Preliminary Project 3 - Faith Lorenz

[sktlz1965]

Very Good with picking that out for me Denise, I was kinda feeling something like that myself, I like the angles lines better myself, I just couldn't figure out why the D was not working as well, and honestly looking at it now that is whats happening, Thanks for pointing that out to me!

Faith

[TommieGuy]

My favorite is the first design --black gradient. ELEGANT! SMART! Professional.

[Instructor]

Welp. I think as the voting is proving, you have two very strong designs here, Faith. I personally prefer the second one slightly. I like the photographic backgrounds and the "panes of glass" approach that it uses. The navigation and type contrast is a little weaker than in the first one though. But I think the grayscale/color mix and the photos make up for it.

The first is a little more traditional layout that does quite a good j And the splash of color ob moving the eye around with geometry and contrast. It also has an excellent background gradient that really highlights the content well. And using the word "DESIGN" as your navigation is a pretty fun idea as well.

I think it's a real tossup between them.

If you go with the first:

I would recommend having a unique "bold letter" color and vertical line arrangement for each page so that users can tell where they are at a glance. I'd make sure the rest of the navigation is showing, even if it's not the page you are on. That way, a user can find their way around the site much easier without having to constantly mouse over letters.

Also, experiment with your bodycopy layout and type. I think left aligned type would look strongest in this case, but experiment with justified type as well. I would add a bit of space btween your type and images to mirror the space you have between your content area and your header.

If you go with the second:

The second's biggest issue in my eyes is contrast. I think the odd bit of black type where you want to emphasize bodycopy (say, the navigation and headlines) would do wonders. As it is, I'm loosing the copy and navigation in the images and colors.

Otherwsie I like the layout a little better than the first design. I think it's a little less traditional and a little more eyecatching. I like the full photo backgrounds and grayscale images. They'll really set off and make pop any color images you choose to include.

Excellent work on both! You've got a real tough choice here. I envy you

[JohnLemieux]

I am veering towards the second design simply because it is more graphically appealing, and we are a graphics heavy program after all. I did like the professional sleek look of the first design but it seemed lacking for a graphics program. If you can somehow incorporate the sleek diagonal lines with the first design with the color of imagery of the second design you can get the best of both worlds.

[mike_check]

Both are very strong, I like the concept of having the navigation being the letters of design, more creative than just having regular buttons.