Design Report
My design was meant to be simple and elegant with a touch of personality. The inspiration for my design was my header image (courtesy of stock.xchng). I have always been intrigued by the colors of nature and am fascinated by the glorious shades of pinks displayed in roses. The idea of flowers brings up emotions of growth, happiness, and sunshine just as my life, education, and design skills are constantly growing and maturing. Additionally, roses have the tendency of representing elegance, class, and romance, and I drew from each of these ideas while creating my site.
The header was purposely created to be the visual focal point of the homepage. I used Microsoft Dreamweaver 8 to manipulate the photo to an adequate size and then added the text to welcome visitors to the site. Using the eyedropper tool, I picked out one of the most vibrant shades of pink from the flower and used it as my font color for my name and the tagline. This way, it makes a bold statement and draws the reader's eye. The text is a whimsical cursive font that continues the theme of elegance and romance established with the soft lines within the rose image. The tagline "An introduction to my personal and professional accomplishments" gives a brief and adequate description of the site's purpose.
The navigation of the site was meant to remain continuous and simple. I used a three column system to set up the structure of my site. The left navigation menu is meant to be the main navigational tool for the site with links to each of the pages within my website. The middle column contains the header at the top and the content block below. The sidebar to the right is an additional navigation tool that contains additional links for the "Resume" page and brief descriptions for the "Professional Writing Documents" and "Creative Writing Pieces" pages.
Contrast: The contrast of the site was kept to a minimum, outside of the black font. The shades of pink all flowed well together and created a cohesive feel. The font, on the other hand, was meant to stand out on the page to make the content easy to read.
Color: The color scheme for this site remained simple throughout the site. Each of the shades of pink, white, and cream, were taken from the rose image and distributed throughout. The sidebars were a medium pink, content was a creamy light pink, and the hover feature of the links a slightly darker pink with white text.
Repetition: Repetition is used throughout the site to give it a sense of continuity. The format of the site remains the same and the different sections within the site contain similair types of information to guide the visitor.
Alignment: The alignment for the menu and right sidebar (the outside columns) were left aligned. The alignment for the center column was center-aligned. This gave the content a more playful feel instead of the more professional feel of the left-aligned sidebars.
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