design 2

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

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I would say that this design is much more conventional design to what I have originally made, it is a much neater style and easy to use and understand.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

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

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

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

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

 

Style Development

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

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

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

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"

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

Whisky Websites

I want this websites to portray the rustic feel that Whiskys and wines often strive for when they market themselves. I have looked at several different websites to this how they demonstrated the origins of the product through their own websites. Here are just a few of those i have looked at:

 The Glenfiddich website had a really nice feel to it, something for me to aim towards I think. This was brought on by the oaky colors and use of the mysterious background imag. I also loved the use of the dark greens with the browns.

The Jack Daniels website also maintained its herritage through the website via the images, font, colours and illistrations on the pages.

I especially liked the menu that dropped down to reveal itself on the roll over revealing much more of the website.

 

I loved the website for Talisker which straight away gives the user an idea of it origins with the images used, I think to text works really well in this design too.

I really like how the information is displayed in this website, there is a scroll bar in the content box so that the user is not overfaced with a lot of text and the dimensions of the page remain the same even if there is more text on certain pages. This is something I would like to incorperate into my design.

 

My favourite by far was the Jameson website which was awsome, This is the home page which features a cube that responds to the mouse' touch and will navigate to the a page deppending on which side is facing you when you click it. A navigation bar also features along the top.

This is the 'meet the family' section in which the Jameson selection is displayed, this bottles rotate really nicely and when you select one it brings up all the information about that particular bottle.

I like how the text is displayed in these sections too, it is really clear and I like how the bottle stands next to it as if standing to attention as its details are displayed.

This sections, I thought, is brill, it tells poeple how else they can enjoy Jamesons, I love images used, the liquid bursting out of the glass, it makes it looks very refreshing. When a drink is selected, information comes up (in a nice fluid motion) which can be printed off which is great for accessability.
Overall, this website was fab and I think there is a lot of really nice touches that I can try to encourperate into my designs in the future. Check it out at: http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/age_verification.aspx

Retail Establishment Website

Our Brief for our second project is in. I have to design a website for a real life retail trading establishment. As i'm in Nottingham for the duration of this project my website will have to be a place in Nottingham.

At first I thought about the small Salon 'Pamper' that is back in my home village, then I started looking at some of the Gallery websites when Shaun mentioned the Focus Gallery in Nottingham who's website needed updating (Although when I went to look at this online it now says the site is 'under construction'. But this would be a really interesting establishment to produce a site for, especially as it is local to me.

Then I thought about a really intruiging store in The Exchange Building, Market Square, which sells wines, whiskys and cigars. 'Gauntleys of Nottingham' is a really old school store which looks quite prestigious when you walk past it and thought it deserves a really nice 'oaky' website. Which is why I was shocked when I looked at the website and found it like this:

It doesnt have the style that I thought it would and it doesnt represent the look and feel of the actual store which is a shame as the store has a fantastic atmosphere to it.

I think that Gauntleys of Nottingham is going to be the store for this project, I can already sense it is what that I can get stuck into. Maybe when I finish this one I could still go back and have a look at making one for the other two.

3 Non Web Designers

Hundertwasser
Hundertwasser is one my favourite artists whos paintings and architecture I have loved for years. His work includes painting, tapestry, architecture, graphic and ecology. The work that I was first drawn to was his paintings which at first may seem quite child like but you find yourself drawn into the imagary he creates with his busy compositions and you realise how intricate each piece of work he produces is.

"I should like, and I do it too quite instinctively, to live an example, live an example to people, paint for them a paradise that each may have, he need only grasp it". Hundertwasser, (Venice, 1975)

His architecture resembles that of Guadi in the style of the free flowing lines and the loose organics of the overal effect. He manages to bring his images of paradise to life with these fantasy like buildings that look like they should not have been made into being. A lot of his buildings also encourperate his hypersensitivity to his surroundings, he is a strong ecologist and therefore we see many plants growing in, out of and around the buildings he creates.

I was lucky enough to visit one of his achitecture projects The Kawakawa Public Toilets in New Zealand featured a wall of Glass Bottles which the artist uses in his home.

Hundertwasser went on to also create some stamps which was a great interest of his:

He Says "The stamp is an important. Although very small in format, it carries a message. Stamps are a measure of the culture of a country. This tiny, rectangular piece of paper links the hearts of sender and reciever. It is a bridge between peoples and nations. The stamp knows no borders. It reaches us even in prosons, asylums and hospitals and wherever we may be on earth...A stamp which is not mailed on a letter is no stamp. It has never lived, it is a sham. It is like a fish who has never swum, a bird who has never flown...This precious piece of art reaches everyone as a gift from afar. A stamp should be a testimony to culture, beauty and the creative spirit of mankind.

14 Febuary 1990

Hundertwasser's work appeals to me by the colorful world that he exsposes to people, how he seems to breath a different kind of life into his paintings. His style is representative of the romantics but is also representative of itself in that his style is so very unique and recognisable. It is this uniqueness and the fact that his stlye is his own without any pretence. His images are not photogenic nor do they have any desire to be, they are what they are and they do it well. As a designer I could only hope to create a style that is my own, without any need to impress or delight but to simply be what is it - Mine.

James Dyson 

James Dyson has not only designed vacuum cleaners for the modern home, he was the develper of cyclone technology which created vacuum cleaners that filters dust, efficiently removes dirt from air flow and never looses its suction.


Dyson made a list about what is was wrong with vacuum cleaners and is working his way through those problems one by one. These problems were simple things like a handle on the top to carry the machine, a hose that would reach to the top of the stairs, problems that other vacuum cleaner designers didnt solve. Dyson also puts a lot back into the industry by holding the annual James Dyson Awards through the James Dyson Foundation which inspires young engineer designers to create without worrying about making mistakes. James Dyson says thet failure is the starting point as with failure you can understand where you went wrong and build on that to improve "keep on failing - it works" 

He made over 5000 prototypes for one of his designs which meant over 5000 mistakes.


This mentality of design is very refreshing for young designers as it lets them know that it is ok to make a mistake and move on which takes away a lot of pressure. I also think that he has marketed himself as a designer working for the poeple and their everyday needs which is great selling point. As some one who works in an electrical store I will happily sell dysons to any customer that comes in for a new vacuum cleaner because it is a product that I believe in from consept and right through to the final product. It would be great if in my career my work was seen with this kind of mentality, that people would think "you cant go wrong with a Sam Kirk product". Also take a look at James Dyson's Wrong Garden.

Alan Lee and John Howe
I have chosen to include Alan Lee and John Howe who are both illustrators, Alan Lee did the original book art for Lord of the Rings and they both worked on the conseptual work for the movie. I thought about them when writing about my 3 non-web designers because they had to go to what was the location for 'The Shire' and draw the landscape that was in front of them but with Hobbiton included. Which is a very creative thing to do, they were taking what was real and turning it into something completely un-real but believable. It was from their conseption drawings that the shire was created by Director Peter Jackson.