Here is my site.
My site utilizes:
1. Rollovers
2. Swap Image
3. Nested tables
4. CSS
I chose a bold, colorful, yet semi-classy design scheme for my site because it reflects the work of the designer. I'm not happy with the landing page, but didn't have as much time to go back and update it after working on all the other pages. I really like how the background turned out. I wanted to have a stitching/fabric theme. The background is so detailed that the stitching really stands out, and then I also drew some "stitches/seams" into my photoshop files.
As far as technology goes, I think the swap image works for the collections, etc., but it got really old as I ended up using it for 3 photo collection pages. If I had a better grasp of some other options, I would have liked to try something else as well.
Unfortunately, I could only gather material from this past season's collection and show, so the pluralities on the menu ("collections") don't apply just yet. I will probably be going back and adding additional media into the site as it becomes available. When this happens, I will add pop-up menu's onto the tabs such as "collection" so that you can view whichever season you choose.
I definitely learned a lot, and I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics, finally. Navigating photoshop, fireworks, and dreamweaver was SO much easier this time around.
And--dear Amy: I will be updating my missing blog posts before tomorrow.
16 comments:
Great job incorporating the thread and fabric texture theme in everything. Everything works, everything is streamlined. Cool. I would even say if you were gonnna change anything to simplify the colors and textures even more.
Well done!
i really like the theme of fabric which is carried through the whole site. youve really come a long way from the midterm project! great job!
I also dig the background fabric. And the entire design. It's clean, and easy to use, and really interesting. The font/ shadow treatment on the nav is awesome too. Using popups for rollovers on the press logos works amazingly well.
Nice site! It was so visually interesting that it compelled me to read the bio, etc.
Design ideas:
A boarder around the collection photographs might help them pop.
If the text in the bio was text and not an image, crawlers could index it and people could copy and paste it.
A couple of technical glitches:
Your awesome background is > 7MB! That's HUGE for the web. It's also like 2000x2000 pixels, so you could blow it up and put it on the side of a barn and it wouldn't get pixalated. You are pushing an elephant through a mousehole. As a result, the background image loads 2 minutes after the rest of the content. You need to crop and compress that jpg.
Also, your collection photographs are wonderful, but your press photographs look a little grainy. Perhaps they are over compressed?
i really like the needle and thread effect on your header. it gives it a lot more detail and is a great effect. the menu pages buttons have a great effect also.
overall i like the way that the whole site is organized and that you have a theme that stays consistent through out the entire page.
the font you chose was feels like it fits in really well with the overall site.
great job
site looks pretty cool - def like the overall feel of the site and it is cohesive and the content is presented well. The rollovers on the thumbnails would be better if they stayed when you clicked on them - make things a little better to use. And im not sure crazy about the purple border - doesnt even need a border - woudl look nice just white. MAybe make the links a bit smaller to allow for some more content room to play with but otherwise its cool for sure.
Agreed...fabric is a nice tie-in for the theme at hand.
I also agree that the use of swap image works really well with the designs.
Congrats.
Nice job on your site. I really like the textured background. The thumbnail swap images came out really well. Also like the menu and header with the smearing. The only thing I don't love is the border. Maybe you can use a fabric border to complement the background.
Nice work with with keeping with the theme. The organic texture in the background really works. And the border has the stitching theme going on as well but a little overwhelming. It could be a little thinner so that the content in the main stage is given full attention.
The use of thumbnails and swap images to show enlarged images is a great idea for this site.
Wow that is a lot of rollovers. Very nice job with that. I like the background picture too; it works well although it did take quite a while to load, and since it is a repetetive image you probably could tile it somehow.
There are a couple litle bugs that I noticed. When you are on the "shows" page "collections" no longer rolls over, and also on the shows page there are a few links that show up outside of the page against the fabrick and I would guess that this was not intentional.
One other thing is I hate it when contact pages link directly to mail, or outlook, or whatever. I think there should be a contact page that has all the info and then the email address on that page will link to the program.
Great job! You gave the impression you were struggling with this assignment but the results came out really good. Maybe you post a picture of this Levi guy, no? Also I was considering that maybe if you inversed the black and white it would help the eyes focus better on the clothing. Also I think a black background kind of soothes the senses while helping the images to jump out more, and some may argue it makes things seem sleeker,etc. The fabric was a nice touch with the texture. Great job!
Like the whole seem/fabric design.. The shadow/stencil effect on the menu options are cool.. The only issue was initial loading of the site.. I guess the size of the background fabric is large.. Great job!!
I like the overall idea of using stitching and fabric for the backdrop for your site, but I think if your going to choose that route, then you should go for it. Why use the digital threading when you could actually produce the real thing. Generate the real, then go digital. The overall functionality works well though.
i like the font used on the menu bar and the color compsition. The garments are also nice. The background fabric adds much flavor to the site. Good choice. I just wish the header font flowed a bit more with the rest of the site. But the overall composition and rollover image quality is very good.
A warning: I'm going to be harsh with you here because I think you can use this as a learning experience to go further as a designer, web and graphic.
That being said, I think the entire site overshadows and swallows the main intent of the website: the fashion and the clothes. When I got to the collections, the smallish thumbnails of the clothes are dwarfed by the website. The background pattern takes all of my attention, none of my attention is being paid to the clothes.
The typography the header and the navigation is very overwhelming and overdone. As designers, we need to filter our impulses and refine. You would do this as a fashion designer, you need to do this here.
The text in the site should be html. It makes for easy updating.
I would really suggest a more pared down site that will push the clothes to the forefront. The clothes should not have to compete with the website for my attention.
I just emailed you a full critique...let me know if you don't receive it. Thanks!! Amy
Courtney,
Like many of your classmates, I too enjoyed the fabric background. It is WAY too big of a file though. You should create a pattern from it, and not use the whole image. You have a consistent navigation which is good. Graphically, the site is too chunky, there's no elegance. For a fashion designer site, this is perhaps, not a good outcome.
I don't see a developed concept here. You're missing out on so much potential that's offered by the subject of your site. There's movement, elegance, fluidity, patterns, color in fashion design, try to take these ideas and work from there with how you think about your design composition. The curves of the fabric that's disturbed by a breeze, the patterns of textiles are all excellent starting points in how you create the graphical elements. And I think you sort of dipped your feet into it but got scared and ran away. This unwieldy box you slapped on top of the fabric is a lousy excuse for an underdeveloped concept. I am being harsh, only because with so much great content, it’s a shame that the presentation completely takes away from it.
Get inspired by the content that you're presenting, get the viewer inspired by your design to want to explore the fashions you're showcasing!!
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