thoughts on web banners

This morning I had an interesting conversation with my classmates, Catharine Coll and Emily Mancuso, on the topic of web banners. We had arrived to web media 2 equipped with two examples of web banners we found interesting and/or effective. We concluded that the strategy of digging up somewhat dynamic and non-cheesy banners derived from a few of our most commonly visited sites. There was a struggle; however, to find dynamic, well designed banner that didn’t appear with flashing messages or scrolling texts…yuck. In my own experience the banners mostly consisted of advertisements and sponsors, but the most tasteful and digestible were those that took a simplistic approach.

Two examples of banners I found to be appropriately designed for the given sites they derived from are pictured here. The AIGA banner utilized a clean designerly approach (not that I am in any way shocked of this), and provided a solid banner designed for the specific page. The copy advertised a specific book, upcoming event, etc. and the design varied depending on what page you may be viewing (as seen above). These designs are dynamic, easy on the eyes, and informative. Yes please. Also an interesting approach that I found to be clever is the placement of the AIGA logo in the upper left hand corner of the banner. It attaches the information provided by the banner directly to the organization.

The second banner I found to be attractive simply encompasses a common theme with my likenesses. The Lady GaGa advertisement is dominated by a single photo and simple copy. Generally, these types of advertisements and banners catch my attention due to the use of a bold, dynamic image, and in such, direct my attention to the easy and quick read of the copy. So in conclusion, flashy, scrolly, screaming web banners, stay away from me. I prefer to hang with the simple folks.

Web In The Wild Logo Design

My design for the Web in the Wild logo began as a conceptual nightmare. I began brainstorming for the logo and emerged with concepts from space exploration, mountainous terrain, and the industrial revolution, to simply expansion as a whole. Throughout the processes of research and development I discovered a wide variety of treatments for the logo. My final concept for the Web in the Wild logo was the broader theme of expansion. I began experimenting with an organic form that undulates and appears to be in the process of growth. The logo is intended to evoke a sense of stretching, molding, and inflation to parallel the ever-changing form of the web. The tag line “break the mold” is intended to echo the logo’s pliable appearance and to encourage attendees of the conference to continue to shape the web, as we know it. I had also hoped that the tag line might play well with the feeling of “wild” moldy goodness…or grossness. Overall the logo is intended to be enticing, fun, and recognizable.

Printing Terms Project

The printing terms project was challenging yet enjoyable. I was given the terms duotone and gradient and was instructed to produce a poster, t-shirt, presentation, and handout. During the beginning process of the project I felt constrained to use a photograph do to the subject, however, found myself feeling like I had settled for the easy result. I began to think of how I could appeal to a younger demographic, and more specifically, my classmates, by using other context clues to inform the viewer of my printing terms.

I finalized a concept for my collection during sketching in the UTC lab. Working in an atmosphere of constant music and energy brought the idea of conveying duotone through use of the image of headphones to represent “tone” in conjunction with the typographic “duo”.  I incorporated a gradient into the t-shirt design to simplify the design a bit; however, I intended the poster to be bold in regards to color and effect with the gradient in the text. The entire process of design and school of design is intense and at times loud. In order to convey this while still effectively informing the viewer of the printing terms I chose a bold design that would hopefully appeal to my class mates and other design students alike.

CSS Zen Garden Project

The concept of design for the CSS Zen Garden project came quite quickly to me upon early sketching. I wanted to produce a design that was simple, clean, and straightforward. I to use a simple one column design with no images. I wanted to focus strictly on the content; however, provide interesting yet a clean typographic solution for the title of the page to evoke interest. I chose a white background with black text set in 12pt Helvetica to utilize the highest level of contrast and legibility. The headers were set in a bright pink Helvetica Rounded Bold typeface to give a splash of color and friendly face.

I chose a bold black header to increase the contrast of the page and give a nice canvas for the title CSS ZEN GARDEN that is also set in Helvetica Rounded Bold. I wanted to emphasis the content of the page, so CSS was set in a bright cyan. The sub-header “The beauty of CSS design” was set in a smaller typeface and placed in an area of negative space to further inform the content of the page. Colors for links were set in a cohesive cyan color and Helvetica Rounded Bold to bring uniformity and flow to the page. Bright colors were used for various actions of links. Green was used as a queue while the viewer hovers over the link, magenta while it is active, and orange indicates the link has been visited. Overall I think the website design for CSS Zen Garden utilizes a great deal of contrast, readability, and flow, and hopefully appeals to a designer eye.

Medium & Tubatomic do some schoolin’

Thanks to Jason Fritz of Tubatomic and Stephen Bush and Noah Grady of Medium, for bringing a hands-on experience to web media on Tuesday morning. The collaboration of previous verbal instruction from other professionals in the business and the active participation in coding really gave a nice base for instruction over the past few weeks. The guys made the process of CSS and HTML coding easy and approachable through the use of drop.io/utcbasichtml and some good ole’ fashion use of the white board. The class flew by and really boosted my confidence in the ability to learn and execute coding for websites. I’m totally ready to learn more. Thanks again guys!