GRC 175 Learning and Discussion Forum

Hi, Matthew. First off, I'm wondering what the heck you're doing in this class because your websites look so flipping professional. Furthermore, I would like to add that these look like they were designed by some high-end firm. I love your creativity with the images and pointing out where you live, that's inventive. While I personally enjoy black-and-white photography and themes, I must say I prefer the first design. It just has a nicer, warmer feel to it with the wood grain and the layout seems a lot more pleasing to the eye. Hope this helps

Hi Matt,
I really like both your designs. Very masculine feeling and bold.

The first one is more appealing to me because of your brand logo. that looks great. very striking and to the point. I like that you can read everything right away and understand where things are. it communicates very well.

The second one is more complicated and less readable because its more expressive. I think that it has just enough expressiveness to be good but maybe too much to be great. I personally like the more details and less readability but when it comes to web design I am learning it needs to be more simplistic so you reach a broader range of people.

I like them both but the first one is a better communicator in my opinion.

Hope that helps.
Georgia

Matthew,

These are excellent. No matter which one you choose, these roughs are going to be a great starting point. I almost wish you would do both!

Your personal logo for the first design is very clever, and I really like the drop shadow to help anchor it and your name into the wood background. I think the 'Graphic Design' text should be moved down a little, as it creates a tangent to the shadow of your name. I'm not sure why you decided to omit the drop shadow for that text either, but I think it might benefit from matching the logo and text above it. While I enjoy the creative little flair of the handwritten "I live here", it seems to be sort of disconnected from the rest of the design.

The image behind the second design is very well chosen; it's relevant, and it becomes more of an unobtrusive texture so that it doesn't interfere with the paragraph while I'm reading it. I didn't see the navigation links for a while, so I think those need to be separated somehow from the background, perhaps by moving them out of the image box completely.

Both of these layouts definitely exhibit your experience, and I look forward to the final design!

Hey Matt, these are really great roughs, i love the modern style you have brought to them. The black and white images are really powerful here. this is a really hard decision to choose between the two because they both are done so well, but i would have to choose the first one, i like the layout and the use of image and texture together. i also love the "i am here" in the image, thats really clever.