Friday, March 20, 2009

Website Background

I can't beleive how long it's taking me to get this website background right. I started in photoshop. played around with my files size unit I got it reasonable close to what it needs to be. Then I decided I wanted a nice clean vector line with a gradient fill for my background. However I only know how to do this in Illustrator. So i built it in Illustrator. But my canvas size is only right in photoshop and for some reason i can't get it right in Illustrator. SmartObjects to the rescue. I had heard about these mythilogical items however until stubbing upon the now i never understood how they worked. I've finally after what seems like the best part of two days got this thing sorted.


Sunday, March 15, 2009

Web Design:Design Reference

5 Sites for examples.
http://kringas.com/projects/index2.html
http://www.archmedia.com.au/aa/aaissue.php
http://www.folkfestival.asn.au/
http://www.archdaily.com/
http://nga.gov.au/Home/Default.cfm
http://www.archmedia.com.au/

Characteristics.
1. In terms of navigation the wave mouse over link and a list drops down is good. Makes navigation fast and you can scroll through to find the most appropriate option without committing to an option.

As for National Gallery Site.

2.
As soon as you enter the site there are clearly marked links organized in to most commonly wanted options.
3.
The vast expanse of space combined with the reduction of initial links and images draws the eye to that which is there. By not having an entire plethora of information thrown at you initially you can easily select the correct link and move to the specific area you desire. The disadvantage to this type of arrangement is whatever you want to find you are going to have to navigate to a specific area before you can reach your final destination. ( as for the Kringas Architects website image above).
4.
Once a navigation link is selected it opens to a page specific to link. Containing specific images and information. I mean this more in terms of navigation.
5.Left aligned links with the text running up the page. (As for cropped image; left)

6.Background colour is carried through under the text. Allows better continuity throughout pallets. See the National Gallery screengrab above.
7.Considering if the site is a liquid site or not. If the site is liquid to a certain point but then scrolls. Do we scroll to left/right eg 920 ppi. Do we scroll up and down. At this point I think I will have the page as a set size and links will navigate you around as opposed to scrolling down.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ok so flickr is my new best friend. I went there;punched in Folk Festival and got a whole swag of the coolest images EVA, yes thats right EVA. here r a few goodies.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Folk Festival Decicion

Much as my decision for the Blogger blogging service my choice of the Folk Festival website was perhaps not as well justified as I may have liked. "I am a man of passion!!" the point is if I choose a festival which is lame in my eyes then my eyes will find themselves shut when I try to go and make the website. Therefore I have chosen the Folk Festival. end of discussion. all of my alter egos can just shut up cos thats the end of the debate. Just as proof that I've chosen the most intriguing site here is a video which they have embedded in every page of the site as a kind of footer.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Initial Style choices

Ok so I've been doing a little bit of searching online for a few possible design aesthetics for my website. I've found a couple of killers. One in particular belonging to one of my employers.



did u miss it??? that's it. just the vertical nav bar and the images along the bottom. So simple. I love it. (if you think that's cut down to the essentials u should see his architecture!)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Yay I have a blog!!


Well I need a blog. I would like to claim some kind of genius with regard to my selection of Blogger however i really can't. Basically I realise that many people use blogger so the general tools for blogging must be reasonable. Seeing as my website is going to be as minimalist as is reasonable possible the "minima" blog theme template within the blogger site is perfect for my blog. Another good reason is I have just signed up for a Gmail account and blogger is really easy to set up once this is the case.

First blog

This is my first blog eva.