GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

I choose to stick with a classic look seen in wedding websites and some portfolio websites for my designs. I am a traditional type of person and tend to be a little conservative.
My favorite design is black and aqua because the aqua poppies of the back graound and attracts the attention of the visitors. The black back ground is easy on the eyes for it doesn’t project a lot of light so that only the type does. I find the white type on a black back ground cause less headaches for readers. I choose to have a footer and header that fade from transparent to solid black to show the text fading in and out as one reads which also indicates there is more text to be read. Currently a circle is holding the place of a personal logo I am in the process of designing.
My second design show cases my previous graphic design skills in the form of a header making it very apparent who I am and what I’m about. The body text is smaller than the headlines to establish hierarchy.
In both of my designs I have five links; home, about, portfolio, resources, contact. I used the Lorien Ipsum generator based on the elven language in Lord of the rings by http://danielstern.ca/lorienIpsum/ in order to fill my body text because I love all things fantasy and my website is a reflection of my personality.
I gained inspiration from many sites however the most helpful were https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips ... ss-in-2016 and https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/web-design-tips/ . Both of these sites provided tips for web design while reflecting simple web design in its own design. Their advice was clear and understandable while being cleanly organized so that at a glance I could get the main points before reading the body copy.

I like your layouts and color choices. I feel like the one with your picture on it flows better. The one with the circle is a bit hard to focus on because the white text on top of the bright blue is making my eyes vibrate. But overall good designs.

The ones that flow well together are the ones with the Reno landscape on it. Really enjoy your logo on it as well, the pnly thing that I would consider changing is the type ot is a little hard to read. Otherwise greay job!

Submitted by Charlie Johnson

Hi, I like all 4 of designs, super organized and elegant. The top 2 seem to show off your personality a little bit more though. Whichever ones you decide will be great. The only critiques I have are:

For both web designs the navigation buttons seem to get lost. Make them stand out more to give better text hierarchy . Also I think shortening the width of the body text a bit more will help out with the design.

The only thing I'll say for the mobile designs is the teal ring in the black design is pretty distracting. Either change the opacity or make the text move around it.

I think that both of these concepts are very easy to read and navigate. The first one reminds of a website I'd see for a lawyer or some sort of professional. The second concept is a little more playful but not quite as legible. I personally prefer the second set with black and aqua but I think either could work. The only thing I'd suggest is either moving the circle in the mobile rough or doing something that will make it less noticeable as it seems to disrupt the text.

I like the bottom two, but you are correct that it is a little harder to read. I don't really see the teal ring doing much for the design and detracting from it in the mobile version unless you turn it down to 15% opacity. I'm also not fond of the effect where it fades at the top and bottom of the about me section. I do love the teal of your name on the black with the rest being white.

I think I like the top two better. You are missing navigation on the computer version. The mobile version looks fine. I might suggest switching the picture of you and your logo as to where they are located.

Cool. I like your first one the best.

It's very professional looking and makes great use of contrast. I like the use of a photo header and high contrast footer as framing devices. Good selection on the photos too. Your color choices work really well together. I especially like the dark teal It's just green enough to pick up a bit of the complementary color in your yellow. Generally, you have good margins, especially among your paragraphs and headlines. Your type choices are interesting as well. Your font projects professionalism. Like a law firm or financial planner.

I'm not sold on the small caps bodycopy. It reads really harshly to my eye. It seems jagged and difficult to follow. It also makes your bosyopy a little too similar to your headlines. I'd recommend using regular lower case characters. Your navigation and title are really tight. Try moving your "Jacquline Stille @ Reno Nevada" up 30-40 pixels and then scoot your navigation up 10 pixels or so to give it a little room to breathe. I'd also recommend making your navigation type a few points bigger and bolder.

Nice work!

I think both of your designs are very straightforward and easy to navigate.

I like that your "Design one" has so much contrast. It's visually interesting to read. I really like the elegant font you chose for your name. I also like that the letters in "Graphic Designer" bleed into the white boarder on the mobile version.
If you find that your finished personal logo is too busy to go behind your text, I think you could solve this by popping it up next to your name/headline.

In your "Design two" I really like your strong headline/boarder. I do think your navigation buttons (home, about, etc.) are a bit small. If you made your name smaller and buttons larger or a bolder font, they would be easier to read.

That first design looks like this site. Colors, picture in the top banner, everything. That's just a personal inference though. Stick with the latter one. That one is greatly more favorable. It is a much better exhibit of graphic design that you are trying to advertise. The logo is also quite good. Reminds me of the Netscape logo for some reason.

I think the two top designs are the best. I like your title and the headline. You look like you could be a realtor! If I can give one critique it would be maybe less body copy. Even though I don’t know what you are saying I think I got bored and stopped reading that much. I think it could be said better behind a tab or button. Good job!