Project statement for Portfolio Site

Background

  This portfolio site design will actually be the second orientation I have tried out. My current portfolio site was a minimalistic, streamlined approached that really served as nothing but a home for a slider that showed off my portfolio images. A secondary page would also show you a thumbnail view of the pieces, but there was nothing to separate the site from say, a simple wordpress template. On this go around I really wanted to drum up the concept as well as appeal to the viewer with a fresh, interesting take on the portfolio site.

            Target Audience

 

I know off of the bat that I will lose a section of the possible design clientele based on my sites design. If you were looking for cartoony, or a very simple approach to design, mine may not be the design that portrays that.  However I do think the site will speak very strongly for the 45 and under crowd and appeal to both designers and “the normal folk” alike.

            Objectives

   The thought going into this is, I want this site to stand out as much as possible in a way that showcases both creativity and an ability to execute on an idea. I want them to leave the site thinking, “that was different” or “that was a cool idea”, anything that will get me to stick in their minds. There is certainly nothing wrong with a clean slick designed site, but in all honesty, that makes up the majority of graphic design sites. I can’t see how this site won’t at least cause a hesitation in the barrage of clicks from the potential client.

            Obstacles

   The biggest obstacle I can see comes with the sites strength, and that’s the themed approach. There will be some that hate it, and wish I went with a much simpler, streamlined approach. Also, there are camps out there that are sick and tired of seeing aged/antiqued design… they probably aren’t going to dig my site. Lastly, I am capable of doing clean design, in fact several pieces in my portfolio were used for a children’s apparel company, and the fear is, the two design themes will compete against one another.

            Key Benefit

  As I mentioned earlier, the key benefit is that the site will standout, I have little doubt about that.

            Tone

  The tone of the site is a blend of both mature design techniques mixed with a fun and imaginative application of the theme.

Rough Draft of Homepage Layout

  After having a little bit to step away from the rough there are a few changes I know I need to make. First, I really don't care for the fight tagline of "The Brawl to Land 'Em all." I didn't really care for it in the first place and just used it as filler until I could think of something better, but now that I actually see it on the site, it is the GLARING change that needs to be made. Also down below the marquee, I need to move the "contact for more info" font over to the left to allow room for social media icons that I forgot to include when I made the rough. 

  I'm also going to explore the idea of taking photos of myself to use in place of the boxer. Not sure if I want the personal route on that one, or if it is a better approach to use the images of two classic boxers...

  Lastly I do have my own personal logo that needs to find a home on the homepage, especially since it will serve as the "go home" button on the secondary pages of the site. Not sure where to put that just yet. I am thinking about subbing out where I currently have "Ryan Fisher Design" with something else and then using my logo above the "presents." Again it will take a bit of finessing but it will be there for the final.

Sketches and site map for portfolio site

"Don't make me think" Chapters 1 & 2 thoughts

   The problem with trying to summarize the first few chapters of a book is that, by the time you are finished with the second chapter, the ball really just got started rolling. That being said there is are a few key notions that Steve really tried to drill home. The first being, that no matter how eloquent you try and be, how many astonishingly brilliant participles your sprinkle throughout your work, people just ain't gonna read it. The truth of it is, like it or not, we are now a population that will quickly skim text. We look for the pieces of info we were after, or whatever key word we may find interesting, and ignore just about everything else. 

  Now I was aware that in general people just skim through sites, after all, I know I do; but what I didn't realize was the REAL reason why we need to make our sites as UI friendly as possible. Somewhere over the last few years I was taught that the reason you want your site as tight as possible is because you user is always just one click away from going to your competition. Steve acknowledges that yes, this is true, however much like a person who waited 10 minutes for a bus, you're willing to wait just a bit more to get the end result. The real reason why we need our UI to be as simple as possible is because every time the user has to pause and give conscience thought how to find whatever he/she may be after, you  may lose a little credibility. The thought makes sense after you here it, after all, if I am looking for a person to design something for my company and it appears like they can't even design a few links for their own site, I'm not as likely to hire that person.

Here's a checklist that should help a designer avoid this:

http://ucommunications.colorado.edu/services/style-guide/web-style

Mood Board Portfolio Site

There are a few things in particular that I know I would like to pull from this mood board into my portfolio site. One is the bold font choices and the play with hierarchy throughout the site. This can easily been seen is the size relations ships with the word "Drink" in the first poster, the year "1964" in the second, "is" in the third and all throughout the final poster along the bottom of the mood board.

I also really enjoy playing with negative space and the "clipping mask" look of design. In fact it is something I tend to play with a great deal in my own work and I feel it should be present in the design of my site. The women's silhouette being used to cut out a section of London is an example of this, however, I'm not entirely sure how I will try and incorporate this type of approach into my final design.

Lastly I really enjoy the color scheme of blue, brown and grey. It's present on my business card and I believe it is a color scheme I will use for my personal branding.

The final thing I may try and incorporate is the slight aging a lot of these pieces have to them, without distressing or distorting the image at all.