Final Project Proposals

Portfolio Website for myself.

1. Portfolio site for myself

This will be a website to used to showcase my graphic design work to potential schools/employers. The main focus would be on the work itself with a small section about me (not a blog or anything, just a quick overview of myself and my goals as a designer). It would serve as a portfolio, introduction and resume all in one place making it easy for people to see my work, get contact info, etc. Because all of the content would be produced by me, it would be easy to update and maintain. My main concern is that because the site is a piece of portfolio work itself, I wil have to make sure it looks good and can stand on its own. Also, because I am still studying it may be hard to find enough real content to put on the site.

2. Web based Literary Magazine

A good friend of mine wanted to start a literature and arts magazine, unfortunately she didn’t realize how expensive printing can be. As an alternative to traditional print based magazine, I could create a web based one. She has already decided on the overall theme of the magazine (title, style, focus, attutide, etc.) so I would just have to meet with her and work on how to bring what she wanted in print to the web. The main challenges would be to work within the style she wants and make it easy for her to make minor updates on her own once the site is complete.

Week 3

This week was a continuation of last week’s work on links and images, but also a chance to put what we learned into action. I also got my first taste of Fireworks, though it was only a nibble rather than a satiating bite.

If there’s one thing I know I should try and remember it’s how to ensure an image is fully optimized.

Adobe’s own site is a great repository of tutorials. I’ll be sure to watch more on my own in the future.

Styling Text in Dreamweaver

Adding Text and Images to Your Page

Fireworks – Managing the Design Suite

Understanding Fireworks

The Fireworks Interface

Importing Files Into Fireworks

Week 2

Finally got a bit of experience with Dreamweaver! It seems like it does a good job of simplifying a lot of the entire process of creating and FTPing a site. I have heard horror stories from people who’ve done a bit more with it, but so far so good.

The tutorial videos (see them here and here)for the week come straight from Jenn, which made it almost seem like I was in class…except for the part where I was eating a bowl of pasta while watching them.

Adobe has some videos themselves, which I will be sure to view for their other programs.

• Getting Started: 01 What is Dreamweaver
  
• Using Views and Workspaces
• Defining a Site
• Adding Text and Images
• Managing and Uploading Sites
• Styling Text using CSS (Cascading Stylesheets)

On a final note, it’s becoming very clear that organization of files is critical. Guess I’m going to have to get out of the habit of just throwing things into just one or two folders.

Week 1 Summary

Classes got off to a busy start this week. Three days in and I already going at the same pace I was towards the end of last semester. The majority of the work came from Web Design. Here’s an overview of it:

• Started with an overview of what the web is and how it works. There was a lot of info on things that are core parts of the web, but never really considered like the HTTP part of web address. It stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and means all the rules the web follows. More info can be found here.
• Got an intro to the different types of code used to make a website. xHTML: the code that makes the foundation. CSS: what gives a site its look. And Javascript which allows for interactivity.
• Read up on various ways to create and edit webpages via the always informative Smashing Magazine. I guess I should start reading more of their articles about web design and programming. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/
• And found out how different types of info is passed around the net.  

Hello world!

You’ve found me! Salutations and Congratulations! I suppose introductions are in order. World, this is my blog, Blog, this is the World. I hope you will welcome each other with open arms and check in on each other regularly