Report – Finished WEBP

Today’s submission also marked the end of my first year here at Noroff. I have to admit it feels great; especially after a rather hectic project period.

For my Project Exam I have designed a website for Grace Hanna in Lash and Brow by Grace, Australia. This five week period has included project management and development, dealing with a client, developing interactive graphic design, working on a low budget, and conceptual development. Finally it has resulted in a responsive website on which the studio’s clients can buy products, book appointments, find information, and get in contact.

Lash & Brow by Grace specialises in semi permanent eyelash extensions, henna brow tattoo, and permanent tattoo using PHI brow method. The studio’s target group are women aged between 18-50, and thus the website would need to be appealing to this group.

Visit the website here (I’ve only uploaded it to my subdomain so far, as we didn’t get the web hosting ready and done before the assignment’s deadline).

I consider myself very happy with the finished website, as it in many ways is almost exactly how I pictured in when creating the final wireframe. The biggest difference from this is the footer that was later added, and this choice only improved the site’s appearance.

My process has been long, a little challenging, and also quite fun. I definitely think it has provided me “with practical skills and knowledge in tools used for working with graphic design focusing on screen-based media,” as our assignment brief said.

It has been exciting to see the site grow, and to see how small changes actually make the biggest difference. I have also tried challenging myself by trying to do things that needed some serious thinking and researching (e.g. placing the navigation menu on top of the header, and using the slideshow on the home page only), and am glad to see this has worked out well.

Through this project exam I have learnt better how to work with a client, achieved more skills in project management and teamwork, developed interactive solutions for screen-based media, and learnt more about blog tools. Most of all though, I have improved my web design skills in using CSS in particular. I believe this project has taught me much about WordPress, and I personally think my child theme is very different from my parent theme, and is thus rather original work made by me.

– This is an extract from my WEBP, and the whole report can be read here: REPORT –

Until next time, stay creative,
Monika

Report – Finished WEBM

Our WEBM (Interactive Portfolio) had to include our three Mandatory Assignments from this semester, and the reports for these. So my portfolio consists of: front-end and back-end design for a product website, a photo essay, and a brand identity for a fictive puppy food brand.

Working on this semester’s mandatory assignments was challenging, but most of all they have taught me a lot. They have inspired me to understand the graphic design world a whole lot better – and especially the web design world, as I have quickly understood that there is so much to learn about coding.

Each assignment has encouraged me to challenge myself as a designer, and find ways to give the products my own personal touch whilst finding my own design style. Working with websites, photography, and brand identities has helped me open my eyes more to different ways of communicating a message, as well as learning more about programs such as DreamWeaver. I know for sure I will be taking use of the skills learnt from using DreamWeaver and WordPress, and these will only make me as a designer stronger.

My interactive portfolio can be found on webm.monikarh.com.

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WEBM Design Choices

The portfolio is meant to represent me as a designer, so I decided to base my design on my own logo, which uses the font Mirza and a light and a dark blue colour. So I used this font for headings, and also used the two colours for most interactive elements as well as headings. I think Myriad Pro is a font that goes well with Mirza, and thus used this for body copy.

My website is a childtheme based on Anders Norén’s theme Hitchcock, but with quite a few adjustments to have it suit my needs and design wishes better. The header photo is one I shot in a learning activity from week 22, and as I really liked the way this photo came out I thought it would add something extra to my design. My logo also looks pretty neat inside the tyre, as it encompasses it nicely.

The website should be organised, and easy to navigate through. Because of the minimalistic use of colours, there isn’t too much going on, which lets the viewer focus more on the actual assignments – which, of course, is the main purpose of a portfolio. I also let the layout of my reports be inspired by the website, and have displayed each of the individual reports almost as if they were a page on the website itself.

– This is an extract from my WEBM, and the whole assignment can be read here: REPORT –

Until next time, stay creative,
Monika

Report – Finished Product Website

When making the design for this website I have tried making it as simple and minimalistic as possible, yet still keeping a modern and interesting look and feel. I based the colours of the website on the colours used in the logo I designed, and these again are sampled from some of the product photos I have taken.

The purpose of the website is to display the product and the campaign that will be launched along with it. It should be easy to navigate, and relaxing for the eye, not have more elements or text than needed, and strong imagery.

Visit the website here.

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After making a couple very slight changes to my design, I believe the look of the website has only been improved and is now as minimalistic, yet interesting as I want it. There is more going on now, more for the eye to look at, and generally easy to navigate.

I also believe I really did manage to get rid off most of the technical issues before doing the coding, which has made my process a lot easier – and thus a lot more fun as well. Google has been one of my best friends in creating the back-end design, as people have discussed HTML and CSS codes before me on countless forums and threads, as well as videos.

– This is an extract from the report I submitted, and the whole report can be read here: REPORT–

Until next time, stay creative
Monika

Report – Branding & Packaging

This four week project period has for me been about designing a brand identity for a fun, energetic and organic puppy food brand. A logo, brochure, infographics, brochure, packaging and point of sale elements have been created and designed to give the brand an identity.

My food product brand is an all organic brand based in the UK, called Natural Puppiness. The brand targets young people with puppies, and especially people interested in the outdoors. The product I’m focusing on marketing here are dry pellets.

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My development and work process have been consistent and rather thorough throughout the whole project period. It has been fun and challenging assignment to work with, and extra exciting to be getting parts of the assignment handed out over several weeks.

I’m happy with the products I have designed. The brand is consistent in terms of its design, colours and layouts. I also believe I have created a design that does indeed make the brand seem friendly, healthy and organic. Based on the design I would personally consider the brand had I had a puppy myself.

– This is an extract from the report I submitted, and the whole report can be read here, including the brand manual: REPORT –

 

Until next time, stay creative,
Monika

Report – Front-End Design

When making the design for this website I have tried making it as simple and minimalistic as possible, yet still keeping a modern and interesting look and feel. I based the colours of the website on the colours used in the logo I designed, and these again are sampled from some of the product photos I have taken.

The purpose of the website is to display the product and the campaign that will be launched along with it. It should be easy to navigate, and relaxing for the eye, not have more elements or text than needed, and strong imagery.

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Even though this is only the front-end design of the website, I think I have managed to so far create the look and feel I want. The product and idea of the bakery should be clear through the design, and the photos I have used are in good quality, which of course always is important.

The overall design with its elements, colours and typography looks good, and should manage to engage people. I think I have also thought through what technical issues I might get in the coding, and have worked around those to try and eliminate them (such as moving the logo from where I originally placed it).

The design is in many ways very similar to what I first had in mind from some of my sketches. The changes I have made since then have only improved my design, both in terms of the visual design, and also the technical issues. What has been my biggest challenge probably is to keep it as simple as possible, whilst also making it visually interesting. I have had to consider what elements would draw the attention of the viewer, and have had to work around that. This is something I feel I eventually managed to do with the design as it is.

Working on this assignment has made me realise just how much work actually is behind every website; and this is before doing any coding at all. Since I’m fairly confident in InDesign by now, the front-end design wasn’t a technical problem for me, but I’m excited to see how the coding for the back-end design will go. I do however know that there are many tutorials on Lynda.com that will aid me, and I’m hoping I will get the result I want.

I do think this assignment so far has been interesting. It was a very open assignment where I was able to decide a little myself what I actually made (labels, logo, etc.), and that is something I think has been very fun. Will now be looking forward to starting the back-end design and see what I can learn from using Dreamweaver.

– This is an extract from the report I submitted, and the whole report can be read here: REPORT –

Until next time, stay creative,
Monika

Report – Between The Lines

In this assignment my plan has been to simply try and capture emotions. Emotions related to rather unique and different relations. I have done research on other photo essays to get inspiration and to come up with ideas of my own – both for thematic inspiration as well as compositions and ways to portray a person.

I have tried keeping the photos simple and interesting to look at in terms of elements, compositions and variety in between the shots. By trying to consider each image as an individual I think all my images stand strong alone, and also together as a unity.

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I believe I managed to choose both a model and a part of her personality that is interesting and makes for a good photo essay. Having penpals in prison isn’t something a lot of people are aware of being possible, and many of those who do know are sceptical. So all in all the story is quite unique and one I think can make people curious, and possibly trigger emotions.

The photos I have chosen have balanced compositions, and are tied together because of strong contrasts, the lack of colour, and the elements used. I’m happy with the way each and every photo turned out as single images, and also in unity as an essay.

All photos have obviously been taken with the manual settings of my camera, and I have thus experimented with different shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, and focal lengths. In doing so I have achieved the look and feel I have wanted for each photo, and made sure my main element is always what is in focus. All in all I would say I’m very happy with what I have come up with.

I normally don’t do any sketches before I go out and shoot, but since I was taking photos of someone, and had to use also their time for this assignment, I figured it would be smart to have a rather clear idea of what kind of photos I’d want. Then, as we were shooting the different scenes, I moved around and tried out angles and compositions to see which would suit the individual scenes and frames best.

Although I tried getting the exposure, compositions and framing as close to how I actually wanted them while taking photos, some photoshopping also helped me in achieving the mood I was aiming for. I needed the photos to be a little contrasty because I think they really set the atmospheric mood that I wanted. Since I have been using Photoshop regularly for several years now, this wasn’t very hard for me to get done, as I know where to find and adjust most things.

The project only run over two weeks, and I ended up spending the first week on research and planning the shoot, but since I got the photos taken in a day, and another day was spent on editing, I never saw time as an issue. However, what I do realise now when looking back at it, is just how much it actually helped having some sketches beforehand. Had I not had those I’m sure the whole shoot would have taken a lot more time because I would have had to think a lot more about which scenes to actually set, rather than experimenting with angles and compositions.

As a lesson learnt from this assignment, I believe I will start putting more time into planning my shoots for the future, particularly when dealing with a model or a story. Of course, sometimes the best images come when you are standing in front of the actual scene, but having at least a few ideas never is a bad thing.

– This is an extract from the report I submitted, and the whole report can be read here: REPORT –

– Photo Essay PDF –

Until next time, stay creative,
Monika