Blog 3
What I’ve been doing
A few weeks further into my work experience at DSM Design. Learning more and more and yet so much more to learn
B1-K1-W1 TALKS ME THROUGH THE PROJECT
Barry had the idea to give me a very different learning experience. Something I haven’t done before: Design a website”. He told me about what needs to happen but other then that just let me do t by myself and see what will happen. This was a scary but good experience for me.
B1-K1-W2 MAKES A PLANNING
At first barry let me do it by myself so I would learn to figure things out myself and see how far I would come. ofcourse I started by doing research to other blind companies. Then I started to make wireframes right away in photoshop. This didn’t work for me so I asked Barry what to do. He told me I should draw my ideas into wireframes and this would give me a clear idea for what I want to do. That’s what I did and it really helped. Then I checked the wireframes with Barry and he gave me his feedback. Now I could start with my wireframes in photoshop. I noticed that I like to write my plan on paper so its quick and easy to keep next to me at all times.
B1-K1-W3 ORIËNTATE ON THE SUBJECT.
Because I new it was going to be a designt for a blind company it was obvious that the target audience is people looking for blinds (Adults). I did loads of research to other blind companies in the neigbourhood to see what they are doing en get inspriration.
B1-K1-W4 MAKES THE CONCEPT
The concept was made on paper so I could see what would work and not before I would make them in photoshop. Barry gave me feedback and then I could start actually designing my ideas in photoshop.
B1-K1-W5 MAKES THE DESIGN
I made the design in photoshop. I made 3 different pages. The home page, content page and product page. I started with the home page. When I finished tgat I realised that The font sizes weren’t good because I didn’t view the page at 100 % so everything was way to big. After that everything went smoothly and I feel like I did a good job for someone who has never done anything like that.
B1-K1-W6 PRESENT THE WORK
The first I showed my ideas to was Barry. He told me the thing he did and didn’t like and the things I could make even better and what I could change. After all the feedback he had a look at it and thought it was good. Now it was just a case of waiting till Brett was back from holiday and seeing what he thought of it. When Brett was back I presented my design to brett.
B1-K2-W1-W4 REALISATION
I’ve worked in photoshop for this assignment. I worked with the 12 collom grid as they use for almost every website because it just works.
B1-K2-W5 DIGITAL ARCHIVE
DSM works with a big server with all their work on it for every customer. Ofcourse I used this for my work and out my designs in there so they always have acces to it.
B1-K1-W1 TALKS ME TRHOUGH THE PROJECT
Brett asked me to finish the logo for Insignia Blinds. They wanted something different but not too different and wanted to keep the cirkle. I made different designes but it was all to different from what they had. In the end I just went with the same cirkle as the old logo but just added the colors from the parrot so it would match more with their brand.
B1-K2-W1-W4 REALISATION
I made this in Illustrator. I got all the old designes that Brett had already worked on and tried to mix these designes in one. I learnt to use different tools in Illustator and it was harder than I thought to get the logo as I wanted. Brett helped me with the parts that I couldn’t do and showed me how to do those things.
MISTAKES, PROBLEM SOLVING AND WHAT I’VE LEARNT
From this assignment I’ve learn alot! first of all I didn’t really make a planning before this assignment. I knew what to do in my head but never really put in in to words. I also learned how to use two screens in a good way so you can put one screen to 100% so you can see how big it will be on the real website without getting all the sizes wrong. I’ve learned that it’s best to draw your ideas before you actually make them in photoshop because it’s a much easier way of seeing what works and what doesn’t. It saves alot of time aswell.
Very good work on the Insignia Blinds logo.
Good work on the wireframes and web visuals for Insignia Blinds.
however…
You need to spend much more time on research and experimentation. The designs you come up with are well done but safe. There should be multiple design iterations and experimentation’s ranging from wild/vibrant to subtle/subdued. Lots and lots of experimentation resulting in lots and lot of choice. The research and experimental stage should be the most fun part of the process.
Keep up the good work.