make it easier for my client to update this section, which will probably be the section they update the most. It would also give them another form of online presence which would greater enhance their image and accessibility for their customers.

The only downside to this would be that it is another site for them to have to 'log in' to and edit which might not be appealing to them as they confess they are not very tech savvy. They might prefer to have everything in one place for them to maintain.

Deco Imagary

2010-11-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

Vintageadbrowser.com

Has provided me with lots of different advertisements that were made throughout the decades for different campaigns. Here are a few of those images that got my juices flowing:

I found this old Cambells' soup advert interesting as the colours of Dianas' logo is red and white like Cambells'. I found their use of these colours interesting because even though the colours used is limited, it still manages to be an effective visual advertisement.

Art Deco Mood Board

2010-11-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

A mish mash of art deco imagery for the research of my Live client website.

Diana

2010-11-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

I have been sent some newspaper clippings about the shops that will certainly help with the history section of the website, the images will help to project the progression of the shops through the years and with it being newspaper clippings I feel it will add to the sense of community too.

I was also sent this poster that was used during the opening of the shops which features the logo for the company. I want the website I create to be consistent with the branding set by the logo.

Red and white being the main colours of the logo gives me a feel for the colour scheme needed in the site.

I am also looking at art deco images as part of my research for this project, the logo has inspired me to use this art theme throughout the website because to me, the logo resembles some of the imagery that you see with art deco.

(The Walk - Nottingham)

Bakery Websites

2010-11-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

I have started to look at bakery websites so that I will be able to see what other companies use their websites for. Some of them use the internet for place food orders or adverstise their telephone ordering system. This might be useful for my client's website.

Some of these are quite nice websites and have various features that I might look into using when aking my client's website.

This one is a little baseic though, and there are plenty more as basic as this one online:

Flash Mobs

2010-11-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

I am loving all the flash mobs that are going around at the moment. Spurred on by T-Mobile's most talked about adverts lately I have looked into some other Flash Mobs that are on the internet;

For the fun on of it!:

To Advertise:

Enjoy.

Topic Question

2010-10-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Have settled on a topic question:

What does it mean to create a portfolio and what are the circumstances that necessitate their creation?

I have already found some interesting literature on this topic so I'm collecting all the useful information I can find.

Sam Taylor-Wood

2010-10-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

In the midst of gathering materials for my PRP topic I, for some reason, started thinking about some of my favourite artists. One of these is Sam Taylor-Wood, I was lucky enough, to quite by accident, find myself walking around an exhibition of photographs by her whilst in Wellington, New Zealand. The exhibition, in the waterside gallery, was of her series of 'Crying Men' I thought they were fantastic.

What is also interesting about this artist is that she is bringing her work and her style of work into the bracket of Multimedia. She started out specialising in art photography and went on to produce various pieces of film. I just think that she is a good example of an artist utilising technology today to move their work forward.

She was asked my Elton John to make the music video for his song "I Want Love". The making of this video introduced her to the fast pace of the video production world.
Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufbexgPyeJQ&ob=av2n

This video led to other pieces of work between Sam Taylor-Wood and Robert DJ.
The Pietr:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4PjMuIhwdA

She has also created work in video that is mostly done with paint; Still life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIzXWGcb3u0&feature=related

With regards to Web Portfolios, I was unable to find a dedicated website for Sam Taylor Wood, all that I found were exhibition websites etc. I thought this was quite interesting as in these times it is said to be essential for creatives to have an online portfolio or online presence. This led me to think that perhaps for well established artists, it is un-necessary to have an online portfolio?

An interesting video interview can be found here:
http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/25818491001

Development of design

2010-10-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Parents Section

I have started to develop the parents section of the website, the purpose of this section is so that parents can learn about digital piracy as well as their children, after all their sons or daughters are probably using the household computers and Internet connection to download their software. I feel it is important that they are also informed as to how to download and file share safely and legally.

The idea behind the design of the page was to make it feel light and clear, giving the impression that everything is calm, not scary, and it all clear and easy to understand. It was also important that I keep a consistency within website as a whole.

Therefore I have kept the cityscape at the top of the page but changed the scene to being a day time view of the city:

Still plenty to do but I feel its coming along nicely.

Advise for Parents

2010-10-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

I managed to find the PDF that convinced me to add an 'Advise for Parents' section to my website:

http://www.pro-music.org/content/library/pdf-youngpeople-english.pdf

It is provided by Childnet and has a style that I like, I think it is fun and friendly and looks like it has something to do with children whilst not looking too childish. I like the use of colour in it, bold and easy to read.

I will try to use this style when making my parents section.

Something Missing..?

2010-10-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

I had a feeling that something was missing from the design of the page. I was on the train heading home for the weekend and I was looking out at all the buildings and old warehouses on the outskirts of each town we went through. I was looking at the texture of what was in front of me, cement, brick, corrugated iron they all made the buildings and streets so much more interesting to look at. That's when I realised that my design was missing a bit of texture. After playing around with a few different things I decided to keep it simple, so the page didn't become too busy, and use a light brickwork pattern on the background of the content area.

I am really pleased with how this now looks so I can concentrate on more on coding the site.

Development of design

2010-10-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

I have added a footer to the web page, I think it adds to that grunge/city look, I think it also helps to balance out the page.

Neon Sign Development

2010-10-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

I have created the skull and text images in an 'on' and an 'off' state, this is preperation for either the javascript image change or the flash animation which I have decided to get to work on mouse over to make the site a little more interactive.

3D Buildings

2010-10-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Due to some more feedback I have made the buildings at the top 3D which I think sets the image off quite nice. I have also gotten rid of the back of the sign and will make the "Digital Piracy" text part of the sign so they will both flicker. I also tried adding a moon but didnt like the way it looked.

Development of design

2010-10-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

At first I was unsure as to which way to have the gradient going but when looking at it and asking other what they thought, I settled on having the lighter tone at the top.

I got some great feedback during today's tutorial on my initial design, they were keen to see me develop this design for my Simulated Client Project.

Some of the things they pointed out was that this design was better for my target audience (11-16 year old) with its grunge/city style. I was advised by my tutor and peers to create some more depth on the page, it was suggested that I do this with a simple gradient - blue to black which I have done and it really brings out the cityscape. I have also added a few stars which add a little bit extra to the overall image of the page.

I intend to make the lights in the buildings change a little and the perhaps the stars to twinkle slightly, I will try to do this with a JavaScript image change or failing that I will use flash. I also want to make the pirate sign less obvious at first but to make it act like a faulty neon sign, so it will light up off and on as if it is broken. I also need to make the back of the sign less obvious.

BEN AND JERRY'S WEBSITE

2010-10-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

LOVE IT

http://www.benjerry.co.uk/

Everything from start to finish on this site is fun to look at or interact with ENJOY

Neon Design

2010-10-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with the Neon sign design a little bit, adapting the color scheme etc.

Design Ideas

2010-10-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

When I first thought about a design for a website about Piracy I could'nt get the image of a cartoon pirate and a sandcastle out of my head, as fun as it was to try to draw a pirate (of which I failed miserably) I thought that this sort of image would be quite patronising to children aged 11-16.

Then when I was clearing out some leaflets I had managed to collect over the past couple of weeks I came across one which had an image of a skull.

This image got me thinking about using the pirate skull and crossbones image and it also got me thinking about displaying the website with this image as a neon light. I took a look at the website that was connected with the leaflet.

Baa Bar

I thought that this website was really interesting, I liked how they used the different tones of black and grey together to create a composition. So my second idea was to have the skull and crossbones symbol, which I changed to skull and swords, as a neon sign that you might find at the side of a desert road or on some dark back street which lead to a city.

This image reminded me of leading to Vegas, neon signs in the desert, it plays on the idea that playing with piracy is like playing with the law.

I also wanted to develop another idea I have which was to play on the whole British police theme, after all piracy is breaking the law. so how could I use this idea of UK police branding and make it look appealing to young people as a website?

For me to be able to develop any ideas further I need to gather my text content for the website, then I will know how many pages I will need for the site and will be able to design for that.

I quickly thought about having a section of the site for parents to be able to get information about piracy so that they will feel confident in what their children are accessing through the home computer. I found some websites that have given me information designed for parents and teachers so i have been able to look at what sort of advise they are being given and how it has been put across.

Research

2010-10-06T02:25:00.000-07:00

With my target audience in mind I have looked to see if there are any websites that have been created already for this purpose (to inform people of a high school age about piracy)

This first ones I found were pages within larger websites which explained piracy but more for the purpose of how the company stood with regards to it.

These two seemed to have a theme or consistancy about them with was nice but again, didnt look at my target audience (or if they do I dont find them engaging enough for them)

This last one has the look of being made for kids which is great, the theme is all there, there is a fun navigation and the text at the top grabs you but ones you start reading the content you soon realise it was not intended to be read by children.

I will create a site that looks like it for 11-16 year olds but also reads like it is for 11-16 year olds, not so much to lecture but to inform.

Simulated Client Project

2010-10-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

Initial Thoughts

When given the brief for this three week project I thought, keep it straight, keep it simple so I want to create a website that informs people about piracy.

When thinking further about my project I realised that this an extremely broad subject to cover, so I need to narrow it down some. I have done this by thinking about who my target audience will be. I thought about what i know about people who create or use pirated software, music, films or whatever, I thought that most of these people are my peers, non of which want to be lectured about piracy as by now they all know how it works. then I thought about other people I know who are copying films and music without realising they were breaking the law.

I knew someone who was over 60 and had been shown how to download films old and new and burn them to disks, this person thought this was fantastic as they could create DVDs for the grand kids to watch as they came to visit even before the films had made it to the cinema. They had an idea that doing this was wrong but no idea that doing this was illegal.

I then thought about high school age people (11-16) who regularly download music from all sort of places legal and illegal. I imagine again that these people at some point have been shown how to do this and have just continued to do so to increase their music collection. I am sure that many of these kids know that what they are doing is wrong but how many of them know it is Illegal. People tend to have wrong on one side and illegal on the other and sometimes forget to merge the two.

The Beginning of the End

2010-10-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well its in at the deep end at the minute I guess. I've been introduced to the final year of my degree at Trent and the first project has already got me up at 10pm working (and its only the 3rd day!!)

This year will be broken up into three main parts; Client, PRP and good old SPP.

The Client part is then consists of two projects, the first of which will tie me up for the first 3 weeks. This is the Simulated Client Project which is to create a short Multimedia piece that informs or illustrates Piracy. This gives me time to secure my Live client project which will be a website for a chain of pastry shops in Romania.

I am still unsure at this time of the schedule for the PRP section, although I need to have my subject approved by my tutor. I am hoping to look at Portfolio Websites and the different requirements for different disciplines.

The SPP modules for this year are aimed to get us thinking about life after uni, one involves looking at portfolios and the other applying for various positions. More on this at a later date.

3D TV

2010-09-21T02:49:00.000-07:00

Just some thought on the latest TV craze to date - 3D TV

A friend of mine refuses to see films in the cinema that are in 3D because he hates when films have been comprimised just to get the 'popping out of the screen' shot and include knee jerkers. I however do enjoy these features but I also think that 3D is not about having things flying out at you, it has in some films such as Alice in Wonderland, been used really cleverly to greater portray the emotions of the characters. 3D technology has become a fantastic tool for movie makers to greater explore depth within the scenes. Having loved 3D in the cinema for many years I was really excited by this idea of 3D in the average household but now that I have been around it for a while - having had to sell the things to people, I do feel it to be, at least at this stage, a bit of a gimic that I dont think will stick.

For one thing, they are expensive, which is not really an issue as I know this will not be for long and soon the prices will come down but also there are not many channels being broadcasted in 3D or filmed with 3D cameras so why invest all that money for a feature you can hardley use?

If your not too sure how 3D technology that has been designed for the home works i'll try to quickly explain it. There are two ways of viewing 3D, one which is Passive and one which is Active.

Passive
Passive technology is the type that cinemas use and what the pubs are starting to invest in for its customers to view 3D football. Passive technology uses two images that are polarized in different directions, the lenses on the glasses you wear use circular polarization and are set in oposite directions to match the two images being projected. Each lens blocks the oposite eye allowing your brain to do the hard work by putting the two images together making you see one solid image and gives you that 3D effect.

Active
Active technology is the technology used with home TVs (however this is changing - (http://www.which.co.uk/technology/tv-and-dvd/reviews-ns/lg-3d-tvs/) The glasses hold just as much of the technology as the TV does, they shut the light out of one eye whilst leaving the other to view the image, then it switches so the other eye sees the image at a slightly different angle creating the 3D effect.

I went on some core vision training in Leeds recently and we had the chance to find out more about TV technology in genreal but also we looked at and descussed 3D. We mostly agreed that another disadvantage is that you have to wear the glasses. I struggle to imagine my mum and dad sat on the sofa wearing these 3D glasses which are at least £60 a pop especially seeing as my dad wears glasses and the 3D glasses are particularly uncomfortable for people who already wear glasses. When I wore the glasses I found the flickering to be irritating and I found some scenes were blured which was dissorientating. However some scenes were crips clear and breathtaking. It was the unconsistancy of the picture quality throughout the demo that left me feeling dissapointed.

I am left thinking that at this stage I would not buy a 3D TV but I am hopeing that this is simply the first wave of this technology and that it will only get better.

.....................................................................................................................................................................

3D in other areas
Although 3D in the home did not grab me I heared of another way that companies have been using this technology within their marketing stratagies.

Vestas, a company which originates from Denmark, who produces wind turbines have created a 3D symulator for potential clients to be able to see what it is they would be buying if they purchased through Vestas. The symulator walks them from the entrance gate right through the turbines and even inside them. A demonstration like this could have them leave feeling little in awe.

"The technology used in our wind turbines is state-of-the-art. Therefore we need state-of-the-art tools to develop them. The VR installation has proved to be a very powerful day to day tool for all engineers in our R&D department. As a side bonus the installation has also turned out to be very useful for all the other departments in Vestas like sales, management, production and service." Allan Laursen Molbech, Pro/E & VR Administrator, - http://www.virtalis.com/market-sectors/power

I am told that this simulator can be taken to the client which is an important advantage, I think this tool is very advantageous and be used in many ways for lots of different companies also.

Hellmanns Website

2010-08-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

Was browsing the web when I came accross the website for hellmanns sauce, I thought I'd add the link as I found the site nice and refreshing. I like how the imagary is used in it with the leaves moving a little to mimic a small breeze. I also like how the background image stays still while the content boxes scroll.

http://www.hellmanns.co.uk/flash.php

Warrington Web Design

2010-05-03T04:32:00.000-07:00

I was looking for potential web design companies in warrington who I might ask to gain work experience from when I came across one company who's website seemed to really irritate me. There is some kind of 'magic' noise that came up once the page was loaded which I hated and then when I looked through the portfolio I didnt really like what I saw. All of the websites created seemed to be very busy and had a 'one page fits all' feel to it where thay have'nt thought about easing the user into the website but instead have decided to bash them with as much information as possible on the first page. I do however kind of like the navigation bar but I dont really see the point of the way responds to roll over other than to make something on the page move?

Here's the link, see what you think:
http://www.cyber-netservices.co.uk/

Author Bryce Courtenay

2010-05-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

Penguin Presents Bryce Courtenay from Bryce Courtenay on Vimeo.

Was trying to look for my favourite book trilogy online (The Potato Factory Trilogy by Bryce Courtenay) when I came across his website www.bryecourtenay.com I started thinking about using this website for research for my PRP because I was so impressed with it. Going through the site I was thinking about what sort of website a writer needs as a portfolio site to promote their work.

This video was included on the site which I really enjoyed watching it as I got to learn about this aurthor for first time and I also learnt about his new book.

Home Page Development

2010-04-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

ok, a lot of tweeking here and there has been done to get what I have at the moment, I have made the background darker with a nice texture, I have also included an image of myelf (which I hated doing) but I think it will enefit from having an image of me on there - makes it more personal.

I think I have an obsession with texture that is like old coffee stained paper - no idea why. I have included a box textured like this for my introduction to the site. At first it was too light so I darkened it down a bit to better suite the overall design of the page. I then wanted to write on it myself to keep it more personal but as my skills with the digital pen leave a lot to be desired (it looked like a 5 year old had wrote it) I opted to use the font that is in the header which will help keep a little consistancy.

I'm really liking it at the mo - what do you think?

Development of design

2010-04-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

I have made the design darker and used a better texture - i'm linking it! Due to some feedback I was given i'm going to play around with the font of "web design" in the header.

My Portfolio Website

2010-04-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Its about time that I start to think about getting my own portfolio website up and running now that I have bought my own webspace (www.skirky.co.uk) and I am starting to produce work that I am happy to display online. I am starting to put together some designs for this. My first is concentrated around my favourite colour brown and other objects that I use when designing such as pencil and paper - keep it simple, keep it clean. I want to get across a kind of sketchy feel which displays my thought process and my design process.

This is what I have so far which I am really happy with. Hopefully this will develop onto even better design ideas for my website.

In this I am keeping a consistant colour (although I might still play around with the tone of that background brown) Within the header I have used my own hand to write my name instead of a font, which keeps it personal, on top of a graded image of one of my own paintings.

Lambley Riding Club - Group Project

2010-04-16T01:26:00.000-07:00

From this post any work related items will be posted onto our group blogger:

http://lambleyridingclubwebsite.blogspot.com/

PHP login and News Feed

2010-03-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have included a PHP news feed for the About section of the website so that the client can regularly post what he is up to with his photography. There are just a few bugs to work out but it works really well.

This is accessed via a link in the index page called "Admin"

The user logs in with account details that are stored in the myadminphp database.

Here they can see older posts and type up a new post for the website.

The posts are displayed in the 'About' section in the style of a newspaper.

I would like to develop this so that there is a Delete and Edit function on the posts for the client and I would look at displaying the posts a little differently to make it look more like a newspaper.

About me Page

2010-03-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

After quite a while of aligning the image left and then to the right and then back to the left over and over again I FINALLY decided on the right : )

So here is the About page with a nice little flash element to the page title too (the letters move and change colour slightly on mouse over)

Image Galleries

2010-03-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

Finished all the flash image galleries, they look great. There is an image gallery for every category, this is how they look.

Photo Gallery by ~xsamkirkx on deviant ART

SWF file background sorted

2010-03-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

This is what my swf file looked like when I inserted it into my html document, howerver I need the background to be transparent.

Daryl helped me with this just now and i've sorted it

Looks great and works great! just need to figure out how to make the images link with my site (I know a man who can)

Twitter Icon

2010-03-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

Not sure which Twitter Icon to choose from, I'll ask around and see what other people think

Development of Website

2010-03-02T04:48:00.000-08:00

I have placed my navigation bar and logo and also added the twitter button to it also which will link to the client's twitter page.

Smaller Sliding Bar

2010-03-02T04:06:00.000-08:00

Smaller Sliding Photo Bar by ~xsamkirkx on deviant ART

Made it a little smaller to suite the browser more

Sliding Bar For Photo Catagories

2010-02-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sliding Photo Bar by ~xsamkirkx on deviant ART

Here's a sliding bar for the galleries to choose from on the website

Flash Banner

2010-02-26T01:40:00.000-08:00

Advertising my Mobile phone

Flash Banner by ~xsamkirkx on deviant ART

Social Network Intergration

2010-02-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

During research for my Photographer website I noticed that one site that I was using had intergrated social networking into it. Smashing Magazine features Twitter and an Rss feed for regular news feeds straight from the site. This is handy as this feeds from this website would keep designers in the loop with news around their area of design which would make the feeds they recieve relevent to what they are doing.

I also found a designers website that features a Skype icon in the contact me section, where you can contact this design through Skype

Contacting designers is starting to advance from phone calls and emails to other internet based methods such as Skype and Twitter which gives people faster responces. The pace of communication and the rate of information sharing is growing with applications like these being used on the web.

For Tom's Photography portfolio site to remain professional then I will not include links to his facebook page as this is his personal and social environment which is not related to his work and to include this as a link from his website would make no sence as it infringes on his personal life. It is important to keep your personal life seperated from your proffesional life especially when the website is a source of potential work.

What I will use on the site will be links to his Twitter page which is consentrated around his work or technologies in the field and his blog which again is where posts are made that relate to the work that he is producing. This will create more of an online presence for him as an artist and could also increase his social network as people with similar interests may also find what he posts interesting and make comments on the topics as a collaberative way of thinking on a topic.

Wooden background

2010-02-25T07:25:00.000-08:00

I saw a website today which features wood image in the background, I think its a nice design and is the sort of thing I am going for with one of the design Idaes for the photography website.

Text Logo

2010-02-22T09:26:00.000-08:00

Talking to Tom about the designs so far, we would like to change the logo into a text logo as this will look more professional.

This is really simple and nice, and I could play around with it to include some sort of image too.

Artist Website

2010-02-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here are two similar designs for the photography website:

The only difference between deisgn 1 and 2 is that I have added a gradient background which I think gives the page more depth whilst at the same time keeps it simple.

Here are some more designs for the website:

As you can see the two above designs differ only by background colour, The idea with this design is that the catagories of photos slide up or down depending on which arrow the user clicks, when the mouse hovers over a particular umage the text will slide out saying what the catagory of photos is. When clicked on, thumnails of the photos in that group will fill the space on the right and will enlarge (lightbox) when clicked on if the user wants a closer look. I have found that this style of portfolio is becoming common online with the images being a strip on the screen.

I think this design is bit more fun, Colours are kept to a minimum, a simple navigation at the top makes it easy to use, the user selects which images they wish to view.

Interview With Client

2010-02-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I see Tom on a regular basis I am going to treat him as a 'client' when it comes to the production of this website. I see this a little practice for I come to do my real client project, with this in mind I decided to interview Tom about what he wants his website to have. From this descussion I have a list of what he would like:

Simple, Limited use of colour
Wants the attension to be on his Images
Does'nt like browns
Like Monochromatic designs
Likes little blasts of colour (maybe with orange?)
Wants it to have a feel of modern photography

I will have to consider all of these when playing around with the designs.

I have created a Gantt Chart to help me with my time management:

Artist Website Research

2010-02-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Whilst searching the web for online portfolios I can across this website:
smashingmagazine.com
It has many really nice portfolio websites that range in style.
Here are a few that caught my eye:
okaydave.com

This website starts with a jumble of images and the user can click on bunched images, alternatively a navigation bar is at the bottom. A link takes you to a page, each page has a video and a vioce over where Dave Warner talks about himself and the different aspects of his work. I thought this was a very nicely put together website and even though it was all flash it didnt take too long to load.

www.jessewillmon.com

This website caught my eye as it used doodles throughout the site, which is similar to how how I like to work using drawn images instead of real pictures. This first image is the site's navigation, it gets people to interact with it really well with features such as "I made a paper toy, Download and print"

I took a look at his work and his websites in particular were really interesting, easy to use and full of lively imagery and colour.

www.nisgia.com

This was another really nice website to interact with, it was kind of an in-situe image with these pieces of paper falling onto the table from your view point. The user could then click on these little pieces of paper to view a particular project. There was also a navigation bar that popped out on the left.

www.lesillustrationsdelapin.com

This is a reall nice website made for an illistrator. A small neavigation bar is on the left but the main focus is the work which takes up most of the page, a scroll bar is below that you grab with the mouse and slide along to view all the images in tht section.

onwired.com/portfolio

This one is website for an organisation rather than an individual, I thought it was really nice, I liked how the images were made to look as if they had bee stuck on with a piece of selotape. Also this company have included all stages of the projects productions, from Sketch - Wireframe - Final Design which is good for a new web designer such as myself to see.

Artist Portfolio Website

2010-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

Brief: Design and build a artist / arts organisation website. A site which acts as a promotional website for an individual/organisation and which will increase both profile and online traffic for the client.

Originally for this project I was going to build a website for a friend of mine who is studying Fine Art at Manchester Met University, I contacted him and he was happy to send me images of his work for me to be able to make the website. However, it has been difficult to get this information from him so I plan to go back to him as a client at a later date.

I have now gained another client for this project instead, Tom Edson is a student in my class who's hobby is photography, he has used his photography several times in his websites and they are beautiful images, I will produce a website that showcases his fantastic pitures.

Culture Painting

2010-02-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

For an art competition I decided to piant a picture of a mauri warrior.

Sony Ericsson research

2010-02-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Making a small flash ad for my mobile phone the Sony Ericsson w910i, looking at the advertising that was used for the mobile phone is helping me to see what Sony have made this phone for - it main selling points which for this phone is for music, it has been produced for listening to music on your phone and has a few nice features to make this more enjoyable.

I will have to keep these key selling features in mind when designing an advert for this phone.

Design Exercise 12

2010-02-05T03:09:00.000-08:00

I am looking at Matt Dempsey who is a freelance graphic web designer from London.

Matt Dempsey's site is very textured so may give the illusion of being crowded but really is very nicely spaced out. It does'nt give the 'aired' feel that you somtimes find on creative practitioner's websites, where everything is white/grey so not to deter the eye from the work. It has a sligtly 'grung' feel about it by the colours and texture used.

The brush stroke imagary being used portrays his artistic personality and manages to remind the viewer/user that he is not just a computer programmer but a creative designer too.

The navigation bar compliments the site by mimicing the 'brush stroke effect', my favourite button in the navigation is the little bird which navigates to his Twitter site.

Again the style is consistant thoughout with the 'brush stoke' being used for the boxes on the Contact form.

His Work portfolio page is very simple and clean but looks complicated with the javascript encoperated being a nice touch.

Work

Looking at his work, he detaches himself from the 'busyness' of his own site to create sites that are very clear and crisp, each with great uses of colour and special awareness. He manages to work to his target market in each of the seperate designs and retain the indevidual identities of each company.

His Print work demonstrates his great way of communicating, his designs are all eye catching and clear. It is obvious that Matt is a very good colourist and combines that with his great skill with images.

What would I take from his work?
I aim to keep a consistancy in the designs of my work just like Matt has done with his website and the websites that he has made for others. I would also look at his use of colour with all of his sites as they are all very nicely done. Another thing I would look at is his use of images which are all very eye catching and integrate well into the design of the whole thing. I would also look at some sort of nice transition like the one he has used to go from his web work to his print work, I think it adds a nice touch to the page and encourages people to interact with your site and explore furthur.

What would I not take?
I did'nt like how half of the page was taken up with the About and Contact information, I think it breaks flow of the page. I would probably put them on a seperate page.

Take a look: http://www.mattdempsey.com/

Nice Online 'Books'

2010-02-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

I have seen a few websites now that use a really nice animation for books, it shows the pages as they woud be real

And then as soon as you press the button to see the next page, a nice animation occurs to show the turning of the page.

Retail Establishment Website - Design 2

2010-02-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here is the second design for the Gauntleys of Nottingham website:

1st Design Validated

2010-02-01T06:40:00.001-08:00

I have fully validated the first design of my website:

design 2

2010-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

The second design for my retail website is coming along, i'm just trying to sort out the side bar and then i'll get the footer in:

Design 2

2010-01-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here is another design for the website that I will make:

I would say that this design is much more conventional design to what I have originally made, it is a much neater style and easy to use and understand.

Retail Establishment Website - Design 1

2010-01-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished Gauntleys Website:

I am now going to look at another possible design for this website that is a bit more "usual" in terms of the way a website is expected to look.

Image roll over change

2010-01-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Managed to get image roll over chage for the navigation bar on the index page, I have done the whisky button and i'm going to do the wine and cigar sections.

Style Development

2010-01-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a look at one possible design for the website, I have drawn up the icons for as links to each section of the site, a kind of simple navigation for the user to go to whichever type of product that the store sells:

I am looking to alter this image for whisky a little bu adding a small glass with ice and a little whisky in it, this will make it much more apparent to the user that it is in fact Whisky.

As with the whisky, I am planning on adding a small wine glass here to show clearly that this is wine.

I think I will add a smoking pipe to these cigars, again to help tell the users what these actually are.

When I put these images on what I already have I am quite pleased with the look of the first page in this style, I just need to make those adjustments to the images:

Style Development

2010-01-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a style that I am playing around with for this website

Style Development

2010-01-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

The first style that I am looking at regarding the imagery of the website is looking at how the light hits the glass bottle. I have produced some sketches of this and experimented with different colours.

Artist Links

2010-01-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

I went with my usual starting point when beginning a new project which was to look at different artists who work in the style that I wish to portray. When thinking about the whisky and wine bottles I kept remembering Tony Cragg who used to build up lines to create bottle shapes.

This work is similar to that of Alberto Giacometti who also used lots of fine lines to build up an image.

But what I was really looking for was works that had that oaky richness that I thought of when I visited the store.

In this cubist painting, Max Weber brings in a lot of the earthy tones that I am looking for.

This image by Rothko displays more of the tones that I could use within the design of the website.

Georgia O'Keeffe is another artist noted for her strong use of tones in her paintings.

This image I came across by Francis Picabia I thought was nice, It would suite a wine website.

This painting by Liubov Popova again is that of the cubist style which demonstrates great use of colour and rich dark texture in the shadows of the shapes.

When searching through other work I came across a style that I thought was just fantastic and something that you might expect to see as a cigarette poster from earlier decades.

These collages are by Mimmo Rotella and something about them just caught my eye, I like the teared edges and the missing colour in places. I think the overall effect of the images is quite nice. I will have a look at a design that encourperates some of these features.

This image by Jorg Immendorf is quite 'glassy' in effect brought on by the use of colour lines on black, I think the lines have a nice effect showing where light hits an object. It reminds me of how glass looks when the light touches it.

Anthony Cragg

2010-01-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

While researching styles for my retail establishment website, I looked at Tony Cragg's work and thought I'd note his website which had a nice way of portfolioing his works.

The whole site was lacking colour but that, in a way mirrored the artist's work. These two rows of thumnail images slide accross when the user clicks the arror buttons, so the images become a physical slideshow to showcase the work. When an image is selected it enlarges (lightbox) style. The navigation bar at the top allows the user to select a particular style of works to view.

Have a look at: http://www.anthonycragg.com/

Wine and Cigar Sites

2010-01-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

Wines

As well as looking at Whisky websites I have looked at some Wine and Cigar sites seeing as that is also what Gauntley sell.

The Blossom Hill website is under construction but I really liked the page that was displayed, it has that clean, crisp fresh feels to it which mirrors the wine they make. Nothing is in a box here either, the design of the page is very fluid.

The Gallo wine website was really nice, although it does 'contain' the information it does not fell boxy, the colours used also hold that tone of herritage and refinment. Everything is well laid out and presented for the user.

I really liked the Wither Hills website, mainley because of the use of images as a navigation bar in the middle. The images slowly move around each other and respond to the mouse touch on roll over by getting a little bigger and tells the user where that image link will take them. It is a nice feature that the user cna interact with.

The website that I enjoyed the most was the Echo Falls website, it was full of colour but at the same time was clean and crisp like the Blossom Hill Website. Straight away the user could interact with the site.

I loved how the bottles in the Wine selection catagory would react to the mouse touch by bursting with the fruites used in the drink.

When clicked on, the information about that wine would come up in a really nicely presented way. It even goes on to provide recommended meals to have with the wine to enhance the product more.

Another part of the site that I liked was a sounds page that the user can choose different tunes to play, this helps to create an atmosphere and a feel for the product.

Take a look at this website: http://www.echofallswine.co.uk/flash.asp

Cigars

It was hard ot find a cigar website that held some of the qualities that I want my website to have, this is because most of the websites are cigar merchants and traders reather than the creating companies themselves.

I did however like this website by the Vancouver Cigar Company. I liked the rich colours used in the design and general neatness of the information which a lot of the cigar websites lacked.

"Social networks and the web offer a lifeline in Haiti"

2010-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Makes me think that the carreer I have chosen really has the potential to help people in times of need. Check out the BBC Technology section and its report with regards to the Haiti earthquake:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8461240.stm