Week 10
24/11/08
Space for yourself
This week I have been working on a brand for our client, Clare Byrne.
Below is a link to my branding for the client.
(PDF format 410kb)
Branding complete...
With the branding for Clare Byrne complete I began working on the site for her. I choose the above logo for Clare as I feel that it offers a different approach to what most of the class will have designed. I expect that a lot of the class will have chosen more regular typefaces for their brand so I have decided to be different and go for a more unconventional look.
Site Design
I had been reading an article on trends a while ago on Web Designer Wall. It said how more designer's were using the large background technique and javascript libraries such as MooTools and JQuery. I have never used any of the libraries out there so thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try something new. There was also a tutorial on WDW on how to use the big background technique.
Looking at some of the trends I noticed that the 3 main ones were: Big backgrounds, single page sites and javascript libraries. I wanted my Space for Yourself site to use all of these. The link below will take you to the articles I read on trends.
Quick wireframe
I drew up a quick sketch of how I wanted Space for Yourself to look. I have decided to make a one page mootools site so getting this down on paper to show how I wanted it to look was a bit of a mission. The wireframe gives a quick idea of my plans.
Mootools
I'm a Mootools virgin
I began playing around with some javascript libraries this week. I took a look at JQuery and Mootools. I wanted my single page site to use a script called 'smooth scroll'. This means that when the user clicks on a link it doesn't just jump to the section but, yes you guessed it, scrolls smoothly to it. I chose the Mootools script called 'smooth pack' as it is was very small in file size and it was recommended to me by Jonny Campbell in the class who had been using it in his blog and give me a bit of help with it. Cheers Jonny.
By using anchor points and the 'name' tag I found it was a simple script to implement and didn't cause any problems with the validator. Great effect and quick and easy to use. Just what every designer needs.
Out on the interwebs
Some of this week's browsing
The past few months I've been bookmarking sites that I wouldn't normally even know about. From going to the lectures I've been picking up so many web resources. Each week Chris or Nick will say a website or designer and I'll not have a clue who or what it is so I'll write it down and off I go browsing my page long lecture notes of things I don't know about.
It's turned up some brilliant sites that I keep going back to weekly for any updates. (I should really get an RSS feed for some of them). A List Apart has some brilliant articles along with the earlier mentioned Web Designer Wall. I've been 'innovating and concepting' plenty of new techniques thanks to these sites.
White Space
While reading through the articles on A List Apart I came across one called 'White Space' by Mark Boulton. I've been thinking of changing my blog to something a bit different but at this late stage I don't feel I have the time. I think that there's too much white space in my blog but after reading the article I'm happy that more is better than less.
You work for them
I like to work with aftermarket brushes and vectors when I'm doing design work and usually just use free ones available on the internet. I think YouWorkForThem was mentioned in a previous lecture but I took a look at some of the work they do. They have lots of cool fonts, brushes and vectors. I like the way they give away free pdf's containing ideas on how to use their products. Useful for the future to create somthing unique.
Site of the week
As I'm creating a single page site for Clare I thought I'd mention this one called 'We Bleed Design'. It uses some brilliant techniques when scrolling down through the page. The png's look brilliant when it's scrolling. Take a look.
Major Project Breakthrough
I have finally settled on an idea for my major project. I know it's week 10 and you should know this from the start of the semester but I couldn't decide on what I wanted to do. I'm going to create a food and drink guide for my local town. It will feature the various establishments and give users a short description of the place and show photos.
I know it might be a bit of a cliché type of project but I feel it is an untouched area for my town anyway. I looked at similar sites but they all are general directories that usually only give the name and address of the venue and a contact number. There is usually no photos on these sites and they are usually on a national scale so navigation is a nightmare. My guide will be brilliant.
Other sites like mine
I know these list pubs and restaurants but they are all a bit sh*t if you ask me.
Each of the sites mentioned above are great if you just want the number of a place but not very good at promoting the venue, something I hope to achieve with my site.