GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

The artwork is excellent in both designs. The symmetry and depth of the second layout really catches my eye. The navigation looks like it is floating around. Making the buttons smaller and putting it closer to your banner could free up some room for the wonderful illustration.

Hi Martin,

Awesome roughs! I'm really like the second one its clean and easy to navigate. It really shows your like for nature. Maybe try to make the "About Me" section typeface a little bigger and in bold.

Heya Martin.

On the first one, I love the layout of the whole thing. It's elegant and simple and all of the colors complement each other. The picture you chose is striking, and I find myself wondering if it's just a random image or an anime style of you. I do think the spacing of your links and words on the left could be a little neater (especially since we have three projects in this class). Also, you do have a lot of unused white space beneath your first name, so maybe stretching out the class information all along that area would make it more even. In that same vein, selecting a TMCC logo that's all one line along the bottom would help keep everything even and contained.

On your second one, I like that it's just fun. It totally looks like an opening shot of some crazy, almost-scary-but-really-entertaining cartoon, quite possibly even a Burton one. It feels like I can look for a long time and still pick out new things. I'm not a big fan of the fonts you chose for your footer information, and I would probably lower your header so it's closer to the project links and opens more of that blue sky up. Probably my biggest concern would be your copy though, if it's going to be confined to that small area where your biggest dream is. If you wind up having a lot of text you need to put in there, it would probably run over something in a not exactly attractive fashion.

Personally, I like the first one better! And wow, how have I not ever been to Burton's website? Fun!

Landsknecht wrote:Very nice Martin,

I like both layouts, but they are showing two different side of you. Site 1 is the "Anime Forever" side while Site 2 is the "mystical photoshopper" side.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if one is better than the other. I really like them both, graphically and color-wise.

Jeremy Winkler

Thank you Jeremy, I'm really glad you like them both. And you're right, both designs represent the two sides of me and I'm not sure which one I want to focus on. I love anime but I my personality goes more with the second one.

Siri wrote:I have to say I really like both ideas you have going on here, Martin. I like the way the colors and layout are coming together in the first one, though I would recommend placing your links closer together because they're spaced pretty far apart right now. As for the second one, the font of your name doesn't seem to match up with the rest of the layout, and I'd say you could try to lower the banner and project buttons since they're pretty high up there right now. Otherwise, this is a really great start!

I totally agree with you, my name on the second one is a little bit out of place. I was tying to look for a very bold typeface and I chose that one, however I'm more thinking about using the font of my central text. thanks for your feedback.

rmosley wrote:Hi Martin, I am really enjoying your first one. It has a really good flow and feel for it. The rays in the image directs back to the left where the buttons are. The type matches really well with your whole design too. I would shrink the TMCC logo just a little bit, the top of the mountain is bleeding into the box above and is noticeable.

Thanks for your feedback. It's really helpful. Thank you!

donnalouwho wrote:wow, great graphics on both. I think they both look amazing! you did awesome work. your love of anime very clearly shows in your work. awesome job!

Thanks Donna, I appreciate your feedback

re8ecca wrote:Hi Martin - The imagery you have going in the second "Dali-esque" design is so compelling that I'd have to say it's my favorite. I think my only criticism is that you tend to have your text and navigation equally spaced all over the page. It doesn't have any unity or structure, and it needs something at this point. I'd try to bring together the nav links into one area, and put your text in another. Let the openess of the background take the focus, and then direct the eye to your content second.

Thanks for your feedback, I also think that it needs something more or some improvements at this point, and you have pointed out some of them. I'm glad you did that.

Hi Martin~

Well it is very obvious you have talent as a graphic artist. The anime theme for the first design is super cool; the images you have drawn could be used in commercial work they are so good. I also like the color choices very much. The only suggestion I have is to make the links uniform: using two different sizes confused me a bit. I wonder if you could use buttons or some other background to set the links apart from the rest of the paragraph copy.

My favorite is design two. The font selection, colors, graphic design elements, and the backgrounds of the project links all remind me of the Road Runner cartoons that I used to watch as a kid (OK, I admit it, I still watch them.) Again, I feel that the only area that might need a little work is making all of the links uniform. I really like the design of the project links on this page, and wonder if you could make the resources and references links the same, and put them all in the same row for a cleaner navigation feel.

Overall, I am very impressed by the strong original graphics and feel your sites really impart a sense that you know what you are doing. Very nice work.

I would have to pick the first layout, both are very well done but I don't get a sense of your personality from the second layout.