Project #2 Prelim

[emilyduke:3]

Hi everyone!

Here are my roughs for project #2. My company is called Snowball and sells mushrooms (of all varieties). I thought of the name Snowball because it's unusual, but it's also a synonym/phrase similar to "to mushroom" or to rapidly expand, in this case "to snowball" - which is what mushrooms do! White is also the color of mycelium growth which is what produces the "fruit"- mushrooms. The logo is meant to symbolize the name transitioning into the gills/underside of a mushroom. Let me know which layout you prefer thanks

[NalaniN]

Hi Emily,

Fun-guys -- I love it!

I think both are good layouts, but prefer your first for a few of reasons. Due to the ambiguity of the company name, having images of mushrooms on the home page gives the visitor an instant connection. If I were searching for something, I'd want to be sure I landed on the right website right away. I also like the grid in your inner page. It's tidy yet interesting. I also think a typewriter-looking typeface doesn't feel like the right fit for the subject-matter. And, of course, fun-guys.

Nice work!

Nalani

[lewlewland]

Love the images you found for this site, they are all very intriguing. The layout is also very successful in being simple but effective. Excited to see this one in action!

[Instructor]

Wow! Look at me being a terrible instructor and leaving zero feedback for this cute lil' mushroom site. My apologies. Give me a zero for my critique grade. Nevertheless, I have an opinion and I'm going to leave it.

"Fun-guys"? Lol. You clearly had entirely too much fun putting this together and it shows through in your (quite excellent) designs. I mean the whole thing, from the brand name on down, is basically a giant pun.

Your logo design is great. My favorite bit is the lamellae "under" each of the letters. A great visual texture that ties into the mushroom theme.

I think your "02" design is the better of the two, largely because of it's contrast. I think the dark blue background is a great stage for your photos and text. The photos especially really come alive against it. Great image selection, too. The images really serve to emphasize and illustrate what's going on with your site. I was all set to dislike the way your text kind of fades off at the bottom of your grid squares, but on a second look, it really does kind of work. I'm curious to see it in action on your "real" site. Will the text become more visible as you scroll up on it? The grid itself is a clean layout with good margins. I like that each piece of text is pared with an illustrative photograph. Because it's a grid, it devolves into a mobile style quite nicely. I even like the quasi-splash page thing you've got going on.

I don't especially care for the text at different heights in your text grid boxes. I'd recommend vertically aligning them all to the top. Your inner page navigation gets a little overwhelmed by your content.

Nice work, Emily!