Project 1 Preliminary

[Instructor]

Well, heck. This class just keeps hitting home runs. Alright Heather, you are the THIRD student I have come across this critique period who has submitted two equally good designs. Pick whichever one speaks to you more.

This first design has a night time tropical fell that's so interesting. It uses contrast just about perfectly with the black functioning as a canvas and the white delineating what's important. Good idea, selecting colors from the image to use in your design. It ties the image and the design together and puts them in visual conversation with one another. Cloverleaf Girl looks like she's having a good time. I like how the leaves also look like lights on a dance floor. She's dancing to music only she can hear. But she does add movement to the design. Nicely chosen typography as well. Good use of weights to differentiate info while using the same typeface to do it. The script type at the top provides a nice contrast as well. I like the use of transparency here. It makes a great framing device for your name and contact info.

I thing you need to add just a little top and bottom margin to your navigation on both your mobile and computer designs. Also, center Cloverleaf Girl in the middle on your mobile design. Leaving her on the right there creates a deadzone on the bottom left.

Your second design has kind of a hip urban fashion designer feel. it's very modern and makes no apologies about what it is. The cartoon woman has a very "deal with it" meme vibe. Love it! The whole layout is super clean. I especially like how you use color to delineate sections with the black footer functioning as a final framing device. Your colors themselves are well chosen. The medium gray-blue works well with the otherwise black and white composition. Great use of contrast though the whole thing, both as a way to add visual interest and as a way to guide the eye around to important parts of the content. Your font choices are really top notch too. They fit with the design aesthetic of the whole thing and having your name in a script brush stroke font adds a nice bit of visual contrast.

As with your first design, I think the mobile version of this design would be better served by centering your images. Bring Deal With It Girl and the paper airplane to the center of their rows and that will close op the gaps on their left and right sides, respectively.

Great work!

[Mal-Festio]

Hey Heather,

I really like the designs you are going for in these two concepts. In your first design, I like how you arranged your name in front of the image of leaves with a transparent black backdrop the stretches to both ends. I also really like how you switch the colors for your "About Me" section instead of the traditional black on white. It feels like I am reading through a book or diary for what you did with your second design. I do agree with whoever said about the hierarchy between your name and "about me". "about me" does catch my attention first when reading your text.

[it's_crysta]

Hi Heather,
I really like your first design, I think the green and black look really nice together and I like how you header looks with the transparent strip over it. The only thing I could think to improve is the placement of your email, I feel like it's a little too close to the edge of the box. Maybe making it a bit smaller and pushing it up a little. CAn't wait to see your final version!

[kmohara5190]

Hi Heather,
I love how contrasting your two website designs are, they are both very innovative! I think I prefer your second website because it looks clean, and everything from the font to the graphics really fit together. Maybe some of the white space could be filled by spacing your text lines a little further apart to fill some of the space. Nice work!

[dearangela]

Hey Heather,

I really like your first composition and style, green and black never looked so good! I would say there is a big blank space and it makes me want to see what more is on the website, maybe making the girl bigger and making your "project 1-4, home and resources" bigger and have more space to breathe, and maybe making your leaves longer down the page? Nice job!

[IzzyB]

Hi Heather!

I really like your second design! The things I would change would be to add more designs or backgrounds or vectors. I feel like there is a lot of negative space in both designs. Also the body type and the tab type are the same, maybe make on thicker or overall a different font for variety. I really like the girl with the sunglasses!

[comicsansfanclub]

Hi Heather,
You have some really nice designs! I think that either one would work really well but I'm liking your white design the best! I like how both of your elements are kinda pointing toward your body copy, but I think you could make the text a little bigger to fill up some of that empty space. Nice job!