Communication Artifact: Website

Designing the website was a little bit tricky, mostly because I didn't have direct access to Amarie. Because I didn't have direct access to Amarie I didn't get all of the videos that I would have liked to, but the outline of the website is still there.

Another part of designing the website is that one website has to work for all of the different target audiences. It has to be exciting for the children, crisp for the local business owners and pretty for the brides.

We chose the template that we did because it offered a lot of space for pictures, which is great to show us Amarie's work. The template also had clean lines, the same gutters all around as well as some crisp, clean lettering. We chose the colors because they were bright which would attract the younger audience. We also left some of the lettering in the whimsical cursive which we thought was very playful and kiddish.

As I began working on the website I immediately found that there were things I didn't like about the template.
- The screen is cut off on the bottom and right side.
- The pictures are so right in your face that if the pictures don't all look exactly the same (same temperature, same color combo) then they can't be used on the same page.

Another hard part of creating the website was not having all of the resources that I needed. I don't live with Amarie or know her so it was hard to know what she would want the website to look like. It was also hard to get photographs of everything I needed because I couldn't always get them directly myself, but rather had to go through Stacey. This project taught me how working with groups can be in the real world and I'm glad I had a group I could rely on. It was a different experience to not be able to complete everything on my own. I really like working independently, but this project forced me to get out of my comfort zone.

There vertical lines of he website give the website energy, appealing to a younger audience. The horizontal lines found in the menu as well as the logo at the top of the screen offer a more calm and peaceful feeling which is more appealing to an older, more professional generation, like the business owners. The colors offer contrast. The bright colors contrast the white of the background as well as the dark menu, and dark letting and outlines of the logo. I think that the first page offers a little bit of closure as well. While the separate squares hold different information they are all still grouped together and viewed together rather than separately.

I'm glad that I put these two photos up side by side because it taught me the value of continuity. The store page looks blank and like it doesn't belong with this website because it doesn't have the same header with the company name. Before presenting this website I will definitely put the header on the site in order to create more continuity through the whole website. 

The context of our communication objective mainly took place in the psychological context. Our objective was to create sales for the company and that takes impacting people psychologically. 

Site URL: http://landendancer.wix.com/amariesclayations

I would have changed a view things about the site. Mostly the pictures I was able to get. I like the bright whiteness of them, but I don't like the line in them and I wasn't able to cut that out and keep the same form of the site. I also think that it is best to have photos from one person so that way the style can stay consistent through all of the shots. There were difficulties, but overall working with the group was fun and it really forced me out of my comfort zone. 

Collaborative Design: Amarie Clayations

Our group chose to do work for a new forming product. Amarie, daughter of Stacey in our group design clay figurines and is hoping to teach others the skill as well as sell the products that she has made.

Our Design Objective:
Make people aware of the product in order to create sells for the company.

Target Audience:
1. Child: Sally is a nine year old girl who loves being creative with friends and learning new skills. While she enjoys learning new skills from anyone she learns best from kids close to her own age. One way that she uses a lot in an effort to learn is searching on YouTube for new crafts to try.
2. Local Business: John is the owner of a local bakery. As the owner he is always looking for new products to make his business different from the rest. His main audience at the bakery is women and children so, he wants to find a product that they will think is unique and special. He spends a lot of time researching new trends and products related to his industry through online resources.
3. Bride: Cassidy is a currently engaged to the man of her dreams and busily working on creating her dream wedding. She knows that her marriage will last forever and she wants to remember it in as many ways as she possibly can. She has picked out her cake, dress and even knows what her flowers will look like, but she doesn't only want pictures to remember her special day by, she wants something more. She has been researching for days trying to find some way to remember all of the details about her wedding.

Why This Audience?
1. As children discover that a child created Amarie Clayations that will feel inspired to create on their own. It will give them a sense of empowerment that children really can do great things, not just adults.
2. When owning a business you have to have a way of making your business stand out from the rest. It can't always be through charging less for the product than the other guy, sometimes adding a unique product to your business is what you need. A replica of the product you sell made by Amarie Clayation could be that special product as well as a way to remind your customers of the great experience they had at your shop each time they look at the figurine.
3. A wedding day is extremely important to a bride, as well as hectic. Often times the cake is cut, or the flowers are used before the bride ever has a chance to really see the details of them. A bride wants to remember her wedding day and what it looked like, replicas of her dress, cake, flowers and other decor made by Amarie Clayations is the perfect way to do that.

Style Guide:
(put together by Michelle)

Distribution:

A website is not a physical advertisement that can be taken to various places to be displayed so distributing it has to be done through various different means. I think that social media plays a large part in the distribution of website information. Many companies use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter as an easy way to get their brand out there and link people to their website. Website information can also be distributed through other communication artifacts such as on the collateral (brochures, stationary, business cards), on print ads and even on packaging. 

Mis-en-Scene

Our group chose to do the ending scene from Inception. I chose to focus on the makeup department of this film. The makeup department involves the work of a lot of different individuals, but I chose to look into the makeup department head. The makeup department head is, Luisa Abel. 

Luisa Abel's filmography began in 1992 when she was a makeup trainee. Since then she has worked her way up and become the head of the makeup department for various different films; including, Trouble with the Curve, The Dark Knight Rises, Thor, Inception, Spider-Man 3, etc. I have watched each of these films and as I consider her makeup style I can see it come through in each of the films. I find her makeup style to be very realistic. The realness of her style makes it easier to relate to the characters in the film, they aren't silly looking, but rather casual. She uses the makeup to portray the character appropriately as well as to amplify the scene. During the dream of this scene, Leonardo DiCaprio is talking with an elderly man. The grayish, pale skin and circles below his eyes communicate the age of the man. As a makeup director you also have to work with the lighting of the film. In the dream it was a warm light, with dark shadows. It was important that the makeup was more dramatic in this scene. The rosiness of Leonardo DiCaprio's cheeks along with the more rigid contouring of his face add more definition and communicate more intense motives.

Production Design: Josh Wilson
Costume/Wardrobe: Michelle Melling
Director of Photography: Jon Tinsley

Axioms of Web Design

For this assignment I decided to critique myself and look into my own blog (landeniv.wordpress.com) to see what I was doing right and what I could do better at. 

Right off the bat as I read through the axioms of web design I realized that I don't have an obvious placement of why I write the blog that I do. While a deep overview of my blog can be found on the "About Liv{e} Rosie" page, that takes effort from my viewers. I plan on adding a very brief description to my blog right under the title to share my objective with my viewers. 

When it comes to having a strong grid I do think that my grid is easy to use. The top grid shows the pages that I have while the side grid displays individual posts. The coloring of my side grid could be altered to make it a little more readable. 

As I scroll through my page there is a call to action (follow me on Instagram) that is on the right side, but it doesn't always stay in the lower right. It scrolls with the page so it is not always visible. If I were using a different template it could be possible to change that element - this is something I will work on. 

The colors on the right panel draw my eye from the title of the post (black circle) to the list of recent posts. It does move my eye in a diagonal route, but that could just be because I know what I am looking for. I think if I had that call to action in the lower right, or a picture in each post that was off-centered, the eye would travel through more naturally. Something that I am already aware of is that I need to make my blog more visual. It is something that I am working on and I think as my blog becomes more visual it will lead the eye through the page better. 

Using the site is pretty straight forward. Just scroll down, or look to the right for previous posts. It works a lot like the majority of other blog sites so it is fairly easy to navigate. 

On most posts the area of greatest contrast is the title of my blog along with where my future description of the page will be. I think that as I add more images the contrast will be more frequent and fluent throughout my whole page. 

While my blog doesn't have the same cuteness on a mobile device it is easy to navigate, the tabs are large as well as the wording and the posts can easily be read from a mobile device.

Compose Your Frame

The rule of thirds is in action in this photo. If you were to draw the tic-tac-toe grid across this photo you would see that the upper left lines intersect at about the same placement of the man kissing his fiancé's forehead. The vectors of this photo are also quite lovely, the flowery trees catch your eye from the very foreground on the right side (the blurry whitish/green going on in the front) and carry your eyes clear back to the glistening sun off of the lake behind the couple. This photo was also taken on a bit of a perpendicular plane from the flowery trees giving it the diagonal sense rather than the camera being completely parallel with the bushes. 

Balance, Contrast and Harmony

When you first talked about finding something that had balance, contrast and harmony this was the first location that came to mind. Yes, that is the arch that you see driving around town on the license plates of many, many cars. It is also the location of the annual field trip I took during my elementary school years. It is my hometown and while I haven't gone on this hike in multiple years (there are better ones that only the locals know) this view still sticks with me as thought I saw it just yesterday.

This photo does an excellent job of showing the contrast that occurs at this location at practically all times of the time. The reddish/orange rock that stands strong in front of the ever blue skies is quite magnificent. Below the great arch is a bowl shaped valley that gathers a great amount of water after rain - allowing for even more contrast to take place between the roughness of the rock and the smooth glisten of the water. Also, if you were to rotate and look more to your left (I believe that would be South West, but don't quote me on that) you would see the LaSal Mountains behind the arch - also another great contrast. 

This photo also has balance in it. While the arch structure is on the left, the orange coloration is carried through to the right side which causes my eye to move through the whole picture and balances out the arch as well. 

I also feel harmony when I look at this picture. Possible because of the memories I have of this location. Other memories also cause me great dissonance. Is that possible? For something so remarkable and peaceful looking that holds so many calm memories to also be filled with so much dissonance as I remember all of the kids (myself included) roaming around, loudly echoing our voices and scuffing our knees.

At the end of the day, this is home. And while this arch is found on multiple St. George related items, it isn't St. George, nor is it even that close. It's a five hour trip and it's a special place (over-run by tourists a lot of the time), but if you know the right time, a very special place.

Good Design - Bad Design

I am currently doing an internship with a photographer so, I spend a little bit of time researching other photographers. I try to understand their style as well as get inspiration from them. I've found as I have done this that website design is really important. While neither of these websites are completely awful, I find the first one to be a lot more visual. The way the light in the images plays with the whiteness of the background. The lettering all works together and the different colors of the lettering is decided on and kept constant. The second website has a lot of empty space and for being a photography website I felt that the images were quite small and didn't necessarily show off the product being offered. The lettering on the second site was also nearly impossible for me to read and it caused me to lose interest in the site and go find a different photographer to check out. Both of these photographers cater to the people of Oregon and to the same categories of portrait photography, young adult and children. 

I also chose to consider the design of a product that I feel I spend a lot of money on. Both of these products can be purchased at Target and they are both in about the same price range - only a couple dollars and couple ounces difference. For me the Tide immediately catches my attention. It's bright orange, with bright accents. It's slender and looks like it would easily fit in the cupboard in the laundry room. And my mom used it the whole time I lived at home so it is natural looking to me. 

On the other hand the generic looking bottle looks cheap in my opinion. it makes me think that if their bottle is so plain then the product inside must not be full of all of the good stuff like the Tide is. At the same time it uses a different tactic - it pulls in the people who are looking for a good deal, who can only spend a certain amount on laundry soap.