Preliminary Critique for Project 1 - Paulson

[MoonflowerGraphics]

Hi, I'm Candace Paulson and these are my two roughs for Preliminary Critique for Project 1.
In the first design, I chose a turquoise/orange complimentary color scheme. I chose a few of my recent photography pieces for the front to interest the viewer and added navigation to the top, under the title. I chose to left justify the site and center justify the navigation buttons for contrast. I chose Trojan Pro and Century Gothic fonts for contrast between serif and sans serif. I wanted the title to pop out over the bodycopy.
In the second design, I chose earth tones and chose some of my recent photography pieces that included organic subjects and naturescapes. I chose to put a photo of myself on the front of this one, just to make the site less boring against the green background. I chose ITC Kabel Std for the font of the entire design. It's light and isn't jarring to the eye.
If I went back and changed anything, I would probably change the entire layout of my website. I don't particularly like these layouts. I like the navigation and title placement, but the layouts themselves could look a lot better. It needs a little organization as well.
The two inspirational websites I chose were http://www.cracked.com and thefactoryreno.com. I chose Cracked because I like their navigation and layouts of each page. I am on this website every day and I find it to be simple to use and full of interesting content. I also chose the factoryreno.com because I think their website is very unique and striking. Their home page is very simple with some Flash programming and the other pages are very organized and easy to read.
I also like http://www.specialcaserecords.com, not only because I helped design it, but also because I think it has extremely simple navigation and it has great legibility and readability.
Thank you.

-Candace Paulson

[Sierragirlnv]

Hi Candace,
I enjoyed your project one rough drafts. I think I am leaning towards the second layout it seems to have more unification. I would take out the black stroke you put around everything it seems a little dark and if you've ever had a class with B. Wells you also know why..haha
The first rough is o.k. but I think that the images used don't harmonize with the idea. Having great photographs is one thing but putting an array of them together is difficult. Maybe try some black and white photos? The color choices you used are bold maybe if you used the same hues but different saturation it would help with the design.
good work.


Sierragirlnv

[paula_b]

Hi Candace!
I like the top of the green rough and the body and images of the turquoise rough. The Sans Serif seems to add to the overall feel of the page. I like the overlay of the images in the second rough. Maybe it's the underline on your name that clashes with the calmness of you color choice and images.

[wendy_boddy]

Hello Candice,
I love the name Moon Flower Graphics. I would love to have a company called Lunatek Productions. I think the image of you taking a photo is a great way to show people you took the images on the rest of the site. I like Layout 1 (the bottom one) how the images are laid out on the bottom. I imagine one sifting through the images they want to buy from you. I think layout 2 (the top one) is very clean layout. On the bottom one I like the bright color for the buttons. Its easier to read than the top one. Both are great. They both make me want to see more of your work.

have a good night,

Wendy

[dboudinot]

Hi Candace,
Good Job on your roughs.

I really like the bottom rough; the color combination is very easy on the eyes, and the layout is simple and clean. Now you just need to add "GRC 175 ...." and the tmcc logo.

[ElizabethBrass]

I like the second rough more than the first because it feels more like a unified design. It feels a little left side dominant to me, I think because your header and your body copy both are on the left and stop at about the same place. maybe try moving your body copy around, or try centering it on the page. I like the color scheme of this one too. Nice Job!

[recordd]

Hi Candace,

Awesome Job on both of your roughs! I really like both of them but I am leaning more towards your project 1_1 because I love the layout and it inviting. The images are placed perfectly balanced to where they kind of look 3D and the navigation bar is the 1st thing that I noticed when I opened it...so with that in mind (seen you weren't sure on the colors) I would leave that color for the navigation and maybe consider working with the background color. Great Job!

[Instructor]

"MoonflowerGraphics" might be the hippiest username I've ever had in this class. Nice one!

I think your second design is far and away the best design. The black, teal gradient, and pale orange nav bar work together flawlessly. I'm usually not a fan of big dark strokes, but it's really working for you here, particularly in the pseudo underline on your nav bar. The image frames aren't half bad either. Reminds me a bit of a stained glass window. The site layout is very easy to navigate and presents it's information well. There's nothing that really clashed with the information or pictures. By and large it stays out of the way. Your typography is also working quite well except for one spot in the navigation. I especially like your title. That's am strong use of type and an underline.

Two changes. One, lose the black stoke around the whole design, it doesn't need it. Two, make all of your navigational text the same size. I recommend sizing everything to the largest word and then working down from there.

Aside from those two things, your layout and design is quite good. Nice work!

[mlauc]

Hi Candace,

Your designs are really very good. The nature inspired color choices are appealing. The 2nd comp is the strongest in my opinion—it's clean and organized and I like how the photos are emphasized more. I think the black stroke is a bit thick and is unnecessary.

[gotsatisfaction247]

Great Job Candace! Those are very good roughs. I like that they are very clean and easy to navigate. I would go with your second option, the colors are working great together. I would change the type in the navigational buttons, maybe use the same as your body copy, there is something to busy when all capital letters have serifs. Also for consistency, I would use the same type size in all of your buttons.
Amy