look for and document some examples of presentation/documentation
styles that your term project may take as inspiration.
Let's see. I don't like most of what I see. Like this for instance, I hate this:
The main reason why I find the print magazine website so offensive is because of the blankness one encounters when the page first loads. One must scroll down before one can see the menu and graphics. I can't think of any reason why the layout person would have left this gaping grey space for me to look at before i check out their web mag. Yes, as I've heard, white space is important, but all i see is gray space, and it doesn't appear to be contrasting anything but itself. in my design i want to aspire towards everything having a purpose, or at least it should look freakin bomb.
this is bad for another reason:
while this does serve a purpose, i think it does not look bomb. the graphics are kind of wacked out, which i'm sure was the intention of the artist. I just don't really see a theme that he/she was going for so it just looks all - a - jumble. their, i've created a new vernacular in which we can converse. I expect to hear "a-jumble" at least once a discussion period, otherwise i shall be quite dissatisfied.
This is better, and I like it so it will stick in my head, but I can't say that it will influence my project in any way other than indirect:
since this is the from the same mag as the picture below i think what i wrote below also applies.but more importantly, this main page introduces an order that repeats itself in the rest of the website layout. I appreciate the familiarity a simple pattern can evoke. i feel that with the other mags i am overwhelmed by the helter skelter, all over the placed-ness. looky there i made a word.
this also is nice to look at:
I like this because it is visceral, the red lips immediately attract your attention, while remaining ordered in the simple pattern of the photos arranged in a line. the black contrasts nicely with the other colors too. I was wondering, maybe i'll ask you in class justin, but is white space interchangeable with black space? I mean i don't really see a reason why not for computer layouts, but maybe if one made a black poster to hang on a white wall it wouldn't be very clear to look at.
ANYWAY.
But I think my project will probably go in whatever direction that directs me. I don't think putting up a random picture i think looks nice will actually be a good representation of what the end product will look like, so putting up random pictures is what I do. I always do that with everything. Most always I get okay ideas at first, and I know they are only okay, and I'm okay with that, so I go with it, and then afterwards I'm even more okay with ditching the old idea for the better somethings I think of as I go along. I know that everything is going to influence the designs I will ever make. I can choose some of the stimuli floating around in front of me, but most every other thing I experience isn't in my control. I won't guess which of the millions pieces of information are going to affect what I create. I can only imagine that I will make something, that it will be mine and that it will be whatever it is. on another note, I do the project reflects the ideal of usefullness, order and spontaneity. But really, the way we split up our work in groups, i probably won't have too much imput in the design. jason offered that he has lots of experience in design ( at least more so than maria or I) so my work is going to primarily be research and writing. I am not really upset because I am a strong writer and critical thinker (although i tend to ask more questions than answer them, and also i am sometimes too satisfied with simply asking questions. i must overcome this, otherwise i will have a difficult time getting a's in the years to come) but anyway that is my blog and i hope it poked your interest.
