Notes on Web Design
For homework this week, students must send me links to live pages. There should be 3 links in total.
Make sure that you submit the entire URL, including the “http://” so that when I receive the email, it will be a live link on which I can click.
Good design takes work, and it takes time. When the effort has not been put into the work, it shows. Even the best designers in the world put effort into their work. It doesn’t get easier, the quality gets better, and the designs become more interesting.
Here are some of the things that I will be considering when grading the Branding and Design assignment for this week.
Use of typography. Good branding starts with good type.
I can easily spend hours pouring through my font library, looking for fonts that have the appropriate qualities and associations for the product/service. The same font can look very different depending on the color, background, elements near it spatially, and if your combining fonts, what font it is paired with will make each look different. I don’t expect students to create their own typeface, but I do expect them to choose the right font, and make the necessary changes so that the brand is unique. Icons are good, but not necessary.
Look and feel. Look and feel best describes best what I’m asking for with this assignment. I’m NOT looking for wireframes. The goal is to create 3 different homepage designs. It’s about color, aesthetics, style, artwork (whether it’s photos you take yourself, illustrations, effects, manipulated (photoshopped) images, etc.) The feelings associated with the style and design you create has to be appropriate for the topic.
Search the web. Look at magazines and books. Get inspired.
The class will give you feedback, but you determine who your audience is.
Enjoy what you are doing. It’s a creative process.
As promised, here is my first blog post of the semester. The purpose of this blogpost is to ensure that all the students have signed up for the Feedburner email updates, and they are receiving them.
So for extra credit, here is an assignment. As you may have already heard, there is a war going on between Apple and Adobe, and HTML 5 is being thrown into the discussion, perhaps as a shield to deflect some of the ire coming from the supporters of each. Apple claims that they are not including Flash in their iPhone and iPad platforms because it is too buggy, and causes them to crash. Adobe claims to be ready, willing, and able to support anything Apple has to offer them. Either way, it seems like HTML 5 is going to be the new web standard.
Here are 3 articles you should read first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_5
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/02/open_access_to_content_and_app.html
After reading these articles, post a comment here, and it will count towards your final class participation grade.
Students are required to sign up for email updates. Be sure to use an email account that you check regularly.
Congratulations to all those students who were shortlisted for last semester’s awards competition.
The students sites that were considered for the Kionic Award for Most Promising New Web Designer Fall 2009 are as follows:
http://www.solomondoley.com/
http://www.jchnyc.com/index.html
http://www.acoolportfolio.com/index.html
http://www.intansdesign.com/index.html
http://www.ericajsoto.com/index.html
http://www.cmcastellanos.com/index.html
http://www.peng-xu.com/
The student sites that were considered for the Kionic Best Web Site Fall 2009 are as follows:
http://www.roadtripusa2009.net/
http://www.behappybella.com/
http://www.antitourismnyc.com/index.html
http://jcfoto.net/index.html
http://www.marthasdancecenter.com/
http://www.lovenaturalbeauty.com/index.php
The Kionic Award for Most Promising New Web Designer Fall 2009 and $200 goes to Solomon Doley.
The Kionic Best Web Site Fall 2009 and $300 goes to Miki M. for RoadTrip2009.net.
Congratulations to you both.