Personal Favorites

I am so excited about this post, because . . . it's all about me!  My favorite aspects of websites, my favorite designs, even my favorite colors - all are important features of any website of mine.

I checked out wix.com and felt like I was planning a party!  So of course, what is the first step to planning a party?  The guest list!

There are tons of important decisions to make when it comes to designing a website.  Who is my audience?  Who am I catering it to?  Why?  And most importantly, what decisions do I need to make in order to cater to my intended audience?

In my case, my intended audience is targeted to interest graduate school committees, future or potential employers, and internship opportunities.  So, my website needs to be polished and professional, to attract such an established audience.

The next step is to figure out the party (read: website) objective.  Simply put, my objective is to impress each of the above audiences.

So what's the strategy?  What is my party's entertainment going to be?  How can I establish and successfully complete my objective?

There are a lot of contributing elements to interesting these audiences.  First, I think a strong resume is essential.  It builds the argument for my experience (another very important element.)  I also think it would be really helpful to have my work, writing, etc. easily available for review on the website.  That way, with the click of a mouse, my audience can see the pieces that I want them to look at.

However, I don't think it's all about content (though I definitely think content is THE most important element!  It gives the audience the most to work with). I think the site needs to be easy to navigate, clean, clear, attractive, and organized.  I think it needs to have tabs to allow the audience to find the information they want to - maybe separate tabs for my experience, resume, example pieces, links to my videos, my contact information, links to my social media, etc.  I want my website to put everything out there - to show my audience my very best, and even more.

One element that I didn't think about until Professor Price mentioned it is "applicable life experience."  What a great idea to put on my website!  For example, I am hoping to attend a 3 week long Study Away in New Zealand this May.  The trip is all about media and culture in New Zealand - so my experience on the trip would likely apply to my future career.  That is definitely something that I want to be able to bring to the table on my website, so a tab for "applicable life experience" is a fantastic contribution to the site.

For my website design inspirations, I had so much fun checking out websites that I thought communicated effectively.  Here are some of my favorite elements!

I really appreciate how clean and simple the tabs are - really articulate.

I love the little blurbs about each person, and how readily available the contact information is!  Both of the above examples come from Melbourne Promotions - the site is available at this link!

In this example, I really appreciate that the title is BOLD and stands out, and I love the organization of the tabs across the top line.  Very accessible and organized!  Click to view the full blog 

I love the tabs, and the picture is beautiful and striking.  It definitely makes the website standout.  I also like the links to social media that this provides!  Check out the entire site here!

All of this "party planning" also caused me to become obsessed with logos . . . Here are some of my favorites!

I found all these logos through webdesignledger.com.  Check out more through this link!

So. Much. Fun!  This definitely made me want to design a logo for myself - kind of to brand myself!  I will have to get going!

What are your suggestions for branding yourself?  For attracting these types of audiences?  What else should I aim to add to my website?

The 2D Field

Zettl's article entitled "The Two Dimensional Field" explained the varying aspects and perspectives of quality filmography.  I found the article to be particularly compelling when he talked about the two main directions - horizontal and vertical.

The section about these two main directions explained the differences between shooting film horizontally and shooting it vertically.  In a similar way, the section reminded me of taking pictures in a landscape style as opposed to a portrait style.  These styles are different because they portray images from differing perspectives.

For example, a horizontal picture, or landscape style picture, is viewed as calming and serene.  Consider this example:

Notice how in this photograph, the eye immediately focuses on the horizon.  The eye follows a horizontal line, and focuses on the different elements, but mainly on the finished picture as a whole.

The picture is calming because it was taken with clean, simple, serene lines as the primary focus.

Photographs with a vertical main direction are more striking and exciting.  Consider this picture of a skyscraper, and notice where your eyes immediately focus:

In this picture, your eyes immediately look up to see the image from a vertical direction.  The upward lines are striking and interesting to look at, rather than calming and serene.

These aspects of Zettl's chapter will be very helpful to me, not only for my video project, but also for the pictures that I take for pleasure and hopefully in the future for my career.  It is important to understand the varying elements of a picture, as well as how pictures are viewed and interpreted by audiences.

The questions I would like to bring up for discussion, after reading this article, are first, whether or not these principles and picture elements are understood consciously or subconsciously by most viewers.  If so, then how did we come to find out the way they are viewed?  How has understanding how viewers look at pictures enhanced photographers' abilities to appeal to people?