Midterm Worksheet

1) Develop Your Idea

I am an illustrator and animator with an abstract style and a bright color palette mainly focusing on fantasy themes and stories. The purpose of the website is to sell myself. Therefore, it is crucial to have a clear vision of my style and its characteristics.

My Strengths:

• Fantasy-like bright colors
• Various textures
• Maxmalistic
• Humorous

My Weaknesses:

• Lack of technical skills to draw realistic forms and people
• Without many details
• Sometimes Chaotic

To amplify my strength and cover my weaknesses, I should develop a web design with minimal colors that would not interfere with the colors of my works. I would also try to add less decoration to bring out my maxmalistic style and to not make the whole page look too messy. In addition, I would make the navigation and layout as clear as possible to give visitors a convenient experience. I would possibly add more fun to it to bring out some humorous aspects of my works.

2) Discovery and Research

I looked through a lot of websites with interesting designs as well as portfolios of illustrators I like:

https://www.adelinalirius.com/
https://lisengmin.com/
https://www.kellyknaga.com/
https://jensineeckwall.com/
https://www.naomiwilkinson.co.uk/
http://www.ciesemier.com//
https://www.lydiakahill.com/
https://www.taniaque.com/
https://www.devinellekurtz.com/
http://www.motions.cat/
https://www.mariajesuscontreras.com/

Jensine Eckwall's website is really inspiring for me because I really like how she inserted the navigations into her own work. While having this kind of large and clear navigation on the front page would be helpful for viewing, the viewer would also get a quick impression of her strong style at first sight. The 3 gifs also make the website more fun and vivid.

María Jesús Contreras' website also does a similar thing of including the previews of her work into the navigation of her past projects. This is very clear and helpful for the viewers.

In terms of voice, I am the most impressed by the website of EverydayOneCat. It sets a funny and humorous vibe very effectively with what is conventionally considered "bad design". There is also a joke in the "YES" an "NO" navigation, and the "NO" leads to a google page searching "How to be a cat". The "buttons" also shake drastically when the mouse is hovering above it, which matches the animation boil in the works. The artist is so successful in making the humor and fun a part of their works. However, all the funny features might lead to a drawback of being unclear and inefficient, and might not work well for all possible occasions.

I also like how Adelina Lirius' website homepage have a welcoming text. Although this is just a small detail, it sets up and tone and builds up the artist's image well. And, it matches her tender and imaginative art style and her personality as a children's books artist. It also doesn't interfere with the clear and simplistic design of the page.

Other helpful examples include the websites of Kali Ciesemier, Lydia Hill, and Devin Elle Kurtz. Their illustration all have bright colors and are mostly digital work. To bring out their style, they have simplistic layout and white backgrounds with little extra features or decorations. While this might not help their websites stand out among competitors, it guides the viewers attention directly to their work with no other distractions, so it's extremely easy to navigate through their website. This would be convenient for a client or a employer because they can jump directly to the point--their illustrations. I think it would be helpful for me to reference some of this simple style, because my works are also very colorful and I would want that trait to be put in the spotlights.

In conclusion, I think a simple layout would be necessary for the style of my work. However, since there are a lot of great illustrators doing the same thing, I need to utilize the fact that I can code my own website and make it different from those made by website generators. Therefore, I might need some extra features that have my own voice and personalities in it that can accompany my art style well.

3) Target Your Audience

The main audience I am targeting with is website are my potential clients and hirers. In addition, other audience might include people generally interested in my work that might buy my products. My website would have to fulfill the different needs of these people as well as being clear and intriguing for them.

For potential clients that are interested in commission me to illustrate or design for them, it is the most important to show them my distinct style at first sight. Therefore, I need to have more than one work on my front page with a consistent style, so they can get to know my work quickly and efficiently. I also need to have my contact information and social media written clearly, so they know how they can contact me to discuss about work. Some "flavor" or fun features on the website might leave a good or bad impression on the potential commisioner. On one hand, some of them might think the extra features enhance the image of me and my style and help them get to know me better, while the other might think they decreased their working efficiency.

Potential employers/HR of companies I apply for probably view my website as the portfolio in my application. For them, the most important thing is to be as organized as possible. They have probably been viewing a lot of people's portfolios so I have to make it a easy job to view mine, or they would have a bad impression on me. Thus, I need to layout my past works very clearly in a simple way. To make my portfolio more memorable, I would also have to make my style stand out. Therefore, it would be the best if the layout and composition of the website act as a good complement for my art style and bring it out more without taking away its spotlight.

For general art lovers interested in my work, it would be great if my website is fun and interactive to them. I need to make my website special and different to leave a better impression on them. These would also be the main group of potential customers for my own products and goods (like illustration prints). Therefore, I need to make the shopping page, product images, and their layout look desirable for them.

4) Inspiration and concepts

A simple style would bring out my maximalistic and colorful artworks without interfering my art style. It would be consisted of mainly only black and white. It would not include much decoration. This style would probably be very convenient for people that would potentially work with me, because they need to check out my information very efficiently without any kind of interference, distraction, or unnecessary information. However, this would also weaken my own voice. It might seem a bit dull and might not leave a deep impression on the users. For general artlovers simply interested in my work, a plain and simple website might not increase their interest or let it persist.

A humorous and engaging style would add more fun to the experience of using my website. My own subjective voice would be stronger, which could contribute to setting my image along with my art style. This would be intriguing for general art lovers interested in my work and might bring more fans. It might also leave a deeper impression on potential clients or hirers. However, depending on different companies, some potential employers might find the extra features to add more humor and fun distracting and even annoying, because they might be looking at a huge amount of applicants' website and just want to get to the point efficiently. Also, I do have works of darker themes which styles might be conflicting the general "fun" style of the web and damage the consistency.

I can combine the upper 2 concepts to create a website that's simple, but not too boring. The navigation can be very clear, and the mainpage and pages that showcase works can be very simple. The fun parts can be added at avoidable places, like the shopping page, which is usually visited by general art lovers interested in my work. If a user doesn't want to be distracted, they can avoid and easily ignore all the features that add "flavors" or humor. If the combination works out well, this could satisfy most users' needs of my website. However, it takes work to make the web look consistent instead of making up of 2 distinct styles.

5) Thumbnails and Sketches

6) Wireframes and Prototypes

7) PhotoShop Comp