GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

I choose Yale Arts website https://www.art.yale.edu/ because of a school as prestigious as Yale should have a better website for their Art department. With my designs, I was going clean and simple to navigate because the one they currently have makes my eyes bleed and as far as I know they have no security on it so anyone can go in and change anything that probably why it looks the way it does.

Hey Brandon, great work with both designs! I really do think you could go either way in this one. You can get some cool effects with the gallery one and have the art on all the walls. On rough_01 the "About" is a little hard to read against the background. You can have fun with the top design. The second one looks very nice. I think the navigation bar should be stuck to the top so it doesn't break up the image too much. The title is a little hard to read. The glow does help it pop out but I find it still blending into the background too much.

I love the way you play with the background image with the layout on the first concept! I can't really see much of the text on the second concept, due to how the background image has a lot going on. If you do choose to go with the second concept, make the opacity of the text box strong so the text won't blend in with the background. Overall, awesome work!!

Hi there!
I think your second one is the most creative considering this is for the art department for Yale! I think for your body copy with the transparent box. It is kinda hard to read. Maybe make it more solid? All in all, cool designs!

Hi Brandon,

Very nice work! You chose very fitting background images that work perfectly for the site's purpose and go well with the Yale blue. I agree that your text boxes need a bit more opacity. You may also want to expand the tracking on some of your text to make it little easier to read.
Great job!

The Yale art website is one of the great mysteries. It has to be deliberately that bad. Given Yale's resources, it's really the only explanation. The question is; why?

You're in a pretty enviable position here, Brandon. You have two equally good designs. I'd say it's a pickem. Go with whichever one you like best.

Your "rough_01" design is effectively a super clean "frame" for pictures of Yale's art gallery. Even the inner pages are doing most of their talking through the background images. I like the way you use little splashes of Yale's colors in your header and footer to contain the images. It also adds a little touch of contrast to the photos and anchors them in place. The contrast also works to highlight your navigation so people know how to move around your site. Good use of Yale's Garamond typeface as well. Keeps it on brand and you're aware of where the type is, but it's light enough to not accidentally dominate the photos. Nice placement of the logo on the wall on your homepage, too. I also like how your footer doesn't go all the way across. It's in one corner and a little bit across to the middle and yet it still closes off the bottom. Nicely done.

It needs a bit more margin around the bodycopy. The left, right, and bottom of the container are a little close to the type. Otherwise super nice.

Your "rough_02" design is similar in some ways. It too, is a frame, both on the home page and in the inner pages. This time though, you're using the website to show off some of Yale's art. In this case, paintings of their campus. A strong choice! I especially like the use of the different paintings to distinguish the different pages. A great visual shorthand. This one uses the navigation and the coat of arms as the "frame". The off center, incomplete, footer is here as well and still looking good. Yale's Garamond is here too, doing it's usual modern traditional look. I like the subtle glow behind the page headline too, to pop it off the painting in the background. I'm also impressed how little Yale's colors clash with the paintings'. Another good one.

I'd add a bit more left and right margin between your bodycopy and the edges of it's transparent blue container.

You've got a tough choice ahead of you. Fantastic work!

Howdy Brandon,
I think both sets have excellent background images, I kind of lean more towards the first set because the gallery background shows student work off. I think the painted background does really well giving the feeling you'd expect more from Yale than their current site, the only thing I'd change is the text is hard to read on the image, so maybe a more solid color box behind it.

Hello
I like both designs. The content seems to be easier to read in the first one and shows what the school is about . You could go either way though.
Good job

Hello Brandon,

Nice work! Both redesigns definitely improve from the original.

Between the two I think I prefer your first version with the gallery images a little more. For me, I think the 2nd versions background is a little too busy, and overwhelms me when I read the text. The 1st version feels much easier for me to read and navigate through.
However, I really like what you were going for in both designs. They are both much better than the original, and each have their own unique feel.

Hello! Honestly both are looking so good. I like how you organize the content. The gallery layout looks perfect. Maybe a little hard to read the text on the blue box, but its not that impossible. Nice job.