Project 01 Preliminary Critique

[kristenrothbauer]

Hi everyone,

My name is Kristen, I'm super excited to share my two website roughs and get some feedback on my ideas. (I think I favor the first one?) For my first website layout, I chose to use serifed fonts and tried to resemble more of a classic art feeling. I really wanted the layout and navigation to be super clean and intuitive in both designs. I chose to layout my projects and resources in a top navigation bar in both of my designs to avoid overcrowding my website in the earlier stages of designing. I also chose to include cat portraits in both of my designs because they resemble my cat and I think they are funny. For my second design, I chose to use sans serif fonts and a more modern script font to try and contrast my other design.

https://www.nedavius.com/
I absolutely love how this website uses layout for type, graphics, and motion graphics. I think they do it in a way that feels fun and youthful while also feeling very organized and neat, which I feel is a hard balance to find.

https://www.marielamezquita.com/
I really love how this website uses simple typefaces to be able to showcase the photographs and the natural flow it has. The simplicity of the design really highlights the images and I also love how balanced the design is despite some of the images being rather large. The website also has an intuitive flow and I found it to be super easy to navigate.

Kristen Rothbauer

[KAWINTHRAC]

Hi Kristen,
My favorite is the first one. The picture of the cat is really catch my eyes. I like how you chose your graphic and types. I also like your color choice for second design too.

[LMisher]

Hello Kristen!

I love the color schemes for both versions. It reminds me of Fall, for reason! I like both versions; however, the first version really caught my eye. I would just have one suggestion for the mobile versions... Instead of having the buttons (project 2-4), I would replace them with a hamburger menu. This will allow more space on the mobile version of the site. Overall, you did a great job. I look forward to seeing the final version of your project.

[Brooke_Brown]

Hello Kristen! I really like both of your designs and I love your color choices! Your cat is super cute too :p My eyes were immediately drawn to the bottom white and orange colored one with a good profile photo of your cat. I also love the additional design of flowers and i think it all compliments each other very well Great job!

[Instructor]

Awwww, kitty paintings!

I'm all about that second design. Love the colors and contrast.

I think it was the copper header that drew me to the second design first. It contrasts so well with your green footer and white content area. The real theme of this design though is framing. Everything is perfectly framed in this design. Starting with the way your header and footer frame your content area, working all the way down to how your accent art frames your image. Great margins throughout. Everything has room to breathe. Also, the use of proximity to tie things together is very strong. Good typeface choices. The script and sans-serif play well together and contrast off each other nicely. Nice color choices as well. Everything harmonizes and contrast with one an other. The little accent art bits add a fun bit of visual interest. Your navigation is easy to find and hypothetically use as well.

I do slightly prefer the surrealist fisheye kitty painting from the first one. The art on the second is really nice (feels a bit Monet actually), but the shear wackiness of that fisheye kittle looking right at me makes me laugh. Maybe see what that kitty looks like on the second design? I'd also recommend vertically expanding the content area on the mobile version of this design

Excellent work!

[onnimelon]

The font choice for the name looks like a signature so it adds a very nice personal touch to it! I love the (what I think are) vector art graphics to spice it up. I prefer the second one as well. Great color choices

[Giselle]

Hello Kristen!
I love your second design. The colors you use help give your page layout more contrast, and the colors work together perfectly! I also liked the font you used for your name in the second design; it gives more personality and a good hierarchy. One thing I would do differently is make the width of our body copy smaller to help readers follow along better, and it doesn't have to be a lot smaller. I couldn't find anything else to fix because this design is great!

[Sierra_Ross]

Hi, Kristen! These designs are so cute! I love the colors you picked and the cats are super cute too! I also think the colors of the images mesh well with the colors you picked for your designs.

[ngrover19]

Hey Kristen!

LOVE the cat portraits. My only critique would be to maybe do something with the empty space on the second mobile design, other than that you are looking really strong with the layout, typeface and color choices! Love it!

[CedarM]

Hi Kristen,
I really love your first design, I think you have matched the aesthetic of the background to the images you chose perfectly. I also think your use of the white space up top along with the dark accents creates alot of visual interest.

-Cedar