Project 3 Prelim

[mck775]

Design 1 is me redesigning Yale School of Art, https://www.art.yale.edu/. Design 2 is me redesigning https://shawna-x.com/. It's obvious why both of these websites needed a redesign, both of them have things in common about being... well bad. Overly complicated home pages that overstimulate you right out of the gate with Yale's website. Basic fonts, extremely unconcise nav, blank space, cluttered, and random colors. Now of course these are edited by students intentionally, but I thought I could do it better and make it look professional. Some of my same complaints go for this shawnax website as well... There is some amazing art on this website however the website itself is horrible. There is barely a nav, the name of this company is rather small, and a single gradient as its background??? However it is responsive and it works, it's basic and its usability with nav and emphasis of the brand is lacking. So, I redesigned them, along with inner pages.

[Cole_Richards]

Hi McKenzie, these look amazing! I would continue with redesigning shawna-x, I really like the direction you're going with it, the layout is clean and professional and the use of that photo in the background is really well done, I would make the years a bit smaller and add those to the top with the other navigation, or you could bring all of the navigation to the left and have drop-down menus. Otherwise really well done!

[kpargs]

Hi Mackenzie,
Design two all the way

[Fatkid53]

I love what you did with the shawna X site. The colors really run with her artwork and increase the visual interest in the work. The only thing I am not totally sold on is the lipstick pink text if it's writing is any more condensed on then on the desktop viewport, it works at it curent size but it may not on a smaller scale for the mobile version. Otherwise it's honestly one of my favorite prelims and such an awesome job.

[lilykmitch]

Hi there
I love the first design so much. That style and theme is so great and exactly what i like myself. The colors and imagery go so well together. I like the graphics you added are super good too i really love this !! great job

[Samantha_Thomas]

Hiya
It took me a second to realize which things on the first design drew together and which ones were on the inner and outer page because of the way you inserted them in to be critiqued. But I think the first design is so charming and fabulous that you should go with that one and run with it.
Of course, you could also go with the second one if you choose to, but the first is the most fabulous looking in the end to me.

[zandrews]

Hi McKenzie!

Wow - I love how you chose two different sites to make a mockup for - adds a lot of variety between these two sets of mockups and very distinct, different feels to each of them (and I totally see your point of why you pick them - yikes! lol). To be completely honest, although I love both sets as I think you did an EXCELLENT job on each of them per the website and subject matter, I am more drawn to the Shawna X website because of the colors, artsy vibe - its just instantly way more fun to look at and being an artsy person, its obvious why I would be more drawn to that. Thats not to say you shouldn't go with your Yale one - that is excellent as wel and your colors, image and font selection as well as layout for that is is exactly what that site should be. Its just tough to give you a fair recommendation between the two because it's almost like comparing a library website to a music festival website - one is fun, eye catching and just pops off the screen where as the other while well done, the content itself isnt nearly as fun or interesting so it makes it hard to choose fairly between the two.

Honestly I would go with the Shawna per what I said BUT it really comes down to which one you would rather work on because if I was seeing each of these on their own, you not only did a great job but made huge improvement for each of their sites. In short - go with the one you like best . If you go the Shawna route however (wink wink haha) I would onyl advise you make the body copy on the content page more readable. Although I can read it, the pink it so vibrant against the black that it makes the text harder to discern (although I totally see why you picked that pink color per the overall aesthetic for the site. Just soften the tone a bit and maybe make the backdrop behind the text a charcoal color and I think ti will solve the readability issue.

Fantastic work on both of these and I'll be eager to see which one you go forward with! Again, you cannot go wrong with either

[squidgola33]

so I really like your design 1 roughs, however the second design you've done seems more personal and creative. the colors flow together nicely and give a nice tome to your page, professional, but creative. I think you can incorporate the same style as in design 2 but bring that creativity to the structure of your first design.

[Instructor]

Hm, two different websites rather than two different designs. I don't think I've seen that before. McKenzie. You only needed to do two designs of one website to hit the project requirements. But I do appreciate the extra work.

That being said, I really like that Shawna-X website. I'm a sucker for websites that use contrast and big pictures and this website has 'em in spades. Very colorful too. I especially like the home page. What a great establishing shot! Set's the tone for the whole website. Really gives a feel for what the whole thing is going to be about. That surrealist piece on the inner page is another strong choice. fascinating how you colored the homepage based on the colors of the art. It would be interesting to see if you could do that for other inner pages one you tied them into the home page. And what an interesting font used for the navigation. It almost makes a gradient and it provides a neat contrast to your sans-serif title type. And yet, it's pretty easy to see and use based on it's placement and it's own legibility. Visually interesting all the way around.

My big critique of it is that there is a complete and utter disconnect between the home page and the inner page. There has to be some common elements between a home page and an inner page otherwise it's tremendously visually jarring. Usually websites use typography and color to join their home and inner pages even if their layouts are quite different. Also, the innner page bodycopy is difficult to read. Visually interesting looking, but difficult to read. I'd maybe swap it with a sans-serif, like a lighter version of your title type.

Good work.

[Elle Barre]

Looked at this the night you posted, and spent some TIME exploring all these sites. Got stuck looking at Shawna's work... so beautiful. But I'm going to focus on your Yale SOA page, labeled design 1 desktop inner page. I love that as the front page of SOA. It's really appealing. All your fonts and font SIZES are SO wonderfully readable. The "home page', to me is just too pale and you'd never guess it was for an ART school, or, one of the caliber of Yale. It looks kind of "Dept of Motor Vehicles," tbh.

The Takahashi page you did is very attractive (body copy has a bit narrow of a margin from the left edge). And that's a lot of copy to read in these particular colors. Kinda stressy to read that much in flourescent looking hot pink against black... Maybe in a open, breezy sans-serif, with plenty of leading room. For me.

That Shawna page you did... really nice. You just got out of the way of her art and put the info well off the photo. Nice, real clear. :- )