Interactive Media Rationale

I knew nothing about web design before creating this project and I found it really difficult. I had drawn lots of rough designs in a small sketchbook and looked at lots of different online portfolio websites for inspiration. It took me a while to try and get a basic layout done as I struggled with the code. I had to look at lots of different websites for help, I found tutorials and basic code which I could use and then edit. I got help from some people and I managed to create a basic layout which I then used to add my images and text.

I had two favourite designs; one was a circle layout and the other was with stripes and boxes. I really wanted to create a layout which was all in a circle as it’s completely different. For the gallery I would have had the images in a few circles and had either ‘Next or Previous’ buttons or a scrollbar along the bottom to view them. I couldn’t create this though as I couldn’t find any help in doing this and it is something that would probably take a lot of experience to create. My other design I liked was inspired by BBC’s ‘The Culture Show’ titles involving the titles over some of the diagonal stripes. I have always liked this design but I wanted to make it my own so I decided to combine the circle idea and stripes, but I done mine in black and white. I used Photoshop to create the striped circles which I used for the titles of each page. I have kept it simple yet its bold from the black and white, I also think having a white background is best for a gallery as more of your attention is on the images.

I originally created the homepage image with the titles of each page on using Photoshop so I could use hotspots to link them but I decided to make a navigation bar along the top. I really like this bar as when you hover over any of these links the text turns white over a black box, I prefer this to just hotspot links. For the portfolio page I used a piece of my best artwork cut up in each stripe which I really like. At first I put on each page of my portfolio such as ‘Photography’ a cropped piece of my photography underneath the title image but I realised it wasn’t needed and it looked far neater with just the images. I made smaller versions of my artwork under the title images, I made the height of each image the same size which didn’t work out so good with the landscape pieces but I am still happy with my galleries. I managed to make it so when they are clicked on they are viewed larger in a separate window which I am really pleased with.

I made icons under every title image with links to my Blog, Vimeo, YouTube, DeviantArt and Twitter so people can easily find me on these websites and keep updated with my work and what I’m up to. I have made the icons simple and clear like ipod/ipad app icons.

I struggled a lot in trying to create this but I am very pleased with the final outcome, if I had more time I would add more information to the ‘About’ page with ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ buttons to view new circles with text on. I would also create a scrollbar along the bottom of the film and animation page showing one row of videos, so the page wouldn’t be crowded and I could have larger videos.

Galleries

Research for visual essay

I have used photoshop to show my favourite pieces of work from the V&A Museum, Science Museum and The Natural History Museum.

I like the piece top right with the red line over the portrait. The Artist is Dryden Goodwin and the artwork is called 'Caul 08'.  This was in the Science Museum and its a digital photograph with a digital drawing toshow the activity of the brain. This reminded me of Jonathan Hodgson's work drawing over film which is something I am interested in. I could create a film and draw over the top to show different emotions or give people powers.

I like the piece with the text, I would like to create a piece of work that involves words in a film, perhaps a poem.

I would like to create a piece of work about the stars, I was inspired by the about of work in the Science Museum that related to the space. I have always been interested in space and the stars since I was young. I could create a time lapse of the stars moving across the night's sky. 12 hours would show the complete orbit of the earth, I could try taking a photograph every 30 mins of 12 hours. I could used words over the top and a poem. Perhaps I could even show night turn to day and day back to night.

Website

Homepage

I ended up making the links to each page as a bar along the top. I did this so I could hover over any of these links and the text would turn white over a black box, which I really like.

I have added icons for my Blog, Vimeo, YouTube, DeviantArt and Twitter, which are like the app icons on the iphone and ipad.

Portfolio Page

For this page I have used a piece of my artwork and fit it to the stripes. Underneath the image are the links to the different sections of my portfolio which I created in photoshop, I made these as hotspots.

Art Page

Photography Page

Film & Animation Page

Posters & Illustration Page

About Page

I have put some information about my education in the stripes using photoshop. I like this as the text is opposite to each stripe. If I wanted to add any more information about myself I could add a next button to get to a new page with the stripes with new text.

Contact Page

I have used photoshop to add my E-mail address on one of the stripes. I tried making a message box but I struggled in creating a script so the messages would be sent to my e-mail address.