Thursday 10 May 2012
Digital Skills Evaluation...
I really
like my portfolio website and think the design and layout work really well. I
love the simplicity of my website as it allows my work to be the main focal
point at all times and shows a wide range of my work. The simplicity of my
website works well with the colour pallet and font that I chose when
researching as I made sure I chose a pretty neutral colour pallet using greys
and whites and blacks keeping everything simple and set in the background to
make sure the hierarchy of information was correct with my work being top of
the list.
I think the
home page of my website works really well because of the simplicity of it and
the way you can immediately see snippets of each piece of work so if you were
to see something that caught your eye you would immediately click on that image
and it takes you to a page all about that piece of work in particular. However
if I had more time to create this webpage I would have considered making the
images more of a mosaic so it looked more attractive but I don think this is
totally necessary as this could have taken the focus away from my actual work.
I really
like the way my pages are set up so that they are all the same as each other
just with different content and text on each page so they all correspond with
each other. If I were to re make these particular pages I would consider adding
some form of navigation so that I was able to move from one of these pages to
one of the other pages of images. For example a smaller image of the mosaic
could be placed at the bottom of the page to allow me to click onto each page
from the page that I was on but once again I don’t think this is a necessary
factor on my website and I don’t think it is something that will determine if
my website works as a whole or not.
I managed
the creation of my website very easily however I think I could have given
myself some more time to work with Gemma to get all of the webpages finalised
at the end of the project and given myself some time to make sure everything
was exactly how I wanted it. I worked to a specific time plan and I think
because I worked to this time plan it has helped me to create a more successful
website. I think I also managed the creation of my website pretty well by using
online tutorials learning myself how to do certain things on Adobe Dreamweaver
like adding Java Script to my work as my tutor wasn’t available to help at this
certain time.
I think the
skills I have learnt throughout my Digital Applications folder, not only on
Adobe Dreamweaver but on how to rapid prototype, how to research effectively,
how to use a 960 grid to its best abilities, and why wire frames are so
important and useful, will be carried on with me throughout the rest of my
graphic design career.
I think I
will continue to work on this portfolio website and constantly update it with
new pieces of work that I create and hopefully will end up creating a blog
section that I can update tutorials that I have made myself to try and get
myself and my work recognised.
Although
this website isn’t as professional and finished to such a high standard like
the work of ‘Chris Spooner’ and his online portfolio I am really proud to say
that I created this website as its my first ever attempt at making a website
and my first ever time I have used Adobe Dreamweaver.
Digital Future of Graphic Design
Over the
past four years that I have studied and worked in Graphic Design I have seen a
vast change in designing for screen and designing for print and personally, I
think the digital future of graphic design is very current and growing rapidly.
I think digital is the future, but print will never be dead. I think one of the
main reasons graphic design is turning digital is the sheer amount of smart
phones that allow anybody at anytime to surf the internet, play on apps and
view digital graphic design at any instance.
Personally
I don’t ever think that the future of graphic design will totally be digital
because I think there will always be room for graphic design in items such as
packaging, posters, shop fronts, business cards etc. However I do believe that
most of the items stated above could be created for screen and shown on the
Internet. For example business cards would be produced on screen for peoples
websites or could also be sent out as e-mailers. I think there are so many more
current ways of showcasing graphic design than standard old school print.
Recently I
have noticed that graphics that are printed have started to become a trend in
the illustration styles of Graphic Design. I think this is a really important
point to state as I think the future for graphic design can never be determined
as one hundred per cent print or one hundred per cent digital as I think the
trends that are set throughout the period of time will be very reflective for
the future of Graphic Design. I don’t believe that by looking at any of the
current trends will give anyone an idea on what the future of Graphic Design is
because I think they change so randomly and at any particular time.
Taking a
quote from a conversation between two graphic designers that I have found on
the Internet: ‘Print isn’t
dead, but it’s certainly not a David and Goliath battle anymore. David threw
the rock and he won, but the rock didn’t kill Goliath. You have to eliminate
paper before you can kill print design, and while the Kindle is a great gadget,
it’s not making Hammermill think about closing down their paper mills.’ The quote was taken from ‘http://www.spoonfeddesign.com/graphic-design-and-the-digital-revolution’
and I believe that it’s a very important fact to state, as I believe that there
will always be room for print. However, screen is currently doing impeccably
well and seems to be the current trend, but believe me, it won’t last. Another
statement that came from the same article was: ‘If you even change your terminology a bit, print lives a little
longer. It’s about sensibilities more than medium. Instead of electronic versus
print, it’s static versus interactive. Nobody stopped taking pictures when
video cameras came into the picture, and movies or TV didn’t go away with the
introduction of the home movie camera. But it did make the creative stop and
look at what they were doing.’ I think this point is also something to
think about as it states that design for screen is starting to happen more
often and becoming more and more common but it doesn’t mean that it is going to
stop print and original methods of graphic design.
I think
another objective to consider about the digital future of graphic design has to
be web design and the constant demand for websites. In the last few years I
believe that web design is one of the most up and coming parts of the design
industry and I think the fact that a lot of people are wanting motion and
interactivity in there designs is reflecting on designs turning from print to
screen as a printed poster or leaflet cannot be interacted with other that it
being picked up and read from. However I think even though there are some ways
of getting around font restrictions there are still some restrictions with certain
fonts and this is a let down on designing for screen so this is one reason why
I think the digital future of graphic design may still be with print rather
than screen,
New
inventions such as Apples iPad, and different tablets, in my opinion are what are
to blame the change and the digital future of graphic design on because of the
ways that designers are going to have to adapt to working and the ways they are
going to have to produce graphics have all changed because the way the graphic
are being seen and the sizes they are being viewed in have changed drastically
over the past few years.
To sum up
what I think the digital future of graphic design is I would state that within
the next twenty years I would expect up to 80 per cent of graphic design would
be being created for screens for items such as smart phones and tablets and I
think designs for print will become increasing more rare as well as more
expensive because there will be a smaller population of printers and designers
that design directly for print.
Overall I
think the digital future of graphic design is developing rapidly. But so is
everything else…
creating a rapid prototype in Photoshop...
Originally
creating my rapid prototype was quite straight forward because I already had my
site map and a wire frame that directed me thoroughly in what I wanted to
create. However once I had created my first rapid prototype I decided that it
didn’t look how I wanted It as it looked a little bit too tacky and didn’t
really match with the work that I have produced and the work that I was going
to put on my website.
I changed
my wireframe but kept my site map the same as I thought it was a good idea to
still keep my website as simple as possible as I didn’t want my website to take
the main focus away from my work. I tried a few different wire frames that I
had produced and came across one that I think works really well.
The wire
frame and rapid prototype that I have chosen to work with is a very basic home
page with my name and three ‘call to action’ buttons that navigate you down the
long page to different parts of my site. I think this wire frame works
particularly well because the simplicity is really good and it allows the
client to see that my work is clean, fresh and modern. When you scroll down the
page the next thing that you see is a slideshow of my work and this will
showcase all of the work that I put onto my site and if you click on the
individual piece it will take you to a different section of the long page that
will then give you information about the work. The information will include a
short sentence about the brief, a sentence about how I felt when creating the
piece of work and a sentence on how I thought the work turned out.
I think my
prototype is really effective and will really help me out when creating my
website.
Kevin Lucius - Review
http://kevinlucius.com/
I think the about
me section on the right hand side of the home page is a very useful part of the
website as it allows the client that’s viewing the portfolio to look directly
at the designer, see what he looks like and see the thing the designer is
interested in outside of his work based life. I think this is very important
for any client to show that the designer has his head screwed on and is sane.
I think Its very
useful to state places that the designer has worked for even if the work he
done there was voluntary it shows there flexibility and that fact that they
have actually worked to specific deadlines etc (also in the right hand column).
I think the way
Lucius has set out his work into different sections really works well however I
would possibly have longs to different parts of the page at the top because at
initial glance it only looks as if the designer is showcasing his personal
work, which is also important but not what the client is specifically looking
for.
I also think it
is very important for the designer to state where they live as this designer
states he lives in Chicago so it would be harder to communicate with someone in
a different country compared to someone two or three doors away.
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