Ben Heine

http://www.benheine.com/
This is a link to Ben Heine's website.  I love Pencil vs. Camera and Digital Circlism because they are something totally new that have no limit when it comes to creativity. This is one of my favorite Pencil vs. Camera designs.

Jackie_inspiring artist's website

I really found Yulia McCall's website interesting. She created her website all on her own, and she used Flash for most of it. She has so much work in so many different areas, too. She does graphic design, illustration, animation, web design, fine art, and photography.

10 Principles of Effective Web Site Design

This is a good article to read about creating effective designs that will draw users in and keep them interested. At my job we are constantly trying to figure out different ways to interact with students and find out what they are most drawn to or interested in.

tim_wood12/31

I chose this picture for because out of all of the photos  I saw as I was searching the internet this one was something I had never seen or experienced before. Rarely do you see such a natural form of birth in not only the way that the baby is being brought into the world but the emotions shown in the mother and father.  The initial reaction I received from the picture also made me think that when looking at pictures such as this we cringe, or say "ow, she must be in so much pain," or why aren't they in a hospital that can't be good for the baby."  At first I was reluctant but as I looked at the photo more and more I went from "that is not pleasant to look at" to "wow what a beautiful baby" or "wow they just became parents."

Inspiring Interior Designs of the week

I was stumbling and I came across this website of really innovative dorm style rooms designed as space savers. I feel it's important as a designer to be able to think outside the box in this way.

I also found this interior design website whose layout is simple but the site is extremely interactive and fun to explore. The way the images move around and play music when you scroll over them is something I haven't seen before. I would love to try something like this later in the class but knowing the basics of html code now, i'm sure it's a lot more complicated than it looks.

NAMM floor plan is creative.

Potential Essentials

After getting a bit more acclimated in our class and reading classmates blogs, I see our direction a lot clearer than day one. Here are some websites, designs and pages I found for more ideas. There is a lot of text on most of these, but the layouts seem clean and navigational. 

Just Inside the Vandelay Design website above, I found a "create your own website. Up the road I would like to compare this site's step-by-step process to what I learn in class. 

Some day I'm going to go to NAMM. This is where new products & music comes alive. I've been to this site countless times, but now after this class, I see it in a new light. Informative, easy to navigate and has an appeal for all ages.

 

1-page websites

website layout examples

I thought this mini article would be a good example to post because all the websites it showed would be perfect for our index pages. When we get more in depth with the artistic styles of our websites these examples will be important to refer to. The use of simple color, shape and images helps grab the viewers attention and that is something that will be important for us to remember when creating our main pages of our websites.

Amazing digital painting

While looking through deviantart.com, I stumbled across this amazing artist.  She makes these amazingly lifelike digital paintings using a program called Corel Painter Sketchpad.  I honestly thought they were painted over photographs or just plain photographs, but these are so amazing.  I don't know how people can paint like this on a computer.  Amazing.

Vaz_1/30/12

For this post I decided to look up different web page designs since that's what we're working on now in class. This one is a simple home page design with easy navigation just with the tabs coming out of the company's name in the circle.
I found this website and was instantly attracted to it by the color and the line flowing through the web page making your eyes go through the whole page. It's a very simple home page, but so interesting with the use of perspective with the letters of his name being 3-D.
This website design really caught my eye because rarely do you come to a home page looking like this? Dark and mysterious, making your curiosity want to see what happens when you enter the door. I love everything about this web page, so simple, and few color use.

Stephanie Hagin - 5 websites

http://antilimit.com/
This site caught my interest because I liked how the photographs are made viewable.  They are separated into categories and each category of photos are put into one large strip to scroll through.  If you like a photo then you can click on it to see it enlarged, and the background changes with each category so that they match.

http://thedesigninspiration.com/
I thought this site was great because it has ideas for business cards, fonts, photography, home pages for websites and more.  It shows how easy it is for people to get ideas, so anyone can make there own website.

http://www.designswan.com/
Design Swan has examples of different types of digital media such as photographs and animations from flash.  Code is provided so that if you find a animation that you like, you can create it yourself.  There is even a section called Inspiration which has various categories such as interior design or artwork.

http://green-buzz.net/art/pencil-vs-camera-the-exciting-daring-new-art/The art category on this website is really interesting.  I liked the Pencil vs. Camera category the most because it is so unique and you can make anything happen in the paper section of the image.  The creativity is endless.

http://www.csszengarden.com/
This is a great website because it gives so many examples of css.  If I am ever struggling with code and can't figure out what is missing or wrong, I turn to this site and I am sure to find the code I am looking for.

2nd Blog: Add on: Critique on 1st sites

This blog actually covers the assignment guidelines.

Analyze this
 This site delivers a clean, easy to navigate homepage. The demographics is geared towards all ages and I feel this appeals to everyone.

 Y
Here is another site easy to navigate, unlike the National Grid site. The colors pop out and the kids bring it all together. I am disappointed there is no photo gallery. The downtown YMCA has been there for more than 40 years. Time for them to get a camera.

BBB
They get right down to business here. There are many questions and answers consumers come to this site for. When you arrive, it seems like there are just as many questions as answers. This is a good thing when one researches for a legitimate business. The page is too bright for my taste.

Education Station
 This site is great. This is my favorite newly discovered site. I found it by watching hulu.com the other night. The colorful layout fits just right with the message. Bold and in your face statistics, stories, help, and helpful ways to become involved. I like how you can hoover over some of the boxes and it instantly flips to more info, and who doesn't like a multiple choice quiz you don't get graded on?

My alarm clock when I was growing up
I am getting subtle hints, now that it is brought to my attention, that websites geared towards mature informed adults, resemble a newspaper. Considering everyone over 28 has probably spent many mornings reading the newspaper and find it easy on the eyes. Nice layout.

My first blog ever...

Analyze this

1. "Think local. buy local. be local." My friend and Executive Director of this site, Chris Fowler asked me to help choose this leaf logo and font design from one of his designers a couple of years ago.  The quote says it all.

PBS Flick

2. Y!
When I was a little boy, I spent many days here at summer camp and after school. For the past 3 years I lived close to downtown, but never took the time to step foot in the building, though in my mind I had always meant to. One of the hottest summer days last July, I found myself on the same block, attending the unfortunate funeral of my high school friend's father. A relative of his asked me if I wouldn't mind going to her car to put coins in the meter. I was on a blind mission since she wasn't sure where she had parked. After locating the lost ark, I detoured into the YMCA, took the grand tour and wish I had done it years ago, considering I was moving out of the city in a couple of weeks. Seeing the swimming pool brought back memories The one memorable gymnasium was desolate and as dark as I had remembered. You could see the suns rays bouncing off dust particles. This gym was one of the first of its kind. High above the full-court basketball rims, was the the oval track, with the same chipped blue steel pipe railings standing as firm as ever. Anyways, I am always glad to support friends and I am glad took the time to go see my old stomping grounds before my dying day.

3. BBB 
I love this site! If you're not sure if a site or business is safe, check here, you may get your answer.


4. Education Station  Come one, come all! "BoostUp is about giving potential graduates at-risk of dropping out the support they need to stay in school and on-track for graduation. This site is full of great resources and ideas to help you make a difference in the lives of students. Click on the links to the right—or explore the information below—to get started." -Boostup.org

5.  My alarm clock when I was growing up. EVERY MORNING during my adolescence, you could find me with my pillow over my head as each day began. My bedroom was directly above our kitchen and since my parents are forever tuned into FM 88, the ever so memorable NPR greeting bells, ding dong ding dong, with our host Cokie Roberts and would pierce through the walls and ceilings of just my room. This is where I first learned about troubles in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Seria, Lebanon. I listened to the early public discussions of Aids, crack, the popularity of the Rubik's Cube (I think after this, I will google Rubick and Cokie Roberts). I was too young to recall President Jimmy Carter chatter, but if I were hypnotized you could get late 1970's news pertaining to him in office out of my suppressed memory.

Scrutiny in Seria, famine in Ethiopia, IBM, the MIR Space Station, the release of Thriller, the release of Pac Man, Pan Am flight bombed over Lockerbie Scotland, the Berlin Wall falls, the Tiananmen Square massacre Rebels in Romania, Vietnam, Gorillas in the Congo, Guerrillas in Honduras, the Persian Gulf War. the Exxon Valdez oil spill. I involuntarily heard over 2,000 mornings of Reagan, Reagan, Reagan babble, though I did pay attention when they talked about his far fetched Star Wars operation scare tactic. We followed that up by blah blah Bush talk for a couple of years, and as soon as humanly possible after high school graduation in 1991, I went off to my first attempt at college, I happily lived an NPR-free lifestyle. The crazy thing is, now when I wake up I tune into NPR all on my own. So thanks m+d!

Anna 5 interesting websites

This website is all about rethinking design. The designers posting work here are taking crayons and rethinking their use. Some are used as coasters others as tools. I found it awesome because something like a crayon is so often thought of as ordinary art media that these designers are giving it a new light.

I stumbled onto this website and it put me in aw. An architect in Denmark designed a walkway on top of a building in colors of the rainbow and every a couple of feet it changes the world into different colors, colors of the rainbow.

I might have posted this website before but I really enjoy clever packaging design and this website has many examples of clever packaging design for everyday things like tea bags and light bulbs.

This website takes you though the way this table works which I think is fascinating it folds up and becomes small or folds out and is perfect for a nautical themed room.

This website is by Matt Hickman who designed a eco living home office bubble in the yard. The name it "modern garden office" and was created in london by the architect David Ajasa. I thought it was really cool to take something that is considered such an indoor room outside. I am very interested in modern design of furniture and packaging so I thought this was interesting to check out.

TimWood_first post

The first site I found is http://500px.com, which is a site used to create online photographic portfolios.  I enjoyed this site because of its simplicity and easy navigation.  The site makes beautiful high resolution photos only a click away and lets people explore photography that they like along with a lot of other styles.  I also appreciated that I wasn't able to go on to the site and copy and save an image to my desktop which makes it easy for artists to post their work and not worry about it being stolen or misused.

The second site I found was www.fredrikodman.com.  This site shows the work of Frerik Odman, a Scandanavian photographer who's style is both strange yet interesting.  I wanted to put this site up because I thought the transitions from one subject matter to another is clean and easy.  I also enjoyed how the home page of the website, although somewhat cluttered with many objects and images, is eye catching and different from what most artists choose to have as their first impression.  I also enjoyed that in each tab he has the colors and feel of the site are similar but different.

The third site I chose is badcontrol.net. The goal of this site is to promote environmental awareness and is also used as a blog for discussing topics of sustainability with professionals from across the world.  I chose this site because along with their environmental focuses a large part of the site is focused on art work and different ways that art can be changed or modified such as the picture above which is a part of a series of colorized photos.  Among the main focuses of the website I think their simply white and black colors and easy design make the website interesting and easy to navigate.

The fourth site I chose is http://www.72dpi.com because the site is very clean and crisp in it's transitions between one or two large photos and groups of photos based on a rating system and when they are published on the site.  I think that the grading system is good idea but can be slightly intimidating to starting photographers who may have their artwork rated poorly.  However I do like how the top rated section of the site has timeline that lets the viewer look at artwork from present day or present day up to three days ago.  Another feature I found on the site that I've only seen in a couple of other websites is a switch that lets the viewer "turn the lights on or off" which changes the background of the site from black to white or vise versa.

The fifth and final site I chose is http://failblog.org because although the site is cluttered with information, links, and a lot of different tabs it gives the viewer a lot of options.  The tabs, however strange they sound make sense, and it was easy for me to navigate between each tab to find what I wanted to look at.  Also, because the content of the website is supposed to be comedic and entertaining it ups the viewers interest in the site.  In today's society it's hard to find someone that doesn't want to have a good laugh or look at something/ someone be completely stupid and I think this site portrays that idea well.