SMC Blog

The Grid

In the original website there is not much of a grid. It looks as though there was no design on the front page. Just a lot of info centered and scattered. Because this is a party production company I believe it should have more off balance proportions. I divided my front page into thirds but not in an obvious way.

Color Palette

The company colors are clearly defined in the website so I stuck with it. I personally liked the color combination and found it pleasing  so I just played with the colors  a little more to draw the eye straight to the navigation. I also used the colors in a way so that the entire website has more pop.

Navigation

Very poorly done in the original website. There are a lot of links that aren’t organized. In order to find my way around I have to read everything. In my homepage I made the most dominating part of the page the navigation. On the original website they let the description about the company out and I do believe it is intentional. They want to be a little more hidden so it forces you to click around to figure out what they are about. I don’t think my navigation is unclear in anyway.

Design Principles

I used scale and color contrast to draw you in to the navigation. I kept a lot of consistent themes such as the dots, logo, and restricted color palette so although you are looking at a different event page it still have clear references back to MFG. For the logo I used isolation to draw more attention to it.

Typography

The fonts I chose for the website are the ones that I thought were closely related to the logo font so it is consistent.

The original website lacked design all together. MFG is targeted towards young people who are 18+. They are a very hip and relevant production/ graphic design team and their website should reflect that better. Because they have such a young market they have more freedom to play around with color and animation. The website’s pdf links such as media kit and portfolio are very professionally done which represents the company a lot better. 

The About tab is grey because we are on that page

The Services tab is underlined because it is being hovered over

and the Work tab is a tab that has a drop down menu when scrolled over

• What is “Grid Theory” and why is it important to web design?

Grid theory is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is an organized way to display your website information so it is easy to navigate as well as being visually pleasing. It keeps the page interesting and more dynamic.

• In addition to “balance,” what are the other design principles important also to Web design?

Emphasis- making important parts of the website pop such as logo, navigation or using pops of color to entice people to click the link to buy.

Unity- its a great way to break up content within the same page. Can be done with changing the background color, font, or re arranging the group of text.

• What are the “Bread and Butter Layouts” in web design?

Left column navigation, right column navigation and 3 column navigation

http://www.bncpr.com/home/index.html

This is a PR company’s website. I just think its really young and cool”. Its very clean and easy to navigate. One thing I know about PR is that you never want to fully disclose every project or the clients you have worked with and it just does that. It shows me who they have worked with but not what they have done which would make me contact them if i were searching for a pr company. Very effective and I think it does a good job targeting the younger but professional crowd.

http://www.gucci.com/us/home

Gucci has a great website that really reflects the brand. The website feels luxurious and with the colors and flash it pulls me in. I like the way products are displayed in the shop. Easy to look at and the scroll section isn’t too bouncy like many online shops. It does a good job of keeping me interested by not making the navigation complicated. Gucci’s target is people with money so the website is conservative and has an expensive feel. The branding is consistent because the stores have the same feel with the gold and green.

http://www.manrepeller.com/

Id like to be able to make websites like this for people. Its a fashion blog about the more unique clothes the fashion industry comes out with. The website is very clean and mature and modern.It probably has to be or else the clothes would clash with the design of the website. I can definitely see its appeal to people in their 20’s. Its easy to navigate but I do think it is a little lack luster. The content of the blog is quite humorous and a lot different then any other fashion blog and it is also and award winning blog and I wish I could feel more of that from first glance. But this is still once of my favorite websites.