Prliminary Critique Project 1

[kaycee_weddell]

This is my preliminary work as well as sites that inspired me. I have never designed a web layout or anything before so this was a little rough for me at first. I decided to put in some background imagery. I felt like that made them more appealing. I went with very different color schemes. The black and red is a little more modern and I'm leaning more towards this design. My second design is inspired by water color which I love. This design is a lot brighter and a little different from what I normally do. For the actual design I feel like they're a little basic because of my lack of web experience so If you have any ideas on how I can improve that would be great. Let me know what you think!

http://www.creativebloq.com/portfolios/examples-712368

Creative bloq had a page called "45 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you". I liked looking at this page because it offered a lot of diverse yet unique designs. It inspired me a lot while working on my thumbnails. They had a lot of concepts that I had not thought of so this site helped me a lot.

http://webdesignledger.com/22-beautiful ... spire-you/

This site is awesome for giving ideas and providing inspiration. I liked many of the designs it provided. It helped me a lot when I was researching ideas.

[rmiyashiro]

Your first choice has a more modern look. Of the two, I definitely prefer this one though your second design utilizes space nicely and has a nice texture. I'm not sure what you intend to do with the negative space in the upper right corner of design one.

[raoki]

I definitely like the first one better because it has more unity. It's a little minor thing but "spring 2016" text is too close to upper text so you can put more space between all sentences.

[Joe_Morales]

Hey Kaycee,

I like your water color design very much it has a nice color scheme i'd watch your photo placement its getting cut off on the left a bit you can just move that over a bit. As for your second design it has a lot of negative space id play around with that one some more. overall nice job.

[KamiGurl]

Hi Kaycee!!!

Wow! Overall, I love both of your layouts. They both are very different, yet they both came out nice for someone who struggled with the web designs. (I too had a hard time figuring out what to do lol) The black and white one looks very modern and professional, opposed to the other one that is more "Artsy." Out of both though, I personally prefer the first one (your second choice). The color is beautiful and more welcoming to me. The only thing I would recommend is your photo placement. It is cutting off so maybe move it over just a little bit and you'll be good Great Job Jaycee!

[lornrocks]

Hi Kaycee,

Both of your layouts are very well thought out. Honestly which one you pick depends on what general look and feel you want for your site. If you want that really girly, pretty look, go with the first one. If you want something kind of edgy, I would go with the bottom one.

If you go with the second layout, I would maybe reconsider that background behind the main text area. It's kind of harsh in contrast and almost hurts my eyes and definitely distracts from the text. Similarly, I might bring down the opacity on the background of the first layout, since it is a tad overwhelming compared to the text.

The color schemes for both layouts are very nice, I like that you took two very different feels and applied them to your two layouts. It might be a good idea, on the second layout, to move the text at the very bottom to the right corner, to create a kind of diagonal asymmetrical balance to the piece, which will draw the eye from the photo, down to the main text, and over to the bottom text.

I have to agree with the second layout being your first choice, I think it's very chic and sophisticated.

[gr8ful1]

I really like both of your designs. They both have good color schemes and fonts that match the feelings of both. They do both convey very different feelings to me, one seems softer and slightly more approachable, the other a little more refined and professional. So I think it is really just down to what you're trying to convey through the site. The left side of your photo on the first is getting cut off a bit, I think the only thing I can find wrong. And on the second one I might switch the class name, etc, with your email address, as it was laid out in the first, or reduce the font size a bit? It seems to distract from your name since it is a long subtitle.

[Instructor]

A good set of designs, Kaycee. I think each of your designs has strengths and weaknesses and with a bit of tweaking, each has the potential to be really neat. I'll leave it to you which to select since they are both equally good.

Your first design has a strong early sixties mid-century vibe to it and I like that. The colors are working well together to give it a warm sunrise feel. For a website that uses such pastels colors, it works with contrast extremely well. I have no problem making out the type on one section or another. The salt lamp background texture is working nicely as well behind the type. So well, in fact, that I'm not sure you need that text box. The header and footer serve as strong framing devices for the main content area and slowly lead the eye to the middle of the document. The navigation is well placed and easy to use. Structurally the whole thing ties together extremely well.

The big standout problem on the first one is the type. The script type isn't really working. I'd take a look at some mid-century designs and check out the typefaces and fonts they used. I think it'll look really cool once you ditch the script and drop in some mid-century appropriate typography. You can also loose the text box in the middle. I think if you make your text a dark enough color, it should show nicely against your background. Also, push your header text above the navigation up a bit more to give the navigation room to breathe. Push your footer text up and to the left a bit to give it some margin off the bottom.

I love the contrast on the second design. Such a good use of it. The whole design has an awesome blocky industrial esthetic to it that comes through so strongly from every corner. The color scheme serves to enhance the contrast and add splashes of visual interest throughout the entire composition. I also love that background texture. It works so well with the layout and colors and gives an otherwise clean design a distressed feel that adds to it's edge. Like with your first design, the header and footer frame the composition well and draw the eye to your content.

As with your first design, the big issue on this second design is type. Take a look at some industrial design and the type they use there for inspiration. I also think you can get away with ditching the text box on this one too. Maybe lighten that awesome background texture a touch and some black type should show nicely against it. Move your header text above the navigation up a bit more to give the navigation room to breathe. Move your footer text up a bit and over to the right a bit.

Nice work!

[dnorwood]

You have good ideas with both designs.
The 'girly' design would be more interesting with a little more contrast. You can do that by making the light colored type a little lighter and the dark color text a little darker. The text alignment needs a little help, also. I would suggest aligning your name and email text above and with your links and the footer text in the same position at the bottom. I would also move your picture in a little so it is not cut off.
I like the 'modern' design better, but here again your text needs better alignment. The text in the black area is uneven, a left alignment on those lines would really help. The text in the footer area is also in danger of being cut off. Moving it up and in a little would give it room to breathe. The last thing would be the background under the 'About Me' area. It makes my eyes blur. Toning it down by reducing the opacity would probably solve that problem.

Happy Designing!

[dzynecin88]

I really like both of your designs, Kaycee. You have a great eye for color and your choices are working well in both designs. I would have a hard time choosing one over the other. I like the texture you've created in both designs, but the second one (your first choice) piqued my interest a little more. I think you could back down the opacity a little, although you don't want to lose the right edge altogether so may need to do a little scaling. Also - minor editing - you need a capital R for Reno Great job on both designs!