Project 3 Preliminary Roughs

[Austin_Niedfeldt]

Hey everyone!
I'm Austin Niedfeldt! My website that I chose to use for Project 3 is here: https://samhuntofficialstore.merchmadeeasy.com/. This is a merch site for my favorite singer, Sam Hunt. The hope for this project for me is to make it as good as possible while keeping the clean look to it that his brand as well as this existing site stands for. I made the title screen as well as one of the pages, the apparel page, for this critique since there isn't really an "about me" page in a merch site like this. I do plan on making a working side panel that comes out for whichever design I chose to pursue. I definitely need one for my second design either way though. My first design is probably my favorite of the two because I feel like with all the pages, I can keep the semi black and white look to it which I think looks appealing to the eye. The second design I wanted each page to have its own theme and a different color per page. I feel like I could get more of a creative design with that one if I decide to continue with that one. I found designing these pages incredibly fun already! Feel free to give me all sorts of tips and ideas that I should take into account with my design.

Design 1:

Design 2:

[onnimelon]

I agree the black and white in the first design is more appealing. It also has the added benefit of making it not look like a sketchy website that I would never put my card information on. The second one is a lot more fun techncially but I'm not really familiar with Sam Hunt to know if his music more so is fun and playful. I prefer the first design overall. Really like the menu and the use of images of the singer.: just to hit home that this is in fact, Sam Hunt's store.

[ngrover19]

Hi Austin
I like the diversity of color between the pages, and your chosen typefaces compliment each other. Anyone excited to buy some Sam Hunt merch would be stoked. I kinda feel like the buttons on the Apparel page could be smaller. Showcase a little more of the excitement of the image? Though, it is good to have a lot of content, sensibly laid out, which you did great on. Nice!

[Instructor]

I concur with your preference for the first one, Austin. The limited color palette and contrast really work well.

I especially like the large image that hits you right away on the homepage. It really gives you a feel of who Sam Hunt is and what kind of music he makes. Plus, he's wearing some of the merch that's on sale on the store! And yest, the limited color palette really does work. Every color that's there stands out that much more. And because it is basically black and white, you've used contrast very well throughout. Transparency too. I love the visual interest your transparency adds, plus it enables you to see what much more of the background images. And is that a halftone I see in the background of the merch page? Love the detail of it. Your navigation is easy to see and presumably use. Good typography choices, too. They speak to who sam is and help you know where you are.

I'd recommend having your images on the mobile version go edge to edge to divide the website into sections. There's a little bit of a visual clash between the blue image and the sepia toned edges. The merch store inner page looks a little crowded on both computer and mobile versions. I think you could stand to add a little more margin between your item thumbnails.

Nice work!

[Genevieve Dierenga]

Hi, Austin

Your web pages look really good but I have to say I'm drawn more to the first one just because of the color palette you used the second one has a lot of variation in the two different pages from the home page to the apparel page and I feel like it greatly contrasts each other it also looks very easy to navigate with the different pages just across the top.

[jillian_rodgers]

I am really loving the first design! I think it's really interesting that you used an inverted picture for the actual merch store, that's a really innovative idea! Great job

[Giselle]

Hello Austin!
I love how unique both of your designs look! The first design stays true to the original website but adds better elements. The first design has a great layout and is better organized than the original website. Your layout also uses great typefaces and has good contrast. My only suggestion is to use the blue picture in the mobile design in the webpage design. Maybe on the apparel page? Other than that, I can't wait to see how the final website will look!

[LMisher]

Hello Sam!

I like all of your website designs, but the first design was my favorite. I like black and white colors and the clean user-friendly navigation used in this design. You did a great job!

[chloecutter]

Hey Austin, I'm choosing the gray/black version of your layouts due to their simplicity and easy navigation. I think it portrays him as more of a cool guy, and I love your typefaces, they're bold and easy to read, plus the high contrast of the white against the dark background.

[KAWINTHRAC]

Hi Austin, I agree with you that the color in the first design is better for the eye on the second page. I actually like both designs though. But the second design’s second page background image is competing with t-shirt boxes color. If you reduce opacity of the background, it might work as well.