Initial design research

I am creating a photo portfolio of pictures taken in Paris, I thought it would be valuable to examine a few examples of current designs online. Since we Have to have a search feature. I think that the site should be more like a search engine. The landing page is a simple image of Paris with the search bar on top allowing the user to search. Once the user has searched it will bring the relevant results back with the option to search again. Here are a couple examples of the landing pages for search engines, bear in mind that I am not providing any other content than the image so the more content heavy pages will be irrelevant so I will be looking at the most simple ones.

Firstly an clean simple landing page is vital, as you can see above from Bing and Google, there is the search box and not much else, apart from Bing strands out a little more as it has an image behind it, this works well and I think I should use this in the design I make.

http://pollenlondon.com/carine-marque/

Have a brilliantly designed homepage, it combines an image and a white box with the title and the category of the industry that they work within. This could work really well with the search bar for the Paris site. Since Paris is seen as luxury, romantic place to be, it would work well to market this site as a more luxury service, and this has been achieved well through Pollen Londons’ website.

Flickr has an unusual way of presenting the images, just by using a grid where the images are only aligned with vertical size, it makes for an interesting format.

Since I am only placing ten images on thew site, there is only going to be a small return for any searches conducted. Therefore, I have found the design of pocketsquaredesign.net to be quite relevant to mine, they have created large views of the images, with text above to describe it, I think this would work really well in my design.

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Shapes in Photos

Since I am looking at art that uses shapes to manipulate the overall feel of the image, I thought it would be worth looking at examples of shapes within images and the effect they have. I found the following set of images, which are really interesting because the way they are edited create an effect that makes the viewer feel that the shapes are the most important piece of content in the image, even though in the previous posts the shapes are added to cause interest in the main image they have been added too!

Shapes in Print & Web Design

Shapes in Print & Web Design

Shapes are very prominent within web and print design. They work so well because they occur in nature, in our every day lives all around us, making them easy to manipulate to create interesting visuals.

Circles are one of the most common shapes in nature from the extraordinarily large like the cosmos and the planets right down to the inside of a flower and a blood cell. The earliest use of the circle is the wheel which revolutionised their current methods of transport. You can see an earlier post I have written about apple’s design influences where I speculated circles taking over design here (https://wordpress.com/post/75268733/185/). Since the web basically copies the styles and techniques used in print to present it’s information, I thought the best way to start would be to look at the origins of these shapes in print design. I have found endless amounts of examples of circles within print and you can see some great examples of these here;

There are also plenty examples of using circles in web design too, these are here;

Webey and Keauna are specially great because they combine the circles with hexagons, squares and hipster triangles, things that I am yet to cover but make up a lot of current web trends. Webber is also different because instead of scrolling down you scroll horizontally.

Squares are less common in nature are much more of a man made thing for building things of function and purpose, because squares have flat edges you find them in things that need to stand up, things tables and beds. This doesn’t stop it from being used in design even more than circles, mainly because they are much easier and simpler to create and design around, you can see some excellent examples of squares in print.

This is a creative example of a mixture of lines and squares combined;

This has again been transported into web design and you can see few examples of this here;

Next up are triangles, these are commonly seen in geometric graphics and hipster triangles but I will be doing an entirely different post on those, I am going to again look str triangles in print;

Here are some wonderful examples of triangles within web design;

Finally, I want to look at the use of hexagons within print and web design, you can see these here;

and finally, the examples of hexagons in web design.

Something I have learnt from my research is that shapes can be us to draw attention to or away from something. To cause an interest in a certain area or to frame some important text, never the less it causes some interesting design and this is something I will definitely use in my brochure design.

References;
http://www.hellowman.nl/tactile-translations
http://sarahchampion.typepad.com/thirtysomething/
http://www.downgraf.com/inspiration/15-creative-brochure-design-inspiration/
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/kloportfolios/8514693768/)
http://www.kahuna-webstudio.fr/
http://targetnuclearweapons.org.au/#/petition
http://webey.eu/contacts
http://www.alteregolabflor.it/
http://www.natashastefanenko.it/EN/site/index.php
http://domoa.tumblr.com/
https://www.behance.net/gallery/17054107/Fabrication
http://graphicriver.net/item/indie-flyer-poster-6/4030962?ref=vandelaydesign&ref=vandelaydesign&clickthrough_id=117752380&redirect_back=true
http://holistichealthnaturally.com/26-house-plants-that-detox-the-air-in-your-home-naturally/
http://lite.ly/
http://www.themesawards.com/website-designs-for-inspiration/
https://www.behance.net/gallery/16547981/Schoeffel-Website-App
https://www.behance.net/gallery/YELLOW-FRAME/6591959
https://onepagelove.com/barnyard
https://www.behance.net/gallery/15923651/Abstract-Architecture-Brochure
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/99792889/worth-limited-edition-art-print-mid?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share
http://www.designswan.com/archives/21-beautiful-and-creative-brochure-designs.html
http://www.awwwards.com/swissted-the-rock-posters-of-mike-joyce.html
http://www.lesproduitsdelepicerie.org/comete12-13.html
http://huaban.com/pins/35722337/
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7a/6a/2b/7a6a2b290d322941dec668d07739c115.jpg)
https://dribbble.com/shots/447378-Portfolio-Design/attachments/27683
https://www.behance.net/gallery/Natura-Todo-Dia/5189017
https://www.behance.net/gallery/SONICOMED-WEB-DESIGN/5919805
http://designspiration.net/image/3261669370328/
https://www.behance.net/gallery/Scenes-in-Waveforms/4894267
http://randpophelvetica.tumblr.com/post/90546468603/a-new-poster-redesign-in-swiss-helvetica-style
http://designspiration.net/image/1729859328613/
http://graphicriver.net/item/modern-hexo-trifold/5811088?ref=damiamio
http://designersgotoheaven.com/post/330572261/futurism-an-odyssey-in-continuity-by-simon-c
https://dribbble.com/shots/1452793-Apidura-Initial-Concepts/attachments/215027
http://speckyboy.com/2013/05/02/50-sites-with-pastelwashed-out-color-schemes/
http://gorohov.name/

Researching Artists

There are four artists that I came across in my research stage and I thought it was important to look at their work before I went out and took my own images.

The criteria of my brief? A collection of images that equally promoted the old and the new around Hull. Something that could be used in marketing of thew freedom festival in 2017. I was interested in black and white photography of architecture because by removing the colour there is instantly more focus on situations, sceneries, objects and people.

Ellen Fisch was the first person I came across during my research. Her compositions are interesting as they use leading lines to make the user look at the focus of the image, which was generally not shown in the image, this was interesting as it attracted the viewer to something that isn’t visible in the image. You can see this in these three images below. This is something I believed was worthwhile noting for my photo shoots.

Joel Tjintjelaar images are really good, I found them a very helpful part of my research and you will see very clearly how he has effected my work. The images were shot in a way that they became abstract due to the fact that they have been taken in an unusual way. Joel is also another photographer who presents his images in a square format. So the lessons I have learn’t from Joel is that taking abstract and unusual images using depth of field and leading lines pays off, and that presenting your images in a square format works well.

David Gutierrez was next with a mix of styles. While choosing not to create square photos, there are clear depths of field in these images. Two of the images use leading lines to create interest while the other focuses more on framing the image. You can see them below.

Kelly McCann chose to mix between landscape and square format images, she uses framing in the shot of chapel, and she also uses the rule of thirds in the images to allow the viewer to get a sense of perspective when looking at the images. These images work really well and will influence my work.

Cameron Nielson has an interesting take on his architecture which he has branded as ‘straight up’ where his signature is that he just points the camera straight up and shoots. He ends up getting some interesting photos that show the the skyline of the building whilst also capturing the sense of scale with field of depth and leading lines, as we all stand street side look up, this is something every viewer can relate too.

I believe using leading lines to draw attention to the focus point of the image works well, so I will be using this technique, I also like the images being square as I think it allows for a constant size, which is the same for all images, making it more about the content than the shape.

References:

http://www.kellymccann.co.uk

Joel Tjintjelaar – http://www.bwvision.com/

David Gutierrez – http://www.davidgutierrez.co.uk/london-photographer–black-and-white-photography.html

http://www.ellenfisch.com

http://straightup.co/portfolio/san-francisco/