Peter's first foray into Big Kid Webdesign
The last week I've spent running through Dreamweaver bootcamp (Thanks Lynda.com and next week to Totaltraining.com!). I've learned a tremendous amount but still have a lot more to learn. If there's any Dreamweaver or otherwise Web Design experts floating around in my friend's list now's the time to make yourself known! Lord knows, I've got lots of tiny questions that Google and tutorials don't quite answer.
And this time the week after next, I'm tasked with teaching this stuff! I haven't spent much time even thinking about how to incrementally teach web design, so if anyone has any advice in that regard I'm very open to hearing it.
Most of my day today was spent designing two sites for my sister to help me practice what I'm learning. I thought I'd post the proofs of the two sites so far.
A proof for my sister's professional page
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. First up, my sister's Professional site. I wanted to keep a very clean contemporary 'less is more' look. Because I want to one day throw around the word 'image' as a personal construct rather than its primary definition, I also designed her a business card using the same look to give her a cohesive image.
The card again uses the same design philosophy, makes use of the contrasted first and last name, and includes the angled watermarked film strip across it. Personally, I'm pretty happy with this design although I'm wondering a little about the background and how to do mouse overs for the buttons (if I should at all). I've always been keen on the whole light gray to orange mouse overs that have become so ubiquitous on the web, but I fear that may break up the refreshing lack of color the page has.
A proof for my sister's personal page
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. Up second is my sister's personal site. I spent a lot more time working on this since I had nothing to go on unlike the Pro site which I built off an existing design I had done. All I knew about what my sister wanted from the website was a forum for Red Sox fans in New York. Therefor, I decided since my sister expects this to be the most popular part of her page that I should make it prominent.
The navigation bar was the first part I made after a lot of fiddling. I decided the site should have a modern urban look to reflect my sister. That somewhat comes in conflict with the clean look I prefer, but I think the contrast makes the page more interesting. Who knew it was so hard it was to find pretty not overly doctored or fake-looking pictures of the New York skyline?
Literally, after two hours I found a picture that was not only pretty but fit the site very well. I love how this picture seems to bring peace to a chaotic place by placing it away in the distance almost with an outsider's perspective (much like my sister) and with a tree in fall color on the edge. Perfect and brilliant, and beautiful even with all the obvious smog. Originally, I had hoped to have New York progress into Boston but the two totally different skylines just looked too stitched together. I decided for both political reasons and for logic's sake it would be better to have the Red Sox instead of Boston. So I used the iconic Boston Citgo sign (also an icon to Red Sox fans) to progress into a picture of Fenway Park which sits happily above the link to the Red Sox forum.
And this time the week after next, I'm tasked with teaching this stuff! I haven't spent much time even thinking about how to incrementally teach web design, so if anyone has any advice in that regard I'm very open to hearing it.
Most of my day today was spent designing two sites for my sister to help me practice what I'm learning. I thought I'd post the proofs of the two sites so far.
A proof for my sister's professional page
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. First up, my sister's Professional site. I wanted to keep a very clean contemporary 'less is more' look. Because I want to one day throw around the word 'image' as a personal construct rather than its primary definition, I also designed her a business card using the same look to give her a cohesive image.
The card again uses the same design philosophy, makes use of the contrasted first and last name, and includes the angled watermarked film strip across it. Personally, I'm pretty happy with this design although I'm wondering a little about the background and how to do mouse overs for the buttons (if I should at all). I've always been keen on the whole light gray to orange mouse overs that have become so ubiquitous on the web, but I fear that may break up the refreshing lack of color the page has.
A proof for my sister's personal page
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. Up second is my sister's personal site. I spent a lot more time working on this since I had nothing to go on unlike the Pro site which I built off an existing design I had done. All I knew about what my sister wanted from the website was a forum for Red Sox fans in New York. Therefor, I decided since my sister expects this to be the most popular part of her page that I should make it prominent.
The navigation bar was the first part I made after a lot of fiddling. I decided the site should have a modern urban look to reflect my sister. That somewhat comes in conflict with the clean look I prefer, but I think the contrast makes the page more interesting. Who knew it was so hard it was to find pretty not overly doctored or fake-looking pictures of the New York skyline?
Literally, after two hours I found a picture that was not only pretty but fit the site very well. I love how this picture seems to bring peace to a chaotic place by placing it away in the distance almost with an outsider's perspective (much like my sister) and with a tree in fall color on the edge. Perfect and brilliant, and beautiful even with all the obvious smog. Originally, I had hoped to have New York progress into Boston but the two totally different skylines just looked too stitched together. I decided for both political reasons and for logic's sake it would be better to have the Red Sox instead of Boston. So I used the iconic Boston Citgo sign (also an icon to Red Sox fans) to progress into a picture of Fenway Park which sits happily above the link to the Red Sox forum.