GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

I love, LOVE, and appreciate the glorious sense of place your almost full-page photograph is. It is mystery to me how TMCC hasn't done this very thing and kept it that way for the entirety of its existence. Brilliant simplicity, an epic photograph, so tastefully color-messed up (I don't know the term, FILTER?). The composition conveys 'illumination', and this school is where it's available. It LOOKS like a college WANTS to look like, and with such a picturesque setting, the grandeur of the mountains AND magical cloudy sky, even! The location, the architecture, all revealed in their greatest splendor. With that said, it hardly matters about the rest of the design, and yet, you made that happen in such a way that it punches up the meaningful sections yet does not attempt to RIVAL the brilliance of page one---Do we still call this the "splash page"? That what we called it 1,000 years ago when I first did a web design class (and surprised to find I forgot everything except the term, "splash page.") Page two's design augments page one, complements page one, and accepts its secondary position. It's not the splash, it's the swimming part. The mobile version is just as mind-blowing with that photograph.
2nd version: I had a strong initial response of liking the bold shapes and colors, but, then as I looked longer, the harsh neon green, and the way the angles don't jibe with each other (page 2) gave me a little vertigo. This would make great event tickets, this style, real easy to spot in a pile on the dresser--it does have its appeal. Maybe if the terminus of all the radials was visible, or just if the radials were in agreement to one terminus, it would be easier to absorb visually, minus the neon green.

But, the photograph is what will stick in people's minds and rightly so. It's fabulous, inviting, opens the door to prospective students and gives continuing students an overlay for our jaundiced vision of the campus due to currently displayed images of it on the sad, color-bankrupt, but jam-packed website, that no matter what detail page I am looking for, I have to call the indicated office and ask them for a direct link to it. Just like I am in class: "WHERE? WHAT? HOW? No, but, what IS this?" Yeah, I've been listening to myself ask infernal questions in the lectures. Now that I've been reading books on html and css, I hear myself being so blocked to understanding, and think,"How did you manage to get on a computer, Elle? Tie your own shoes?" :- ) I needed a book, and I'm gonna catch up, maybe next year, but I'm getting there. You, Megan, are there, making good designs and using your fabulous photographs. :- )

Suckered... Looking for other fabulous images of the school, I found this. :- ) I thought you used your own photograph! ... but I still give you props for how you placed this one in your design. I still love it.

Hey Megan,
I love how the first concept displays all the program information on a whiteboard, it's very creative and really captures how Graphic Arts is taught in-person while on campus, haha! But the one that draws me in the most is the second one since the almost-neon green color catches my attention straight away; just the way you sliced it diagonally even increases the visual interest within the whole design--amazing work! I am still quite fond of the first concept, so it would be amazing if you combined both to form your final website since they are both really impressive!

hi megan
i think your second concept is my favorite although i do really like both! the layout is just so interesting in the second im drawn to it! i think if i were to do anything differently it would just to make the green a bit less bright. good job!