Project 1 Preliminary Critique

[kendall_the_mann]

Hello! For my designs, I wanted to keep them as professional and personal as possible since my intent is to use my final design as my website for the portfolio class as well! My personal branding usually uses a very pale lavender and bold, black strokes with white as an additive color so I tried to stick with that same color palette here.

I wanted to keep this home page design clean from unnecessary images and links so I tried to keep all my general tabs in one straight line and then any tabs for this class like the resources and projects tabs, out in the open for easy access.

For the first design I just used my logo and designs/videography stills I've done to highlight my general work. For the second design I made it a bit more personal with a picture of myself instead of my work. I'd love to hear your opinions on which works better!

For my inspirational websites, I chose these two because I loved the simplistic tabs they used as well as the muted color palettes and how they presented their work as well as their logo placements.

https://www.ximenavengoechea.com/
https://www.orestisgeorgiou.com/

Thanks for reading about and looking at my work! I can't wait to read your advice and critiques : )

[Hamistani]

Hello Kendall,
I really like your designs! I like how you incorporated your past work into your layout, but I like the second layout more because it has more white space than the first layout. On the second layout, I would change the color of GRC 175 from green to black. I really like the fonts you used and your lizard is adorable! Fantastic job!

[Krueckl]

Hi Kendall,

I like the colors you used for both of your designs. I like your first design the best although the picture with you and your pet is also super cute. I would try an change the font color that you have in green that is on the lower left hand side. It is pretty hard to read so maybe changing it to something darker would help. Also, putting a drop shadow behind the TMCC logo would make it easier to see as well. I like the way you centered your personal logo in the middle and framed the "about me" section. Nice job!

[ItsAllisxn]

Hi Kendall!

You have some really cool and creative layouts! The first thing that stuck out to me is your personal logo, I'm a huge fan of that. It's very clean. Personally, I prefer your second layout over the first. You have some really cool stuff you're working with here. I appreciate the personal touch of your previous creative designs. A suggestion that could work really well is possibly making your designs smaller and adding one more maybe because I feel that it takes a lot away from the rest of your page. I would also suggest making the GRC 175 and TMCC logo a different color because it fades away into the background. Besides that though, awesome job! I'm really excited to see how your final website looks

[Kassandra]

Hi Kendall,
These are great layouts! The first layout does give me video production vibes, even how you have the photos at the top for the Web Design and both at the top and bottom for the mobile. It reminded me of film strips, so I don't know if that's what you were going for. Personally, I would go with the first website design, and you can use the second website layout for your About Me section . The only thing I would suggest is to keep the stroke consistent on your logo because it seems thicker in the second mobile design.

[Anayik]

Hi Kendall,

I think I like your second concept best because it isn't as busy. Love the lavender with white and black. I do think a more simple or modern typeface might look really nice with your overall look.

[Instructor]

Hey! Bearded Dragon action! I like your second design better. It's much cleaner and less ... chaotic.

That design is so fun. It's not quite full zany, but it does have just a little zane to it. I especially like the way your picture is bursting through your background like Porky Pig at the end of an old Warner Brothers cartoon. You even put a rip behind it! It makes for a great visual centerpiece. The rest of the layout is super clean and easy for my eye to get through. Your navigation is well placed and easy to see and use. The white, black, and purple are a really nice color combination and work well together. They create great visual interest in your type and really help establish a visual hierarchy. In all a fun, easy to read/use design.

Watch your margin on your starburst/aperture/rip in the fabric of space and time behind your photo. It's a little close to your bodycopy on your computer layout and a little close to your navigation on your mobile layout. Speaking of your navigation, you don't need to underline everything that's clickable. I think it'd look better if the clickable navigation areas were not underlined. Maybe stay away from TMCC's hideous green, too. It vanishes against your nice purple background. Try white instead.

Good work!

[jacklyn_yamine]

Hi Kendall,
I like your second design over the first because some of the layout and type choices are working much better than the first. I really like your logo and its size in the upper left corner, but because that one is so big I would scale down the one that introduces your bio. I would make it a good size so that all three words are on the same line
"Hi, I'm Kendall Mann...". I also think the green that you kept from the TMCC logo should be changed either to white or a lighter shade of your purple, which is also a great color btw. On your first design I do like that idea of having your projects as a banner under the menu items but I would cut a 1/4 of it off to make it thinner and do away with the white box and thick black stroke around your body copy. Last thing, for your header menu items, I don't think they all need to be underlined, maybe only underline the one for when you are on that page?...

[Mal-Festio]

Hello Kendall,

You have some great layouts going on. I think they have a fun personality to them. I think the second design might be your strongest. I really like the starburst shape holding your picture, It feels a bit like a comic book. I think something you should adjust is to make the starburst outline a bit thicker on the computer version. The green on the TMCC logo is making it hard to read, try using the black or white versions of it.

[it's_crysta]

Hi Kendall,
I like the use of a starburst behind your picture in the second one and i think it would be nice to see those kind of shapes in other places in your design just to see how it works. And I know you've been told this a lot, but yeah that green on that purple isn't working. Can't wait to see your final layout! Also, cool lizard guy.