MONDAY 23RD FEBRUARY 2009
Creative Review had an article called 'The Grid on Screen' this month. It mentioned thegridsystem.org which is dedicated to all things graphic-grid related. This months article focused on an online tool that designers can used to design simple grids onscreen and then export to CSS stylesheets and HTML templates. This tool is the work of New York based web developer Rasmus Schultz.
Rasmus Schultz's Grid Designer
Showing posts with label Web Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Design. Show all posts
Online Portfolio Project Evaluation
FRIDAY 23RD JANUARY 2009
This project was a big challenge for me. I was expecting it to be, I knew I would be okay, but I was expecting a challenge, mainly based on my Flash Statistics project last year. There is so much to learn, but once you have put the time in to learn it and understand it, it starts to become easier. I put a lot of work into it, and succeeded in the end. Flash and Dreamweaver are different in terms of the type of project, without stating the obvious. The time spent on the computer is longer and the things you actually have to do take longer too. You can also spend such a long time trying to fix something and it turns out to be a tiny thing - such as my border not working in Safari because Safari only recognises whole numbers (i.e. 1px instead of 0.5px) - this is something that you just have to know, which is why forums are really helpful. By the end of this project I was really up to speed with what I was doing and really started to understand things.
Because I used a non websafe font, I had to make images for all my buttons and text instead of creating the text in Dreamweaver. This worked fine, but, it did mean spending a lot more time creating the images, and their hover states. It also limited me in terms of my gallery - the navigation buttons worked as images, but it had some glitches, so I decided to use websafe font Geneva for those because you couldn't really tell the difference in Dreamweaver, however, once previewed in safari the font didn't look the same as in Dreamweaver. It was the nearest one so I had to make use it.
For my menu buttons I used Existence Unicase in Upper Case size 13.5pt (the unicase upper caps version made the font smaller and more solid in colour). For the brief descriptions and the text on my about me and contact me pages, I used Existence Light 12pt Lower case. I asked a few people what they thought, as I felt that I should use the upper case unicase version. I know that CAPS aren't a good idea in blocks of text, but I felt it was clearer, but the general response was that the lower case worked better, which I could see. Now, in hindsight and after looking at it more, I feel that it doesn't work so well and doesn't look right. I think this is something I will re-visit at a later date and amend, or try something else.
I borrowed the kit from Photography to take some photos of my packaging, bookbinding and greetings cards - I thought they would come out well as there was a lighting kit, but they didn't come out that well really. The lighting kit and white background didn't provide enough light. When I looked at them on the computer, they had a dark tinge to them. If I am honest, the photos I took a couple of weeks ago using natural light worked so much better, but they weren't against a white background so I didn't want to put them on my site. I edited the pictures in Photoshop, but there is still a rose coloured glow to a couple of them. I will re-take these images using natural light against a white background.
Overall I am happy with my website - especially as it is my first attempt at building one! I feel I have learnt so many things and can take what I have learnt and the mistakes I have made and go on to make other websites. I will be much quicker now I know what I am doing and I really feel I have learnt a lot. I think when you don't know a piece of software, you work hard and put a lot into it. There is so much pressure to learn it, and to build the site by the deadline.
The Dreamweaver course we did last year taught us the basics. I revisited the work I did and the notes I made. I also did some tutorials (www.willgoldstone.com) which were really helpful. You can learn Dreamweaver, but the only real way to learn it properly is to build a site and learn from your mistakes and the problems you come up against and have to solve. These are things you can't really be taught and so are very valuable!
This project was a big challenge for me. I was expecting it to be, I knew I would be okay, but I was expecting a challenge, mainly based on my Flash Statistics project last year. There is so much to learn, but once you have put the time in to learn it and understand it, it starts to become easier. I put a lot of work into it, and succeeded in the end. Flash and Dreamweaver are different in terms of the type of project, without stating the obvious. The time spent on the computer is longer and the things you actually have to do take longer too. You can also spend such a long time trying to fix something and it turns out to be a tiny thing - such as my border not working in Safari because Safari only recognises whole numbers (i.e. 1px instead of 0.5px) - this is something that you just have to know, which is why forums are really helpful. By the end of this project I was really up to speed with what I was doing and really started to understand things.
Because I used a non websafe font, I had to make images for all my buttons and text instead of creating the text in Dreamweaver. This worked fine, but, it did mean spending a lot more time creating the images, and their hover states. It also limited me in terms of my gallery - the navigation buttons worked as images, but it had some glitches, so I decided to use websafe font Geneva for those because you couldn't really tell the difference in Dreamweaver, however, once previewed in safari the font didn't look the same as in Dreamweaver. It was the nearest one so I had to make use it.
For my menu buttons I used Existence Unicase in Upper Case size 13.5pt (the unicase upper caps version made the font smaller and more solid in colour). For the brief descriptions and the text on my about me and contact me pages, I used Existence Light 12pt Lower case. I asked a few people what they thought, as I felt that I should use the upper case unicase version. I know that CAPS aren't a good idea in blocks of text, but I felt it was clearer, but the general response was that the lower case worked better, which I could see. Now, in hindsight and after looking at it more, I feel that it doesn't work so well and doesn't look right. I think this is something I will re-visit at a later date and amend, or try something else.
I borrowed the kit from Photography to take some photos of my packaging, bookbinding and greetings cards - I thought they would come out well as there was a lighting kit, but they didn't come out that well really. The lighting kit and white background didn't provide enough light. When I looked at them on the computer, they had a dark tinge to them. If I am honest, the photos I took a couple of weeks ago using natural light worked so much better, but they weren't against a white background so I didn't want to put them on my site. I edited the pictures in Photoshop, but there is still a rose coloured glow to a couple of them. I will re-take these images using natural light against a white background.
Overall I am happy with my website - especially as it is my first attempt at building one! I feel I have learnt so many things and can take what I have learnt and the mistakes I have made and go on to make other websites. I will be much quicker now I know what I am doing and I really feel I have learnt a lot. I think when you don't know a piece of software, you work hard and put a lot into it. There is so much pressure to learn it, and to build the site by the deadline.
The Dreamweaver course we did last year taught us the basics. I revisited the work I did and the notes I made. I also did some tutorials (www.willgoldstone.com) which were really helpful. You can learn Dreamweaver, but the only real way to learn it properly is to build a site and learn from your mistakes and the problems you come up against and have to solve. These are things you can't really be taught and so are very valuable!
How today went...
MONDAY 19TH JANUARY 2009
Well today I had a really good day! I have finally got my site on track - the gallery is working just fine (simple but what I wanted). I spent today loading galleries and their images onto each project page. I have a couple left to do. Apart from that it is just a case of creating the 'project description' images and loading them on, then I am done!
The further my site gets, the more I think I should have gone with my gut instinct and done it with a white background. I love sites with a white background - they look really nice and I feel it suits my work.
I think that once this site is finished, which won't be long now, I am going to re-create the same thing with a white background - it will just be a case of changing the image buttons and re-loading, and then changing the background.
Tomorrow I have a good idea of what I need to do and should be finished by the end of the day and then I can tidy up my sketchbook ready for the deadline. I have been working in it as I go along, there are just a few bits of paper and things that need sticking in.
It is the Course Board meeting tomorrow at 2pm. Me, Luke and Nick are doing it. Luke and I handed out some questionnaires to everyone in our year. We got loads of feedback so we will have lots to discuss at the meeting!
I will update tomorrow!
Well today I had a really good day! I have finally got my site on track - the gallery is working just fine (simple but what I wanted). I spent today loading galleries and their images onto each project page. I have a couple left to do. Apart from that it is just a case of creating the 'project description' images and loading them on, then I am done!
The further my site gets, the more I think I should have gone with my gut instinct and done it with a white background. I love sites with a white background - they look really nice and I feel it suits my work.
I think that once this site is finished, which won't be long now, I am going to re-create the same thing with a white background - it will just be a case of changing the image buttons and re-loading, and then changing the background.
Tomorrow I have a good idea of what I need to do and should be finished by the end of the day and then I can tidy up my sketchbook ready for the deadline. I have been working in it as I go along, there are just a few bits of paper and things that need sticking in.
It is the Course Board meeting tomorrow at 2pm. Me, Luke and Nick are doing it. Luke and I handed out some questionnaires to everyone in our year. We got loads of feedback so we will have lots to discuss at the meeting!
I will update tomorrow!
We Shall See + nice image gallery
SUNDAY 18TH JANUARY 2009
Here is a link to We Shall See. This is a really nice site with a really nice and simple image gallery - just the kind of thing I want on mine!!
Here is a link to We Shall See. This is a really nice site with a really nice and simple image gallery - just the kind of thing I want on mine!!
Web Space
SUNDAY 18TH JANUARY 2009
James Ramsay posted a link on the Vis Com Blog for free/cheap webspace!! I will definatly need this at some point so am blogging it too for reference ... thanks James!!
www.one.com
James Ramsay posted a link on the Vis Com Blog for free/cheap webspace!! I will definatly need this at some point so am blogging it too for reference ... thanks James!!
www.one.com
ISTD update
FRIDAY 16TH JANUARY 2009
I have to be honest and say that ISTD has taken a bit of a back seat whilst I have been working on my website. We have had a dreamweaver course, but it only showed us the real basics, I have spent a lot of time teaching myself things and learning things off other people on my course - because I have found this project a challenge (building the site) I have focused a lot of time on it, especially as its our last project before our Final Major Project. We are being graded on this so I really need to spend a lot of time on it. Its a shame really, it would have been great if we did a website project last year because our marks don't carry over. It has been a struggle for a lot of people. It would have been nice to have done this last year as a practice, like we did with our flash animation, and then been able to do it this year with more knowledge. I was starting to wish I had build my site in Flash because I got quite comfortable using it last year, but it has its downsides for websites so I chose Dreamweaver.
I really need to start working more on ISTD, this will be the first thing on my list once I have handed my website in.
I have to be honest and say that ISTD has taken a bit of a back seat whilst I have been working on my website. We have had a dreamweaver course, but it only showed us the real basics, I have spent a lot of time teaching myself things and learning things off other people on my course - because I have found this project a challenge (building the site) I have focused a lot of time on it, especially as its our last project before our Final Major Project. We are being graded on this so I really need to spend a lot of time on it. Its a shame really, it would have been great if we did a website project last year because our marks don't carry over. It has been a struggle for a lot of people. It would have been nice to have done this last year as a practice, like we did with our flash animation, and then been able to do it this year with more knowledge. I was starting to wish I had build my site in Flash because I got quite comfortable using it last year, but it has its downsides for websites so I chose Dreamweaver.
I really need to start working more on ISTD, this will be the first thing on my list once I have handed my website in.
Final Website Critique
FRIDAY 16TH JANUARY 2009
We had our final crit today for our online portfolios. It went well I think, we literally just had to show on screen where we had got to. There were no changes I needed to make, the gallery isn't working at this point, its what I am focusing on at the moment, it has been causing me quite a few problems today!
I want a really simple gallery, but the ones on the internet all seem to be so complicated or flashy. I don't want to have thumbnails of my work - the main reason being I find them hard to navigate when I use them, the thumbnails are so small they don't really show much of the work. After spending all day today trying to sort my gallery out, I have decided to leave the one I wanted to use and try and build mine using image swap ... fingers crossed it will work!
I really enjoy the building of the site, once I know what I am doing, but when I get stuck it is very stressful - I just hope that I don't forget everything I have learnt, because like with anything I guess, its easy when you know how!!
We had our final crit today for our online portfolios. It went well I think, we literally just had to show on screen where we had got to. There were no changes I needed to make, the gallery isn't working at this point, its what I am focusing on at the moment, it has been causing me quite a few problems today!
I want a really simple gallery, but the ones on the internet all seem to be so complicated or flashy. I don't want to have thumbnails of my work - the main reason being I find them hard to navigate when I use them, the thumbnails are so small they don't really show much of the work. After spending all day today trying to sort my gallery out, I have decided to leave the one I wanted to use and try and build mine using image swap ... fingers crossed it will work!
I really enjoy the building of the site, once I know what I am doing, but when I get stuck it is very stressful - I just hope that I don't forget everything I have learnt, because like with anything I guess, its easy when you know how!!
Useful CSS/HTML code
THURSDAY 15TH JANUARY 2009
George showed me Stu Nicholls' site. It has some useful CSS and HTML code for websites (menu's, galleries etc).
George showed me Stu Nicholls' site. It has some useful CSS and HTML code for websites (menu's, galleries etc).
CSS info and code
TUESDAY 13TH JANUARY 2009
www.w3schools.com/css
This site gives you the code for general things in CSS, such as borders, tables etc etc
www.w3schools.com/css
This site gives you the code for general things in CSS, such as borders, tables etc etc
13 Awesome Javascript Menu's
TUESDAY 13TH JANUARY 2009
James showed me the link to this site which has 13 'awesome javascript menu's' on it.
I am worrying a little bit because I was a sliding menu, but due to the non websafe font I am using, each menu item is going to be an image - I need to research into this to try and find out whether I can replace the text for a menu item with an image!!
13 Awesome Javascript Menu's
This is the expanding and collapsing menu I am going to use.
Looking at the code, I hope to be able to replace the text with images.
James showed me the link to this site which has 13 'awesome javascript menu's' on it.
I am worrying a little bit because I was a sliding menu, but due to the non websafe font I am using, each menu item is going to be an image - I need to research into this to try and find out whether I can replace the text for a menu item with an image!!
13 Awesome Javascript Menu's
This is the expanding and collapsing menu I am going to use.
Looking at the code, I hope to be able to replace the text with images.
Photoshop Tutorials ... saving images to use as buttons on website
TUESDAY 13TH JANUARY 2009
I just queried with Neil how to go about saving text for my links etc on my website, as images to use as buttons on my website. He has confirmed I will need to save them as transparent gifs and this will be fine. He also sent me 2 tutorials that I am going to have a look at now ...
http://www.photoshopforce.com/tutorials/create-transparent-images/index.php
http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/photoshop/transparent/gif.html
I just queried with Neil how to go about saving text for my links etc on my website, as images to use as buttons on my website. He has confirmed I will need to save them as transparent gifs and this will be fine. He also sent me 2 tutorials that I am going to have a look at now ...
http://www.photoshopforce.com/tutorials/create-transparent-images/index.php
http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/photoshop/transparent/gif.html
Hand Made Notebook
THURSDAY 8TH JANUARY 2009
I had a lot of scrap paper lying around that had writing on one side, and nothing on the other. It seemed a shame to throw it away so I have been saving it up to make a notebook out of ... which I have now done. I used scrap bits of graph paper, plain paper, lined paper, tracing paper [i folded the tracing paper and put bits of magazine in between so that you could no longer see through it so it can be written on], old letters and fliers etc.
I folded the paper so that the writing was on the inside, and then bound them in signatures, which I then stitched together and made into a book.
Here are some pictures:
I had a lot of scrap paper lying around that had writing on one side, and nothing on the other. It seemed a shame to throw it away so I have been saving it up to make a notebook out of ... which I have now done. I used scrap bits of graph paper, plain paper, lined paper, tracing paper [i folded the tracing paper and put bits of magazine in between so that you could no longer see through it so it can be written on], old letters and fliers etc.
I folded the paper so that the writing was on the inside, and then bound them in signatures, which I then stitched together and made into a book.
Here are some pictures:
CSS Tutorials
THURSDAY 8TH JANUARY 2009
James McMorrow kindly posted this link on the vis com blog for CSS Tutorials
Thanks James!
I will look at these over the next few days as they seem very useful!
James McMorrow kindly posted this link on the vis com blog for CSS Tutorials
Thanks James!
I will look at these over the next few days as they seem very useful!
Note to self...
THURSDAY 8TH JANUARY 2009
I had an email today from Robert Farrelly thanking me for linking to him on my blog! I spoke to Neil and he explained that with the webspace Rob has he will be able to see where external links are coming from and who is 'blogging' and visiting his site. I want to make sure I have this facility when I am hosting my portfolio site. It is a really good to monitor who is visiting your site and where in the world they are, and, as Robs email has proved, it is a useful way of networking too!
I had an email today from Robert Farrelly thanking me for linking to him on my blog! I spoke to Neil and he explained that with the webspace Rob has he will be able to see where external links are coming from and who is 'blogging' and visiting his site. I want to make sure I have this facility when I am hosting my portfolio site. It is a really good to monitor who is visiting your site and where in the world they are, and, as Robs email has proved, it is a useful way of networking too!
ISTD Competition Briefs
THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2008
I have just learnt how to add the Lightbox Application to my blog - thanks to Dan Hodson :o) hosted by Lewis Bullock - thank you guys :o)
Here are the ISTD guidelines and the briefs that I looked at:
I have decided to go with the 'Three Minutes' brief. I think it has a lot of scope and could be interesting. My aim this week is to get an idea sorted and plenty of research done ready for next week.
I have just learnt how to add the Lightbox Application to my blog - thanks to Dan Hodson :o) hosted by Lewis Bullock - thank you guys :o)
Here are the ISTD guidelines and the briefs that I looked at:
I have decided to go with the 'Three Minutes' brief. I think it has a lot of scope and could be interesting. My aim this week is to get an idea sorted and plenty of research done ready for next week.
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