3 Blog Titles I like...

1. I have always been an admirer of GOOGLE for their creative advertising. Although this example is a fairly conservative one for Google's ongoing exploration of fonts and color, the modern serifs of this font has stood the test of time and is very fitting to what google is all about: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." The variation of colors suggest the variety and vastness of information and the modern and tidy serifs are interesting to look at as well as appear trustworthy. I found this blog by searching google for "google and blog."

2. The Cameron Moll blog was found on Flickr and is an example of a more fanciful font that is integrated into a design that appears to be growing right out of the blog title. This is an independently owned graphic design business and so the look and feel of every detail on this site is of particular importance.

3. The pop-culture entertainment news blog, "Vulture" was found on the technorati.com site recommended on the fonts assignment instructions. The looming reflection or shadow affect of the word Vulture is perfect for the blogs purpose to devour bits and pieces of entertainment news and display it for the world. The reflection of the letters lead the eye to the subtitle or the blog, which is "Devouring Culture." This site is clean, yet creatively dense at the same time.

Blog Title Font

The font I chose for my blog title is called "Green Piloww" from www.1001fonts.com. I downloaded several fonts and tried them out in Fireworks. This font only allows lower case letters. I experimented with a variety of filters such as blending, embossing, etc. The best of the experiments were: adding a green drop shadow, which  made it look like some green juice or watercolor paint was spilled over the letters and applying an "inner shadow" which increased the thickness and saturation of the inner lines, creating a dramatic affect. Ultimately, I chose to keep it simple and just change the color and saturation levels.

Logo Design - GIF

I created a logo for "The Raw Suitcase" in Illustrator (last year) and saved as a GIF file, because it has large areas of solid color and very little color.

Floating Suitcases

I decided to save "Floating Suitcases" as a JPG image to keep the variation of colors and to make a smaller file size than saving it as a PNG. I experimented with creating a shadow and rotating the image.

3 Photos

This is a GIF photo of the "map of the internet." I thought it was beautiful and wanted to post it to inspire me to keep learning about computers and technology.

Here is a JPG photo of Michelangelo's "Forbidden Fruit."

The the other forbidden fruit:  chocolate! Here is a PNG photo of the real cacao fruit.

Minty Lemonade Slush

This is a photo of a drink I took last summer. It is optimized as a JPG and not cropped at all. I added a shadow and border in fireworks.

Wheatgrass Suitcase - shadow

This is another suitcase filled with wheatgrass (photoshop). I cropped it slightly for better framing and then added a shadow. There is a strange white section that I wasn't able to get rid of on the bottom right that seems to be part of the original file. No matter what I did, I could not make it go away. I chose JPG - higher quality as the optimization for this photo as it was already a small file size to begin. Both GIF and PNG were larger file sizes.

Dandy Suitcase (optimized)

This is a photo of a suitcase that I manipulated in photoshop last year. I experimented with adding different items in the suitcase...wheatgrass, fruits and veggies and in this example, dandelions. This is PNG file with 8 colors (approx. 29KB) which was the smallest  for an ok quality photo.

Blogs and Templates I like

1. I found this "bootstrapping" monochromatic blog template that I like. The colors are pretty saturated, with little contrast, but it gives it a rustic feeling.

2. This science blog called "Watts Up With That?" is an analogous color scheme using reds, purples and blues and greys with a blue-ish tint.

3. The "Froggy" template is a good example of a complementary color palette, using the vibrant colors of green of the stem and red-orange of the frogs to create a dynamic contrast.

4. This is a beautifully saturated template. I love the green background and rich textile image. Link here.

5. "Pleuer 2 rire" has a refreshing splash of pastel colors to highlight the blog title and a very subdued background of off-white with a pink tint.

Green and Black

I have always liked the combination of green and orange together, but I usually end up choosing more of a monochromatic color palette.  This customized version of the "simple" template in green, black and orange, is an effort to get out of my comfort zone and is more of a split complementary palette. The base color is a tint of forest green, which is more of a cool color and the text is orange, a warm color. I used slightly lighter tints of both the orange and green chosen. The split complementary color scheme creates contrast, but I also tried to create a sense of simplicity by using only 2 different colors as well as the addition of contrast created by using black and white for text. The orange text contrasts both the green and black background and is used along with white to create repetition and continuity.

Downloaded Template

This is a super simple template that I was able to download...finally after a couple hours of not being able to figure out why my blogger format is different than the tutorials and trying to work around it. I will have with Ms. Brown tomorrow about this.

So, as for the design principles of this blog template:

1. The template has 2 columns
2. Grid is in 3rds
3. a).This is a very subtle design template. There are very few contrasting elements overall, it is not a very dynamic template, but it is one that I was able to download.
b). The size of the titles are slightly larger, but nothing extreme. Again, the size difference is rather small.
c). With this simple of a template, there does seem to be a feeling of space and openness. It is very clean and easy to read for that reason. The right hand column with the links is busier, but because of the simplicity of overall design, it is easy to follow (even though it is in Spanish).
d). There is an adequate amount of distance between the title of the blog and the other titles and posts, though there are a lot of little inserts with buttons that I have no idea what they are for and am having a hard time deleting or customizing. This is not the easiest template to modify, or else I just don't understand how to manipulate things yet.
e). Other than a kind of monochromatic color scheme, there is also a cross hatched pattern in the background that adds an element of repetition to the template.

Critique of Layout

1. After trying out the various layouts, I finally decided on a balanced layout with one column centered in the middle with empty space on the sides, my 3 links on the top and the RSS feed below the posts. The design principles of symmetry and balance is used in this layout minimalism. The template design of grass and sky follows the rule of 3rds, with the upper 1/3rd as the sky and the lower 2/3rds as the grass seems to look better when the content is centered rather than scattered into multiple columns along the width of the template.

2. This layout seems to be sectioned out with a 5 section grid, with 2 sections of empty space on the sides and 3 sections of the grid taking up the blog entries.

3. a). The principle of contrast in this layout is emphasized mostly through the choice of red and green text as well as the contrast of size between the titles and blog posts. There is also a sense of contrast created by the template design itself, between the green grass and blue sky and red link text and the large white title.

b).  The difference between the size of blog title and the 3 links below it help to separate and clarify the design of the blog. Similarly, the size difference between the title of the blog entries compared with the contents of the entries helps to highlight the titles.
   
c).  This layout utilizes the principle of space by leaving room on both sides of the blog for empty green space. I tried a few different layouts which cluttered sides with columns of links and RSS info but decided that it didn't work well with this already busy template design of dandelions and dragonflies.

d).  The proximity between the different elements in this layout is consistent and on the spacious side.

e).  There is a repetition of 3's in this layout: 3 words in the title, 3 links below the title, 3 dandelions, 3 entries visible per screen and 3 colors: red, green and blue. The repetition of the sprigs of grass helps connect the contrasting color of the sky and also lead the eye to the link titles.
   

The Best Day Ever!

I go to David Wolfe's "Best Day Ever" site to view videos and listen to podcasts on the latest on raw foods, superfoods, wild food and longevity research at least once a week. The interviews and overall content on this site is extremely high quality and presented in an entertaining way.

Hello!

My name is Jill Naisuler and I am a 'cellist, teacher with a passion for learning and living life to its fullest potential. I love music, art, filmmaking, traveling, nature and food. I enjoy experimenting with a variety of media and am interested in learning how to create artful and functional websites for a few different topics. I just started a website for my business: www.thecellosuite.com and am hoping to learn the design principles as well as technical skills necessary to create and maintain this and other future websites.