GRC 275 Learning and Discussion Forum

These are my roughs for project one. I chose Quentin Blake. He is an illustrator, and I love the illustrations he did for Roald Dahl. I used to read Roald Dahl's books when I was younger, and the illustrations made it that much funner! I really like how simple Quentin Blake's drawings are. He mostly uses lines and watercolors for the images and I think they're aesthetically pleasing and have a childlike feel to them. For my designs, I decided to keep them childlike and simple, with some colors from the illustrations.

The first design has Blake's characters scattered throughout the design, and will mostly be white with a dash of color from the images or on the inner pages with the top bar.
In the second design, I put Blake's quotes on the first page with some of his characters and added more color throughout the design.
I'm looking forward to reading your feedback!

Hello, I really like the first mock-up that you did for this project. It has a very light feel to it that goes well with the illustrations. The second one is good but I feel that it is a bit too busy. A note for the home page for the first mock-up is that I would remove the black road at the bottom of the page. It drags the eye down a bit too much, instead, maybe have something at the bottom that says "Contact Us Credits © 2015 - 2021" or something. Also, the first mock-up gallery meshed very well with the white background so I would definitely use that one for your website. Overall great job on your website mock-ups.

Hi Heather,
I honestly really like both of your designs but I think I like the first one the best. I naturally like more of a minimalist look to things and the cartoons really pop out against the white background. I also like the way you added a road for the lizards at the bottom (really cute). The font style you used also works well with the simplistic style. I think that adding some kind of overlay on the navigation when you click on any page (about, gallery, etc) could be a nice addition. It could still be simplistic like just adding a color or a simple little design of some kind. Nice job!

I like your first design because of the cleanliness and structure. I think that is the most powerful and eye catching design.

Hah! What a great subject choice. Quentin Blake is just chock-a block with whimsy.

I like how clean and simple your first design is. Sprinkling in his little characters is a genius move. They add visual interest and texture and help move the eye around. Their little splotches of color bring joy to the design. Your navigation is easy to see and use. I like the lines at the top and bottom demarking it and the fact that you bolded the button of each page we are on. A nice UI touch. The demarcation lines also do a good job of sectioning each page. Good typographic choices too. Your title font looks nice and hand drawn and your serif bodycopy lends a warmth to the design. Great use of margins throughout. That room to breathe will make it super easy to make the design liquid and really cut down on the number of media queries you will need to make it truly responsive.

I don't think the homepage needs the "road" at the bottom. I'd recommend keeping the three ... camel-dogs(?) at the bottom and maybe have a duplicate version of the horizontal lines that demark your navigation to act as a closer at the bottom. I'm not sure your inner page needs the yellow bar at the bottom, I think making it white like your home page and leaving the clowns like you have them, white a black top bar framing your nav like your home page has it, would look better.

Nice work!

Both of your designs have a very playful and childlike vibe that really compliments your chosen artist. I prefer the one with the white background because it shows the art as it is without the illusion of a border which in my opinion takes away from the artwork. I like how the white background creates the illusion the artwork is drawn right on the screen. I think the yellow header would work well on the homepage as well as what is seen on the gallery pages. I like your choices for fonts however the script font would work better being used primarily for headers and title for it is a little difficult to read for body copy. all in all, either layout will work nicely.