Preliminary Critique

[breezy]

Hey,

Here are my roughs and sample pages. This is the very awful website I'm redoing: https://web.archive.org/web/20170503071 ... utThisSite

In the first layout I used a picture of the art gallery at Yale with the art school crest and Yale's motto. I chose a font as close to the official Yale font that I could find, the page has a lot of information on it so I had some difficulty fitting it in. With the second layout I took a piece of art from their printing department. I used colors from the art to use in my layout and tried to use a more decorative font. Again I had difficulty fitting in so much information. Thoughts?

[breezy]

Also the colors for the banners on the first one are meant to be the same color, thats a mistake!

[erika.murray]

Your first layout inner page is visually strong. I love the use of color for your second layout. It would be really cool if you took that colorful banner from your second layout and used it in place of the blue banners for your first layout. It would contrast nicely with the black and white photos. The crest on the first layout homepage could be smaller. You should match the navigation bar on your first homepage with how you have the left vertical image on your first innerpage, that way there is some white space.

[susielang]

your first layout. That is the one I would go with. Really captures that scholarly look, and also your images are great. The typeface works well. On the second layout, I like your colors. but to me it looks a little busy. maybe for the first layout incorporate some of the colors from the second.

[Instructor]

As much as I like the colors on the second design, I have to go with the first one. The layout is so much cleaner and easier to see/use.

I like the cleanliness of it. The artistic picture of the building is a great establishing shot. The colorful seal provides a great visual attractant to the navigation area. I like the reflection of the seal in the colors on your "Yale School of Art" type. Nice placement of the two of them as well. It creates a good balance. Your navigation bar is easy to see and use on both the homepage and the inner page. Typographically, everything works. Given the cleanliness of your layout, I would think a serif type wouldn't work, but it does. I think it's Yale's brand that carries it. Except for some spots on the homepage navigation, you have really good margins and whitespace, especially on your inner page.

Watch your margins on your navigation. Your type and seal is touching the edges. Give it a little room to breathe. I'd also shrink your navigation text a bit so you don't have any multi-line buttons on your homepage or your inner page. I think you should use a bit of the color from the seal on your inner page as well, both to add some branding unification and to bring a little more color into it.

Nice work!

[selvster5000]

yodels!

I too agree with what Erica has said. The colors of your second layout are rockin, and you might try to use them in your first layout? Or swap out the pictures! The printing design is super cool but the first layout is cleaner and would be easier to use for it's users. Great job gurl!

[JulianEmme]

The second one is definitely cool but the colors are a little overbearing so I would go with the first one. My only suggestion would be to not use the colors of the crest on the type? The colors just don't fit that well together, but I'm not sure just something to play with

[Peelio]

The design with the picture of the building on it is easier to navigate and understand. The navigation text and the Yale motto text are similar in size and color making them blend together. Decreasing the motto and Yale crest size would help to create more space and definition. The about page design is clean and easy to navigate. The contrasting colors and boxes work well.

[Kyler_Rose]

Overview: First off between the Two home Pages I Like the design of the first one, Its nice and clean easy to find where to find the information. As for the body page, I would apply the first home page colors, and Pictures and mix it with the Second template.

[Jose_M]

breezy,
The first one is more professional looking so I think that's the one to go with. One one thing to consider changing is the color for "school of art, yale", it competes too much with shield.


Jose Macias.