I need some direction... — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists

I need some direction...

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Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	I hate to say things like this because it is very general, but I find it to be very true much of the time. There are exceptions. If you do not receive your content package while you are doing the basic design phase you are going to fail. The content plays a major major role in your design. You need to know where you are going with the site at all times! Without having defined content you are going to eventually suffer with a whole lot of scope creep. It can be very very bad. I want to discuss the exceptions a bit. When you start off a project you are normally not going to have the content, but you must, must, have a very good idea of what you are going to be designing for, normally you will spend some time onsite talking with the people in the company, getting a feel for what they do, take a look at all of their current printed materials, their advirtising brouchures, etc, etc. If you do a good deal of work at this you might be able to slip by without having the content package. <sidenote number="1"> The content package is all of the text for the site, along with all logos and graphics that will be used and included in the site. The content package is definately not just the text, much of it is going to be images and the like. If you are receiving just text from the company your job gets a whole lot harder. </sidenote> <sidenote number="2"> When I mention company I am actually talking about who ever your client is. Much of the diction can be modified to fit your current specs. </sidenote> If you are still having issues with the logo which is basically the company identity you are going to have a whole lot of issues with the site design in general. A logo is a huge deal, and it needs to be gotten right. Not being satisfied with an issue as basic (read complex) as the sends me signals that you are going to have a whole lot of trouble with your design. And you are not going to be satisfied with the final product. The site feels very much like "I threw this together and it looked cool" and it doesn't feel like it has an identity. For this I recommend before you start to throw something together you sit down and think about the project, instead of working on the project. The grade school basics of asking the following questions "Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why?" is still very important. You need to jot down answers to these questions before you go ahead and start designing. These questions will really let you get a handle on your design, it will help you pick out colors based on the answers, it will lead you towards the theme of the site, it will really help to jump start the whole process, and it will be tough. If it is really easy you are not thinking about the questions enough. For example: [b]Who:[/b] Ann Becket, and artist who specializes in sculpture and illustration, she is a student, who performs her work for fun as a hobby, and also accepts commision. Her personality is that of a ____ and her interests outside of art is ____. [b]What:[/b] Design Ann Becket a website. [b]Where:[/b] AnnBeckett.com [b]When:[/b] The project is slated to take a month to complete. [b]How:[/b] I am planning on using dreamweaver's WYSIWYG editor mixed with some of Ann's prominent art work. [b]Why:[/b] Ann wants this website to further her exposure, allowing more people to view her work as well as to inform people of her ability to accept commisions. This site is also design to allow Ann and outlet to spread some of her philosophical ideas and provide some information about techniques she uses and some of the influences to her work. The above is a basic list that I have gotten from just reading your two posts. There is much more information that is needed here, the "Who" and the "Why" tend to be the most important elements, but without the other's you are still missing required information that you should have written down somewhere. I am sorry to take this back to the basics, but the confusions you are having should not exist if you follow this basic methodology. It is not fool proof and it does require a whole lot of work on your part. But the question you are asking is not one that can or should be answered by anyone other than the designer(s). Even those answers you get can not be totally correct, we are not you and we are not in your head. [url=http://www.codetown.org] [img]http://www.codetown.org/img/sig/robot_002.gif[/img] [/url] Loading...
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